HOW TO GET STRONG
ever had a greater son than he? Where would you and I be to-day but for Martin Luther?
SHAKESPEARE (1564–1616)
"No estimate of Shakespeare's genius can be adequate. In knowledge of human character; in wealth of humor; in depth of passion; in fertility of fancy; in soundness of judgment; and in mastery of language, he has no rival. His language and versification adapt themselves to every phase of sentiment; and sound almost every note in the scale of felicity.
"It is the versatile working of Shakespeare's intellect that lenders his supremacy unassailable. His mind, as Hazlitt suggested, contains within itself the germs of every faculty and feeling. He knew intuitively how every faculty and feeling would develop, in every conceivable change of fortune. Men and women, good or bad old or young, wise or foolish, merry or sad, rich or poor, yielded their secrets to him; and his genius illumined in turn every aspect of humanity that presents itself on the highway of life. Each of his characters gives thought to voice or passion, with an individuality and a naturalness that rouses in the intelligent playgoer and reader the illusion that they are overhearing men and women speak unpremeditatingly among themselves; rather than that they are reading speeches; or hearing written speeches recited. The more closely the words are studied, the completer the illusion grows.… So mighty a faculty sets at naught the common limitations of nationality; and in every quarter of the globe to which civilized life has penetrated Shakespeare's power is realized. All the world over, a language is applied to his creations that ordinarily applies to beings of flesh and blood.
"Hamlet and Othello; Lear and Macbeth; Falstaff; Brutus; Romeo and Shylock; are studied in almost every civilized tongue, as if they were historic personalities; and the chief of the impressive phrases that fall from their lips are rooted in the speech of civilized humanity."—Lee's Dictionary of National Biography.
"Shakespeare, the greatest of dramatic poets by the voice of the whole civilized world; his name is the first in all literature. In imagination; in fancy; in knowledge of man; in wit; in humor; in pathos; in strength; in versatility; in felicity of language; in the music of his verse; and in that mysterious power which fuses all
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