INTRODUCTORY
A principal character of the works of a very great author is, that in them each man can find that for which he seeks, and in a form which includes his own view.
With Shakespeare, as one of the greatest of the great, this is pre-eminently the case. One reader looks for simply dramatic interest, another for natural philosophy, and a third for morals, and each is more than satisfied with the treatment of his own special subject.
It is scarcely a matter of surprise, therefore, that the musical student should look in Shakespeare for music, and find it treated of from several points of view, completely and accurately.
This is the more satisfactory, as no subject in literature has been treated with greater scorn for accuracy, or general lack of real interest, than this of music.
This statement will admit of comparatively few exceptions, one of which must here be mentioned.
