Reviewing  this  unique  achievement  of  our  literary
genius,  the  critic  is  puzzled  not  only  by  its  complexity,
but  also  by  its  incompleteness  as  a  work  of  art.  The
Drama  in  England  has  no  Attic  purity  of  outline,  no
"statuesque  definition  of  form,  no  unimpeachable  per-
fection of  detail.  The  total  effect  of  those  accumulated
plays  might  be  compared  to  that  of  a  painted  window
or  a  piece  of  tapestry,  where  the  colour  and  assembled
forms  convey  an  ineffaceable  impression,  but  which,
when  we  examine  the  whole  work  more  closely,  seems
to  consist  of  hues  laid  side  by  side  without  a  har-
monising medium.  The  greatness  of  the  material
presented  to  our  study  lies  less  in  the  parts  than  in  the
mass,  less  in  particular  achievements  than  in  the  spirit
which  sustains  and  animates  the  whole.  It  is  the
volume  and  variety  of  this  dramatic  literature,  poured
forth  with  almost  incoherent  volubility  by  a  crowd  of
poets,  jostling  together  in  the  storm  and  stress  of  an
instinctive  impulse  to  express  one  cardinal  conception
of  their  art,  each  striving,  after  his  own  fashion,  to
grapple  with  a  problem  suggested  by  the  temper  of
their  race  and  age  : — it  is  the  multitude  of  fellow-
workers,  and  the  bulk  of  work  produced  in  concert,
that  impress  the  mind  ;  the  unity  not  of  a  simple  and


rMPERFECTION  OF  ROMANTIC  DRAMA.  15

coherent  thing  of  beauty,  but  of  an  intricate  and  many-

membered  organism,  striving  after  self-accomplishment,

and  reaching  that  accomplishment  in  Shakspere's  art,

which    enthrals  attention.      Our  dramatists  produced

very  few  plays  which  deserve  the  name  of  masterpiece.
