recognised as the greatest genius of all the ages. The more the
marvellous plays are studied, the more wonderful they are seen to be.

Classical scholars are amazed at the prodigious amount of knowledge of
classical lore which they display. Lawyers declare that their author
must take rank among the greatest of lawyers, and must have been
learned not only in the theory of law, but also intimately acquainted
with its forensic practice. In like manner, travellers feel certain
that the author must have visited the foreign cities and countries
which he so minutely and graphically describes.

It is true that at a dark period for English literature certain
critics denied the possibility of Bohemia being accurately described
as by the sea, and pointed out the "manifest absurdity" of speaking
of the "port" at Milan; but a wider knowledge of the actual facts
has vindicated the author at the expense of his unfortunate critics.
It is the same with respect to other matters referred to in the
plays. The expert possessing special knowledge of any subject
invariably discovers that the plays shew that their author was well
acquainted with almost all that was known at the time about that
particular subject.

And the knowledge is so extensive and so varied that it is not too much
to say that there is not a single living man capable of perceiving half
of the learning involved in the production of the plays. One of the
greatest students of law publicly declared, while he was editor of the
_Law Times_, that although he thought that he knew something of law, yet
he was not ashamed to confess that he had not sufficient legal knowledge
or mental capacity to enable him to fully comprehend a quarter of the
law contained in the plays.