3. THE ORIGINALITY OF SHAKESPEARE'S AUTOLYCUS

For suggestions see _Poet-lore_, April, 1891. ('Notes and News.')
Compare the Hermes of the Homeric Hymn with the Autolycus and Sisyphos
of mythology, also the folk-lore tales of the master-thief (Cox). To
discuss the probable originality with Shakespeare of a conception
which is one of the universal inheritances of the Aryan race is
futile; the type existed, and Shakespeare's part was to make an
individual of the type.

QUERIES FOR DISCUSSION

Is Leontes' jealousy too gross and unfounded to be likely?

Is Hermione, not hard, but slow to be satisfied, because her love is
noble?

Is Mamillus not too precocious to be natural?


VII

A STUDY OF THE CONSTRUCTION OF THE PLOT

Has Shakespeare welded the two parts of the story together in such a
way as to unify the plot? Does Autolycus contribute anything to the
development of the plot? How does it compare with "Julius Cæsar" or
"Macbeth," for example, in the construction of the plot? Is the
movement more rapid in the last half of the play or in the first? Note