representation is such that even his faults have their proper place, like
shadows in a sunlit landscape.

[Sidenote: HIS VIEW OF LIFE]

Of Shakespeare's philosophy we may say that it reflected equally well the
views of his hearers and of the hundred characters whom he created for
their pleasure. Of his personal views it is impossible to say more than
this, with truth: that he seems to have been in full sympathy with the
older writers whose stories he used as the sources of his drama. [Footnote:
The chief sources of Shakespeare's plays are: (1) Older plays, from which
he made half of his dramas, such as _Richard III_, _Hamlet_,
_King John_. (2) Holinshed's _Chronicles_, from which he obtained
material for his English historical plays. (3) Plutarch's _Lives_,
translated by North, which furnished him material for _Caesar_,
_Coriolanus_, _Antony and Cleopatra_. (4) French, Italian and
Spanish romances, in translations, from which he obtained the stories of
_The Merchant of Venice_, _Othello_, _Twelfth Night_ and
_As You Like It_.] Now these stories commonly reflected three things
besides the main narrative: a problem, its solution, and the consequent
moral or lesson. The problem was a form of evil; its solution depended on
goodness in some form; the moral was that goodness triumphs finally and
inevitably over evil.

Many such stories were cherished by the Elizabethans, the old tale of
"Gammelyn" for example (from which came _As You Like It_); and just as
in our own day popular novels are dramatized, so three centuries ago
audiences demanded to see familiar stories in vigorous action. That is why
Shakespeare held to the old tales, and pleased his audience, instead of
inventing new plots. But however much he changed the characters or the