ground-plan-" Troilus and Cressida"-These dramas not written for the sake of popularity, but for his own satisfaction as an artist -They are transcendental in their character; but they are also conservative as against the reactionists of his age, and intended to reëstablish conventions, disturbed by revolution, but designed to be better secured by the Reformation-The reconstruction of order and authority henceforth his aim-Differences between Shakspere and Homer-Analogies between him and Bacon-" Cymbeline”— This play also in favour of marital conventions-Treats of a period more civilised than the two former plays-Mulmutius Dunwallo, the legendary founder of our laws-Shakespere's knowledge and art-Dr. Johnson's incompetency as a dramatic critic-Shakspere's testimony in favour of woman and of marriage-"A Winter's Tale" -Ballad literature-Second marriages.
(b) Universal-Ideal and purely Poetic-Imagination-"Macbeth"-Superstition-Pertains to the age as well as to the hero-The weird-sisters used as exponents of his mental state-Correction of some mistakes usually made as to the relative positions of Macbeth and his wife-The symbolic nature of this tragedy, and its treatment - The English equally superstitious with the Scotch at the period of the action—The relative nexus of religion and superstition-Political motives, with the superstitious, dominate rightLady Macduff-The cluster of Roman plays-" Coriolanus”"Julius Cæsar"-" Antony and Cleopatra."
(c) Abstract and Intellectual-The purely imaginative and ideal play of "The Tempest"-Shakspere's two last, and somewhat incomplete, dramas of "Timon of Athens" and "Henry VIII.”—The Globe Theatre burned down
A. REPRINT OF THE ARTICLE ON SHAKSPERE'S SONNETS from Temple Bar, April 1862
B. CHRONOLOGY OF THE PLAYS, ETC.
C. A PAPER ON MACBETH, reprinted from People's and Howitt's Jour