  NOTHING is more difficult than a definition—a crystallization of thought so perfect that it emits light. Shakespeare says of suicide: "It is great to do that thing That ends all other deeds, Which shackles accident, and bolts up change." He defines drama to be: "Turning the accomplishments of many years Into an hour glass." Of death: "This sensible warm motion to become a kneaded clod, To lie in cold obstruction and to rot." Of memory: "The warder of the brain." Of the body: "This muddy vesture of decay." And he declares that "Our little life is rounded with a sleep." He speaks of Echo as: "The babbling gossip of the air"— Romeo, addressing the poison that he is about to take, says: "Come, bitter conduct, come unsavory guide, Thou desperate pilot, now at once run on The dashing rocks thy sea-sick, weary bark." He describes the world as "This bank and shoal of time." He says of rumor— "That it doubles, like the voice and echo." It would take days to call attention to the perfect definitions, comparisons and generalizations of Shakespeare. He gave us the deeper meanings of our words—taught us the art of speech. He was the lord of language—master of expression and compression. He put the greatest thoughts into the shortest words—made the poor rich and the common royal. Production enriched his brain. Nothing exhausted him. The moment his attention was called to any subject—comparisons, definitions, metaphors and generalizations filled his mind and begged for utterance. His thoughts like bees robbed every blossom in the world, and then with "merry march" brought the rich booty home "to the tent royal of their emperor." Shakespeare was the confidant of Nature. To him she opened her "infinite book of secrecy," and in his brain were "the hatch and brood of time." |
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