WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE: A MATCHLESS WRESTLER

When a subject is as “large” as Shakespeare, adventuring into its domain is like the attempt to explore the riches of an ocean. It seems so easy, so tempting, at first. You may begin at any point of the hither shore and press forward, bravely, enthusiastically. But soon you are out of your depth, you are out of your depth, You are out caught and tossed by the waves, You are nearly lost. If we try to learn Shakespeare, it strikes us increasingly as the ocean or all the oceans; the quintessential Shakespeare is very Everest who lures us all only to battle us all. Even when happily endowed climbers like Hunt and Tensing touch Everest, they must almost immediately withdraw, and the experience of the “conquest” is no more than a memory, a dream, - an emotion recollected and relived in the Tranquility of after hours of after years. In a couple of lines, it can be summed up: