Shakspeare, in handling nature, touches this Celtic note so
exquisitely, that perhaps one is inclined to be always looking for
the Celtic note in him, and not to recognise his Greek note when it
comes. But if one attends well to the difference between the two
notes, and bears in mind, to guide one, such things as Virgil's
'moss-grown springs and grass softer than sleep:' -
Muscosi fontes et somno mollior herba -
as his charming flower-gatherer, who -
Pallentes violas et summa papavera carpens
Narcissum et florem jungit bene olentis anethi -
as his quinces and chestnuts:-
. . . cana legam tenera lanugine mala
Castaneasque nuces . . .
then, I think, we shall be disposed to say that in Shakspeare's -
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows,
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses and with eglantine -
it is mainly a Greek note which is struck. Then, again in his:-
. . . look how the floor of heaven
Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold!
we are at the very point of transition from the Greek note to the
Celtic; there is the Greek clearness and brightness, with the Celtic
aerialness and magic coming in. Then we have the sheer, inimitable
Celtic note in passages like this:-
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain or by rushy brook,
Or in the beached margent of the sea -
or this, the last I will quote:-
The moon shines bright.
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