A friend of mine—an old squire of Devon-used to demonstrate to me at great length that when Shakespeare wrote, in this play, of the moon looking "with a watery eye "

"And, when she weeps, weeps every little flower
Lamenting some enforced chastity "-

he anticipated our modern knowledge of plant-fertilisation. Good man, he took "enforced" to mean "compulsory," and I never dared to dash his enthusiasm by hinting that, as Shakespeare would use the word "enforced," an "enforced chastity" meant a chastity violated.

Let us note three or four things that promptly follow upon Shakespeare's discovering the fairies and pressing them into the service of this play.

(1) To begin with, poetry follows. The springs of it in the author's Venus and Adonis are released, and for the first time he is able to pour it into drama.

"And never, since the middle summer's spring,
Met we on hill, in dale, forest or mead,
By paved fountain, or by rushy brook,
Or in the brackèd margent of the sea

To dance our ringlets to the whistling wind. . .

The overstrained wit of Love's Labour's Lost, the hard gymnastic wit of The Comedy of Errors, allowed no chance for this sort of writing. But the plot of A Midsummer Night's Dream invites poetry, and poetry suffuses the play, as with portable moonlight. (2) The logic-chopping wit of Love's Labour's Lost had almost excluded humour. Hard, dry wit had cased The Comedy of Errors against it. With Lance in The Two Gentlemen of Verona we have an incidental, tentative experiment in humour; but Lance is no part of the plot. Now, with Bottom and his men, we have humour let loose in a flood. In the last act it ripples and dances over the other flood of poetry, until demurely hushed by the elves. Now the two greatest gifts of Shakespeare were poetry and humour; and in this play he first, and simultaneously, found scope for them.

(3) As I see it, this invention of the fairies-this trust in an imaginative world which he understands—suddenly in this play eases and dissolves four-fifths of the difficulties Shakespeare has been finding with his plots. I remember reading, some years ago, a critique by Mr. Max Beerbohm on a performance of this play, and I wish I could remember his exact words, for his words are always worth exact quotation. But he said in effect: "Here we have the master, confident in his art, at ease with it as a man in his dressing-gown, kicking up a loose slipper and catching it on his toe." A Midsummer Night's Dream is the first play of Shakespeare's to show a really careless grace-the best grace of the Graces. By taking fairyland for granted, he comes into his inheritance; by assuming that we take it for granted, he achieves just that easy probability he missed in several plays before trusting his imagination and ours.

(4) Lastly, let the reader note how the fairy business and the business of the clowns take charge of the play as it proceeds, in proportion as both of them are more real-that is, more really imagined—than the business of Lysander and Hermia, Demetrius and Helena. The play has three plots interwoven: (a) the main sentimental plot of the four Athenian lovers, (b) the fairy plot which complicates (a) and (c), the grotesque plot which complicates (b). Now when we think of the play, the main plot (a) comes last in our minds; for in (b) and (c) Shakespeare has found himself.

I once discussed with a friend how, if given our will, we would have A Midsummer Night's Dream presented. We agreed at length on this :

The set scene should represent a large Elizabethan hall, panelled, having a lofty oak-timbered roof and an enormous staircase. The cavity under the staircase, occupying in breadth two

thirds of the stage, should be fronted with folding or sliding doors, which, being opened, should reveal the wood, recessed, moonlit, with its trees upon a flat arras or tapestry. On this secondary remoter stage the lovers should wander through their adventures, the fairies now conspiring in the quiet hall under the lantern, anon withdrawing into the woodland to befool the mortals straying there. Then for the last scene and the interlude of Pyramus and Thisbe, the hall should be filled with lights and company. That over, the bridal couples go up the great staircase. Last of all, and after a long pause, when the house is quiet, the lantern all but extinguished, the hall looking vast and eerie, lit only by a last flicker from the hearth, the fairies, announced by Puck, should come tripping back, swarming forth from cupboards and down curtains, somersaulting downstairs, sliding down the baluster rails: all hushed as they fall to work with their brooms-hushed, save for one little voice and a thin, small chorus scarcely more audible than the last dropping embers—

"Through the house give glimmering light

By the dead and drowsy fire;

Every elf and every sprite

Hop as light as bird from brier.
Hand in hand with fairy grace

Will we sing and bless this place.

"Trip away,

Make no stay.

Meet we all by break of day."

ARTHUR QUILLER-COUCH.

WAR PROBLEMS AND HOW TO MEET THEM.

THE coming into being of the Coalition Government marks phase in the history of the war not altogether unexpected in the light of events. Of necessity the new Cabinet takes over the administration of the affairs of the country as a whole, but its main concern is, and will continue to be, the conduct of the war itself. The nation's duty, therefore, is to give the Government a whole-hearted support; in other words, while ever ready and willing to come forward, as occasion may require, with helpful and friendly advice, to avoid doing or saying anything that may be construed into criticism of a destructive character.

Party, in its Parliamentary sense, has for the time being ceased to exist; during the war there can be no opposition, there must be none. That being so, into what channel should the energies of private members be directed? While Ministers are engaged in framing measures to secure the one end in view, what is to occupy the time and claim the attention of the rank and file in the House of Commons? The same question arises with respect to members of the House of Lords. In short, how is Parliament, outside the Cabinet, to be mobilised and organised? Comparatively few members of either House are eligible for active service, but after deducting all men of military age and physical fitness, a considerable number of trained and capable legislators remain in both Houses awaiting employment.

To my way of thinking, the ability and energy of these legis lators could not be better utilised than in investigating some of the more pressing of the many problems arising out of the war. The suggestion, therefore, I would make is that a series of references be drawn up and settled by Parliament in the usual way, that each reference be entrusted to a Committee selected from both Houses and the work proceed in accordance with the customary practice and procedure of these tribunals. By this means much useful spade-work would be covered and the ground prepared for immediate action as soon as peace is proclaimed. And here I would mention that in many instances these problems affect not only the Motherland but the Dominions Oversea. Even India is involved. The net, therefore, cannot be stretched too wide. Imperial questions, using the word Imperial in its broader sense, that of Empire, call just as much for inquiry as questions that apply more particularly to the United Kingdom. One must not forget that after the war an entirely new world

will arise, nothing will be the same. The more, then, public opinion is focussed on impending changes, the easier it will be for the individual and the State to make the best of the new situation.

One of the most pressing amongst the war problems concerns the soldier himself. When hostilities are over, what is to become of the men who enlisted for the duration of the war? Employment of some kind will have to be found for them; and the question is not only what employment, but how and where it can be found? Take first the able-bodied and the physically fit. Much has been heard about posts being kept open for these men, and no doubt many, especially married men, will gladly resume again their old occupations. On the other hand, a considerable number have left their positions without asking or receiving any promise of reinstatement. Others will find their former callings irksome, possibly uncongenial. For instance, one can scarcely expect a soldier who has borne the strain and stress of a long campaign to manifest any special desire to return, say, to the drapery business. A winter spent in the trenches hardly seems the natural training for measuring out silks and ribbons. Neither does an open-air existence even of a few months, much less of years, exactly fit a man for the desk and counter. The soldiermechanic will also feel a little strange at his trade after the fighting is over, and the position will not be made easier should he find himself in competition with men who have never left the bench or the anvil. Then take the case of the younger men, boys when they joined. They were ready enough to leave their blind-alley occupations, but they may not be so ready to return to them, even supposing age does not act as a bar; and, being unskilled, they cannot take up a trade, and are too old for apprenticeship.

A considerable number of men in the new armies had no permanent occupation when they enlisted; some earned a precarious living at seasonal trades or did an odd job occasionally, but a large section failed to find employment of any kind, whether due to misfortune or to irregularities in their way of living it is not necessary to inquire. Now the training and discipline of a soldier's life can scarcely fail to have a beneficial effect on this class of man, and he will return from the war changed in many respects. It may be that he will easily fall into work, but it may be he will not. In any event, one must always remember that the great majority of these men, like the blind-alley boys, belong to the ranks of unskilled labour, and it would be lamentable to see them slide back as they did before and become dependents of the country their valour helped so successfully to save.