{"id":"01KG8AK8NP2C6HPF6AXTQ1JV57","cid":"bafkreicbfclwbdyyivccommjnn37bmwnvk5vmoj3hg2wyusnm3alego4z4","type":"chunk","properties":{"end_line":7700,"extracted_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:57.725Z","extracted_by":"structure-extraction-lambda","label":"Chunk 4","source_file":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","start_line":7634,"text":"scholars in these days, whose boast is less that they have made\r\ndisciples than victims. But for me, had I the power to do such things, I\r\nhave not the heart to desire.\"\r\n\r\n\"I believe you, my dear Charlie. And yet, I repeat, by your commentaries\r\non Polonius you have, I know not how, unsettled me; so that now I don't\r\nexactly see how Shakespeare meant the words he puts in Polonius' mouth.\"\r\n\r\n\"Some say that he meant them to open people's eyes; but I don't think\r\nso.\"\r\n\r\n\"Open their eyes?\" echoed the cosmopolitan, slowly expanding his; \"what\r\nis there in this world for one to open his eyes to? I mean in the sort\r\nof invidious sense you cite?\"\r\n\r\n\"Well, others say he meant to corrupt people's morals; and still others,\r\nthat he had no express intention at all, but in effect opens their eyes\r\nand corrupts their morals in one operation. All of which I reject.\"\r\n\r\n\"Of course you reject so crude an hypothesis; and yet, to confess, in\r\nreading Shakespeare in my closet, struck by some passage, I have laid\r\ndown the volume, and said: 'This Shakespeare is a queer man.' At times\r\nseeming irresponsible, he does not always seem reliable. There appears\r\nto be a certain--what shall I call it?--hidden sun, say, about him, at\r\nonce enlightening and mystifying. Now, I should be afraid to say what I\r\nhave sometimes thought that hidden sun might be.\"\r\n\r\n\"Do you think it was the true light?\" with clandestine geniality again\r\nfilling the other's glass.\r\n\r\n\"I would prefer to decline answering a categorical question there.\r\nShakespeare has got to be a kind of deity. Prudent minds, having certain\r\nlatent thoughts concerning him, will reserve them in a condition of\r\nlasting probation. Still, as touching avowable speculations, we are\r\npermitted a tether. Shakespeare himself is to be adored, not arraigned;\r\nbut, so we do it with humility, we may a little canvass his characters.\r\nThere's his Autolycus now, a fellow that always puzzled me. How is one\r\nto take Autolycus? A rogue so happy, so lucky, so triumphant, of so\r\nalmost captivatingly vicious a career that a virtuous man reduced to the\r\npoor-house (were such a contingency conceivable), might almost long to\r\nchange sides with him. And yet, see the words put into his mouth: 'Oh,'\r\ncries Autolycus, as he comes galloping, gay as a buck, upon the stage,\r\n'oh,' he laughs, 'oh what a fool is Honesty, and Trust, his sworn\r\nbrother, a very simple gentleman.' Think of that. Trust, that is,\r\nconfidence--that is, the thing in this universe the sacredest--is\r\nrattlingly pronounced just the simplest. And the scenes in which the\r\nrogue figures seem purposely devised for verification of his principles.\r\nMind, Charlie, I do not say it _is_ so, far from it; but I _do_ say it\r\nseems so. Yes, Autolycus would seem a needy varlet acting upon the\r\npersuasion that less is to be got by invoking pockets than picking\r\nthem, more to be made by an expert knave than a bungling beggar; and for\r\nthis reason, as he thinks, that the soft heads outnumber the soft\r\nhearts. The devil's drilled recruit, Autolycus is joyous as if he wore\r\nthe livery of heaven. When disturbed by the character and career of one\r\nthus wicked and thus happy, my sole consolation is in the fact that no\r\nsuch creature ever existed, except in the powerful imagination which\r\nevoked him. And yet, a creature, a living creature, he is, though only a\r\npoet was his maker. It may be, that in that paper-and-ink investiture of\r\nhis, Autolycus acts more effectively upon mankind than he would in a\r\nflesh-and-blood one. Can his influence be salutary? True, in Autolycus\r\nthere is humor; but though, according to my principle, humor is in\r\ngeneral to be held a saving quality, yet the case of Autolycus is an\r\nexception; because it is his humor which, so to speak, oils his\r\nmischievousness. The bravadoing mischievousness of Autolycus is slid\r\ninto the world on humor, as a pirate schooner, with colors flying, is\r\nlaunched into the sea on greased ways.\"\r\n\r","title":"Chunk 4"},"relationships":[{"peer":"01KG8AJMV9MSRGN5AE81C6QV95","peer_type":"chapter","predicate":"in"},{"peer":"01KG89J1JMR8XVKPA0G8ADAPC4","peer_type":"file","predicate":"extractedFrom"},{"peer":"01KG89HMDZKNY753EZE1CJ8HZW","peer_type":"collection","predicate":"collection"},{"peer":"01KG8AK8NXX1R912C5CXKHJS1C","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"prev"},{"peer":"01KG8AK98D3727PD74NZHTHWR7","peer_type":"chunk","predicate":"next"}],"ver":2,"created_at":"2026-01-30T20:47:58.646Z","ts":"2026-01-30T20:48:12.623Z","edited_by":{"method":"manual","user_id":"01KFF0H3YRP9ZSM033AM0QJ47H"}}