"
Well did Shakespeare know that such a letter must make an instant
appeal to the sweet heart of Portia: "O love!" she cries, "despatch all
business, and be gone!"
All great poets are masters of a splendid prose, and had Shakespeare
written some notable work of prose we may be sure it would even have
surpassed the noble utterances of all his wonderful contemporaries.
It has been said that no language in the world has yet ever lasted in its
integrity for over a thousand years. Perhaps printing may confer a
greater stability on present languages; but whenever English is
displaced, the sun of the most glorious of all days will have set.
Your loving old
G.P.
6
MY DEAR ANTONY,
I do not think that men of letters often search through the old law
reports for specimens of fine prose, but I believe that here and there,
in that generally barren field, a nugget of pure gold may be discovered
by an industrious student.
Much noble prose delivered from the bench down the centuries has
been lost for ever, for the judges of England have often been
gentlemen of taste, scholarship, and eloquence. I have found one very
splendid passage that has somehow survived the wrecks of nearly four
hundred years.
Lord Chief Justice Crewe, who became Chief Justice of England in 1624,
delivered in the case of the Earl of Oxford the following noble tribute to
the great house of De Vere:--
"I heard a great peer of this realm, and learned, say, when he
lived, there was no king in Christendom had such a subject as
Oxford.
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