This perceptive study od Shakespeare by Dowden remains unsurpassed. It is not an isolated work but an important landmark in scholarly criticism on Shakespeare. Dowden makes a judicious use of Shakespeare's intellectual biography and connects the study of Shakespeare's works with an enquiry abiut the personality of the writer and the growth of his mind and character. The critic is careful in keeping the identities of Shakespeare and his characters distinct through he skillfully traces the proclivities of Shakespeare's character in the "spiritual tendencies or Rabits" of there creator. In view the range of Shakespeare's characters, from John Falstaff to Halmet, from Lady Macbeth to Cordelia, it is an achivements far beyond the scope of an extraordinary intellectual exercise.
