William Shakespeare

In the spring of 1864 appeared Hugo's book entitled "William Shakespeare"—a book, that throws more light on the greatest genius of his own century than on the greatest genius of the age of Shakespeare. And in good sooth the light it throws on the latter is scarcely blinding. But it shows what Victor Hugo himself had come to regard as the poet's mission. The poet, as he tells us, "for a truth, is a...