The manner in which his plays were sent into the world--for it is not known that he edited or authorized the publication of a single one of them--and the dates at which they respectively appeared, are mere matters of conjecture.

His appearance in his own plays in second and even third-rate parts--his indifference to reputation, and even his apparent aversion to be held in repute by his contemporaries--his disappearance from London [18the seat and centre of English histrionic art] so soon as he had realised a moderate competency--and his retirement about the age of forty, for the remainder of his days, to a life of obscurity in a small town in the midland counties--all seem to unite in proving the shrinking nature of the man, and his unconquerable shyness.
It is also probable that, besides being shy--and his shyness may, like that of Byron, have been increased by his limp--Shakspeare did not possess in any high degree the gift of hope.

It is a remarkable circumstance, that whilst the great dramatist has, in the course of his writings, copiously illustrated all other gifts, affections, and virtues, the passages are very rare in which Hope is mentioned, and then it is usually in a desponding and despairing tone, as when he says: "The miserable hath no other medicine, But only Hope." Many of his sonnets breathe the spirit of despair and hopelessness.

[187] He laments his lameness; [188] apologizes for his profession as an actor; [189] expresses his "fear of trust" in himself, and his hopeless, perhaps misplaced, affection; [1810] anticipates a "coffin'd doom;" and utters his profoundly pathetic cry "for restful death." It might naturally be supposed that Shakspeare's profession of an actor, and his repeated appearances in public, would speedily overcome his shyness, did such exist.

But inborn shyness, when strong, is not so easily conquered.