Note 12 — Chapter IV

Grillparzer says that it has often struck him that Shakespeare took some of his ideas from Lope de Vega’s plays. Shakespeare’s Miranda, he says, could be compared with the character it resembles in Los tres diamantes, and the love-scenes in the latter are quite on a par with those in “Romeo and Juliet.” The plot of “The Merry Wives of Windsor” is similar to that of Los ferias de Madrid. As for Los pleitos de Inglaterra, he regards this play as incomparable, and the love-scenes in “Romeo and Juliet” appear almost to pale in comparison. “I wish,” he continues, “Lessing had known Calderon and Lope de Vega. He would perhaps have found that there was more connection with the German esprit than in the far too gigantic Shakespeare. Perhaps “Macbeth” is Shakespeare’s greatest work; it is without doubt the most realistic.”