We see this in that very typical process, the Germanising of Shakespeare.

I do not complain of the Germans forgetting that Shakespeare was an Englishman.

I complain of their forgetting that Shakespeare was a man; that he had moods, that he made mistakes, and, above all, that he knew his art was an art and not an attribute of deity.

That is what is the matter with the Germans; they cannot "ring fancy's knell"; their knells have no gaiety.

The phrase of Hamlet about "holding the mirror up to nature" is always quoted by such earnest critics as meaning that art is nothing if not realistic.