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"Wild above rule or art" is the motto on the Shakespeare medal. "Wild above rule or art" must be our exclamation on reading his productions. He was the child of naturethe unschooled poet. He was not a formalist or a precisian. We read his intellectual character from his works as we read that of every other author. We know what his intellectual character was and was not. possessed the Shakespearean character-the character to which nature has contributed every trait, and rule or art not one. His character was the opposite of the Baconian character-the character to which nature contributes little and rule and art much. We know that Shakespeare was Shakespeare and Bacon Bacon. Shakespeare is the poet of his inspired plays, and Bacon is the philosopher of his formal, precise and logical novum organum and essays.