Shakespeare is the happy hunting ground of all minds that have lost their balance.

Joyce’s remark is a sardonic comment on the way Shakespeare attracts—and seems to license—extravagant speculation. Calling Shakespeare a “happy hunting ground” suggests a rich terrain where critics, theorists, and obsessives can pursue their own ideas, often projecting private fixations onto the plays. “Minds that have lost their balance” implies not merely enthusiasm but interpretive excess: the tendency to treat Shakespeare as an all-purpose authority, a code to be cracked, or a mirror for one’s own preoccupations. The line also hints at Joyce’s ambivalence toward Shakespearean prestige: admiration for the work’s inexhaustibility coupled with impatience at the cult of Shakespeare and the critical industry it enables.