The Sun.
London, England, 1864-01-18 00:00:00

idea has been worked out so far is on a par I „ce
innate absurdity. We have no wish to eat' 11 Lon.
merits of the various squabbles in which th mine
don Shakespeare Committee has been involved a 15, to
its short and inglorious career ; we looksita
iP
the facts patent to the world, without toucha,
the internal history of tbis unsuccessful agitat or
Four hundred and odd gentlemen, all of taor6
ed
less rank, or position, or reputation have fooil
themselves in a society for the props
Shakespeare's fame. The persons who, to use
most apropriate Yankee phrase, formed the bill
most
beetles'' of the body, gave it their adhesion,
because they thought it the proper thing to exPrb'e.
an abstract admiration for Shakespeare, partlY
edit,
cause, as men of rank, they rather liked' the er,rbe
of being connected with a literary movement.
working bees of the organization consisted of fi) to
fessional literary men. Now we have ;Go W!si vet
gation
say any thing against our own class, and we 'eoot
that, as a rule, authors and men of letters
aretia
so jealous of eaci: other, nor so incapable °f ea. or
together, as men wLose profession is eithereither lisle of
medicine, or theology. If any.great prinel,
human interest had been ielvolved in this Sh Bjo,
perian movement, literary rivaleies and jeal°o4ile
would have been at once forgotten by the
men who had undertaken to aid in its prose° 02;-'
Unfortunately this was not the case. With Coe
hcbblo
ception of some dozen persons whose cr
Shakespeare, probably not one member of thethere
mitten cared a sixpence personally whether ;10
was a tercentenary celebration or not. It rtile
no want of charity to suppose that the bulk
moue'ol
acting members attached themselves to the h lots
meat with a view of bringing their name° fool
the world. In so doing they used a very 11"noigg
and perfectly irreprehensible method of tvW5-tbeir
their professional interests. They give ters
names for exactly the same reasons that harr'6loo'
join a society for the study of the law, or that t of
tors subscribe to a testimonial for the diseover4e.
some improvement in the art of hea:ofir
If, however, you give your guinea, or .7 or'
five guineas, as the case may be, leuntie
pect some return for your money ; and all the geioto
men who took an active part in what, by a out 0
euphemism, was described as doing 13013°,11'05
Shakespeare's memory, wished to have the'L.r "t of
names brought forward in connection with tL'er-relli
the Swan of Avon. Hence arose the various clett;zo
which have amused the critical public. Their °rid
and nature may in every case be briefly deisc,irl
rl
by saying that Mr. Septimus Smith coosiue,rrt
extremely undesirable for his own interests tP,'n 06
Sextus Smith should take any leading ella,re
roceedings, and utterly unreasonable that ve`ioi°
Smith should even wish to do so. The result ° ,eot
state of things is that nine months have beer', ?ecri'
in alternate phases of mutual admiration 5v:104
mination, and that the acting Council has Pre;cted;
a report which the general committee has rtoe.,-,ofo'
The ill•luck which invariably pursues unsuee,;;oo
enterprise brought the committee into an unNft,,
dispute with regard to the late Mr. Thaoker','
the very eve of te great novelist's death; aiede'l
result has been to throw -an accidental aV; "0,1
served obloquy on its later acts. The " 035":rstr
Shakespeare are not, we suspect, likely to be °foctil
fled by tercentenary festivities. Possibly thj
that his works are to be found in every ~Pe°,lo
library, that his plays are acted on every P13,1°00
stage, and that no Englishman can speak 6,,etia
earnest P
sentences without unconsciously t
Shakespeare,
nakespeare, may console the departed gee'Tol VC
the loss of a statue and a soiree at %Vestry-
Hall.