The Sun.
London, England, 1865-04-24 00:00:00

The Urban Club

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The sixth annual Shakspere Festival of the above
club was held at St. John's Gate, Clerkenwell, on
Saturday last —Mr. John A. Heraud in the chair,
and Mr. J. Hain Friswell in the vice-chair. Among
the numerous representatives of the three sections
of the club—literature, science, and art—there were
also present the following gentlemen :—Dr. West-
land Marston, Messrs. Oxenford, Tomlins, Wilson,
G. Cruikshank, Marston, Barnett, Leslie, Simpson,
Butlin, Sawyer, Carpenter, Banks, Bacon, Frank-
lin, and Chester.
Mr. HERAUD, in proposing the toast of " The Im-
mortal Memory of Shakspere," said that in all the
works of Shakspere was displayed a consciousness
of that power which was within the man. He was
not a barbarian, as some had thought, exerti g a
mighty force in blind obedience to instinct, but,we
might observe in his works a real and genetic pro-
gress. He began with displaying the brilliant efforts
of a master mind, but it was only when his intellect
was matured and his experience ripened that he gave
to us those most glorious productions which are
more particularly associated with his genius and his
name. (Loud cheers.) He lived a serene life, peering
with those far-seeing eyes of his into all the recesses
of the human heart, storing up his experience of the
ever-varying pageant of human life, and advancing
imperceptibly from one perfection to another.
(Cheers.) Each stage of growth was distinct and
perfect. His later works were less popular than
his earlier productions. And why was this ? Be-
cause he was less trammelled by the caprices of the
many—less influenced by the necessity of appeal-
ing directly to their grosser fancies, and was then
only able to speak forth his mind freely,
to transcend the popular taste, to become
what we now all acknowledge him to be—" the
great high priest of all the Nine," the especial glory
of his countrymen and one of the chiefest honours to
the human race. His last works were more fitted
for the closet than for the ordinary stage. The
closet indeed was the latest arena for dramatic
works : there only were their beauties fully known,
and their philosophic utterances, although perhaps
little noticed in the exciting bustle of the stage,
were in the calm chamber of the student justly ap-
preciated, (Cheers.) It was only permitted to
the highest order of dramatic works to attain this
dignity. Shakspere's works might hereafter main-
tain the same relation to the acted drama that the
sublime works of Sophocles, 2Eschylus, and Euri-
pides now bore to his own, and thus their immor-
tality would be secured as a sort of inspired litera-
ture and a spiritual cultus for future men. (Loud
cheers.) He then proposed " The Immortal Me-
mory of Shakspere." (The toast was drunk amid
much enthusiasm.)
Mr. HENRY LESLIE, in proposing the toast of
" Literature," remarked that it hushed the child to
sleep in his cradle, educated the mind of the school-
boy, fired the imagination of the youth and prompted
him to become a good man, strengthened and de-
veloped the mind of man, was the solace of his old
age, and, read over his grave, with touching so-
lemnity consigned him to the dust from whence he
sprang. (Cheers.) He regarded literature as the
greatest of all human pursuits; for, as it was by
the faculty of the mind that man was distinguished
from the brute, so when that faculty was in its
highest state of cultivation we were still further ele-
vated in the scale of creation. (Renewed cheers.)
He congratulated those around him upon the pre-
sent prosperity of literature, and contrasted the
condition of " that great Dictionary Man," when
forced to beg ten guineas for a dedication, with
the independence at present enjoyed by the
literary man. But that independence brought
with it a larger share of responsibility, and he had
been forcibly reminded of this when about to write
a story for a journal, the circulation of which he
was told numbered upwards of 350,000, he reflected
that in a greater or less degree his pen must influ-
ence such a mass of people for good or for evil.
(Cheers.) He concluded by associating the name
of Mr. J. Hain Friswell, the author of " The Gentle
Life," with the toast. (Cheers.)
Mr. FRISWELL cordially concurred in the elo-
quent remarks of Mr. Leslie. Literature, he said,
was truly the highest and deepest, the widest and
noblest art that graced our land. He believed that
the spirit of literature emanated directly from
the Great Author of All, and that unless
an author was blessed with that divine inspira-
tion he never could achieve that which was the
great aim of literature—the pure fame to which
every good man aspired of having his works
appreciated by posterity, and his thoughts carried
down from generation to generation. (Cheers.:
Shakspere was the highest type of a literary man
His works were the greatest, the most exhaustive

the most popular of any that had preceded or suc-
ceeded them ; and it was to bo regretted that that
which the devotion of a small and distant colony
had been able to accomplish, in perpetuating the
memory of our great Immortal should have been
frustrated in the metropolis of the world by the
petty jealousies of those who had thrust themselves
forward in the tercentenary movement of last year
initiated -by the Urban Club. He alluded to a fact
pregnant with interest to those around him—

namely, that one of their own body, Mr. Charles
Bacon, the sculptor, had just received a commission
to execute a statue of Shakspere for the inhabitants
of Nassau, in the Bahamas. (Loud cheers.)
Mr. G. L. BANKS, in an able speech, proposed
the toast of " The Drama."

Dr. WESTLAND MARSTON, in acknowleding the
toast on behalf of the drama, said there was perhaps
no art which involved so large a combination of in-

tellectual powers. It required skill of invention
an insight into motives and character akin to that o

she moral philosopher; the sympathetic feeling of
:he poet to illustrate the emotions by which the

characters were actuated ; the fancy of the poet, and
in the lighter dramas the brilliancy of wit to give
effect to the language in which those emotions were

conveyed; and, in addition, it required no inconside
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rable knowledge of life and society. These were
diverse and, to some extent, contrasting elements of
the human mind, and it was therefore manifest how

great a claim was made upon him who attempted to
write a successful drama. Both assuming a drama

to be so far perfect, a variety of instrumentalities
was required to set this intellectual— conception

before an audience, and for these resort muse

be had to all the other arts in turn.

of the first requisites was that rhythmical diction

which, in prose or poetry, must flow from the true

expression of feeling. It was something analogous

to music, assisted by those harmonious inflections
by which a good actor knew so well how to assist a

great writer. The story of humanity being thus

presented by the living man and Woman, the drama
_ _

Called in another of the arts, and was enriched by
the animated wit of breathing sculpture. (Cheers.)
The drama of Shakspere was not merely some
bright particular star in the firmament of literature,
but was itself a constellation. (Cheers.) Involving
so many intellectual requisites, it must exercise a

great moral power. He concluded a most eloquent

speech by some remarks upon the realistic character
of Shakspere's drama and the true nature of poetry.
After some further proceedings the meeting

terminated.

A STABLE EMENDATION OF SHAKSPERE.—In every
edition of Shakspere to which I have had access,
says R. B. D. in the Antheneum, under date Blue Moun-
tains, New South Wales, Feb. 19, 1865, Petruchio is repre-
sented as coming for his bride with a horse " shoulder-
shotten, ne'er legged before, and with a half-checked bit."—
Taming of the Shrew, act iii. sc. 2. I conjecture that Shaks-
spero wrote near-legged, well knowing that a lady's palfrey
should be off-legged, that is, should lead off, or strike, with
the off-foreleg first ; and I feel pretty sure that Petruchio's
bit was a snaffle with one of its " cheeks" broken—i.e., a
half-cheeked bit. Probably these readings may have
occurred to some one else long since. If not, their long
sea-voyage, and an airing in your columns, may dissipate
any odour of the stable they may carry with them.

A letter from Mr. George Thompson, dated April
6, contains the following :—" At the special invitation of
Mr. Stanton, the Secretary at War, Mr. Garrison and my-
self are going on board the Arago, at New York, to-mor-
row, to sail for Charleston, South Carolina, to be present
at the raising of the flag, which was struck to the rebels
four years ago. General Anderson, Senator Wilson, H.
W. Beecher, and others accompany us. Was it not consi-
derate to afford us tho opportunity of being present on so
memorable an occasion ?"