The examiner. [volume] (Louisville, Ky.) 1847-1849, 1848-01-01
var. Emerson on Shakespeare.

In a series Of lectures recently delivered by
r. w. Emerson before the Mechanics Institute,
Liverpool, on Representative Men, he Sc
leeted as the subject Of the fourth, "ShAkspeare,
the Poet" We take from the LiUerpOOI Al
tiOn, the following account Of it:
The lecturer said, if we should estimate
great men, We should not find they were 50
much distinguished by originality as by
range and extent Ii We required Of them
thar absolute originality which consists in
weaving, like the spider, webs from their own
bowels-hnding clay, making bricks, and
then building the hOuse-no great man were
original. Least Of all does valuable origi-
nslity consist in unlikeneSs to other men.
The greatest genius was the most indebted
man. He is a go-between, between the
want and the satisfaction Of the want; he
stands where all men look one way, and
their hands will point the direction in which
he shall 60. A great genius finds bis ma
terisls collected, and bis skill is shown in
using them. What economy here, what
compensation for the shortness Of life; all
was done to bis hand, the world had brought
him 50 Ear on his way. The human race
had been out before him, sunk the hills,
filled the hollows, and brdged the rivers on
his way. Great genial power consists in
not being self-willed at all, but in being to
the greatest possible idea receptive-being
immediate and vehiculsr-looking TO the
world TO do all.
Mr.. Emerson proceeded, with great beau
~ Of language, TO show that such had been
the case with Shakespeare. In his day there
was an imPortunate craving for dramatic
entertainments "a wild instruction of ge-
MUS" suddenly broke out; a host of wri-
tiers catered to the taste, and the crude warm
blood Of living England circulated in the
plays and gave body to Shakspeare's arial
and majestic fancy" The basis of bis
works the great bard found already in the
prompter's books, and he was wise enough
TO know that tradition supplies better IA
bic than any invention can. IL he lost
any credit Of creation he augmented thou
sand fold his resources. Many men say
wise things as well as the true poet, the
only difference was, that many men say
foolish things, and do not know when they
sey wise. He knows the sparkle Of the
true stone, and puts it by his fellow when
he finds it. Such was the happy position
Of Homer perhaps, of Chaucer, and Of Sar-
di. The generic catholic genius, who is
not afraid or ashamed to owe his originality
to originality Of law stands with the next
age as the true recorder and embodiment Of
his own. Mr.. Emerson referred to the
''esgle eyed researches" Of the Shsksperian
Society and others to learn something Of
Shskspesre's external history, and to the
little which they had learned, and added
Truly there is something touching in the
madness in which the passing age mis-choos-
IS the object on which all candles shine
and all eyes are turned. The painful care
with which everything relative to Queen
Elizabeth, or 70 the illustrious Raleighs,
Essex, Burleighs, and Buckinghams, are re-
corded to tediousness (beings whom We
could forget without any loss to the mind
made ii singular TO US that writers should
let pass without glance, without single
valuable record, the founder Of another dy-
nasty which will alone cause the Tudor dy-
nasty to be remembered; the man who car
red the Saxon race in him, by the inspira-
ton which feeds him, and on whose thoughts
the foremost people Of the world are now
and Tor some ages TO be nourished. A
popular player, nobody suspected that he
was the poet Of the human race; and the
secret was kept as faithfully from poets and
intellectual men as from courtiers and frivo-
lous people. Bacon, who took an inven-
tory Of the human understanding in bis
times, both what was done and deficient in
science and letters, never mentioned one
greater than all bis illustrious correspond
snts taken together"