The Nevada journal., 1856-02-01
Iago, Othello How wide the range OF
thought, how fertile the fancy-more,
how vast the acquaintance with the phys-

Iago, Othello ! How wide the range Of
thought, how fertile the fancy-more,
how vast the acquaintance with the phys
ical universe, of history, of manners, Of
men Look at Hamlet, the subtle Ham
let of the university-the courtly Hamlet,
conceived in "dirty, doggish group Of
players! J" Pah! When we think of it
who believes it Who believes the play
ers range oflearning and experiment could
give the key to this new strange and perse-
vering application of thought to life, to
society and its laws, and to nature ;
But there were men in England in
those days, who could have produced
these great works. The author holds that
some or one of these, knowing the instru-
mentality of the drama as an original in
stitution to act on the popular miad,
seized upon this mighty instrument, this
mechanism for moulding the multitude, to
impress their great thoughts upon the
world, when more open avowal of them
would lay their heads to the block. They
buried under these forms the truths they
would convey even as Hamlet in the
"dozen or twenty lines he would write" 4"
the moral that should strike the King.
The humble player was content to pocket
the gains of these representations, while
he little appreciated, and never cared to
transmit to other times, the shining lessons
that enriched the age.
No statesman or courtier of Elizabeth,
in the days Of the Spanish armada. of the
wars in tho Netherlands, and Henry Of
Navarro, with any regard for his position,
or his head, would have dared say to the
jealous queen,
But war s a game which, were the people wise
Kings wouldn't play at. Nations would do we'll
To extort their truncheons from the puny
grasp of heroes,
Whose in6rm and baby minds are gratifed
And who spoil because men suffered it, their toy,
The world"
Goods DEATH" would Elizabeth say,
swearing her favorite oath, "whO is this
that braves us in our very presence p
Does he forget five do not wear the sword
of our father, that we hold the axe :"
In the development of his idea the au-
thor seems to hint that Bacon er Raleigh
was the author Of these dramas. If we
mistake him not he alludes to Bacon in
speaking of the ability to write on Ham
let, as she with that profoundest insight
and determination of his, which taught him
to put physical nature to the question,
that he might wiring from her her secrets /;
but humanity, human nature, of course,
had nothing worth noting for him; oh no;
he with his infinite wit and invention, with
his worlds of covert humor, with his driest
prose, bursting with Shakesperean beauty
he could not do it 70 And to Raleigh,
when he says, NOR he, with his Shakesper-
can acquaintance with life, with his Shaks-
pearean knowledge of men under all the
differing social conditions, at home and
abroad, by land aud by sea, with his
worldwide experiences of nature and for
tune, with the rush and outbreak of his
fiery mind kindling and darting through
all time he with his Shakspearean grace
and freedom, with his versatile and pro-
found requirements, with his large, genial,
generous prodigal, Shakesperean soul, that
would comprehend all, and ally itself with
all, he could not do it =
No these could not do it, it was the
player, who was laughed at by his cotem-
poraries for his acting, and still more
that he should attempt "blank verse;"
The article in Putnam seems the foun-
dation for others, which we shall look for
with interest. Has the author in his pos
session facts as well as reasons to urge /.
Let US see. s.