New-York daily tribune. [volume] (New-York [N.Y.]) 1842-1866, 1864-04-23

man who mixes IN the hustle of our streets to-day,
who is not the weather., at least in his chances
of decent and well-roundcd life, because this
great man lived and wrote. There is not q
woman, adjoining by gentle and peculiar graces
these homes of our affection, who is not kinder
and truer and more loyal to all wifely and
motherly and flal duties because our great
poet gave TO us his immortal conceptions OF
feminine love and trust and sacrifice and fidelity.
These plays, although their times and places
and actions are very far from the present, are a
perpetual standard of propriety, and without
our knowing it, give a fine tone TO the best
of our speech, works, and manners. This is a
costly charm quite Independent of their literary
power. This is merit which elevates them, III
dignity and value, far above merely philo-
sophical elucidation, and which makes all the
rules of the rhetOricians when applied to them,
sheerly ridiculous. ii is for this reason that
scholastic criticism is pretty much thrown away
upon them. Very few know that Alexander
Pope once edited Shakespeare, unless they arc
informed Of the fact by the perpctuation, IN
some editions, of the decasyllabic little gentle
mans utterly worthless and absurd notes. A
couple of lines of Coeridges real calculation are
of infinitely more value than all the shamefully
ignorant and fantastic tricks of Warburton. A
single chapter Of Schlegel outweighs the whole
mob of third or Of thirticth rate commentaries
from piddling Theobald's to ponderous John
sons. When one contemplates this mountainous
mass of mere twattle, poor, cffete guesSes, stul'
tilted coniecturcs, dreary and dryeling chatter
and patronizng certificates Of appreciation
which it drives one mad to read, it is with a
firm conviction that no genius in the least lower
than Shakcspeare's could have borne the igno-
miny Of such vulgarly familiar handling. The
train of his qucenly Muse, as she sweeps down
the high road of the centuries, leaves behind il
the rubbish over which she is condemned to
pass. She is, despite the proycrb, heroic in the
presence of her humbest attendants.
This is not the time, nor is this the place for
attempting any ambitious estimate of the gen
ius of Shakespeare. We must content our
selves with recognizing The lesser, but still
enormous, debt which the world owes TO him
for his additions to the stock of human pleasures
and of rational consultations. We might say oi
his works what Cicero said generally OF the
poetic art. that If from these studies delight
alone is sought, The mental remission yhlcl
they afford must be regarded rs at once liberal
aud delightful Many men have been afTec-
tionately considered for their lasting contribu-
tons to the treasury of intellectual enjoyment
but in this particular Shakespeare outranks
them all. The mystical destinations Of his ere.
alton, beautiful or terrible, never bate one jot
Of their domneering power. Whether we weep
with him or laugh with him, for the thousandth
time our last tears are rs genuine, our last
gufraw as hearty, as the first. a passage
which we thought had grown tr;e, and
which was as familiar in onr months as
household words, in some moment Of deep
meditation, perhaps in some moment of half
careless thought, is suddenly invested with a
quito novel meaning, and we wonder in the
very pleasure Of our recognition, that the pith
ana UtcTlOI puIpoiI VI tuo ihos ~ ioHb '"'oP'u
u.s. Through all these wildly beautiful lands
TO which he invites NJ, We wander in constant
and pleasant apprehension Of still more delight
full discoveries, and every fresh journey which
we may undertake promises not only assured
qualifications, but new, and, as yet, unAsted
mjoyments No writer so forcibly reminds US
of the real and permanent value of the beauti-
ful. No writer 50 persuades US TO leave ntrod-
den thsmean end narrow ways Of a purposeless
and sensual life. With this sincere expression
Of a feeling which, we trust, is common TO a
large proportion of our readers, We may safely
leave them to their various and agreeable refec-
tons which the three hundrcdth birthday Of
Shakespeare must awaken in every generous
nature