New-York tribune., 1872-05-23


was not true of his, and unfortunately was
true of Dryden's. Mr.. Pepys records ID MS
Diary that he had been to see a play Oh
Shakespeare, and found it to be abomlnable
trash-a candor which gives one silid-
dor but which is not altogether dis
agreeable Rowe, who was square
toed and mechanical fellow, complained Vhae
Shakcspeare's women were specially iii-uraWn
the men were not so bad-and that nc diu
not dare to undertake 81 the famous Greek
and Latin beauties" Then think OF the
endless controversy, the words and wlHd ana
wit wasted upon Shakespeares scholarship"
rs if that were any matter, when he pos
sessed Ito use Schlegel's words) g. rich treas
"ury of living and intuitive knowledge"
And speaking of "schoarship," we are re-
minded of Warburton's Shakespearean conjec-
lures, and how infinitely unhappy they were
of Pope's almost worthless notes; of scores
of annotat0rs not to be named; OF
Johnson's blundering journey-work, now
and then relieved by flash of in
spiration like his note on the character
OF POlOnius, or by drOu bit OF
dogmatism like his undervaluation Of Meas
cure for Measure" The unshrinking COM
placency with which the old critics approached
their work is well illustrated by an anecdote
in Boswell. "One day." he says, "at Sir
"Joshuas table, when it was related that Mrs.
Montague, in excess of compliment TO the
"author of a modern tragedy Gephsons
"'Braganza y, had exclaimed, L tremble for
Shakespeare Johnson said, when Shake
"speare has got JephsOn for rival, and Mrs.
Montague for his defender, he is in poor
estate, indeedr" This is it, exactly. People
have been constantly trembling for Snake
speare, and there has been so little need!
After all the essays and speculations, the
calculations and guesses, the arChaical re-
searches and the wise CLOSES and common
taries, the man remains himself his own best
expounder, while the world has shown, out
side of party cliques, an indifference almost
logged to what has been said either for or
against him. BY this we mean to say that his
is q self-sustained fame, and sustained too
against such remarkable Odds The great
| plays do not keep the stage by virtue OF
| Shakespeare's interpreters and expounders
nor is it because of the endless philosophical
dssections to which he has been subjected,
the reams written in honor or i'll dishonor OF
him, that to-day he receives our special act OF
respect He has his statue because he is IN
the heads and the hearts of the people,
and in their books; because 80 many
of his characters have become, as it
were, immortal creatures, and cotempo-
rary of all ages; because his works are
full of the vitality of the worlds present
events; because every man of average intel
licence, be his culture small or large, is
charmed by his narrative, fascinated by his
nufnn nisln n1
by his power Altogether, his is the most
familiar literary name now spoken by the
English tOngue-so familiar, indeed, that 1T
can hardly with proprety be called literary.
He is the one great writer whose perusal Is
in proportion to what we may, without ofense,
call his notoriety. There are other great
names with which, merely considered as
names, we are just as familiar; we call ships
after Milton and villages after Homer; yet
both remain in secluded dustiness upon
the shelves. Probably not two thousand per-
sons in this country of readers will read the
Had or Paradise Lost fairly through during
the coming year. Shakespeare, because his
work is broken into fragments, each in itself
complete, is constantly in the hands of even
indolent and desultoTy readers. This is one of
the reasons why he is so perpetually reprinted
both in cheap and costly Volumes There is an
endless demand for him, just as there is, if we
may say so without irreverence, for Bibles or
Prayer-BoOks Doubtless his fame has been
in part perpetuated at the theater but why is
it that he, so much more firmly than JOnsOn
or Beaumont and Fletcher keeps the stage2
There is nothing comes in this world by chance.
Fame lasts; it is notoriety that fades and
falls into dumb dust; and the books which
have this grip upon the human heart are so
few that strong man might carry them upon
his shoulders. 1t is creditable to our kind
that such an Immortality is possible, and that
it should have been achieved if only by two
or three. We need no Alexandrian library for
our best scripture. 1t may easily be lodged
upon the shortest shelf of poor mans garret.
We like it that our City, in its finest place of
public resort, is to set up to-day statue of
William Shakespeare, because we believe that
the honor which we thus pay to ourselves is
genuine outgrOwth of our reverence and graf
itude--of reverence for his insight, and of
gratitude for its results. We name him pro-
phet, because he has taught us that Earth and
Heaven have no phases too recondite or too
lofty for the poets eye; but since not unto all
are given the vision and the faculty divine,
we thank him that he has brought to us the
golden fruits of his speculation, and has SO
ordered the harvest that it is among the house
hold possessions of our life.
-
SHALL 4 CANDIDATE BE DICTATORP
SO far as the Senate are concerned the coun-
try has abdicated its right of self-government