The Wheeling daily register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1864-1878, 1878-04-24


but Except as TO his poems) there is no
evidence that he ever gave to the press
any authentic and authorized copy OF
mis- works. He seems to have felt him
self satisfied when the play was bought,
and TO have regarded its preservation as
the concern of the purchaser rot his
own. With sublime forgetfllness or
disregard of the judgment of posterity-
showing no signs of dream OF his pres
ent tame-in simple uncon sciousness OF
mis- greatness, be did his daily work.
But yet, such was the power OF his
genius, he may be Justly regarded as the
founder OF the English Drama, no less
than ITS highest exemplsr and the irult
of Its rIpest development. True there
had been English plays before Shakes .
pcares time, but the theatre was usually
a barn or booth in the market place,
or the qusdrsngulsr court OF an inn, and
/ the plays were the lineal descendants,
with but slight improvement upon the
| original stock, of the miracle plays or
mysteries" devised by monks of the
middle ages, the better to illustrate and
impress the teachings OF Mother Church;
a sort of Punch and Judy" performance,
/ in which the Devil with his traditional
trapplngs was an indispensable actor, and
| thA dumb show" of which Hamlet
speaks so dispsragingly, was introduced
/ to eke out the bsrrenness of
the text. But Shakespeare brought
new revelation. The events OF
recent history, the emotions Of everyday
| life, the policy Of kings and statesmen,
| and the humble concerns of the lsbOrer,
were each portrayed by his faclle pen,
! and men awoke to the knowledge that
| the drama had a higher and wider field
in which to display It's power to enilght-
| en-, instruct and smuse msLknd, than mad
been occupied by the former clumsy and
often blssphemous portrayals OF scenes
from Holy Writ.
The era of Shakespeare's life was one
of wonderful literary activity and growth,
/ From puny and weakly childhood,
| English literature sprsng at once to Wig
orous mSnliness in the Ehzsbethsn age,
and in prose and poetry and the drama
produced the earliest classics OF the Eng
/ lish tongue-wOrks whiCa during many
! succeeding years remained unsurpassed
| and regarded as relics of race Of lGtel-
| lectual giants. Among Shskespeare's
cotem porsries were the poets Spencer
| and Drsyton and DOnne and Jonson
| and Quares and Herbert and Herrlck,
who, with many others, wrote songs
thst still live to delight the lovers
OF poesy; among the prose writers
were Sidney, and Bacon, and Raleigh,
and Walton, and Taylor, and Knox, end
Buchanan; while among the drsmatists
Of the day Kyd, and Lyly and Peele,
| and Chapman and Greene, and Marlowe
were his fellow workers.
Ben. Jonson was only ten years the
! Junior of Shakespeare, was his boon COM
/ pauion and friend, and there is proof
| tina. Shakespeare was IN actor in at least
two of Jonsou's plays. Beaumont and
| Fletcher the latter of whom was Shake
, spesre's iunio. by II years, and the
| former by %, derived much of their in
spIration from Shakespeare's genius and
they we'll nigh approached the "magic
circle OF his wondrous power. MsssIn-
ger wrote a few wears after Shakespeare's
death. The sun burst of literary splen
dor thst gilded all these great names has
given place TO twilight into which sll
save Shakespeare have sunk. There was
something of prophesy in Ben. JonsonS
line.
Ale was not of an age, but for all time
Instead of being intolded in the
mist of forgetiulness which is steadily
plppippr around tho
most worthy and most brilliant OF
his compeers, Shskespesre's fame seems
TO grow brighter rs the wears advance.
HIS cotemporsries in literary labor were
generally men of more careful education
than he; they were for the most part
graduates of the best classical schools OF
the day; while Shakespeare, IN the words
Of one of his most loving admirers, mad
small Latin and less Greek" Nor was
there wanting in his time the envy and
detracton of less gifted minds. Robert
Greene, in bitter pamphlet, warns MS
! fellows against "sn upstsrt crow beauu-
fed with our feathers, that, with
mis- tigers heart wrspt in players hide,
supp0ses he IS as we'll able TO bOmbsst
out y blank verse as the best OF you; and
being An absolute Johannes Factotum Is,
IL his own conceit, the only Shske-3cene
IN = country" 1t is creditable, however,
TO the good taste OF the noble army
| of writer's who lived in Shakes
nesres time that with almost one accord
they gracefully yield to him the palm OF
! highest merit, and even the editor OF
| Greene's Ill nstured fling, which have
inst Quoted and which was published in
| 1893 deemed 1t necessary to apologize IN
q nrefsce for the malevOlent shaft thrown
| nv the author. In fact, most OF his
c0temporaries speak OF him IN most
| LOVING terms and their words OF com
mendstion of his genius are repeated
when thev speak OF the sweetness OF his
personsl CompaniOnshlp, the modesty OF
| his demesnor aud the excellence OF MS
| character as 8 man. Nor has modern
Encouragement been altogether wanting.
! In Tom Moores diary. writing IN 1919,
| be more than once mentions the fact that
| Lord Byron declared to him the opinion
| tbst Shakespeare WAS "a ID humbug."
and there is concurrent testimony 10 show
/ that among his other eccentrlcltles his
| I.,rdsblp prutessed this. Lord Byron Is
! two hundred years nearer our own
age than Shakespeare, and yet who will
think of comparing the one with the
other. Byron wrote dramas, but l be-
Ieve no one Of them has ever been seen
upon the stsge. He wrote poetry that
famed like a meteor sthwart the literary
sky, but although but little more than
ff.y yesrs hsve passed since his death at
! Missolonghi, yet his fame is fading and
his works have scarce one reader to-day
where they numbered hundred, fifty,
yes thirty years ago. In our own life
time we have witnessed the decline OF
Byron's fame, but there has been no
wsvering or diminishing in Shakespeare
respleSdent glory.
No writer of any age. in any tongue
known to civilized man, has SO held the
mirror up 10 nstare, no author has ever
so carefully and completely sounded all
the depths and shoals of human passion,
"a ba. IN no other book can we