Daily Republican., 1879-03-13
wOMANHOOD IN snAREsPEARE,

: wOMANHOOD IN EsPEAR]
Wallace Bruce's Address Befo,
: the Teachers OF Wilmington.
n Yesterday afternoon the girls hig
school room was crowded with til
teachers of the different schools,
number Of tho members of the Board {
Education, and also several visitor
who had assembled at the school fo
the purpose of hearing the lecture O.
"Womanhood in Shakespeare"
! Before the lecture commenced, Pre-
fessor Rhoads and class of young la
dies OF the high school favored the au
dience with several excellent selection
of music, after which, Wallace Bruce
Esq, of Poughkeepsie, New York, de.
livered very interesting lecture. Tn,
speaker said he was unconscious tha
he combined in his title two OF the best
known words in our languages-Shakes
peare, the representative of poetry and
philosophy, the accepted teacher of the
nineteenth eentury-Womanhooi, the
true qualities of woman, her rights
and duties, questions continually pre-.
senting themselves in the press and on
the platform.
In an age like thisi which cares
little for precedent, which looks little
10 the past bu. derives its inspiration
from the future, an age which delights
in tho use of the word practical, it may
seem like going a long way back, almost
three hundred years, to ask what any
man, poet or philosopher thought Of
true womanhood, or at least a woman
hood applicable to our day and gener a.
ton, but says the speaker unless
greatly err, Shakespeare's characters
are never out of date, and it is equally
true that the genuine qualities of wo-
manhood like the genius Of the poet,
are mot for an age hut for eternity"
In the consideration OF the snbiect
the speakers main purpose was to dis
cover Shakespeare's idea of womanhood
by the analysis of few characters in
his drama, and taking them all as the
factors or representatives of special
qualities to find that ideal which Is of
necessity. tho common multiple of them
all.
Among 80 many characters the ques-
lion he said then arises which to choose.
Tor it is said if all Shakespeare's plays
we're placed upon the stage at once it
would require upwards of seven hun
ired performances besides suites and
,rowds, and it is one Of the marvels or
mysteries OF his genius that not one of
;hese characters resemble another.
The speaker was conscious that no
complete analysis of "Shakespeare's
Vomanhood," could be made, but he
lad arranged them under three divi-
ions The Romantic. the Domestic and
hs Heroic qualities, all of which every
rue woman possesses, although not
lways demanded or called into sxer-
iss. Under tbese heads he spoke of
lirandi, Rosalind, Ophelia and many
thers. He found woman man 8 equal
mental endowment although equali-
does not involve identity.
Of all Shakespeare's characters, he
aid Cordelia speaks tho fewest words,
ut she says the most. She appears
ut little upon the stage yet from the
rst We feel her presence and know I
lat she is the strength and support of c
10 drama. She is the type of that
ncere character which processes lit. '
. but accomplishes much, and at /
st sshe sacrifices her life to principle, f
zen as at first she sacrifices her for. v
inc. n
The lecturer spoke Of the sanity Is +
'el in "Measure for Measure, willing
give her life but not her honor in r
onsment for brothers. sin. In the K
Instruction of this drama it seems as
Shakespeare had created ais gsntlest :,
'r0ine to bear the heaviest burden 7
at tho strength and native purity =,
womanhool might stand out in still
lder relief. She is indeed shrink
g and timid girl but in all his plays Of
ere is no passage Of greater power a.
d none more clearly stamped when
e tells her brother that her prayers al
: his deliverance are unvailing and H
ly answered by brutal offer OF p
rdon on the condition that she will
I'D her virtue to the basest william
at ever held the scales of justice.
In his manhood she now looks for Ia
pport and sympathy, but she finds M
N coward in the presence of death, Dc
ling to live, yes at the price of a al
ter's shame who in the face of vile sa
icitation, puts in a plea for life un- IN I
'alleled in intensity. Like Rebecca, al
Ivanhoe,' honor is something OF
re- han life, and like her, she seems ar
stand as it were transfgured upon an
brink Of that awful gulf, the lv IN
embodiment of the divine word, Gu
OF many mighty, not many noble, az
God hath chosen the weak things III
he world to confound the mighty" CO..
eff