The daily gazette., 1879-03-13
Womanhood I'm Shakespeare
LECTURE ON THE woMANLY CHARAC-
TIERS THAT SHAKESPEARE CREATED.


TIERS THAT SHAKESPEARE CHEATED.
A large audience assembled in the girls
room OF school No. /, yesterday after
noon, to listen to lecture on "Woman-
hood In Shakespeare" delivered under
the auspices of The Teachers Institute,
by Mr.. Wallace Bruce, of Poughkeepsie,
New York.
AS the lecturer was detained until 4 80
O'Clock, being unable to leave Philadel-
phia until the departure OF the 3 o'clock
tram, class of girls and boys, under the
direction of Prof. Rhodes, entertained
the audience with selections from the
comic opera "Pinafore," which were ex-
cellently rendered.
At 4.30 O'Clock Mr.. Bruce arrived and
was introduced at once by Prof. Harlan.
He opened with brief allusion to the
brilliant genius of Shakespeare, and his
peculiar ability in delineating the purest,
noblest and most perfect traits of woman
hood. The genuine qualities of woman
hood, said the speaker like the genius OF
the poet, are not for an age, but for all
time. lie alluded to the fact that In the
bulk of Shakespeare's dramas there are
four heroines to one hero, and this, he
thought, was the ratio at the present
day.
All the male characters of SHAKESPEARE,
excepting Brutus, and Antonio, the
noble merchant Of Venice, lack
ed some essential element of man.
hood.
In describing, briefly, the womanly
characters of SHAKESPEARE, the lecturer d.
vided them into three classes, the Ro-
mantle, Domestic aud Heroic, qualities
which all women possess to less OF
greater degree.
Under the head cf the Romantic he
described the beautiful Miranda, the he
roine of "The Tempest" Rosaline, lthe
bright and joyous maiden of "As You
Like It," also, Juliet and Ophelia, whose
young lives were blightcd and brought to
an untimely close by the unfortunate
ending of their loves.
As illustrative of the Domestic and
Heroic classes, the lecturer cited Corde-
liza, the afiectiona'e daughter of King
Lear; Queen Cathrine, the faithful low
ing, but mnch-outraged wife of Henry
the Eighth; Isabel, in "Measure for Meas
ure," who would sacrifice her life but
not her honor to save her brother from
death and Portla, in whose life and say
ings, az deineaied by the master hand,
blend all the noblest qualities that were
ever known in women.
Shakespeare, the lecturer thought, was
the only man in whom the faculties of
perception and expression so admirably
blended. With him woman was the
soul Of society, and in his writings we
see the power aud sovereignty Of women,
aud find revealed all the warp and wool
of the poets life. His womanly ideal,
from whose presence sprang all the beau
tiful aud perfect womanly creations of
the poets genius and inspiration, was
doubtless Ann Hathaway, the Warwick
shire beauty, whose honor it was to win
the love and captivate the heart of Will
liam Shakespeare.
In conclusion, the lecturer said that
we find woman, in Shakespeare, superior
to man in moral qualities, constancy and
adhesion TO the right, and the equal of
man In all mental endowments.
Throughout the lecture was copicious-
ly adorned with extracts from the pro
auctions of the great poet, delivered with
all the zeal and emphasis of an ardent
lover of the Stratford Bard. Every SEN
tence was listened with the closest at,en-
tion by the admiripg audience, aud the
burst of applause that greeted Mr.. Bruce
when he concluded, showed how COM
pletely he had captivated his audience
and held one and all in delightful en-
thrallment while he so pathetIcally and
eloquen1ly displayed the beauties of
"Womanhood in Shakespeare"