Daily Yellowstone journal., 1889-06-14
DID NOT KNOW ART.
Shakespeare Evidently Was Not Familiar
with Painters and Painting.

with Painters and Painting.
Considering the universal character
of Shakespeare's knowledge, il seems
at first curious that he should have
displayed no very intimate scquaint-
ance with the actual art of paint
ing. This is the more striking
when we recollect how much he knew
Of the details and positive techni-
que of nearly every other profession,
calling or handicraft under the sun.
His familiarity with them, as shown
by the use Of purely professional
phrases and trade words, has given
birth to Il host Of profound treatises
wherein the writers have striven to
demonstrate that the poet must, in a
sort, have served an apprenticeship
TO a dozen different trades. His en-
tire accuracy in these respects is I'M
doubted. and is testified 10 by masters
and experts. On this ground 1t has
been attempted to prove that in turn
he practiced rs a lawyer, a surgeon, a
physician. n horse dealer, a butcher, a
soldier, a sailor, a farmer, n gardener,
a school master and heavens knows
what besides; whilst travellers have de-
clared that unless he had himself Wis
tied many Of thecountries he describes,
and been familiar with their Ian
guages, he could never have alluded
as he docs TO their numerous minute
characteristics.
am not aware, however, that any
one has been bold enough TO assert
that he was a painter or artist. as we
understand the term. Nor is this Won
derful, perhaps, seeing, as | have
limited, that we look in vain through
his pagesforanythingmoreth ACUTE
superficial knowledge of the use of the
palette and brushes. Indeed the words
palette and brush nowhere occur, moi
do those Of easel. maulstick or any
of the paraphernalia of the studio.
And this, / repeat, is rather singular,
for if the arr, with the means and ma.
terials for practicing il, were uncom.
mon in England in Sliakespearc's day,
they could scarcely have been SO in It..
ally, Germany, Flanders or Frances;
and he was SO conyersant with the
habits of continental nations that one
would have thought the artists life
and its surroundings would not have
escaped him in detail. Yet he never
even mentions the painters brush, il
is always his pencil = and although
we know that the word popularity ex-
presses the instrument by which ar
tistic work is produced, il is at least
odd that the poet avoids the use of its
literal synonym, especially remem.
bering the vast scope of his vocabulary.
The artist (Timon Of Ath.
ens) talks no shop" tells nothing
about his models who sat 10 him, or
the difficulty Of getting the sort of
heads he wants. Nothing is revealed
as TO the technique, or the system Of
printing the canvas, or laying in this
or that color lirst-or what, ina word,
the process and progress Of the work
have been. as, / submit. might fairly
have been expected. Neither is any
further clew offered as TO tie nature of
the subject, nor any hint as to its d.
mansions; tut late- on. when the pa.
iron Timor sees il, he commends il.
and in spicing his admiration with
some philoaophic moralizing, pays a
just tribute 10 the noble art thus.
Painting Is welcome
Painting is almost the natural man:
For since dishgulr trafics with mans nature,
He is but outside; these p~encilci figures are
Even such rs they give out Hike Jour work;
And you shall Dbl like 1t.
If this significant promise was
never performed, il was Master Paint
er's own fault, and he was rightly
served. In the last act Of the play we
discover what he really is; and if our
heaven gifted Swan OF Avon" in
tended to typify in him the artistic
character generally, we can only say
his opinion Oft was not high. Would
il be a terrible heresy to add that il
also betrays the shallowneSs of his &C.
quaintance, if not with the art Of
painting, at least with its professorsl
The scene is too long 10 quote. but il
is little less than a libel upon the
whole community TO have il exem-
plitied in the person Of such a mean,
contemplate, farning sycophant as
the painter shows himself. Magazine