The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-11-04

General Appreciation IN Amerlca-H1s
Bold Borrowings.
Copyright by American Press Association
NEW YORK, Oct. 16.-One Of the most
extraordinary things about the most ex-
traordinary man, William S lakespeare,
is that, wonderful as his genius is,
overshadowing as his repu alton, we
know next to nothing Of him per-
sonally. We are even ignorant of the
date Of his birth; but the tradition
is that he was born on the day of the
month on which he died-April 23-and
that it is three hundred and twenty-six
years since that event 1t would not be
so strange if the poet had failed of APP
probation during his life, and his great
ness had been discovered by posterity.
But he was regarded as the first drama
list of his own time, not by critics alone,
who are generally above their contempt
raries, but by the people who focked to
see and enjoy his plays.
Not until nearly a century after his
death was there any regular collection
or editing of his works; but since then
he has been edited, corrected and inter
preted as no other mortal has ever been.
That there has been anything intelhgi-
bic left of him is the best evidence of
his marvellous power and significance.
Despite almost two hundred years of in
cessant investigation of everything even
remotely connected with him, the mys-
terry of Shakespeare, the man, is not
whit abated. Not a line of his manu-
script is extant beyond four of his sigma
lures, all of which are sacredly preserved
in London, and which will be remem-
bered by most Americans of culture and
travel. Even the spelling of his name
is in doubt-his blind signature does not
remove it-but he himself, as well as his
friend Ben Jonson, appears to have writ
ten it Shakespeare when they printed it.
In his day men wrote their names vari-
Ously. He sometimes wrote his surname
Shakspere, and his contemporaries
spelled it in a dozen different ways.
What claim to be portraits of him are
familiar to everybody, but the bulk of
these are copies OF the Chandos picture,
which has no relation to the original.
The only representations that can lay
claim to authenticity are the well known
bust at Stratford and the Droeshout en-
craving. They are both very hard and
stiff, not answering at all to our ideal of
the poet, but they have a striking sim
ilitude, which Justifies their claim. They
who have studied Shakespeare have a
feeling and a half belief that he was
handsome and distinguished.
If we could see him as he was in the
flesh we should doubtless find that he
looked very unlike the man ought to
look who had created Hamlet, Othello,
Lear. Eminent characters very seldom
bear the appearance we ascribe to them. |
Aspasia, Julius Caesar, Cleo |
patra must have been very different in |
form and feature from what we fancy |
them.
The facts of Shakespeare's life are poor
and few-that he was born at Stratford; |
married at IS, for urgent reasons, Anne
eight years his senior; had
three children, one son and two daugh- |
ters; that he went to London to better |
his fortunes; became an actor and a
dramatist; succeeded; returned to his |
native place; died in few years, and |
was buried there. What a meager rec
ord this for the mighty master, whose
name is immortal, whose fame, beyond |
that of all others, fills every part of civil
zation! AS we detect almost nothing of
MS personality in his plays-in this he
was supremely dramatic-so he man
lged to hide his personality from the
world. He must have considered life
1rama. He certainly treated it object
vely. All the indications are that he
lad no concern for his plays after they
lad served him in the theatre. There is
very reason to believe that he had no
hand in their publication; that they often
appeared without his consent, even with
,ut his knowledge. Yet he does not ap-
,ear to have been wholly Indifferent to
anne, for he seems to have looked after
he printing of venus and Adonis"
md ''Lucrece," as well as his sonnets.
Remarkable as these are, or would be
we're they by anybody else, they are
heap and commonplace compared with
lis matchless dramas.
This strange apparent want of dis
of literary Judgment, has
'een accounted for by his editors and
on the ground that during
he Sixteenth and early in the Seven.
eenth century plays and players were
leld in no esteem, while poems proper
we're very differently regarded. But
his fact hardly explains so incompre-
lensible neglect. Notwithstanding all
hat has been said to the contrary,
.enius is, and must be, self recognizing;
nd why should the greatest genius of
IL time fail to appreciate work that had
ever been equaled? The question is
ard to answer. The necessary infer
nee is that he was either consciously
apable, or believed himself capable, of
o much higher achievements that what
e had achieved seemed Of small conse-
uence. And this theory gives US a more
xalted idea of his genius than do the
monuments he has left US.
makes the mind giddy to contemplate
HO poasaAoAA'iSo VI LIS performance, II !
e felt that he could afford to forego tho
rodigiOus, deathless reputation which
is dramas must certainly secure him.
All that is known of Shakespeares
lethod OF composition suStalns tins
lew. He seems to have been spontaneitv
self, dashing off his marvellous lines at
Thite heat of inspiration. which melted
bought, imagination. learning and OBJ
ervation into stream of vital. pictur-
sque, pregnant, enduring language such