The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1890-11-16

EE5SxSAA have stepped,
20 o.: sSsSA with full equip
( "A = E5l@A[3 ment, out of Nat
! 1&|1Asrs ~ - ure into tn G
| HasS5ss[ ssy@S breathing world.
! NY A@SW Ia They are more
ER7ET|>t complete, more
/ EsT% ~ rounded, more
1AeH5% : emphatic, be-
| - cause idealized,
than actual women, and are, from their
idealizauon, more real. more individual
than those. They have a wide range,
| great variety; are indeed Of every
| grade-from queens To rustic wenches,
| from dominant minds to sentimental
vacuities, from eInbOdiments of de-
votion to creatures of gOssamer fancy.
But they are all women in every fiber of
their being, in every pulsation of their
hearts. In their worst and best passions;
in their cruelties, injustices, vagaries,
strengths, frivolities and weaknesses, the
thread of sex. however twisted or tan
gled, is never lost. Shakespeare knew
as no other poet or philosopher has
known that every Inconsistency and con-
tradiction may be found in woman, and
that her variation is hmitless.
How could he have sounded the
depths and possibilities of so many femi-
nine souls: So far as we can judge he
could have been intimate with but few
women; with none of the more striking
kind that he has created. We are sure
only Of Anne Hathaway, who appears
wholly unworthy to have been his wife;
to whom he may have been drawn BY the
law Of Opposites, but more probably by
the mere circumstance of sex. He dis
covered the outlines of most of his wom-
en- in print and filled them by his match
less genius with such substance and col
oring as can never perish. The out
lines were to him little more than the
rough clay to the gifted sculptor, who
makes his model therefrom, and repro
duces it in faultless, enduring marble.
The women Of Shakespeare are, for good
or i'll, delights of the mind, marvels of
the globe.
How he transmutes, develops, glori-
fies even his historic characters! What
dry bones they are in the annals! But
when he puts them on his page he
clothes them with quiveriug flesh and
fluent forms, and eniows them with
nimble tongues that keep the beat of
passion and echo with the strangest,
rarest music. Constance; Elizabeth
king Edwards widow, tue Duchess of
York, Lady Anne, Queen Katharine ap-
pear in the chronicles in sober English
prose. But when the wand of the ma
gioian touches them they are at once
transformed. lifted out of their simple
selves into the Hottest realm of poetry.
When was woman, in high or low sta
ton, made such an incarnation of rage
and grief, of tempestuous weakness and
instability, of deep contTitiOn and heart
broken Woe as haples5 Lady Anne? Her
fiery, fearful, mournful phrases stick in
the memory and haunt US like the
ghosts Of indispensable sorrows. What
grandeur and beauty has the drama
fist lent 10 the sallow, bigoted,
severe, strong daughter Of Ferdinand
of Spain! lie has haloed her with
pathos and marty. dom, and in accord
anCe with the rampant theology of his
day. leagued her with the angelic host.
To get 2t Katharine Of ATracOu. as she
wds-much misUeated lady of tyrant
lord-oIe must tear her from the rosy
clouds in which the poet has ambosomed
her, and view her in her earthly sur
roundings. with her herman fOibles and
bilious pride. She was greatly to be
pitied; but Shakespeare raised her. by
the force Of his sublime art, to the di-
vine.
POrtia is known TO rs. through author
itative records. as CatO's daughter. dis
tinguished for prudence, fortitule, mag
nanimity; brt she gains extraordinary
and memorable lustsr IS Marcus Brutus'
wife in Julius Cesar" a most noble
and beautiful example Of Roman ma
irons. She Is dclineated briefly; but the
poets few mastery touches throw her
into captivating and permanent relief.
Plutarch and Dion Cassius have de- /
scribed Cleopatra; but the play Of can !
tony and Cleopatra has stamped her /.
forever with thrilling vitality. In its /
ringing and respondent lines she rises |
reanlmate from her death sleep Of eight |
cen centuries. and once more enslaves |
the imaginations Of men. What trans /
cendent creature she appears there. No |
woman could be more subtle. more tickle, |
more voluptuous. more fascinating; she J
mounts the acme Of charming POSSIBLE !
ity; She * Cr1Hdly certain % her seduc- /
tive. irresistible self Every poet has
measured himself against the 4
powers OF Egypt queen. put Shakespeare /
has easily reached her highest level, and 4
made her all his own. be has placed 4
her on a pinnacle Of renown, where gen
eratlOns in the misty future VIII pro-
claim her the sorceress OF time. He \
alone has enabled u to see. a. We could I
not see with physical eye, tie euchant-
ress WhO made Cesar forget ambition,
and the sounding trumpets Of MS fame,
in her embracing arms. There was para
disc; ali his mighty achievements were
the far of. feeble murinUr Of relin-
pushed sphere. Without Shakespeare
the Cleopatra Of our dreams, The embOdi-
ment Of whatever Is bewitchlIg IN WON
an, would never. could never. have been.
The actual woman. Of Hellenic blood
and AleIauGrian birth. might have slip
ped into comparative oblivion, would
not surely have ans v5rei 70 tRe idea q
her own vanity. but fe- the mental ma-
yician who came upon earth twelve hun
tred years after she hsd Withdrawn tie
fatal aSq from her lovely bosom
independent q k.ssoTy proper, the