San Antonio daily light. [volume] (San Antonio, Tex.) 1886-1907, 1891-08-17
THE NEXT OF SRAKESPEARE
Critics TO Blame for Most of the 90
scur;,ias and ,UifficuIties in it,

Critics TO Blame for Most of the 90
securities and DIFFICULTIES in il.
DIR. Ii. II. FurneSS in Poet Lore.
Far too great stress has, 1 think, beer
aid upon the difficulties and obscure
ties of Shakspsare's text. 1t is main
ly the scholars who EN- phasize these
blemishes to us simple folks the
meaning in many disputed passage
is as plain as the way to the parish
church, and when we listen to the
play on the stage, and the plays were
written to be thus listened 70, there
is not difficulty from the first scene
to the last. However, il there is one
lesson deeper than another which
Shakes peare teaches us, it is lmpert-
urbabIe charity and respectful for
bearance toward the universal world
Of man. Wherefore if learned men
delight to bark and bite over commas,
we certainly can afford TO look on
with a smile, and-at a respectful dis
lance. To understand why so much
importance is attached to the inter-
probation of phrases in Shakespeare,
we have but to remember how dear
his words are to every heart, and to
understand why his text is open at
all to discussion, we must remember
the state in which that text mas come
down ID US. Is Shakespearse's day
every company of actors included one
or more playwright e, whose duty it
was to provide new plays for the COM
pany. These plays, thus provided,
were the property of the company; he
prod uced them for his employer, and
to him, they belonged. This Office of
play wright explains to my mind
what has been termed Shskspeare's
indifference TO the fate and fame of
his plays. His sterling honesty for
babe him to claim them. They were
no longer his, but belonged TO his
fellow-actors. This is to me an all
sufficing explanation. 1 thinR, how
ever that another explanation might
also he surmised, and this is, that
Shakespeare was conscious of more
power than he ever put forth dou bt
il he aver fP't that he had done his
very bert. To him these dramas mus
have ueen far from Delng the mirac-
les they are 10 US; and may not, hence
have arisen his indifference TO their
fate? Be this however, as it may GER
tain it is that these plays were held to
be the property of the company for
whose benefit they were written.
This fact, however, did not prevent
an INSCRIPTIONS and enterprsing
bookseller from publishing play
which happened to have a run of eX-
traordinary popularity: and about
twenty of Shakspeare's were thus
published. How the bookseller pro
cured the copy for these publications
We can not exactly know. 1t has been
supposed that 1t was taken down by
sh r-.hand during performance, or
that after the play was over the actor
were bribed by mugs of beer at neigh
boring taverns to repeat their part,
or stage copy may have been stolen
outright. These single plays, which
were published during Shakespeare's
lifetime, but without his authority,
remem Der, were cheap, common affairs
often printed with old, defaced type,
on poor paper. They were ab ut 6
or inches square and were sold for a
kixpence. From the shape in which
the paper was folded they have re.
ceived their name-the quartos.
These little pamphlets, cheap and
Ii III lnclI udH, udNt
become the most costly books in the
world. Iu no one library is there a
complete set, and never will be, un.
less additional copies be discovered
hereafter. seven years after Shakes
pears death, two of his friends and
feliow-sctors gathered together all
his msnuscripts,.s SO they said, and
published them, in 1923 in one large
volume, which is called the first
folio. 1t is this volume which is al.
ways accepted as the chief editions of
Shakespeare, and it is SO accepted be-
cause its editors said in the preface
that it WAS printed from Shakespeare
manuscripts. If this were really so
perhaps not a breath of opposition to
the text OF this first folio would be to-
lerated, but we know that this asser
ton by Heminge and COndell was a
grace snatched beyond the bounds OF
truth. In several plays the text OF
the first folio is an exact reprint of a
quarUo, aud as a quartO has no intrin.
sic authority, the folio in this case
has 10 more. In point of fact,
think little charity will diminish
the Nervousness of the untruth which
Heminge and Condell uttered when
they said they printed from Shakes.
peare's ::msnusript. They printed
from copies which had been in use on
the stage for many years. There had
doubtless been stage copies original
ly in Shakspeare's hand writing, but
as time hes rendered them much worn
or even worn out they had been re-
placed by copies of the printed quar-
rnG mr. sa-s.1
had been perhaps copied srom tn.
worn out manuscript into the printed
uuarto, ShakespsaIe's friends deemed
themselve hor estand truewhen the,
had that they had printed tom
SIsakspeare,s own hand writing