Staunton vindicator. [volume] (Staunton, Va.) 1860-1896, 1891-07-31
MoLIERE AND SHAKESPEARE.
Andrew Lang Places the latter Above
the Former in Many Respects.

Andrew Lang Places the Latter Above
the Former in Many Respects.
Whatever has been said of Moliere in
vidiously and ignorantly. no man has dis
paraged his charity, his generosity, his
kindness and unselfshness. He bore no
rancor, he neither fawned nor fattered in
an age of fattery; he was beloved by his
company; he gave, as Baron, his friend
and pupil, shows, an example of the most
hearty benevolence. There is something
in Moliere which TO English readers is un-
usually attractive and sympathetic. With
all the wit of his own nation, he had
humor and a manly melancholy which we
please ourselves by thinking more notable
in our own greatest writer's Shakes
peare and Thackeray and Scott-than in
the poets of France.
No man with SO great and tender heart
could find in life much happiness. But
how much he has added to ours! what
brave and generous wisdom is his! what
fortitude is in his laughter. The comedy
of manners finds in Moliere her chief. We
have lost Menander, but if in Terence
The excellent
~ Adjusted folds betray
The way Menander went,
then not even the Greek was the master
pLOUdOly uc Was uOb GNtu Uu0 I1Vdl VI
Moliere.
1t is i'll work measuring and weighing
great men together as if they were boys
competing for prize | have been ac-
cused of provincial patriotism by French
critic for speaking of Shakespeare as if he
were Moliere's superior. Yet we cannot
but admit, surely, that the range of
Shakespeare is far wider, and deeper, and
higher; that he treads where Moliere never
ventured; that he, like Virgil, is master of
a style truly magical, and unanalyzable,
and incompatible.
To say SO much is not to speak as big
oted Briton. But if Shakespeare passes
where Moliere never risks himself, on the
other hand Moliere goes with sure foot
where Shakespeare seldom comes; in the
world of a civilized, witty and courtly
modern society, Celimene is not so dear
to us as Rosalind or Beatrice, but Cell
menes society is nearer to us than the
court of Messina or the forest Of Arden,
and her wit is not, like that of Beatrice,
too often broad, barbaric waggery.
We cannot dethrone Shakespeare, but if
Shakespeare has an assessor, his compan-
ion is Moliere.-Andrew Lang in Serb
ner's.
"A MlSunQerSCantllnSs
A lake steamer was on it's way from Mar
quette to Saginaw. Among the passengers
was an inquiring English tourist, who
came on board at Marquette at dark and
Immediately turned in. After breakfast
he came on deck with very i'll defined
notion where he was, and at the first OPP
portunity he accosted the captain, who was
anything but the affable parsonage of
whom we hear so frequently. "Beg pardon,
sir" he said, "but can you tell me the
name of the lake Pm on?"
'sThe Lake Huron" replied the captain
shortly, and passed on about his duties.
The passenger looked puzzled for a mo-
ment, and then, supposing he had been
misunderstood, followed the official.
II beg pardon: did you say"-
cts the Lake Huron" said the captain
brusquely, wondering if the passenger was
hard of hearing.
quirer; "bat what's the name of the lake
Pm on?"
"The lake you're on is the Lake Huron"
at such stupidity, and not at all conscious
of the double meaning conveyed in his
speech.
The passenger looked after the retreating
official in angry astonishment.
'The lake Pm on is the lake Pm on" he
soliloquized. "What beastly impertinencel
Of course it isl The lake Pm"-
Then he paused; the solution of the mys-
terry flashed across his mind, and he laughed
so heartily that it put him in a good humor,
and presently he hunted up the irate cap
tain and Strengthened out matters to their
mutual Observation-Disclosures Companion.