Daily tobacco leaf-chronicle. (Clarksville, Tenn.) 1890-1895, 1892-04-04
THE BARD OF AVON.
JUNlus HENRI BROWNE WRITES OF
THE REAL SHAKESPEARE.


His Actual Life Almost Unknown-He
Did Not Keep tho Commanlments--H
Plays the Result Of Unaided Genius.
Especial Correspondence
NEW YORK, March 3l.-The wonder
of ShaEespeare's genius increases with
the passing years. Three poets only
have been compared with him--Hon1er,
Dante, Goethe. But what are they, sim
gle or combined, to him? Shakespeare
stands, and, it should seem, must always
stand, alone, unapproached and unap-
proachable. The language in which he
wrote--our rich, sinewy, nervous Eng
lish--mnst be immortal, were there no
other reasons, from the mere fact of his
writing in it. If all the English classics
were irretrievably lost, except Shake
speare's dramas, these alone would prove
English to have been the master tongue.
He appears to have vecomprehended human
nature completely, and he has expressed
his comprehension in words so vivid,
picturesque and beautiful that they can
never die. His works are an inspired
abridgement of the history--mental,
moral and spiritual-of mankind. He
has set the weaknesses, the virtues and
the passions of the human family to inn
perishable music, which will echo, to
the last, through the galleries of time.
Nomarvel that it has been maintained
that his writings are the product of many
minds. How could one mind create an
intellectual world and endow it with
typical inhabitants? It is almost impos-
sible to answer the question, but to pre-
suppose anything else approaches the alb
surd. Throughout the plays now cred
tied to Shakespeare, with perhaps ono
or two exceptions, run the same match
less expression and quality of thought.
There is eve.y reason for believing that
they must have come from single mas
ter brain. Two brains that could have
SO sounded the depths of the soul, so
interpreted its passions, are not to be
discovered, even in the Elizabethan era.
The conviction of the unity Of those
mighty dramas is overwhelming and
| irresistible. Unless we accept Shake
speare as their sole author, we are landed
in chaos; driven to desperation by any
number of opposite theories.
More learned and ingenious nonsense
has been written by the critics of and
commentators on the poet than would
make a good sized library. And it is
still written, and will be for future ages,
| in every civilized land. Who would
understand him should go direct to his
pages.
Essentially Gothic, original, indi-
vidual, rule defying as his genius is, it
compels sympathy and admiration from
every large, penetrating mind. Being
northern and Teutonic, it does not APP
peal to the Latin or Slav races generally,
but their intellectual giants are drawn
to him instinctivcly. The French, with
their nicely of art, their verbal exact
ness, their spick and span phrases, can
not as people appreciate him. Voltaire,
prodigiously gifted and versatile as he
was, called him a barbarian. He is the
| contrary of Corneille and Racine, and
all the grander for SO being. But lat
terly the leading thinkers and scholars
| of FRANCE have grown to his height,
while repelled by his lack of form.
Taine speaks of his extraordinary char
acter of mind, all powerful, excessive,
equally master of the sublime and the
base; the most creative that has ever en-
gagged in the exact copy of the details OF
actual existence; nature poetic, i'm
! moral, inspired, superior to reason by the
sudden revelations of his seer's madness.
Commentators yet continue to dispute
whether the poet was learned or un-
learned; whether he had more imagina-
ton or more observation; whether he
was a pure genius or patient laborer.
! AS man he must ever remain mys
terry. For all that is known of him
personally, he might have lived thou
sands of years ago. His individuality
is well nigh AS obscure as that tof Homer
who preceded the historic period. There
is no authentic record Of his birth, but
il is probable that both birth and death
occurred April 90, in 1864 and 1915. His
parents names have been preserved
and the name of his wife, whom ht
welded from urgency He left STRAIT
ford-on-Avon, his native place; went tt
London; was an Indifferent actor; wrott
, his dramas for the theater with profit
returned to Warwickshire in prosperou'
circumstances. and in few years diet
, there, as supposed, at the age of fifty
: two. Beyond these leading facts and
few others, tho rest is chiefly conJec
ture. Not line of his manuscript i
preserved, except three or four of hi
signatures. His sole monument is hi
plays; but they are eternal.
The poet, with data 80 limited, with |
reputation so overshadowing, has natu
rally been idealized, not mentally-tha
would be superintendent personally
characterally, morally. His so names
portraits are innumerable and familia
!. to everybody, but there is no good reasol
for believing any one of them authentic
We like to think of him as the author 0
!. "Hamlet," Macbeth" and "Othello
', should look, and so we have him to
: degree in the Chandos portrait, which ]
, no portrait at all. Could we see him il
. the flesh today, he would not answer t
. our imagining; hence we should inclin
! to pronounce him an imposter. Natur
. seldom incases transcendent genius in
: very attractive body-she is not bountt
GUS enough for that. He may have bee
I like so many geniuses-very plain, vi
!. welcome as the postulate is.
OF his character we can form no cor
!, ception really, albeit we infer it to hay