Pittsburg dispatch. [volume] (Pittsburg [Pa.]) 1880-1923, 1892-05-05
INGERSOLL ON SHAKESPEARE.

Tho Colonel Delivers Splendid Lecture to
Large and Enthusiastic Audience
Sarcasm for President Harrison-Ths
Poet the Greatest Man Ever Born.
There is probably no more eloquent man
in the States to-day than Colonel R. G..
| 1ngersoll When his bald head, smooth
| face beaming with kindness, big frame and
immaculate shirt front appeared on the
stage of the Auditorium last evening he WAS
given O royal welcome by the large audi
ence present. Manager Wilt, of the
Opera House, had no cause to complain of
the crowd. The only complaint that can be
Cling in all through the lecture, much to
the annoyance of those who were enraptured
| with the orator and what he was saying Oo-
casionally the fiutter of fans and the sputter
Of the electric lights interfered with the
! hearing and irritated the audience, but for
all that the lecture was delightful and the
crowd was held spellbound for two hours.
The Coloneps subject was Shakespeare,
and he started out in modest way, but his
peroration was magnificent He couldn't
help occasionally but give the Christian re-
ligion sarcastic rap, but his pleasantries
were not of the kind that puncture even
greatest man ever born, and then he added
ironically that "there were no celestial
pyrotechnics at his birth" His father and
mother were common people, but the
Colonel believes his mother was great
woman. He was patronized by Elizabeth,
but kings and queens can add nothing to
his glory. His works stand alone, and if all
that was written before his time and since,
were put together, it would not equal the
sublime thoughts written by the bard of
Stratford The Colonel took exception to
the drivel on the poets tomb, and he
argues that Shakespeare never wrote it.
He thinks because he was an actor that the
church people refused to allow him to be
buried in consecrated ground, and then for
fear his bones would be scattered some
rhymster wrote the epitaph as if it were
divine warning to scare away body snatch
ers
The lecturer thought the most remarkable
thing about Shakespeare works is the fact
that he does net mention or make any
allusion to the men of his day. He
lived in an age when thought was awakened
by great men. Elizabeth was on the throne,
Drake had eireumnavigated the globe, Ger
vantes, the leading poet of Spain, was
writing, and such men as Keplar and
Galileo were constantly making astronom-
ieal discoveries, yet the poet never re-
ferred to one OF them. The Colonel COM
pared Shakespeare to an ocean that touches
all the shores of thought. He towers above
common men like the highest peak in the
world above the plain beneath. Such men
as Beaumont, Fletcher and old Ben Jon
son are only the foothills. He couldn't
have been doctor, for he knew more than
physicians. He wasn't lawyer, preacher,
or sailor, but the greatest of dramatists and
poor actor. The lecturer said the poet
never described perfect man. He
knew better, but his women are perfect and
full of genuine love. Then the Colonel
spoke of Desdemona, the gentle Cordelia,
the faithful Juliet, and even Lady Macbeth
at times showed that she had not lost all
sympathy for human suffering. To describe
the lecture further would be unsatisfactory
1t must be heard to be appreciated During
his speech he made his audience laugh by
referring to something being as "dry as
the Presidents latest message"