The Washington bee., 1892-12-03
sl4AkEsPEARE's LOVERS.
H,s women Were Masured and Usually
- .''1 FaikhfnI TO the End.

M. wo.u.n Were Masured and Usually
= ."5 Faithfal to the End.
~" Emerson tells as that ''ah msnklnd
,ova a lover" There is common every
day proof enough that the saying y
Wise. The greatest Of dramatists loved
and faithfully pictured lovers. not Tor.
getting to chide them gently and %
iaueh st them as all mankind also do.
The plays Of Shakespeare contain q
thrronc Of lovers, Of whom he seems
not over fond. he tells Us that all
time lovers swear more performance than
they are able ;" that SO lover may be-
stride o gossamer that idles in the wan:
ION summer air - ''at lovers perjuries,
they say, Jove laughs > and, worst libs
Of all, that the oath Of lover is no
stronger that the word Of tapster
and other such asides, while the eternal
business Of love making goes on in his
drama very precisely as it goes on In
the whole world. He hardly stops to
repeat the old jest that Love is blind
snd lovers can not see the pretty foliles
that they themselves commit, while ne
goes on with the endless tale OF loves
fascinstions and achievements.
Leaving out these gentle bursts OF
musical laughter, the most careless
reader of Shakespeare must learn that
love is treated by him in a marvel
lously lust measure, and sttains in these
plays to an exceptional dignity. This
is partly because he does not always
play on one string, but associates the
music Of love with other human melody;
because he has given US but one Juliet.
and only once let us associate with his
Cleopatra because his lovers have al
ways some other strong human inter.
est for us because in short, he does
not write what we nowadays call love
stories, but does write stories into which
love enters as into real life-as a part.
ner with other emotions, and interests.
Note, for example, how Portia in the
Merchant of Venice is made much of for
other things and not so very much of as
she lover of Antonio's fortune-hunting
friend. And compare that other loving
Portia, "Cato's daughter, whom Lord
Brutus took to wife," with her strong
and human heart and her intense devo-
ton to her Brutus.
Shakespeare is not less wise in deal
ing effectively, for the greater part,
with his lovers. We are only specta-
tors. even when we listen to the end.
less monologue or dialogue of the love-
smitten. The modern subjective love
story is made wearisome by overmuch
study of the moral inwards of the
lovers. Shakespeare did not decline
upon the psychologist analysis of human
emotions, and. therefore, we see lovers
in his plays as we see them in our own
world, and this is the wholesome way
of attending this everlasting spectasl le.
It is no small cause of the dignity
love wears in our dramatist that his
lovers are not often boys and girls. He
has, so to speak, ripened fruit which
is hardly to be enjoyed when it is green.
Indeed. he has scarcely given us ore
pair of lovers about whom we feel tlrst
they are very young and most of th,nn
present the appearance of mature MAN.
iness and womanliness. Of the men.
excepting Orlando, the beloved of Rosa
lind, and the boy who runs off with
Jessica, Shylock's s daughter, we can not
be far wrong in assuming that they
have attained to maturity. And te,
what mind do Imogen, Rosalind, Ports.
and Opheha seem to be in their early
girlhood? There is a comfortable
sense of matronliness about all the %
women, and they are weighted, too,.
with character, thing which Shakes
peare thought highly appropriate in
women.
OF cne common condiment in love
stories, Shakespeare is very frugal,
that is to say, faithlessness. His love rs
for the most part are as good as they
engaged to be, and they do not seem to
have discovered those awful mistakes
Of choice which justify loving another
mans wife or eloping with another girl.
I think the absence Of faithlessne 50
can not be explained on the ground that
we have grown so much more wicked
that unfaithfulness enters much more
largely into modern life.
The prevalence of unfaithfulnes., in
our modern novel is probably due to
the fact that pestilent French doctrio ss
and practices have invaded our Anss O.
American world. Remembering WI at
we are suffering from the contempora "
literature of love, let us be propci II
thankful for goodly company of fai.a-
full lovers in our Shakespeare, and let
Us also take courage to believe taat
Shak kespeare is nearer the right view of
the facts than the modern French no..,l.
ist. He presented the world very *
actly as it presented itself to his obcsr-
walton, and we can not doubt that he
would have harped upon unfaithfulnc IS
Il he had believed it to be the rule OF
life where lovers play their parts.
Probably he saw clear.