The weekly tribune. [volume] (Great Falls, Mont.) 1891-1894, 1892-04-09
THE BARD OF AVON.
JUNIUS HENRI BROWNE WRITES or
THE REAL SHAKESPEARE.
Above Everything lie Was practicaI.
His Actual Life Almost Inknoun-He
Did Not Keep the Commandments-Ujs
Rays the Result Of ,naided Genius.
Especial Corrcspond,pcr.l

of Shakcspoare's genius increases with
the passing years. Three poets only
have been compared with him-Holner,
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-lnuSt De immortal, were there no
other reasons. from the mere fact of his
writing in it. If all the English classics
were ir~retrievably lost. except Shake
speare's dramas, these alone would prove
English to have been the master tongue.
Il alpcars to have cumprchcndpd human
nature completely. and he has expressed
his comprehension in words 50 vivid.
picturesque and beautiful that they can
never die. His works are IN inspired
abridSemcnt of the hiStory-mental,
moral and sHiritual-of mankind. He
has set the weaknesses. the virtues and
the passions of the human family to i'm.
pcrishablc 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 cndow it with
typical inhabitants: 1t is almost impos-
sible to answer the question, hut to pre-.
suppose anything else approaches theab-
surd. Throughout the plays now cred
tied 70 Shakespeare. with perhaps one
or two exceptions, II the same match
less expression and quality of thought.
There is every reason for believing that
they must have come from n single mas
ter brain. Two brains that could have
SO sounded the depths of the soul, 50
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 Ivy 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 Il good sized library. AID it is
still written, and will he forfuiurr ages.
in every civilized land. Who would
understand him should go direct 10 his
pages.
Essentially Gothic. original. indi-
vidual. rule defyinS as his genius is. it
coInpels sympathy and admiration from
every large. penetrating mind. Being
northern and Tcutonic, it does not up.
peal to the Latin or Slav races generally,
but their intellectual giants are drawn
to him instinctively. The French, with
their nicely of art, their verbal exact
ness. their spick and span phrases. can
not as a people appreciate him. Noltaire,
prodigiously gifted and versatile rs 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 repealed by his lack of form.
Taine speaks Oh 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 i'll the exact copy of the details of
actual existence; a 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 I'M
learned; whether he had more imagina.
tor or more observation; whether he
was Il pure genius or "a patient laborer.
As a mar he must We remain a mys-
terry. For all that is known of him
personally, he might have lived thou
sands of years ago. His individuality
is we'll nigh ;is obScur" as thatOf Homer,
who preceded the historic period. There
is no authentic record of his birth. but
it is probable that both birth and death
occurred April %. in 1864 and 1916. His
parents names have been preserved,
and the name Of his wife, whom ne
welded from urgclcy. He left STRAIT
ford-on-AvOn, his native place; went TO
London: was an indifferent actor: wrote
his dramas for the theater with prott;
returned to Warwickshire in prosperous
circumstances, and in II few years died
there, as supposed. mt the age of fifty
two. Beyond these leading facts and "A
few others, the rest is chiefly %conjcc-
ture. Not a line of his manuscript is
preserved, except three or four of his
signatures. His sole monument is his
plays; but they are eternal.
The poet, with data 50 limited, with Il
reputation SO overshadowillg. has natu-
rally been idcalized, no mentally-tha
would be superintendent personally,
characterally, morally. His so named
portraits are innulnerablc and familiar
t~oeverybody, but there is no good reason
for believing any n of them authentic.
We like to think of him as the author Of
"Hamlet," Macbeth" and ''Othello'
should look, and so we have him to a
degree in the Chandos portrait, which is
no portrait at all. Could we see him i'll
the flesh today, he would not answer to
our imagining; hence we should incline
to pronounce him an imposter. Nature
seldom incases transcendent genius III a