The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1892-04-23

| We must remember that Queen Eliza
beth, good Queen Bess. as she has been
styled, was anything but good, to our
way of thinking. She was vain as a
peacock; she was perfidious. mercenary,
suspicious, selfish. irresolute, untruth-
| full, cruel. she swore like a pirate; she
struck her courtiers; she frequently be-
haved after the manner of the most vul-
gar virago. Her redeeming qualities
J were intellect, learning, courage, force.
Shakespeare by no means kept or tried
| to keep the commandments. He would
have been warning, not an example,
TO Sunday schools and Young Mems
Christian associations Of today. Of this
we may be reasonably sure from his
sonnets, which are generally regarded
as autobiography, apart from conceded
circumstances of his career. He drank
to excess at times. as was the custom in
the Sixteenth and Seventeenth centuries
In Great Britain as well as on the Con-
tinent. Intemperance was vice of the
best society. with which the dramatist
had very little to DO either in town or
country. The tradition at Stratford is
that ON the last night of his life he had
been overconvivial with some of his
boon companions in the village, and,
going home ar a late hour, he fell into a
ditch, and was found there dead in the
morning.
What" I imagine some idealizer of
the poet e1claimlng; ''do you mean to
intimate that such was the fate of the
greatest of the worlds DIR artists? That
is an infamous libel-the story is incred-
ible."
1t is not pleasant to believe. admit
Nothing is pleasant that prosIfies poetic
theories. But it may be true neverthe-
less. Great men are as human as COM
mon men, and that Shakespeare was
wonted to carousals merely indicates
that he belonged to and represented his
time. That he persisted IN a ditch was
an accident and his misfortune. 1t does
not tally with the poetic side of his ma
ture, but it does with his actual, his
prosaic side. Even Shakespeare was not
always at the high level Of his creations.
In regard to learning, 1t is altogether
probable that he was without it, in the
accepted sense. He was supremacy in
telligent. Without knowledge of books,
he knew where to go for what he want
ed. Every one Of his thirty-seven plays,
now credited to him, was Grcctly taken,
as to plot and character, from some
earlier work-Plutarch aps7 ccaccio>
and the English chroniclers having been
most freely drawn upon. Although he
must have been rich in invention, he
adopted what he found to,his hand. In
the development of his peEsonages he
proved his stupendous gerfE1s, trans
forming them completely, lifting them
from the usual into the enchanting. HUI
man nature was revealed to knl as in
vision. What other men learned gradu-
ally and laboriously he got by instinct.
He had small need of books; he was IL
Illuminated from within.
He could not have observed to any
great extent. His imagination was IN
bounded and yet ever IN restraint His |
vast intellect was all embracing and |
it penetrated the thickest |
darkness with bursts of irradiation If |
ever man had commanding and con-
genius-genius that was indie |
pendent of effort and painstaking-t that
man was Shakespeare. Wonderful to |
everybody else, he was not in the least !
wonderful to himself. He had no care |
for his dramas beyond their presenta- !
ton and their pecuniary Success. The !
thought Of reputation seems never to
have occurred to him, and this denotes
a consciousness of capacity immeasur-
ably above performance. The first and
last thing that strikes any one who at
tempts to solve his enigma is his uniform
and extreme practically.
Amazing as are his poetry and his ac-
luaintance with human nature, they are
not more so than his imperial ability to
write. Notwithstanding that he has sell
ION produced speech without some
verbal flaw, he still remains the sover-
eign master of expression. Nobody has
Oeen able after the greatest elaboration
% say half so well what he said appar-
entity without reflection and at white
neat. By the magic of his pen he makes
Is see and feel what he portrays at the
same time that he floods US with despair
II any effort of ours to initiate him.
The world is divided as respects ex-
preston into mankind and Shakespeare.
JUNIUS HENRI BROWNE.