The Portland daily press., 1893-02-03
THE GREAT BOILING BROKE.
Henry Austin Ciapp's Lecture ON the
Shaksperean Characters Life and AS

henry Ausun Clapp's Lecbufo "'
Shaksperean Character's Life and AS
! sociates.
The second of the series OF lectures
under the auspices of the Woman s
Literary Union was distinguished sue
cess. Kotzschmar Hall was filled last
evening with an audience that fully ap-
preciated Mr.. Henry Austin Ciapps
wholly admirable critique Of Shakespeare S
great historical play, Henry ~.
Mrs. Geo. G. Frye presided, introducing
the lecturer as follows:
Emerson wrote just before. his death
good criticism is very rare and precious.
This is true teday. Every community
has one or more true critics who INSTRUCT
and encourage. Then there is the critlc
| who circulates about his own Intellect
with sufficient knowledge to prove dan
| gerous, and clothes his sarcasm OF an
| inferior order in that knowledge think
ing himself to be genius.
! 1.-THE true critic masters his sup]ecp,
he delights to unfold the hidden inter
probation, the subtle beauties, the unity
and harmony which has been revealed
to him by the light of his genius, and
has a systematic style Of presentation
which belongs only to specialists
such it gives me pleasure to introduce to
you the dramatic critic of the Boston
Advertiser, Mr.. Henry A. Clapp.'
Mr., Clapp began by paying high COM
pliment to Shakspeare's abilities as an
historian. The. great dramatist is the
first authority for the history of the
times of which he writes. 1t is not only
that he sets it forth in a more vivid and
entertaining manner, but because he saw
with truer, further, deeper, and with a
more genuine and trusty intuition than
others. An immense contribution, then,
are his English historical plays, not only
to literature and the drama, but to abso-
lutte history as we'll
| OF the ten historic plays, eight are
continuous 50 far as chronology is con-
cerned, but not in time of composition.
Their succession shows the development
of Shakspeare's genius The first plays,
| like Henry vi. and Richard Ill, are In
tenselv melodramatic. There is much
| fighting and killing, little laughter. AS
he advances through Richard Ii. to
King John, there begins to be genuine
| laughter. And as we come to Henry ~,
what high serenity do we see in the
characters! The men fight like gentle
men.
This development shows that our
Shakespeare had to grow and develop, as
others do. .
CHANGING first at the play of Henry
] W, let us look at the central figure, q
marvellously crafty and subtle man, one
| of the ablest and most remarkable rulers
of England. He combined GOODNESS in
1 council with fiery intrepidity on the bat
tie field. A cold hard, ambitious ma
| ture. Cruel with intellectual elaboration,
with no natural spontaneity and no gem
| tleness. But assimilation came easy to
Bolingbroke: and he learned the art OF
stimulation also. How clever is Shaks-
peare,s story of the elevation of this man
! to the throne! Bolingbroke is banished
| to France by Richard H., but suddenly
| the King. finds that the banished one has
returned with a few followers. Soon
| Richard finds himself slowly and surely
pushed off the throne and forced to sign
| his own abdication.
Having come the throne this man
seems to have no conscience, Yet he
| has one, curious one, and the way
/
| the first problems of the play.
When Richard is dethroned and in
| prison, Henry ". is heard to say one
day:
living fear?''
one Of his courtiers rides off and puts
| Richard to death, then returns to be re-
warded, only to be summarily punished.
After that Bolingbroke could never shake
| off his soul the feeling that he was the
murderer of Richard. 1t was with him
| always, and seems to indicate a conscience
that was about as active as bird with
one wing. Whenever there was war to
keep his energies active, he, forgets all
about the death of Richard. But as soon
as peace arrives the conscience reasserts
itself again. He desires to start a crusade
to wipe away his sins. Evidently there
is spark of genuine conscientiousness
in the soul of this man.
| Another point to be considered is the
means by which Henry w. was put upon
the throne. This means was principally
the higher nobility, his relatives-but
such relatives! Soon after his accession
there was war on all his borders, and be-
| sides there was terrible opposition
brewing against him among his friends.
The fendal system was a beautifully
| devised structure to put the nation under
the lead of a single man. The king
| put the war trumpet to his lips
and down the line through mobiles, yeo-
men and serfs, the summons ran. But
the system did not always work. There
would often be break, generally at the
head among the higher nobility. These
mobiles were men who owned counties,
living far from civic centres, with abso-
1 ~ L. ~ 4l L.
They read little, were proud, naughty,
generally with some royal blood, and
went on for yeers absolutely uncontra-
dicted. Such were the men of the
| House of Perez. What sort of men did
such mobiles make?
We shall see. They placed Boiling
| broke on the throne, expecting to use
him. But they found that Henry ~.
had a hand of fine spun steel under his