The Coeur d'Alene press. (Coeur d'Alene, Idaho) 1892-1907, 1895-04-20
LIVED THE LIFE OF ALL.


Extract From Robert lngesseifs Lee
tars on Shakespeare.
II Shakespeare knew one fact, he
knew its kindred and its neighbors.
Looking AT coat Of mail. he instantly
imagined the society. the conditions
that produced it, and what it in turn
produced. He saw the castle, the moat,
the drswhridge, the lady in the tower,
and the kuightly lover squirting across
the plain. He saw the bold baron, the
rude retainer. the trampled serf and
all the glory and grief of feudal life.
He was d man Of imagination.
He lived the life Of all.
He was citizen Of Athens i'll the days
of Pericles. He listenedt to the eager
eloluence of the great orators, and sat
among the cliffs, and with the tragic
poet heard the multitudinous laughter
of the sea He heard Socrates thrust
the spear of question through the shield
and heart Of falsehood. He was pres
emit when the great man drank hem
lock, and met the night Of death, tran
quill Us star meets morning. He list
ened TO the peripatetic philosophers,
and was unpuzzled by the sophists.
He watched Phidias as he chiseled
shapeless stone To forms of love and
awe.
He lived by the mysterious Nile,
amid the vast monstrous. He knew
the very thought that wrought the form
and features of the Sphinx. He heard
great Memnon'S morning song when
marble lips were smitten by the sun.
He laid down with the embalmed and
waiting dead, and felt within their
dust the expectation Of another life,
mingled with cold and suffocating
doubts-the children born Of long delay.
He walked the ways of mighty Rome
and saw great Caesar with his legions
in the field. He stood with vast and
motley thrungs and watched the tri-
umphs given To victorious men, fol-
lowed by uncrowned kings. the captured
hosts and all the spoils Of ruthless war.
He heard the shout that shook the Coli.
scum : rootiess walls, when from the
reeling gladiarors' hand the short
sword fell, while his bosom gushed the
stream of wasted life.
He lived the life of savage men. He
trod the forest silent depths, and in
the desperate game of life or death he
matched his thoughts against the in
stincts Of the beast.
He knew all crimes and all regrets,
all virtues and their rewards. He was
a and W. nj
sued, outcast and king He heard the
applause and curses Of the world, and
on his heart had fallen all the nights
and Moons Of failure and success.
He knew the unspoken thoughts, the
dumb desires, the wants and ways Of
beasts. He felt the crouching tigers
thrill, the terror Of the a4nbushed prey,
and with the eagles he shared the &C.
stacy Of flight and poise and swoop,
and he had lain with sluggish serpcnts
)n the barren rvcks uncoiling slowly
IN the heart Of noon.
He sat beneath the bo-tree's contem.
plative shade, and, wrapped in Bud
iah's mighty thought, and dreamed
All dreams that light, the alchemist,
aas wrought from dust and dew and
slowed within the slumbrvus poppy's
subtle blood.
He knelt with awe and dread at ey.
~ shrlne-he offered every .acrific.
md every prayer-felt the consolation
md the shuddering fear-mocked and
all the gods-enjoyed all
heavens and felt the pangs Of every hell.
He lived all lives. and through his
blood and brain there crept the shadow
md the chill Of every death, and his
oul. like Mazeppa, was dashed naked
% the wild horse Of every fear and love
md hate.
The imagination had stage in Shake
peare's brain, whereon were set all
Genes that lie between the morn Of
aughter and the night u tears, and
where his players bodied forth the false
md true, the joys and griefs, the care
ess shadows and the tragic deeps Of
life.
From Shakespeare brain there pour
d Niagara Of gems spanned by
ancy's seven-hued arch. He was a.
many sided as clouds are many formed.
10 him giving was hoarding-sowing
vas harvest-and waste itself the
ource Of wealth. Within his mar.
elous mind were the fruits Of all
bought past the seeds Of all To b.. A.
drop Of dew contains the image Of
he earth and sky. 80 all there is Of
lfe was mirrored forth in Shakespeare
rain.
Shakespeare was an intellectual
cean, whose waves touched all the
hores Of thought; within which were
ii the tides and waves Of destiny and
nil; over which swept all the storms
fate, ambition and revenge; upon
hitch fell the gloom and darkness OF
espair and death, and all the sunlight
content and love, and within was
le inverted sky, lit with the eternal
ars- Shakespeare was an intellec-
ial ocean, toward which all rivers
IN. and from which now all the isles
nd continents Of thought receive their
wv and rain.