The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1895-02-03


Shakespeare description" OF an ideal
horse.
How. then. shall we judge Of Shakes
peare's original observatlon2 our cpace
forhids the only satisfactory method
namely, On exhaustive treatment OF his
natural history with parallel quotations
from his predecessors and ContempQra-
ries. But We can az any rate give a few
examples. For instance, taking q bird
at random the cuckoo is one that Shakes
peare constantly uses. What is. honestly,
the total sum OF his natural history Of the
cuckoo2 The cuckoo builds not for him
SELF This Is true. but scarcely orig
mai Hateful cuck0os hatch In spar
rows nests"
True again, but only original In calling
this universal favorite hateful" The
hedge sparrow fed the cuckoo so long
that il had its head bit of by its young
Now. cuckoo could not bite OF a spar
rows head, and IT. certainly would not
suicidally destroy its only food provider.
Yet critic says OF this very passage:
'Shakespear seems to speak from his
own observation. and TO have been the
first to notice how the hedge sparrow
was used by the young cuckoo" Again
Shakespeare.
80 being fed by us. you used us
As this ungentle gun the cuckoo's
bird
Useth the sparrow; did opress our
nest.
Grew by our feeding to so great bulk
That even our love burst not come near
your sight
For fear Of swallowing; but withnlm-
Bile wing
We were enforced for safetys sake. to
fly
Out of your sight"
Suffice it to say that the fascination or
the young cookoo over its little foster
parents is so curious and lasting than long
after the cookoo has left the nest and is
able to forage for itself its small guar
dams still continue 20 feed It ana indus
triously drop down its huge gullet their
tiny morsel of food once more Shakes
peare LAS the cookoo is I'm June. heard
but not regarded" This, 1.-THE cuckoo IN
June" was a very common proverbial say
lng Of the time, yet critics comment
lengthily upon it, Such, then, Is the total
sum of Shakspeare's natural history"
of the cuckoo, and il amounts to two prov
verbs. two misstatements, and the com
pletest possible misconception Of the
cuckoo idea" in nature. Yet critics have
lavlshed their admiration upon It.
But taking men all round, ordinarily in
telligent men of a country life. was
Shakespeare. as compared with one Of
these average individuals, ian observer
of nature?" The question is one liable
perhaps to shock those who have followed
blind guides so long The answer to 1t
is liable TO shock them still more severely.
No, Shakespeare was curiously unobserv-
ant OF animated nature. He seems TO
have seen very little. Our authority for
this Is his own works, which, while they
abound with beauties of fancy ana mag
nation, are most disappointing to lovers
Of nature by Oheir errors aparO their
omissions.
Stratford-on-Avon was I'm his day en-
meshed I'm streams, yet he has not got a
single kingfsher. 1T is true he refers to
that mythic old sea bird OF antiquity, the
halcyon, hung up by its beak as a kind Of
indoor weathercock. But that Is not the
Nor on all his streams or pools
is there an otter, water-rat, fish rising,
a dragon fly, a moor hen, or a heron.
What then. did he observer Only inani-
mate nature, the willows "aslant the
stream" and the
"vagabond flag upon the stream
Go to and fro, lackeying the varying tide
To rot itself with notion"
And the stream itself, that
Makes sweet music with tn enameled
stones,
Giving gentle kiss to every sedge
He overtaketh in his pilgrimage"
But to the living objects about him he
seems to have been obstin8tely and delib-
erately purblind and balf deaf -s- 90
Shakespeares treatment Of the lark,
the most important of his real birds, never
fails to meet with special comment from
his critics" when they are insisting upon
his observations of nature; but how is
il they have never concerned themselves
to learn how much Of Shakespeare's de-
scription was his own and how much
borrower We cannot find space TO OK
haust the subject, but may note here
some of his most quoted epthets and
distribute them among their sources.
II is 1.-The morning lark $50 In Lyly),
the mounting lark" civilian Browne,
the merry lark (Spenser), "herald Of
the day" (Chaucer). "shrill lark (Spsn-
SER, summers bird" (Spenser), "the busy
day walked by the lark Che busy lark,
walker OF the day." Chester, "Harkl bark!
the lark at heavens gate sings, and Phoe-
bus gins arise" cat heavens gate she
Chaps her wings, the morn not waking,
till she sings" Lyly).
It has been said Of Shakespeare that
he had "a fine contempt for details" and
this contempt he carries into his treatment
of animals, A bird is a bird, a beast Is a
beast. and il does not seriously matter
what sort of bird or beast 1t is so long as
the touch Of nature which the passage
needs, or which affords a metaphor Is
there. He was supremacy Indifferent to
that which all other writers prize 80
highly and call local color" This is
shown as conspicuously in his fora as In
his fauna, for where for instance, the
names of individual trees would have
greatly advantaged his text and brought
the scenes in which they were mentioned
more substantially before the eye. he is
content with the word tree
And as real trees that he knows Of he
actually uses in his forests only the oak,
the pine and very doubtfully) the syca-
more. There are no elm sor beech trees,
no BIRCH ash, chestnut. walnut, popl9r.
alder, plane, fir, larch lime, or hornbeam.
Is not this extraordinary So with ami
mated nature Shakespeare took only what
suited for the occasion, and only Just as
much as would suffice. He does not EN-
ploy animals to embellisb or ornament
his lines; they are there for the use they
serve in illustration or as a sirnile.
Here and there, of course, Ia every poet
occur touches of individual prejudice or
partially, of personal likes and dislikes
but Shakespeare gives the tone and gen
eraI tenor to the whole. With the nine
teenth century there has also come into
poetry a deeper and wider; appreciation
of nature, but with a corresponding ap-
probation of Shakespeare; and even the
greatest minds Of our times confess in
their writings the potent influence Of the