The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-11-12

l. .. .. VI
The presence in this country of two
notable Shakesperian scholars-one OF
them perhaps the foremost living au-
thority on the Bard of Avon--is calcu-
lated to arouse American interest in
some recent phases. of controversy and
criticism relating to Shakespeare and
his works. Professor Edward Dowden.
Fellow of Trinity college, Dublin. and
the distinguished author of Shakes
peare; His Mind and Art is the first
OF these visitors; while the second is
Dr. William r. Molloy Fellow of the
Royal Irish academy and of the Royal
University of Ireland. Both consented
10 talk briefly on Shakespeare and
'Shakespeariana.
PEN PICTURE OF DoWDEN.
Professor Dowden does not at first
slght convey the impression of great
scholarship. He is short and of dark
complexion. His swart hair is what
Anthony Hope calls ''untidy;" and a
veteran slouch hat carelessly covers his
rather large head. His manner is merry
Gus, and even awkward at times. But
Wnen Dowden fixes one with his blue
gray irish eyes, one begins to discover
tne breadth and intensity of the man.
II only neds little Dowden converse
tlon TO complete his conquest of the
average interviewer
am rather student and critic of
Ihe shakespeare plays said Professor
OoWden, than Shakesperian anti
quarry. After ali, it matters little to
mankind who the author of Hamlet
may De, SO long as we have that Won
def1ul poem itself The critics of the
european continent accept the PLAYS.
ana bother their heads not one lot as
10 the identity of their maker To some
extent L share those sentiments. Still.
Vi course, one cannot devote years of
study to the works of one nartic1la,.
man, without taking some little interaet
III the life of that man. Hence. while
am not by any means a Shakes
Pearlan antiquary, keep myself fairly
wen informed upon the chief deyelon-
ments in that field of research.
The DONNELLY CONTROVERSY.
The embers of the Donnelly contro-
nersy are still alight. 1t will take very
little to fan them into a vigorous hIaze
Nothlng important. however, has. to NV
nilhd' peen added of late to the case
already presented with a view of prov-
ing that Francis Bacon allowed HE
pays TO pass to posterity under an
otner name. On the contrary. l think
lnae the present Burns revival. and the
e sIuence OF great poet springing
from point far lower in the social
scale that Shakespeare did. has some
Mnat strengthened the hands of Ra-
con opponents. Certainly the onus oP
Plooi rests with the latter: and as
See' tney nave not persuaded US.
-. curious, and Ito students of hero
n.y. an important discovery has been
ildue during the year by the antiouar-
les VINO are ever at work upon the fam
ny history OF Stratford's greatest SON
l re1er to the long line of Wels,h aoces-
try with which he was connected II ic
now regarded as sufficiently proven
uldt Shakespeare's paternal grand
mother was Griffith, a member of the
race the most intensely Celtic, or rather
CynDol1c, IN South Wales. You prob
acdy know that the last few months
nave witnessed a great revival in Gel
TIC literature. Professor Sharp has
startled the placid "Anglo-Saxon' go
called by the daring assertion that con-
sloerdply more than half of all that is
great IN his literature comes from Gel
tlc sources and is the work of men
with Celtic blood in their veins. The
iaVoI1te answer to this theory has long
been: well, you can take away yo1r
Byrons, Goldsmiths, SCOTS, Burnses and
Ben Johnsons, but you cannot claim
shakespeare. He, at least, was a Saxon
to the finger tips
WAS SHAKESPEARE A CEIT9
This comforting opinion has been
rudely oVerthroWn by the discovery of
q strong strain of Griffith blood in the
Shakespeare family tie; and now we
are asking ourselves how it did not
hitherto strike US that the great poet s
undoubtedly Celtic vein was his bv
right hereditary. Stratford is but a step
from the Welsh marshes. The Shake
speares probably made many other
Welsh alliances. Nay the name Shake
speare itself may be but a corruption
or "Anglification' of some good old
Cymbric patronynlic Already Professor
Sharp and his school, with the buoyant
credulfty of their race, have placed
Shakespeare in their gallery of Celtic
poets. You may imagine what a storm
of wrath this IS calculated to excite
among persons who think with DR.
Goodwin Smith that the leaven of the
so-called ''Anglo-Saxon'' has thorough
~ leavened the entire British lump.
L spoke of the attention Shake
speare is attracting on the continent. 1t
cannot fail to crafty us who love the
master, when we observe the continual
growth of his strength in France, Ger
many and Italy. OF course the Ger
mans deserve first credit They dis
covered his merits first; and the vast
German literature on Shakespeare tes-
titles to the generosity with which they
greeted him.
SHAKESPEARE IN FRANCE.
But the French had to combat with
the narrow, self-sufficient criticisms of
Voltaire in order to acquire an appre-
citation of the English poet. That they
have done so effectually any reader Of
modern French criticism can testify.
Then there is Italy also. Falstaff the
has recently furnished Verdi
with new inspiration. Salvini, too, is
not without successors.
1.-THE curious have been talking over
what they claim to be a Biblical error
in Shakespeare. Plumptre claimed that
the master knew his Bible thoroughly
which seems doubtful in view of the
fact that he lived in times before the
Bible had yet become common in the
household of that class of society to
which he belonged. Now in Hamlet,
Or that the Everlasting had not fixed
his canon against self-slaughter.'
"a German critic points out that
the Bible there is no verbal
condemnation of SUICIDE Indeed in
Second Machabees xvi, Rails is rather
commended for killing himself rather
than fall into the hands of the enemy.
But, this little matter amounts to
nothing as you Americans say, except
TO prove the Importance attached by
admirers of Shakespeare to the most of
his sayings and doings''