The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1896-12-25

! blind" and making the sentence prac-
tically senseless. Comes a second-rate
melodramatic actor, and gives TIC
| kind a pronunciation which makes
it rhyme to 'sinned,' explaining that
he learned that an old Midland counties
word for child was kind with that
pronunciation. Prestoi we have a
Shakspearean pun, and the meaning
less sentence assumes a meaning. Ham
let to the king is "a little more than
kin and less than child" which he was
in reality.
One of the great Shakspearean cruxes
has been the last words of Sir John
Falstaff, as reported by Dame Quickly
in King Henry v" act H. scene 8.
Says the Dame 1--WE follow the Globe
text of Clark and WrighD:
IA parted even just between Il and /,
even at the turning of the tide; for af-
! ter I saw him tumble with the sheets
and play with flowers and smile upon
his fingers ends, knew there was but
one way; for his nose was as sharp as
pen and a babbled of green fields
The lst clause is one of the most cele-
brated examinations in all Shakespeare
1t was made by Theobald, not emf
nent editor, who changed the Table of
greene fields of the first folio into IA
babbled of green fields" a change ac-
cepted almost universally in English
now, though other emenations have
been proposed. Such emenations are
thus recorded of the latest Cambridge
edition: Upon table of green fells;"
ION a table of green frieze;" "as stub
bic on green fields" ION table of
greasy fell" and the bill of a green
finch" .Theobald is the hero of
Pope's 1Dunclad;" but the malicious
poet has been unable to injure his repu-
tation among Shakspearean scholars.
Even with Theobald's emendation ac-
cepted, what did Dame QuickIey mean?
No one knew But now in the Critic
comes Mr.. Locke Richardson, like Will
son Barrett, not known as a critical
student of Shakespeare, though known
as a reciter of the plays He studies
Falstaff carefully he remembers that
the fat knight had been brought I'D
religiously, that he had been a choir
boy chad lost his voice singing psaIms)
and he notes that all through even his
most reckless speeches the old man
quotes from the Bible. And then. as he
read Dame Quickley's pathetic descrip-
ton of Sir Johns death, there flashed
into his memory the twenty-third
psalm; and it came to him: THAT in
the phrase, and a babbled of green
fields lurked the very fulfillment of
my conviction. that the dear old sinner.
who never had strength to repent
was now, in his mortal extremity, mus
tering his waning powers in an effort
to die fair DEATH by repeating. in
broken and half audible accents, verses
learned in childhood:
The Lord is my shepherd: I shall
not want. He maketh me to lie down
in green pastures; he leadeth me be-
side the still waters. Yea, though
walk through the valley of the shadow
OF death, will fear no evil
Here at last we discover the true
explanation of Mistress Quicklv's
words. In her green fields we recoe-
nize the green pastures of David. and
with the recognition comes a strain of
pathos in Falstaff's dying hour which
no hand but Shakspeare's could have
infused"
Mr.. Horace Howard Furness. editor
OF the Variorum edition. and Mrs. w
Rolfe of Cambridge have approved
Mr.. Richardson's discovery which
stands by itself without their aid. Nav
we not all join them in accepting If
and congratulate Mr. Richardson on |
making it2 1t clears UP a Shakspearean
mystery, and adds deserved interest tn |
the end of that dear old sinner" thai |
most lovable and pitiable of ShaI-
speare's characters, Sir John Falstaff