The Telegraph-courier. [volume] (Kenosha, Wis.) 1888-1946, 1897-11-18
Mr.. OWENS ADDRESS.
He Talks This Afternoon to the woman's
Club.

He Talks This Afternoon to the woman s
Club
William Owen, the actor, appeared
before the Woman's club and invited
guests this afternoon to deliver his
address on the subject The Women
of Shakespeare. There was a good
attendance. several of the school
teachers. high school pupils and the
press representatives being among the
guests. The hour set was $3.50 o'clock
and the address was begun very shortly
after that hour.
The address was a very scholarly
and pleasing effort He started out by
requesting the auditors and members
that while be had often appeared in
public it had always been to speak
| lines put down for him by much ADLER
him and be did not feel at home when
he was compelled to speak his own.
He started smile when he illustrated
his embarrassment by telling of how a
novice in great play ruined IKE best
effort of the great actor, Brooks, by
mixing a part of Brooks lines with his
own.
| Then he said there was a scientific
reason for the theater. 1t is but the
disqualification of the dramatic eX
preston which inhere in all human life.
1t had expressed itself as early as the
religious idea, the theater having been
co-existent with the church from the
beginning. He rapidly sketched its
growth naming the great opponents Of
the art of acting up to the time OF
Shakespeare. Here he stopped. having
reached the ground upon which the
characters, about whom he was to
speak, were made. He drew a sketch
of Shakespeare's time. and pictured
| the theater and the class of plays pro-
duced at that time.
Taking up Shakespeare himself he
drew out the friendly attitude of the
great dramatist before all women.
Above everything else he had recog-
nzed their great moral strength. In
all mis- women this is brought out as
the dominant trait. So general was it,
in fact, that one might term it sort of
family trait. This moral strength was
always drawn out as if in contradis-
tinction from the physical strength in
his men. He drew literally from the
lines of Shakespeare in comparing the
strength of the love of Juliet with that
of Romeo.
Desdemona, the heroine in
Othello," whom the Moor warrior
kills in IL groundless belief in her inf
deity. seemed to be the speakers
great favorite. He compared her great
moral strength with the physical
strength of 8 Othello."
Taking up "Ophelia," the heroine
in +" Hamlet, and who is beloved by
Hamlet, who, during his real or as
sumed madness, treats her with unde-
served and angry violence and who,
afterwards, in fit of inconsiderate
rashness, kills her father by mistake,
which leads through the terrible shock
given to her mind by these events, to
the loss of her intellect and finally is
accidentally drowned, the speaker
drew comparison between the man.
ner in which she exhausted her strength
of affection by intense concentration,
while Hamlet retains his mind by al
lowing it to vacillate, moving to and
from his love at will.
Lady Macbeth's" moral strength
was also drawn out in a strong COM
garrison with " Macbeth's" On all
points the speaker brought out he used
Shakespeare literally in quotation.
When the address came to a close
everyone present felt as though he or
she would have been glad to lengthen
the talk. The lecture was greatly ap-
preciated.