Wheeling Sunday register. [volume] (Wheeling, W. Va.) 1882-1934, 1898-10-23

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LEGENDS 0f Scc<finh ana British his
tory; while CoFoiolanus. Julius Ceasar
and Anthony and Cleopatra are de-
rived from ancient Roman annals
Nineteen Of his dramas are said to
be based upon fiction, and can be
traced to Italian novelists and other
story writer's Of that age, and which
had been translated into the English.
1t was not book learning. but the
native genius Of the man, that quail
fed Shakespeare for his work; nat
ural disposition, or peculiar aptitude
of mind, endowed with the gift OF ready
apprehension and the power of delinea-
ton which enabled him to clothe every
character with an intense reality, and
individuality, at the same time true to
his nation, and to the universal man.
He made mistakes, anachronisms
that a more scholarly writer, perhaps,
would not have made; yet such was
his genius that his characters were al
ways true to nature, and environment,
or at least, they were so tinged with
the local color, and endued with the
local and universal qualities OF man
also, that his anechronisms did not
seem to affect his truthful representa-
tons Of human nature.
OF his mistakes: In Winters Tale"
he represents Bohemia as maritime
country! He makes Cassius speak OF
the eternal DEVIL" when all idea OF
a devil. as understood in modern
times, was wholly unknown to the
Lne ri He
makes his hero of tie Trojan war quote
from Aristotle, and Caesars Romans
to WELD Spanish rapiers OF the six
tenth century! He gave the names
of Bottom, Ounce. Snug and Shout,
in Midsummer Nights Dream, the An
thenian mechanics! Yet such was
his genius that his characters in Ian
guage and thought are always true to
the speakers age and nation.
. Although there is but little known
of Shakespeare's youth, yet it is
mistake to believe that there is not
much known Of him and his writings,
through his contemporaries, after the
time that he went to London.
In the year 1892 Robert Green, who
was a fellow actor. playwright and
townsman Of Shakespeare, made Bit
ter attack upon him and accused him
of pgaliarism, in pamphlet as sour
rilous and unreasonable as to plainly
show that it was dictated by envy.
This pamphlet was not published until
after Green's death, and evidently pro-
voked criticism by its meanness, for
Chettle, it's editor, felt IL incumbent
upon him to make an apalagy to
Shakespeare, in which he says:
II an as sorry as if the original
fault had been my fault, because my
self have seen his demeanor no less
civil than excellent. in the quality he
processes; besides divers of worship
have reported his uprightness of deal
ing, which argues his honesty, and
felicitous grace in writing, that ap-
proves his art"
Remember that the above was writ
ten while Shakespeare was still an ac-
tor in London, and it must be accepted
as proof positive that he was then re-
garded by his contem p0raries as a
writer of merit ard had already ex-
cited the admiration Of the public and
the jealousy of rivals.
Francis Meres. in 1889. wrote: "The
sweet witty soul of Ovid lives in melli-
fiuous honey-tongued Shakespeare;
witness his Venus and Adonis his Lu-
crece, his sugared sonnets among his
private friends. AS Plautus and Sem
eca are accounted the best for tragedy