Delaware gazette and state journal. (Wilmington, Del.) 1883-1902, 1898-02-24
Of supreme ugliuoss. lie enters with

ot supreme uRllness, lie enters win
the curse,
As wicked dew as c'er my mother brushed
With raven feather from unwholesome fen
Dropon You both southwest blow on you
And blister you oil over.
Though bestial and morose he has a
rude common seu6a. TrinUulo and
Stephano We would say are vulgar, but
Hazlitt gays vugurity il only possible
among civilized people. Even iackal
lie not 80 vulgar as low Bowery oafer.
Even Mrs Jameson, who loves each
OF Shakespeare women, moro than
the others, almost gasps for breath
when she comes to Miranda. but for
once she is too Hparing of her ad
jectives. Strong and intelligent, brave
and constant. Shakespeare has not
| dared TO put another woman in the play
in comparison with her, and 80 Miranda
stands by herself. pure, tender, vir
ginal. maidenly ana sweet Think of
her ancestry, tine daughter Of a noble
gentlewomun and of such q father.
What place to live in was that island
for health of body aud peace of soul.
Ferdinand says of her,
for several virtues
| Have liked several women; never any
| With so full soul but some defect in her
| Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed
And put it 10 the foil; but you, o you
So perfect and so peerless, are created
OF every creatures best.
| We know Shakespeare will not match
this maiu with an unworthy man, as is
often our modern plan. There is no
miserable marriage in Shakespeare, so
having made noble maid he makes a
NOZZLE young man TO match, for lover,
and together they breathe airs out of
Paradise. Miranda spenks her love,
not without modeBty, but without the
slightest knuwledee Of conventional
ties, or suspicion that there should be
a chaperon at hand. There are no
mothers in Shakespeare. lie was not
aDls to handle them. The most Of his
| girls are orphans. or at least mother
less. Ophelia, Portia, Beatrice, Rosa
mond, have no mother, and some, il
they have u father, do not own him.
If you smile at MirHnda's artlese and
instant confession OF her admiration for
Ferdinand, let your smile be tender and
respectful. Prospero dues his humble
best in a mans clumsy way in imita
tion of a mother. His attempts al
playing chaperon are droll. Great poets
lows and reverence women and this if
why they indulge themselves in such
scenes as this artless wooing We are
looking into Paradise before the serpent
entered it, Women might thus show
their hearts if men were not SO base.
| 1t ia because men are what they are
that women must hide behind conven
tionalities. This is the most romantic
play ever written. WHAT is romance? |,
is the truth Of life put into strange
and unusual conditions of time and
space Tho apostles OF the realistic
school seem TO think ideaism essen
italy wrong. 1t is essentially and
eternally right. There is room fol
both, as In art thers ia room for the
Venus OF Milo and for Rogars' statu
ettes Photography need not blot
out the Sistine Madonna. There il
something behind a face which pho
Biography does not catch. Life ia a con
fused plan; the mission of art is t.
give relief. We must not submit t.
having our eyes brought down so closC
to the wool of life that We cannot se,
the heavenly pattern.
1t has been sometimes said that thit
island of magic had sunk into the AT
lantic, nut not Shakespeare himHel
could destroy il. Calihnn ia dead. hu
Ariel still lives there aud slides dow,
tbs rainbow 10 make welcome all th,
good. What place for the tiret
imagination to fee to, place of refugt
from the toll and turmoil of this earth
where there's room to love ana dream
on this undiscovered isle in the far. Of
seas. A. S.