The San Francisco call., 1899-10-23

mental attitude to some of the problems
OF life. 1t was then the high tide Of the
renaissance in England. The throne was
filled by pleasure-loving, cultured pa
| troness of art and letters. The mobiles
who gathered about her were as well read
as well bred. The new movement of In
tellectual freedom had already broken
down the feudal barriers of caste
| Shakespeare himself, the son of a bank
rupt shopkeeper in country village, was
rising TO fame and wealth in the art of
which be was to be the greatest master.
Even before the revision of Loves La
bor's Lost" his genius had won for him
the close friendship of one of the most
sp,en7iL nobiemen of the court. Is the
young poets head turned by his success?
Does he pose as the thorough-going
champion of a movement from which he
had so much to gain? Not in the least.
With his infallible insight Shakespeare
perceived the folltes and exCesses of the
new Cesre for learning. culture, refine
ment and he exposed them with an IN
sparing hand. High as Shakespeare
head might soar above the clouds, his
feet were firmly planted on the earth, and
even in this merry play of his youth moth
ing is more remarkable and more admir-
able than his simple common sense. In
the words of Kreyssig, Loves Labor's 8
Lost" is from beginning to end a laugh
| ing philippe against the eXcesses of
| learning that was becoming pedantic, and
refinement of language that was fast
changing into precosity. 1t is plea for
simplicity and natural feeling. against af-
| fectation in all it's forms. The unnatural
VOW of the King to seek learning at the
expense of youth pleasure and beauty is
broken by the natural course of things
and the natural passion of love the
pedantic masque of the Nine Worthless,
with it's schOolmasterly deviser, is driven
from the stage by the rafting fire Of
quips puns and broad jokes, such as rose
of themselves to the lips Of the laughter
loving Elizabethans. The pompous Span
lard falls a victim to the charms of a
country wench and is ''infamonized
among petentates" by a country clown.
Berowne himself. too sensible to yield
wholly to the affectation of fashion. too
courtly to escape them altogether Is
beaten from his point device wooing,
"taffata phrases, silken terms precise,
to "russet yeas and honest kersey noes"
Everywhere simplicity and common sense
triumph over pedantry and affectation.
and the play fifty closes with nature
lyric of the purest type, that rises from
the very heart of the young poet late
come from rustic Stratford. Among all
the folles and fancIes and witty affecta-
tions of lively London he has not forgot
ten the Warwickshire meadows with
daisies pied and violets blue nor the
homely sights and sounds about the cot
tages when icicles hang by the wall.
Truly the words Of Mercury are harsh
| after the songs of Apollo.
! Professor Dowden calls Berowne 1.-The
exponent of Shakespeare's own thought"
! He is that, and, l think, something more.
! 1t is perhaps too much to say with the
1 1,Az 1sc%sa 10.
! Shakespeare himself But he exhibits so
many characteristics of the young Shake
spea1e that we cannot but feel that he
! is a portrait though perhaps an idealzed
portrait. of the poet. Berowne possesses,
TO use Pater's words, that winning at
! tractiveness which there is no man but
would willingly exercise" and which
| Shakespeare must have exercised above
all men. Like the young Shakespeare
Eerowne is a fellow of infinite jest, of a
dashing, flashing, yet never savage, wit.
Rosalines description Of her lover is
Shakespeare to the life.
merrier man
Within the limits of becoming mirth
I never spent an hours talk withal
His eye begets occasion for his wit;
For every object that the doth catch
The other turns to a mrth-mov,ng Jest,
Which his fair tongue. conceit's expositor
Delivers in such apt and ~~acious words.
That aged ears play truant at his tales.
And younger hearings are quite ravished.
The young Shakespeare must have been
the most delightful of companions, and
the account left us of the wit combats
at the Mermaid, where he flashed around
the ponderous bulk of Jonson like an Eng
| lish privateer about a Spanish galeon, re-
minds one of the coruscating fire of wit
with which Berowne drives Holofernes
from the stage Shakespeare. like Be
rowne. laughed at mere book learning
Little Latin and less Greek helped him
to popularity which the university wits
never enjoyed. And finally Shakespeare,
like Berowne, at once partook of the pas
sion of the age for making a plaything
of language and was able at will to rise
above it. In Loves Labor's Lost" as in
Romeo and Juliet. we find Shakespeare
STOPPING to puns, verbal conceits. affected
and rhetorical diction, yet capable at any
moment of shaking off these fetters and
rising to supreme heights Of golden elo-
quence and simple passion.
The Play in the Drama
Loves Labors Lost has a stage his
tory. but one that is scarcely worth
speaking of. 1t was played before Queen
Elizabeth, Christmas, 1897 and we are
told that it found favor with the Queen.
On other occasions also in Shakespeares
time 1t was played But subsequently, to
Shakespeare's time for almost $50 years
we have no record of its ever having been
performed once anywhere. In the middle
of this century, however, we have a rec
ord OF it's having been performed in CO.
vent Garden, London, in 1899 and in Sad
ler's Wells, London, in 1853. But since
these representations Loves LaborS
Lost so far as we know, has seldom If
ever been performed anywhere.
Note-The study OF Loves Labors
In he nd an SInx
ESTIMATES rnMpr rrrrn