The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1899-10-19
added as a companion piece to the Pc
dant curate of the first sketch.
Points of Special Interest.

QanJ cuFale OF the IlF5L ShcbGh.
Points of Special Interest.
In spite of what has been said above
as to the comparative Lack of interest
of this play for the general reader,
there are few comedies of Shakespeare S
that will better repay a close and sym
pathetic study than Loves Labor's
Lost" 1t is a. play of beginnings, ana
we may see in it the art of Shakespeare
in the germ, or rather in a bud just
unfolding, sweet i'm itself. and full OF
glorious promise 1t is a play of youth;
the young king, the young princess,
the young anorouS lords and ladies
dominate the scenes. And in the flash
and parry of the weapons of young VIII
we catch the mind of the young poet
And it is a play in which the person.
atty of the author shines cut through
the thin veil of the hero, and we see,
if not exactly Shakespeare himself,
Shakespeare as he wished himself to
appear in the eyes of his mistress.
Shakespeare Art in the Play.
The dramatic art shown in the con-
struction of the plot is of the very
slightest. The story, drawn no one
knows whence, is a mere peg ON when
to hang a. spangled robe of wit and
poetry. A king of Navarro decides 10
turn his court into a. little academe.
He and his followers take vows to
study hard, to sleep little, to fast often
and above all to shun the society or
women, in order that they may drink
deep OF the delights of learning and
earn in their lives the fame that shall
live registered upon their brazen
tombs" But the best-laid schemes,
even of studious king and his book
mates, gang aft a gley.' princess
of France comes upon the scene with
her ladies, as an ambasfsadress from
her old father OF mere necessity the
late-1nade vows are broken. The KING
and his lords enter into parley with
the princess and her ladies. and no
sooner enter into parley than they tall
in love, and no sooner fall in love tnan
they begin to WOO their mistresses. The
ladies. not ignorant OF the VOWS rashly
made and quickly broken. repay their
court with merry scorn, till at the close
a graver note strikes across the silver
laughter as a. messenger announces
the death of the king of France Tne
princess retires to a years soJourn IN
a mourning house, and for a twelve
months space the lovers must wait for
their answer. Our wooing doth not
end like an old play" says the irrepres-
sible Berowne. with half sigh for the
penalty assigned him. Jack hath not
Jill" And SO for the year. at least,
loves labor's lost. Could any plot be
lighter, slighter, brighter?
Even in the character drawing we
see the prentice hand, not without
promise indeed of greater things to
come, but still the prentice hand. The
king and the princess are graceful, out
shadowy figures. There is not hair
to choose between Longaville and Du-
main. or between Katherine and Ma
ria. Even the humorous persons Of the
plav-Arn1ado. HoloferneS, Costard-
follow along lines strictly laid down in
the old cofnedy-the Braggart the Pc
dant and the Ciown--as indeed they are
sometimes called il the first edition.
But if any one wishes to see how much
of the wine of wit Shakespeare has
poured into these old bottles, one has
but to compare Armada with his pro
tcltype, Sir Topilas in Lilly's "Endy-
mion." Only in the figures of Berowne
and Rosaline, where the prentice hand
has been REINFORCED by the masters
touch, do we feel ourselves in the pres
ence of pair of Shakespeare men
and women. so much more alive than
the crowds that go about the street
and make as though they lived.
Berowne, in especial, is a. master
piece. His ready wit, his firm hold on
the facts of life, his unquenchable good
humor, mark him as one of the char
acters that Shakespeare loved. He sub
scrfbeS the oath presented by the king
with a laughing protest against it's
ideality. He falls in love and jests
at his own fAly.
What, Il Iovel / sue! seek a wife,
With what od-hunored malice does
he uDbraid his fellows when their
broken vows come to light; with what
easy grace does he confess the fact
when his one 1ove-caused perjury is
revealed. How eloquently he defends
the breaking of the little band of
lovers and extols its cause:
From womai's eyes this doctrine 1 de-
They sparkle stu the right Prouleishean
fire;
They are the books, the arts. the aca-
That show. contain and nourish all the
world
Uneonquerably aanguine he rises
above each rebuff of his mocking lady.
and accepts with whimsical resi- gnation
her sentence Ito, Jest d tWelve-montfl
in a hospital If anything was want
Ing i'll his character, it was a little
more of the milk of human Kindness, a
little more open-eyed perception of the
suffering in the world. And this we
feel that he will gain, He will finish his
years penance not a. sadder,. but per-
haps a gentler man.
Rosalines the first of the. mad girls
that mock their lovers so.'' is a fair
FORTRESS of that temple of the comic
spirit More than a match in the fence
of wit for BeroWne himself, vet always
a certain decorunl which
lifts her above most Of the characters
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