The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1899-11-08
SHAKSPEARE'S WOMEN.
An Interesting Lecture by the Rev.
William A. QuayIe.

DR.. William A. Quayfe delivered a lecture
on "Shakspeare's Women" at the Meridian
street Church last night to a very large and
appreciative audience. He said in part:
Every great artist has attempted to de-
iict with his pen the delineation of wom-
anhood-George Eliot, Tennyson, Words
worth-but the peer of them all was Will
liam Shakespeare. He depicts woman in all
sorts of conditions, some OF them of the
shameful type, some of them who are alb
ject in the very misery Of their existence
and some who look at you with the
clear eye the sweet face and the spiritual
soul of the ideal. IL is a strange thing how
long 1t has taken the world TO paint a pic
ture Of womans face. The old order of
woman, whom Homer paints as with the
ox eye, a voluptuous beauty of the Venus
and Juno type, that has gradually de-
scended TO us through the wonderful evolu-
ton that was wrought with the coming OF
Christ, was woman with Il soul. Shaks-
peare's women are the worlds women, who
swing around him as If he were the sun and
not a planet. They are not pictures, but
the real women that we see. The marvel
of human life Is that there is no Identical
ness in any two human lives, not even in
the lives Of twins; and Shakespeare has no
similarity in his characters.
"Shakspeare's women are individuals the
same as you and ME. He has been good
to them in that he has given them beautiful
names, and a beautiful name beautifully
worn by a woman is a thing to conJure
with. They are about the only ethics
that man Will study. He doesn't want
to rave over beautiful moonlight, flowers
and the like. but wants a real, loving wom-
an. A loving woman is Coos agency Tor
the betterment OF the world, the thought
of life.
but women, and women that We see right
here IN Indiana. We don't want angels,
We want women, as one woman right now
is better than half a dozen angels But
there are some women that / don't know
just where they DO belong There was
Anne, who married Richard Ill after he
had killed her husband. Do you think ner
the same women to-day. You may wonder
how in the world they happened to marry
the man, but you dare not say 1t to them.
1 would not Islander a woman if she were
here, and still less would / be willing TO
Islander woman who is dead; and is not
Opheiia dead? Did we not see her buried?
Was il no. she who was so beautiful and
dignifed III her love, the rich -minded, the
lovable, lovely girl, who was so well beloved
songs that were teeming Of the world world
~; whose thought led her to long for the
voluptuouS? There can be but one ex-
PLANTATION the dual nature that exists IN
all Of us; and. but let the finger on the
lips be removed, and we will do as she did.
With all her beauty, with all her dignity,
she was human. Then there was Catherine
the shrewd, a woman of terrible temper
and tongue whose husband treated ne
meaner than even she had ever dreamed Oh.
1t was the natural consequence, LOT
man live with a shrewish woman he Will
become as shrewisn as herself. Amena,
so love because of her fidelity. Say what
- H. lart L.
to possess. The question has often been
asked il Shakespeare had an intellectual
woman, and / say to you that he never even
conceived of such thing. UNDERSTANDING s,
per sc is a thing to be despised either IN
man or woman Manhood or womanhood
is better than this.
an intellectual woman, but she wasn't She
simply enacted a woman's part and De
trayed a woman's character when she mace
her memorable speech in behaif or ner
husbands friend The only appeal TO ner
was that it touched her sense OF pity 70
see Shylock get his pound or feSh, ana the
fact hat Ii was cruel appealed TO her
wcman's nature. If there is a woman In
Shakspeare's characters that has the force
of character that amounts to intellectuallty
It is Lady Macbeth. who. through sheer
force OF Will. when her husband mas grown
mad with fear, makes light of his liant
and leads the suspicious heart astray
is clean. IT'S true that he speaks or IN
clean things. but he speaks OF them IN a
clA3nly manner. Are not tHe cIididCleiS "
Miranda and Jessica and many others That
7 could mention lovely in their very FEM
ininity? oh, give a woman and not an
overdrawn picture. What man OF you would
not have liked TO have been loved by juliet!
There is no fiction in Shakspeare's por-
travail OF female character. He puts her
on the pedestal that the sun or truth may
shed "A radiant glory around her In her
different characters, whether IL De as Hlaiu
or wife.
"Cordelia is his highest form OF woman
hood. because she symbolizes duty lay this
tribute at the feet of William Shakespeare
that when you have seen all OF the women
Characters that he has portrayed and found
woman bad you have found her aonormai,
and when YOU have sought and found her
in her true and normal state you have IN
n-ariahlI- found her good