The San Francisco call., 1899-12-21
Critical Comments.

4
\ happiest of Shakespeare's comedies" and
/ DR.. Furnivall, another of the best living
| commentators. groups lit with Much.
! ADO and Twelfth Night" which were
| written at about the same time as 'the
three sunny or sweet-time comedies"
AS have said. like to think II, as Dow
den does, the first OF the three, written
when the author had just completed the
i regular series OF English historical plays.
and perhaps as a rest for his imagination
the recreation that is got by taking up
an entirely different kind OF literary
| work. History was for the time for
| gotten and free scope was given to fancy
amid the scenes of a purely ideal life
an Arcadia where they fleet the time
carelessly as they did in the golden
world" The result is a PASTORAL drama
in which we have almost unbroken sun
shine, no more OF shadow being intro
duced than serves to give variety TO the
| scene. 1t Is not the shadow that fore
| BODIES the coming of night or OF tempest.
] but rather like that OF a passing summer
/ cloud, or like that of the green canopy
Of a pleasant wood. falling. iecked with
sunlight sifted through the leaves, upon
the velvet sward below.
The story Of the play is a tissue Of i'm
| probabilities. We might perhaps go as
| far as a certain critic does in calling II
childish and absurd" and yet. as he
adds, 'ft has been for 300 years the
| groundwork Of perhaps the most con-
stantly delightful and popular comedy in
| the English language" This is partly
due to the subtle effect Of the charmed
air. of that Forest of Arden, in which we
| forget TO be critical. We can sympathize
with the poet Campbell. who when ne
| first detected some Of the incongruities in
the play. after having been blind 10 them
! Gov hut hfc 70 no
because of his love for the comedy-and
| love, as he said, ''is willfully blind
| Away with your best-prOved improb-
abilities when the heart has been touched
and fancy fascinated!'
| But II was not the scene and the atmo-
| sphere that made him-that makes US
| love the play. but the fact that the lead
| ing characters are not mere puppets, as
we might expect them TO be In so crude
story. but living men and women. We
| cannot help loving them and following
| their fortunes with the keenest interest
and sympathy. Shakespeare's characters
become so real to us that we keep up our
| interest in them after the curtain has
| fallen upon their fortunes We speculate
as to their subsequent behavior and well
fare and dispute as TO their probable fate.
We enjoy going back TO the beginning Of
! the drama, as Mary Cowden-Clarke has
done in her "Girlhood of Shakespeare
/ Heroines." and Lady Martin in some OF
| her delightful studies OF the characters
| she had personated on the stage. The
questions they suggest have perennial
| fascination.
Rosalind must be reckoned one of the
| most charming of Shakes peare' s women.
! Perhaps she reminds US more OF Beatrice
than any other of them, and yet she Is
not wholly like her She Is as witty, as
piquant, as vivacious, but she has love-
! iiness and a fascination all her own. In
| though
! ly and easily-quit unlike Viola, for In
| stance, who is never entirely at ease In
it-she does not lose her feminine sweet
She has a slngularly healthy nature
mentally and morally no less than physi-
cally. She Is sound and sweet In heart
| as she is fair OF face. How admirably she
puts TO flight the melancholy Jaques with
his self-potted sentimentality. his Travelled
| affectation and conceit. How witty and
how womanly her snubbing of the pert
little Phebe when the shepherdess laughs
at the idea that she can ever suffer from
loves keen arrows" as Sylvius does
Rosalind comes forward and addresses
| the pitiless coquette:
And why I pray you? Who might be your
That You insult. exult. and all at once.
over the wretched?
But, mistress, know yourself: down your
And thank heaven. fasting. for good mans
lovei
Cry the man mercy: love him; take his offer;
Never did silly girl get better school
ing than that-and from a girl, we may
suppose. no older than herself, though i'm
measurably her superior In heart and
Orlando is her manly counterpart-like
her a thoroughly healthy nature ! know
no better word to describe him briefly
Once, for a moment, when the sky Is very
dark, he gives way TO dependency:
But poor old man, thou prun' ST a rotten tree
| That cannot so much as blossom yield
/ In lieu Of all thy pains and husbandry;
but with the very next breath he takes
heart again:
But come thy ways; wen go along together.
And ere we have thy youthful wages spent
Wen light upon some settled low content
He has tenfold more cause 10 be melan-
the latter, in the forest, asks, will ye sit
/ down with me, and We two will rail
our misery?' note his reply: II will chide
I no breather in the world but myself
/ against whom know most faults" No
wonder that Jaques sinks away after a
few brief attempts at sneering repartee
Jaques, by the way, is the great enigma
of the play, and the critics differ widely
in their estimate Of him / had something
to say about him, but the limits assigned
me compel it's omission. / commend Dow
dens comments upon him TO the student
I as, in my opinion. hitting the mark bet
ter than those of Hudson. Grant White
| DIR. Moberly and some of the Germans.
09o@o@o%o@ o g o . o 9o@o@o~o9e
| 81 80 to Sc ton on -four. A schedule is
now being prepared and cuts in other lines
of merchandise may be expected. The
| Kosmos line has met the cut of the Mail
/ Company and will continue to do so.
| J. V. G. Comfort, formerly purser of the
! America Maru. has severed his connection
| with the Toyo kisen Kaisha and is now
freight agent of the Kosmos line. l.. e.
Bemis takes Mr.. Comforts place on the
| America Maru.
Hay is worth s45 a ton in Honolulu. and
| in consequence every vessel going from
| here is carrying all she can of the fodder
] The old bark Northern Light has been
| put on the berth for the islands. and after
| taking in enough general cargo 10 stiffen
| her will fill up with hay. The steamer
/ Cleveland will also go on the run until the
] Nome season opens. and other vessels 10
/ carry the freight offering are being
| sought.
The steamer Peru arrived from Panama
/ and way ports yesterday. She brought a
/ large cargo and a few passengers The
! City OF Para sailed for Ocos I'm ballast
/ and will probably come back from Central
| America with n general cargo. .F
Small Statuary and Vases.
| We have genuine bargains in decorated
vases. ornamented pitchers and small
statuary this week: also a limited num-
L