The San Francisco call., 1899-10-19

broken. The King and his lords enter
into parley with the Princess and her la
dies, and no sooner enter into parley than
they fall in love, and no sooner fall in
love than they begin to WOO their mis-
tresses. The ladies, not ignorant of the
VOW rashly made and quickly broken. re-
pay their court with merry scorn, till at
the close graVer note strikes across the
silver laughter, as messenger announces
the death Of the King of France. The
Princess rettres to a years sotourn IN a
mourning house, and for twelve
months space the lovers must wait for
their answer. "Our Wooing doth not end
IKE an old play" says the irrepressible
Berowne. with half a sigh for the nen-
atty assigned him. Jack hath not Jfu.''
AND SO for the year at least loves l-bor's
lost. Could any plot be lighter, slighter.
brighter?
Even IN the character drawing we gee
the prentice hand, not without promise.
lnaeed' OF greater things to come. but
sun the prentice hand. The King and the
Princess are graceful but shadowy figures
There is not a hair to choose between
Longavllle and Dumain, or between Kath-
erlne and Maria. Even the humorous per-
sons or the play-Armado, Holofernes.
Costard-follow along lines strictly laid
down in the old comedy-the braggart. the
pedant and the clown-as, indeed thev are
sometimes called in the first edition. But
II any one wishes to see how much of the
VINE OF wit Shakespeare has poured into
these old bottles, one has but to compare
Armada with his prototype. Sir TOBIAS.
IN LiIlys "Endymion." Only in the figures
| OF Berowne and Rosaline, where the Dren-
tlce hand has been reinforced by the mas
! ter's touch, do we feel ourselves in the
presence Of a pair of Shakespeare's men
ana women, so much more alive than the
crowds that go about the street and
make as though they lived
Berowne, in especial. is a nastarnieoe
His ready wit, his firm hold on the facts
OF life, his unquenchable good numor.
mark him as one of the characters that
Shakespeare loved. He subscribes the oath
presented by the King with a laughing
protest against its ideality. He falls in
love and jests at his own folly.
What. 1! love! I sue! seel, a wifer,
With what good-humored malice ooes he
upbraid his fellows when their broken
does he confess the fact when his oLgr
loVe-caused perjury is revealed. How eIo-
quently he defends the oath-brea king Of
the little band of lovers and extoIs lis
cause:
From womans eyes this doctrine 7 derive.
Ihey sparkle still the right Promethean fire;
1hey are the BOOKS. the arts, the academes
mat SNOW" contain ana nourish all the world.
Unconquerably sangufne he rises above
each rebuff of his mocking lady and sc-
cepts with whimsical resignation her sen
tence TO Jest q twelve-month in a hos
pltal. II anything was wanting in his
character it was 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 VIII finish his years penance not a
sadder; but perhaps a gentler man.
Rosaline, the first of the mad girls that
mock their lovers So" is a fair FORTRESS
OF that temple of the comic spirit More
than match in the fence of wit for Re-
roWne himself, yet always preserving a
certain decorum which lifts her above
most of the characters of the play. she is
as wise as she is witty. She knows the
worth of her lover and his weakness as
well, and with unerring instinct lays her
the man 'replete with mocks. full of com
parisons and wounding houts" and dis
patches him to
Visit the speechless sick and still converse
With groaning wretches, and your task shall
With all the fierce erideavor Of your wit
To force the pained impotent to smile
we feel the justice as well as the severi+y
or the sentence, at once punishment and
a remedy.
DR.. Brandes sees in Rosaline and Be.
rowne the first sketch of Beatrice and
Benedick and there is certain similarity
in the situation. But when we hear Rosa
line exulting over her lovers plight and
promising herself all the joys of a pretty
tyranny---"This same Berowne I'll torture
ere l go''-we are irresistibIy reminded ~
a gentler lady than Beatrice and a Wittter
maid than Rosaline herself, the pretty
page of the forest of Arden, who led Or
lando through such a mad cure for the
madness of love, being ''effeminate
changeable. longing and liking; proud
fantastical, apish, shallow, inconstant
full OF tears. full of smiles, for every
truly anything" The dawn of Rosaiine is
the promise of ROSalind.