The Salt Lake herald. [volume] (Salt Lake City [Utah]) 1870-1909, 1900-02-07
XIII HOW TO STUDY SHAKES
PEARE.
BY HAMILTON ". MABIE.

down a system of rules for the study
Of Shakespeare which should be equal
ly applicable to peIJons Of all condi-
tons Of intelligence. previous prepara-
ton and taste There are almost as
many ways Of studying as there are
students; and one of the most import
ant results OF education is not to Sc
cure q certain amount of infOrma-
ton or training, but to learn how to
study. The wise adviser viii not VEN
ture in such a matter beyond few
hints which may be taken as suggeS-
lions rather than as directions.
1t is a matter Of prime importance
TO become interested in the subject
which one is to study. When one has
become interested he may know that
The mind has taken hold; and after that
the process Of perception, assimilation
and digestion goes on rapidly and al
most automatically In the study of
Shakespeare it is best to begin by max
Ing the poets acquaintance in the most
direct and familiar fashion. 1t is i'm
possible to begin to study man in
telhgently until YOU are fairly we'll
acquainted with him. To study his en-
virOnment before you have seen him,
or to try to make a chart of his char
| acteristics before he has revealed him
I
10 begin at the wrong end and waste
your time. Great works Of art are not
begun by rule nor are they carried on
/ by pTecept, although both rules and
precepts may be derived from a study
of their methods after they are COM
pleted. Great works Of art are not
mastered and their spiritual and ar
tistic content is not assinailated by fol-
| lowing abItract methods, although al
I ter one has learned them by heart he
may be able to retrace and mark out
the processes by which they have been
/ produced A great many useful books
are written in these days about other
books: but these aids guides and COM
mentaTies ought not to be used at the
start; what is needed then is direct
[ contact with the subject. The student
[ who is going to study Shakespeare
would better begin by getting on easy
| terms with him; that is to say, by
I reading the plays and poems subStan-
| tally through before attempting to deal
with them analytically, or to make a
+ comprehensive plan for finding out all
there is in them One viii not find
I Shakespeare in a single play, although
in every play there is something of the
genius of the man. One must explore
the entire artistic habitatien which the
poet built for himself before he can
feet at home with the architect. It
counts a great deal in judging OF an
artist to get into the atmosphere of his
mind and one must read many plays
/ before he gets into the ShakeEpearean
! atmosphere. It is wise, therefore, to
read the plays from beginning TO end.
and to get the first and obvious delight
which comes from such reading. The
man who il bant on analysis, either
/ literary or philosophical, IS not in the
way of receiving the freshest IMPACT
from the work with which he is deal
/ ms. To get that, one must surrender
himaslf completely to the impression
of the work; that is what the Shakes
pearean student must do in the first in
stance. He must read the plays for the
sake Of the plays; for plot, story, hu-
man interest, character drawing and
/ the exhaustIess delight which cCTnes
( from Shakespeare style
1t is often assumed that because
Shakespeare is a classic he is therefore
'Uninteresting save to cultivated people,
and that children especially can make
Etde of him or gain little from him.
Nothing could be further from the
truth To any man who has magma
ton, no matter how defective his train
irsg. or to any child who has fancy,
/ Shakespeare is interesting from the
very start; for the storytelling ele-
ment. of which he is a. master, is as
4 pronounced and as effective as it is in
most of the great novels To the un-
cultivated and the cultivated alike this
( is the immediate charm of Shakespeare
and therefore the easiest way of APP
preaching him. To regard this ele-
meneaI interest as something super
fetal and not worthy the serious stu
dent is to miss Shakespeare greatest
quality; that is TO say, his literary
quality: for it is the prime business Of
literature not to instruct US, but to
stimulate and enlarge our imaginatiOns
by interesting us. The book which
does not interest after a fair approach
to it may contain valuable thoughts or
solid information, but cannot be liter
allure; because shakespeare s plays are
primarily literature and not ethics,
philosophy or philology, they are eX-
tremeEy interesting. One ought not TO
be afraid TO read Shakespeare for the
same reason that one reads Scott,
! Dickens or Thomas Hardy.
I When such an acquaintance has been
[ formed and the student has become
familiar with the plays as a. whole, per-
/ haps the next, step is to carry TO its
end the process already begun; that is
! to say. to realize clearly in the mag
| inatiOn the dramatist himself. 1t is
+ sometimes said that it is of no conse-
& quenre what kind Of a man the author
of a piece of work of art is, so long
as the work itself is worth while; but
the fallacy of this principle is shown
by the fact that nobody ever acts upon
it. Everybody wants to know some
thing about the man whose pictures he
is seeing. whose ARCHITECTURE he is
studying or whose written words he IS
reading This is instructive and il is
UILve-ssl and therefore there is good
reason fer it. That reason is to b.
found in the fact that a mans work, if
it be really great and individual, is
part of himself. 1t is not a mere eX-
preston Of mis- skill. something which
he has put together as a carpenter
4 puts a house together. or a mason lays
/ a wall; it is something which he has
made out Of himself. The special quail
I ity of it is not anything which he gains
/ from the world without or from other
/ artists. il is something which he uEc0n-
/ scioUsly imparts to it from his own ma
tUTe. Thus there is in the work Of
/ every great writer something distinc-
/ tive and individual; compounded of his
! temperament, his genius and his char
/ acteT and that something is the most
/ original and precious quality in his
/ work; everything else can be initiated
/ OF reproduced save that elusive quality
/ of personality. When people are eager
/ therefore. to know something about the
writer Of a book they are on the right
( track; although their curiosity is some
7 times more eager than intelligent and
/ their way of satisfying it more eneFget-
/ ic than delicate
There was such a man as Shakes
/ peare. and there are plain records Of
him When the student has felt the
4 charm of his work and has learned
! something about Il, he NAV well try to
I find the man; ne has already. II ne ia
/ intelligent. found a good deal about
Z him in his work 1t is often said that
as that work is dramatic and therefore