The age-herald., 1901-03-17
TIE ONLY DAILY NEWSPAPER IN ALABAMA
Shakespeare's MotherIess Women

" dep1cpeu III hlnS JOnn, ana mater nal interference-for a daughter-as- sisted in filling the tomb of the Capt. lets; but as a rule the mother is lack ing in Shakespearean story, and we have series of young women who act upon their own initiative, thus bring ing out much material for the uses of the dramatist, even if it brings many young people to grief. There are very spirited situations in the careers of these young persons-for when girl is motherless she has indeed career. Her destiny>is in her own hands.
 The want of a mother made Cres- sida, let us believe, faithless, Kath- arina shrew, and it brought unnum- bered snares to many a young woman. Miranda was, it is true, cast upon a desolate island when baby, and was brought up by her father, growing into womanhood, and becoming a queen on the mainland; but that island, be it remembered, was the home of spirits, where dainty Ariel was balanced by gross Caliban and his dam, Sycorax. Miranda is therefore exceptional; and yet some of the poets creations come through seas of troubles to see world of happy days afterwards.
 There is Imogen, for example-one whose purity and devotion are uncon- sciously her very self. She is an ear ly Briton who has been touched by Ro- man civilization. She lived in rude, but not unsound, times. Secretly we'd ded to Posthumus, whom the poet de- scribes as an ideal lover, she, the daughter of King, is surrounded by A father cruel, and a step-dame false, A foolish suitor to welded lady.
 She fees from all this to seek her husband, whose mind has been poi soned by Italian villainy. In boys 0ress, she falls into the hands of mountaineers who live in a cave. All the troubles that could we'll befall a young woman in this world are her portion, but her tenderness, her sim plicity, her absolute purity, conquers all, and all ends happily. The poet has scarcely drawn a sweeter picture.
 And then there is Rosalind, whom all love, who is so sensible withal, and so bewitching. She is a ducal daugh- ter, and she becomes a shepherd boy, having been driven from home by cru city. She, too, is motherless, but she has good friend in faithful Celia, the usurping dukes daughter. The For est of Arden, to which they flee, be- comes at once the scene of wit, pas toral enjoyment and beauty. The comedy is fulh of excellent lessons, all going to show, with almost magical skill the vanities of life. Orlando carvcs in every bark "The fair, the chaste, and inexpensive she;" and one can but regret that affairs are so soon righted to the abandonment of the joyous life under the greenwood tree.
 But, alack, few indeed of the poets motherless young women are the but ton on fortunes cap. Ophelia better represents them as a whole. She was the chancellor's daughter, living at court. She was not exiled, nor i'm prisoned, nor burned at the stake. No act of violence was visited upon her, but the cruelty of advice befell at ev- cry turn the motherless girl-advice from men to a bright, lovable young woman! First, her brother took her :, in hand as he was about to leave Den mark. He meant to be kind, and it must be said of him that he was far less brutal and unwise than her own fdLner when ne unQorLOOK a Ike taSk. All the while Ophelia had been guilty of no wrongful act. She lived and died innocent of wrong. The height of cru city was reached, after the King and Queen had called her into their schemes, when Hamlet advised her to go to a nunnery. There are not more touching lines than these, in which she returns to him gifts that he, in his sad state and single purpose, denies at first he gave:
 My honord lord, I know right we'll you | did;
 And, with them, words of so sweet breath
 composd
 As made the things more rich: their per
 fume lost,
 Take these again; for, to the noble mind Rich gifts wax poor when giyers prove
 unkind.
 She, who had suck'd the honey of