The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1901-04-21
ONE DAY IN LITERATURE.

OF letters On that day Shakespeare was
born. in 1864, and on that day he died, 1916.
On that day. too. and in that year. died
Cervantes, who was born Oct. 1, 15i7.
James Anthony FrOude, the intimate friend
and biographer of Carlyle, eminent an
editor and famous as historian, first saw
the light Of day on April %. 1918: Pierre
Dupont, lyric poet OF France, was born on
that day in 1921. and on that day. twenty
nine years later, the gentle Wordsworth
passed TO his long rest.
OF Shakespeare, John Jay Chapman, in
his "A Study of Romeo" in that inimitable
series, Emerson and Other Essays" wrote.
The plays of Shakespeare marshal them
selves in the beyond. They stand in a
place outside of our deduction. Their cos
mos Is greater than philosophy. They
are like the forces Of nature and the op-
erations Of life in the vivid world about u.s.
We may measure our intellectual growth
by the new horizons we see opening within
them. So long as they continue TO live and
change, TO expand and deepen, to be filled
with new harmony and new suggestion we
may rest content; we are still growing. At
the moment think we have comprehend
ed them, at the moment we see them as
stationary things. we may be sure some
thing is wrong; we are beginning to petri-
~. Our fresh interest in life has been ar
rested There is. therefore. danger in an
attempt to size up Shakespeare We can
not help setting down as a coxcomh any
man who has done it to his own satisfac-
ton. He has pigeonholed himself He will
not get lost. If you want him you can lay
your hand on him. He has written an
autobiography. He has sized up himself
XXX
OF Cervantes, or to name him in full Don
Miguel De Cervantes Saavedra it may be
said that IL was not until he had reached
his resting time, after he had for years
proved himself a soldier of valor and capac-
ity, to say nothing of his arduous, if in
different, services as an administrator,
that his genius gave to the world not only
the knight OF La Mancha," but also those
others of his numerous writings on which
so much of his fame rests most of the pro-
auctions of his earlier years having sunk
into oblivion. OF these other writings there
were "Galatea;" between twenty and thirty
plays, of which but two, "Numancia" and
"Trato de Angel" survive; the ''Viage del
Parnaso, q poem of over three thousand
lines in terra rima; reviews and many short
poems and the twelve "Novelas" all of
which, so far as they remain To us, show
evidences of the most panstaking care He
lived sixty-nine years and published his first
poems in 1863. After that he was a soldier
III Italy and was dangerously wounded:
then he served in Turkey and in Tunis, and.
being taken prisoner, was held in slavery
five years. Released. he joined the army
in the Azores. For seven years he was
deputy purveyor general to the fleet at
Seville, three years collector of revenue
at Granada, and then, in 1897, after spend
ing a short term in prison for falling to
collect sufficient revenue, he retired from
public life. Don Quixote" appeared i'm
1905. He is the worlds greatest exempla-
OF that sound philosophy that sings: ~
il better TO laugh than be signing" AS
Rabelais laughed the ghosts of the middle
ages into oblivion and Voltaire laughed the
errors of his time out of the encyclopedias,
so Cervantes laughed SPANS chivalry
away. 1t was of Cervantes that s. Weir
Mitchell wrote:
royal master of all merry chords
OF every note in mirth's delightful scale
To thee was spared no pang that earth affords,
Want prison, wounds. all that has subdued
But. light of soul. as II all life were Joy.
Forever armed with humor's shining mall
True-hearted. gallant, free from scorns alloy.
When lie was beggaTed OF its best and frail
smiles.
This could wish: and Jet it well may be
Thy heart smiled not. for wit like fairy gold
Mayhap won naught for him who scattered glee
No help for him by whom the jest was told
The worlds sad fool. whose ever-ready wiles
Rang the glad bells OF laughter down the years.
And cheated pain with merry mysteries.
Sent forth his Don and Squire to win at ease
Such joy OF mirth as his could never be.
All who can say? His latest day of pain
Took shakspeare's kindred soul trust
Where smiles are frequent. and the saddest gain
What earth denies. the privilege TO forget
The oppressors wrong. the proud mans con-
tumely.
But where he sleeps. the land which gave him
And gave no more to him. its greatest child.
Knows not to-day. Some leveled heap of earth.
guiled
So many a heart from thinking on its pain.
Yet 1 can fancy that at morning there
The birds sing gladder. and at evening still
Goes Joyous thence with some mysterious
OF ightsome mirth. whose cause he seeks in
vain
James Anthony Froude was intended for
the church, took deacons orders in 1874 and
was at one time strongly under Newmans
influence. but in 1913 his Nemesis of
Faith appeared and revealed a change of
sentiment, lost him his fellowship at Exeter
and saved to the world its greatest his
torian, and. above ALL its most charming
biographer of that nineteenth century
prophet. Thomas Carlyle From 1896. when
he published the first two volumes of his
History of England = ON the Fall Of VOL
sey 10 the Defeat of tie Spanish Armada"
TO The Spanish Story OF the Armada"
issued in 1852, there was hardly year but
saw some mastery presentment of a phas
or segment of the worlds history. From
that date TO his death In 1894 his contribu-
tons TO the worlds literature were mostly
biographical. His Lectures on the Council
OF Trent were published in 1886.
OF Pierre Dupont, for a time the most
popular poet Of France, who was born in
1921 and died in 1871, George Saintsbury
wrote: Pierre Dupont seemed al one time
likely to be a poet of the first rank, but
unfortunately wasted his talent in Be-
hemian dawdling and disorder. His songs
were the delight of the young generation
OF 1913 and two OF them-.Le Chant fes