Daily inter mountain. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1881-1901, 1901-03-16
WEST SIDE SHAKESPEARE CLUB

The West Side Shakespeare club met
with Mrs. Dunston, on Caledonia ave.
nue.. last Tuesday evening. The pro-
gramme was the reading of Act V. AM
ioly and Cleopatra, and an interesting
paper on Egyptian literature and arc...
Wecture was read by Mrs Dunstor.
Mrs. Fenton talked at some length on
the subject of the Sphinx and tie
Pyramids" displaying a knowledge with
the subject that was intensely interest
ing to the other members. The paper by
Mrs. Dunstan in full was as follows:
In speaking on Egyptian Literature
and Architecture in an article as brief
as this must necessarily be, one cannot
begin to do justice to The subject, aaI
| shall note but few points this even,
ing.
OF the beginning of Egypt we know
nothing. Geographic cal research seems
to Indicate that the Nile cid not ALWAYS
occupy its present bed. There was tn n
Time when Egypt was a desert and
when the people known to us as .Egyo-
tians' had their abode further south in
the African continent.
There are some traces of a pre- hi :
torc connection with southern Arabia.
10 that rs 1t may, at an epoch now
puiV.S CoHJtttuldl, TINS ancient people
appeared IN the narrow and fertile val :.
ley to which they gave it's name and be-
gan the wonderful career which mod arm
investigation has but recently traced
out. The libraries of Egypt We're its
graves. and upon them We're writ en-
the past. present and the future, auC
within them We're stored the precious
papyrus freishted with the religious
philosophy. natural history, secular
learning and the fruits of culture.
The first inscriptions are perhaps
5000 years old, .but nothing continuous
IN the way of documents can be traced
before 1860 Il. c. In one sense the
Sphinx and the great pyramid may DE
regarded as a kind of writing. inasmuch
as each part embodies a sympolc mean
ing
Egyptian literature proper however
opens with the Pyramid Texts con-
tanning religious and magical formula.
of a date 1900 years before the Christ ia /
era. From that time until the dissolu,
ton of the empire writings abound, yet
b.@re are caps in the continuity of the
record. In some cases variance of e..
tain documents have been discovered
products of widely separated ages
con,narisnns of these indicate thiSt t,
THE .ator Egyptians themselves much o
ultlI own carrier annals We're obscure.
The hieroglyphic character as foun
on the Old monuments. We're the earle $
Egyptian form of writing. Followin;
this he heratic, more facile version 0
the former, for use on the papyrus. Lat
sti the denote, embodying the vulgl
speech, appears. Two centuries afte
Christ the Old Egyptian language CAV
way TO the Copic, mlnglinS of tn
egyptian, Greek and eventually of -
Arabic.
Through al changes of eXterna
form the spirit of the literature remain
lmmOdihed. The literary style of tn,
Egyptians is rigid and upgraceful an
the Structure of their composition II
calmly. Their histories are ne emu
meration of events and names. Tn
best specimens of their poetry remotel
recall the rhythm and antithesis of tn
Psalms, but the fire and heX.bility of TIA
Hebrew is deadened by the formalist
of the Egyptian. The bulk of Egyptia
literature is religious. The Book of IN
Dead resurrected from AN interment q
5000 years in various tOmbs, consists i
numerous magical prayers, or formula.
incorporated in an imaginative or SYN
bOlic story of the souls adventures af
death. The Book of Breathing Ane -
and TN MetamOrphos.s OF the Go ,
are obscure allegories which modern ~
posftors have not yet fully elueilated.
"A recent important discovery at NJ
MIR is the finding of the tmple library
Already there have been taken from u