New-York tribune., 1903-07-19

treated Bozzy In the storm. II pray. now. keep
below" saws the boatswain to his majesty:
seYou mar our labor. keep your cabins" And
the swels swear at him. which is all in accoru-
ance with human nature To represent Ihats
Shakespeare. Mr. Crosby is angry because the
Duka of Suffolk does not treat pirate WIN
the respect due to the profession OF Paul Jones
The Duke calls the pirate obscure ana l0Mly I
swain" and even describes his crew as paIuS'
servile abject drudges Does Mr. crosby sup
nose that in an age when pirates did not pos
sess the franchise. Duke of Suffolk was Hkely
to discourse to them on the dignity or LABOR
Though no duke, / have occasionally expressed
myself freely about American pirates who mace
prize of my books. The attitude of the noblesse
to pirates and other labOring men was What ~
was in Shakespeare's day, and he would only
have stuItifed himself if he had made kings
and mobiles speak of, to, the populace IKE d
modern radical countess Vote-hununs peloIe - q
general election The thing was not DONE anu
Shakespeare drew manners and society as ne
found them. 49, 80 ,t-
characters he sympathized with every BODY
Lear in his anarchiSm COrIOlanuS IN MS aIlS-
tocratic contempt, Edgar in his description OF
the wicked serving man proud in heart and
mind" and with all the loyal servants OF MS
plays whose loyalty seems to be offensive 70
of ear bloody of hand" such is Edgars eVll
serving man. a noted type of the time, While ola
Adam and the Fool and many others show tne
other side of the shield. Shakespeare usuaiiy
employs the common people whom he brings
upon the stage to raise laugh, and JuIetS
nurse is not exemplary character, as, DeIlS
OF the common people, she should be. But
Dickens is in the same condemnation, alas, TOO
often and Mrs. Camp was clearly drawn by
a sneering aristocrat When CoriOlanus points
out the pOltrooueTy of the Roman troops, ana
says that all would have been lost but for our
gentlemen we must feel deteStatiOn for him.
Then we must feel il for Oliver Cromwell
your troops said I. are most of them old de-
cayed serving men, and tapsters, and such kind
of fellows; their troops are gentleInenS sons;
Do you think that the spirits OF such base ana
mean fellows will ever be abe 10 encounter lT
gentlemen that have honor and courage ana
resolution in them? You must get men or a
spirit that is likely to go as far as gentlemen
will 60 else you will be beaten STILL 30
spoke Cromwell to Hampden. and he sought
recruits in whom religious enthusiasm took the
DIace of honor Cromwell knew his time and
the society in which he lived, Shakespeare
also did. When ROsalind talks of Phebe's
tanned hands, Mr.. Crosby says, No one with
high respect for housewifery could have writ
ten that line" But Rosalind had no very high
respect for hOuSeWifery, and ROSalfnd. not
Shakespeare, was the speaker. gay ana care
less young lady-Surely the necessity OF Hl,tkIIlS
such an one speak she does speak might be
visible to Mr. Crosby. Good old Cor1n who
"envieS man." is. to Mr. Crosby, AN ldedl
proletarian from the point of view of the aris-
tocracy." He is, really like the Nirgilian gar
dener regum aeCuabat spes amino. How could
he be better wiser, happier? Would Mr.. Crosby
prefer Corn to have gone about stealing sheep
and burning ricks? Or should he have held
forth about Liberty and Equality in pothouseS?
There is a good old man in the second act OF
Macbeth Scene IL" There is no old man at
all in that scene, There is a decent oid man man IN
Act II. Scene ". When the French herald,
after Agincourt, speaks COntemptUously OF the
dead French, Our vulgar" this is taken, ap-
parently, as said of the yeomen whose bones
were made in England" Cardinal Beaufort
speaks of "uncivil kernes of Ireland" What
else was the Cardinal likely to call them?
Could he be expected to speak of the finest
pisantry in the world? Shakespeare makes
people talk and act as in fact, they did act
and talk not &C Mr.. Crosby thinks that they
ought to behave COriOlanuS no friend of
universal suffrage: it may be pity. but the
affair of Shakespeare was to represent him
he was In Heavens name how could Shakes
peare play up to the nascent p titan move
ment? He had to a theatre. and we do
not know even what his religion was from his
plays He nearly got into some danger through
his Richard H." and he not foolish
to make the stare place for preaching enanci
pated doctrines about politics and society.