Arizona republican., 1903-04-29
CURRENT COMMENT
RAVAGEs OF sHAKEsPEARIosy5 ;

RAVAGES OF ADMINISTRATORS
 A famous author says that there js some kind of immoral emanation from the horse, and that it affects the char acter of every one who has much to do with the animal. I suppose it is some thing like that which suspires from
 the earth that is thrown out in dig
 ging a canal. Perhaps it is possible to
 construct short and shallow water
 way without stirring up enough of this
 badness to corrupt "all those in au-
 thority" along the line of it. but if the
 enterprise is of magnitude. like the
 SueZ or the Panama project, results
 most disastrous to the morals of all
 engaged in the work. except those who
 do it. will certainly ensue, as We shall
 soon have the happiness to observe.
 A similar phenomenon is seen in the
 case of Shakespeare, whose resemb-
 lance to a horse and a canal has not, l
 flatter myself, been heretofore pointed
 out. The subtle suspiration from the
 work of the great dramatist. however
 attacks. not the morals. but the intel
 feet. It does not prostrate the sense of
 right and wrong, except in so far as
 this is dependent on mental health; it
 simply lays waste the judgment by
 dispensing the faculties. as the shadow
 of hawk squanders a flock of feeding
 pigeons. Some time we shall perhaps
 have an English speaking critic who
 will be immune to Shakespeariosis but
 as yet heaven has not seen fit to raise
 him up." And when We have him his inaccessibility to the infection will do
 h inn OnnH ha ind dllhi to h \
 put him to death.
 The temptation to these reflections is
 supplied by looking into Mir. Arb lisn." where I find this passage quoted
 from Jeffrey:
 "Eve-ything in him (Shakespeare) is in unmeasured abundance and un- eGualed perfection-but everything SO balanced and kept in subordina ton as
 not to jostle or disturb or take the place
 of another. The most exquisite poeti-
 cal conceptions. images and descrip- tions are given with such brevity and introduced with such skill as merely to adorn without loading the sense they accompany. All his eXcellences, like those of nature herself, are thrown
 out together, and. instead of interfer- ing with. support and recommend each other
 This is so fine as to be mostly false. It is true that Shakespeare throws out his excellences in unmeasured abun-
 dance and all together; and nothing else is true. His poetical conceptions, images and descriptions are not "giv- en" al all; they are turned loose" They came from his brain like a swarm of bees. They race out, as shouting children from a country school. They distract. stun. confuse. So disorderly an imagination has never itself been imagined. Shakespeare has no sense ot proportion, no care for the strength of restraint. no knowledge of the art of saying just enough, no knowledge of art of any kind. He flung about him his enormous and incalculable wealth of jewels with the prodigal profusion of a drunken youth mad with the lust of spending. Only the magnificence and value of the jewels could blind us to the barbarian method of distribu- l ton. They dazzle the mind and con- found all the criteria of the judgment. | Small wonder that the incomparable Voltaire. French, artistic in every fiber and trained in the severe dignities of 1 Grecian art, called this lawless and irresponsible spendthrift a drunken savage.
 1 judgment on Shakespeare much milder: the mans art" hits "precision," his "perfection"-thesea are creations of our