The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1903-01-17

VI tht SUI pictured IN q StNteentn cen
fury urehin of eleven, even though that
urchin be Shakespeare, but all the same
il is a poetic picture
An example of the zest with which
Lanier goes into the details of the lit
erary life Of the time is found IL this
paragraph, among the many similar pas
sages in the sonnet-chapters
t'In now examining for moment the
nature and more particularly the ca
pacities of the sonnet, we are met i'm
mediately by a circumstance which con-
meets the sonnet with music IN a very
interesting manner. You Will immedi-
ately get a hint of this by comparing
the word sonnet with the well-known
musical term sonata. Our word sonnet
comes directly from the Italian souetto,
and that from the verb 5onare. which
primarily implies TO sound In point Of
fact the sonnet was originally written
to be sounded, or sung with an ac-
compartment on a musical instrument.
Il may note, in passing. that, besides
this general connection with music. the
sonnet is bound by special ties TO the
lutte. This was the instrument which
the early sonnet-maker had always in
his mind when he was composing, and
they really seem. somehow. TO be spe-
cially apt 10 each other. Sonnets and
a lutte go together as naturally as straw
berries and cream Petrarch is said to
have had a very sweet voice. and he
was in the habit of chanting his own
heavenly sonBets to an accompaniment
played by himself on the Lutte The love
which PetrarCh had for this instrument
may be gathered from that passage in
his will. where he beQueaths his lutte %
a friend. Several interesting traces Of
his musical treatment OF his own son
nets are preserved; for example. in one
of his original MSS. preserves at Flor
ence this memorandum occurs Camong
many others) al the head OF a sonnet: J
began this by the impulse Of the Lord.
10th September. at the dawn OF day after
my morning prayers And then. after
some time, is added, I must make these
two verses over again, singing them
(cantando). So in manuscript preserved
at Florence. of Socchetti and other con-
temporaries Of Petrarch at the head Of
some Of the sonnets is written Intona =
tum per Francum: Scriptor dedit so
num'-Chanted by Franco (who was q
noted singer OF that day)-the writer
gave The tune
Here 7 am brought to the fact that
the arts OF poetry. music and dancing
were originally quite woven into one
thread constituted indeed but one art}-
and that only at a later stage Of devel-
opment did the three strands gradually
split APART and become independent The
name OF the sonnet collated with that oil
the sonata shows curious sign Of this
splitting apart in the survival OF two
words which we're once exactly the some
but which have now divorced, the poem
taking The name sonnet and the stTictIy
musical composition that of the sonata -
InnunerabIe facts quite as odd and in
teTesting are TO be found IN the lectures
ron the sonnet and on Shakespeare pro
nunciation, bat this will serve to show
the interest which the book should have
for students of language and Of phfIo-
logy. and the painstaking with which
Lanler followed up all clues to informa-
tion on the subject Of his beloved art OF
poetry.
Thore is not much Of dramatic anaIy-
sis in the book. and but little analyst.
of the plays as whole. but in one Of
the concluding chapters there is a most
interesting study of Midsummer Night.
Dream, Hamlet" and The Tempest
as significant of three important periods
in the life of Shakespeare \ few para
graphs of it are as follows but the study
itself takes VI many pages and is worth
anybody's careful reading:
Mark how completely these three plays
form perfect types Of three period;
which inexorabIy occur in the life o.
every man, distinctly marked in the life
of the man who thinks. vaguely but No
less really in the life of the mos
/ tiioughtless. Here is the young Shake
speare's view of life His thought is
mainly upon love and acting. hence The
seus and Hippolyta. hence Lysauder anC
Hernia and Demetrius and Helena
hence Bottom and Shout and their fel-
low-p loyeTs: his eye, though young eye
is sufficiently keen to have seen already
that love does not run smoothly. that
many popular stage-play is as absurd