New-York tribune., 1903-07-19
SHAKESPEARE NO SNOB.
The Proofs Arrayed by Mr. AndrezC
Lang.
From The London Morning Post.


From The London Morning Post.
That Shakespeare was a snob is the drift of
a pamphlet ''Shakespeare's Attitude Towards
the Working Classes" by Mr.. Ernest Crosby,
of Syracuse, apparently in the United States
Shakespeare had been a butchers apprentice,
according to a doubtful tradition, and he GER
tainly anxious to have coat armOr, and be
a gentleman, in days when actors were never
knighted and a poet had more chance of
public honOrs than at present-indeed less
chance. But, as to "Shakespeare's attitude
towards the working classes" he had atti-
tude He was a dramatic poet. The attitudes
were those of his characters. and his characters
lived in age when the working man had no
vote. Moreover. a dramatic poet adopts the
general tone of his age unless he wants to be
hOoted and pelted. Had the democratic passions
of Mr. Ernest Crosby burned in the breast of
Shakespeare he would not have made the heroes
of his tragedies plumbers, carpenters, or even
grocers. The entire tradition of the stage ran
counter to that scheme, would the audience
have stood it. The 'grOundlings'' were not aris-
tocrats but they instinctivey agreed with Aris-
tOtle and Republican Athens that, for stage pur-
poses, Tragedy must be concerned with the mis-
fortunes of Kings. Mr.. Crosby will readily find
the passage in AristotIe's "Poetics" Mr.. Crosby
would apparently like Shakespeare to have
preached up Liberty in his plays and to have
treated Wat Tyler in the spirit of Southey
(When SOuthey was a "PantisOcratO, or of
Mr. William Morris l am the last to say a
word against honest Wat as far as his rising
went, but if Shakespeare had glorfed him the
actors would have been driven off the stage by
the citizens (who had no affection for Tyler's
memory, and the poet would probably have
lost his liberty, II not his life. Queen EliZab beth
did not stand on trtes, and would not have
permitted the stage to become the platform of
Social Democracy. Shakespeare may have had
no liking for peasant risings, Wherefrom advan-
tage had come to nobody. and, like Scott, he
probably did not admire the mob thing that
has pretty notorious defects of character But
Shakespeare was fully acquainted with the ar
guments for Anarchism. and he put them in the
lips of a king
man may see how this world goes with no
T3ils upon yon simple thief HarR us thine eaT
change places; and handy dandy. which is the
farmers s dog bark bark at beggar? And the creature
great image of authority: dogs obeyed in office.
Thou rascal beadle hold thy bloody hand!
Plate sin with gold.
And the G strong lance Of justice hurtless breaks;
Arm II In rags plgmys straw doth pierce It
This is democratic enough for Victor Hugo
and might satisfy Mr.. Ernest Crosby. In an
other play the merits of graduation in the State
are eXtolled and even in Syracuse, New York,
there be policemen and justices we'll as
thieves. But the speaker is again a King,
Odysseus, Laertes's son, who, in Homer drubs
the democratic orator Thersites. Homer was as
great a snob as Shakespeare but Homer's cat
titude to the working classes is unimpeached
and his Kings are, or Odysseus is his own car
penter mason and shipwright.
If Shakespeare wrote Henry W. Part II, he
missed no chance, there, of 'idealizing the COM
mon people" in Jeanne dare, for she does not
occur in that drama, Mr.. Crosby fondly
deems, but in Part I. The writer of the play
adopted the old Anglo -Burgundian fables about
the Maid, and probably did not know the real
facts of the case; Enter Fends" in place of St
Michael, st. Margaret and st. Catherine. This
was the Anglo-Burgundan reading of history
But even So the Pucelle is patriot, and ad-
dresses her friends thus:
Cannot my body nor blood sacrifice
Entreat you to your wonted furtherance?
Before that England give the French the foil
The French King, at Orleans, exclaims:
No longer on St Denis shall we crv
But Jean Ia Pucelle shall be Frances saint
prophetic words. The poet is clearly puzzled by
The PUZel," as our old writer's call her, though
in EliZabeths time. Englishman could have
dreamed of "idealizing the common people" in
her, whose manners were noble her
courage and her purity.
Even Mr.. Crosby that the bOatswan
in THE Tempest is a sturdy sailor, who cares
little about the dignity of his royal passenger
but treats the King of Naples young Coll