The Washington times. [volume] (Washington [D.C.]) 1902-1939, 1904-06-12
German Invasion.
How 1t Has Been instrumental
in PeTpetuating a Popular
ShekespeaTean FallaCy.

gradual recovering of the laudatory
Shakespearean debauch which has
characterized English opinion Of the
master dramatist's worth for upward Of
a hundred years.
Certainly the breaking down of the
structure OF dramatic infallibility which
worshipers at the shrine Of the Bard
OF Avon have been laboriously erecting
cannot fail to benefit the English drama
as a whole. too long subjected to the
narrowing scholasticism Of the popular
academic view Of Shakespeare contri-
buttons to the theatrical literature of
the race.
Restrictive Criticism.
When one declares that Shakespeare
has said the last dramatic word. he
does not change the fact that Shake
speare has done nothing of the sort, but
he does restrict his own viewpoint and
place the weight Of his influence against
the natural growth and expansion OF the
English drama.
When one considers that for a century
or over. practically all Of the intelligent
OF the English-speaking people have de
voted themselves to proving or approx
ms the absurd declaration of Shake
spCarean omniscience, the burden of
prejudice and the handicap Of discour-
agement that contemporaneous English
drama has had 10 overcome in order TO
grow even as much as it has can be
somewhat appreciated
A Straw.
1t is not our purpose to declare the
Shakespearean merits. We know that
they are many. 1t i not our purpose to
indicate the Shakespearean faults. They,
too-with an humble obeisance to VIII
liam J. Rolfe and others-are many. We
simply wish TO call attention to a straw
which shows which way the critical
wind is blowing. The straw we have in
mind is an article by Theodore Watts
DuntOn. for twenty-five years literary
critic of the London Atheneum in ''Har-
pcr's Monthly Magazine
Therein Mr.. Watts-Dunton utters a
timely protest against German Shake
spearean criticism. By this he means
the familiar process of reading philo-
sophie purposes into Shakespearean
plots and psychological studies into
Shakespearean characters.
TO refute the first he pertinently calls
to mind the fact that practically every
Shakespearean plot was borrowed, and
concerning the second he might have
added that the Shakespearean charac-
ters were written to order To suit the
capacities of the various actors of
stock company.
The German Influence.
'Of course says the writer. these
German vagaries would not be Of any
great moment TO us islanders il our
English critics did not follow them"
And after them, too, come ;he bulk
OF American critics, losing sight utterly
of the conditions under which the
Shakespearean plays were brought into
being and Of the minor value that the
author. put upon them. No one goes
about consciously creating great litera-
ture, and then neglects TO use even
ordinary precautions TO have that liter
allure endure. Shakespeare wrote under
the spur of necessity when the whip Of
immediate production was beating on
his back. The fact that he did make
literature was purely incidental
Shakespeare Classified.
~ wilder misconception about the
genius and method of a great poet than
that Of the German writer's who thus
govern our English critics it iy impos-
sible to imagine" declares Mr.. Watts
Dunton. And it is ignorant, too"
"AH ina ginative writer's, whether N
verse or in prose. are Invisible into two
great tribes: First, those poets who
90 not work their imaginations. but
whose imaginations work them such as
Homer Aeschylus, SophOcles, Chaucer.
Shakespeare, Cervantes, Rabelais. Mar
lowe, Webster, Walter Scott and. IN
deed, all those who may for convenience
be designated the tribe Of natures chill
dreni' second, those who belong 10 the
tribe of Ben'-to use an amectionate
phrase OF Ben Jonson's followers; a tribe
which, taking its origin, indeed. in a
very early stage of literature, has pro-
duced many important members, though
two Of them tower above all the others
the author Of The Fox and the au-
thor Of The Coincide HUMANE Bril-
liantly and subuy as the latter tribe
depicts human life, its specimens Of
humanity are eXcOgitated: they are
characters born OF induction, whereas
the other tribc-the tribe Of natures
children-knows nothing Of any charac-
ters OF induction. knows nothing Of any
characters save those Of its own mag
nations spontaneous projection"
The General Mistake.
The fault Of the German critics. IN
which they have been followed by every
academic English and American Shake
sperean critic Of prominence. lies in at
tributng 10 Shakespeare, one Of the
tribe OF natures children. and the nm
conscious victim Of his imagination. the
inductfve method OF self-conscious char
acter creation pursued by "the tribe Of
Ben"
Shakespeare IS big enough TO be taken
for what he Is. not for what other mon
think he may be. And Shakespeare
IS 20 FAR from being a school Of dra-
matte art that scarcely a worse fnfiu-
ence could be eXerted upon the stu
dent Of dramatic construction than
comes to practically all students from
the conventional method Of looking at
his plays. As a maker or plays Clyde
Fitch is as far above Shakespeare as
Shakespeare Is above Clyde Fitch as 4