New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1904-04-03

reader. At twenty-five he set out for London.
ana found his goal Opportunity awaited him.
ior the drama was in its infancy. and the first
theatre In the metropolis was not a dOze1t years
Old 1t would be difficult to- exaggerate the en-
"a I which The new born drama excited
In Elizabethan and JacObean times. When
shakespeare came to London two theatres as
such. had been built Afterward nine were
erected Tor the purpose. and six private man
sons were adapted. People i'm those times
when the population was three hundred thou
s shn' had much more opportunity OF playgoing
IMAM to-day. when there were fOrty-six the
aires for six million inhabitants IL the enthu-
sasm Tor the drama great now-he
dld not think its literary merits deserved that.
however-seyen times many theatres would
be needed The idea that actors were con-
sidered as vagab bonds must be swept away be-
Tore We could understand the position Of Shake
speare held In the eyes Of his contemporaries.
lie gained the patronage of the nobility and
! then or Queen Elizabeth, and later OF King
| James, and acquired theatrical fame among
| his contemporaries comparatively early in his
career They recognized his supremacy as a
dramatist, but never forgot that he was fell
| low actor. The attack made upon him by
Green. who said he was an immodest upstart,
was great injustice. and was deeply resented
| by the profession Shakespeare never won
laurels as a very great actor. His greatest trf-
umph was as the Ghost in his own Hamlet.
Hls name was associated with those OF Bur
bage and Kemp. and almost all his tragic char
acters were created on the stage by the former
and his comic ones by the latter long as he
lived. Outside pl1ywritinc. Shakespeare made
, MS way In early life as n poet He came before
the public n writer OF narratives in verse
The critics of those days dweIt with sDeciaI
emphasis on his sweetness OF verSifcatiOn. and
he was unanimously entitled honey tongued
Sweet Master Shakespeare became a regular
form Of address among his contemporaries.
The autograph WIN. Shakespeare is written
on one OF the leaves Of a book-Rastalrs Col
lection I'm English OF the Statutes Now in
Force. 10!S'-which is TO be sold In London
next month The genuineness OF the signature
is not Certain-nOr is it uncertain
An imperfect First Folio Shakespeare
dated 1523. has just been sold at Sotheby's for
S232a
DR.. George Bird. a friend of Leigh Hunt al
ways insisted. says &C. X. S." that Hunt had
been very much wronged by Carlyle as well as
by Dickens and others; that he was not the
spendthrift, the confuser of meum and tuum
that some of his friends always ready to
imply: that, in fact. many of the letters that
Hunt, begging for money were really written
by his wife. whom he protected by silence The
time has long gone by when such a protection Is
necessary. and II Is to be hoped that an ade-
quate presentation Of Leigh Hunts defence NAV
yet be made"
The late Mr. Henley has been 30 ridiculousIv
cverpraised by his followers that II ts rraJIy
refreshing to find Professor Saintsbury utter
ing few vigorous truthful words about hin,
He thinks that Henleys verse was better thar
his criticism, but he considers that verse to be
An echo The unrhymed pieces owe the clear
est royalty to Heine and Arnold, not withorx
more Indebtedness than some peopls would al
low to whitman Tho French influence 4, equal
" fndisputable. especially IN the exercises In