The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1905-04-29
O. D. snAW on sHAKEspEARE.
Summarizes the Grounds for Ills Poor
Cpn' q W. q.

From ne london Dafiv News
I viii now, with your permission. give a
very brief summary OF what I actually did
maintain.
l. That the Iiolatry Of Shakespeare which
prevails now existed IN bis own time, aud got
Oh the nerves OF Ben Jonson.
?. That Shakespeare was not an illiterate
poachng laborer who came up TO London to
be a horseboy, but gentleman with all the
social pretensions OF our higher bourReolsie.
B. That Shakespeare, when he became an
actor, was not a rogue and a vagabond. but
member and part proprietor Of a regular
company using. by permission. a nobleman's
name as It's patron, and holding itself as ex-
cluslvely above the casual transformer a. a
Harley street consultant holds himself above
a man with a sarsaparilla stall
e. That Shakespeare aim In business was
TO make money enough to acquire land In
Stratford, and TO retire as a country gentle
man with a coat OF arms and a good standing
in the county. and that this was not the am
billion OF a paryenu, but the natural course for
a member OF the highly respectable, though
temporarily impecunious, family Of the
Shakespeare.
s. That Shakespeare found that the only
thing that paid In the theater was romantic
nonsense and that when he was forced by this
TO produce one Of the most effective samples OF
romantic nonsense In existenoe-a feat which
he performed easily and well-he publicly
disclalmed any responsibility for It's pleasant
and cheap falsehood by borro wing the story
and throwing It In the face Of the public with
the phrase. AS You Like It.
a. That when Shakespeare used that phrase
he meant exactly What be said and that the
please, Is not. in Spartan ~ or any other
English, the equivalent OF the perfectly un-
ambiguous and penetratingly simple phrase,
AS You Like It.
lie accept real studies Of life and character IN
for instance--Measure for Measure and
ANS Well that Ends Well;- and that the pub
lie would not have them, and remains Of the
same mind still preferring a fantastic sugar
doll like Rosalind TO such serious and diRnihed
studies OF women as Isabella and Helena
waste ink by describing Rosaiind as a perfect
type OF womanhood are the descendants q
the coat Of arms and the lands In Warwick
shire In view. had to please when he wrote
plays as they liked them.
0. Not as has been erroneously stated, that
! could write a better play than AS You Like
IT, but that / actually have written muoh
Pss SRS @ IN SS Write W5 n89nyg
half SO bad In matter, In manner and art
nobody can writo better than Shakespeare,
because. careless ness apart, he did the thing
as well as Il can be done within the limits OF
human faculty.
10 That 70, any one with the requisite ear
and command OF words blank verse written
under the amazingly loose conditions which
Shakes peare claimed, with full liberty 20 use
all sorts Of words, colloquial, technical rhetoT-
ical and even obscurely technical, to indulge
in the most far fetched elhpses and TO impress
Ignorant people with every possible extremity
known modes Of literary express ion, and that
this Is why whole oceans Of duh bombast and
drvel have been emptied on the head Of Eng
land since Shakespeare's time in this form by
people who could not have written BOX and
Cox TO save their lives. Also this on being
challenged that can write blank verse my
self more swiftly than prose. and that, TOO,
Of full Eliza bet han quality plus the Shake
sPearisn sense Of The a6sqrditE Of i as ws s5,
u more, that have done II. published IL, and
had It performed on the stage with huge APP
plause.
IL That Shakespeare power lies in his
enormous command OF word music, WHICH
gives fascination to his most black guardly
repartees and sublimity 10 his hollowest platl-
tudes, besides raising TO the highest force all
his gifts as an observer an imitstoT o. per-
humorist. and a story teller.
10 That Shak espeare 3 weakness lies in his
complete deficiency In that highest sphere Of
philosophy. morality, and the bearing OF these
on communities, which IL sociology, That his
CoSsSiescs no hone S NO eonvotiops OF any
sort That there are, as Ruskin pointed ont,
no heroes N Shakespeare That his test OF the
that, since life cP mot be Justified by this or
any other external test, Shakespeare comes
out Of his reflective period vulgar pessimlst
Oppressed with lozicdl demonstIstion that
life Is rot worth living, and only surprising
Thackeray in respect Of being fertile enough,
instead OF repeating "vanitss vanitatum' at
second hand, to word the futile doctrine dif-
fercntly and better In such passages as out,
out, brief candle" Finally that this does not
mean that Shakes peare lacked the enormous
fund Of joyOusness which is the secret OF
genius, but simply that, Ike most middle
class Englshmen bred In private houses. he
was a very Incompetent thinker and took
Il for Rranted that all inquiry into life began
and ended with the question, Docs II pay2"
Which as ! could have told him, and rs Mr..
Gilbert ChHsterton could have told him, Is
not tho point Having worked out his bal
ance sheet and Rravely concluded that life's
but poor PAYER, &Ci and thereby deeply
sumption Of beer and spirits, is ready 70 be-
lieve that everything maudlin is ira gic. and
everything seu5less sublime, Shak espeare
found himself laughing and writing plays and
getting drunk az the Mermaid much as usual,
with Ben Jonson finding IL necessary 70 re-
prove him for too eNuberant sense OF humor.
This is a very hasty sketch OF my views on
Shakespeare. but il IL at least an Improve
ment on the silly travesties OF my lecture
which have been disabling the minds OF my
critics for the past few days.