The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-08-20

from the taxes levied upon certain
houses at Stratford -on-Avon. The
parish taxes are hlgh lhoeeo upon
some memorials of the greatest of all
Englishmen. The supposed birthplace
of the poet is taxed actually at $425
a year. enough for splendid residence
in a city. The building at Shottery
and orchard are taxed about $3.50.
Would such a merciless tax be levied
upon old common houses several hun
dred years old, if the English people
really had a proper reverence for the
memory of the greatest poetical genius
in all the ages? The law courts sus-
tain the tax and this leads the New
York Saturday Review" to say:
This is good enough law, perhaps,
though the decision of the court has a
Shakespearean flavor, reminiscent of
Justice Shallow. But IL there was any
real feeling for Shakespeare's memory
among the people of Great Britain,
and the preservation of the Warwick
shire buildings as monuments ex-
pressed that feeling, the buildings
would not be taxed 1t seems like
taxing the Albert Memorial"
Whatever the judgment of the
court, and the reasons for it's action, 1t
is disgraceful and contemplate. The
court holds that there is no "litera-
ture" whatever involved i'm the preser-
Shakespeare. 1 give some of the
questions propounded by lawyers
against the appeal of the Trustees
praying for exemption from taxation
of the memorials and relics:
"Is there any evidence that Shakes
peare played shovel-board at the
F'alcon?"
(the birthplace) a show place, an IN
teresting one, no doubt, but you do not
expect any one to get instruction or
literary knowledge there pc
do you think any one visiting the
orchard would be inspired to attempt
flights equal to Shakespeare ?"
That is rich, rare and racy. Shakes
peare may have had some provision
of such sad decadence when he created
Justice Shallow. AS the Saturday
Review says, "it is deliciously Shake
spearean and reminiscent of Justice
Shallow" 1t is no wonder that the
great worldwide, all time-honored
poet should have written, Lord, what
fools these mortals be-" And that re-
minds one of the fool-hardy and stupid
criticisms that some writer's of a GER
tain grade make upon Shakespeare IN
these decadent literary times. He is
criticized only as ignorance and pre-
sumption combined would ever dare
to do The impudence is gigantic and
the ignorance colossal. There Is
contemplate effort in some neWSpa-
pers and periodicals to belittle the
worlds supreme genius, and to re1er
to the greatest poet as or mucn less
greatness than has been contended,
that he is really inferior when meas
ured by a very high standard. The
effort has been pushed for the last
quarter of a century to lessen the
claims of many highly endowed and
greatly admired men of genius, and 10
thus reduce the distance between them
and the mediocrity of latter-day au-
thors and pretenders. But few OF the
greatest among English authors nave
escaped the assaults and calumnies or
this school of critical destructives
Spenser, Milton, Dryden, Coleridge,
Wordsworth, Ruskin, De Quincy,
Macaulay, Keats, Shelley. Byron.
George Eliot and other intellectual
magnates have all been assailed, and
SO far as possible diminished in their
intellectual stature. and this mas
"done q deal Of evil" 1t has corrupt
ed, beguiled and disturbed the unsus-
pecting and uniformed. 1t is de-
moralizing and deceptive. A we'll furn-
ished writer at Jersey City, N. j., Mr..
Harold Berman, in discussing the ad-
verse and defamatOry criticism or
Shakespeare in the literary weekly
already quoted from has this at the
close of his paper:
1.-THE past century, with the help
and medium of speculative deduction
and sometimes unsubstantiated asser-
lions, has distinguished herself by
pulling down and destroying the cher
ished ideals and beliefs of humanity,
and we'll do we know and feel the per-
nicious effect it has wrought upon the
human mind. So it is time, If we de-
sire that a remnant of reverence and
higher intuition be saved to us, to
inaugurate an era of constructive crl-
ticisms and sciences instead of our
present system, which is, mainly, one
continuous negative
had written few months since OF
judgments on Shakespeare that were
too trivial and absurd to be worthy of
comment. They are not rendered
from contempt by single quality of
critical insight and candor. They are
simply the outpOurings of incOmpe-
tency and stupidity.
Richard Jebb, an English author,
has published a work on Colonial Ma
tionalism" He is vigorous writer
with opinions. He ridicules the idea
of making a sort of United States out
of the various outlying colonies OF
Great Britain. But he admits the In
fuenCe ana power u cAdIipic III Tic
United States. He sees that under Re-
publican corruptions and usurpations
this Republic has changed, has ceased
to be what it was. and that the United
States has now shifted to Roman Inn
perialism." That is true, and is the
entering wedge to destroy the Republic
and make it finally a Gigantic Mon
archy or perhaps an unbridled Des-
potism, He thinks this country In
fluences Great Britain, and that Aus
tralia moulded her Commonwealth on
American principles. and that Canada
has always been swayed by the in
tellectual influence of this country.
From a review of Jebb's book take
the following:
Hence he expects Americas con-
version to Imperialism to prepare the
way for reaction in the younger
democracies. America. he says. has
ventured into Roman imperialism. in
defiance of it's own traditions and of
all predictions 1t did SO by instinct,
rega rdless of the weight of argument.
The imperialists covered it up by pre-
tending that they were merely carry
ing on the legitimate expansion" of
their country. which had carried it
westward from the Atlantic to the