The news & observer. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 1894-current, 1905-10-29
SHAKESPEARE, SUPREME POET.
BY Or. T. B. kingsbury.

London, then having from 100000 10
10000 inhabitants, according to dir
1erent accounts. when he was about
twenty or twenty-five years oiu.
He had about twenty years of service
in that then important city, If small.
During the first period of his tolls
there, he produced "Timon of Athens,
Loves Labor Lost" COMEDY OF En-
rors,'' and Two Gentlemen oil
Verona" This period extended 10
1888, when he was 20 years old. me
second period, from 1893 to A. ID. 1900,
saw written much Ado About Moth
ing" AS You Like It.. and twelfth
Night" In 1898 Meres' celebrated tri-
butte to Shakespeare appeared. He re-
ferred to lyrics, descriptive and dra-
matte poetry. comedy. tragedy ana
historical plays. The third period OF
productions saw Hamlet Mac
beth" 'sOthello" "I.ear''--thc four
greatest of all-"Coriolanus, Julius
Caesar" Antony and Cleopatra,
"rimons of Athens, '''rroilus and
Cressida," and Measure for Measure.
: he last period-the fourth--had
Winters Tale" ''Cymbeline, and the
Tempest y. B.--I must add the
following plays To the second period
"Richard H.. Henry TX. Henry
V" greatest of historical plays).
'MidsumIner Nights Dream. and
Merchant Of Venice.
have read with interest the sab
joined papers To be found in New
York University Society's edition of
Shakespeare i'm twelve volumes. |.
Annals of Life of Shakespeare. 65
Lagos; ,. Shakespeare the MAJ, by
Walter Bagehot. an able and cultured
English writer, As pages; 3. Self-Reve-
lation of Shakespeare. by Sir Leslie
Stephen. &c pages. He is but lately
deceased. Bagehot has been dead for
several years. 4. The English Drama.
"a pages, by Richard Grant White,
dead some ten or more years. an
American Shakespearean scholar and
editor of the first rank. ). Culmina-
ton OF the Drama of Shakespeare, II
pages extremely interesting. by
Thomas Spencer Baynes.
Nicholas Udall was the first writer
of genuine English comedy. His play
was called Ralph Roister Doister.
and appeared i'm 1851. 1t was thirty
wears before "Gammer Gurton's
Needle" appeared by John Still, who
was afterwards Bishop of Bath and
Wells. The first English Tragedy 10
appear was called "FerreX and Por-
rex" and was by the Earl of Dorset.
1t was the first play ever written in
English blank verse. In Shakespeare
day an English pound stirling was
equal TO $25 in L. :. currency. The
two pence given by the good Samar-
itan TO the Inn TO provide for the
wounded man rescued by him. were
equal to % cents of our money. day
laborer then received but II cents.
John Weever IN his mirror of Mar
tyrs'' referred 10 Shakespeare Julius
Caesar" in 1900. The First Folio of
Shakespeare appeared in 1923. seven
years after his death. and contained
30 plays not before printed. William
Basses' "Elegy'' on Shakespeare ap-
1922 earlier. and
contains the following. all | can cite
here.
Under this carved marble of thine
sleep. rare Tragedian Shakespeare.
sleep alone
In 1923. Leonard Digges wrote for
the Folio edition of Shakespeare pub
lished in that year poem on the
supreme genius. | give the Following
from IL:
poets are born. not made-when
would prove
The truth, the glad remembrance !
must too love.
Of never dying Shakespeare
1t concludes thus:
s.But why do l dead shakespeare
praise TtCilc.
Some second Shakespeare must o.
Shakespeare write
Milton in 1890, when he was but
twenty-five years old, wrote his IA
house "Epit2ph on the Admirable
Dramatic Poet. w. Shakespeare. 1T
was the first poetic attempt he ever
published. | quote part only:
Dear son of memory, great heir of
fame.
What need'st thou such weak witness
of thy name?
Thou in our wonder and astonish-
ment
Hast built myself n live-long monu-
ment.
For whilst to tn shame of slow-en-
deavoring art
Thy easy numbers flow, ana mat each
heart
Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued
book
Those Delphic lines with deep impress
sion took.
Then thou our fancy of itself bereaV-
ing. ,
Dost make us marble with too much
conceiving,
And so sepulchred in such pomp dost
lie,
That Kings for such tomb would
wish To die"
Remember that Milton was eight
years old when Shakespeare died. ben
Jonson, one of the greatest of Shakes
peare's contemporaries, a most init
mate friend. and doubtless the most
learned. wrote in 1920, but four years
after the poet had passed away, ia
nous praise of the peerless poet OF
the world. Not having Jonson's works
at hand. l can not reproduce his we'll
known lines. although l have search
ed i'm three sources for them. 1t is
alike pitiful and contemplate TO see
foolish men and women busying their
mental faculties, or their sembance,
in trying to prove that a very great
man who never wrote a line of genuine
poetry in his life, was the author of
Shakespeare own most marvellous
productions. Lord Bacon was no true
versifier as may be seen in the poems
known to be his that are common
Mace indeed and without poetic merit.
Shakespeare was better known really
than any of the greatest of the dra-
matists of his time. There has been
II, nlI tho -rorId but one ShakpSpaa ,,a