The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1906-10-28

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and man. l did feel as il I were in a sacred
place, for both Messenger and myself are
real fond OF Shakespeare, and II they proved
he never existed we'd feel very sorry, be-
cause he has wormed his way into our
hearts with his plays and poems.
As we looked over the parapets OF the
bridge We saw beyond the waters OF the
Avon the church wherein his bones have
been disturbed lin spite Of the curse) at
least once, and we fell to thinking on Marie
Corelli, who lives in Stratford just as much
as Shakespeare ever did.
We didn't take things in the right order
at all. We first visited his tomb and read
the curse that some illiterate friend OF his
wrote for it's establishment. l wonder II
the Baconians ella i'm that quatrain for
Bacon.
The beautiful old church has some OF the
most painfully ugly stained glass windows
that it ever befell my American eyes, used to
Tiffany and La Farge's work, to look upon.
Why not smash the glass and give old o
an order? II they we're there in Shake
speare's time they must have hurt his sense
of color.
They haven't the merit OF Being funny,
either, as are the carvings on the misereres
in the choir. Messenger said these last were
hardly what would have been considered
proper in the Second Congregational
Church in his town, but they we're certainly
humorous, and many a choir boy must ave
whiled away his time through a d~roning
service by inspecting them surreptitiously.
One Of them represented a mar with a
large sausage in his mouth. Alongside Of
him was a hungry a G whose eyes looked
longingly at the Coney Island food. while a
third head bore a lolllng tongue that was
fairly watering to get at the sausage.
American admirers Of Shakespeare have
put up a memorial window, the work Of con-
temporary Englishmen and quite The best
window in the church. They had two OPP
~portunities, however, which they carefully
missed; they might nave given their order
to ar American firm, seeing il was to be a
window, a form Of art in which we excel, and
they might have had the figures on It repre-
sent Pistol and Bottom and Sir John FdI-
stdf and Ia0o and Richard Ill.,, Instead
OF that they put up on it our first Bishop,
Seabury OF Connecticut. and the Pilgrim
Fathers and various other people that
Shakespeare never heard of.
I wonder. though. IL some OF those Pill
grim fathers-before they were. fatheraz
didn't run OF to the theatre some nights
and see Shakespeare's plays at the old
Globe, with perhaps Shakespeare playing
the Ghost. / like to think that the Pilgrims
were linked with William in some such
way. Afterward they put his plays our
OF their heads, but from time to time on
the ~rockbound coast lines would come into
their heads. and their hard old mouths
would smile at the humor OF the master
craftsman.
There is no doubt that Shakespeare has
been longer in the church since his death
than he ever was in life, but il he ever did
20 there in the flesh he must havG snjoyed
the humor Of the various rude carvings
and s~huddered at the colors in the win
dows.
We saw a good deal OF Shakespeare in
the Memorial Building. and a surprisingly
large number OF bad paintings, including
one by an American portrait painter who
shall be nameless-bu he ought not to
have shown his canvas to his ~janitor, let
alone sending it to Stratford. They tell me
he is successful among the disgustingly
rich, and l can we'll believe il. Such a plen-
tiful lack Of imagination and such a gen.
erous use Of expensive paint must make
1t appeal among the %nouUedur.
We did not meet Marie Corelli. The loss
was-no, I'm willing TO say the loss was
ours.
She has already s%upplanted Shakespeare
in the affections OF a large class of readers.
and she deserves ner success. Personally
I like Shakespeare better, and so does
Messenger, but i~t's'all,a matter Of taste.
But much as we like Shakespeare we did
awfully get sick Of him in such large doses
OF S-hakespeariana that he never heard Of
and that had nothing TO do with him per-
sonally. How sick TO death Of the very
name Of Shakespeare must be the per-
manent dwelIers in Stratford. They can
not 90 outside their doors without being
asked to direct some American to the place
where Shakespeare lived or died or was
married or where he poached or crept I'M
willin civ to school to absorb little Latin
and less Greek.
For our parts when we thought we had
seen all there was to see Of the baunts OF
Shakespeare and had grown sick n tired
and hungry and were looking up a place in
which to have cakes and ale Massen ger
slapped his leg and said: W haven't seen
his blamed old birth place"
felt like kicking Messenger, but il was
a fact and IL would not speak well for our
love Of literature IL we returned to America
without having seen the house that was the
first great link between England and Amer
ica. SO we mounted our wheels and asked
a resident the way and he told us tiredly
and resentfully and soon we came to the
place In which william first saw Highland
q dark place it is.
There we found more portraits Of him as
dissimilar toeach other as his signatures are.
And we heard more facts concerning him
and felt that We ought to have proper emo
tons concerning HIM. But we just couldn't.
l didn't care a RAP what Ben Jonson said
about his native woodnotes Wild 1 was
hungry.
We looked at the first folio, which looked
exactly like every other first folio l ever
saw and l first began to see them out in
Minneapolis and I've seen EN- in Oxford and
in pretty nearly every plaon that boasts a
library. What an edition they must have
printed and how folks must have taken care
Of them.
But now 1 looked Grossly at the folio and
| wished that Bacon had written the play,
For no one would ever ave gone crazy
over BacoH's birthplace, he not being the