The farmer and mechanic. [volume] (Raleigh, N.C.) 18??-19??, 1907-09-17
The Greatness of the Irish People and
Their Literature.
BY DIR. I. b. KINGsBURY.
by DIR. I. b.

) Among the best known novellsts arc
Dean swift. Gerald Griffin. William
Carleton, Maria Edgewortn, Charles
Lever, Samuel Lover, J0hn and Mich
ael Banim. Oliver Goldsmith, Law
renee Sterne. Egertou Castle, the Two
Mccarthys. O.. Bernard shaw, Jane
Barlow, George Moore and Seumas
MacManus-tC mention u Few out OF
many.
The reader may well be astonished,
when ne reads the irish historians or
Z learning and distinction who are some
times nough to be Of English birth.
/ Among these are Lecky, q truly great
Z historian, and about the fairest OF all.
His massive History OF England in
the Eighteenth Century" in ugh oc-
tavos. IS a work Of very high rank.
Then there are j.. L. Manaffy and mis-
studies of Greece. Sir William Rus
sell, Fiscount Woiseley, T.. w Joyce,
James Bryce, Sir John T. Gilbert, Mr..
John Richard Green. Justin Mccarthy,
Barry O'Brlen, and Mary Ledbetter,
who lived during the revolution or
1898 and wildly describes some or its
bloody scenes. Judge O'Connor Nor
us wrote a fine, fair life Of Napoleon
The great roll Of irish orators. t.
which / have referred more than once
within some -four years, is one Of
spiendor and variety and can not be
~equalled save by England. among mod
err peoples. Grattan, Curran,
( Plunkett, Emmett, O'Connell, Shiel,
Edmund Burke, sheridan, and others,
reflect undying fame On ireland.
ireland has had many poets finely
endowed. Goldsmith, Moore, Man
gan, De We're, Father Prout, and many
others are Well known and much adj
mired. Prof. John Tyndall was an
IriShman, and so were Eliot Warbur-
ton. Richard Burton, Stopford Brooke,
T.. +. O'Connor, George Moor, G.. w.
/ RISSan Cir Hnrapa blnnkatf and So
are w. 4. Teats and Lady Gregory,
Douglas Hyde and stephen GyWnn and
others of distinction. SO you may see
how rich and full is the literary com
pleteness of Ireland, and what a wide,
engaging field is opened up in the ten
volumes of Irish Literature.
Attentive readers of Shakespeare
and his critics, know that the great
Or. Samuel Johnson, who lived in the
eighteenth century, was not the safest
guide, as his notes show, in getting a
clear understanding of difficult. OBJ
scure and doubtful passages. He
thought a passage in William Con-
greve's play called The Morning
Bride" and produced in 1897, some
eighty-One years after the greatest
genius of the world had died, was
vastly superior to anything in
Shakespeare" Many silly, absurd
things lay been written or said by
eminent scholars and authors, but it
Is not certain that n one eQualled or
surpassed the dictum of the eminent
old Doctor. Here is the passage ne
referred to in extravaganza praise. 1t
is what the heroine said when she met
her husband in a cathedral, she hav-
ing supposed him to be lead:
pile,
Who's ancient pillars rear their
marble heads
To bear aloft it's arched and ponder
Gus roof,
By its own weight made steadfast and
immOvable,
Looking TRANQUILITY. It strikes an
awe
And terror on my aching sight. The
tombs
And monumental caves of death look
cold.
And shoot a chillness to my aching
heart.
Give me thy hand, and let me hear
thy voice;
Nay, quickly speak to me-. and let me
hear
Thy vcice-nny own affrights me with
it's echoes"
There are d thousand Passages in
Shakespeare quite superior to these
lines, and hundreds OF passages so far
trancend them as to admit OF nc
comparison whatever, / a k leave tic
say, johnson WAS indeed a great man.
2 marvellous CODveTSatiOnaliSt, AND
strong, original writer Of prose, and
left some little verse as to quantity OF
true merit, but he was at least q poor
critic Of the supreme master if endOw-
ed with insight and vigor in discussing
Swift, Dryden, Pope, Addison, Gray
and other English poets with rare
y, vigor and interest. Let me dip into
Shakespeare q bit here tina 1 may
help some readers in studying Shakes
pearc. fo- I seek to aid in the study
OF the most fascinating OF all writer's
Hamlet" is the longest play OF
ShakeSpeare's, and "PericIes" is the
shortest. The former is more thar
t~wO-thirds longer than the latter
S~hakespeare's greatest period Of pro
ductior when his style was fixed anC
his thoughts ~profounder n his i'm
~aSlnatlon grandest, most splendid, wa
perhaps between 1885 and 1908 OF
1907. "Troilus and C~ressida," is {
very great drama, and not one ever
appreciated it in excellence save on
. by the same authnE. It is uncIea-
l Wickedly descriptive Of vice and i'm.
I morality, but it is full of grandeur anC
1 beauty. Richard Grant White says O
e mat IL IS not q drama t'save il
: FORM but contains some of its au
: tnofs best work at his best period
Hamlet contains nothing p~rofounder
- ~ tAAh IL
S scenes in which Ulysses and AchiNe.
t appear: and in the very railing O
: Thyrsites b~lackguardism rises to tn,
f heroic Sh~akespeare's style under
= went q change for the worse afte
L about 1908 or possibly a little later
y At any rate in about 1910, when h
/ was but forty-six years of age;
S young man he would be considere,
? now IN this year of grace 19O7-h
= wrote Titus Andronicus," which
showed deterioration in style while re
} tanning much of his usual vigor
originality of thought, penetration an
{ v~ividHess of description. He had be
/; come careless anG fell into peculiari
Y ties Of expression and Incompetence
= Of inner
F.: Sc able and acurate a Shakespear
: can critic as White, my chief favoritt
writes OF this decline as manifested i
NCorlolalus, as showing carelessnes
: of versifcation and negligence # no
C abuse in style He writes that hi
Q sentences become more ~parentheti
s cal' and Incomplete" for he ha
8 become audacious1y, almost AFRO
f S37fl i'm DaliOIE in hi. orrT ne%o