The Waxahachie daily light. [volume] (Waxahachie, Tex.) 1894-current, 1908-07-10
SHAKESPEARE AND HIS times
Bard Of Avon Is the Riddle and
Sphinx Of Literature.

~. r hYllt OHiitH ueliSHteu
large audience at the auditorium
Thursday afternoon with his lecture
! on Shakespeare and His Times
! The lecture was heard with much
pleasure by many members of the
Waxahachie Shakespeare CLUB. Dr.
| Smith is one of the foremost iectur-
ers on literature in this country. His
| diction is pure and he treats his sub
| ects in popular fashion. No one
can listen to him without being ben
Gifted A resume of his lecture Thurs
day afternoon is given as follows
Shakespeare is the riddle and
sphinx of literature, without pedi-
gree or antecedents, the miracle of
mind. His handwriting would dis
grace an ordinary school boy. He be-
| longed to no church, associated with
no party, and took no apparent inter
J est in his own works. The only tree
| he planted was cut down. His com
pafliofls we're dissolute players, sim
ants. Yet he ranges the court, the
camp, the mart; theology and law,
| medicine and botany, history and
politics, the treasures of sea and sky;
all passions and hopes and fears and
occupations of men; philosophers and
| tradesmen and sailors and pages pass
before us; myth and allegory, bible
and legend, ancient customs and for
gotten laws, the faculties of the
mind, the powers of the body, the
aspirations of the soul.
! Untraveled, Shakespeare travels
the world; unread, he is read by all
| mankind; untaught, he teaches all.
His works are the best English his
tory and the finest biblical common
| tary Customs change, habits alter,
traditions die, but he remains His
characters do not resemble life, they
are life itself. Hamlet is the tragedy
! of the will; Othello is the tragedy of
jealousy; Macbeth is the tragedy of
retribution; julius Caesar is the
| tragedy of politics; Lear is the TRACE
| dy of ingratitude; the Tempest is
the colossal picture of the supernat-
ural world.
! Shakespeare women alone attest
his unchallenged power. Helena, Jul
liet, Orphelia, Portia, Desdcmona,
Katherine, Viola, Imogene, Rosa
| lind-how unlike, yet each distinct,
impressive, perfectly drawn. His
fools are made the mouthpieces for
the highest wisdom. He seems to
have anticipated our modern prog
ress, and indeed he hints many of
| our inventions. The king in Hamlet
1 Is Cain Staying his brother. Macbeth
Is Ahab and Lady Macbeth is Jeze-
bel. Shakespeare quotes the bible
nearly 500 times, and the. King
James version owes many words to
him. In his earliest period we have
the love comedies, then came the
historical plays, and as life closed
he wrote the stupendous tragedies
| that still enthrall the world The
| Tempest" probably his last crea-
ton, has no counterpart in ltera-
ture. Prospero is Providence, work
ing benefits to men, through Ariel
his trusted servant. Caliban is man
undeveloped, bcastly rude. Mirandas
is womanhood, natural, unspoiled.
Ariel is the spirit of modern thought,
immediate, defying space, the poets
intuition, the artists achievement
When Shakespeare concluded this
play he retired from the world, he
broke his wand and buried his book,
far from the sight Of men We can
hear him cry with Prospero: They
have melted into air, thin air And
like the baseless fabric Of our imagi-
nation, the c.oud-capped towers, the
| gorgeous palaces, the solemn tenn
pies, aye. the great globe itself aud
all it doth inherit, shall dissolve; and
like this insubstantial pageant faded,
leave not rack behind. We are Ach
stuff as dreams are made of and our
| little life is rounded with a Sleep
|
We trade all kinds of nice, new