The Laurens advertiser. (Laurens, S.C.) 1885-1973, 1910-10-12

summit of achievement; matchless i'm
literature and from that serene SUI
premacy he never declines. In be
wilderinS succession and careless ra-
/ pidlty he gives to the world moro
than score Of plays every one
OF which marks its creator as SUI
I preme. Tragedy, comedy. history. all
three divisions of the drama combine
and culminate in him. ANY two of
the three classes might be left out of
account and his achievement iii the
third field would stamp him as the
master English playwright
| But probably the most widely roc
ogniZed element of Shakespcre's genius
is his power of characterization his
piercing insight into the human soul
in its every mood, his poignant por-
trayal of the human neart wrought
upon now by the mystery Of hope.
now by the agonies of desire. Indeed
his power here is as broad and dcep
as humanity, as elemental as nature.
1t operates as freely as great nat
ural law and seems as little subject
to accidents of time and space. With
what an immortal company has he
pcopled the world! Call the roll of his
| four hundred characters and watch
them rs each step forth, instinct with
life. made in the image o. his creator.
perfect i'm symmetry and proportion.
| Every grade OF society is there. every
class and condition OF life; the sccp-
| tired monarch and the sweating iuur-
neyman; the armorcd knight and the
| pickpOcket in rags; the mother with
her baby on her knee and the tooth
less crone mumbing from the brink
OF the grave; the supple -kncCd cour-
tier and the awkward rustic; old age
in its dodderinC imbcciiity and youth
with it's rash hopes and high daring;
great hearted simplicity Stalkcd by
woliish treachery; the innocence OF
pure girlhood and the hardened wan
tonncss of halotry; love passing the
love of woman and the smilcr with
the knife under his cloak: wise
statesmen sitting at kings councils
and the iangling laughter OF fools;
nobility of birth and breeding. the
sweet vanity OF wisdom and cNpr-
rience, elbow to elbow with slack
jawcd idiocy and stark, staring mad
ness. Before such tremendous fcats
of the creative imagination our minds
almost rccol i'm awe 1t is hardly am
eXaggeration to assert that if in lGlG
the whole human race had been
wiped from the earth. a society could
have been cOntructcd from ShakS
pere's characters that would we'll and
truly have guided the worlds destiny.
But observations like these are
commonpaccs of ShakSpcran criti-
cism. and any reader could cite them
by the dozen There is however ono
point connected with Shakspcrc's work
that perhaps because of it's very oh
viousncss and simplicity has been
overlooked. This is nothing more nor
less than the enormous size OF his
vocabulary Shukspcrc uses the AS
founding total of 10000 separate and
distinct words. Now, the working vu-
cabulary Of the average business mun
without college education is placed
at about l.5O0. The man With a col
lcge diploma, who is loosely called
educated" is accredited with a vo-
cabulary of from three to four thous-
and words. The Old Testament cm-
ploys >, Gl2 words Milton. probably
the most learned English poet. used
5000 words. That is, to put ii com
paratively. Shaksperc's vocabulary
was almost double that OF Milton.
almost treble that OF the Old Testa-
ment. between four and five times
that OF the average college graduate.
and ten times larger than that of the
average business man These figures
are significant. Not only was
ShakSpere's vision the widest and pro-
foundeSt of all who have looked upon
life, but the mechanics of his art, the
actual machinery of his message. was
correspondiugly magnificent and inn
pressve. And it is to be remembered
that this was Shakspere's active or
working vocabulary. For Il distimc-
ton must be made between ones
reading vocabulary ana ones writing
vocabulary We understand the mean
ing OF hundreds OF words we nclcr.
use in speaking or i'm writing But
Shakspere actually uses 600 words
Where and how he acquired them is
an unSOlVed riddle The fact ihnt brIr