The Birmingham age-herald., 1914-07-26
By A. LATADY

To an understanding of the poem it is necessary that we take more than superficial view of the legends regarding therein that we come al any understand ing of the poem.
 The story of the phoenix, though some what familiar to all, has not yet, in the points l propose to maxe, been well in- .erpreted. though they must nec;ls appear simple enough when suggested. the myth ical phoenix seeming to represent an eInissary from God, for, according to Tacitls. il first appeared during the reign of Sesostris, at which time Moses. an undoubted emissary from God. appeared. It next appeared, according to this same annalst, during the time of Amasis, dur ing whose reign the magnanimous Cyrus was sent of God to lberate the Jews; it appeared next during the time of Ptolemy III, according to Tacitus, but during the time of Ptolemy the sec- ], ond, according to others by which latter the scriptures were committed to writ ing; and lastly, according to Tacitus, dur ing the reign of Tiberus at which time the greatest of all emissaries, from God, Jesus appeared. whom Tacitus abruptly dismisses with his Tn supplicio profectus erat." Yes; but Jesus was not to be so summariy dismissed, and this Phoenix of all Phoenixes rendered swan-soEg which still vibrates and reverberates through this world, moduating and di- vinely leading it, notwithstanding the many sharps and flats therein which have haa sat ,xra tn tbat pra md world symphony: "On earth, peace, good will to men," As old as Lucretius is the exclamation:
 "Tantum religio. potuit suadere malo- rum, and as old as Malachi: What profit is it that We have kept His charge, and that we have walked mournfuly be- fore the Lord," between which extremes of zeal and indifference is there not range enough for numberless discordant notes.
 The phoenix, by which expression the myth is known, is said to appear at long intervals of time, and yet to renew itself at it's death and to live during those ln- tervals. It retires to remote and secluded places where, surrounding itself with frankinsense and myrrh, by the agitation of its own wings it sets fire to the aro- . matic gums and spices with which it so surrounds itself and is consumed there with only to rise to new life from the spot upon which it is consumed, which, prior to it's incineration it has fructified with the seeds of life from which 1t IS to arise to new life. There are modifaca- tions of the fable, all of which are sus- ceptible of similar interpretation. This retirement to remote and secret places is characteristic of great minds, and they are, even in their most intimate assoc1a- tions with their fellows, entirely removed from them, and their lives are solitary. They are, in the language of Junot, their own ancestors, and what they engender lives after them, to be supplanted only by that which is born of themselves, even as the religion of Moses teaching the re- semblance between God and man, con- ttinued until Jesus going deeper into the matter taught the oneness of God and man. beyond which it would seem inn possible to go. the teaching of which doc Urine cost him his life.
 The poenix is mateless and therefore without progeny to distract and draw 1t away from the mission upon which it is sent, having no other contentment than in the regeneration of its own purity. truth and rarity; nor is this ignition of its own funeral pyre an unlively figure of the tendency of great minds to consume themselves through their own intensity and zeal, and the composition of the fu- neral pyre is typical of divinity purity and regalty. these being of the gifts which the adoring Magi brought to Jesus.
 The fable is susceptible of great elabo- ration, but sufficient has been given to render more inteligible this poem of Shakespeare's concerning which so little has been written, and which. in the opin- ion of many, is not attributable to him at all but which 1t would seem could have been written by no other, nor was 2 its attribution to him during his life ! time, repudiated by him.
 The object of Shakespeare's love was, to him, phoenix; the exponent of beauty, truth and rarity, and poetic transcenden- ta.ism justified the extravagance of the personification, such metaphorical use of phoenix not being uncommon. even re- gardless of gender though the phoenix is masculine), but it would seem from this explanation of the fable that such use must be condemned as the most full ome flattery, or as discovering great poverty of expression.
 Ben Johnson says that Shakespeare