Omaha daily bee. (Omaha [Neb.]) 187?-1922, 1915-07-02

This was true of the reign Of Henry
VIII, and he gave opportunity for queens
second TO none save Solomon.
These women claimed the attention of
poets artists, historians, couriers and
courtiers, and the world.
The social and political center of inter
est in England in Shakespeare's time
was the kings palace.
1t was the hotbed where the seeds of
ambition terminated, grew, lowered,
fruited, died.
1t was also the culture bed where vault
ing ambition forced events to a prema-
ture birth, an early and tragic death.
Shakespeare never lived in the palace
of the king. yet he knew better than any
one inmate could what happened there.
He heard all the servants gossip, as
well as the no less interesting gossip of
the attaches of the court who came to
the theaters.
More than all and better than all,
Shakespeare knew the human heart
It was 351 years ago today that Shakes
peare was born. This Is not the same
world into which Shakespeare was
ushered
Mary Arden Shakespeare had few COM
forts and no luxuries to give her babe.
The first porcelain dishes were not
made until 1862 by the Wedgwoods for
Queen Charlotte. Although Mary Queen
of Scot and her cousin Elizabeth, were
both considered artists in their use OF
the sword, yet each ate indelicately, and
with her fingers
Even in kings palaces there was no
steam heat. no furnace fire, no electric
lights, no gas lights. no stoves even for
cooking.
There were no steamships nor railroads,
automobiles nor airships, neither tele-
graph nor telephone, no science no bust
ness organizations.
The seas were imperllled by pirates,
and the land infested with robbers
Might made right He was the richest
man who had the strongest muscle and
the most cunning brain
Honesty was not the best policy for
those who wanted success.
Justice was something dreamed of by
q few idealists.
Kindness. tenderness. patience, affec-
ton. courtesy, gentleness. were ideals
far. far away.
1t was a rude. crude, barbaric world in
1854, "A mad world. my masters"
If the ''Thousand-souled Shakespeare"
were to come back today he would surely
be a stranger in this physical world.
His own Ariel could be reality in
stead Of fairy dream.
He could fly through the air. skim over
the earth, dive under the water. ride on
the euriid cloud, drink the air before
him and return, or else your pulse twice
beat.
Voices in the air. illusions of beauty,
everything Shakespeare told of In The
Tempest" has been made real.
The poet could do al his Ariel old and
much. much more.
His portrayals of the wealth of rich
men would be as painted shadows com
pared with the wealth Of rich men to-
day.
What material this world furnishes for
this master brain! what plays he could
wrttel What words he could make. and
what word pictures!
How rich in color and action would be
the scenes OF life he would set between
the morn OF laughter and the night OF
tears!"
How his players would body forth
the false, the true. the careless shadows
and tn. tragic deeps Of human Ilfe."
What a place for Shakespeare this
world IS nawl
And although Shakespeare was born
S5l years ago he would find himself al
homo in this new world for one reason
lie knew the human heart, its multitudin-
Gus manifestations.
Mans brain has developed. 1t has in
vented that which has snnihilated time
and space.
Mans brain has subdued the earth 10
his uses.
Everybody lives longer now than did
Methuselah
And IL is mans brain that has worked
the miracles OF the earth
But the human heart remains the same
DO you think II has not? Read Shakes
pesTe,
Have the culture beds OF "vaulting am
bition' been removed from kings pal.