The Catholic bulletin. [volume] (St. Paul, Minn.) 1911-1995, 1916-05-27
SHAKESPE ARE's DAY
DR.. WALSH SKETCHES SOCIAL
BACKGROUND OF WRITES
observation-disclosures GENIUS
A GIFT OF WISDOM.

GIf i Of WISDOMs
Dr. James J. Walsh Of New York
who delivered the Commemoration
Lecture in connection with the Shake
speare tercentenary celebration at the
College of ST. Teresa, Winona, Mimi,
portrayed the social background of
shakespeare life, incidentally bring
ing out that many of the things which
we imagine are new today are actually
a return to older things. He began by
stating that Shakespeare who wrote
the worlds greatest plays and Ger
vantes who wrote the worlds greatest
novel died on the same date-April %,
1616-but not on the same day. This
is due to the fact that the correction
of the Calendar which had been
worked out at Rome had been adopted
in Spain but not in England.
That Shakespeare was born in the
country was fortunate, said the lee
turer, for he was thus part of a dis
tinct and Independent social unit, not
hanging on the skirts of great city.
The complete and varied social life
of such town as Stratford was dis
cussed, centering in the Guild Hall
where the trades guilds met. The
Guild school conducted by these guilds
was the school of William Shakes
peare.
In strong contrast to our own times
the period of Shakespeare was time
when people had much leisure. Here
DIR. Walsh brought out that all the
great periods in the worlds progress
England in Elizabeth's time, Italy in
Dante's time, Greece in its Golden
Age-were times when human beings
spent third of their time at leisure
Leisure is necessary for progress said
the speaker, and the worst fault of
our age is not only that everybody
is busy all the time but that every
body is proud of being busy. The
recent movement toward establishing
more national holidays and Saturday
half-holidays DR.. Walsh considers one
of the most promising social move
ments of the day. He explained that
in medieval times and in Shake
speare's day the church calendar pro-
vided some thirty-five or forty holi.
days through the year in addition to
fifty-two Sundays on which no work
was done. This meant that workmen
leisure, time which they did not fill
with mere idling but with the fullest
exercise of their intellectual powers
in the effort to entertain each other
After attendance at Mass in the morn.
ing the rest of the day was given over
to what we would call community en-.
tertainment-ga games, contests, plays
pageants, etc. DIR. Walsh suggested
that those interested work hard for
more national holidays and added that
he hoped that we would some time
have thirty-five or forty also.
The lack of physical comforts con
sidered necessary today and the
marked lack of cleanliness due to, the
| absence of any system of sanitation
stands out in strong contrast to our
day. In fact the filth of towns and
cities at that time is highly repulsive
to us. Yet, said DR.. Walsh, these PEG
pie were clean in spirit, they lived
we'll and they liked good plays, as is
shown by the popularity of Shake
speare. Here the @peaker pointed out
that Shakespeare was the most popu
lar entertainer in London at that time
the best known man in London and
one of the best known men in England
Shakespeare's genius was explained
as gift of vision-the ability to see
true relations of human life and com
polling wish to give utterance to this
Here DR.. Walsh said a few words
acknowledgements education, stating
that he did not study many things
but that one thing he probably learned
| thoroughly-Latin grammar. Shake
speare never formally studied English
never wrote an English theme al
school, but his education through the
careful, thorough study of one thing
| enabled him to do other things. DR.
! Walsh expressed the opinion that one
thing well studied will educate man
whereas many things studied super
ficially will not educate him at all.
At the close of the address DR.
Walsh referred to the fact that this
current year commentaries the death
of Shakespeare, but that actually he
is more alive today than he was il
his earthly existence; he is exertins
a wider influence on the human race
than he did in his own lifetime. It il
this imperishable life of William
Shakespeare that accounts for oul
present tereentenary celebration.