McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1916-04-21
NEUTRALITY-SUSPICIOUS.
NEW YORK /,
LETTER !

OF the greatest names in all human
history. The theaters Of this and 9TH
er great cities all over the world are
preparing to honor the occasion, and
for weeks the big papers have been
overlooking with mis- pictures and
praise of his writings. The king of
all kings of literature, William Shake
speare, died ON April 20. 1916. His
fame to-day is greater than ever, and
is like the peak of Mount Everest, in
the Himalayas, which towers above
all other peaks on this planet: alone
and unapproachable among the poets
of all lands and all times. For two
hundred and fifty years he was not
so highly regarded. and, strange to
say, he came into his own first through
Germany. His plays, translated into
German by Schlegel ami Tieck, as no
other plays were ever translated, per-
haps, took the Teutonic stage by
storm, and gradually the British and
then the Americans woke up to the
fact that the English language con-
tanned classics besides which the best
offerings of other languages were but
second-best. Even Homer and Dante
had to stand aside when the full glory
of Shakespeare dawned upon the world,
so many years after the Incompatible
brain had mingled with the mother
dust.
His name came into somewhat un-
enviable notoriety some thirty years
ago through books written by Igna-
titus Donnelly and others, who were
obsessed with the idea that these inn
mortal works were not written by
Shakespeare at all, but by Lord Bacon,
himself the known author of wonder
full philosophical works, and whose
Essays are school classics now.
The two men happened to live at
about the same time and Donnelly got
a curious bug into his brain to the
effect That close study Of the Shake
spearian plays would reveal cryptic
gram or cipher, telling the truth
about the authorship. and he even
went so far as to give what this cipher
said. 1t is only a curiosity of misguid-
ed energy and ingenious workmanship,
and you hear very little about the
Baconian theory now. There is GER
tain verse in the Bible, in which,
counting certain number of words
from the beginning, you find the word
SHAKE" and, counting exactly the
same number of words from the bot
tom up, you find the word "spere.'
Some one aptly said that the Baco.
mans might in that way prove that
Shakespeare wrote the Bible.
am sorry that | am having to
write this article without anything to
refresh my memory; otherwise might
quote more from this wonderful man.
When was child, we had a very
old. time-worn book called 'The Beaut.
les Of Shakespeare" There was much
10 it that | failed to see beauty in
For example, that passage about
BLOW, wind and crack your cheeks
was looking out for melody of ex.
preston, and that did not sound hall
as pretty as some of the things sale
by Longfellow, Poe, and Bryant. Blu,
on growing older, | learned, as many
another has done, that here was i
master who said things 10 more tell.
ing and happy manner than any one
else ever did; while others might make
a sublime hit once in while, he was
continually making them.
One of the traits of this man was
his ability to create an atmosphere
His scenes in the Merchant of Venice
and elsewhere are "drenched in moon
light and stepped in dreams" Tt
know what this>means, turn to tn,
scene between Jessica and her lover
with the words:
"How sweet the moonlight sleep,
upon this bank"
And then, in Romeo Juliet, hear he
say:
st was the nightingale, and no
the lark that pierced the fearful hol
low of thine ear
And what glorious picture of dawn
from which there is almost an exhal
alton Of dew and fresh morning wind
Nights candles are burnt out, an,
jocund day
Stands tiptoe on the misty noun
tain tops"
There is perhaps no work OF humal
hands more quoted than Hamlet's sol