The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1916-04-16

and Literaturss, Columbia Onivsrsity.
-liAKEspEARE In France 10 an 60
CURED taste. Tho productions Of
the master ramatic genius Of the
Anglo.Saxon race are - unlike the
ratural growths of OAu a.
mas possibly bc imagined. Time was whom
shakespeare. while moving to tears or
laughter both the highest n the lowest
in the throngcd capital Of the English
kingdom. was totally unknown south Of
the channel: another time there was when.
while acknowledged to have possessed .
certain kind of genius. ho wa regularly
dubbed a barbarian totally u~nacquainted
with the simplest rudimcnts Of his art.
Then again. all OF a sudden he WAS hailed
by some as tho god Of the stage. hts banner
waved as a battle flag. the ~eRulgenco OF
his name projected so as 10 cast into COM
~parntive shadow the names Of dramattsts
considered before as the most dazzling
stars in the dramatic sky.
Such are M various stages through
which the fame Of Shakespeare had 70
pass before Fronchmen managed so to a.
shniate him in their process Of intellec-
tial and aesthetic absorption - to be able
70 consider him n Of tho elements Of
their spiritual nature n tn assign him to
q permanent place among the creators Of
their own higher emotions. The story Of
tbese viciss1tudes forms . chapter. not the
tAst CURIOUS. by n means. in tho records
q tn literary intercourse between DnG-
hnA and Franco
When Shakespeare was keeping rs Lon
IN public constantly In expectation of
Dune n0W production. either some terrible
l51gedy or some witty and ingenlouD dis
ny of poet1cal fancy IN the form q IN
jael end uWcalistio comedy. Tie laSt
thfnR Q ysundhmAn could think q shout
Hne3an0 ~ 10 d1aw from ~ AaAnd
hugdum anythfn0 IN tho wv q SesENsy
models. France was the Hendest ~ TIE
boTUWsR
reunsrOuD WeeO ne tfamoa33oo0 q
French works which appeared b @is-
abethan or e-Elizabethan England and
the movement continued in after times.
Not only acknowledged masterpieoe. such
% MontAismes immortal essays. but poems
Of questionable merit. such - the week"
q Du Bartas and interminabie romance.
the very N that came to b ridiculed
in one Of Boileau's wtttiest productions.
the romances Of La Calprenede and
scudery found in England when clothed
in English garb readers as enthusiastic a.
Nine. de Sevtgne herself. During the same
period shakespeare and Milton are not
named once by any Frenchman whose ut
terances ave been recorded by history.
Saint Eyremont, q French writer OF no
mean ability. whose line lay moro In liter
ary criticism than in any other direction.
and who spent the longer part Of his very
long life an exile in England during the
reign OF Louis XIV. did not think II
worth his while to ~acquaint himself with
the English language.
Politics had nothing-we ought to say
perhaps very little-to do with this state
Of literary estrangement. England and
France were not continuously arrayed
against each other in the international
complications Of the period. Henry the
Fourth OF France. even from tho time whom
he was simply Henry OF Navarro. drew no
inconsderable part OF his strength from
the support that was awarded him by the
policy OF Queen Bess. and Voltaire in his
quandom so celebrated epic, the Hen
rad" had only to stretch the truth q little
in order to represent the French popular
King az q guest at the court Of the Eng
rsh Queen. reciting his woes to her A.
.Eneas to Dido In order TO arouse her SYM
pathy and turn her from . simple friend
into a political ally. And later. when Eng
land had sent to the scaffold . king whose
wife was the n Of the then King OF
France, the horror excited by this deed did
not prevent the Prim Minister OF France.
Cardinal Mazarin. from entering into an
alliance with Cromwell and from cordially
welcoming in France British regiments
destined to cooperate with the French
soldiers IN breaking the political power Of
the King Of Spain.
Was France, perhaps, at that time %
thoroughly self -satisfed ~ to feel that for.
e!m nations had nothing 10 offer that could
Be considered Of any value by the side Of
her own literary productions? Ths answer
70 this query must be emphat1cally in the
n~seative. Foreign influences were then
cordially welcomed by the literary tribe Of
me Kingdom. But they did not come from
beyond the Channel. or beyond the Rhine.
at best; they had to cross the Alps or the
Pyrenees. During the whole Of the SIX
tenth and seventeenth centuries 6rst
Italian, then Spanish influences ware vsry
active in France Shakespeare was un-
known. but the French dramatists owed q
GOOD deal to his Spanish confreres. Lope
de Vega. Calderon, Alarcon and CULLEN do
tastro.
Tho fact Is that the French then ala not
-aallze that within a few centuries after
the Norman Conquest q language had been
developed in England endowed with the
F'rength and nexibility and also tho musi-
al possibilities required for the creation
4 literary masterpieces. MI French
i0onght that every Englishman who had
message for the world at large would. a.
nad been o so often. for instance by
Thomas More. Chancellor Bacon and
H'ooes, entrust II not to the English. but
''the Latin language. Any attempt at that
1ne To place Shakespeare masterpieces
oe'oro a public accustomed to applaud the
great productions Of the classical masters
of mo period would hav been doomed to
SYNONYMOUS failure not only because OF
'heir defiance Of all the accepted rules. not
ohy because OF tho rude Shock they would
nave dealt to tho prevailing taste, but be-
cfusn OF tho preposterousness to the
tfenchulan OF tho seventeenth century Of
N" Idea that any literary or artistic mas
terpiecc could possibly come from such .
rough and uncultivated land ~ England
vas supposed to be.
The awakening came whom the absolute
MOnaIChX Of Ioulx WV hAGa. IA aho@