Newark post. (Newark, Del.) 1910-1969, 1916-05-03
Lecture Delivered By
DR.. Ayres At The
Shakspere Festival

;ory, considering his subject !
'Shakspere," after the manner !
suggested by the lines of Ben jon
son. "Not of an age, but for all
time"
"Though Shakspere makes his
appeal to successive ages" the
speaker said, there il much tkat
depends upon the age in which he
lived. We must know to under
stand him, his age and surround
ings. Shakspere drew material
by the bucketful from the
stream of experience that flowed
past him.
"Shakspere followed the fab
ion; he conformed to the chang
ing taste of the theatre. Modern
scholarship has triurlrhantly de-
monstrated this. But in so doing
it has only given us the measure |
of his greatness; for we have III
abundance the work of the worth
les who set the fashion that he
followed, and not many OF us
read them"
Considering the characteristics
which had made the writings of
Shakspere ''for all time DR..
Ayres referred to the fact that his
characters serve no narrow pur-
pose; they are opponents of no
propaganda or changing formula;
rather they portray types, that
will be true throughout the ages,
to humanity. Whence came the
power of this rustic of old Eng
land? has been asked over and
over again, the speaker said, and
people have turned in desperation
to Bacon. the scholar of the time,
to question whether or not he
might have produced the plays
credited to Shakspere. DR.. Ayres
brought out the fact, however,
that the plays do not necessarily
imply on the part of their author,
any great scholarship. Indeed it
is almost certain that the history
found in his plays could have
been cleaned from one standard
volume; his latin phrases are
such as appeared in the grammars
of his day; his plots are those
that had been presented to Eliza
bethan audiences over and over
again.
But there is no need to mini
mize his greatness, in order to
magnify Shakspere's debt to
others. Is it a matter of getting
ingredients in order to get a GER
tain chemical reaction? Let us
wonder at the things that are
worthy of wonder, not at his
learning, not at his life, of which
very little is really known; but at
his capacity to create character,
and his ability to use language.
Shylock and Falstaff have become
real characters to us. We forget
that they were planned for his
age; immortality has happened to
them. How he evoked that won,
derful group of fair women!
There is no saying more alb,
surd," DR.. Ayres said, in discus
sing Shakspere's methods, than
to say he never repeats. He
worked a scene, a character, over
and over again, until it was sue
ceSsful.'
But Shakspere's greatest gift
the speaker claimed, was Ian
guage. His vocabulary was mere
ly that of the ordinary man of oul
day. Most of us know quite a!
many words as Shakspere. If W.
don't use them it is because we arr
not engaged in making all sort
of people say all sorts of things.
But in Shakspere's works mag
throngs on image, the toe of on
coming close upon the heel of an
other. He gives US a pageantr
of language, which at times W
find it difficult to understand. Tn
real difficulty lies in accommodate
ing ourselves to the rapid
shifting imagery. The speake
commented upon the fact that tn
Elizabethan audience expecte
and insisted upon puns. He RI
ferred to the many every day e3
pressions, sc OF n of vantag,
minds eye, single blessednes
wheel of fortune" and the lib
which owe their origin to Shak
pere. This gift of language We
not a pentacostal shower" D
Ayres said, "but a power to us
his native speech as none su
ceeded in doing before him ar
none has dared since"
In closing the speaker referre
to the interpretations of the va
ious characters in Twelfth Nigh
by the students during the Fest