The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-22
SHAKESPEARE
ANNIVERSARY
Tercentenary of Death of
Worlds Great Dramatist.
Tomorrow Marks Climax of OBJ
SerYance of the Event.
CELEBRATIONS IN TOPEKA
Washburn Admirers Will Wait
Until May for Festivities.
Easter and Death Date on Same
Day-First in % Years.

Tomorrow will be the tercentenary
of the death of william Shakespeare.
1t will also mark the climax of the
world wide observance of the anniver-
sary. For nearly three months in
practically every large city in the
country, and every college there have
been community plays, Mosques, fes-
tiVais. tableaux and other forms OF
celebration of him whom scholars
term the greatest creative mind that
ever lived" In thousands of smaller
towns throughout the country the Gel
ebration has been carried in the form
of special study courses, club pro-
grams calling for essays on Shake
speare and many other ways. Hun
Oreds of newspapers and magazines
have carried special articles announce
ing the occasion.
The events of Shakespeare's life are
so shadowy and so unimportant, the
biograp hical comments of his contem-
poraries so scanty that there is little
that Biographies can do toward
informing OF Shakespeare the man.
To his plays and his sonnets, especial
~ autobiogra phical, one must go to
learn what manner of man was the
master mind in English literature"
Married at 10.
William Shakespeare was baptized
in the parish church of Stratford-on-
Avon. England, April IS, 1864, sup
posed to be the third day after his
birth. His father was a tradesman of
the town and his mother a descend
ant of a very ancient family. Shake
speare attended the free school of
Stratford where he learned the little
Latin and less Greek attributed to
him by his contemporary, Ben JON
son. At TIE age of eighteen years he
was married to Anne Hathaway,
woman ten years his senior.
Ice
London. In 1883 he was q joint pro-
prietor in the Blackfriars theater. Be
fore 1892 he was well known as an
actor and a playwright. In 1893 he
published his poem of Venus and
Adonis dedicated to Lord Southamp-
ton, who became his lifelong friend
and patron. His first known play,
Henry the Sixth" was written in
1893 and from then on in rapid sue
cession followed his thirty-seven
dramas, the most precious possessions
in literature. Shakespeare gained the
favor of Queen Elizabeth and accu-
mulated a fair-sized fortune as a the
alter owner. The last few years of his
life he retired to Stratford, purchas-
ing the largest house in the town. His
last published play, The Tempest"
was completed in 1911. For the rest
of his days he lived quietly in STRAIT
ford, dying on April %, 1916, sup
posed to be his fifty-third birthday.
At Washburn.
The celebration of the tercentenary
in Topeka has been largely at Wash
burn college, outside of few spe-
cial programs of the women's clubs.
April / a Shakespeare tree was plant
ed at the college with appropriate
ceremonies. At the May fete at the
college next month a Shakespeare
masque and a Shakespeare program
will be given. Also in the near future
a Shakespeare recital" will probably
be given at the college.
Poem by Washburn Coed.
The following poem was written by
Miss Margaret Webb. a junior at
Washburn college. at the occasion of
the planting of the Shakespeare tree
April IL at the college. Miss Webb is
the author of several short lyrics
promise. She has also written the
libretto for several operettas, COM
posed by Miss Isabel Savage, another
Washburn girl:
l am that April who has work to do
/ fold the little leaves in greening tins.
l herd the cloudy flocks on pastures blue
And fill the crocus cups with honeyed dew
And blow the breath of magic from my lips.
Erstwhile in England in a happy year
My work was early finished far and near
My magic spread. SO idly in the sun
l sat and dreamed what work might yet
be done,
What sweet new beauty of my April art.
Might still be born to JOY the human heart
Then took 1 all the sweetness Of the day
And made a golden harp for life to play
My harp. 1t knew the heart of men and
me
When we were young it sang us merrily
When we were old, it sang us tenderly.
There was no range It's music did not know
or height or deep dance time, or measure
slow
with sorrow. And the note above
All others was a brooding note of love.
The harp is broken now; it cannot sing,
But melodies immortal range and wing
Their way with winds across the world and
back
And leave a golden memory in their track.
So April in a later spring and land
Far from old England turns again her hand
To making harps. A young tree have L
grown
Whose leaves will catch the eternal music
blown
About the winds, and sing them into thee
In Master Wills own breath and melod1e
If thou will list Sing Shakespeare, o my
tree