The Bridgeport evening farmer., 1916-04-22

This Easter Sunday not only falls on the feast day of St. George, the traditional patron and protector of England, but it also marks the ter centenary of the death of England's greatest bard and the most transcend ent figure in the worlds literary his tory, William Shakespeare. It was on the 23rd of April, in 1616-his fifty second birthday-that the Bard of Avon breathed his last. The intel lectua1 ocean whose waves touched every shore of thought was swallowed up in the sea of infinity, leaving be- hind him monument those works which later generations of men have cherished as the most sublime crea- tions of the human mind. At the last even the mighty genius of Shakespeare was sacrificed to the prevailing ig4 norance of his countrymen. for he died of a, fever which was doubtless caused by the general neglect of proper sanitary precautions. His ill., ness lasted but three days.
 While the English-speaking world is celebrating the tercentenary of Shakespeare, the peop1e/of Spain and of South and Central America are comm the tercentenary of the passing of Cervantes,- the most brilliant genius of Castillian literature The author of tDon Quixote" died on the same day as Shakespeare, April 23, 16I6, having completed his inn mortal masterpiece the preceding year.
 While the war has interfered to some extent with the plans of the British committee for the observance of the Shakespeare tercentenary, there have already been several notable events at Stratford-on-Avon and in London, and others are to be held later. The project for a worldwide celebration of the anniversary was launched at a meeting held in London about a. month before the outbreak of the war, and at that time Germany and Austria-Hungary, as well as other European nations and the United States, Argentina and Chile, planned to join in the festival. In the United
 States the National Shakespeare Ce1e- bration Committee was organized to | cooperate with local committees in various large cities, and the genius of Shakespeare has received more gen.
 eraI recognition on this side of the At i lantic than in the war-stricken land of his birth.
 In the great cities and literary capi-
 tals of South America the observance of the tercentenary of Shakespeare
 and Cervantes has been a joint one
 and our Latin neighbors have praised 1 in the same breath the diverse geniua |
 of the two great authors. While Ger
 vantes makes no such universal ap- peal as Shakespeare, it is likely that s'Don Quixote" will last as long as lany of the works of Shakespeare which is as long as, humans cherish
 the masterpieces of the greatest
 masters of the written word. ''Dor EQuixote'' has been translated into every civilized tongue, and the adven- lures of the va1orous knight are sci
 forth in the strange characters of the
 Japanese and the Chinese as well as ir all the modern tongues of Europe l ''Don Quixote'' has in it a large meas
 tire of that universatility which dis l tinguishes Shakespeare's works, for i l makes it's appeal to all nations ana tconditions of life, and holds the atten ton of the child and the patriarch
 The hero of the great Spanish classic 1 has given a word to the languages O.
 many countries. and "quixotic" hal come into common use as a synonym for the romantic visionary and the ex | treme reformer.
 As Stratford-Upon-Avo has its in tternationa1 memorial to the greates of dramatists. so-has Valladolid it 'tIa casa de Cervantes,'' which ha been restored as a literary shrine fo the admirers of Miguel de Cervante ISaavedra. In having the domicile O | Cervantes, King Alfonso has had th'