McNairy County independent. (Selmer, McNairy County, Tenn.) 1902-1969, 1916-04-21

To be or not to be, that is the ques-
ton"
Further on in this soliloquy come
true Shakesperian passages such as
"sicklied DER with the pale cast Of
thought" and the reference to death
as that undiscovered bourne from
which no traveller returns" | have
marvelled at the manner in which
these exquisite turns of speech have
been rendered into German and Rus
sian. Schlegel begins:'
"Sein oder Nichtsein. dass list hier
die Frage." Weinberg, in Russian has
it:
Byt' eel ne byt, etc vopross; chto
loochey," and in so doing, brings in
part of the second line, up to: "wheth-
err tbs BETTER" and giving good ex-
ample of the very concentrated char
acter of Slavic speech. Schlegel says:
Nun WEIGHT der Winter unsres Mis-
vergnuegens Glorreichem Sommer."
Nov is the winter of our discomfort
Made glorious summer"
Any one who knows the German
language thoroughly will see what
skill was used in making that trans
lation. 1t is no wonder that the Ger
mans were fired with enthusiasm for
such poet, and were pioneers in
making him known everywhere.
The songs of Ariel, in Tempest"
and of Puck in "A Midsummer Nights
Dream" have halo of their own:
Full fathom five thy father lies:
| OF his bones are coral made" etc.
The very names of his PLAYS: Ham
let, Merchant of Venicel Much Ado
About Nothing, Tanning Of the Shrew
(the latter play, under the title of
der Widerspenstigen Bezaehmung,"
was given here in German the
other night, to an immense audience),
Macbeth" and all the others, are like
household words. His characters,
such as the fat and cowardly Falstaff,
the lecherous Lothorio, the loathsome
Iago, the usurer Shylock. and the
melancholy Hamlet. with the wise and
beautiful Portia and the brave Rosa
lind, are none the less parts of our
language, each conveying separate
meaning Who wants to be called a
Caliban, a SycOrax, or an 0thello?
The myriadninded," some one termed
this author, for each character had
its own perfect portraiture at his
hands, and he covered all ideas;
touched every shore Of human
thought" y
Sweetest Shakespeare, natures
child,
Warbled his native wood.notes
Wild"
is one of the best things said about
him, for it recalls what he was: rare
songbird, like the hermit thrush or
nightingale, whose art Of writing died
with him..
/ | am not going to try to describe
him as dramatist, not knowing en-
Tough about the art. But in that he
stands alone. according to the worlds
verdict. Now comes the strangest
part about him. Not a single line Of
his manuscript is in existence; not a
scrap Of his writing except his will,
with what pretends to be his hand
writing, an ugly scrawl utterly unlike
what such an artist might use. We
\ know nothing for sure about his early
| life, except as to his marriage very
early to Ann Hathaway, and being ar.
rested for trespassing on nobleman's
grounds. He did all his marvellous
works in the space of nineteen years
dying in his fifty second year.
On his tomb at Stratford, in Eng.
land is what pretende to be a verse
by him which pronounces curse up
on any one who digs up his bones,
and a blessing upon those who spare
them.
Leo Tolstoi, the great Russian wri.
ter, could not endure the works Of
shakespeare, which he was able tC
read in English, although have al
been beautifully translated hto Rus.
sian. He said that first he experienc.
ed great aesthetic pleasure in reading
them, but at last he was bored anC
perplexed. During a space of fit,
years, he read the works over many
times, but finally came to the conclu.
sion that this Shakespeare cult was
sort of fad, not to say madness, will
no foundation in real worth. Ant
yet, it has been pointed out, his deatt
in its solitary grandeur. was as trul,
Shakespearian as that of Kind Lear