New-York tribune., 1916-04-22

D
OF life.
HIS GENIUS.
His earliest pieces are little more
than examples OF clever story-tell-
ing on the stage, with characters
only lightly sketched in. and with
dialogue that is often self-con-
sciously clever. The best plays Of
his maturity are large and liberal
comedies, tinged with delightful
romance. ingeniously articulated,
carried on by characters completely
humanized and illuminated by dia-
logue which sometimes sparkles
with wit and which sometimes IS
made mellow by poetry. These
comedies preceded only a little a
corresponding group of tragedies.
solidly built upon elevated themes,
compactly constructed, endowed
with characters OF permanent and
universal significance and made ef-
fectivc by dialogue that plunbed
the depths OF human nature and
that scared to the loftiest heights
of poetry. 1t IS on these plays OF
his middle period, ten or d dozen
or a score at most, on Romeo and
Juliet" first Of all; on "As You Like
It." Much Ado" Twelfth Night
and "The Merchant Of Venice" on
Hamlet" "Othello," Julius
Caesar" and Macbeth and or per
haps half a dozen others, that
Shakcspeare's fame is securely
. founded. In them he discloses him
self as the greatest of dramatic
poets, rivalled only by Sophocles in
tragedy and by Moliere in comedy.
Yet these masterpieces are no
one Of them faultlcss, and there IS
no difficulty in pointing out in then
defects and blemishes as und,ni-
able as they are unimportant. Vol
taire was never wiser than when he
asserted that recognition OF the
slips and the lapses from absolute
perfection which we can detect in
a masterpiece do not really impair
its reputation; it remains a master
piece, make whatever deductions we
may.
THE PLAYS OF HIS DECLINE.
In the latest plays of Shake
spearc we have 10 make many
more dcductions; the themes are
often unworthy, as in "Cymbeline' ;
the plotting is often careless, as in
The Winters Tale the char
actcrization is more summary and
less plausible, and there are indis-
putable signs Of relaxing energy
and OF diminished artistic ambition.
Yet there is no falling off in the
wisdom and in the sagacity and in
the poetry Of these later plays, and
some OF the noblest passages that
ever came from Shakespeare pen
and some of the most veracious and
appealing characters that he ever
created are to be found in PLAYS
which we cannot help feeling 20 be,
on the whole. inferior to the
masterpieces OF his exalted ma
turity, when his power was at its
fullest and when his imaginative
energy was most completely con-
trolled by art.
The proof of his dexterity as a
playwright is 20 be found in the
fact that a dozen or a score OF the
plays which he wrote TO fl the
actors Of his company, TO conform
20 the conditions of the Tudor
theatre and TO please Elizabethan
audiences have survived for three
centuries and are popular to-day
with actors and the audiences OF
Great Britain and the United States
and are performed in modern thea
tres totally unlike the Tudor thea
tres where they were first seen.
All Shakespeare's plays are more
or less read to-day in the library, bu,
the favorites OF the study are also
the favorites OF the stage, and his
noblest plays do not render up all
their beauty, they do not reveal all
their dramatic power, except in the
theatre itself, when the characters
are bodied forth before the eyes OF
the eager audience.
HIS ENDURING GREATNESS.
Shakespeare is a great dramatist
because he is, first OF all, a marvel
lousy skilful playwright. knowing
how 10 set story on a stage so as
to arouse and retain and steadily
increase the interest OF the spec
tators before whom the action is
unrolled. Romeo and Juliet" and
"Othello' are effective even as
operas, when they are deprived OF
the purely literary qualities which
Z delight us in the reading. and Ham
let" would hold the spectators and
move them by the compelling power