The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1916-04-22

the philosophic court of the banished
duke in those very forests of Arden
now made diabolic by the roar of the
enginery of hell and hate of human
ity about Verdun. All, he could not
now entitle those haunts LAS You Like
It. and consecrate Gneir she'll blasted
trees to the lines of doting Orlando, or
the moralizings of the melancholy
Jacques upon the greasy citizen" the
''jewel-headed toad" or the Seven
Ages of Man"
Thus he marks Macbeth with the
felon's brand, and breaks the mettle of
his lady-wife with the deliriums. sleep
ing and waking, of their unhallowed
progress to the throne of Scotland.
Thus he converts the court of
British Lear" into a shambles in
which minds are overthrown, and lives
outpoured to satiate filial ingratitude
and the lust of Illicit passion
Thus he writes the beautiful drama
of Romeo and Juliet" fresh as the
morning air of spring, pure as an
Easter lily, refreshing as the dew in
the heart of the rose, true as the firm
ever penned by mortal mind.
Thus he brings us to face the prob
! lem that puzzled the son of Den
marks buried majesty" that has puz-
| zIed all unredeemed sons of men since
the morning stars first sang together,
]
! til the last syllable of recorded time, -
the problem of individual life, freedom
OF action, and moral responsibility for
thoughts imagined and deeds done in
the body-Hamlet's problem. the "to
| be or not to be- here and in that
undiscovered country" where the
| rest is silence
| Finally, in all his teaching, Shake
speare inculcates the highest morality.
ana places no premium upon vice by
causing truth to succumb to wrong
and falSehOod. In the scheme of ed
ucation of this teacher of his kind,
virtue is always womanhood's crown,
and purity the guerdon of manhood.
Shakespeare is the greatest of the
poets In witchery of words. in form
and arrangement of phrases, in com
pleteness and aptitude of figure in
strength of thought and holiness of
flight, he so far outdistances his near
est follower, that he becomes a be-
nign sun to a rejecting planet-a sun
which bears but one spot of tinct or
shame, the theme of Venus and
Adonis.
| Great and all pervasive as is this
poetic quality throughout the plays, il
attains its zenith in the matchless SON
nets-at once the wonder and admira-
| ton of all poets in all succeeding
years. Shakespeare nowhere shows
/ his clarity of vision and sanity OF
! judgment to better advantage than he
| does in the SonnetS themselves where
| he again and again assures his lines
of an immortality more enduring than
brass or marble. In all literature
there is nothing more uplifting to the
tired, hurt, and friendless soul than
is to be found in the beautiful twenty
ninth sonnet:
When in disgrace with fortune and
| mems eyes,
I all alone beweep my outcast state
And trouble deaf Heaven with my
bootless cries,
And look upon myself and curse my
Wishing me like to one more rich in
| hope,
Featur'd like him. like him with
friends possessed.
Desiring this mans art, and that
mans scope,
| With what 1 most enjoy contented
least;
Yet in these thoughts myself almost
despising,
HAPPY think on thee; and then my
! state,
Like to the lark at break of day arts
ing
From sullen earth, sings hymns al
Heavens gate;
For they sweet love remembered
such wealth brings
That there 1 scorn to change my
state with kings"
! So, Shakespeare is to all who read
the informer of their minds, and the
quickener of their hearts.