The Topeka state journal. [volume] (Topeka, Kansas) 1892-1980, 1922-05-02
ON SECOND THOUGHT
BY JAY e. HOUSE
tFrom Philadelphia Public Ledger.I
More Red Flannel for the
Shakespeareans.

Sir-With the Infatuated Shakes
peareans clamoring to have you drawn
and quartered,- would you condescend
to recognize Us comrade-at-arms one
James Branch Cabell, by whom, on
slight acquaintance you have already
been bored stiff? Discoursing on ''the
vitality of the mediocre Mr.. Cabell
remarks:
THE quality which makes for
acknowledged greatness in a writer is
Il know not how many text books
have assured us-the universally of
his appeal His ideas are. in brief.
the ideas which the majority of per-
sons find acceptable; and Shakespeare
has been praised. for once with abso-
lutte justice, as the myriad minded
because myriads have always had just
such a, mind as his. The writer of
ella sSics,' in short, has need of quite
honest and limited thinking and of an
ability to hitter platitudes with that
wholesome belief in their Importance
which no hypocrisy or art can ever
mimic. The main treasures of our
national literature, including its Brit
ish tributaries, really are, when con-
sidered in the light of the ideas they
express, startlingly silly.
1.-THE ideas of Chaucer and Shake
speare and Milton, when once looked
at without prejudice, appear to wan
to the imbeciIe. the while that their
stories rove in somewhat more the
manner of the mountain goat. about
the heights of idiocy-" U. R. R.
Shakespearean fans are so stepped in
physiological flights of fancy that we
have found it difficult to make them
understand plain Neosho County Eng
lish. For that reason, it seems neces-
sary to say we didn't write the quoted
portion of the foregoing communica-
ton; Mr.. Cabell wrote it. And we do
not necessarily indorse it. AS between.
the two, we'd say, Shakespeare bored
US less than CabelL
As for the Shakespearean fans, we
throw up our hands. It's no use.
Lately we have talked with dozens of
them. They either can't. or won't,
understand. Invariably they en-
deavor to convince us our GOODNESS
toward. the Shakespearean drama is
due to the fact that we've never seen
it properly presented. Suffering Eli
played by nearly every Eng1ish-speak-
ing actor who makes a practice of do
ing So In our onetime capacity as
a dramatic critic we covered more
performances of Shakespeare than the
average Shakespearean fan sees in a
lifetime. The first ShaEespearean per-
Torrance we ever saw was given by
Edwin Booth and Lawrence Barrett
in the unfinished Warder Grand Opera
House in Kansas City. That was in
October, 1887. Booth and Barrett
were supposed to be fair actors, but
we didn't like the Shakespearean
drama then and we don't like it now
That ought to clarity our attitude
to everybody except the morons
Further discussion of the Shakes
pearean drama is postponed for the
time being. If the prospects for a
row over it seem propitious, we~fnay
renew it next winter.
Bimbo Gump has offered the Widow
lander $4,000 for a quitc1aim in her
lien on the Gump fortune AS we
have often indicated, the speculative
widow $4,000 in spot cash for her
claim.
Tho Young Woman Reasons Well.
Sir-It was Mrs Malaprop who en-
Joyed arrangement of epitaphs' but
my point was that the over-use of
certain explosives or epithets of an
explosive character interfered with
that nice discrimination of synonymic
distinctions and verbal felicities that
you seemingly like to practice in your
search for the mot juste; the inevitable
word; a habit that we all might well
initiate The same explanation can
also be applied to jazz.
ELIZABETH HOOD LATTA.
In little different and a. much
more scholarly way, Miss Latta pre-
cisely expresses our own objection to
profanity-and to jazz. So much of
the profanity-and all of the jazz
is idle. So much of the former drips
from dreoling lips; so much of the
latter is attuned to the cauIiflower ear.
Says D. II in discussing "Liliom":
But does the fact that you didn't
think it funny, together with the fact
that the public did, prove anything ?''
Not a thing. Neither for that mat
ter, does the fact that Sir Conan Doyle
is lecturing in America prove any
thing. But everybody is talking about
it
HEART AND HOME PROBLEMS |