Evening star., 1932-04-24
Shakespeare in Washington.

SAdhCspCulC III Washing tOh'
There was dedicated in Washington
yesterday monument to the human
mind.
Such, in effect, is the Shakespearean
shrine presented to the Nation by the
late Henry Clay Folger. That impos-
ing marble edif1ce under the shadow
of the Capitol dome we'll may repre-
sent, in the life of America, something
far more than a repository of Eliza
bethan literature.
1t may be considered a shrine of the
brain of Shakespeare, which, in turn,
is a symbol of the brain of mankind
For the great dramatists intellect en-
eompassed the intellect of the race, the
creative principle out Of which arise
personalities and cultures
1t is we'll that this shrine should
stand in Washington. The greatest of
Shakespeare's dramas was not printed,
nor was 1t acted on the boards of the
Elizabethan theaters 1t was written
in the blood Of the adventures and the
tears Of the pioneer mothers Its stage
was the wilderness. Its chief actor was
emerging mankind. 1t was character
istically Shakespearesn in its incongru-
ous juxtaposition of low comedy and
high tragedy. of horse play and philos-
ophys Of realism and idealism This
drama was America. Shakespeare
stands through time as the symbol OF
that adolescent Western Europe out
of whose lustful and prayerful ad-
venturesomeness the New World was
created. The spirit of the sixteenth
century In It's entirety Is embodied
In the thinking of this Englishman-
it's ROBUSTNESS. Its Testlessness, its re-
turn to nature from the musty cloisters
Of the Middle Ages its selfishness and
its selflessness. its cursing and its
hymn singing. its gluttony and its
aseetieism, Its revolts and Its loyal
ties, its crudeness and its scholar
ship. He Is the symbol of the un-
worldly Pilgrim. the worldly cavalier
of that whole colorful procession who
broke the chains of physical and meta
physical oceans and emerged into a
new world and new time. His think
ing Is the expression OF the new sys-
tenn Of values which mankind was
establishing.
But, perhaps in a larger sense,
Shakespeare himself was greater than
the universally OF the time which his
thoughts encompassed His mind was an
ocean circlng all time The sixteenth
century OF awakening was, to no small
degree, a product of the storms and
stresses Of that intellect. It's history
was an armada floating upon the vast
waters Of the bard of Avon's far vision.
He will remain after all his environ
ment has been forgotten. OF this man
alone it might be said that the world
was part of him to as great an extent
as he himself was part Of the world.
The drama Of America still is ON the
boards Out of shskespeare's living
thought the final scenes have not yet
proceeded. Comedy and tragedy have
succeeded each other from act to act in
accordance with no practicable order
Of dramatic construction There Is no
hint as TO the final scene, which will
decide the nature of the whole eornpo-
sition. Its actors have lived some of
the highest political passages the world
has known. They are scattered In
congruously with much that is tawdry
and unworthy through the completed
acts. In the end it may be the greatest
Of all tragedies. In the end 1t may be
the greatest of all comedies. The wood
notes and the soul-searching solilequies
OF the earlier scenes have. 1t seems to
some, grown fewer and poorer as the
drama has progressed. The stage fur
nishings have grown constantly more
elaborate and costly, as If, 1t may be. TO
compensate for the declining quality OF
the poetry Perhaps only the mind Of
Shakespeare himself could encompass
the completion of this most universal
| of its imsginings
So 1t is well that this mind should
be enshrined in Washington 1t repre-
sents the eternal reality upon which are
tossed at the mercy OF the waves the
temporal barks of our civilizations and
our beings