SHAKESPEARE DEFENDED.

Dominion, Volume 2, Issue 555, 9 July 1909, Page 11

SHAKESPEARE DEFENDED.

i£>'&% AN "INTEEBSTISd 'LECTURE.• ...', ■'.. ':' ■ -To : defend .ShakespeaTe against his most hostile vand. most -eminent r critic I , , .was. the, task essayed, by L. 'James, in , his address on ."Tolstoy and Others oir Shakespeare" ,at Wcd'iesdaynighfs meeting of the Wellington Philosophical -Society.- That. Mr..James -knew/, his Shakespeare'.'was'.evident from the readiness : with 'which, he clothed 'his arguments ,ip .'■_ the words of -thcipoet. ■■•; He :took up pjint, afler point) of •Tolstoy's -"Well-known ■ altack on ■Shakespeare, and rebntted each by■•■diiect reierence rto the -plays,, and = in ' some 1 1 nsiaiio.es by close analysis of , , their plot, and structure. Against Tolstoy's 'assertion, of'■ the lminorahty ■of Shakespeare, Mr.: James 'showed .'how in .the great dramatist's page's-everycrinie or,blunder brings ite.own punishment, as declared by one of his: characters: "The.'gods are'just, and,of ; dur ■' pleasant vices, make, instruments .; to scourge us.' , ■ Tolstoy's views on the poetry and characterisation" /of •' Shakespeare verted ■' -by "quotations :. from . Watts-Duntqn, 'Hazlitt, Varidv Johnson',. :but the' lecturer concluded; this part of his subject by assurmgihis hearers .that in order'to: refute ;Tolstoy ,they only'- need go direct, ;.to, madhess'of!Lear;was:.next analysed,.with'the aid' of medical' testimony, -to:.show _that,Shakespearean depiction wp.s ) not Jess: Doetical; ; . In-the. words of Ben J onson, ShakeBpeare ; :would ; -live':'%hile-we have wit to read and praise, to'give."., : -'.:. ; ": ; -/ v - ■':■'■' '■;' ■'■:,-.■ K thanked,.Mr. ;Jame3;for. ma able' and i interesting .lecture;,:. z-: ' )■■■, .