The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1916. THE TERCENTENARY OF SHAKESPEARE

Dominion, Volume 9, Issue 2752, 22 April 1916, Page 4

The Dominion. SATURDAY, APRIL 22, 1916. THE TERCENTENARY OF SHAKESPEARE

-The sad, stern, necessary, and righteous business of the war in which we are engaged has 1 called for the stoppage of many pursuits that were rightly, carricd 011 in times of peace. Party political strife has ceased for the time, and various Reform societies have suspended their agitations. These truces are just as they should be. But thereare some pursuits that should not stop even in time of war, and one of these pursuits is tho duty of recognising, as occasions open, our debt to our national heroes who have passed, on to us a civil, literary, moral,' or religious heritage we should prizd and preserve. The celebration of the tercentenary 'of the death of William Shakespeare is one of those duties it would bn utterly wrong to neglect, and we express the hope that in Wellington ■and. throughout the Dominion tho celebrations that are being arranged for will be supported by the mass of the people. Such celebrations must make for good citizenship, for no writer set forth more eloquently tho duty and nobility of patriotism than Shakespeare. Wnen the twenty-third day of this month comes round it will then bo three hundred years since this hero died. Before he died his merit and his genius were in a measure recognised, but no one in 1616 dreamed that, as the centuries passed tho "Bard of Avon" would pe esteemed as Britain's greatest literary genius, and also' as "Europe's supreme modern, man." Father Time sinra 1616 has consigned to tethe's stream thousands of tho fancied great men of past ages, but he has fed forth William Shakespeare to national immortality and worldwide fame.

The greatness of the mind mani fasted in the writings of ' Shakespeare has led some critics -to propound the 'theory that the playactor of Stratfo.rd-on-Avon never wrote the works that bear his name I They reach this conclusion by the simple method of assumption. They assume that Shakespeare had a very limited mental outfit and was rude and unlearned, and, therefore, works which manifested a colossal mind, and world-wide knowledge could not come from his pen; and they further assume that Lord Bacon had a colossal mind and world-wide knowledge, and therefore lie, must have .written the dramas that bear the name of Shakespeare! This surely is a case of ' argument from assumption run mad. In 1'623, seven years' after Shakespeare's death, his collected works were given to the world, in a folio edition. Ben Jonson, the greatest literary man of the time, welcomed the book and glorified Shakespeare as its author in & well.-knowh Ode in which he sings:

Souil of the age! The applause! delight! the wonder.of the stage,

My Shakespeare rise.

Thou art a monument without a tomb. And art alive while the Book doth live, And we have wills to read, and praise to

give. For two hundred and fifty- years English men _of letters have, with no voice of dissent, accepted Shakespeare as the author of tb<j plays, but in our time attempts have been made to write impostor on his brow, and place the crown of authorship on the head of Bacon. The mental perversity of these theorists has astonished equally the students of Bacon and of Shakespeare. Mr. Spedding, who wrote the standard Life of Bacon, and edited the classical edition of his works, when ho was asked to give his opinion on this question said: "To ask me to believe that Bacon was the author of these dramas* is like. asking me to believe that Brougham was the author, not only of Dickens's novels, but of Thackeray's also, and of Tennyson's besides. I deny that a 'prima facie case is made out for, questioning Shakespeare's title. But if there were any reason for supposing that somebody else was the real author, I think I am in a condition to say that whoever it was it was not Bacon." No doubt there are great blanks in the story of Shakespeare's life that have not been filled up, and the shroud of .mystery still covers the personages whose story is told in his "Sonnets." But the BaconShakespeare theory is (to use. the words of Mr. CnuRTON Collins) "the wonder of fools and the laughing > stock of the wise." The fact that Shakespeare ■ wrote those plays that have placed him among the immortals of literature is based on the unshakable rock of historic reality. The fame of no mythical personage is being commemorated in the tercentenary .celebrations.

The greatness of Shakkspeahe borders on the mysterious. He belongs to the rank of tho outstandingly great whom we call geniuses. Diverse explanations are given of the world's great men. One explanation is that the age pro'duces tho niigo, and .tho other ir. that tlio .sage instructs the age. Neither w.

Shakespeare's parents, nor in his schools, nor in his surroundings can we find the whole explanation of Shakespeare's greatness. He was endowed with an original extraordinary ability, and in this we havo the explanation of his poetic sensibility, intellectual power, and creative_ genius, but this explanation is in itself inexplicable. He had. a unique capacity for absorbing knowledge and he'had a marvellous insight into things. Thomas CarlA'le says: "He dees not look at a thing, but through it; . .- the thing melts into light under his eye and anew creates itself before him." The greatness of the writer is seen in the many-sidedness of his knowledge. Special i books have been written about his knowledge of law, of typography, of natural history, of medicine, and of the Bible. He shows in his writings the knowledge of a syndicate of specialists, but no syndicate of specialists could have produced those dramas that show one master mind, and' one master mind only, at work in them. But the greatness of Shakespeare is seen at its best in tho highest region—thd • moral. Professor Henry Van Dyke has said, "I read in Shakespeare the majesty of moral law." Sir Sidney Lee, who in this tercentenary year has given us t'lie best life of Shakespeare yet published, in one of his essays has pointed out in detail how Shakespeare's _ writings are instinct with the loftiest moral sense, and his plots always develop in conformity with moral law. Vice to Shakespeare is never amiable, and his writings make for that righteousness that alone exdlteth a nation.

The mould into which the genius of Shakespeare poured itself was the English drama. It was the only way in which he could reach the people of his age. Had he lived in—our 'age his genius might have poured itself into other moulds. In the drama Shakespeare found an outlet for his genius. He could 'through it express opinions free and untrammelled. It would almost seem as _ though the English drama arose in his age to find a sphere for him. It arose with startling suddenness out of the comedies and farces that interested many and ennobled none. Shakespeahe purified _ the stage and ennobled it, and it became the' vehicle of carrying the fruit of his heart and brain to his age and our age. Sad to say, Shakespeare's plays are to-day almost driven off the stage. S'ir Henry Irving declared that ho lost a hundred thousand pounds by placing Shakespeare on the stage. _ But the money was spent on expensive scenic representations and costly costumes, and the drama < of Shakespeare's day knew nothing of this' extravagant expenditure of money.. It is to be hoped that the tercentenary celebrations will lead tb. revived interest in the writings of Shakespeare. No writer is more worthy of study. Emerson wrote truly when'he said, "For executivo faculty, for creation, Shakespeare is unique. No man can imagine it better; he is strong as Nature is strong who 'lifts the lands into mountain slopes without effort, and by the same rule as she floats a- bubble in the air, and likes as well to do the one' as the other."