Evening Post. SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1927. AN IMPRESSIVE LITERARY TRIBUTE

Evening Post, Volume CXIII, Issue 100, 30 April 1927, Page 8

Evening Post. SATURDAY, APRIL 30, 1927. AN IMPRESSIVE LITERARY TRIBUTE

The 363 rd anniversary of Shake-' speare's birth was honoured at Strat-ford-on-Avon on Saturday last by the_ representatives of sixty-three nations—the same number as were represented last year and seven more than the present strength of the League of Nations. On that occasion marty of the patriotic citizens of Stratford were strongly of opinion that sixty-two would be quite enough, and a petition bearing 20,000 signatures was presented against the proposed representation for the first time of Soviet Russia. But the objections were overruled; the red flag with the symbolic crossed sickle and hammer in the corner was unfurled along with the rest; and the wreaths; which _ were laid on, Shakespeare's; tomb included one of violets, roses, and wistaria bearing the legend: "A tribute of love and affection from the peoples of the Union of Soviet Socialist Republics to the world's greatest poet and literary genius." The hatred which the rulers of these Republics persistently display towards Shakespeare's countrymen was properly treated as no reason for rejecting a tribute of another kind to the poet himself, and the .decision has apparently passed without a challenge on this occasion. Another notable point about the Shakespeare Festival last year was the burning down of the Memorial Theatre in which for nearly fifty years these festivals had been held. Though this happened only six weeks before the opening day, the Committee faced the position with such energy that they scored a great success. , Tho fire, said "Tho Times," has renewed the spirit of the'festival. Never lias there been such interost in the birthday celebrations as this year "A Phoenix Fund of £100,000 " and the completion of the new building within a year were then in contemplation, but the rival claims of London and other obstacles intervened, and the absence of any reference to the matter in our cable report suggests that the goal not only has not been reached, but is not yet in sight. We are told that after the pilgrimage to the poet's birthplace and the wreathing of the tomb, the Shakespeare Club entertained a distinguished international assembly at luncheon. Presumably the representatives of all the sixty-three nations concerned had to be invited, but it was fortunate that less than a quarter of them spoke, and that their speeches were both "short and apt." Geographically the selection was catholic—Europe being represented by Denmark, Switzerland, Hungary, Rumania, Poland, Esthonia, and Lithuania; Asia by Japan, Siam, j and Iraq; Africa by Egypt; the American Continent by Canada and Bolivia; and the Antipodes by New South Wales and New Zealand. Original criticism was not to be expected from any members of this polyglot assemblage, but even commonplaces must have had their thrill when they came from the lips of speakers so far removed from the West in thought and feeling as those representing Irak and Siam and Japan. Russia was not* represented, but the States on her Western frontier were strongly represented, Czecho-Slovakia being the only absentee. On the other hand, the absence of all the Western States of Europe was still more complete. No appearance of France or Germany, Italy, Spain or Portugal, Holland or Belgium, Norway or Swedenvery remarkable and highly suspicious, yet of course a pure fluke. They must all have sent; their flags along without, being able to supply speakers. /. Regarding the absentees, one thing at least is certain that, measured by any accurate test of keen, unremitting, and laborious interest in Shakespeare, not only would Germany not be found wanting but she would take the first place. In some respects she might ev<ln claim priority over England herself, while France, would take a place very far in the rear. Lecturing in 1811, Coleridge went so far as to say: On the Continent we may remark tho works of Shakespeare, are honoured in a double -way—by the admiration of tho Germans and by tho contempt of tho French. . • It was Voltaire, the literary dictator of France for a generation or more, who gave his countrymen the cue. He brought back from his visit to England in 1724 a considerable measure of admiration for Shakespeare but a -much larger measure of contempt and it was the latter that found most favour in a France which was rapt in admiration of Racine and Corneille. Homer conforming to classical rule— That is the Homer for college and . Bchool. The kind of Homer that Mr. A. D, Godley accused certain pedagogues of desiring for their pupils was the only kind of Shakespeare that would have suited the refined taste of 18th Century' France. Voltaire's onslaught on Shakespeare's masterpiece is one of the curiosities of criticism. It is a vulgar and barbarous drama which would not bo tolerated by the .vilest populace of France or Italy. Hamlet becomes crazy in the second act ; and his mistress becomes crazy in the third. The prince slays the

father of his mistress under the pretence of killing a rat, and tho heroine throws herself into the river. A grave is dug on the stage, and the gravediggers talk in quodlibets worthy of themselves while holding skulls in their hands; Hamlet responds to their y Igarities in silliness no less disgusting. In the meanwhile'another of the actors conquers Poland. Hamlet, his mother, and his step-father carouse on the stage; songs are sung at table; there is quarrelling, fighting, killing— ono would imagine this piece to be the work of a drunken savage. France is no longer under the spell of Voltaire, and in such a man as M. J. J. Tusserand she has a Shakespearean scholar of European reputation, but Shakespeare is still a drug in her market. The case of Germany has been very different. In France, says Professor J. G. Robertson, Shakespeare remains "a matter of intellectual curiosity," whereas in Germany he has been "completely naturalised." The first translation of any Shakespeare play was a German translation, of Julius Caesar which appeared in 1741. The best complete translation of the plays that has ever appeared is that of Schlegel (1797-1810), of which Professor Robertson writes: No translation of Shakespeare can vie with this, in the exactitude with which the spirit and the poetic atmosphere of the original have been reprodued: to Schlegel in the main belongs the credit of having made Shakespeare the joint possession of two nations. In this joint possessibn the Germans have sometimes claimed the greater share on the ground that in study, on the stage, and in popular interest they have paid Shakespeare the greater honour. In his address to the ,German Shakespearean Society at Weimar in 1921, Professor Max Forster put the case as follows:— Over 500 special works have already been published on the subject of Shakespeare and Germany. The quickest and clearest way to show how Germany has appropriated Shakespeare's works is to look at the part played by Shakespeare in German theatrical enterprise. In 1870 there was an average of. 438 Shakespeare performances. The number increased slowly up to the first decade of this century. It then increased by sudden jumps, reaching 1653 performances in 1906. This meant that about five Shakespeare plays were performed every evening in Germany. Even during the war Shakespeare was much played, the number, of performances in 1916 being'll79. In the first year of the peace the number again rapidly rose to 1349, and last year the gigantic number of 1622 performances was attained. The significance of these figures will only be quite clear to us if we turn our eyes to England and other countries. In England, whero exacjb statistics of performances are not available, Shakespeare is scarcely played a few hundred times a year. It is still worse in other countries, such as France, Eussia, and Italy, where Shakespeare only appears quite occasionally on the stage. . . . On all these grounds Shakespeare has grown so dear to our hearts that the speaker could dare in the midst of tho World War to lecture upon Shakespeare to our brave soldiers and sailors yonder in the field, in far half-Asiatic Charkoff and Kiev, as well as in the middle of the North Sea on our ironclads arid by tho Belgian waterside, oven under the thunder of English guns. '• It is certain that no German poet Was being similarly honoured by the Tommies and the poilus on the other side, and in. fairness we must admit that it is not only to Shakespeare that the credit for the Germans' fidelity to him must be given.