GENE TUNNEY’S VARIETY

Evening Star, Issue 19918, 14 July 1928, Page 19

GENE TUNNEY’S VARIETY

A BOUT WITH SHAKESPEARE i 1 j SPEECH TO YALE STUDENTS j t Gene Tumiey, tho famous boxer, j has been talking on Shakespeare to a j gathering of students at Yale University, and tho incident has created . ‘ a great deal of interest throughout j America. Tho ‘ Literary Digest : gives the story as follows; s Many newspaper readers of liis feat ■ must have joined his Yale auditors '< with a smilo of grateful recognition ■ over one line of his excerpt.—" Lino \ touch of nature makes the whole world ■ kin,” It will fix for the future tho source of that familiar quotation. Tun- 1 ney began to take a serious interest in Shakespeare, ho tells us, when was a ' marine in France. , . , , , Ho borrowed ‘The Waiter’s Tale’ from another marine, and read it ten times before he got tho hang of the metro and felt ho could appreciate the sense. “I began to realise, that there were too many thoughts in so few words that my mind was not ready to accept. My mind had not expanded to ' that extent. “I set out aud read ( Tho Winter’s Tale’ ten times, until I, finally got tho metro, not as intelligently as I wanted, but fought to know what was going on. In that way I obtained my first interest in Shakesepare. While i am hot an authority on Shakespeare, I do not think there is anyone living who lias more appreciation of him than I. I worship at his shrine. I think mankind is much better off that Shakespeare has been given to ns, because ho has contributed immeasurably to the beauty of the world. “Shakespeare was a sport; there is no question about that, and there is also no question about tho fact that ho has been the greatest playwright tho world has ever known., “ Shakespeare has written these great plays with great poetry. It is very easy to have an instructor or tutor read something to yon and get a knowledge of it from him. bnt that is like trying to train for the heavyweight championship on icecream. Yon have got to do it yourself—nobody has got anything in this world for nothing.. You can’t develop your muscles by leaving them idle, nor can you develop, the brain by not working, or even straining it a lit tie—rit won’t hurt it any, - • ' “ The passage in Shakespeare that most appeals to me comes from ‘Troilus and Crcssida,’ a play rarely produced, and founded on Greek mythology. It is a ftory of a war between Greece and Troy. They wore 1 trying to decide who was the victor, so ] Hector decided to fight anybody in the £ Greek army, and the outcome of this ! fight would result in winning or los- i ing. ’ “ Achilles, of course, jvas champam*.,

ihe superman, and was sulking a little at this time, and thought to ho in love or too proud to fight. He closed himself in his tent, and would not listen to the generals of the army. Ulysses hit upon a good idea, and pretended to use Aiax in order to arouse the ire of Achilles. Ajax was just a groat big ambitious follow given to extended mouthings. Ho didn’t have the stuff, and the Greek generals knew it, so they arranged to have the populace slap Ajax on the back and tell him how good he looked, and at the same time have Achilles see it. “Achilles finally came to Ulysses, who was bringing up the rear, and said ‘ They pass mo py like a beggar and asked him what was going on. Ho said; ‘They have forgotten you. they are interested in fellows that arc upand going. They are interested in Ajax. He is the best man. You can t expect a reception any more—you’re ( all through, you’re a has been, ion must got up and do something to dc- , fend your title.’ “I will read the lines of Ulysses, because I think they arc the most wonderful words in Shakespeare, because they apply to me: Ulysses; “Time hath, my lord, a wallet at his back. Wherein ho puts alms for oblivion. . . After giving the intervening lines, Tunnoy read on: “0, let not virtue seek Remuneration for the thing it was; For beauty, wit, High birth, vigour' of hone, desert in service, Love, friendship, charity, are subjects all ... To envious and calumniating time. One touch of Nature make the whole world kin— That all, with one consent, praise new-horn gawds, Though they are made and moulded or things past : And give to dust that is a little gilt More land than gilt o’er dusted. The present cyo Praises the present object; Then marvel not, thou great and complete man, That all the Greeks begin to worship Ajax; . . Since things m motion sooner catch the eye Than what not stirs. The cry went once on thee. And still it might, and yet it may again. If thou would not entomb thyself alive, And case thy reputation in thy tent; Whose glorious deeds but in these fields of late Made emulous missions ’mongst the gods themselves, And drave great Mars to faction.” “It was a notable occasion,” says the Washington \ Evening Star,’ “ and i < perhaps it had its value,'as already suggested, in illustrating the fact that Shakespeare is the universal thought solvent. But there is Tunney’s side of the case to consider. 1 ,r lt is of no value to him to bo,.

known as one whoso heart is really not in his chosen profession of pugilism, hut in the higher realm of intellectual pursuit. The world that supports pugilism as a sport prefers to regard the boxing champion as an exemplar of brawn, nut of brains. Its ideal of superiority is of a powerful, tenacious, durable lighting machine, not a student. “But, of course, that is Tunney’s own business, lie is in the game for what he can make out of it, for the glory of victory. He knows that, with few exceptions, champions last but a little time and are quickly forgotten, mid that lie must make bis bay while the_ sun is shining. Perhaps h« is in training for another role when his pugilistic sun sets.”