SHAKESPEARE AND STRATFORD.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LI, Issue 15504, 10 January 1914, Page 4 (Supplement)

SHAKESPEARE AND STRATFORD.

Tutsi is a delightful chapter in Sir William Robertson Nicoll'a new book, "A Bookman's Letters," on "Why Did Shakespero ' Retire ?" Stratford in those days was out-of-the-way. There was no theatre", Puritanism abounded, and the hopelessly silly ,gulf between the country people and townsfolk was" as wide as the equally absurd gulf that separated " fat and . greasy citizens" from " play-actors," while dramatists, apart from the theatre, were unknown. , "That Shakespere retired to Stratford-on-Avon for love of his fellow-townsmen and their conversation is very hard to believe. If he did ho was certainly disappointed. ' It • was said; by Coleridge, 'In older times writers were looked up to as intermediate beings between angels and men; afterwards they were regarded as venerable and perhaps; inspired teachers; subsequently they descended to the level of learned and' instructive friends; but in modern days they are deemed culprits more than benefactors.' If Shakespere were in . Stratford-on-Avon nowj or any' other English . provincial town, many would ignore Him, many more wiiald, decry him. One of the very.few things .we know about Shakespeare is that he spent much of his last days in litigation. It' was, pitiful, work, . and yet one understands- how Shakespere might have been; driven into it against his will. Jealousy, .envy, malice, may have conspired to make his path . difficult.. Whether he was disappointed or not we, .cannot , tell, but probably he never repented Bis. choice. A. great authority .this subject once said .to me' that there was such , a., thing .as,, the love of a man for his-mother earth, 'and he would be happy J upon it whoever molested' him, and never quite-happy away from it."