SHAKESPEARE'S DAY.

New Zealand Herald, Volume LXIII, Issue 19311, 26 April 1926, Page 8

SHAKESPEARE'S DAY.

The hand of fate never worked more aptly than when the birth of Shakespeare was made to fall on the day of England's patron saint, St. George. The Englishman, not much given to celebrating national heroes, has the chance of combining two festivals on April 23. It could be made England's day of days. Yet when it was celebrated as Shakespeare's day, at Stratford-on-Avon last Friday, it was just as appropriately made an international, instead of a national festival. It used to be said by German scholars that Shakespeare was more truly appreciated in Germany than in England, that in spirit he was more German than English. The answer was that these German professors did not understand Shakespeare; if they had they would have realised he .was English to the marrow of his bones. As for English appreciation of him, it is to be found not so much in the critical dissertations of the learned—though these have been plentiful enough—as in the way his words, and the distilled essence of pure wisdom he poured out so freely, have been incorporated in the national speech and thought. The unlearned and unscholarly quote Shakespeare frequently and freely. Often it is unconscious homage they pay, using his words without knowing the source from which they come. Yet it is the truest homage. But if this be proof of his English character and complexion, the tribute from 63 nations paid at Stratford-on-Avon shows how his genius, too vast to be confined by national boundaries, by language or any convention, has permeated the world. In the person of this Englishman, born on England's day, England has given the world freely and ungrudgingly one of the greatest gifts of time.