The Feminists of Shakespeare’s Time

New Zealand Times, Volume LII, Issue 12211, 8 August 1925, Page 12

The Feminists of Shakespeare’s Time

Ir. the davs of Elizabeth women were at an apex of glory. “England is a paradise for wotnen, said foreigners. Such a queen as Elizabeth made all .the difference in the World ir. the status of Women. 1 She was masterful; she dems nded chivalrous homage for charms, which had to be rendered no less gracefully though the charms existed in lieu 'imagination; she Was learned and “toad more Greek In a day , than churoh dignitaries read Latin in'a year.” At. her court women filled many , of tot offices usually held by men. The great ladies of her time made the most it their opportunities and Vmk everything as their due. , Shakespeare reflected the feminism of the time when h* created such heroines aa Portia and Rosalind, "Beatrice and., Lady Maobeth. He. mav not have known: the great ladies of his day, personally; but he knew them l.v sight and reputation. Their doings were ,’Uiueh: in m'en/s mouths. What toe great ones did,'the less did prate of, and part of a playwright’s business was to he ahrekst of his times and skilled in gossip and topical allusic ns. There /wore stateswomen like Lady Harwich the./.life-long j companion of the Queen, and Lady Raleigh, who was forbidden to* Court heCaUS* a* a Maid of Honour she. had dared to win thu love of. Sir WwlteSr Raleigh; a Queen’s ff vqurite. Theto were u ;1 ? b rhed 1 ndito like Lady" RuiSllh WUp" with notable legal competence waged A 15-years’ dispttO with thb/Earl of‘Nottingham over l-Toperty rights. ' There were court be»utiea.'#|ga;.'*.chqihiii.K indthors and wjvAa—toM. dociJq,,; quarrelsome or .defiant, ■ Most thrilling /.and hazardous was the career of‘those women who dabbled ill poli tics. As-Elizabeth grew older the question of too succession to the throne wn* uppqrihnst'lfl . toe thoughts of nj’ •who weto astoriuted With the'court and •phlil loaT' affairs,' • Df 'twelve possible claimants to the throne. .Tames of Bootland/ and' Lady Arabella' Stuart had most supporter*;! Some of the great ladies of the realm made up their minds about the succession sooner

than -their husbands did and', greatly, embarrassed 1 those wary gentlemen by trying to njake them take a stand. • When King: James came to ths throne 1 he acknowledged hi* obligations to the lrc'ies who had tried to pave ‘,thp way for him, hut ho made it clear from tba very first,. that his reign was to ive'entirely free from . apron-strings. James was the most implacable antitfeminißt on record. Men favourites might wind him around their little fingers, but’ lie . became as obstinate as a pig if a ’woman tried to manage him. -, Chief among his detestations were certain articles of fashionable woman’s apparel, such as feathers in th?ir hafs (v.I 'ch ho considered a male prerogative), the enormous fathingales of the period, and especially yellow Btarcbed ruffs. i During the reign of James all mankind rose in a hodv to defend its ancient masculine prerogatives and the King took the forefront. With him '•ere the clergy, and pulpits rang with excoriations of the vanity and p’n?uinr. tvousness of women Only the theatre, apd that not whole-heartedly, continued to be on their side. All this teal might have been wasted in talk had not my Lord Coke, the Chief Justice, added his legal weight and ingenuity to the cause.' He had a private reason for his conduct. Awe inspiring as he was to the rest? of the wtild, he could not inspire his wife with awe. Lady Hatton—she always refused to uso Lord Coke’s name, preferring that of her fiist husband —declaimed against Lord Coke’qo well before the Privy Council that a listener said the , great actor Burbage , could not have done better. In retaliation, Coke exercised his great legal knowledge to loiter -the status of women, and out of his domestic quarrels ensued precedents which affected the position or English women before the law for many generations. Many of these women have left their tnerk on literature. Some of them* like Mary, Countess of Shrewsbury, were nitrons of the art of letters, ana others' like Penelope Rioh, born Devereux, ami married against-her will to “the rich Lord Rich,” by their beauty inspired n>en to write, as Lady Rich is supposed by many to have inspired Sir Philip Sidney to write his “Aatrophel.” Notes? palpable is the influence these women exerted in serving, unconsciously, as the prototypes of ShakeapSare’s

heroines. In the light of modern research of their lives end characters, the semen of Shakespeare seem to us to to more completely a part of the period in which he lived

Mr Rudvard Kipling has been approached with regard To the biography of the late Viscouht Milnec. It is ’ not likely, however, that he will Under- ' take "it, and Mr John Buchan is suggested as the most, likely writer... ■ A record : price -a said to bave teen • paid for the first, short atony written bv' Misa Margaret author of “The Consent Nymph.” . •The City Temple .in those days was under the charge Of that very remarkable man, Pr Joseph Darker. Parker was one of the most 'impressive figures I have ever seen in the pulpit,, with a thrilling voice and thrilling speech; he objected to being toiled theatrical, but be didn’t mind being called dramatic. Dramatic he certainly could be: The • test instance I remember is thst. sfter having letjd out .the-names of several great men who , had recently died, he said;: “Where is’Charles’ Hadden Spurgeon P Dead. Where is Henry Ward Beecher? 1 Dead. Where is William - Ewart.. .Gladstone? . Dead.” Then, gathering l his gown dramatically arbupd him as though he were entering into the snow -of a bleak world, he said; “I feel so lonely.?’ You teuld almost see the shudder . with which lie went out into the dreary Sten«.-’An anecdote of Mr T; P. O!Connor. - •

Mr- Winston Churchill has now completed a volume of memoirs relating Sarticularly to exciting episodes in hia fp. This will beer the excellent title, •‘A Roving Commission.” . A monument to Tom .Sawyer and Huckleberry Finn is to be erected on Cardiff Hill at Hannibal, ■ Missouri, Cardiff Hill is mentioned frequently m Mark Twain’s works. The dramatised version of “The Green. Hat.” now being played in America, is said to be yielding Mr Michael Arlett something ike £SOO a week in royalties. “Yes,”- my wife gets more out of a novel than anybody.” How do you mean?” “Well, she always starts in tiie middle, so she’s not only wonder- - ing bow it will all end, but now it began ** What Londoners road in May.—Fiction: W. Somerset Maugban’s “The Trembling of a Leaf,”- Crosbie Garstin’a “High Noon,"' John Ferguson’s “The Secret Road," G. B. Stem’s “Thur.dsr V. W. Germain's “The Truth About Kitchener.” A. Sloan’s “Wandering* in Middle EaSt," Sir H., Blomfield's “Touchstone of Architecture,” Ernest Kermar*" “A Mu*i**a| Critic’s Holiday.”

An authoritative biography ot tV late J. 8. Sargent, the painter, ha» been written by an American, Mr Wib liaip Howe Downes, who enjoyed Sargent's approval in his enterprise. It has now been revealed that the author of that'‘satirical hovel, “Serena Blandish,” is Lady Jones, wife of Sir Roderick Jones, chairman of Reuter’o. Lady Jones is perhaps tetter kuown under her maiden name, Enid Bagnold-