BROWSINGS IN BOOKLAND

Otago Daily Times, Issue 13894, 4 May 1907, Page 5

BROWSINGS IN BOOKLAND

Bv Constant Reader. Duiing week my thoughts have been turned Shakespearc-ivards, impelled thitherto l)v :i variety of circumstances. Imprimis 1 attended a Shake.ipeaK'aii recital tendered by nil enthusiastic member of the Shakespeare Club to one of iho suburban Literary and Debuting' Societies ; 1 next read with a degree of interest Professor Uilray's address on "King Richard ]If," and, in addition. I have recently come across a mmiber of ro.ferenctti to the eelobration of Sluiiospcarc's birthday. }>Fr Sydney Loe, in his "Life,' 1 says:—

Jolm Shakespeare's marriage with Mary Arden doubtless took place at Acton Cantlowe, the parish Church of Wilccote, in the autumn of 1557 (the church re-

gisters begin at a later dfttci). On September 15, 1558, his first child, a daughter, Jam, was baptised in tho church of Stratford. A second child,

another daughter, Margaret, was baptised on December 2, 1562; but both these children died in infancy. Tiie poet William, the first, son and tliird child, was barn on April 22 or 23, 1554. Tho latter date is generally accepted as his birthday, mainly, it would appear, on the ground that it was the day of kin death. There is no positive evidence on the subject, but the Stratford parish registers attest that he was baptised on April 26.

I have not seen Mr Sydney Leo's latest book, " Shakcspearo .and the Modern Stage," but I notice from a review that the author endeavours to revive interest in the old lime project, for the orection of a Shakespeare memorial in London. Timlin? over the paqes of the little volume of "Essays and Sketclivs," by Loigh Hunt (recently, added by Ml- Frowde to the World's Classics series), I came acros6 Hunt's may on " Shakespeare's Birthday," which first appeared in the Indicator of Mrty 3, 1820. Here the essayist declares that " the birthdays of such men as Shakespeare ought to be kept in common gratitude and affection like those of relations whom we love." Bursting forth in a prophetic vein, Leigh Hunt- exclaims "Tho lustre and utility of intellectual power is so increasing in tho eyes of the world that wo do not despair of seeing the time when his birthday will be tho subject of public rejoicing, wlien the regular feast will be served up in tavern and dwelling-house, the bust crowned with laurel, and the theatres 6park!e with illuminations." 'Rien, as if confident of seeing his prophecy fulfilled, this born journalist waxes eloquent in tho following fine apostrophe:—

0 thou divine hnman creature—greater name than even divino poet or divine philosopher,—and yet thou wast all three—a very spring and vernal abundance of all fair and noble things is to be found in thy productions! They are truly a seoond nature. We walk m'tlicm with whatever society wo plea so—either with men, or fair women, or circling spirits, or with none but the whispering airs and leaves. Thou makest worlds of

green trees and gentle natures for us, in thy forests of Ardcu, and thy courtly retirements of Navarre. Thou bringes't us among the holiday lasses on the green sward; layest us to sleep among fairies in the bowers of midsummer; wakest us with tile song of the lark and the Bilver sweet voices of lovers; bringest

moro music to our ears, Ixrt'h from earth

and tho planets; anon settcst us upon enchanted islands, where it woloomes us

again, from the touching of invisible instruments ; and, after all, restores us to our still desirod haven, tho arms of humanity. Whether grieving us ,pr mating us glad, thou makest us binder and happier. The tears which thou fatchcst down are like tho rains of <Vpril, softening the times that 6>me after tlicm. Thy smiles are those of the month of love, tho more blessed and universal for the tears.

Leigh Hunt, opens his cesay by mentioning a fact which will relieve ine from tlio .•barge of being behind the times —namely, that- making the proper aliowanee of twelve days, according to tJie change of Style, Shakespeare's birthday falls on cither the 4th or sth of May, whichever date is adopted. He then goes on to remark that failing the public' recognition of the oay it is within the power of every admirer to houour Shakespeare's birthday, And amongst other suggestions for 6uch a oelobration he savs;—"lf any of our readers then have leisure as well as inclination to devote a day t-o the memory of Shakespeare, we would advise them in the first, place to wall; out, whether alone or in company, and enjoy diiring the morning as much as possible of tlioso beauties of Nature of which ho has left us such exquisite pictures. They would take a volume of him in their hands, tire most suitable to the occasion, not to hold themselves bound to sit down and read it, nor even to refer to it, if the original work of Nature should occupy them too much, but to read it if they read anything, ami to feel that Shakespeare to with them substantially as wdl as spirituallv; that thev had him with them mider their arm."

Probably the best way in wliich Shakespeare's memory can bo kept green is by a diligent, perusal of his works and by patronising every proper presentation of his plays. If any proof were needed of the predominant, position whicli Shakespeare holds over every other writer in tlio world it could be found in the bewildering multinlicity of the editions of his collected works. Indeed tlio purchase' of a suitable Shakespeare is now ail extremely puzzling business. Sydney Lee says thatthe- latest complete annotated editions published in England are "The Henry Irving Shakespeare," edited by F. A. Marshall and others—especially useful for notes on stage history (ciglit volumes, 1888-90) — and "The Temple Sbikspoare," concisely edited by Mr Isaac Gollancz (thirty-eight volumes, 12 mo, 1894-6). Of the one volume editions of the unaiinotated text, the b?st are the Globe, edited by W. G. Clark and Dr Aldis Wright (1864, and constantly rcmitited since 1891 with a new and useful glwssarv); tlio Leopold (1876 from the text of Delius, with preface by Dr Furiiiva.ll): ami the Oxford, edited by Mr W. J. Craig (1894). From a recent, issue of the Dailv Mail, Book Supplement, I have extracted the following interesting particulars of the amazing growth in the demand for Shakespeare's works as shown in the editions issued: the note being accompanied by a complete list of recent and standard editions of Shakespeare, which I have filed for reference: —

' In tho seventeenth century the four famous folios of 1623, 1632, 1663, and

1685 sufficed to satisfy the curiosity of

bis admirers, who already put him first among his contemporaries, but. were a whole center in waking up to the fact that there iras no one fit- to be named

in the same breath as Shakespeare. The

earliest critical edition is that issued, in seven volumes, by Nicholas Rowo in 170910. There followed, in the eighteenth century, the editions of Pojie (1725), Theobald (1755), Haimier (1744j. Dr Johnson (1765), and Stevens (1766). This last was the earliest variorium, edition of Shakespeare, in ten octavo volumes, and was vaunted as a triumph of publishing enterprise in its day. Ono hundred and forty years have passed, and the tloy'd of editions has gathered

until the proportions of it are portentous. .At this moment it is inexcusable to bo without an excellent reprint. of the most popular of all peeks, and the only difficulty is one of selection. Apart from such specialised forms as "school texts" awl serante plavs. there not fewer than fifty distinct editions actually 011 safe

in this country at tihe present time. Anyone setting out to provide liiniself or one of his friends with a SlinVcspw* may well bo lrolwl at the variety set before him. Publisher vies with publisher in bringing out the works in tasteful form, under scholarly auspices, and ftti jiricc6 the nioit varied.

The change which time has brought about in the matt?r of the circulation" of Shakespeare's plays since the sixteenth century is almost too great to he grasped at. once. That talented American literateur Mr Hamilton Wright Mabie, iu his interesting and scholarly volume oil "William Shakespeare, I'oet, Dramatist, and Man " —;i work expressly designed for the popularisation of Shakespeare in the United States—draws a vivid picture of the' conditions of things which prevailed 350 years ago. lie says: "I'lavs were sometimes published in Shakespeare's time by the consent of the theatres to which they had been sold, but the privilege was rarely applied for. When lien Jonson treated his plays a.s literature by publishing them in 16i6 as his 'Works' he was ridiculed for his pretensions, and Webster's care to rccuro correctness in tho printing of his tragedies laid him open 'to a charge of pedantry. At a later time the popular interest in plays for reading purposes opened oil tnisus]M>ete.;l source of income to play-writers, and publication became customary. Of the thirty-seven plays commonly credited to Shakespeare only sixteen wcro published during tho lifetime of the poet, and these were probably printed without his authorisation— certainly without his revision. There was no copyright law, and the author could not. protect himself against imperfect reproductions of his own works, Shakespeare's income came from the sale of plays and from tlm patronage by the public of the theatres in which lie was interested. From every point of view he was, therefore, averse to tho publication of his dramas. If he. had set his heart on publicity, the theatre was the most, effective form of publication which tho times offered." .

Mr Mabie proceeds to point out that the price paid for plays ranged from £5 to £10 apiece, the larger sum being tho minimum paid to Ben Jonson, and that these plays became the absolute property of tlie theatre, the feeling ot the author being so slight that many of the plays appeared without his name. Shakespeare, when he felt the creative impulse stirring within him, found ready to his hand a library of plays which ivcre the property not of the writers but of the owners of the theatre. In accordance with the custom of the times, he was at libertv to recast, rewrite, revise, and adapt these plays to suit his audiences. "These plays were for the most part without order or art; they were rude in structure, crude in form, violent in expression, full of rant and excess of feeling and action; crowded with incident, and blbod-cmdling in their realistic presentation of savage crime; but there was immense vitality in tlfem. Tliev were the raw material of literature. They were as full of colour and as boldly contemporaneous as a street ballad ; there was enough history in them to make them vitally representative of English life and character; but the facts were handled with such freedom as to givs the widest range to the genius of the individual playwright."

I have dwelt upon the fact that Shakespeare used this material as his fellow craftsmen used it, for it gives point to the announcement of the publication by Messrs Chatto and Windus of "The Shakespeare Classics," an important series of. reprints which, under the general editorship of Profes-or I. Golluncz, will embody the romances, novels, and plays used by Shakespeare as the direct sources and originals of his plays. The following is the first prospectus of the series, which will be treasured by all Shakespearean students:— '

1. Lodge's " Rosalynde ": the original of Shakespeare's "As You Like It." Jidited by W. W. Greet, M.A. Frontispiece. 2. Greene's " Dorastus and Fawnia"; the original of Shake-speare's " Winter's Tnle," Edited by P. G. Thomas, professor of English literature, Bedford College, University of London. Frontispiece. 3. "Tho Play of King Leir and His , Three Dau^ntors": the old play on the subject of King Lear. Frontispiece. 4. Brooke's Poem of " P.omeus and Julictta": the original of Shakespeare's "Romeo and Juliet.'' Frontispiece. 5. "The Troublesomo Reign of King John": tho play rewritten by Shakespeare as "King John." Frontispiece. 6. "The History of Hamlet." Together ' with other documents illustrative of the source of Shakesoeare'e play, and an Introductory Study of the Legend of Hamlet bv Professor I. Gollancz, who also edits tho work. Frontispiece. (Note. —No. 6 is expected to fill two volumes.) Among other items, the Shakespeare Library—of which the above series forms tho first section-—will contain a complete Old-spelling Shakespeare, edited by Dr Fumivall. A full prospectus of the Shakespeare Library is in preparation

But my space is exhausted and my subject scarcely touched. It has proved to me so deliihtfuUv fascinating that li"™t surely return to it. I have at least half a dozen other volumes before me to which I would fain refer. Let me, however, conclude this week's "Browsings" with an extract- from Professor Raleigh's monograph on Shakespeare, which forms the latest volmny of Hacmillan's " English Men of Letters" series:—

The Last Phase. "The Tempest" was probably his last

play—in this sense, at least, that lie

designed it for his farewell to the stage. The thought which occurs at once to almost every reader of the play, that l'rospero resembles Shakespeare himself, can hardly have been absent from the mind of the antlior. By hie most- potent art he had bedimmed the noontide sun, called forth the mutinous winds, and plucked up the trees of the forest. Graves at his command had waked their sleepers, oped, and let them forth. When at last lie resolved to break the wand of his incantations and to bury his magic book he was shaken, as all men, in sight- of the end, are shaken, by the passion of mortality. But there was no bitterness in the leave-taking. He looked into the future, and there was given to him a last vision; i not the futile panorama of industrial progress, but a view of the whole world, shifting like a dream, "and melting into vapour like a cloud. His own fate and the fate of his book were as nothing against that wide expanse. What was it to him that for a certain term of years men should read what he had written? . . . When the time camo to make an end, his care was only to forgive his enemies, and to comfort th? young, who are awed and disquieted by the show of grief in their elders. Miranda and Ferdinand watch l'rospero as he struggles in the throes of imagination. Then he comes to himself and speaks:— You do look, my son, in a inov'd sort As if you were disma.v'd. Be cheerful, sir; Our revels now are ended. These our adore, A* I foretold you, were ail spirits, and Are melted into air, into thin air; And like the baseless fabric of this vision, The eloud-capt towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temple, the sreafc globe itself. Yea. all which it inherit, shall dissolve, And like this insubstantial pagensi faded Leave not a rack behind; we are such stuff As dreams arc made on; and our litilo life Is rounded with a sleep.

In all the work of Shakespeare there is nothing more like himself than these quiet words of parting: "Be cheerful, sir, our revels now are ended." Tliev are not end«l, and the generations who couw after him and have read his hook and Itavo loved him with nn inalterable personal affection must each, as they pass t-lte way that he went, pav him their tribute of praise.. His living

brood kvo survived him, to be 1 he companions and friends of men and women as yd unborn.