THE CATHOLICITY OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS.

New Zealand Tablet, Volume XXV, Issue 38, 21 January 1898, Page 27

THE CATHOLICITY OF SHAKESPEARE'S PLAYS.

FROM our contemporary, the Liverpool Catholic Times, -we learn that an erudite and highly interesting lecture entitled, "The Catholicity of Shakespeare's Plays."' was recently delivered by Father Darlington, S.J,. at the Catholic Club, O'Connell street, Dublin, before a large and appreciative audience. In the course of his lecture he said that the Catholicity of Shakespeare's plays had excited considerable interest among Shakespearian students. He maintained that the supererninence of his plays was not the outcome of university learning, and could not be that. They stood out remarkably from all the rest of English literature and the reason must be traced from the same source which produced previous masterpieces and chef d'auvri's in literature, and the ancient ideals of chivalry and Christian faith which had bequeathed to them the magnificent cathedrals of England, and hid covered all Europe with proofs of a creative power which seemed to dwindle later on. The plays of Shakespeare could not be the product of any other time than that in which the faith of a united Christendom prevailed. He used the word Catholicism in no narrow meaning, and therefore he preferred to use the word Catholicity rather than Catholicism. The man never took up the plays of Shakespeare, no matter what party he belonged to, who could find them narrow or one-sided. Carlyle had said, " Shakespeare and his period are the blossoms of mediaeval Catholicism." His plays possessed a quality of excellence and Catholicity which were similar to previous masterpieces, and were not found in later literature. They might claim that Shakespeare was»u legacy of Catholicism to England. Catholicism in its expiring splendours left behind it a supreme plow of CaUiolic thought and Catholic sympathy in the works of Wm. Shakespeare. In Christian literature there were four books which stood above all otht-iT, namely, " Summa,"' by Aquinas; "Divine Comedy," by Panto; '• The Imitation of Christ," by a. Kempis ; and SLakes'pcaio's plays.

He contrasted the way in which Shakespeare showed life on this side of the grave, loving, weak, and struggling against sin. with the writers he had mentioned, who had applied themselves to life beyond the grave. While Shakespeare could have had but little theological training, it was remarkable that he was never at fault, never made a mistake, whether speaking of Catholic ritual or Catholic ethics. The justice he meted out was Catholic in every -particular, and his mercy was not of Pagan growth, but dropped as a gentle dew from Heaven. The qualities of Catholicity which they found enshrined, in Shakespeare's plays were the sublimest effort of imagination. His ploys were an example of Catholic mind. Human life developed in th( m in every shape and form ; virtue, vice, honour, and dishonour were all interpreted in them. These writings of Shakespeare surpassed those of Milton and Bacon, whose genius was circumscribed and fell short of the highest level, because those men fell under the baneful influence of disunion and the destruction of the ancient ideals of Christendom. Shakespeare's Catholic mind was completely unsectarian. The Catholio heart knew no human interest and no human suffering that was outside the scope of her sympathy and help.