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Show 1 GCBuwSdlgcB f fafe(gnreo HL. AM basli ful about claiming EV knowledge of Shakespeare, At JH . ast, I do not know as much about I do I h M Wm about him as any man In the street that is. an man In the ctreet who has r- ... I SiuK.s- aSr- fcJy " I" n t w . . people jB9&S n."re ,.t III BKSsl - ihnn on n llgio . 1 mX "' I"Iolt: Tie ..ill-. lime 1 flkfO b the president of a jBHrj Tie 1 . 1 ' 1 1 , 1 i jHCJiP '"' '"''' tutu--. It went on when m . Shakespeare was alive Ben Jon-HriS'.l Jon-HriS'.l a man like t-'hal;. should be so successful said, ' I loved the man ns well as any. thort of Idolatry" Why should he sav that? Suppose he were asked. "How did voU like Bernard Shaw" he would net say. "I like him all right-short of Idolatry. There are people who talk like that. Shakespeare was not a vulgar and Illiterate man, who began life by holding horses' heads. Shakespeare was , gentleman, and always regarded himself as such You will understand his respectable standing when I tell you his father was a bankrupt. People whose fathers have been bankrupts don't hold horses' heads for a living. He regard d himself as a gentleman. He was poor That had nothing to do with it. Mv father was poor' but I always consider myself a gentleman. People sometimes some-times insult me by calling mo a member of he middl class. My own family have alwavs called themselves the Shaws " There Is no doubt that Shakespeare's family fam-ily called themselves 1 the Shakespeares." Shakespeare the writer was not Cod Shakespeare the man was not an illiterate, good-foor-nothlng blackguard. Both were comprl-ed In a thorough mieidle-class gentleman gentle-man 01 my own profession. Shakespeare was. too. not an infallible philosopher but as an artist he was supremely Imaginative, the greatest master of language that ever was. and of verbal music with nn enormous power of characterization and "tremendous "tre-mendous fun.' T,F,i'ov!: v!f'w Shakt speare's works as thev view the Bible--that is to -say. in the "proper spirit." which meftni that the mind must be completely closed to everything they contain. "Others abide our question, thou art free w-nat can that mean but that Shakespeare Is God'' In his early romantic plays Shakespeare was writing Just what the public wanted and In his heart he was a Ew'm 1, ;jthorwlsi Shakespeare failed as a philosophic guide. He had no religion, no politics, no great concerns He was a narrow-mlndedt middle-class man He had to subordinate his great ability to popular work In order to man' m0ney 1 he mKht become a country gentle- The public of the time would not have Shakespeare s serious plays, he washed hl9 hands like Pilate and wrote for the popular taste. He WTOt" them a plav and said Well, there you are as you like. It." As to 'As You Like It," I could write Just as good a play myself, and have dono It, except, of course, tho beautiful verse, and I'm not sure about that Shakespeuro was not alwavs absolutelv right However. How-ever. I do not object to Shakespeare giving Bohemia a ' In on-- . f his earlier plavs he gave Milan .1 coast I would have done the sum., thing If I had wanted a seacoast at Milan. Shakespeare came to town end wrote a play called prves Iaibor Lost," quite a clever Bedford park sort of play, it was full of the sayings that a dramatist would put In the- mouths of kings and beautiful ladles If he were outte Ignorant of courts. As for Shylock. Englishmen forgot that when a Jew makes an agreement he means to keep It. and he expects tbe Englishman to do tho same The play is characterls-ti. characterls-ti. al y t.ngll.-h and Antonio ought to be called John Smith or James Brotidhutsu There Is grave reason to believe Shakespeare never was t,.0? ,.U ,ls ""J? to thlnk r th" way that young woman JulUt talked to Romeo. It Is .-adder to ihink how Humie after making 11 scene over Ophelia's grave, went off to ;i 1 fencing match. I always regard Shakespeare In two wavs. One of my eyes is tho eye of an artist, the other the eve of a LH plumber Vv 1th one I see art, with the other artifice. If only Shakespeare hadn't written In blank verBe Blank verse Is a thing you could teach a cat If it had Ll an ear. An enormous mass of the blank verse In the nlava Lsssl isn't poetry at all. v ' Shakespeare was a master nt tremendous prose Com- 1 pare the "What a piece of work Is man" Speech In Hamlet With sueh twaddle as "To bo or not to be " Why didn't he leave the mighty line to people like Marlowe, who could write nothing else! Vet he made even this blank verse musical There was a charm even nbout such a hue .is 'Thou: damn'd and luxurious mountain goat." |