OCR Text |
Show By JOHN BAUER General Manager, Valley Music Hall , 1 When Brigham Young 1 J stated that "the people must have amusement as ! ! well as religion" he was well aware of the great j theatrical traditions exist- . : ing in many lands and j many languages. Certainly English-speaking peoples ! loyally acknowledge their I allegiance to William Shake speare as the greatest play- wright jof all time. ; One o Shakespeare a great admirers was the first Queen Elizabeth. In those i days the custom with per- ! I sons of great rank was to ! ; appear upon the stage be- i " fore the audience or to sit ; I delighted behind the scenes. I : It was this queen's special pleasure to attend the '. bard's performances. It so happened that one ! evening, when Shakespeare himself was playing the part of a King, the audience audi-ence knew of Her Majesty's ! presence in the house. She I crossed the stage when he was performing, and on j ' receiving the accustomed I greeting from the audience, : ! moved politely to the poet., j ' But he did not notice it! I : When, behind the scenes, ! ; she caught his eye, and ; moved again, he still would 1 not throw off his character ' i ' to notice her. This made ! i' Her Majesty think of some . I :, means by which she might know whether he would, or would not, depart from the S dignity of his character j while on the stage. I i As he was about to make i his exit, the Queen stepped before him, dropped her glove and recrossed the J stage. Shakespeare noticed and picked up the Queen's ; glove. Immediately after j finishing his speech, he ' added: "And though now bent on this high embassy, "Yet stoop we to take up our Cousin's glove!" So aptly were these words delivered that they seemed to belong to his exit speech. He then walked off the stage and presented the glove to the Queen; who was greatly pleased with his behavior, and complimented compli-mented him upon the propriety pro-priety of it. Quite a different anecdote anec-dote about Shakespeare has to do with the man who was preparing a grave for a deceased ecclesiastic. The grave-digger came so close to Shakespeare's coffin cof-fin that he broke away a part of it. A Mr. Wheeler, known as "the ingenious historian of Stratford," was tempted by curiosity to thrust his hand into the coffin and take hold of the bard's skull. He did not, however, presume to disturb it, having hav-ing before him the lines Shakespeare prepared for his own tomb: "Blessed be the man that spares these stones "And curset be he that moves my bones." This is supposed tc have happened about the year 1811. |