BUT there is a wonderful fact connected with the writings of
Shakespeare: In the Plays there is no direct mention of any of his
contemporaries. We do not know of any poet, author, soldier, sailor,
statesman, priest, nobleman, king, or queen, that Shakespeare directly
mentioned.
Is it not marvelous that he, living in an age of great deeds, of
adventures in far-off lands and unknown seas--in a time of religious
wars--in the days of the Armada--the massacre of St. Bartholomew--the
Edict of Nantes--the assassination of Henry III.--the victory of
Lepanto--the execution of Marie Stuart--did not mention the name of any
man or woman of his time? Some have insisted that the paragraph ending
with the lines: "The imperial votress passed on in maiden meditation
fancy-free," referred to Queen Elizabeth; but it is impossible for me
to believe that the daubed and wrinkled face, the small black eyes,
the cruel nose, the thin lips, the bad teeth, and the red wig of Queen
Elizabeth could by any possibility have inspired these marvelous lines.
It is perfectly apparent from Shakespeare's writings that he knew but
little of the nobility, little of kings and queens. He gives to these
supposed great people great thoughts, and puts great words in their
mouths and makes them speak--not as they really did--but as Shakespeare
thought such people should. This demonstrates that he did not know them
personally.
Some have insisted that Shakespeare mentions Queen Elizabeth in the
last scene of Henry VIII. The answer to this is that Shakespeare did not
write the last scene in that Play. The probability is that Fletcher was
the author.
Shakespeare lived during the great awakening of the world, when Europe
emerged from the darkness of the Middle Ages, when the discovery of
America had made England, that blossom of the Gulf-Stream, the centre
of commerce, and during a period when some of the greatest writers,
thinkers, soldiers and discoverers were produced.
Cervantes was born in 1547, dying on the same day that Shakespeare died.
He was undoubtedly the greatest writer that Spain has produced. Rubens
was born in 1577. Camoens, the Portuguese, the author of the _Lusiad_,
died in 1597. Giordano Bruno--greatest of martyrs--was born in
1548--visited London in Shakespeare's time--delivered lectures at
Oxford, and called that institution "the widow of learning." Drake
circled the globe in 1580. Galileo was born in 1564--the same year
with Shakespeare. Michael Angelo died in 1563. Kepler--he of the Three
Laws--born in 1571. Calderon, the Spanish dramatist, born in 1601.
Corneille, the French poet, in 1606. Rembrandt, greatest of painters,
1607. Shakespeare was born in 1564. In that year John Calvin died. What
a glorious exchange!
Seventy-two years after the discovery of America Shakespeare was born,
and England was filled with the voyages and discoveries written by
Hakluyt, and the wonders that had been seen by Raleigh, by Drake, by
Frobisher and Hawkins. London had become the centre of the world, and
representatives from all known countries were in the new metropolis. The
world had been doubled. The imagination had been touched and kindled by
discovery. In the far horizon were unknown lands, strange shores beyond
untraversed seas. Toward every part of the world were turned the prows
of adventure. All these things fanned the imagination into flame,
and this had its effect upon the literary and dramatic world. And
yet Shakespeare--the master spirit of mankind--in the midst of these
discoveries, of these adventures, mentioned no navigator, no general, no
discoverer, no philosopher.
Galileo was reading the open volume of the sky, but Shakespeare did not
mention him. This to me is the most marvelous thing connected with this
most marvelous man.
At that time England was prosperous--was then laying the foundation of
her future greatness and power.
When men are prosperous, they are in love with life. Nature grows
beautiful, the arts begin to flourish, there is work for painter and
sculptor, the poet is born, the stage is erected--and this life with
which men are in love, is represented in a thousand forms.
Nature, or Fate, or Chance prepared a stage for Shakespeare, and
Shakespeare prepared a stage for Nature.
Famine and faith go together. In disaster and want the gaze of man is
fixed upon another world. He that eats a crust has a creed. Hunger falls
upon its knees, and heaven, looked for through tears, is the mirage
of misery. But prosperity brings joy and wealth and leisure--and the
beautiful is born.
One of the effects of the world's awakening was Shakespeare. We account
for this man as we do for the highest mountain, the greatest river, the
most perfect gem. We can only say: He was.
"It hath been taught us from the primal state
That he which is was wished until he were."