_Macbeth_ represents ambition, linked with superstition and weakness of
will; the fruit is an evil brood--remorse struggles with desire for
power, affection is torn by the malign influence of guilt, as seen in
the unhinging of Lady Macbeth's mind. No one should miss the opportunity
to see a great actor or a great actress in _Macbeth_--it is a revelation
of the deeps of human tragedy. _King Lear_ is the tragedy of old age,
the same tragedy that Balzac drew in _Le Pere Goriot_, save that Lear
becomes bitter, and after weathering the storm of madness, wreaks
vengeance on his unnatural daughters. Old Goriot, one of the most
pathetic figures in all fiction, goes to his grave trying to convince
the world that his heartless girls really love him.
The real hero of _Julius Caesar_ is Brutus, done to death by men of
lesser mold and coarser natures, who take advantage of his lack of
practical sense and knowledge of human nature. This play is seldom put
on the stage in recent years, but it is always a treat to follow it when
depicted by good actors. _Othello_ is the tragedy of jealousy working
upon the mind of a simple and noble nature, which is quick to accept the
evil hints of Iago because of its very lack of knowledge of women. Iago
is the greatest type of pure villainy in all literature, far more
vicious than Goethe's Mephistopheles, because he wreaks his power over
others largely from a satanic delight in showing his skill and resources
in evil. As a play _Othello_ is the most perfectly constructed of
Shakespeare's works. Finally in _Antony and Cleopatra_ Shakespeare shows
the disintegrating force of guilty love, which does not revolt even when
the Egyptian Queen ruins her lover's cause by unspeakable cowardice.
Cleopatra is the great siren of literature, and the picture of her
charms is fine verse.
And here let me advise the hearing of good actors in Shakespeare as a
means of culture. All the great Shakespearean actors are gone, but
Mantell remains, and he, though not equal to Booth, is, to my mind, far
more convincing than Irving. Mantell's Lear is the essence of great
acting--something to recall with rare pleasure. Edwin Booth I probably
saw in _Hamlet_ a score of times in twice that many years, but never did
I see him without getting some new light on the melancholy Dane. Even on
successive nights Booth was never just the same, as his mood tinged his
acting. His sonorous voice, his perfect enunciation, his graceful
gestures, above all his striking face, alive with the light of
genius--these are memories it is a delight to recall.
To develop appreciation of Shakespeare I would advise reading the plays
aloud. In no other way will you be able to savor the beauty and the
melody of the blank verse. It was my good fortune while an undergraduate
at Cornell University to be associated for four years with Professor
Hiram Corson, then head of the department of English literature. Corson
believed in arousing interest in Shakespeare by reading extracts from
the best plays, with running comment on the passages that best
illustrated the poet's command of all the resources of blank verse. His
voice was like a fine organ, wonderfully developed to express every
emotion, and I can recall after nearly forty years as though it were but
yesterday the thrilling effect of these readings. No actor on the stage,
with the single exception of Edwin Booth, equaled Corson in beauty of
voice or in power of expression.
The result of these readings, with the comment that came from a mind
stored with Shakespearean lore, was to stir one's ambition to study the
great plays. Recalling the liberal education that came from Corson's
readings, I have been deeply sorry for college students whom I have seen
vainly trying to appreciate Shakespeare's verse as read by professors
with harsh, rasping, monotonous voices that killed the beauty of rhyme
and meter as a frost kills a fine magnolia blossom breathing perfume
over a garden. When will college presidents awake to the fact that book
learning alone cannot make a successful professor of English literature,
when the man is unable to bring out the melody of the verse? Similar
folly is shown by the theological schools that continue to inflict upon
the world preachers whose faulty elocution makes a mock of the finest
passages of the Bible.
In my own case my tireless study of Shakespeare during four years at
college, which included careful courses of reading and study during the
long vacations, so saturated my mind with the great plays that they have
been ever since one of my most cherished possessions. After years of
hard newspaper work it is still possible for me to get keen pleasure
from reading aloud to myself any of Shakespeare's plays. My early study
of Shakespeare led me to look up every unfamiliar word, every phrase
that was not clear. This used to be heavy labor, but now all the school
and college editions are equipped with these aids to the student. The
edition of Shakespeare which always appealed to me most strongly was the
Temple edition, edited by Israel Gollancz. It is pocket size,
beautifully printed and very well edited. For a companion on a solitary
walk in city or country no book is superior to one of Shakespeare's
plays in this convenient Temple edition, bound in limp leather.
The best edition of Shakespeare in one volume is, to my mind, the
Cambridge edition, issued by the Houghton Mifflin Company of Boston,
uniform with the same edition of other English and American poets. This,
of course, has only a few textual notes, but it has a good glossary of
unusual and obsolete words. It makes a royal octavo volume of one
thousand and thirty-six double-column pages, clearly printed in
nonpareil type.
In this chapter I have been able only to touch on the salient features
of the work of the foremost English poet and dramatist, and, in my
judgment, the greatest writer the world has ever seen. If these words of
mine stimulate any young reader to take up the study of Shakespeare I
shall feel well repaid. Certainly, with the single exception of the
Bible, no book will reward a careful, loving study so well as
Shakespeare.