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Article SHAKSPERE, HIS FRIENDS AND ACQUAINTANCES. ← Page 2 of 7 →
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Shakspere, His Friends And Acquaintances.
AVhat pen can write , what tongue can speak of him In terms that seem not lustreless and dim ? Yet turn we ever wondering to the past , To pierce the shroud round Sliakspere ' s greatness cast . How look'd lie in his mortal life ? How spoke Those lips that passions numberless have woke ? How fashion'd was the temple that enshrined
The Mv and matchless jewel oi his mind 1 AVhat was the seeming of his human form , ¦ Ere it became a dweller with the worm ? What were the sources from whose founts lie tlvevr His draughts of knowledge , ever fresh and true ! AVhat volumes came before his studious sight ? Whose leaves for him bore fruits of wise delight 1 AAlio were the co-mates of that wondrous man ,
AA ho knew alike both prince and artizan ? With equal skill he painted mirth , and woe—What joys were his ? what sorrows did ho know ? Alike he knew the smallest , greatest things , The schemes of pedlars , and the plots of kings , The buoyant hopes of youth , tire cares of age , Tho quips of jester , and the saws of sage . With fairy elves lis fill'd the mystic
green , Or cast his spells o ' er some enchanted scene ; For him the past gave up its mighty dead , And heroes paced again with mailed tread ; Ho waved at will his ever-potent wand , And forms appear'd from known and unknown land . "
They Avho lgnorantly imagine that our great dramatist Avas unappreciated in his own day and generation , and is never mentioned by contemporary Avriters , have yet to study our glorious Elizabethan literature . Ancl yet , as Ralph Waldo Emerson AveU observes : — " There is somewhat touching in the madness with which the passing age mischooses the object ou which all candles shine , and all eyes are turned : the care with which it registers every trifle touching Queen Elizabeth and King James , and the Essexes , Leicesters , Burleighs , and Buckinglmms ; and lots pass
without a single valuable note the founder of another dynasty , which alone will cause the Tudor dynasty to be remembered—the . man who carries the Saxon race in him by the inspiration which feeds him , ancl on whose thoughts the foremost people of the world are now for some ages to be nourished , and their minds to receive this and not another bias . A popular player—nobody suspected he was the poet of the human race ; and the secret was kept as faithfully from poets and intellectual men as from courtiersand frivolous people Bacon , Avho took the inventory of the human understanding for his time , never mentioned his name . Ben Jonson , though we have strained his few words of regard and panegyric , had no suspicion of tho elastic fame whoso first vibrations he was attempting . He no doubt thought the praise he has conceded to him generous , and esteemed himself , out of all question , the better poet of the two . "
But despite the Avant of a BosAvell to record for posterity the sayings and doings of him Avhose name , as Hallam has it , "is the greatest in our literature—is the greatest in all literature "—though the cloud of obscurity hanging about his personal history will , now , in all probability , never be altogether removed ( yet one cannot say what documents are yet remaining , lying , like useless lumber , rotting amidst dust and dampness , which only need a Brother Payne Collier ' s penetration to throw additional light on this
important subject ) , Ave are able to gather together a feAV particulars relating to some of those persons Avith ivhom he must frequently have come in contact , either as friends or otherivise . Next to knowing a man himself , one always has a pleasure in being familiar Avith his friends , and even his casual acquaintances—like the man who had seen a man Avho had seen the king ! For they Avho had met Avith the player Shakspere , had seen one mi ghtier and nobler than all the eroAvried sovereigns of tho kingdoms of the earth , — :
" One of those giant minds , who , from the mass Of millions , soar aloft , and spurn control . * * * He was one Born to ascend superior over all ! A monument of greatness , and—alone ! An intellectual monarch , with the mind his throne . " Join ; YVALKF . U OHD .
Note: This text has been automatically extracted via Optical Character Recognition (OCR) software.
Shakspere, His Friends And Acquaintances.
AVhat pen can write , what tongue can speak of him In terms that seem not lustreless and dim ? Yet turn we ever wondering to the past , To pierce the shroud round Sliakspere ' s greatness cast . How look'd lie in his mortal life ? How spoke Those lips that passions numberless have woke ? How fashion'd was the temple that enshrined
The Mv and matchless jewel oi his mind 1 AVhat was the seeming of his human form , ¦ Ere it became a dweller with the worm ? What were the sources from whose founts lie tlvevr His draughts of knowledge , ever fresh and true ! AVhat volumes came before his studious sight ? Whose leaves for him bore fruits of wise delight 1 AAlio were the co-mates of that wondrous man ,
AA ho knew alike both prince and artizan ? With equal skill he painted mirth , and woe—What joys were his ? what sorrows did ho know ? Alike he knew the smallest , greatest things , The schemes of pedlars , and the plots of kings , The buoyant hopes of youth , tire cares of age , Tho quips of jester , and the saws of sage . With fairy elves lis fill'd the mystic
green , Or cast his spells o ' er some enchanted scene ; For him the past gave up its mighty dead , And heroes paced again with mailed tread ; Ho waved at will his ever-potent wand , And forms appear'd from known and unknown land . "
They Avho lgnorantly imagine that our great dramatist Avas unappreciated in his own day and generation , and is never mentioned by contemporary Avriters , have yet to study our glorious Elizabethan literature . Ancl yet , as Ralph Waldo Emerson AveU observes : — " There is somewhat touching in the madness with which the passing age mischooses the object ou which all candles shine , and all eyes are turned : the care with which it registers every trifle touching Queen Elizabeth and King James , and the Essexes , Leicesters , Burleighs , and Buckinglmms ; and lots pass
without a single valuable note the founder of another dynasty , which alone will cause the Tudor dynasty to be remembered—the . man who carries the Saxon race in him by the inspiration which feeds him , ancl on whose thoughts the foremost people of the world are now for some ages to be nourished , and their minds to receive this and not another bias . A popular player—nobody suspected he was the poet of the human race ; and the secret was kept as faithfully from poets and intellectual men as from courtiersand frivolous people Bacon , Avho took the inventory of the human understanding for his time , never mentioned his name . Ben Jonson , though we have strained his few words of regard and panegyric , had no suspicion of tho elastic fame whoso first vibrations he was attempting . He no doubt thought the praise he has conceded to him generous , and esteemed himself , out of all question , the better poet of the two . "
But despite the Avant of a BosAvell to record for posterity the sayings and doings of him Avhose name , as Hallam has it , "is the greatest in our literature—is the greatest in all literature "—though the cloud of obscurity hanging about his personal history will , now , in all probability , never be altogether removed ( yet one cannot say what documents are yet remaining , lying , like useless lumber , rotting amidst dust and dampness , which only need a Brother Payne Collier ' s penetration to throw additional light on this
important subject ) , Ave are able to gather together a feAV particulars relating to some of those persons Avith ivhom he must frequently have come in contact , either as friends or otherivise . Next to knowing a man himself , one always has a pleasure in being familiar Avith his friends , and even his casual acquaintances—like the man who had seen a man Avho had seen the king ! For they Avho had met Avith the player Shakspere , had seen one mi ghtier and nobler than all the eroAvried sovereigns of tho kingdoms of the earth , — :
" One of those giant minds , who , from the mass Of millions , soar aloft , and spurn control . * * * He was one Born to ascend superior over all ! A monument of greatness , and—alone ! An intellectual monarch , with the mind his throne . " Join ; YVALKF . U OHD .