4
LOUISBURG ECHOES.
BOOK REVIEWS.
Among the recent books, only a few need
be mentioned. The last work of H. G. Wells
was a novel—Anne Veronica. We would
consider this great, if we could forget his
masterpiece, “Tono-Bungay.” It is hard to
believe these were written by the same hand.
You will, doubtless, notice how similarly Mr.
Wells’s characteristic and delightful render
ings of our self-known, but not always ac
knowledged, human nature are sparsely scat
tered through its otherwise barren pages.
It Is somewhat of a weak-knee story of
a young English woman’s venture in cutting
cross lots after self-fulflllment. and seems to
have brought something of a hornet’s nest of
criticism around the author’s ears.
* * *
“Actions and Reactions” is Mr. Kipling’s
latest work. This book comes like a cold
douche upon the faith kindled by hisearlier
volumes. The story illustrates the inherent
weakness which is steadily vitiating the work
of this splendidly equipped writer.
* * *
William De Morgan’s latest novel is “It
Never Can Happen Again.” In it is the im
plied faith that life is good; that art is un
trammeled, and that where they are met to
gether, there is joy in the midst of them,
t • *
“There She Blows,” by James Cooper
Wheeler, is an old-fashioned whaling yarn,
told with every appearance of guileless ver
acity, and, therefore, it furnishes amusement
for little people especially.
• * *
“Anne of Avonlea,” a sequel to L. M. Mont
gomery’s “Anne of Green Gables,” deserves,
and will, dotbtless. receive a whole-hearted
welcome from all young ladies of her own
age.
* * •
“The Southerner,” by Walter H. Page, is
a book breathing the spirit of the “New
South,” and, therefore, meeting a cold recep
tion from Southerners of the old type. It is
a work for the South by a man of the South,
aad Is full of a wholesome love of his land
and a fearleea expreselon of her needs.
Contributions
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AN APl'RECIATION OF SHAKESPEARE.
'rhe “Conference Quartette” gave two con
certs here recently, the proceeds from which
were very generously ■ donated to the Build
ings Fund of Louisiburg College. The Quar
tette, composed of Revs. Charles E. Vale,
James H. Frizelle, A. J. Parker, and Mr.
Robert M. Phillips, was assisted by Miss Mat
tie Young, of Dunn, whose readings were
very fine, and Dr. and Mrs. A. H. Fleming,
Miss Sallie Williams, and Mr. J. A. Turner,
of Louisburg. Larg# audiences greeted them
on both occasions, and the concerts were a
delight to music lovers.
Evlyn Clark.
Never has the breadth of human sympathy
been recognized so forcibly or expressed so
well as in Shakespeare’si writings. “Sympa
thy puts sun and moon and stars in the sky
of knowledge,” and Shakespeare sympathizes
with all mankind. Not only the courtier but
the peasant finds a place in his kind and be
nevolent heart. His is not an affected sym
pathy, but that of a close observer who knows
the innermost passion of real life and can
put these feelings into words.
We descend very far in the social scale
when we enter the tavern at Eastcheap and
listen to the conversation of the Dame Quickly
with Falstaff.
“Thou didst swear to me upon a parcel
gilt goblet, sitting in my Dolphin chamber, at
the round table, by a real coal fire, upon
Wednesday in Wheeson week, when the
prince broke thy head for likening his father
to a singing-man of Windsor, thou didst
swear to me then as I was washing thy
wound, to marry me and make me my lady,
thy wife. Canst thou deny it? Did not good
wife Keech, the butcher’s wife, come in then
and call me gossip Quickly—coming in to
borrow a mess of vinegar; telling us she had
a good dish of prawns; whereby thou didst
desire to eat some; whereby I told thee they
were ill for a green wound?”
Not only is he a sympathizer of both sexes
in general, but he knows them separately.
Nowhere can we find a man who knows wom
ankind as he did. He has delved down into
the soul of woman and brought to light emo
tions that she hardly realized herself.
Throughout all of Shakespeare’s wrlUngs
are seen the effects of close observation. HI*
love for the beauty of Nature is shown not
only in his notice of the sUlwart oak, but of
the dainty, modest violet which Is as dear to
him. Flowers play a prominent part In his
work.
In “Mid-Summer Night’s Dream” we hare
a scene in a wood near Athens. The fairy
Puck meets a fairy fellow, who answers his
query, “Whither wander you?” in the follow
ing words
"I do wander everywhere
And I serve the fairy queen
The cowslips tall her pensioners be-
In their gold coats spots you see-
Those be rubles, fairy favours.
In those freckles live their savours
I must go seek some dewdrops here
And hang a pearl in every cowslip’s e^r.”
What more minute descripUon of a ilower’s
different parts and their usee could wo wish
than that which the fairy sings out? Later
on in this same scene, Oberon, the fairy king,
sends Puck for what he calls;
“A little western flower.
Before milk white, now purple with love’s,
wound.
And maiden’s call it love in idlenees.”
Puck finds the flower, which Is no other
than the pansy, or “love in vain,” and on.
presenting it to the king, is answered thus:
“I pray thee give it me,
I know a bank where the wild thyme blows.
Where oxlips and the nodding violet grows
Quite over canopied with lustrous wood
bine.
With sweet musk roses and eglantine.
There sleeps Titania sometime of the night.
Lull’d in these flowers with dances delight.”
It is true that some other writers have
possessed more cold intellect than this one,,
but where in their writings is shown the
thorough knowledge of every side of human
nature as in Shakespeare? Marlowe could
write tragedy, as is shown in Dr. Faustus;
Jonson could write realistic comedy, as is-
found in “Every Man in His Humor”; but
only Shakespeare has been supreme in both
departments of the drama. He would have
stood among the best writers of his time had
he never written a play, for his Sonnets are
among the best in English literature. Yet
he left not a subject untouched by his pen,
nor did he fail in any of them.
Shakespeare wrote in a time when every
thing was undergoing a great change, for a
long time Europe had been asleep, as far as
literature was concerned, but the discovery
of the New World, the Renaissance and other
things of interest, came upon England at the
same time. In this period the superlative
was possible, and this tended to exaggeration,
therefore this was one of his early faults.
From some of his plays you would think-
that he has a depraved conception of womMr
that he makes her a flickle play-thinc; hut In
"Cymbellne,” for inetance, Imogen te on# of
the nobleet type« of true and constant wom
anhood.
Nevertheleea, as JoBcon Mys, “Ha waa not
of an age, but for all time”; he has had »
great influence over the Uvea of every K®®'
eration since his time. No person can read or
study his works withoat having awakened 1b
him a more sympathetic nature and a broader,
nobler view of life.
WHITTIEK A« A NATURE l>OET.
When we look at Whittier’s home sur
roundings we are not surprised to find that
i^ature is the predominant element in his
poetry, nor that religion is another factor.
Whittier was born and bred a farmer’s boy
of New Englasd. He lived in the midst of
nature’s beauties, and learned to appreciate