A IAME GHOST OF SHAKESPEARE!

Gisborne Standard and Cook County Gazette, Volume IV, Issue 503, 6 September 1890, Page 2

A IAME GHOST OF SHAKESPEARE!

[TO THE BDIIOB. ] Sir, —If the great Shakespeare were to return to the flesh and see the letter which, in your last issue, appears above his noble signature, 1 wonder would he blush for shame, or merely give a piteous glance in the direction of the writer. I think the latter

would be the course of his conduct, and if I were a directly interested party mine should be the same. Aa lam not, I ask leave for a few words of reply to one who has, in his own imaginatl n, put on the mantle of one to whom any intelligent man would gladly bow. I know nothing, and care aa much, about the cause which led to Shakespeare’s retirement from what he sneeringly alludes to as the street gospel brigade, but this any one can judge by reading hie letter, that his after conduct proves that the Army captain acted with wise discretion in the matter. The correspondent says that women of culture do not join the ranks, and I think It would be as well if that were really the ease if women of culture would turn round and use their pen in disparagement as it has been proved that some men of culture will do. I have done the penance of listening to the prosy utterances (strung with jaworeaklng words) of one who would set up to be a man of culture, and I have also had the pleasure to sit and listen to the pure flow of eimp'e yet fervent language, by a lady—yes, a lady, though I never heard her play the piano—and I can say that If it were possible to spiritually move such a one as myself, the •'uncultured ” lady would succeed, where the prosy, cultured man would drive one from the funereal-like, oheerleM room that he would succeed in making of the meetinghouse, out into ths street nr into. the questionable pleasures of the taproom. If wa really want culture, or what Shakespeare would have us believe is culture (I was under the impression it was Christianity pure and simple the Army taught), we can go to the churches, for in some of them lam sure there is as much standoffishness and culture as would suit any starched and cultured man.—l am. <fec., SzsrPITHtREB. [Further correipondance on this subject cannot be permitted.—Ed.J