SHAKESPEARE IN TIME OF WAR.* We have published several letters

from correspondents giving quotations from Shakespeare's plays applicable to the present war. Mr. Francis Colmor had anticipated this idea by compiling a book of such quotations, and the result is a volume which, to all but Shakespeare pedanta who would not have a line moved from Its context, should prove a source of much entertainment. It is not surprising to us, who regard Shakespeare as the universal advocate and the arch-interpreter of human passions, whether of his own time or any other, that his playa should be found to contain something appro- priate to every phase of the present great struggle. What is a little surprising, and also very amusing, is the ingenuity with which Mr. Colmer has discovered phrases applicable to incidents of the war which are peculiar to our own day, and which at first sight it would have seemed impossible to fit with a suitable quotation. He has done his work with thoroughness and evident enjoyment, and also, we are glad to say, with humour. Further, true to the British temperament, he does not see his country always in the limelight, in shining armour and with sword rattling, but delights in expressing patriotio feeling through passages of more homely eloquence. Take, for example, the chapter headed "This Scepter'd Isle," which suggests its own content. Here he gives us plenty of heroic phrases, magnificent lines from King John, Henry V., and Cymbdine, to name only a few, already well known and well loved, and those, not quite so well known, from 2 Henry VI., J%T j :— " Never yet did base dishonour blur our name But with our sword we wiped away the blob; Therefore, when merchant-like, I sell revenge Broke be my sword, my arms torn and defaced, And I proclaimed a coward thro' the world.'

But he also gives us the following, which express, if we may put it • Shakespeare in Time of War. By Francle Calmer, London: 314E14 Elder, an a Co. Ps. Gd. net.I

so, the everyday patriotism of the man in the street or the soldier in the trenches :— "You must not think That we are made of stuff so fiat and dull That we can let our beard be shook with danger

And think it pastime." —Hernia, IV. vii.

Or again, from Cymbeline, III. i.:— " Britain is

A world by itself, and we will nothing pay For wearing our own noses."

Each chapter has been given its quotation for a heading. "This Confederacy" is a happy title for Britain and her Allies. In regard to Russia, Germany has already proved the .truth of the following lines :—

" If you hunt these bear-whelps, then beware: The dam will wake, and if she wind you once ; She's with the lion deeply still in league."

—Titus Andronicus, IV. I.

Unhappily appropriate to ravaged Belgium are Gonzalo's words from The Tempest, V. i. :—

"All torment, trouble, wonder and amazement

Inhabits hero ; some heavenly power guide its Out of this fearful country."

Belgium thus speaks to Germany :— "I never hurt you ; You drew your sword upon me without cause: But I bespake you fair, and hurt you not."

—Twelfth Night, V. L And Mr. Colmer adds the significant line from King John, III. i. :— " I have a king's oath to the contrary."

Those who in their anxiety for peace seem to overlook this country's commitments to her smaller Allies may note the lines from Timon of Athena, L i., which Mr. Colmer makes Britain address to Serbia :—

" I am not of that feather to shake off My friend when he must need me. . . 'Tis not enough to help the feeble up, But to support him after."

In the portion entitled "Imperious Caesar" the German Emperor is very severely dealt with:— " In his forehead sits A bare-ribbed death, whose office Is this day To feast upon whole thousands of the French." —King John, V.

"Before him he carries noise and behind him he loaves tears."

--Coriolanus, U. 1.

Amazingly apt are the following :— " I told him of the army that was landed.

He smiled at it." —King Lear, IV. ii.

"Holding a. weak supposal of our worth, Or thinking . . . Our state to be disjoint and out of frame, Colleagued with the dream of his advantage."

—Hamlet, I. ii.

And again :— " I think he will carry this island home in his pocket, and give it his son for an apple, And, sowing the kernel of it in the sea, bring forth more islanda."

—The Tempest, IL i.

The Kaiser attempts to justify the savage behaviour of so many of his troops in the words of the sophistical Edmund in King Lear, V. iii.

" Know thou this, that men Are as the time is ; to be tender-minded Does not become a sword " ;

and in the words of the ambitious and headstrong York in the second part of Henry VI., iii. i., plots the Irish rebellion :—

"I will stir up in England some black storm Shall blow ten thousand souls to heaven or hell " Happily the "black storm" did not break in the full fury anticipated by the Imperial conspirator.

The personality of the Kaiser is an easy mark for the satirist, and it was no doubt a comparatively simple matter for Mr. Colmer, as for any enthusiastic Shakespeare student, to discover plenty of high-sounding and arrogant lines for the Kaiser's soliloquies and "The Kaiser to his Troops." It required more ingenuity to make the selections which are grouped under the heading "Merely Players." Here the men who have taken a prominent part in the war—Kings and statesmen, soldiers, sailors, and politicians—British, Allies, neutrals, or the enemy—are fitted with their special phrase. King George and Queen Mary, the Tsar, General Joffre, King Albert, General Botha, and General Cadmus are happily described. Shakespeare's powers of invective and of ridicule are drawn upon for the Crown Prince of Prussia, the Sultan, King Ferdinand of Bulgaria, and other notable figures of "The Skilful and Bloody Opposite "; and the Prime Minister and other members, of the Coalition Government are given interpretation. Thus Mr. Asquith speaks:— " If I am

Tradue'd by ignorant tongues, which neither know My faculties nor person yet will be

The chronicles of my doing, let me say 'Tis but the fate of place, and the rough brake

That virtue must go through." —Henry VIII., L

The lines chosen for Lord Kitchener :

"You have that in your countenance whi .h I would fain call master.— What's that 1—

Authority." —King Lear, I. iv.

are now unhappily in the nature of an epitaph.

What could more happily express Lord Derby's part in the war than the brief dialogue between King Richard III. and Stanley 1—

" Stanley, what news with you ?— Pleaseth your majesty to give me leave, I'll muster up my friends.—

Go, then, and muster men." —Richard III., IV. iv.

Though the passage for Sir David Beatty was, of course, chosen before the battle of Jutland, it is very appropriate to the gallant Admiral's exploits ;— " He hath borne himself beyond the promise of his age, doing in the figure of a lamb the feats of a 'Lion.'"

—Much Ado about Nothing, I. I.

But those who have become prominent on less worthy account arc not overlooked. Mr. Winston Churchill's admirers will hardly agree with Mr. Cohner'e choice of descriptive passage :—

" He speaks plain cannon-fire' and smoke and bounce,

He gives the bastinado with his tongue."—King John, II. I.

And he is happily satirical at the expense of Mr. Pemberton Billing.

"Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high. . . .

• I thought as much ; he'd be above the clouds." —2 Henry VI., IL I.

"Pomp and Circumstance" deals more particularly with things naval and military. The phraseology of war, we note, alters little with the passage of years :— " Have I not heard great ordnance in the field, And heaven's artillery thunder in the skies ?

Have I not in a pitched battle heard Loud larums, neighing steeds, and trumpets' clang ?"

—Taming of the Shrew, L IL

But if they had artillery and "great ordnance," it is certain that the aerial service was unknown. Yet could there be a truer description of moat of us when the buzzing of an aeroplane is heard ?— " A winged messenger of heaven Unto the white-upturned wond'ring eyes Of mortals, that fall back to gaze on him When he bestrides the lazy-pacing clouds, And sails upon the bosom of the air." —Romeo and Juliet, IL II.

Perhaps the most ingenious and amusing of Mr. Colmer's chapters Is "Abstracts and Brief Chronicles," which gives astonishingly apt quotations for some of the details of the war specially peculiar to our own day. What could be more striking than the following in respect of "Notes between Germany and America Concerning the Lusitania " ?— " You undergo too strict a paradox. Striving to make an ugly deed look fair ; Your words have took such pains as if they labour'd To bring manslaughter into form." —Timon of Athens, III. v.

The ministrations of the Red Cross workers are thus expressed :— " From day to day, Visit the speechless sick, and still converse With groaning wretches ; and your task shall be . . . To enforce the pained impotent to smile, To move wild laughter in the throat of death ! "

—Love's Labour's Last, V. IL

That same comedy of Love's Labour's Lost is drawn upon again under "Rumours," when the incident of the Princess and her "frozen Muscovites" is amusingly used to describe a rumour not yet forgotten by us :—

"A mess of Russians left us but of late.—

How, Madam, Russians ?—Aye, in truth, my lord." —Act V. ii.

The Press is not overlooked:— " The Times and titles now are altered strangely." —King Henry Viii., IV. ; though, as will be seen, Mr. Colmer has taken the liberty of italicizing part of the lino. Again:— " What news then in your paper ?- The bleakest news that ever thou heardest.— Why, man, how black ?- Why, as black as ink. —Two Gentlemen of Verona, III. I.

A correspondent has already given us one quotation showing that Shakespeare may be said to have anticipated Zeppelin raids. Among a large number of admirable selections, Mr. Colmer gives the famous lines from Julius Caesar as to "the tempest dropping fire," and from the same play is also taken the following :— " Fierce fiery warriors fought upon the clouds, In ranks and squadrons and right form of war . . . The noise of battle hurtled in the air." —Act II. if.

Government critics are

"Little eyases, that cry out on the top of question, and are most tyrannically clapped for't ; these arc now the fashion, and RO berattle the common stages—so they call them—that many wearing rapiers aro afraid of goose-quills, and dare scarce come thither."

—Hamkt, IL Shakespeare, as may be imagined, is fruitful on recruiting, and a. Kitchener's Armies" easily find expression :— " For who is he, whose chin is but enrich'd With one appearing hair, that will not follow Those cull'd and choice-drawn cavaliers to France?"

—Henry V., IIL Chorus. Or again :-- "In brief, a braver choice of dauntless spirits Than now the English bottoms have waft o'es Did never float upon the swelling tide."

—King John, II. I.

Even modern slang seems to have been anticipated. Of the slacker we are told :— " There can be no kernel in this light nut ; the soul of this man is his clothes." —A /Is 1Vell that Ends Well, II. v.

Here again Mr. Colmer takes the liberty of italics.

Those who, like the Spectator, want to see prohibition in the interests of thrift will be amused by the passage on "Early Closing and Liquor Legislation" :— "But the comfort is, you shall be called to no more payments, fear no more tavern bills ; which are as often the sadness of parting' as the procuring of mirth." —Cymbeline, V. iv.

We have only one quarrel with Mr. Colmer in the choice of hi3 quota- tions. We cannot help feeling that he has done loss than justice to the Volunteer Training Corps and the special constables. Both these bodies, whose members are earnest and self-sacrificing in carrying out the work they have undertaken, are too apt to be the targets of cheap wits and to have their patriotism valued somewhat lightly by the thoughtless. It seems rather hard, therefore, that with regard to tho latter body Dogberry should be the chief spokesman True, there are other extracts, but the great majority come from Much Ado about Nothing, and the general effect of these selections is one of raillery. Englishmen, thank Heaven! can well bear a laugh at themselves, but our admiration of the good—and little known, so unmarked—work of the " specials " makes us demand something a little more heroic for them than the wisdom of the "foolish officers" of Aragon. We do not pretend to have made such exhaustive study of the plays as thst made by Mr. Colmer, but we venture to offer the two following suggestions :— " Here's a goodly watch indeed." —Othello, II.

"This same strict and most observant watch."—Hamlet, I i. The Volunteers are only given three lines, and those, we must confess, a little disappointing. With diffidence wo submit a brief extract from King John, V.

:-

"We swear A voluntary and unurg'd faith."

The book concludes with a group of admirably chosen quotations under the title "Last Scene of All," in which may be found an answer to those who agitate for a premature peace :— " After the slaughter of so many peers, So many captains, gentlemen and soldiers, That in this quarrel have been overthrown, And sold their bodies for their country's benefit, Shall we at last conclude effeminate peace ? "

—1 Henry VI., V. iv.