SHAKESPEARE AND THE EMPIRE. [TO 11IR EDITOR OF TUB "SPECTATOR."]
Sin.—At this time of his Tercentenary every one is apt to ponder as to Shakespeare's views on the questions of to-day. His truisms on war, peace, trade, suffering, and joy are being daily repeated and discussed, but it appears to have escaped notice that he never referred to our Empire, the central device on whose flag is the Red Cross of St. George, en whose Feast Day he both VMS born and died. The popular attitude towards an Empire in his time is "mirrored" in the following quotations : "Had Henry got an Empire by his marriage, And all the wealthy kingdoms of the West."
2 Hen. Vt., I., i., 153.
" Pal. They [Mistress Page and Mistress Ford] shall be Exchequers to me; they shall be my East and West Indies."—Mer. W iv., I., iii., 78.
Shakespeare refers again to our tropical Dominions when he makes Maria describe Malvolio as "Smiling his face into more lines than are in the new map with
the augmentation of the Indies."—Twelfth Night, 84.
The other Britains in the sub-tropical and temperate zones were, how- ever, unknown to him. To what would he have compared the immense opportunities and limitless resources of Australia (as King George recently described them) had he lived to-day ? And how would he have regarded the beauties of New Zealand and the rolling prairies of Canada ? Who can tell ? Carlyle foresaw the day a thousand years hence when Shakespeare will be the rallying sign of the Empire "radiant aloft over all the nations of Englishmen." Whether these young countries will produce another Shakespeare within the next three centuries, who can tell ? They have already brought forth poets, orators, statesmen, and administrators of conspicuous ability. Such a one born in the fulness of time, a Shakespeare of the Empire just as our Bard three centuries ago was the Swan of the English, would have a wider theme. The effect of his writings on our future destiny is a ripe 'object for speculation at the present time.—I am, Sir, &c., 33 Oriental Street, Poplar, E., THOS. E. SEDOWICK. Eve of Bt. George's Day.
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