'SHOTS FROM SHAKSPEARE.'

Daily Telegraph (Napier), Issue 4090, 30 August 1884, Page 6 (Supplement)

'SHOTS FROM SHAKSPEARE.'

The following paper was read at th .meeting recently, of the Melbourne Shakspeare Society, by Mr A. S.'Way, the head master of Wesley College : — ... The selection of our .society's motto, and the searchings of heart of which it was. tho occasion, reminded mo that many and oft our Shakspeare has furnished mottoes for other than his worshippers. If more proofs were wan Led (bat •' he was not for an ag3, but for all time,' not the weakest would be the fact that still ? as in the dajs of our

fathers, scarce an event of interest occurs but Borne quotation from his pages furnishes the neatest and pithiest comment thereon ; no public man stars it upon life's stage, but he maybe ' marked, quoted, and signed,' from tbe same source,;- no little weakness of ourselves or our friends but may be ' proverbed with a grandsire phrase' of Shakespeare'.B coming; no;.fairer tribute can Be paid to beauty than to set upon her brow a i jewel five words long' from the same treasuremine. lam not the first, nor shall be by many a one the last, who has amused himself by thus diving for pearls, and albeit it is but a sorry handful that I have to bring before you to-night, and though, when I have done, my hearers' comment may well bo, in the words of Rosaline's song in ' Love's Labour's lost' — 'Thou canst not hit it, hit it, hit it, Thou canst not hit it, my good man.' Still, I can serenely rejoin, as Boyetdid ' An I cannot, cannot, cannot, in I cannot, another can ;' for I venture to hope that this poor contribution may at least serve as a suggestion to some one whose acquaintance with Shakespeare is not so superficial as mine, and who, for the application thereof, can claim a wider acquaintance with men and things, to go and do, not likewise, but very much better. So shall such an one present to you some day what shall be really worthy of such an assembly, and of him who is the prime occasion of it. One word I would ask leave to say in deprecation of possible misapprehension. I hope none here will take light jesting words in grim, solemn earnest. A quotation, like a metaphor, must not be made to go on all fours ; and, in loosing from the string these tiny arrows upon ourselves, our critics, our rulers, and others within our horizon, I would fain be regarded as, in intention, at least, following the example cf him whose name has cast a spell upon us, the shafts of whoso mirth had ever feathers for ticklin_, but never barbs for rankling : — The Melbourne Shakespeare Society— ' But this is worshipful society.' King John i., 1. ' Tho choice and master spirits of this age.' Jul. C_., iii. 1. The President —

' Captain of our fairy band.' Mid. N. Dream, iii. 2. ' Thou hast most traitorously corrupted the youth of the realm in teaching a grammar school.' King Hen. VI. The Secretary—

' I will be correspondent to command Tempest 1., i. A Lady Member—

' Lo, she is one of this confederacy.' Mid. N. D, iii., I. . ' A child of our grandmother Eve, a female, or, for thy more sweet understanding, a woman.' Lovo's Lab. Lost, i. i. The Vagabond— - _ ' Blown with restless violence round about the pendent world.' Measure for Measure, iii. I.: 'My picked man of cities.' King John, i.,.1. ' The Article in a Certain Daily Paper— .' That's a perilous shot out of an eldergun.' Henry V., iv. I. 'A thing devised by the enemy.' Hen. V., v. 3. 'Shall quips, and sentences, and these paper bullets of. the brain, awe a man from the career of his humor ?' MuchAdo, _~ ii. 3. The Writer of It—

'Let there ,bo gall enough in thy ink, though thou.write with a goose-pen.' , Twelfth Night, iii. 2., • ~*.,,...' •' 'Some galled goose of Winchester:would .hiss.', Tro. and Cress, Epil. ,/,. .- Legislative .Assembly—, : . : ; ..'.. 0 what a world of vile ill : fflvored faults lookshandsome in three hundred pounds a year.' .Merry.W-Windsor, iii. <_ ... The TyriN. Premiers—, ~,;.,- '-...:■■■■. 'Two lovely Berries moulded on ono

sl;em. ...M.- N. Dream, iii. 2. ..." The Father of Australian Federation— ' All made-of..faith—and Service.-'-. As .;, You.Like .It,; v., 2, The Minister of Defence — 'If I be not ashamed of my soldiers, I ,am a soused gurnet,', Hen. IV., Part ; " ' L.iv. 2. Portrait or a Member— 'Methinks he seems no bigger than his head.' King Lear, iv. 6. ..., 'Stretch him out longer.' King Lear, ir. . 3. ;■ . v: , i; . . . ■.:.-. A Certain Junior Member— ,' I have : a kind of alacrity in sinking.' '.M.'.W. Windsor, iii, 5. ,- A Long-winded Member— ■■<■ 'Why what a caterwauling dost thou .'." keep.' ,T,Andi*on., iv. 2. .*.-. , .... ~ ' Ho.drawetjrput the thread _ his verbosity finer than the staple, of his argiir. ment.' Loye'sL...Lost;, y.-1. ; . .-.■;,-. The Member that: Listens to Him— _ have an exposition of sleep come upon me.' M.N.D., iv, I. A Warrior Member—

• 'We'll have a swashing and a martial outside.'. .As You Like It, i. 3. 'Bless thee,.Rottom, bless thee ! thou art translated.', M.N.D., iii. ; ,- The University—, 'Thou hast men about;thee that usually talk of a,noun and.a verb, and such abominable words as no, Christian car can endure to hear,' Henry VI., iv. 7. The Education Commission — ' It shall go hard but I will better the instruction.' M. of Yen., iii. 1. ~ The Catholic Witnesses— '.Thou hast a thing within thee, called conscience.' Tit. And,, v. 1. ; Mb Ellery— ' And yet methinks I have astronomy — pointing to each his thunder, rain, and ■wind.' Sonnets-14. General McTver — . The world's mine oyster, which I with sword will open. M. W. Wind, ii. 2. A Certain , Travelled Judge—, The gracious Queen, part of his theme, but nothing of Lis ill-ta'en suspicion.' Wint. Talc, i. 2. Elizabeth-stjieet—. . , 'The rankest compound of villainous smell that ever offended nostril.' M. W. Wind, iii. 5. ' A savour that would strike the dullest nostril.' Winter's Tale, i. 2. Gladstone— 'A good old man, sir; he will bo talking.' Much Ado, iii. 5. , 'From his all-obeying breath I hear the doom of Egypt.' Ant. and O, iii. 13. ' What a coil is there !' Com, Err., iii. x.

'Your.fine Egyptian cookery.' Ant. and C, ii. 6. Lord Derby—

' I have no spur to prick the sides of my intent.' ; Macbeth, i. 7This Little Contribution—. 'Another, and another ; what, will the line stretch out to the crack of doom ?' Macbeth, iv..l. ; The Reader.of it —. .■-... :'I pfiuse for,a reply. None ? Thon none have I offended.' : J. C.,:iii. 2.