THE FRANCO-GERMANIC WAR.

Nelson Evening Mail, Volume VI, Issue 76, 31 March 1871, Page 2

THE FRANCO- GERMANIC W AR.

WITH SOME NOTES ON THE ACTORS THEREIN BY WILLIAM SHAKSPERE. (From the Cape Argus.) Amongst the many theories started in connection with the development and operation of Shakspere's marvellous genius, no one, in so far as we know, has origin^ed the idea that our greatest of writers w^j. Prophet as well as a Poet. Amongst the bards of the earlier ages both offices were held to be conjoined, amongst the Latins under the term of Fates, and up to the present day the highest poetical faculty is still held to include some portion of the prophetic spirit, or the power of seeing into the future. We are not about to originate a new theory regarding Shakspere ; we only offer the following quotations to the study of the ingenious to make what they like of them, merely remarking that many a pretentious argument as to this writer has been based on much more slender grounds than these passages afford. The professed cause aud origin of the war is thus fitly commended on : — Good Lord, what madness rules in brainsick men. When for so flight and frivolous a cause Such factious emulations shall arise-— Henri/ VI. Then we have a warning as to the consequences of the quarrel — a warning as it were coming from England: We charge you in the name of God, take heed ; For never two such kingdoms did contend Without much fall of blood — whose guiltless drops Are every one a woe — a sore complaint 'Gainst him whose wrongs give edge unto the swords That make such waste in brief mortality. — Henry V. Tho following remark, coming from Dame Quickly concerning another matter, may be taken as giving the sense of an ordinary observer in this country : By my troth, this is the old fashion* You two never meet but you fall to some discord ; you are both, i' good truth, as rheumatic as two dry toasts ; you cannot one bear with another's con6rmities. The astute Bismarck, laboriously working out his notions regarding German unity, may be supposed to have anticipated what was coming — I will lay odds that, ere the year ex^iA^ We bear our civil swords and native <?P3, As far as France. I heard a bird so sing, Whose music, to my thinking, pleased the King.— Henry IV. In the case of the subjoined passages it is only necessary to substitute for the names of King John and Chatillon, those of King William and the French Ambassador, and the situation is complete — K. John. — Here have we war for war, and blood for blood. Controlment for controlment — so answer France. For remainder of news see fourth page.

Chatillon. — Then take my King's defiance from my mouth. The furthest limit of my embassy. K. John. — Bear mine to him, and so depart in peace. Be thou as lightning in the eyes of France, For e'er thou canst report I will he there, The thunder of my cannon shall be heard ; So hence ! Be thou the trumpet of our wrath. And sullen presage of your own decay. — K. John. Then we have from Prince Henry a very spirited address to his father, exactly suited to the occasion — My most redoubted father, It is most meet we arm against the foe ; For peace itself should not so dull a kingdom. Though war nor no known quarrel were in question. But that defences, musters, preparations, Should be maintained, assembled, and collected, As were a war in expectation. Therefore, I say, 'tis meet we all go forth To view the sick and feeble parts of France; And let us do it with no show of fear. — Henry V. King William adds, knowing that the French Chambers had gone into the war " with a light heart" — This is a merry message ; We hope to make the sender blush for it — King John. And Von Moltke makes a few pertinent remarks : — By how much unexpected, by so much We must awake endeavour for defence ; For courage mounteth with occasion. — King John. An army have I mustered in my thoughts, Wherewith already France is overrun. — Henry VI. Regarding the conduct of the war, when once entered on, it seems only justice to the Germans to believe that the instructions issued to the soldiery were not unlike what follows: — We give express charge that in our march through the country there be nothing compelled from the villages, nothing taken but paid for, none of the French upbraided or abused in disdainful language ; for when lenity and cruelty play for a kingdom, the gentler gamester is the soonest winner. — Henry V. The French are made to confess of the Crown Prince, as the war makes progress, that of the Germans — He is their god ,• he leads them like a thing Made by some other deity than nature. That shapes man better ; and they follow him Against us brats, with no less confidence Than boys pursuing summer butterflies, Or butchers killing flies. — Coriolanus. The position of McMahon at Sedan is faithfully delineated: — My^thoughts are whirled like a potter's wheel : I know not where I am nor what to do. — Henihj Vl' On either hand thee there are squadrons pitched To wall thee from the liberty of flight ; And no way canst thou turn thee for redress, But death doth front thee with apparent spoil. And pale destruction, meets thee in the face, Now the time has come That France must vail her lofty plumed crest— Henry VI Shakspere had a remarkable power of hitting off such characters as Louis Napoleon. First, the now fallen Emperor receives a warning ; Shakspere, in his mind's eye had seen the coup d'etat with the murder of French citizens, and he says in the person of King JohnThere is no sure foundation set in blood ; No certain life achieved by other's death. His position as French ruler is also shortly described :— He hath no friends but who are friends for fear. — Richard 111. A cutpurse of the empire and the rule, That from a shelf the precious diadem stole, And put it in his pocket. — Hamlet And the moral is given of his whole career — Thus hath the course of justice wheel'd about, And left thee but a very prey to time ; Having no more but. thought of what thou wert, To torture thee the more, being what thou art. There is more of this. Shakspere allows us to have a glimpse of Louis Napoleon as prisoner--

3- E'en such a man, so faint, so spiritless, 3t So dull, so dead in look, so woe-bogone, Drew Priam's curtain in the dead of night, 10 And would have told him half his Troy was burnt. — Henry IF. 3, Afterwards supplying him with some » appropriate reflections : — ' There's nothing in this world can make me ir . ° joy. Life is as tedious as a twice told tale, Vexing the dull ear of a drowsy man ; And bitter shame hath spoil'd the sweel a world's taste. y That it yields nought but shame and bitterness. — King John. Of comfort no man can speak. Let's talk of graves, and worms, and a epitaphs ; Make dust our paper, and with rainy eyea c Write sorrow on the bosom of the earth, Let's choose executors, and talk of wills ; And yet not so, for what can we bequeath _ Save our deposed bodies to the ground ? Richard 11. Very characteristic indeed is the wish of ti the exile : I I hope to see London once ere I die. Henry IV. Nor has our great master of the science of human nature missed the quondam Empress. All being over in France, she gets an advice — ■ _ Madame, bethink you, like a careful mother, Of the young Prince, 3'our son ; send straight for him. — Richard 111. Xi Shakspere, most benign and merciful of men, has much pity for Eugenic, as is shown in a short colloquy in Henry VIII. A. — Alas ! pcor lady. She's a stranger now again. B. — So much the more . Must pity drop upon her. Verily, I swear, 'tis better to he lowly born, And range with humble lovers in content, Than to be perch'd up in a glistering grief, J And wear a golden sorrow. 5 A. — Our conteut is our best having. — t Henry VIII The Prince Imperial is dismissed in two . short quotations : ■ You green boy shall have no snn to ripe ; The bloom that promises a mighty fruit.-— King John. ; A. — How does your little son, 1 B. — He had rather see the swords and hear a drum, Than look upon his schoolmasters. . C. — 0' my word, the father's son — I'll swear 'tis a very pretty boy. — Coriolanus. The condition of Paris in the prospect ' of a siege is not overlooked — Truly, the souls of men are full of dread. , You cannot reason almost with a man That looks not heavily and full of fear. — Richard. 111. Nor is the determined courage of the people under the dire misfortune — , The sea enraged is not half so deaf. Lions more confident, mountains and rocks More free from motion, no, not death itself In mortal fury half so peremptory, As we to keep this city. — King John, The cry is still " They come." Our castle's strength Will laugh a siege to scorn ; here let them lie Till famine or the ague eat them up. — Macbeth. Shakspere had never the least faith in the government of the multitude, and the ■ following reference to Jack Cade shows his opinion of the republic now attempted to be set up in France — A. — I tell thee Jack Cade the clothier ' means to dress the Commonwealth and turn ■ it, and set a new Nap upon it. 1 B. — So he had need, for it is thread-bare. , — Henry VI. Here are three small sketches of minor characters in the drama — M. OLLIVIER. Away, slight man ! — Julius Caesar. ) M. THIERS ON HIS MISSION. The- time is out of joint. 0, cursed spite, . That ever I was born to set it right. — Hamlet. 'm. benedetti. This is a slight unmeritable man, 1 Fit to be sent on errands. — Julius Ctesar. VICTOR HUGO IN PARIS. Thh whirligig of time brings its revenges * (? rejerence.) The wheel has come full circle — I am here. — Lear. In conclusion come the positions of the reporters of the war and the newspapers : — THE BEPORTER. Sad tidings bring I to you out of France — Of lois, of slaughter, of discomfiture. — - Henry VI. 1 THE NEWSPAPERS. IU blows the wind that profits nobody.— Henry VL