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Shakespeare treated it. The English dramatist's adaptation. The purpose of the story according to Arthur Brooke, Shakespeare's change of that purpose. The added characters, the nurse and Mercutio, their relation to the plot, and their significance. Juliet's age and the youth of Shakespeare's heroines. His sense of their responsibility in life. The speech Shakespeare came back to rewrite.

AN INTELLECTUAL WOMAN.-The original story of the Jew of Venice. Shakespeare's modifications. Two centuries' interpretation of the play and the modern change of view. Shakespeare's works so close to the heart of nature that it stands either interpretation. Portia as Shakespeare's idea of a woman of the Renaissance. Her cleverness, intellectual acumen, and ready wit. The men bright women love and Bassanio's contrasting commonplaceness. Truth of Portia's character to tradition of Renaissance women. The mercy speech as the expression of feminine ethical ideas.

A WOMAN WHO WON.-Shakespeare's maturity when life looked all happy and the three great comedies represented his feelings. "As you like it." The Forest of Arden and Shakespeare's mother. Rosalind the favorite character of the dramatist. Love finds a way to right all wrongs. The cynic and the lovers. Only nature's trials remain in life for those who read its lessons aright.

A WOMAN WHO FAILED.-An old medieval story and the eternal problem of man's destiny and the significance of life. Ophelia's place in the web of fate at Elsinore. The homemaker's tragedy. Hamlet's love for Ophelia. Her entrance just after the expression of the climax of despairing thought in Hamlet's soliloquy. Her little lie and its consequences. The inevitable, unmitigated tragedy. Ophelia's death and the art and truth to life of Shakespeare's development of the characters and of the plot in which they were so hopelessly involved.

A WOMAN WHO LOST.-All human life a tragedy in its incompleteness. The real tragedy of life and its significance. Clytemnestra as a great prototype of Lady Macbeth. Ambition and love. Ethical ideals and success in life. Woman's place in the ethical sphere. Superstition and its influence. Macbeth's contrasted weakness in spite of the grim determination that makes him more cruel.

A WOMAN SAINT.-The play of Henry VIII. as the best possible compendium of the history of the times. Some questions of authorship and Shakespeare's part in it. No doubt of his creation of the character of Queen Katherine. The simple, truthful history that seems to require no art for the telling of the story. The beautiful character depicted. Shakespeare's knowledge of women and the portrayal of Katherine's antitype in Cleopatra, the woman with power for evil. Katherine's deathbed scene and the sublime forgiveness.

Not long ago the Holy Father received in private audience a very distinguished Irishman in the person of Sir Francis Cruise, of Dublin, on whom he has recently conferred the Knighthood of St. Gregory the Great. A mere accident has prevented Sir Francis from being an American, for in his youth he lived for several years in the United States. He returned to Ireland, how

ever, and, in the course of a long life, grew to be one of the most famous physicians in the country. But he did not allow the cares of his profession to absorb all his energy. When a mere boy a relative presented him with a copy of the Imitation of Christ, and from that day to this he has been a student of this most wonderful book, and of the other works of its author, Thomas à Kempis. While he was still a young man, a great contest was being waged as to the authorship of the Imitation. Learned prelates and other scholars had filled volume after volume with arguments in favor of À Kempis, or of Gerson, or of Gersen, and the issue was still undecided. Sir Francis entered with zest on a complete study of the subject, examined the most ancient manuscripts, consulted the most learned writers on the subject, visited the birthplace and the monastery of Thomas à Kempis—and then wrote his book. Today there is hardly a single authority of weight but admits that À Kempis is the author of what has been well described as the most perfect of books, except the Scriptures. The people of Kempen, the town whose chief glory is the fact that it gave birth to Thomas à Kempis, have named one of their streets after Dr. Cruise. Meanwhile this busy Irish doctor was engaged in a new English translation of the Imitation. It has been published within the past year by the Catholic Truth Society of Ireland, and is now printed by the Catholic Truth Society of San Francisco, so that it bids fair to become the favorite version throughout Ireland and America. Pius X. conferred the Knighthood of St. Gregory on Sir Francis, as a reward for his zeal and learning, and in receiving him in audience blessed him and his family most effusively, and told him that it was now recognized that his works were indispensable for all students of the life and writings of Thomas à Kempis.

Aubrey de Vere was a Catholic writer of prose and poetry who should be better known among cur Reading Circles. At least one quotation from his writings could be presented at every meeting for the coming year. His claim to recognition is thus presented by Miss Jeanette L. Gilder in a notice of his Memoir:

One of the most interesting men of letters in London was the late Aubrey de Vere. He was a poet by temperament rather than by his acomplishment in the way of poetry. His verses were refined and scholarly, but they were not epoch-making; and, though he published several volumes in the course of his long, interesting life, it is not as a poet, but as a friend of poets and men of letters that he will be best known.

He was such a delightful man, such a gentleman, that his friendship was eagerly sought and highly prized by men and women of the highest standing in England. He was an Irishman and a Catholic, but he lived the most of his life in London and he began as a Protestant.

Ever since Mr. de Vere's death we have been expecting a "memoir" containing his letters to and from the well-known people whom he had known so intimately. Messrs. Longmans, Green & Co. publish the Memoir, based on his unpublished diaries and correspondence, and edited by his literary executor, Mr. Wilfrid Ward. Mr. de Vere published a volume of Recollections before his death, but he was so modest that he kept himself in the background, and yet it was his own personality that his readers wanted to get at.

Sara Coleridge, the daughter of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, said of Mr. de Vere: I have lived among poets a great deal and have known greater poets than he is, but a more entire poet and one more a poet in his whole mind and temperament I never knew or met with. But he was more modest about his own attainments than most poets, and therefore one really gets more of the man in these memoirs than in the book that he wrote with his own hand. Wordsworth was his friend, and it was Wordsworth who influenced his poetry, but his verse did not have all the qualities of his master.

There is no gossip in Mr. de Vere's letters-he was not of the gossiping nature-but there is much intimate talk in his diaries of his friends among men and women of letters. With Tennyson he was very intimate and saw him in all circumstances. For instance, he records in his diary in 1845:

I called on Alfred Tennyson and found him at first much out of spirits. He cheered up soon and read me some beautiful elegies, complaining much of some writer in Fraser's Magazine who had spoken of the "foolish facility" of Tennysonian poetry. I went to the House of Commons and heard a good speech from Sir G. Grey-went back to Tennyson, who "crooned" out his magnificent elegies till one in the morning.

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April 18-Sat with Alfred Tennyson, who read MS. poetry to Tcm Taylor and me. Walked with him to his lawyer's; came back and listened to the University of Women " Had talk with him on various subjects, and walked with him to Moxon's. As I went away, he said he would willingly bargain for the reputation of Suckling or Lovelace, and alluded to "the foolish facility of Tennysonian poetry." Said he was dreadfully cut up by all he had gone through.

Then, again, there is another allusion to Tennyson. He—Mr. de Verchad been out with Wordsworth to buy spectacles and then returned to tea:

Alfred Tennyson came in and smoked his pipe. He told us with pleasure of his dinner with Wordsworth-was pleased as well as amused by Wordsworth saying to him, "Come, brother bard, to dinner," and, taking his arm, said that he was ashamed of paying Mr. Wordsworth compliments, but that he had at last, in the dark, said something about the pleasure he had had from Mr. Wordsworth's writings, and that the old poet had taken his hand and replied with some expressions equally kind and complimentary. Tennyson was evidently much pleased with the old man, and glad of having learned to know him.

At another time he found Tennyson in a bad mood:

On my way in paid a visit to Tennyson, who seemed much out of spirits and said he could no longer bear to be knocked about the world, and that he must marry, and find love and peace, or die. He was very angry about a very favorable review of him. Said that he could not stand the chattering and conceit of clever men, or the worry of society, or the meanness of tuft hunters, or the trouble of poverty, or the labor of a place, or the preying of the heart on itself.

He complained much about growing old, and said he cared nothing for fame and that his life was all thrown away for want of a competence and retirement. Said that no one had been so much harassed by anxiety and trouble as himself. I told him he wanted occupation, a wife, and orthodox principles, which he took well.

Of Wordsworth, who was his friend as well as his master, Mr. de Vere writes:

He strikes me as the kindest and most simple-hearted old man I know, and I did not think him less sublime for inquiring often after you (his sister), and saying that you were not a person to be forgotten. He talks in a manner very peculiar. As for duration, it is from the rising of the sun to the going down of the same. As for quality, a sort of thinking aloud, a perpetual purring of satisfaction. He murmurs like a tree in the breeze; as softly and as incessantly; it seems as natural to him to talk as to breathe. He is by nature audible, as well as visible, and goes on thus, uttering his being just as a fountain continues to flow, or a star to shine.

In his discourse I was at first principally struck by the extraordinary purity of his language, and the absolute perfection of his sentences; but by degrees I came to find a great charm in observing the exquisite balance of his mind, and the train of associations in which his thoughts followed each other. He does not put forward thoughts like those of Coleridge, which astonished his hearers by their depth of vastness, but you gradually discover that there is a sort of inspiration in the mode in which his thoughts flow out of each other and connect themselves with outward things. He is the voice and nature the instrument.

Our own Professor Charles Eliot Norton was one of Mr. de Vere's friends, and there are a number of letters in the book addressed to him. One entry in Mr. de Vere's diary tells how he brought Tennyson, "murmuring sore," to Hampstead, to see Mr. Wordsworth. Rogers came, and there was an amusing scene in the garden, Rogers insisting upon Wordsworth's naming a day to dine with him, and Wordsworth stoutly exhibiting his mountain lawlessness, stating that he would dine or not as it happened, or as it suited his convenience, and saying that he was sure he would find the best accommodation of every sort at Mr. Rogers', whether Mr. Rogers was in the house or not.

Mr. Rogers at last replied: Well, you may as well tell me at once to go to the devil; I can only say that my house, its master, and everything in it are heartily at your service—come when you will.

Of Macaulay, who was a guest at a certain dinner party, he says: Macaulay is far from being ill-conditioned, but he is rather bluff and good-humored than genial. His mind is evidently a very robust one; it has also ardor enough to fuse together into new combinations the mass of strange and disorderly knowledge with which his great memory litters him.

It has also a self-confidence which belongs to narrowness, and an utter inappreciation of all matters which it cannot wield and twist about, but which greatly increases his energy and apparent force, but I could observe in it no trace of originality, depth, breadth elevation, subtlety, comprehensiveness, spirituality-in one word, none of the attributes of greatness. He is, however, a strong man, and will do his day's work honestly before his day is done. I should think he despises falsehood, and likes, if not truth, at least the exhilaration of a hunt after truth or the animation of the battle for the cause of truth.

M. C. M.

NOTICE.

Education is a subject of very great importance to-day. Papers on the great Catholic leaders and on present methods will be contributed to the Catholic World by EDWARD A. PACE, Ph.D., Professor of Psychology, Catholic University, Washington, D. C.

The Bible. The Holy Father has urged us to study the Sacred Scriptures. J. F. FENLON, D.D., Head of the Sulpician House, St. Austin's College, Washington, D. C., will contribute to the Catholic World a number of papers on the Catholic version.

Philosophy-Haeckel is much talked of to-day. Would you know the meaning and value of his philosophy ?-read the papers in the Catholic World by FRANCIS P. DUFFY, D.D., Professor of Philosophy, Dunwoodie Seminary, Editor New York Review. Nietzsche is widely discussed. M. D. PETRE, author of Where Saints Have Trod, etc., explains his theories and his aims in the Catholic World.

The Mission Work of the Catholic Church throughout the World. ABBE KLEIN, whose Land of the Strenuous Life has been crowned by the French Academy, and other well-informed writers will tell of that work in the pages of the Catholic World.

Japan, Norway, Austria-Hungary, Italy, France, and Russia are contributing in a wonderful way to day to the making of the world's history-both secular and religious; how they are doing so will be treated in papers by J. C. MONAGHAN, of U. S. Consular Bureau; MAX TURMANN, of La Quinzaine; RENE HENRY, of Le

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