Mary Baldwin College - Bluestocking Yearbook (Staunton, VA)

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The Augusta Seminary Annual. 7 through the Forest of Arden with the clownish Touchstone to protect and cheer them is sprightly, graceful and exquisite. Many times Celia lags behind so worn out as to be unable to go further, but never once regretting her choice. The true devo- tion of a servant for his master is well expressed in the same play when Adam offers all he has to Orlando and is content to depend upon Him who doth the ravens feed to comfort his old age; and full as well does Orlando show the return of this love, as entering the presence of the banished dukes he l)ears the weary servant upon his shoulders, just as JEneas of old bore the aged Anchises. Happiness and contentment pervade the assemblage of Lords around the banished Duke far away from the flattery, the painted pomp, and the peril of the envious court. In The Merchant of Yenice there is more tragic interest, and we are brought to confront the dreadful, actual presence of human anguish. Antonio offers his purse, his person, even all that his credit can do in Yenice to his friend, Bassanio, to assist him in his suit of Portia. Shylock, however, will not lend except for the forfeit of a pound of his fair flesh cut from whatever part of the body it may please the villain Jew. This in jest being agreed to, Antonio dismisses his friend with Slubber not business for my sake, Bassanio, but stay the very riping of the time. Soon in the midst of Bassanio ' s joy comes the letter from Antonio saying the ships on which he was depending were all lost, and he longs to see his friend once more. Bassanio puts all thought of self aside, leaving even his bride, to seek his friend. Nothing could be more tender than the farewell scene, when Antonio begs Bassanio not to grieve that he has fallen for him, for in this fortune has shown herself most kind ; and Bassanio answers that life itself, his wife, and all the world, were not esteemed above Antonio ' s life. All the comfort in the life of Hamlet came from his friend, Horatio. He was his helpmate in every trial, one whom Hamlet wore in his heart ' s core, ay in his heart of hearts. So unselfish, so true, so noble in every action and yet so unobtrusive is Horatio that unless we pay especial attention he might entirely escape our notice. In Julius Csesar we see both the falsity and fidelity of friends.

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6 The Augusta Seminary Annual. Artliiir leaves the fatal battle-field and sails down upon the silent stream — To the island valley of Avilion Where falls not hail or rain or any snow, Nor ever wind blows loudly ; but it lies Deep-meadowed, happy, fair with orchard lawns And bowery hollows, crowned with summer sea. Margaret Lane. Friends in Shakspere. FRIENDSHIP, the purest and noblest of all the benevolent affections, is shown by Shakspere in every phase. The richest, the poorest, master and slave, man and woman, alike feel its power. The plays naturally assumed a different character as the poet ' s sphere of observation w idened and his experience deepened, gaining in his mature years a depth and pathos not to be found in his ealier works. In The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Valentine is the example of a true friend. With what confidence he speaks of Proteus to Sylvia as one complete in feature and in mind with all good grace to grace a gentleman ! Even when Proteus has proved faithless by causing his banishment, Valentine does not lay the slightest suspicion upon his friend and his eyes alone could persuade him of his friend ' s treachery. Yet at the end, when Proteus repents, Valentine forgives, making his penance but to hear the story of his love discovered. The unselfish devotion of Rosalind and Celia in As You Like It forms a beautiful and touching picture. The entire difference in the two characters heightens its beauty, Rosalind being bright and gay, with natural tenderness, Celia quiet and retiring. After Frederick has dismissed Rosalind from his house, Celia determines to leave too, for, like Juno ' s swans, they had always gone together and could not live apart. Their journey

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8 The Augusta Seminary Annual. Brutus heads the conspiracy against Caesar, his benefactor and greatest personal friend. In this case, however, it seems more misplaced virtue than falsity of nature ; for it was not that he loved Caesar less but that he loved Rome more. Though no two characters could be more widely different, the most ardent affec- tion exists between Brutus and Cassius. A¥ith reverence Cassius looks up to Brutus and yields, but unwillingl} ' ' , every point, though he himself is always in the right. Nowhere can there be found a better illustration of the pain and grief caused by the estrange- ment of friends than in the quarrel scene. Shakspere makes us love both Brutus and Cassius the better for those little wrongs which bring such tender love to light. With sorrow Cassius cries, Brutus hath rived my heart ; A friend should bear his friend ' s infirmities, But Brutus makes mine greater than they are, then fervently they pledge their reconciliation, and while their hearts are thus closely drawn comes the sorrowful confession, Portia is dead ! Kent, the most perfect of all friends, we liave left for the last ; for nowhere can we find a clearer, intenser manifestation of loyal manhood. We are conscious of a gradual change taking place in all these characters which were drawn in the different periods of Shakspere ' s life. We feel that he has penetrated further and further into the deep realities of life and has found facts more to rouse and kindle and sustain the heart. We see a more awful and more mysterious darkness and also a more intense and lovely hght. There is something grand in Antonio when he stakes his life for Bassanio ; but mth Kent it reaches the sublime. He shows always a passionate, irrepressible devotion to Lear — a loyalty which persists in spite of appearances. Disguised, he perils his life for his enemy king and docs him service improper for a slave. Yet when the deepest gratitude is expressed for such fidelity he replies — To be acknowledg ' d, madam, is o ' erpaid. All my reports go with the modest truth ; Nor more nor clipp ' d, but so. Berta Macatee.