Nodier's
modest tribute handsomely atones for his countrymen's misapprehensions
of Shakespeare's tragic conceptions. None has phrased more delicately
or more simply the sense of personal devotion, which is roused by
close study of his work.
XI
THE COMMEMORATION OF SHAKESPEARE IN LONDON[44]
[Footnote 44: This paper was first printed in _The Nineteenth Century
and After_, April 1905.]
I
The public memory is short. At the instant the suggestion that
Shakespeare should receive the tribute of a great national monument in
London is attracting general attention. In the ears of the vast
majority of those who are taking part in the discussion the proposal
appears to strike a new note. Few seem aware that a national memorial
of Shakespeare has been urged on Londoners many times before. Thrice,
at least, during the past eighty-five years has it exercised the
public mind.
At the extreme end of the year 1820, the well-known actor Charles
Mathews set on foot a movement for the erection of "a national
monument to the immortal memory of Shakespeare." He pledged himself to
enlist the support of the new King, George the Fourth, of members of
the royal family, of "every man of rank and talent, every poet,
artist, and sculptor.
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