III
The causes of the sweeping failure of the proposal when it came before
the public during the nineteenth century are worthy of study. There
was no lack of enthusiasm among the promoters. Nor were their high
hopes wrecked solely by public apathy. The public interest was never
altogether dormant. More efficient causes of ruin were, firstly, the
active hostility of some prominent writers and actors who declaimed
against all outward and visible commemoration of Shakespeare; and
secondly, divisions in the ranks of supporters in regard to the
precise form that the memorial ought to take. The censorious refusal
of one section of the literary public to countenance any memorial at
all, and the inability of another section, while promoting the
endeavour, to concentrate its energies on a single acceptable form of
commemoration had, as might be expected, a paralysing effect.
"England," it was somewhat casuistically argued in 1864, "has never
been ungrateful to her poet; but the very depth and fervour of the
reverence in which he is held have hitherto made it difficult for his
scholars to agree upon any common proceeding in his name." Neither in
1864 nor at earlier and later epochs have Shakespearean scholars
always formed among themselves a very happy family.
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