To attempt aught else is
"wrenching the true cause the false way." A worthy memorial to
Shakespeare will not satisfy the just working of the commemorative
instinct, unless it take the sculpturesque and monumental shape which
the great tradition of antiquity has sanctioned. A monument to
Shakespeare should be a monument and nothing besides.
Bacon's doctrine that the greater the achievement that is commemorated
the richer must be the outward symbol, implies that a memorial to
Shakespeare must be a work of art of the loftiest merit conceivable.
Unless those who promote the movement concentrate their energies on an
object of beauty, unless they free the movement of all suspicion that
the satisfaction of the commemorative instinct is to be a secondary
and not the primary aim, unless they resolve that the Shakespeare
memorial in London is to be a monument pure and simple, and one as
perfect as art can make it, then the effort is undeserving of national
support.
IX
This conclusion suggests the inevitable objection that sculpture in
England is not in a condition favourable to the execution of a great
piece of monumental art. Past experience in London does not make one
very sanguine that it is possible to realise in statuary a worthy
conception of a Shakespearean memorial.
Pages:
298
299
300
301
302
303
304
305
306
307
308
309
310
311
312
313
314
315
316
317
318
319
320
321
322