But I am not at all clear about that. As
America, from its many far-back sources and current supplies,
develops, adapts, entwines, faithfully identifies its own--are we to
see it cheerfully accepting and using all the contributions of foreign
lands from the whole outside globe--and then rejecting the only ones
distinctively its own--the autochthonic ones?
As to the Spanish stock of our Southwest, it is certain to me that we
do not begin to appreciate the splendor and sterling value of its
race element. Who knows but that element, like the course of some
subterranean river, dipping invisibly for a hundred or two years, is
now to emerge in broadest flow and permanent action?
If I might assume to do so, I would like to send you the most cordial,
heartfelt congratulations of your American fellow-countrymen here.
You have more friends in the Northern and Atlantic regions than you
suppose, and they are deeply interested in the development of the
great Southwestern interior, and in what your festival would arouse to
public attention.
Very respectfully, &c.,
WALT WHITMAN.
WHAT LURKS BEHIND SHAKSPERE'S HISTORICAL PLAYS
We all know how much _mythus_ there is in the Shakspere question as it
stands to-day. Beneath a few foundations of proved facts are certainly
engulf d far more dim and elusive ones, of deepest importance--
tantalizing and half suspected--suggesting explanations that one dare
not put in plain statement. But coming at once to the point, the
English historical plays are to me not only the most eminent as
dramatic performances (my maturest judgment confirming the impressions
of my early years, that the distinctiveness and glory of the Poet
reside not in his vaunted dramas of the passions, but those founded on
the contests of English dynasties, and the French wars,) but form, as
we get it all, the chief in a complexity of puzzles.
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