The Henson Journals

[677]

Thursday, February 24th, 1916.

570th day

I went to the Cathedral, and received the Holy Communion. Then I wrote a little sermon for the Troops on the most difficult of Themes. Fancy having to discuss the Fall of Man in fifteen minutes! I was interrupted by Captn Lamb & Captn (?) [sic] Bradford, who came to see me about a place to drill in. I took them at once to the Crypt, & showed them that: they approved it. Hadow & Robinson came to lunch, & stayed to discuss some fool's business of Imperial Lectures, which it is proposed to arrange for next winter. Then Ella & I walked round Houghall Wood in an icy wind. Pemberton came in to tea after the service in the Cathedral. We dined with the Cruickshanks to meet Mr John Bailey, who had come to lecture on Shakespeare to the English Association. We all attended the Lecture in the Town Hall. It was on the whole interesting & suggestive: but he made one or two curious blunders. He said that De Dominis, the notorious humbug, who was R.C. Abp of Spalatro, & then ratted & became Dean of Windsor, died an Anglican: whereas he was lured back to Papistry, & properly rewarded for his behaviour. Two things which he quoted from some learned German who lectured recently in Oxford on Shakespeare are worth noting. Shakespeare's milieu was brutal & roystering, such as has long been outgrown in England, but yet survives in Germany. Hence the plays are more 'actual' there than here. Also, Shakespeare is only known to Germans in a modern translation. He is practically a modern author. Where as in England his language is archaic, & sometimes almost unintelligible. Hence the production of his plays is less natural in England than in Germany. Both these considerations are interesting and, I think, also sound.

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