38 DOMINICAN A
to obtain pea.ce for Europe, could prayers, saluting Mary with a She refuse to hear the voice of single heart and with a single the whole Catholic world on its voice, imploring Mary, placing knees? Let us be as one, with all hope in Mary!'' It is with the Holy Father of the faithful this unanimous prayer that Cath in prayer, Mary's own prayer, and olics will obtain the return to strive to sprea.d it. "How ad Christ of the nations that are mirable it will be to see in the astray, the salvation of the world cities, in the towns, and in the and that peace so eagerly desired. villages, on hnd and on sea, as far Mary, the Dove of Peace, offers as the Catholic name extends, the Olive Branch-Her Rosary. hundreds of thousands of the Will the world accept it? faithful, uniting their praises and Aquinas McDonnell, 0. P.
SHAKESPEARE AND THE FRIARS.
"The thousand souled Shake is his portrayal of it. His name speare" is an epitath bestowed is em blazoned far aboye all other on the master writer of the most English writers. He is praised momentous epoch in the history and lauded by all nations and of the literary world. Thousand why? Because no one equals souled is Shakespeare. No one him in creative power of mind, is more deserving of such a title. in vividness of imagination, in His genius is bounded by no richness of imagery. No one country. He is of no age. He equals him in his comprehFmsion is uni-r ersal. His language is of of nature and in his delineations to-day as of his own day. His of Gharacter. He gave reality to thoughts, his feelings, his por every character from the most trayal of human nature in its joy prominent to the most obscure. and sorrow, in its love and hate, His characters are real men and in its mirth and woe, in its ele women and not abstract moral vations and sordidness belongs to qualities of vice or virtue. He our day as to his. Three-hun never forgets the infinite com dred years have not dimmed his plexity of human nature. And luster. The star of his genius herein lies his greatness. His shines as brightly to-day as in characters may be ruled by love, the noonday of his career. His jealousy, or hutred, b..tt they are works are immortal. They please actuated by other impulses also. and thrill to-day as they pleased Not only the natural but especial in his day, and they will continue ly the supernatural influence the to please as long as the heart of action of individual characters. man remains hum:tn for human Religion and reason, the divine DOMINICAN A 39 and the human are com hi ned to the sad; the vividness of his im portray a man as a ma.n really is. agination pleases the romantic; It is the religious element in his his imagery, his symbolism characters that shall here claim startles, bewilders but yet satis our attention. fies all. Where could Shake Shakespeare makes use of di speare have found the imagery vine retributive justice, of im that decks his thoughts if not in agery borrowed from Catholic the Oatholic Ohurch. The Oath liturgy, of friars, monks, bishops olic Ohurch in the romanticism of and Cardinals that flit back and her antiquity, in the poetry of forth throughout his pages. If her liturgy must have m·ade au he was not a Catholic he is at impression on him, for many are least, in the words of Carlyle, the . the allusions to her doctrines, product of Catholicism, the blos ceremonies and discipline scat som of Catholicism. Shake tered through his plays. The speare was a poet, the foremost monastic institutions of the poet of his age and of all ages, Ohurch, the barefooted friar in and he must needs therefore turn his habit of brown or the friar in for inspiration to the Ohurch the his habit of white '!ith all the mother of purity, of sanctity, and memories that cling to the friar song, of the ideal and the real, of in brown and the friar in white Dante and Aquinas. "She," (the must have made an impression on Oatholic Ohurch), says Newman, the poetic mind of Shakespeare. "is the poet of her children; full And an impression was made, for of music to soothe the sad and around the friar the action de control the wayward, wonderful velops in some of his plays. The in story for the imagination of the manner in which Shakespeare the romantic; rich in symbol and portrays the character of the friar imagery, so that gentle and deli is worthy of special notice. cate feelings, which will not bear One of Sh~kespeare 's earliest words, may in silence intimate plays is Romeo and Juliet. In their presence or commune with this play the plot hinges around themselves. Her very being is the action of Friar Laurence. poetry; every psalm, every peti Friar Laurence is one of Shake tion, every versicle, the cross, peare's most sympathetic crea the mitre, the thurible is a ful tions. He is :first presented to fillment of ~>ome dream of child our view as he enters his cell in hoo.d, or aspiration of youth." the early morning hours carrying And in reading Shakespeare we an osier basket :filled with herbs are transported into a real~ of and moralizing on the properties song, of music, into a region of of plants in the cure of the sick. thoughts without words. His Evidently the Friar is an in:fir power is great enough to soothe marian, and as iu:firmarian he 40 DOMINIOANA represents a class. Shakespeare Romeo is by his side flushed with has caught all the prominent the joy of a new love and forgetful features of this clasR and set of the old. The explanation them forth in his picture of Friar which Romeo offers is somewhat Laurence. The Friar of the mid disjointed and equivocal. The dle ages was a natural philoso Friar warns him,-"To be plain pher. As infirmarian of a con good .son and hon1ely in thy drift. vent, he was often their only phy Riddling confession finds but rid sician. His Rervices were even ex dlmg shrift." Act 2, Sc. 3. The tended to the town's people in the Friar knows that unless the soul vicinity of the convent. Chemis is bared in its entirety, unless all try yielded its secrets to his bid the gaping wounds are shown, ding for he had need of these se . the malady cannot be diagnosed crets in caring for the sick. To nor a remedy applied. When he his study he added observation . learns that the love of Romeo for and reflection, "which with ex Juliet is reciprocated, his course perimental seal did warrant the is in accordance with purest mor tenor of his book," as the Friar ality. His advice becomes pru informs us in Much Ado about dent direction for the soul. He Nothing. Such were the Friars agrees to their union not as one Roger Bacon and Albert the filled with a spirit of intrigue, but Great, natural philosophers the as one who knows human nature equal of whom the world does not and who is aware that in this know. By their studies, by their case no other course remains. observation and experiments The course he maps out is gov they advanceJ the cause of learn erned by reason. He hopes that ing and bettered the condition of the union of Romeo and Juliet humanity. Friar Laurence is pic will heal the factional quarrels tured as one of these, as the in fir betwe·en Oapulet and Matagne. marian, the natural philosopher ".l!,or this alliance may so happy prove, caring with tender solicitude for To change yonr households' raucour to the sick brethren and striving to pure lovE' ." Act 2, Sc. 8. cure the ills of mankind. It is a He wishes to bring peace to his pleasing picture and true. native city and happiness to Friar Laurence's activity is riot Romeo and Juliet. And yet he confined to the realm of natural feels that his own effort will be philosophy. Nor is it bounded futile. unless the help of Him who by the medicinal properties of guides us all is assured. Be herbs. His care extencls not only therefore prays heaven to bless to the body but also to soul. ln the rite he is about to perforrfl so the second picture painted for us that misery in after hours may by Shakespeare we belwld the not descend on those trusting Friar as a spiritual director. souls committed to his care. DOMINIOANA 41
"So smile the heavens upon this holy act Being a divine, a ghostly confessor, That after hours with sorrow chide A sin absolver, and my friend profess 'd us not." Act 2, Be . 6. To mangle me with that word banished." Act 3, Sc. 3. But Romeo with impatience, with the impetuosity of youth Romeo in his deepest misery believes not in dwelling on mis needs truest comfort. And the ery that may follow, when even Friar knows that when eart.hly a momentary union with Juliet burdens press the heaviest no would compensa,te for all the mis earthly hand can comfort, only fortune of au uncertain future. the consolation of the King of But the Friar knows that youth Sorrow can lighten the burden is blind, that such passiona.te that weighs upon the heart. love breeds but disorder! The Therefore 1H" offers true com Friar warns him that fort, "philosophy." And by • 'T.hese violent delights have violent philosophy is meant not cold life ends, less metaphysics, but the And in their triumph die." Act. 2, Be. 6. warmth and life engendering . Again he shows his knowledge consolation of religion. The of human nature and his solici Friar continues to work for the tude for the purity of the souls good of all. He labors hard to entrusted to hilil care by insisting satisfy the demands of the un on the discipline of the Ohurch reasonable lovers and at the which demands that the be- . same time allay the anger of Oap trothed shall not remain together ulet. He condemns Romeo'a until the cermony of marriage thought of suicide. He devises has been performed. the sleeping potion in order that "Come, come with me and we will make Juliet may escape the forbidden short work; union with Paris. Juliet is al For by your leaves, you shall not stay ready married to Romeo and the alone law of God demands that she Till holy Church incorporate two in shall not marry another while Ro one." Act2, Sc. 6. meo lives. His influence is felt When Rmmeo is banished from by all, for he is a Friar, a holy, Verona because of the murder upright man as becomes his call of Tybalt, misary in all her ing. Finally when all seems to blacknees takes possession of fail he offers his life.- his heart. Banished! A way " If aught in this from Verona, far from Juliet life Miscarried by my fault, let my old life would be "purgatory," "tor Be sacrificed, some hour before his time ture," ''hell itself,'' Unto tbeJ rigour of severest law." ' Act 5, Sc. 3. "Oh Friar the damned use that word in bell; But the Friar's efforts are re Howlings attend it; how hast thou the warded in part. In the tomb of heart, Oapulet where the lovers lie 42 DOMINIOANA sleeping united in death, the Friar is true to life. In contem one a Montague, the other a Oap plating the character of Fri:~.r ulet, the living members of the Laurence we are reminded of the houses resolve to live as friends. great medieval friars. We are One more picture of Friar Lau reminded of the great St. Fran rence and we have done. In cis, the Friar of Assisi, and of this picture, as set forth in Act the noble St. . Dominic, the friar Il, Sc. 3, we behold the Friar as friend of Francis." We are re a philosopher. He looks around minded of their labors, how they on the world about him. There struggled and bow they toiled, is pictured physical evil, pain, how they offered everything n1oral evil, sin, life and death. fame, fortune and even life it These things present themselves self,-tbat man might live at to him as they are. He journeys peace with man and at peace with to no Utopian isle of bliss where God. There are other pictures life's joys are many and life's of other friars such as Friars sorrows few. Neither does he Peter, Francis and 'fhomas scat fall into a slough of despair when tered throughout his plays. But be sees the evil in the material enough has been said to show world or the sin in the heart of how completely Shakespeare man. No, he drinks deep of pure grasped the essential points in waters that gush frum the foun the character of the friar. That tain of life, and through faith he this proves conclusively ·that can tell how the see ming contra Shakespeare was a Oatholic is dictions, evil and good, are unit scarcely admissable. As he ed in a master plan guided by a caught and porbra)ed the essen master hand for the betterment tial features in other characters of the universe. He knows that so he caught and portrayed the physical evil can minister to essential fea tBres in t}le charac good, that moral evil is permitted ter of the friar, thus meriting the by the Master for reasons which epitath, "The thousand souled we know not. Man can see but a Shakespeare." But although part of the chain of things and the Oatholic element in his plays often that part which contains does not prove conclusively that the most evil and which makes he was a Oatbolic, nevertheless man exercise his love and faith it proves how great was the in in God. fluence exercised by the Church This is the character of Friar vn the master writer of the Eliz Laurence as portrayed by Wm. abethan age. Shakespeare. The picture of the Sylveste1· Considine 0. P.