PRESIDENT’S ADDRESS. 757 
by the very nature of its subject, its almost exclusive treat- 
ment of vile and loathesome features and tendencies, in 
human nature, its revelling in bloodshed, crime, lust, and 
graveyard horrors, be barred to our youth. Shakespeare 
already has his place; I think he is overtaught and over- 
annotated, but must let that pass for the present. I would 
only remark that the greatest of Shakespeare’s plays, 
especially Othello, Lear, and Hamlet, are very questionable 
food for youth. Dealing as they do with mature passions 
of a very violent nature in violent disturbance, and touch- 
ing upon the deepest and most obdurate secrets of our nature, 
they are hardly calculated, I think, from any point of view 
to influence the young healthily and naturally. But the 
value of the historical plays, and especially of the humorous 
characters presented in them, cannot be overrated. TI feel, 
though I should find it hard perhaps to explain or justify 
the feeling, that an intimate literary acquaintance with a 
character like Falstaff, as with Mrs. Gamp, or Captain 
Costigan, or Mr. Jorrocks, is an excellent preparative for 
entry into the world of real men and women. And [I should 
say that the peopling of the mind of the young with such 
personages is among the best results attainable from the 
study of the historical dramas of Shakespeare. I need not 
dwell upon the educational advantages to be gained, from 
a different point of view, by the reading of Marlowe’s 
“Edward II.,” of Browning’s ‘Strafford,’ of Tennyson’s 
“Harold” and “ Becket,” and of Taylor’s “ Philip van 
Arteveldt,’’ because the case is obvious, and I have preferred 
to dwell rather upon the deeper and more essentially 
character-forming influences of poetry upon the mind. I 
need hardly apologise for introducing this remark on Fal- 
staff and similar creations on the ground that he is a prose 
creation. I must of course speak of dramatic poetry as a 
class or not at all. 
Spenser must be considered apart. The influence of his 
great allegory upon the minds of youth is proverbially 
great, and I can only say that it must be good. But I 
doubt whether all, or even the majority of the young of 
our generation, feel his charm. And I would say that if 
the charm be not felt, it is unjust both to the poet and to 
the pupil to make the reading of the ‘‘ Faery Queen” com- 
pulsory. I am, I confess, not able to estimate at all 
accurately the degree of interest taken in this poem by boys 
and girls, and must express myself very diffidently about it. 
Our religious verse, especially of the Carolean period, is 
so rich, melodious, and profound that I thinkitshould have 
a very large share of attention in any curriculum of poetry 
