fect.

"England," it was somewhat casuistically argued in 1864, "has never
been ungrateful to her poet; but the very depth and fervour of the
reverence in which he is held have hitherto made it difficult for his
scholars to agree upon any common proceeding in his name." Neither in
1864 nor at earlier and later epochs have Shakespearean scholars
always formed among themselves a very happy family. That amiable
sentiment which would treat the realisation of the commemorative aim
as a patriotic obligation--as an obligation which no good citizen
could honourably repudiate--has often produced discord rather than
harmony among the Shakespearean scholars who cherish it. One school of
these has argued in the past for a work of sculpture, and has been
opposed by a cry for a college for actors, or a Shakespearean theatre.
"We do not like the idea of a monument at all," wrote _The Times_ on
the 20th of January 1864. "Shakespeare," wrote _Punch_ on the 6th of
February following, "needs no statue." In old days it was frequently
insisted that, even if the erection of a London monument were
desirable, active effort ought to be postponed until an adequate
memorial had been placed in Stratford-on-Avon where the poet's memory
had been hitherto inadequately honoured. At the same time a band of
students was always prepared to urge the chilling plea that the
payment of any outward honour to Shakespeare was laboursome futility,
was "wasteful and ridiculous excess." Milton's query: "What needs my
Shakespeare for his honoured bones?" has always been quoted to satiety
by a vociferous section of the critics whenever the commemoration of
Shakespeare has come under discussion.

IV

Once again the question of a national memorial of Shakespeare in
London has been revived in conditions not wholly unlike those that
have gone before. Mr Richard Badger, a veteran enthusiast for
Shakespeare, who was educated in the poet's native place, has offered
the people of London the sum of L3500 as the nucleus of a great
Shakespeare Memorial Fund. The Lord Mayor of London has presided over
a public meeting at the Mansion House, which has empowered an
influential committee to proceed with the work. The London County
Council has promised to provide a site. With regard to the form that
the memorial ought to take, a variety of irresponsible suggestions has
been made. It has now been authoritatively determined to erect a
sculptured monument on the banks of the Tham