ificance of
his achievement in the outer world. Critics of all nationalities are
in substantial agreement with the romance-writer Dumas, who pointed
out that Shakespeare is more than the greatest of dramatists; he is
the greatest of thinking men.

The exalted foreign estimate illustrates the fact that Shakespeare
contributes to the prestige of his nation a good deal beyond repute
for literary power. He is not merely a literary ornament of our
British household. It is largely on his account that foreign nations
honour his country as an intellectual and spiritual force. Shakespeare
and Newton together give England an intellectual sovereignty which
adds more to her "reputation through the world" than any exploit in
battle or statesmanship. If, again, Shakespeare's pre-eminence has
added dignity to the name of Englishman abroad, it has also quickened
the sense of unity among the intelligent sections of the
English-speaking peoples. Admiration, affection for his work has come
to be one of the strongest links in the chain which binds the
English-speaking peoples together. He quickens the fraternal sense
among all who speak his language.

London is no nominal capital of the kingdom and the Empire. It is the
headquarters of British influence. Within its boundaries are assembled
the official insignia of British prestige. It is the mother-city of
the English-speaking world. To ask of the citizens of London some
outward sign that Shakespeare is a living source of British prestige,
an unifying factor in the consolidation of the British Empire, and a
powerful element in the maintenance of fraternal relations with the
United States, seems therefore no unreasonable demand. Neither
cloistered study of his plays, nor the occasional representation of
them in the theatres, brings home to either the English-speaking or
the English-reading world the full extent of the debt that England
owes to Shakespeare. A monumental memorial, which should symbolise
Shakespeare's influence in the universe, could only find an
appropriate and effective home in the capital city of the British
Empire. It is this conviction, and no narrower point of view, which
gives endeavour to commemorate Shakespeare in London its title to
consideration.

VII

The admitted fact that Shakespeare's fame is established beyond risk
of decay does not place him outside the range of conventional methods
of commemoration. The greater a man's recognised service to his
fello