great names of British poetry. I will merely remind you that only a few weeks ago the German Shakespeare Society celebrated its fiftieth anniversary. This Society is not only the first German Society of its kind to be formed, and which the Goethe, Dante, and other similar societies have followed, but it is also the only one which has been successful in devoting itself solely to the study of a foreign poet. The causes which have made it possible for a foreign poet to exercise so potent an attraction are manifold. Primarily they lie in the fact that in our feelings this greatest of British poets has already almost become a German, and that the works of no other foreigner have penetrated so deeply into the soul of the German people. Heine says: "The only thing the Germans cannot forgive in Shakespeare is that he did not choose to be born in Germany." Shakespeare, too, has special political attractions for us, because of his outspoken patriotism and national public feeling. Besides this, he has had it in his favour that England has always been regarded as the land of political liberty, and that here were started constitutional rights and the foundation of those civic rights which have spread victoriously throughout the whole of Europe. Hence for us Shakespeare has become a political poet whom we claim as our own, together with Goethe and Schiller.
I rejoice to find that the advanced study of the German language here is especially helpful to our aims, and, besides, this evening I have noticed with satisfaction how much our mother tongue is in evidence in this University. The days are past when the Briton learnt no foreign language, and it is no longer a sign of the unadulterated Englishman that he understands no foreign idiom. It is not very long ago that Prince Bismarck was said to have expressed the opinion that he mistrusted every Englishman who mastered foreign languages; he did not look upon him as a genuine Britisher, but as a colourless international type which he mistrusted. My experience has shown me that the present-day genuine Englishman speaks German as well as we speak English, with this difference only, that the English are less venturesome than we are in the region of foreign tongues. In concluding, I would ask you all to drink with me to the health of the University and the two Societies whose guests we are, and to their continued successful work in helping forward British-German intellectual brotherhood.
