Judge, 1920-10-09 · page 31 of 32
Judge — October 9, 1920 — page 31: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is **not a political cartoon or satire** — it's a **full-page advertisement** for a deluxe edition of Shakespeare's Complete Works, published by the Brunswick Subscription Company. The page uses Shakespeare's *As You Like It* to market the product. The text argues that Shakespeare's ideal society exists in the Forest of Arden — a place removed from corrupt cities — where exiles form a perfect community based on merit and "nobility of heart." This pastoral philosophy is used to sell the edition itself: the implication is that owning Shakespeare's complete works elevates the reader morally and intellectually. The imagery shows a forest scene (presumably from *As You Like It*), stacked books on the left, and subscription details on the right. The price is $1.00, positioned as a bargain ("half the publisher's price"). There are mentions of 7,000 pages, hundreds of illustrations, and color plates. The "satire," if any, is gentle marketing rhetoric rather than social criticism.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
HUNDREDS nustaTios The Ideal Life When Shakespeare, with his deep insight into human nature, pictured the ideal life, he did not select his characters from among the dwellers in cities, or place them in the environ- ment of the crowded haunts of men with their fetid and rancid atmosphere of moral and physical corruption, their ches estimates of human worth, their s 1 ai that have ever made every big city a festering sore on the body politic, and a menace to humanity. . when Shakespeare—seer as well as sage, who has illuminated with the brilliancy of the noonday sun every point of morals, of manners, of statecraft, of social philosophy, of taste, of the conduct of life shows us the conditions under which a nearly perfect state of society is possible, he selects as his stage the Forest of Arden, remote fr the untruth, hypocrisy, ignorance and violence of a society pursuing its own selfish aims, and within the sylvan shades of this Arcadia a fascinating company of exiles realize mode and conception of life that is ideal in its democ- racy because cach member of the happy band is an aristocrat in the sense of nobility of heart and char- acter. “As You Like It’’ describes a life that would please everyone. Rich in its revelations of the mysteries of human nature and the philosophy of life, Shak ‘are seems to have transfused much of the wisdom of past a into his own all-con bining mind. ‘This great co: smeds + wo for word as the great master wrote it, together with everything else that he wrote, exactly as it came from his pen, is found in this De Luxe Edition of SHAKESPEARE’S COMPLETE WORKS An Wnespangated. Edibon A Liberal Education HalfthePublisher’s Price SENT Now To achieve di 10. pr ever born that of Read amous € i Gol UNSUR: Passes Stecrau “FEATURES, PREPACES fthe plots. ARGUMENTS . lay. CRITICAL Colle cae an yorne : ? Brunswick Subscription Co., 9-20 eat BA ELANAT ia Sori en bs noret Ui Brunswick Bide, New York City tot and STUDY NOTES. Other Interesting Features ILLUSTRATIONS °. reest that could be used without IN COLOR Noma depicting famous scenes in Shakespeare's plays, and hun- jons reproduced from rare wood cuts \ ed in Shakespeare's time, fea- ‘Occupation itles in gold. tures altogether unique and found in no other edition. id Address order and save $1.70. comicbooks.com