Cologne

The Times of 2 March, 1916, reprints the comments of the Cologne Gazette on the English tercentenary plans:

“All Germany will contemplate this celebration with amused expectation and the utmost satisfaction. The English could give us no greater pleasure. The music-hall and cinematograph spirit of the England of to-day will make such a mess of it that unquenchable laughter will run through the whole of Europe. The Quadruple Entente Shakespeare will be fêted with Maori dances, Japanese acrobats’ tricks, and Italian Tarantella leaps. To complete the festival only one thing is lacking – that the dead Shakespeare should express his opinion of the living England.”