Who Was Shakespeare?

We uscii lo licar tuany pros and many ctHisan to whethir tlurt' was a Shakespeare or not. It was at last scitled, and prooably beyond ny turthcr roMonabie controversy, ihat there was a bard of Avon. Neitarose the question whether he was a poacher, and was also scttled in the aftinnative. Now a more niposing question has sprung up at wliich the mties are working - whether Shake.spear wrotoBacon's works. or wliother Bêeoa wrote Shakespeare'. The last North American Iteview has an article by a Hostnu writer, who arguea that, jude:inK from all the priori evidenee attainablc, Sbakeapakra nm ihobim werkaaóoredited to Uaeon. 'l'he question is full of difficulte.-i. Ilow a bu8y actor could have been the author of dramas so varied, so full of accuratedesiMiptiniis of natural phcnoniena, so profouml in their philoeophy, and so broad and elevated in fancy, is a uiattci not perfectly clear ; and, on the other hand, how a self-conf'essrd criminal, as Sir Francis Bacon was, and who escaped the penitentiary only by the clemency of his sovereign, could write in the lofty moral strain ot Bacon's works, m eiially hrd to undersiaiul, anil will bc perhaps, tintil we can harmonizo l'ope's charaetcrization oL the philosopher as "thé wiseft, briifbtest,