Bacon Or Shakspere

The aimnuncement of I;nntiu8 Donelly's torih-coniiiiff work on the BaconSliakespeare controversy has awakenetl new interest In tliat subject. The followinr is h synopi-is of a paper rrot-ntly read before the Bacon Society of London by Mr. Francis Fearon, umi presenta in a compact form the reasons why a jfreat niany intelligent süidents of the Slankesptai'.-- Plays MiTibe th ir authorliip to Lord Bacon: i dii) krancis bacon write "shakespkakk"? The natura) answer would be, "Certainly not. Cttfl the tmdition of tliree centmies be wrong? Were our anees tors Igoorttlttf Was Sliakspere liiniself au luipCMterf Were liis eoiitemporaries aini triends deceived? Were his successors of the next generatiou Hnable to detect Hfe hapeatun I "Do you Dean to hmv tliat there is any serious" doubt tliat WiU Shakspere, tlie acknowledijed iiuthor of the wonderful playa Chat baar tilt name - the Swan of Avou, ciiioni.ecl as the divine bard for tli ree centuries - wrote the Plays? "N". DO, .-ir; I WUIl't have it. Sliakpere has alvvays been Shakespeare to me, and so hei-liaU reiuain. "And at lor Franois Bacon - Lord BaCon haring written Shakespear's Plays ! Wliy introduce tbat heavy and plUotophi: peison on the tcene? Wbat had iie to do wilh the matter? 'Certuinly, now you mention it, t'ie twi men lived at about the same period, hut livo persons more differentlv inolded in initions and iili-.is you oonld hardly have heen mentioned torether. "Had Lord Bacon written a play it would have beeu a ponderous disquUition in dlalogui, a legal or philosophic essay in blank vere. And au tor liis having written Hhakespeaie'ri Plays, wliy, rood Uracious, sir ! wbat do you mean You are aborlng luider a serions mental delluion. Betake yonrself to some quiet retreat and stay unlil you have cleared yonr iniii'l of it and rettirned once more to the Orthodox belief tbat Will Shakspere wrote tlie pliys tliat have passed by his name; a belief tliat was good eiiOUKÜ tur our father and our frrandlitthers and mav well sufüee for us." Sucb, 1 take it, in, with liltle exagerat im, the suniimeut willi wliicli the majority of persons lir.-t hear theidea propoUDded tlnit Will Shaks])ere of history did not write the Plays which have bo long gone by his name, and tbat Francia Bacon did. Neverthelefs, I will endeavor to do something to convince my readers that there is, at all events, gome method in the madneM of those who, like mysdfare coNverts to the new and spreading belief. What, the, is Shakespeare' title to the authorship? Of course, he claimed it to liimsi It ? Straiijre as it may appe.ir, there is no record of lus baring done so; and yet he beeuiá to have been a biKtling man of the world, by no tneans diifident; a n o ieyDMkklOK nianafjer of a theatie; not a person likely to hide his own light under a Imsliel, but one who would rather hare boasled and made tlie most of his literary altalnments, one who, m maklnir, as he did, a will, eoteríoC into details of' his chattles and eflects, down to his old bedstead, woulil not have been silent, as Me was, as to liis manuscript and literary property, which would, had he posiessed any, have been the source of liis fortune Surely he would liave appointed 11 literar executor, wlth directions as to the revisión and publication of his plays. Nine o the thlrty-seven playi mualfy credited te Shakspere were never heard of until the seventh year after his death, arnl all o the thirty-seven were In that ye.ir pub li.-lic-d, with considerable emeudations , iiiiic maner-hand Uoknown, Tlie 10:2: Brollo has thirty-.-ix plays. Of these eighteen werejprlnted theu for the rirst time - four or more 80 changed, matiirer or developed as to be practieally new. Therefore, for the text of twentytwo oq of the thirty-six we are dependent on the Folio. Of the remainmg fourteen, only nine are changed from tlie original quartos. The remaining tive are so alterec that, although the original quartns mi jood, the altered editious in the Folio are alone authoritative. But do not the Plays themselves bear external evidence of his authorship? Is not hls name upon thetn? and was inscription ever challenged ? It seems to be hardly understood that seveu of Shakespeare's plays- Tttuê Audronirus, Horneo and Jxüiet, llichard II., Richard 111., rirst part of Henry 1 V., and and second and third part of Henry VI. were originally brought out without nv autlior's naiuD on the title page; that six editions of the poem Venus ind Adontt and four of Luerece were also thua published. Several editionsof the poenu and l'l ivs were published before 101(1. Of these editlons twenty-seven had do anihor's name on the title page. Arui when the name of Shakespeare did ajipcar outside the printed editiou, and aMUmtng (what is hy no means a fact) that what gets into print and is not challenged is authentic, it muy be noted that the name outside the play is Shake .speare, a final "e" to each syüable, and, geneally a hyphen between the syllables - a mode spelling which, I tliink 1 ain right. ia saying, was not recognized by Will Shakspere himself. In the Records of the StratfordTowti Council - of which Mr. Johii Shakspere, the father of Willlam, was a member - the name was spelt in fourleen different, ways, 104 times with au "x" Indicating that the nne was prnnounced with the 'V in the tiit syllible short. The theory of the "Bacouians" is that the name Shakespeare was a non fc plume of Francis Uacon, who had good reasons for wiahing that the Plays sliould not be published in his name, and that when it was necessary to put forward some author's name, none fitter or more popular than that of the rUlng and popular theatre manager coukl be mlopled for the purpose; that tlie name was purposely distinguished by the different spelling; that the plays were sent in probably anonyniomly, by the author to the manager (Shakspei'e) ot ÜM Illackfriars Theatre, who adopted thetn for the otHge, lulroOtKjlnj;, peilmpn, simiik ot tlilow comedy business into thein. and broiifiht them out; that Shakspeie was the producer not the comnoser of the Plays. The reasons B-icon and hisfriends, who were in the secret of the authorship, !iad Tor wishing that during his life, or iminediately after his death, he shuuld not 3e recognized as the author, werecogent. The stage and drama thal time at its lowest ebb. Players and playwriters, and joeta?ters, were ranked among the class of "ne'er-do-weels" vagabonds, sowers of sedition and disorderly persons. Henry VIII. and Eli.abetli had utlered proclanations against stage plays as tending to nmiorality, disorder in the state and dejravity in religión. Bacons' motlier was a strict Puritan, and her son'sconnec-ion with the stage as a play writer would ïave been a greatoftence to her. Besides such peisonal motives for renaining a concealed poet, Bacon had, no iloubt a atronger motive. In those days, when iK'ither daily papers nor perlwliCaJ txisted, the stage was the readiet ueans of publishin opinions on any subect. Bacon intended ty his plays to Incúlcate dvauced opinions on many suliects - refonns in laws, state-craft, manïers, natural philosophy and religión. The days were dangerous. Men were iable to be imprisoned, tortured, slaiu L-ven, for their opinions and beliefs. The heory is, therefore, that Bacon tlien idopted the method of the nr.clents (which ie tiimself expounds and coinmi'iids), uu!, elothing himself in the weed of the joor player, he pnüfefl out to ears, many )f which hearing heard not, the tlioughts ind ispiralions of hls mvriad mind. But to return to the cinuimstiintial evidence hearing on the subject. Thereare qo manu.-cripts of the plays extant. It is said that lhe copies of their parts were luppltod to the actors tiy the inanajrer, SlmUspere, in his own handwriting, and "without a blot," a fact which is to inv iiind strongly aaiusthis authorship; for a buy and prolitic composer does not il ie e-mi help t, write tair ciipies for distribution, and rertainly not without alteration or blot. But is the character and ciireer of lhe man himself au indicatiou that he was the author y If we had no knowledge or record of him, it would be better lor his reputed title to the authorship; as it is, we Itnow ust enough of what marnier of man he wasto lind great (lifficulty in recOfTDlZlng the possibility of bis haviug nroduced such learned, elegant and varied masterpieces as those which bear a colorable mitation of his name. The history of his life so far as is known is very brielly as follows: Bom at Stratford-on-Avou in 1564, the son of John Shakspere, butcher, woolstapler or glover; hls mother, Mary Arden, of peasaut family; neither parent of any reputed ability or learning. Hupposed to have been for a short time at the Stratford granunar srhool; but thcre Is no autheiitic evidence of even this short period of tultton. 'l'here is also a tradition that he became a country schooluiaster, and legal eritics, despite of any tradltion, are ftire that he was once eiuployed In a lawyer's office ; but no hint of bis haviug become remarkable in either capacity, and both stories seem to be rather an inference from the legal and other large knowledge and learning apparent In the Play than based on auy real record or tradillon. He married at eighteen. There are local traditious that he followed lils fatuer's trade as a bnteber, and used to make a line speech before killing a calf; of his having been in the hablt of drinking at pot-houses and clubs, huuting conys for amusement, and poaching in the neighborhood, uutil Sir Thomas Lucy, the resident squire, after a more than usually aggravated case of poaching hy him, prosecuted him, the retult being that' he soon after left Stratford, and went in 1582 to Lomlon. There he is reported to have made hll living for a time by holding hories at the Globe Theatre, then working his way luto a situation inside the theater, and then com n?, by degree?, to be employcd as a "super," and "walking" or utility genlle man." Now the commencetnent of the pheno mena. At flve years after bis arrival i Lomion appeared the poem. Venu anc Adonü, dedicated to tlie young Earl o Southampton, a friend of Bacon, whoin Shakspere oonld hardly have known, un laca from iiolding liis liorse at the door o the theater. Disrejfarding its subject, it is one of ttie most elegant pieces of rhetorical poetr lliat Kiiíilish iiterature lias produced to this day. Such a production from a youiig countryman - country schoolmas ter, it yon piense- who could only have known the Warwickshire dialect, hui had litile opportunity for reliued study of the English language, and wlu had been earnhiff liis bread by holding horses, and was now enjrafred in a minor capactty inside a theater, would I tbink [ na jurtlflod iu saying, have been not only a phenomenon but a miracle. 9oau of the sonnet?, very flnisbed productions, also nppeared, and some of the earüesl plays are also supposed, by some critics, to h;ive seen the light about this time. Ir. is contended by some that Shakspere was connected, either as assistant or partner, witli an able bookscller and publisher of the day; that lie trcquented coffeehouse; that in the bookaeller's shop, durinsr the intervals of business, he had iccess to books which enabled him to study; and that in the coffee-liouses, wliidi were also frequented by S'Miie of the wits mul men oí the world of the day, he acquired his extraordinary knowledge of men and thinifM. II' thi-i training for genius were so efticajlotM in his case why das it not since liec-n fouml to be so? Why is nut now the culture of our young geniuses ett'eeted uy giving tliem tbe use of a liinited libraryand the society of a club? What Deed of schools and universities, studies iml lee.tme rooms, daylight abstinences and midnight oil, if all that innate elevernegí needs for its mostsuccessful developnunt is access to certain books varied by interinittent couversatious with clever men, u their intervals of relaxation at a dab f Shaktpere fradanlly rose In liis professiou ot' an actor, bnt n 'ver acquired finiiieiice in it. He acted in Hamlet - not the purt of Hamlet, but the Ghost. He s dcscribed at this time by au unfortunate dramatist named Robert Ureene, li seemed to attribute his own failure to the successf ui rivalry of the new author as being " an upstart crow, beiiutitied with our feathers, that with his tiger's leart wrapt in a player's hiele mirposes ie. is as well able to bombast out a blank verse as the best of you, and being an absolute Johannes factótum, is in lus own onceit the only Sluike seene in a couni ie." In 1596 he is living in Southwark. In .V.I-. lie has risen to be a shareholder and nauwer of the Globe and Blackfriars Theaters, rad is rich onnuirli to buy New 'lace at Stratford. We bearof him lendiig money, aud acting, and visiting Stratord once a year. In 1599 he obtahis a ;r.int of a coat-ofuuis from Heralde' College; buys more and at Strafford. In 1(301 his latber, who had failed n nisiness, dies. In 1003-5 is iu tlourslilujjf conditlon ; still manager of tne luhe, in wliicti he was one of the largest hareholders. He acts before the court; buys more land at Stratford. In 1G0S-9 we hear of him as plaintiff in mail actions ajruinst his fellow-townsnen at Ötratford for recovery of small oans, or malt delivered. In the period from 1593 to 1609 the vondertul Plays appear, one or two, or more, a year. The earüest plays are sup)osed by some critica to have appeared in 585, about the same time that Shakpere lett ötratford. I ii 1010, when hs Is in the prime of life, t forty-seven, he retires to ötratford-ouAvon, aud betakes himself - to study and iterature? no; - resumes liis old calling s WoolstapliT The Shakspeare Plays now cease to apear, and this just at the time one would ïave thougbt that Will Shakspere bad cquired the learning and leisure to write viih ncreased .est. Iu 1011 he appears as a party to a lawuit at Stratford with a neighbor. On April :;M, 1010, Shakspere died at stratford-on Avon. In the diary of Mr. Vard, Vicar of Stratford, occurs this enry: ".Shakspere, Drayton aud Ben Jonon drank too hard, tor Shakspere died of i lever thus contracted." 1 have omitted reference toanumber t traditioiiHl anecdotes, all of a more or ew disreputable character, as they may lot be true they are, however, based on he same traditional evidence as the rest. The death of the reputed author of the he Plays attracted no contemporary atention. Such is the character, career and exit f the man who, we are asked to believe, vas the nuthor of the Plavs which are a ihenomenon, not only in English letters, int in human experience, and the like of which the literature no other country ha-. iroduced. Au author's inner life is isually manlCested in his writlniis. l here any olher instauce on record of the ife and rharaeter of the individual havug beeu sucli a mistit with the works vilh which he is credlted? I think not. I have always feit a difllcully, amounta(C to InablUty, to brliiji my inind to beieve that, except by iosplration or miracle, a man of Slnikpere's educatlon, aneoadeDtf and associations, could have written any of them, but least of all Macbeth Hamlet and Leur. The playt, sonnets and poems, when irinted in one volume, occupy upward of ,000 ver}1 closelyprinted pages, containnjt nearly 200 lines on each page. The contents show not merely that the writur was a cullivated man with wlde, rei on the whole aristocratie sympathie, and a knowledge of character, especially D the hifiher walks of life, so that he could most readily represent the dltcourses and inauner of speech, not of mtchers, woolstaplers and farmers, vilajre politicians and the like, but ot' tinga [Ueeng, nobles, courtiers and statesmen ; and also that he liad an Intímate acluaiütance with Latin and Greek classical Kiitbors, hlstory, state politics, the art of war, natural philojophy, cbetnlstry, horticulture, law, medicine, the theory of nuilo; so nuich so, that he was able, as t were, to play with his knowledge of these latter subject, tnrnlng metaphors ipoo them by use of words and phraaes 'elatlng to them which were unkuown to he ordinary run of peo)le. The knowledge which the wrlter of the rinys poMaMed of the Freuch, Italiau in. ! Spanlth lanjruages, the habita of the jeóple and the places is also evident. Iu J ui in. i Cd-Hitr not an ideal ancient lome, but tlie real one, is recurately portrayed. In the Italian playi, The Merchant of Venice, Tuming of tlte Shrew and Ttco (fentlemen of Verona, Intímate acquaintance In small detail Is stiown with the Itiilmii towns and maunerg of the people Tlie Comedy of Krrors is discovered i theae latter days to be dcntlcal In argu ment with the Menoechmiof Plautu?, tlicn hardly known and untranslated. Iago's speech, " Wlio steals my purs steals trash," is a perfect paraphrase of a stanza in Berni's uutranslated poen) Orando Innamorato. In Two öentlemen of Verona Valentín is made to etnbark at Verona for Milan .¦nul in Hamlet Haptista is used as tlie iianie of ft woman. In auother play Ho hetnia is referred toagliavinga 8ea-coast These things were sueered at as mistakcs tor eome hundred years, u::til one learnet Germán discovers tbat Baptista is not uncommonly used as a woman's name in Italy.another letrned Oerman says lliat in the sixteenth ceiitury Milan and Verona weie counccted by cañáis, whilst a tliirc has dlaoorered tliat "Bohemia" formerly included a much 1 irger tract of country tlian It does now, and did stretcli down to the coast. The above are few, out of many, instances. Wliat inducement could Stiakspere, the m mager of the Globe and Blackfrairs Theaten, have had to introduce carefully itadled details and dark and subtle allusious such as these? It was not this outof-the-way kuowledge and learnlrtf in the Plays that would draw, for very few of those wlio attended the representations could percelve or appreciate them. It must have been introduced for the MtUfsction of the writtr of the Plays, wlio .must have been no novice, but a earned and cultivattd man, wlio was mbued and could play with his knowledge. He must have had books of his own or have had access lo the best librar es f t eday. He must have been a decp eader and ihinker, a man whose mina was uot only wel] stored but teeming; iud jrimtniiir over with knowledge. Even If there were no person to whom these wonlerful I'lays could be titly attributed the iiference would have been the same; there must have been some very clever md erudite man In the background who wrote them. And what is there unlikely in tlie noion that that Shakspere, the busy and successful theatrical manager, a well-tolo, prospcrous, bustlinff man, should lave " kept a playwriter" whose brains ie used to write lus plays. Shakspere'a aste lay In the bringlnjj out of plays aod nanagement of the stajte business. This vork of selection of the plays and of the ictors, the choice of the caste, and the relearsala, is nowadays one mau's work, especially in brining out plays of such eajgth as Shake8peare's. This must have eeu much more the case three hundred ¦ean ago, when the budnest was not so veil aoderttood, and actors were not so educated and intelligent a class ag now. ihakspere'g object, which he attaincil. vas to make his theater pny, and make noney, get a eoal-of-arnis, buy tand and etiru to liis native place. flaywritDg VU a laborious, not a payinL business. Four or five pounds was the stock price, it l believed, of a play in those iays. Bhakspere would not have grown ieh, as he dld, i he had employed ti is la)ors and ener;ies first in acquiring the earnlng and literary skill neceisary to write the Pliys; and, eoondly, in writ"S them. Hiscontcmporaries, Ben Jonou and Bacon, both literary men of the hrst order, were poor men for the greater iait of thtir lives, whilst Shakspere, the etor and theater-umnager, grew rich, n'l leut Ben Jonson money. Xo, surely, there is nothiiir unreasonble in the theory that some able man in he background wrote the Plays; some ne who liad good reason for keeping his ame unknown, and who was satisñed to se as his cover Shakspere, the popular heater-raanager of the day, who, at all vents for the time, was to be allowed ie credit of them. TO BE CONTINDED.