The daily dispatch. [volume] (Richmond [Va.]) 1850-1884, 1859-07-22


age of ffty-two, he iikle dreamed OF the iesa-
cy he was leaving posterity. Ii ever mere
man. making no pretensions to divine affinity
In any respect was born to bring as"oia upon
The earth. 1t was. undoubtedly, he. There Is
nothing connected, In the remosesta esree, Win
him, that has not been the subject OF hefee JUS
mutation. Ills birthday, bis lineage ans PROBES
sion. the spelling of his name, the oecupa'.o'
of his parents, his education, the cause oa hie
going up to London, the time OF MS iea'"s
Stratiord, the manner IN winch ne was eni-
Moved when he first made the Meuopoiis MS
home the time when his first play was writ
ten. his talent as an actor, the time Oh ME
leaving the stage, the authenticity Oh the PoF-
trai,s that are said to be his, everything, In
word connected with him. has been the
subject of dispute from the time "heh
Row.. seventy or eighty years after MS
death. published his memoir OF hii'''
to the present day. And II Is ie
markable. that not single point has been
settled to the satisfaction OF any person vi
marty. except the person or party suggesting
the solution. The personality OF the great
noe, il still as intangible now, as II was when
JOHNSON criticised, and STEVENS emendeo.
He ia n mighty name-the representative OF
,,,io,,v ,ower-but he il nothing more. NO
,nar .,n mint to one single thing that he ever
I'D and saw this was his act, or to one single
,,,o-a that oyer issued from his mouth, and say
thus he spoke. Nations bow with q reverence
amounting almost to idolatry before the
shr;,s If his genius-vet they know but little
NOR. of ,heir Divinity than they do OF the
Olvmnian love or the Dalphic PHGBUs. Inc
com nleteness with which all traces OF the great
est poet that has appeared In all uihe nave
been annihilated is the strangest phenomenon
connected with literary history. No reason
Tint has ever been assigned for it, can bear in
snactio, for moment. He lived not as Ho-
upp did in a remote age. when it is doubtful
whether the art of writing had been discover
~, ,a ,vas horn late in the sixteenth century,
and died early in the seventeenth. HIS lie
oovers one of tho best known periods Of histo-
nv. He was contemporary with Sir PHlLiP
SIDNEY with SPENsER, with RALEIGH, WIN
BACON, with COKE, with BEN JoNsoN, Win
MARROW, with BEAUMONT, with FLETCHER
with hundreds of others whose histories ana
writings are familiar to US all-in MS age the
printing press was prodigiousiy actve-his
works afford, in many places, indisputabie
evidence of his familiarity with the great
world of his day-yet everything connected
with him except his works and his name, mas
absolutely persisted.
If the personality of SHAKESPEARE has Civ
EN- rise TO numberless bitter disputes, the in
terpretation of his works has occasioned quite
as MANY We said no incident of his life hao
been ascertained. We mistake. The day on
which he took leave Of it altogether is known
It was 23d April, 1916. Seven years afterwards,
the first complete edition Of his Works was
published His editors (two brother players,
UEMrsGE and CONDELL, seem TO nave hau
very i'm perfect idea of their duty. Inc WORKS
passed through the press, evidently without
having been correct ted in the passage. Even at
this day, with intelligent printers, ana vigil
liant and sensible foreman, it IS almost impos-
sible to avoid errors III any sort OF publication,
unless the man who writes the article looks
over and corrects the press. In the case OF
these plays however, the most important
works in a mere literary sense,eyer publlshed,
the editors do not seem to have supervised the
edition at all 1t appears to have been sent forth
in to the world precisely rs 1t was sci up, Win
all it's imperfections on its head. Hence, when
the fame of the author began to burst upon the
world in its meridian splendor, hundreds of
c ,mmentators and corectors appeared. No
author ever had 50 much written about him.
or was ever made SO free with by his common
tators Innumerable editions of his works,
notes innumerable comments in
Vulnerable explanations of obscure passages,
dissertations of very plain ones.
have distinguished the period that has elapsed
since it first became fashionable to write about
lin.
At last it was announced, about seven years
ago, that Mr.. JOHN PAYNE COLLIER, who had
already published edition of SHAKs-
pEAREs plays, had accidentally come into
possession of a copy of the second edition ever
published-that of l632-and that it was filled
with MS. corrections written on the margin.
evidently at a period but little subsequent to
that of publication. The corrections, it was
bore internal evidence of having
been made upon comparison with the original
of SHAKESPEARE, or, at least,
with the MS from which the edition was
published. In 4 very short time, Mr.. COLLIER
published book in which large number of
the corrections We're compared with the pas
sages as they stand in the generally received
editions of SHAKESPEARE. To us, they SEEM
ed, in general, to be admirable BY the alter
alton of single word, sometimes of Il single
letter, sometimes of a note of punctua-
otherwise We're wholly unintellgible.-
Sometimes they seemed to strike exactly upon
the very thing that was wanted where editors
ana commentators had been puzzling their
brains for ages without making any progress
in elucidation. In many cases they were so
palpable, that it seemed impossible to d ubt.
We thought them for the better in almost
every case, and in none did we think the text
Az 10 aFl
its appearance, Mr.. COLLIER was assailed by
4 shower of vituperation. Everybody who
had prepared an edition Of SHAKESPEARE, every
body who had published one, everybody who
had written notes on his works, all bookshelf
ers who had editions On hand, all play-actors
who had his plays by rote as they are in the
old editions, everybody, in fine in any way
connected in interest with the publication of
SHAKsPEAREs plays in the ancient form-and
their name was legion-fell upon him with in
conceivable fury.
Within the last few weeks he has been at
tackled by new adyersary-a MI HAMIL-
TON, who is connected with the depart
ment of MSS. in the British Museum. The
copy of Mr.. COLLIER, it seems got into the
possession of the late Duke of DEyoNsHIRE.
and was loaned by the present Duke to the
Museum, where it fell under the inspection of
Mr.. HAMILTON, who after such inspection
fakes it upon himself to pronounce the cor
reetons forgeres, and forgeries, some of them,
Of very modern date. He does not, indeed,
pronounce Mr.. COLLIER the forger, but the in
ference that he thinks him so is plain. The
original corrections, he says, have in many
cases been obliterated, sometimes by pen
knife, sometimes by chemical preparations, and
sometimes by pasting over, and others substi-
tuted in their stead, &c.
Now, all this may be SO. But if COLLIER is
lx fhaa ,fa ho