The evening telegraph. [volume] (Philadelphia [Pa.]) 1864-1918, 1869-07-06

But If William Shakespeare did not write
them, neither did he write the Sonnets nor
other marvellous verses which bear his name;
for the same manner Of thought and action
are embodied in these lesser works that are
to be found in his playa manner of
thought and action which belonged especially
to Shakespeare alone Now il Shakespeare
did not write Venus and Adonis who did
write it, and write il too in that mode of
thought and expression which are found in
the plays2
1.-THE poor wits who have tried 10 do wrong
to.the memory Of my friend William, say that
he could not write the plays inasmuch as he
was not learned in books nor ancient tongues.
II is very true that William was not learned,
after the fashion Of the men of Oxford, nor
Of Cambridge but he was great reader, and
l know, forsooth, that he had marvellous
memory; with the help of these, and the
bounteous nature which God had blessed him
with, he was enabled to do what scholars
richer in ancient lore could not accomplish
Let me exemplify-and hope my argument
will not lack truth and charity. Addison was
a great man of mighty learning. He had vast
advantages in books and in the store
houses of knowledge, that William could
not have. Well, Addison did write
the play of Cute But the men and
women who are brought to light in the play
of Gate, are they Romans? Or are they
merely Britons, trying to put ON the gait and
manners of Romans Are the Romans of
Addison like the antique Romans that have
their life and being afresh in that goodly play
of Julius Cesar?
''Why is this? 1t cannot be said that Addi-
son did lack the mysteries of learning, or
that he did not take delight in writing well.
All friends truly Heaven was most bounti-
full to William Shakespeare. When the
traducers of Shakespeare first raised their
voices against hm-lighting their small tapers
to guide weakness into folly-they said that
no one man could write such plays, but that
they must be the product of many men,
Marry these objectors must be very good
men and women, for they are as innocent as
| sucklings. The works of segoPdJ men,
indeed! Do not the plays of the Richards
and the HenryS speak for themselves, that
one man alone did write them? Could any
two men give thought and action so harmo-
niously and cunningly as to leave no impress
ment of the partnership?
1T were easy to multiply examples on this
subject, but will content me by giving one
more. Whoever created 'Mercutio' created
'Falconbridge, Petruchio, Benedict, and
| 'Biron; for these characters are but different
conditions of one and the same man, under
different circumstances and in different COM
| pany. Good, easy critics have surmised that
Walter Raleigh and Francis Bacon wrote the
| plays. NG%% | have had much converse wifi,
Bacon and Raleigh in our hl.sSppy home, and
they deny that they had any part in the said
composition, and both grieved that SO much
wrong should be done to the memory OF
J Shakespeare by trying to rob him Of the honors
of his immortal works.
The spirit of Ben Jonson now bade adieu tC
the brethren and sisters, and vacated his tenn
porary possession of the physical organization
of the Shaker brother.
The Elders, with a pious exhortation, a
usual, closed the exercises of the meeting.