The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-01-02

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the undersigned, their committee, Your Majesty's
humble petitioners, respectfully to petition Your
Majesty, that Your Majesty might be disposed, in
Your most Gracious Pleasure, to remove from Office
as members of the aforesaid Board of Health, the
present members now composing it; and Your petit
TONERS do in accordance with their instructions re-
ceived, now most respectfully petition Your Majesty
for their removal, [Signell II. G. DAVIS,
j. o CARTER, c. j. Lyons,
J. w. KEAwEnUSAnALA A. NJ. KAHALEwAI.
At tie hour of going to press the committee have
had no response from His Majesty.
Weak Point in the Biographies OF
shakespeare
We plead innocent to the charge of a desire to
to draw the editor, or any of the contributors for
the GG,ettc, into IL discussion respecting the au-
thorship of Shakcspeare's Plays and Sonnets. 1t
was very kind in ..Q.,' writing for the last num-
Der of the Gazette, to enter his earnest lea, lest the
editor of that paper should he tempted to venture
upon a little pleasant literary discussion, and in
yestigation. COS remarks remind us of the
anxious mother, who said to her son, "Now,m my
son, you 90 a-fshing, but be sure that you do not
20 near the water" MIR: Editor, endcavor to
make it apparent that you are Il good writer
able, learned, literary and competcnt-bul, pray,
never write upon any literary topic" We are,
however, of quaint Isaac Walton's opinion, who
wrote &" the Complete Angler that it is Il good
thing to go a~-fshing, and when the fish do not
bite, to sit ON the banks of the river and read
good books,-ncw books, If you cannot find old
ones. History says it was after this manner that
Patrick Henry spent his early life.
In the course of our reading, we have fallen in
with many Biographies of the "Swect Swan of
Ayon,'' rs nie Ben. Jonson calls the Dramatist
Shakespeare. We have, ut different times exam
incd the biographies of Shakespeare, as published
in England and America. We have now lying be-
fore us the exact reprint of the edition of Shakes
pcarc published III London by Jagsard and Blount,
in 1923. This we believe to have been the first
complete edition of his Plays. We have also cx-
ahmed one of the very last editions of his Plays,
that of ID. Appleton, of New York, and Trubher
& Co., of London, published in 1865. In all the
biographies, which are attached to these PLAYS,
we notice this weak point, the writers are unable
To reconcile the character Of tie man, William
Shakespeare, with the character of his Plays.
Literary anliquarians have searched the British
Museum and all the libraries of England in order
to ascertain even the ordinary events Of Shakcs
pc,rc's life. Their search has been for the most
part labor lost. Look into the volume last men
toned, viz, Appleton and Trubner's edition, and
there we find "A Chronological Sketch Of Shakes
peare'S iJc.' Against Shakespeare's life, for
1857, 1888, 1890, 1899, lGO0, 1906, and 1918,
we find this significant expression, "No Record. -
Yet it was during those very years that some Of
those immortal Plays were first acted, and after
wards published. In Il farther examination of
the lives of Shakespeare, we very frequently meet
with such expressions as these: eve believe
1T is probable &c. In Shakespeare's will,
published and re-published in almost every edi-
ton of his Plays, we do not find Il single allusion
to his Plays. Such utter Indifference of any au-
thor respecting his literary offspring, is without
n parallel in the history of literature, in ancient
or modern times, unless the writer had an object
to conceal his name, as in the case Of ''Junius."
1t is a significant fact that when these Plays
originally came into the hands of the actors, they
were all written, as his biographcrs testify, with
out "a blot in his papers" 1t is not after this
manner that genius dashes Off : : thoughts that
b6sathe and words that burn" or works that
i've. Byron wrote not after this fashion.
The writer in the Gdeeffe, in order To throw
discredit upon the writings of Della Bacon and
Judge Holmes, insinuatcs that their Efforts are
- simply an attempt to rcsuscitate a notion long
since propOundcd and exploded by the Shakes
Tcarcan scholars Of England" Grant it,-this
very remark indicates that the scholars of Eng
land are az much puzzled as the scholars of
America. to reconcile Shakespeare literary char
acter with Shakcspcare's Plays. The two do
not harmonic OF tally, the one with the other.
or to employ Emcrson's expressive language,
II cannot marry his fact fo hS rorse. Other
admirable men have led lives in some sort of
with their thought; but this man in wide
With the facts before us, rs presented by Eng
and American critics, commentators and bio
of Shakespeare, we do not think 1t I'M
becoming n candid inquirer after historical truth
10 ask, Did Shakespeare write Shakespeare"
we ID think it unbecomingin the Ga-ene or
my writer for that PAPER to employ such as the
language: The cool impcrtinence
with which they pretend to c%riticise n subject Of
kind, j. really sublime 80" is fully enti-
to enjoy his own opinions upon this subject.
No doubt, when lie had written his cOmmunica-
ion. he enipycd a sensation of delight akin 10
hat experienced hy n certain Englishman de- 1
crihci by C1leridsc-whcn ne s~VJEe-of him Il
he invariably took his hat of. r
y certain captiou- writer in the OrerkGRd
NoHHiy rcproaches (most uniustly we think the
people of Honolulu for a want of literary
lstc. writes in too much the same style,
mi would cndcIyur To- di>suadc the editor of the Is
lia-enc from INDUCING in n little pleasant writ
NJ upon a literary topic. Cannot editors, writ Il
r. and correspondents y~cntilatc their thoughts u
calling each other hard names? Let Us b
Iut quarrel over Shakespeare, but may we not
indulge i'm a little pleasant criticism? We are ."
are 81 men would more carefully read the writ
nEs OF Shakespeare. they would feel more kindly
'wErl- aIDa ,l.cr.