The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1856-1888, 1869-01-09
Who Wrote Shakespeare?
DfE0tr-s ErUie.r. FsLlu0ru. IS

n %HTutItSL HHoIrSrs. New Yo7te Fai5,sh-d by
Hard a HaashIoa, ~ Broome street lSa6-
DsB0r's Rerisr, Fs5'uqry, ls5s-
We thank the Ga=aIe lor calling cur attention
to the article in DeBow's Review. It j. a care
ful and highly appFeoiative article, which fully
recognizes the ability, research and scholarship
Of the . b. Boston Maiden and the Missouri Judge
respecting whom the GG@etts writes 50 sneeringly
and fipIantly. We have read the article with
deep interest. 1t presents William Shake>peare's
claims 10 the authorship of those Plays commonly
attributed 70 him, with great force. The writer
has carefully investigated the subject. yet the i'm
partial reader Will be surprised 10 find how much
even 4 writer on that side Of the question is COM
PEELED to apologize for his favorite author. If an
earnest advocate for Shakespeare employs such as
the following language, surely Judge Holmes
must be pardOned if he see fit 10 argue for Bacon:
There are some circumstances which have favored
this icCnOclastic enterprise Of destroying the literary
name and the fame Of William Shakespeare-circum-
stances without which none would have been 20 adj
venturous as to have attempted 1t. The obScurity
and uncertainty which surround almost every incl
dent Of the life Of Shakespeare, from his infancy to
his death, leave a wide opening for conjecture and
for fantastic representations. When was he born ?
What was the condition, and what the occupation Of
AH AaNANA % " ANN "a AANAAAV I'M lt
possess: What were the emplOyments Of his boyhocd
and youth When did lie leave Stratford and re-
move 10 London? How did he support himself dur
ing the first years OF his abode in the oyergroWn
metropolis: When did lie begin to write for the
stage? What were his early productions? What
are his genuine dramas: When were they written
and first represented: When did he leave the city
and return to StratfOrl? When did he close his
dramatic industry? How did he die? What was
his creed, What was MS character, in youth. man
hood, old age: Are the portraits Of him authentic?
l. the bust Of hin At S%tratford a contemporary work
Of rude art, and can its fidelity be relied on? To
none Of these questions can n plain, direct, and in
dubitable answer be re;urnel.-DeBor Reriev.
This writer in DeBow admits almost too much.
We confess our faith Is now really somewhat
shaken as TO the authorship Of Shakespeare's
Plays. Hitherto we have only thrown out some
thoughts upon this subject, as they were suggested
by reading the work Of Judge Holmes. On TAX
ing up that book, our prejudiees were so strong
against his theory and that of Miss Bacon, that
we felt inclined to ridicule the whole subject,
and to say with the Gazette, absurd question,
Ibid Shakespeare write Siakespeare?'' The
writer in DeBow thus expresses his mind, in 4
passage not quoted in the Gazette: b though
we reject unhesitatingly the ~cbimerical project Of
such substitution-the heresy thus repudiatcd is
80 curious in itself. and il sustained by such dill
gent and conscientious investigation, that IL mer-
as eramiaattor."
Thus our readers and those Of the GG=efle, will
see that even if we arc chasing an ignis fatuus,
we are rersuing something that merits i~nvestiga-
ton. 50 thought Judge Holmes, and hence he
has devoted twenty years, more or less, to the
study OF this ShakcsTercan question, and the re
suits Of his careful and scrutinizing research are.
embodied in the volume at the head of our re-
marks. The writer in DeBow appreciates Judge
Holmes eminent literary ability, and thus con-
cludes one Of his paragraphs (wherein he has
fully recognized Miss Bacon's keen research and
the Judges broader philosophical yiews:) f
''Thus, these inquiries, however valueless they
may be for the distinct purpose contemplated, may
he Of eminent assistance in facilitating the a~pprehen-
Of the relation in which the great dramatist and
the great reformer Of philosophy stood TO their con-
tempOraries, and in determining accordining to Bunsen,
their truer place in universal history"
We do not propose to carry forward the discus
of this Shakesperean question. We have
not fully committed ourselves to the theory that
Bacon ,ras me author Of Shakespeare! We
merely. in the outset. asked tie question. Did
Shakespeare write Shakesrcare?" We thought
we had n perfect right to ask this question. In
the great Republic Of Literature there is ample
.Tacc for such little people as the Gazette
md ourselves. We may differ upon political
but it Ill becomes US TO call each other
hard names, because we may or may not agree
lpon the authorship of Shakespeare.