The New York herald., 1874-09-10

enough to take IN all races and al ages; lie was
torture criminals with. No one has ever called
MIN .'gentle Francis"
II Bacon rom motives OF policy refused to &C
father of the .'sonnetsf' Men in England
and good Queen Bess herself was somewhat
proud OF her skill in composing verses. Then
Way d bacon acc to place as name
Ad9pisr and "Rape OF Lucrecesn Moreover, as
have said In the first part OF this letter, he has
to assert, Shakespeare would have consigned TO
the waste paper basket, and yes he Is 80 modest
poems which have no rivals % In our own or in any
other language aud which were the themes OF the
enthusiastic praise OF his contemporaries. the
truth Is he did not write them. Whoever wrote
Shakespeare's plays wrote the .'Sonnets" and the
other poems attributed to the Bard OF Avon. The
same pen which described the fairy court OF
Oberon and rtania and the ellis who dance
BY paved fountains. or by the rushy brook,
Or on the beached margeut OF the sea-
also gave us the delicious speech OF the goddess Of
beauty IN 'venus and AdOnls:"
Bid me discourse will enchant thine ear
or H. ne s ia,ry Trip I,S upon the The green.
Dance on the sand AMI yet no footing seen.
and created dainty Ariel, that delicate fairy
that only pines for freedom that he may HE him on
u bats wing to groves where the trees are thick
with odorous blossoms, so that alter SUMS set he
may dance by twilight merrlly beneath tneir sill
The knowledge Of classical literature displayed
In the 'Sonnets' and other poems Is undoubtedly
greater and more accurate tnan that which IL
traceable In the plays; but, probably, the ma
jorty OF the latter were written hurriedly under
the pressure OF necessity, and that the former are
the result oil much greater labor and study. 1t
does seem astonishing tnat any one can possibly
for one moment believe mat Lord Southampton q
man wen known as patron OF letters, should
have accepted the dedication or the "Venus and
Adonis, and under the signature OF. shakespeare.
II it was written by Bacon, and that no human
being Ia Bacon's time should ever have suspected
the fraud, and yet this man Shakespeare, VINO
gave his name TO Bacon's plays. was popular
among the dramatists and their Intimate and be-
loved friend, and mAst often have spoken to
them about his projects aud comp0s tons,
and SHOWN them his manuscripts. Again,
as the joint work Of Shakespeare ana Fletcher.
This Is the "fwO Noble Kinsmen;" :" and the first
Is na 0S F. Mr.
On only : r. the words toIsriase I the q play
''The Two Noble Kinsmen.' presented with great
applause at Biackiriars by tne Kings servants;
Tass4 sy Mr. Wrote @
plays he must also have written the first act Of the
1.-TWO Noble Knsmen;" and If he did so Fletcher
ego and I'll wager these two good gossps between
them must soon nave 'let che cat out OF the bag"
Shakespeare once lived. and that he was born at
StratiordupOn-AvOn IN l564 and died in that town
in 1916 During his lifetime he was known as
popular dramatlSt and manager OF company OF
actors. When he published his plays he entered
them at StauOners' Hail as every other dramat. st
snakespeare's. They were collected in book form
and published seven years after lhe authors
death by John Heminge and Henry Condeil, well
known printers and publishers. In their preface
these editors say@"lt had been thing, we con-
fess, worthy TO have been wished that the author
himself had lived (bac0n was still ivlng) to nave
set forth and overseen his own writings: But
since 1t hath been ordained otherwise, and he, by
Sea 40 no om his snaf
OF their care and pain to have collected and pub
llsned them; who tohakespearel was happy I'M
ltator OF nature and more gentle expfesser OF 1t.
his mind and hand went together; aud what he
Thought he uttered with tnat easiness that we
have scarce received blot from him IN his
papers," Now, II Bacon wrote shakespeare, 1t is
to be imagined that the printers wOuld have rec
ognized his handwriting. Since they had "his
imagined that tney would have wanted to dedi-
Gaze volume oy Bacon to Lord Pembroke and
died, JOnson wrote cOmmendatOry verses In his
honor. 1 select q lew OF these:-
To draw no envy (shakespeare> on thy name,
Am thus ample to thy book and tame:
While confess thy writings to be such
"sf van sass GO .nss Sy
little arther TO make thee room.
nSu art 1t a1s s ss .n1q hS boo. So v.
And We nave wits to read and praise to give.
Hs su es hon2 oq nss
Eurlpides and sopnoces TO US,
10 lite again, to hear thy Duskin tread
Sweet swan nc, Of Avon what sight it were
And make sse those Sua a of Thames
That SO did take Eliza and our James
but stay / see thee in the hemisphere
Advanced and made a constellation there!
Exists there any one who. after reading these
lines can for an instant doabt that Shakespeare
OF Avon was the author OF wonderful
mirabe critic aud poet and his contempo-
rary and friend, who adrol.iy fixes mis- place
swan OF Avon" and tells US That his poetic flight
$50 did take" tne great Elizabeth and learned
James Could h;S Bacon nave read ana ne must
clared himself the real author oil the much PRAISED
plays Could ne nave stood by and heard them
appiauded by his Eliza and his James and have
resisted the impulse to announce himself the
creator thereof Ii he did he was modesly incar-
nate, and more than mortal.
am drawing TO the close OF this rambling let
ter, not from Jack OF what to say, but because
feel tnat l encroach too much on your space.
have still yet an observation to make. The con-
Guiding lines or Jonson's poem IN honor or
Shakespeare describe the loss to the stage which
his departure oc tasloned:-
Shine forth. thou star OF poets and with rage
or influence chde cheer the Dropping stage,
Which since thy fight from hence hath mourn'd like
Our despair S day. but for thy Volumes light
These lines clearly indicate that the greatest Of
Enowledged the fosj he VS. 10 drainatic iitera-
ture. Aud let us remember that at the time they
were composed there were still giants IN the
land. Messenger was living, Ford also, and Web
stef and Thomas Haywood besides immortal Ben
JOnSOn. NOW Wneu once SnakeSpeare Ole0, LDo
dramatic muse OF Bacon, to use the vulgar phrase,
''shut up" and we have no more dramas from
his pen, fact which evidently indicates that
either he never wrote one Of the plays or
that ne dared trust no one but Shakespeare to
carry out his frauds. 1t would certainly have been
dflcult for him to discover u more wonderfully
trustworthy persOn-one who could belool JON
son, excite the jealousy OF Greene win praise from
Spencer and Fietcher-to write plays, and dedi-
cate poems to southampton and get actors TO
perform dramas which he pretended to nave writ
ten, but OF which he had not composed . single
verse. The story We are obliged to credit In order
to believe this "Baconlan theory" Is positively
more wonderful than are the plays themselves!
and Shakespeare is made out thereby 10 be q much
more astonishing Iraud than our friend 'the claim
ant" But think there Is more OF fashion than or
reason In this new theory. In our day, when men
endeavoring to prove to US that the Creator is
not the author OF HIS works, II is not much to be
marveIied II there be folks found who are willing
" detDrone the genius OF shakespeare.
NEW YORK, Sept. 8, 1874. X. DA VEY.
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