The Albany register. [volume] (Albany, Or.) 1868-18??, 1875-04-02
s1asu At sHAKEsPEARE.

A SLASH At SH4hESREAhE.
Mr.. George Wilkes has begun in his
paper, the Spirit of the Times, q serial
entitled Shakespeare from an American
Point of View, with the Baconian Theory
Considered The first installment oc-
cupies page and a half, and the author
announces that the work will run twelve
or fifteen weeks. Mr.. Wilkes proposes
to find out from the sentiment of his
plays and his revealed history what man
ner of man Shakespeare was. The open
ing chapters condemn shakespeare s aris-
tocratic tastes. Mr.. Wilkes says on this
point
dickens, who wrote mainly for the
lowly Byron, who, though q noble,
fought for liberty Ceryantes, Junius,
Eugene Sue, LIE Sage, De Foe, Walter
Scott, Victor Hugo, Oliver Goldsmith and
Scheherezerade- Observation-Disclosures
ten Scheherezerade,w who talked to a Prince
for thousand and one nights in such
sentiments as have made the literature of
Arabia hymn-never forgot the hopes
and joys and distresses of the poor.
Shakespeare alone of these elevated souls
prefers to be the toady of the rich and
noble, and seldom, if ever, permits the
humble to escape him without a derisive
Jest or sneer Shakes
peare commenced life as a deer-stealer
and drunkard had child born to
him in less than six months after mar
riage, and lived in London during his
theatrical career without his wife. He
was so mean as to sue one man for debt
of &c, and another for e1 los 10d, when
he had an income of e1, 900 a year to
himself, and died finally at the age of
fifty-two, from the effect of too much
drink at dinner. = What
we have now first upon our hands is the
singular anomaly presented by the spec
tacle of a genius of the ife-giving order,
born in poverty and humbleness, never
betraying one emotion for loftiar
sphere, or exhibiting a single sympathy
with the down-trodden classes, whose
degradations and miseries must have con-
stantly intrlded upon his superior com
prehension. But the fog yanisheS be-
fore the light of facts. We have album
dant evidence that Shakespeare was, in
his personal way of life, q calculating,
money-making, money saving man, and
the conclusion, from the circumstances
Of his business in London and Stanford,
must be that he suppressed his natural
sentiments to convenience of associa-
1f s,14o,
patron, when he was theatrical man.
ager, was the young Earl of Southamp-
ton, nobleman of enormous wealth,
who, together with the Earls of Essex
and Rutland, were constant visitors at
his theater.
sLet not the rapt worshipers of Avon's
bard, whose sacred ecstacy is thus rudely
broken in upon, suppose that take
especial pleasure in these material statis-
tics. Nothing can reduce Shakespeare
from the supreme elevation which he
holds in the United States as the poet of
our race but we in America take no in
terest in him as a politician, and scarcely
any as moralist ; and, surely it is wiser
for us, who are not involved In any
tangles of allegiance, to disenchant our
selves of the spells woven by loyalty and
doctrine, and treat this mighty mortal as
a man. Perhaps the most curious and
interesting problem which can thus be
brought to our comprehension is-what
amount of muck may mix with, and be
instrumental in, the production of a
flaming gen.