Juniata sentinel and Republican. [volume] (Mifflintown, Juniata County, Pa.) 1873-1955, 1876-06-07
Sh-k.sp.P-ss Name.

The ineontestable autographs of tn,
poet are; His nature to the pur
chase Of house In j; ,kfriars. London
rms autograph 1- purchased for tn,
City OF LONDON ~ 1915 81, fI45, and /:
now at Guildhall. \ .simiIe oT tb,
signature Is gwen la iiichard Grant
hites eGition OF the ,,o,,t's works vol
Furn lva,, tnan whom there are no alb.
ier declpnerers OF antique and grabbed
nanawrltlng, make the signature to be
Shdkespere. =. His signature to mort
gage Oh l,e same property. This was
purchaseu a,- ,n iooS Tor the British Mu.
scum for tslo. If the only fac-simile
OF II that we have ever seen does il
juice, te British Government paid
I qtearhigh price for an autograph
which is well nigh illegible. Madden
and Furnival, however. after a careful
and independent study of the original.
agree reFeaeiing it !Sdakspere. 3, 4, 5.
Ihree Sign itures appended to the will
of the grssstdfamatist. This will, which
may BE seen by any one for a shilling at
Doctor Commons, London, is drawn up
on three sheets of paper, each of which
bears the poets name. 1t has been sug.
gested that the two first signatures were
appended by the clerk who drew the
will, and that only the last is that of
the poet himself. This theory has
been shown, however, to be untenable,
and all the signatures are now regarded
as genuine autographs. They are given
in fac-simile by Richard Grant White,
in his edition Ofthe poets works (vol. /.
PIP. 96-99.) the first and second seem to
be Shakspere $50, Madden and Furni-
val;) while the third looks decidedly
like Shakespeare. So Madden makes il
out, and so was it made out by Stevens
and Malone, who i'm I776, before the
signature was defaced by frequent
handling, made the first tracing of it
for fac-simile. Furnival, however, in
sists that this, like the other autographs,
reads Shdkspere. These five autographs.
feebly and almost illegibly traced, are
all that certainly remain to us of the
of one of the most volumi-
nous, as well as incomparably the great.
est OF English poets. One other auto
graph is commonly added on the authori-
ty of Sir Francis Madden, who has said
that 1T challenges and defies suspicion
It Is suspected, however, by both Mr..
AiiIi"ci anu MI TuTnlNdl, WHO nave /
good right to an opinion i'm such matters.
The signature in questions Is written on
the fly leaf of a copy of ofFlorio's transla-
tion OF Montaigne's ''Essays," which is
the property of the British Museum.
The name whoever, wrote it, is, unmis-
takably, "WiiPm Shdkspere" In the
''ShdkspedreaRa Genealogical" PIP. 533-
o34, an account is given of four other
alleged autographs, which are com
monty regarded as spurious. From an
inspection of these autographs it is evil
lent that, however Sh-k-sp-r- may
have varied i'm spelling the last syllable
)f his name, he nerer inserts an after the
(. So says Mr.. Furnival and so must
very one say who takes the pains to
the fac-similes. On this point
he spurious and genuine autographs
ire all agreed. Following out the prin-
'iple, then, that man has an unauest-
enable right to spell his name as he
,leases, We ought not to force upon i'm
,erial Shaksp-r-, dead and turned to
lay, an (which he persistently and
Systematically rejected. Still further,
rom an inspection of the poets auto .
.raphs, the weight of evidence is very :
decidedly against the insertion of an a
n the last syllable of the name; or i'm
avor Of writing Shakspere, not Shak-
Monthly. (;