Sacramento daily record-union., 1881-11-19
BOOK REVIEW.

the world desires to know mora than Of
Shakespeare, and there are few of whom II
knows less. His life, apart from his works.
is very nearly blank. Stevens wrote
ssAll that is known with any degree of cer
tainty concerning Shakespeare, is that he
"was born at Stratford-upon-Avon married
'and had children there went to London,
"where he commenced acting, and wrote
''poenis and plays; returned to Stratford,
made his will, died. and was buried" And
beyond these bald facts, what has been dis
covered amounts to very little more than
dim gossipy tradition, TO which no GER
tain credence can be given. But what is
most remarkable about the little we do know
concerning Shakespeare. is that scarcely any
thing of it seems to belong TO such character
as the splendor of his literary works iustifas
us in ascribing to their author. Nor Is it
only that there is an incongruity between the
works and what little is known of the man,
but there appears to have been in the caresr
so family outlined very little opportunity for
the acquisition of that knowledge, not only
of men and things but of books, which is SO
abundantly exhibited in the Shakespearean
plays and poems. In fact the Shakespeare
of tradition falls 80 far short OF the ideal
Shakespeare that commentators have had to
tug and strain to make the account of the
man correspond in any respect with the
works imputed to him, and through bewilder-
ment on this point there has grown up little
school of skeptics who think they are taking
short cut out of the difficulty by fatty de-
nying that Shakespeare wrote the plays and
poems which bear his name.
Had it been possible to drop Che matter at
this point the skeptics would have had toI-
erably good case, for it is undoubtedly very
hard to accept the portrait which has been
handed down to US as that of the man who
really was, "not for on age, but for all
time Comparatively low-born-for the
story of the herald's college does not seem to
be borne out as far as Sbskespeare'a paternal
house is concerned; reared in ignorance, or
with no more education than few terms at
country school could supply; marrying
i'll at eighteen; going to London and there
holding horses, or at least doing general
utility work about a theater. for living
appearing next as busy manager, prepar-
ing plays for the stlge, bustling and hurrying
about, with no time for study displaying so
soon as he began to prosper thoroughly
bou7yeoiSe instinct for the material comforts
of lie; buying land, lending money at inter-
aof 1o. :, II 1
sordid fashion presently, when he has made
his fortune, returning to Stratford, and
thenceforward seeming to take no interest in
his writings; and finally dying, as our tradi
ton has it, from the effects of debauch,
without leaving in his viii any reference of any
kind to those literary works which were not
only destined to be the glory Of his nation
and of the world, but which were even then
recognized as the productions of transcend
ent genius. Who that follows this strange
history can fail to be perplexed by the dis
cordancy of the facts with the theory? 1t is
no wonder that some bolder spirits among
the students of the subject should have re-
jected the current tradition in despair, and
sought elsewhere than in the person of
the Stratford yeoman's son for the author of
these matchless works. For though
whole literature has grown up of books
treating of the special knowledge of Shake
speare, there is nothing known of his life
which gives the faintest clue to the manner
in which he became possessed of this encyclo-
pedic knowledge. And so it IS that the vol
ume before US excites in US no sentiment of re-
sentiment at what Shakespeare-w
may think the fiat blasphemy of the author,
bat only feeling of mingled admiration and
regret admiration for the laborious research
and ingenious argument; regret for the un-
avoidable failure attaching to such an enter.
prise.
For it is plain that though it may be pos
sible to make a very plausible showing
against the theory that Shakespeare was the
author of the works which pass under his
name, the new view is comparatively worth
less unless it can be shown with at least
equal plausibility that some other person or
persons wrote these works And here is the
fatal breach in MIR. Morgan's argument. He
Holmes in assuming Lord Bacon to have
been the author of the plays, but he proposes
what is, if not a more difficult, certainly
wilder hypothesis, viz, that the plays were
written by group of men of genius who for
state reasons were obliged to maintain their
anonymity. But we will let Mr. Morgan
speak for himself on this head: SIT is the |
New Theory" he says lin contradistinc-
ton to the Baconian Theory, "that, while |
" in employment in the theater, William
Shakespeare was approached by certain
gentlemen of the court. Perhaps their
names were southampton, Raleigh, Essex,
Rutland and Montgomery, and possibly
among them was needy and am.
bilious scholar named Bacon, who,
with an eye to preferment, maintained
their society by secret resort to the jews.
:" or to anything that would put gold for the
day in his purse. Possibly they desired to
be unknown, for the reasons given by
Miss Bacon. In what they asked of him,
and what he did for them, he found, at
any rate, his profit" This, in brief is MIR.
Morgsn's theory, and while it is supported in
very ingenious manner, we do not hesitate
to assert that it is in all respects far more in
credible and extravagant than the theory it is
intended to supplant. It is a trite observa-
tion that skeptics are often the most credu-
lous of people, but it has seldom been more
strikingly illustrated than in Mr. Morgan's
case. Certainly it may be said of him that
he strains out gnat, and swallows camel.'
For if there is no satisfactory explanation of
the manner in which Shakespeare obtained
the height of intellectual development dis
played in the works which bear his name, the
attempt to establish this new secret literary
club is beset with difficulties to which those
of the other case are mere bagatelles.
In the first place the suggestion that half a
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