St. Paul daily globe. [volume] (Saint Paul, Minn.) 1884-1896, 1884-03-17
Ex-Gov. DAVIS BOOK.
THE LAW IN SHAKESPEARE. By C.
Davis, st. Paul; West Publishing Compal

| Davis, St. Paul; West Publishing Company
! 1884.
1t is said that it is the Homer and Shak-
speare in men which reproduce their works
generation after generation.
For the English poet the almost universal
belief in his august fame and the supremacy
OF his genius have been proclaimed and
analysed, and interpreted for three hundred
| years by scores upon scores of minds htly
qualified through study and passionate zeal.
An invidious and despoiling minority
after three centuries of the worlds faith in
Shakespeare denounce it as too credulous
acceptance, and proceed upon one bubble
or another, some conjecture or plausible
gossip to rout him from his fame.
| Quite a readable volume was published
by Mr.. Appleton Morgan in 1881 which has
for one argument a positive historical
| blunder of NJ. Guizot in stating
that all of Shakspeare's plays were
written during his sojourn in London, thai
| he wrote nothing on his return to Stratford,
and that he was ignored and unknown"
Mr.. Morgan is really quite contemptuous
over the worlds credulity. formidable as
it was in age,' he says, ''the presumption as
to William Shakspeare's authorship OF the
| great dramas which for three hundred years
| had gone (mark the tenseD by his name had
only to be touched by the thumb and finger
of common sense to crackle and shrivel like
the egg that sat on the wall in the Kinder
| garten rhyme"
Another division of sceptics while deny
| ing Shakspeare's authorship of the plays are
| generous enough to concede that he had some
| hand in them. This is Mr.. Morgan's belief
| if he has any in Shakespeare. No less person
than Sir Patrick de Colquhoun member of the
| Royal Society of literature, London founded
| by George ILL., put forth paper in 1879
conveying the theory that Shakespeare as an
enterprising theatrical manager bought the
| plays and produced them on his
| stage thereby showing critical insight, and
an eminent judgment in selection which has
never been equalled.
The dramas were the work of a clique OF
learned men, Greene, Peel and others, but
Bacon did not belong to the dramatic part
nership says Sir Patrick.
| 1t is curious to note how obtuse this
mutiny against Shakespeare will make peo-
| pie. Sir Patrick ignores the fact OF Greene's
attack on the poet as plagiarist in the weak
witless description of ian upstart crow beau
| titled with our feathers who thinks himself
the only Shake-scepe in the country" This
venomous slur was duly resented at the
| time and pronounced foul libel.
The best quality of heretical intellect dis
senting from Shakspearian faith, is given to
| leader of it was a name-sake of James the
| First's great Lord Chancellor.
Poor Miss Della Bacon, after all her vehe
ment energy, her learning, her lifelong en-
| thusiasm, and singleness of devotion to the
| advancement of Bacon's claim to Shaks-
peare's laurels, would be forgotten in this
| generation were it not for the fine, just and
merited tribute of Nathaniel Hawthorne in
| the paper called ''Recollections of Gifted
Woman" in sour Old Home" series Of
| English sketches.
She gave her life to this mania--exiled
| from home and country of her own yolition
| to prosecute her researches with zeal and
| learning which gave the Bacon theory
against Shakespeare its first actual impetus
and its converts. She haunted Stratford-on-
| Avon. Day and night she studied the church
| specializing whether the tomb of the colo
Player'' and tLord Leicester's groom" as she
| impiously termed the poet of all time, coulG
not be sacked for the papers which she
claimed were buried with him which were the
cause of the terrible curse upon his toni
whereby lie escaped detection as afraud.
At midnight with dark lantern she in
vaded the awesome precinct where the poet:
ashes were secure from her desecrating in
vestigation, and with the dread maledictior
confronting her, she was not deferred from
| opened.
! But the sad ending was madness for the
| forlorn American enthusiast, and Hawthorne
hints that the Shakspearian Madison extends
to aught that disturbs the poets repose il
| death, or the security of his universal shining
renown as well.
And yet it is pretty certain that this mem
orable tomb has been desecrated more thar
| once.
Charles Knight is said to have witnessed
| the opening of the tomb when the Stratfort
| church was restored, and there is memo
randum in the Monthly Magazine Nondon,
| 1918 as follows: Notwithstanding the ana
thema pronounced by the bard on any dis
| turber of his bones, the church wardens wer,
| so negligent few years ago as to suffer thu
sexton in digging the adjoining grave of DR.
Davenport, to break large cavity into thu
| tomb of Shakespeare. Mr.. told the
| writer that he was excited by curiosity tt
| push his head and shoulders through tn,
| cavity, that he saw the remains of the bard
and that he could easily have brought ava,
| his skull, but was deferred by the curse thu
| poet invoked on any one who disturbed hi
| remains.
There is still another representation OF
| malcontents who admit that Shakspear,
was the dramatist but that he was a plagiar
list. The brunt of such charge is comprised
in the statement that he stole Hamlet from a
Corinthian romance by Herodotus, and al
article in Frazer's Magazine called "Greel
Hamlet" ingeniously traces a resemblance
between the mad prince of Herodotus ani
the distraught Dane of Shakespeare.
But cribbing is a trifing charge where
identity itself is at stake.
tits singular that nearly all the anti-Shak
spearian element is American.
Miss Bacon, Judge Holmes, George Wilkes
Appleton Morgan, Orrin Follett and rumol
says that the well-versed intelligence OF
Ignatius Donnelly is at work on this contes
to which we cannot wish the same success as
political one he had in hand while ago.
1t would appear to be a revolt from allie
glance to England's greatest mind as from
English sovereign rule.