The semi-weekly miner. [volume] (Butte, Mont.) 1882-1886, 1885-09-12

THE Saturday Review discusses one OF
the numerous attempts to prove that
Bacon wrote Shakespeare, and, without
denying or admitting premises or concur
sions, suggests that somebody undertake
to prove that Sir Walter Raleigh was the
author of the dramas, contributing what
| evidence it has already found in support OF
the theory, as follows: "The following
plays were all produced after 1903, the
year when Raleigh was sent to the Tower
for his alleged share in the Gotham plot:
.Othello,' Measure Tor Measure Lear
sPericles,' Antony and Cleopatra Mac
beth 'sCymbeline,' Winters Tales, Tenn
pest Henry VIII Tanning Of the Shrew.'
| 1t has been allowed that Bacon, amid all
his variety OF business, both public and
private, must have been very hard put to
| it to find the mere time to write the plays.
| No man of that age could have had at that
time SO much leisure on his lands as
Raleigh. But that is not all. In the ninth
| chapter oil his Constructions to his Son."
| on the inconvenience arising from the i'm
moderate use of wine, is a passage which
might almost be described as a para
| phrase of Cassio's discourse on the same
subject. Nor is this all. Raleigh had
been in the Tower before, in 1892, on a
rather delicate matter, in which Mistress
Throckmorton, afterwards Lady Raleigh,
had a share. The injustice OF his second
Imprisonment would naturally recall the
first to his mind, equally or still more I'M
just as he probably thought. Tothe second
he would hardly dare to allude; but what
more likely than that he should find a sort
of melancholy pleasure in recalling the first!
Now, if Mr.. Smith. the author OF the works
advocating the Bacon theory, will turn TO
the second scene of the first act OF Measure
for Measure" first acted in December, 1914,
and written, therefore, in the first year OF
Raleigh's Imprisonment he will find an al
fusion to the unfortunate cause OF his first
disgrace obvious to the dullest comprehen-
sions. The apparently no less obvious al
fusion in Twelfth Night" to Coke's brutal
ity in Raleigh's trial cannot, unfortunately,
stand, as we know for certain from John
Manningham's diary that the comedy was
played in the Middle Temple Hall in the
previous year. But from such evidence
as we nave given land, did time and
space serve, we could add to it, we think
q very good case could be made out for
Raleigh, and we commend the making OF it
to Mr.. Smith, who seems to have plenty OF
time to spare in such matters. At any
rate, if he will not have Shakespeare for
the author of these plays, he must really
now begin to think of getting some other
Simon Pure than Bacon, if within a quar-
ter OF a century or more he has been able
to find no better wa rrantec for his theory
than he has given US. But we must entreat
him to be a little more careful OF poor Raj
eigh, if III discard our suggestion, than he
has been OF poor Shakespeare, the only EVIL
dence OF whose existence he has declared to
be the date OF his death! But perhaps he
is only following Plutarch, whom Bacon
praises for saying: Surely I had rather a
great deal men should say there was no
| such man at all as Plutarch, than h
| they should say that there was one Plut-
arch that would eat his children as soon AS
they were born.'"