The Bottineau pioneer. (Bottineau, N.D.) 1885-1895, 1888-06-14

writer make q will without such reference3
Well might Ralph Waldo Emerson say, II
CANNOT marry the facts to his verse;"
The continued history of his family
greatly adds TO the mystery. His daughter
Judith, at the age Of 81, had her mark" Ger.
titled to because she could not write. His
parents graves were unmarked by any stone
and unknown to his children. His daughter
Susanna married Dr.. ~-~
Hall in haste, and with mi
out publication Of banns, q W
for which they were cited
to appear before the &C.
clesiastical court, and
were able to prove hat JUDITH suAEspERE's
the haste was at least ad- AAhA-
visable. A little later the doctor sued
two n~eighbors for libel, in that they had re-
ported bad conduct in his wife; and as
there is no record Of a verdict, lawyers rave
thought that the case was compromised.
DR.. Hall was a busy and careful man. he
kept a voluminous diary Of his patients, his
life and his many interests, which is still ex-
tant, and has been greedily searched by
scholars; but it contains nothing to prove
claims to any rights in Shakespeare" In
the next generation the family became ex.
tinct, the grandchildren dying childless; the
property, the little that was left, vent to
collateral heirs, and the family dropped into
its original obscurity. That out of such a
family should suddenly have risen the great
est genius Of earth. descended from a long
line OF peasants and Doors; that he should
have lived such a life, died such a death, left
daughters uneducated and taken no thought
for his fame, is Of course possible; but it Is
against all experiences.
INTERNAL EVIDENCES.
1. The plots of many Of the plays are
from Latin, Greek and Italian authors, and
whole lines and paragraphs are almost lit
eral TRANSACTIONS from the obscure classics.
The ready explanation was that the nlearned
Shakspere obtained his knowledge from
TRANSACTIONS, but recent research has a con-
elusive negative in this; many of these
works had lot then been translated into
English, and at least one of them is not
translated yet. More convincing still, in
those cases where an English translation was
then extant the author of "Shakespeare" has
rejected the style and words of the transla-
ton, and reproduced in his drama q literal
rendering of the original, thus proving that
he had not only read it, but had it ~inwrought
into the very texture of his mind. Even the
so called mistakes of ''Shakespeare" often
prove to be classical. Thus, in Antony and
Cleopatra" Chairman proposes a game Of
billiards. In the ordinary reader his ex.
cites q smile. But the encyclopedia brain
that produced '~Shakespeare" knew the
curious fact-not one man in a million knows
it now-that the game of billiards ~antedates
Cleopatra. In another place is a reference
to "Adonis' Gardens" Of which the learned
Richard Grant White says: "No mention of
any such gardens in tho classic writings is
known to scholars" But James D. Butler
has found the passage in the "Phadrus of
Plato" used exactly as in Shakespeare.
2. The author makes a word wherever he
needs it, makes it generally from a Latin
root and invariably follows the best rules of
derivation, and gives the word its radical
meaning. OF many hundred such words the
reader familiar with shakespeare" will
readily recall these: Deracinate, rubrous,
cautelous, armipotent, ~evitate, oppugnancy,
legerity and p~ropinquity. These words are
not the coinage Of a mar who knew the
Latin authors only in translatiors.
8. The author of ''Shakespeare" was a pro-
found lawyer. And his law was not like that
of Charles Reade or Wilkie Collins.
''crammed" for the particular case, nor even
like that Of Samuel Warren, whose "Ten
AAOuSdLAu u OnA Ia SlA0AI1y WIiJU0u ny q
lawyer and yet contains some very bad law:
on the contrary, it is the condensed excel
lency Of the common law of England as it
stood at the accession Of James l, and SO
thoroughly absorbed into the writer's mind
that even in sportive love scenes or keen
ridicule he makes no mistake. This point
Yves lately submitted to a few able lawyers in
England, and their decision was that in all
tho an f scaroa aud low vh,.o n ~ ktCloJ.o
speare' there was but one departure from tho
actual law, that in the Merchant of Venice"
We can readily see how the necessities of the
dramatic situation compelled the author to
depart from the correct rule in that case, for
it would have been a very flat contradiction if
Antony had asked relief in equity from his
bond. Authors who dip into law run into
danger; unless well read in the science they
arc certain to blunder. Eut even in the most
careless illusions, or love scenes, the great
dranlatist employs the technical terms of
law in their strict meaning and preserves
tho delicate distinctions between purchase
and descent, heirs of the blood and ~collater.
ais, indictment and presentation, burgage
tenure, fees and gevalkind, reversion ard
recovery. Observe the legal terms, as we
have capitalized them, in this love scene:
A Contract of Eternal Bond Of love,
Confirmed by Mutual Joinder Of your hands,
Attested BY the holy close Of lips,
Strengthened BY Interchangement Of your rings,
And ell the ceremony Of this Compact
Sealed in my function by my Testimony.
ia Twelfth Night. Y, 1.
How many students Of Blackstone, Coke
or Mansfield, at tho end Of a two years.
course could state tho law of constructive
treason AS clearly as Suffolk lin "Henry
WIZ states it in this PASSAGE: