Wichita eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1886-1890, 1888-05-13

visable. A little later the doctor sued
two nefghbors for Libel, in that they had re-
ported bad conduct in his wife; and as
there is no record Of a verdict, lawyers have
thought that the case was compromised
DR. Hall was busy and careful man. He
kept 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 chlldless; the
property the little that was left, went to
collateral heirs, and the family dropped into
its original obscurity. That out of such
family should suddenly have risen the great
est genius of earth, descended from long
line Of peasants and Doors; that he should
have lived such life died such death, left
DAUGHTERS uneducated and taken no thought
for his fame, is of course possible, but 1t b
against all experience.
INTERNAL EVIDENCES
I. The plots Of many of the plays are
from Latin, Greek and Italian authors, and
whole lines and paragraphs are almost lit
eraI translations from the obscure classics.
The ready explanation was that the uniearned
Shakspere obtained his knowledge from
translations. but recent research has con-
elusive negative in this; many of these
works had not 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 a 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 tho ordinary reader this ex-
cites a smile. But the encyclopedia brain
that produced Shakespeare" knew the
curious fact-not one man in 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: mo mention Of
any such gardens in the classic writings is
known to scholars" But James D. Butler
has found tho passage in the ''Phadrus OF
Plato" used exactly as in Shakespeare
g The author makes O 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" viii
readily recall these: Deracinate, rubrous,
cauteious, armipotent, evitate, oppugnancy,
legerity and propinquity. These words are
not the coinage OF a man who knew the
Latin authors only in TRANSACTIONS.
s. The author Of shakespeare" was pro-
found lawyer. And bis law was not like that
of Charles Reade or WiIkie Collins,
"traInmed' for the particular case, nor even
like that of Samuel Warren, whose "Ten
Thousand Year. is evidently written by a
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 I, and SO
thoroughly absorbed into the writer's mind
that even in sportive love scenes or keen
ridicule he makes no mistake. This point
was lately submitted to a few able lawyers in
England, and their decision was that in all
the court scenes and law phrases of ''Shake-
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 very fat 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
are certain TO blunder. But even in the most
careless illusions, or love scenes, the great
dramatist employs the technical terms Of
law in their strict meaning and preserves
the delicate distinctions between purchase
and descent, heirs of the blood and collater-
ais, Indictment and presentation, burgage
tenure, fees and gavelkind, reversion and
recovery. Observe the legal terms, as we
have capitalized them, in thus love scene:
A Contract of Eternar3ond of love,
Confirmed by Mutual Joinder OF your hands,
AtteSted by the holy close Of lips,
Strengthened by Interchaugement Of your rings,
And al the ceremony of this Compact
Sealed il my function by my Testimony.
Twelfth Night, v, L
How many students of Blackstone, Coke
or Mansfield, at the end of two years
course could state the law Of constructive
treason rs clearly as Suffolk Gin Henry
WIFI states it in this passage: