New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1888-02-19
SHAKESPERE'S "DREAM."
IT'S COURSE UPON THE STAGE


MEANING or A BEAUTIFUL FASTAsY-THE
FATHER OF ENGLISH BURLrsQUE.
Preface TO Mr.. Ddlys Prompt Book Of ACCOMMODATIONS
Because william Sbakspere, who lived In TINS worm
only fy-two years, wrote so much Within that prlo
perod and furthermore, because he wrote with such
trsnscendent genius and ability, IL has pleaseu 'ho
oretcal and visionary observers to declare thae ITO
never wrote at ALL shalIspere viewed alone they
maintain, Is miracle, and therefore an imposspMy
but shakspere and Francis Bacon, rolled into ono
constitute being who Is entirely natural ana au1heh
tic The works OF shabspers aud the WORKS OF ia
con present, indeed almost every possible point Oh
dissimilarlty, and point OF resemblance inc man
behind shakspere's plays and poems and the man DO
hind Bacon's essays and philosophy are ansoi"'eiy
distinct from another, and as far apart a. inc
poles The direct and positive testimony OF shak-
speres friend and professional associate, Ben Johso"
"A close observer. a stern critic, truth-ieler,
mOralst, not amable In his commentary upo"
human nature, and neither prone to error nor naoo
to creduty-ells the world, not only that ohahspoo
wrote but In what manner he wrote. Tpe assuihP
tlon implied In the Bacon theory, that poet capapo
of writing Hamlet Macbeth" Lear" and "othei
In. either would or could for any reason whatsoever,
wish to escape the imputatlon OF their authorship Is
obviously absurd. Tho idea that SHAKESPEARE hrcu
by Bacon to father those plays could for period OF
wears go in and among the actors and the authors
of his time, and so impose upon their sagaci'y ana
elude their jcaou. scrutiny to keep the secret OF
this gigantic fraud, IL simply ludlcrous inc hoton
that the man who wrote Shalpere's poems-and these,
undeniably were tho work Of william shakspere-was
the kind Of to lend himself to any scheme OF I'LL
nosture is rcpudated by every ntmaton OF character
that those poems contain; and the same may rlshS
fully be said Of the who wrote Shalsperes plays
The fact that the plays which these theorists "ouiu
deny to shakspere's pen, entirely, absolutely, and
lv nd VIII he
not deny to IT, stands forth clear as the daylight
The associate fact that the plays contain piecisey
such errors would naturally be made 10y tne VIZ
utored Shalc PEREZ but could not possibly be made oy
the thoroughly taught and erude Bacon Is hhe"'so
distinctly visible. Yet, all the same-because shak-
spere like Burns, sprung from family In huinoio
station and was but poorly schooled-ths prepos'erous
doctrine perslstenty rears It's foolish head, and Insults
with idle chatter the shahspeIean scholarship vi INC
world. Only few weeks ago prominent rep'o-
sentative dramatist of the day had the aStouhulne
folly to announce ypothess-apparently ln'onuou
to be taken In earnest-tba shahs pores Tragedy oi
Hamlet was written by Jonson. WEBSTER, Dekker'
and Alleyne I'm conjunction with shakperc ana uhoer
his superyIson a doctrine which. TO any student ac-
ouanted with those writers and their times Is ptlaDe
in It's Stiffness. For II there DO In Hterature any
work which, from the first line to the last anu III
every word and syllable OF It., bears the authehuo
pressure of creative and predominant mlhu-'no
bro headed
IA Hamlet Shaksperes style, once Known, can
never DO mistaken. No man Of his time, Win Tue
single exception Of Fletcher, could write In any
thing like his peculiar strain of simplicity ana power
In some Of the historical plays there are traces vi
colaboraton-as all readers know; but In his greater
plays the only hand that Is vlsloc Is INC manu- VI
SHAKESPEARE ,.,
This IS especially true Of "a Midsummer Nl8hts
Dream and probably better mental exercise than
the ANALYSIS of the style aud spirit and component
clements of this piece could be devised for those per-
sons-if any such there be-who Incline TO entertain
eithor tho Racon theory or the collaboration tho"iy
Of the authorship of shakspere Bacon, II his aVo"eo
writings may be taken the denotement OF his minu,
could no more have written this play than he could
have flown on wings OF tissue paper over the Spre
Of old St. Paurs nor does 1t exhibit the slightest
deviation from one nvariable poetic mind ana ten
permanent shaks percs fancy takes free range here
and reves In beauty aud Joy. The Dream Was hrs'
published In 1000; the earliest auson made 10 II Is
that OF Frauds Meres, Ia his PalladlS rama, III
1903; and probably 1t was written as early as loo4'
when shakspere thirty years old A signhcanl
reference TO the subject Of IT in the second
scene of the second act of tho COMEDY OF Errors"
n5 s0'gD which has becn thought TO lndlcatc tha'
the poet had already considered and, perhaps con
ceved t ne was working with wise and inccssaht ln-
dustry at that time, and the amazing fertility OF MS
creative genius was beginning to reveal Itself The
Dream is Absolutely of his own invention. The names
of the characters together with few Incidents. he
derived from Putarch, OVID, and Chaucer-authors
with whom he shows himself TO have been acquant-
ed The story Of Pyramus and Thsbe occurs In ovid,
and translation of that Lain poet, made by Arthur
Godlng was current I'm shas peres day 1t is thought
that the knights Tale and "Tysbe OF BABY lone,"
by Chaucer may have been the means OF suggesting
This play to shabsp PEREZ but his story and his char
acters are his own And although, as Dr. Johnson OBJ
serves fairies were In his time fashionable, and speh
ser's poem G. The Faere Qucene) had made them
great shakspero the first to inerblend them with
the proceedings Of mortas I'm a drama The text OF
this niece IS considered be exceptionally free from
error or any sort of defect. Two editions OF the
Dream, quarto, appeared In 16O0-one published by
Thomas Fisher, BOOKSELLER; the other by James Rob
erts printer The Fisher publication had been en-
tered at statlonofs Hall, October 3, that year, end
probably 1t was sanctioned oy the author. The two
editions do not materially differ, and the modern
shaksper editors have made udlcious use OF both
In their choice OF the text The play was not again
printed until 1923, when IT appeared In the first
Folio.
In the first Folio 1929 the Dream occupies
eighteen pages, from page 145 to page 1872 inclusive,
in the section dev oed to comedes-the Acts, but not
the Scenes, being distinguished The editors OF that
Folio Heminge and Condel followed the text of the
Roberts Quarto. The memory Of one OF the actors
who appeared in the Dream In its earliest days is
curiously preserved In stagedrecton, printed In the
First Folio in Act V. Sc. f. lawyer with trunl-
petp The piece, OF course, appears In the later
follos-l632, 1864, and 1855. "a Midsummer Night 5
Dream was popular in ShabspeIes own time Men
ton of 1t, as implody play in general knowledge
and acceptance, made By Taylor, the Water Poot,
IN 1922.
piece called "The Fairy Queen" being Shak-
speres comedy, with music by Purcell, was published
I'm Iondon in 1902 II had been acted there at the
Hnymarket-the presentation being made with rich
d.ssss fine scenery and elaborate mechanism. There
,s another old piece, called 70 The Merry Conceited
IIumours Of Bottom the Weaver" This was made
ont OF an episode In the Dream, and 1t is included
in TN, collection of faces attributed 10 Robert Cox,
comedian of tlc time Of Charles the First published
In 1872 A comic maSque, by Richard Lcyerdge,