The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-01-14

ielu' hhu sO the World's greatest genius was "rogue and vagabond"- comedian; and very good one, too, as one may infer from the fact that in the list of the company his name stands second only to that of the famous Burbage.
 In some Respondent sonnets Shakes peare regretted bitterly the degrada- tlon to his nature caused by the de- graded state of the theatre of those days; yet we may be sure that only as an actor could he have obtained that immense technical knowledge and skill which keeps his plays as fresh on the stage as in the library. The poetry of Fletcher and of Ben Jonson has not lost it's charm but who could now sit out one of their plays? Yet the actor Shakespeare and the actor Mo- Here knew how to write stage plays that preserved their vigor and vitality throughout the centuries.
 It is interesting to note how the writer of Hamlet" gradually obtained his position and estimation as dram atist. Employed first as hack adapter of old pieces, he put into some sort of shape the hidcous melodrama of "Titus Adronicus," whose horrors were highly popular with the rough audience that Shakespeare himself was to refine. He recast and thoroughly worked over several of the "Histories" or chronicle-plays of the time "llenry the Sixth"- perhaps in part nership with other playwrights), and "king John," adapted by him with no less improvement on the original in technical e-craft than in musical verse and grasp of human character.
 We have some pleasant glimpses Qrom actual contemporary evidence) ot Shakespeare, the playwright and comedian, at work aud at leisure among his fellows-how one loves the man, and all one hears of him! Chet- tie says that his demeanor was "no Jesse civill than he exelent in the quail itie he professes and adds that "divers of worship have reported his uprightness of dealing, which argues his honesty, and his facetious grace in writing, that approves his art" The famous description of the combats at the Mermaid between Shakespeare's nimble wit and the heavier learn- ing of Jonson is too well known to quote; and the noblest tribute poet ever paid to poet-Ben Jonson's me- morial of him "who was not for an age but for all time"-must be far too fresh in the minds of all readers.
 Just as the plays of Shakespeare pass through the storm and stress of his youth and the passionate doubts of early manhood, and gain noble, calm and mature wisdom, so do we find his outer life escaping from the difficult ties which gave rise to such rumors as those (however false) that he held horses outside the theatre-after being, as some say a butchers apprentice, country schoolmaster, an attorney's clerk Land we see him finally settling down to assured prosperity, and even wealth. Old country neighbors wrote to ask the actors influence to obtain tavors for Stratford- on Avon from great people at court: and when, man of only middle age, he returned to the old town to spend the autumn of his life there, he must have been the great man of the place. He lived, it is said, at the rate of thousand a year, very large expenditure in those days.
 He still wrote plays-our charming pastoral the "Winter's Tale" among them; but he did not, as one might have thought, give time to collecting and revising his "W Works." Alas! At fifty man does not think that his works are so nearly complete; and, besides, the practical Shakespeare did not want to publish and so give every piratical manager the chance of per- forming his plays.
 And it is characteristic of the writer of the last group of happy plays that he settled down in the old home, with the old wife-who apparently had stayed at Stratford during his life in London. He left her (besides, of course, her dover in his freehold property) their second best bed, with the furniture"-a bequest for which Prof. Dowden suggests very pretty and natural reason. K.
 In the same issue of the Illustrated Ne'cs there appears the following edi- torial:
 The controversy about Bacon and Shakespeare is a charming example of the survival of the fittest, as a subject tor joking: the idea is as old as the hiiis, but of infinite jest; at the same time it could never have seriously originated save in mind entirely de- void of humor. For one thing, it supposes Milton-who had opportuni- ties for knowing the facts, which the most ingenious commentator of mod ern times can hardly possess-address-I ing Bacon as