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

spelling; that he came at an early age from
Standardization, lived thirty yearsi in Lon
don, grew very rich as manager OF a theatre,
returned to his native place, and spent his
few remaining years in easy living, diversified
by some rather discrcditablc actions. But
that individuals real name we annot know,
since the few of his relatives who could write
spelled it in at least 1ifty-fve different ways,
from Jacquespeer, Shackslecr and Jaxpyr,
though the slow evolution Of Shaxpeer,
Shackspyr, Shackspecr and Shaxper, down
to Shakspeer and finally S~bakspcre, at which
it rested during the later years of William
Shakspere, after he had tried thirteen differ
emit ways Of spelling it, only to make its final
change some time after bis death into
"~Shakespeare," when his heirs claimed the
honor Of the dramatic authorship and it was
asserted that the family had been founded by
a noted warrior who was knighted for his
bravery with the spear. And, finally, there
is some evidence that the original was the
Norman nick name, for a peasant, Jacques
Pierre, which was pronounced Zhackspeair
and meant 'Jack Peter"
For information of this William Shaxper
or Shakspere we turn first to the public and
official annals of the time and find not q line.
We turn next to the letters and other pro-
auctions Of eminent men Of the time, and it
was indeed an age of greatness. There were
Robert Earl of Essex, Sir Francis Drake,
Sir Walter Raleigh, Cecil Lord Burleigh,
Nicholas, Anthony and Francis Bacon,
Sir Robert Cecil, Sir Henry Wotton and
Sir Philip Sidney, with W~alsingham,
Coke, Camden, Hooker, Drake, lingo
Jones and all that brilliant galaxy of
warriors, scholars and navigators, who only
began their career in the reign of Elizabeth
and became noted In that OF James, and
therefore must have been for a short time
contemporary with William Shakspere.
The literature still extant as made by these
men is voluminous; yet in all Of it there is
no reference to the man, and very little in
deed to the plays. Let us pass this omission
as due to their ~preoccupation in other affairs
and turn to the poets and other writer's Of
the time. Here we find a few, very few,
references to William Shakspere as a genial
fellow, a boon companion at q supper and
Astounding In wit and humor. But one Of
all those, however, the noted Ben Jonson,
left any testimony implying that William
Shakspere was a man Of great talents. To
sum up: All we really know of the man was
gathered after his death by visitors to STRAIT
ford-on-Avon. Seven years after the death
Of Shakspere appeared the first complete
edition Of "Shakespeare," called the edition
Of 1923; then the reporters Of the day went to
Stratford and hunted up the particulars,
and what they reported, and their successors
have discovered, sums up substantially as
follows:
H s~H-K-sP-R-s Of sTRArToRD-oN-AvoN.
Standardization was one Of the dirtiest
towns in England at a period when the filth
ness of common life WAS in~describable.
Night travel in the streets was made danger
Gus by deep and muddy puddles, and the peo-
pie utilized them for bins. When
the reform movement" set in an alderman
and several prominent citizens, including
n Of the Shaxpeers, were prosecuted for
making manure heaps in front of their doors.
The dwellings generally were dark and moi.
some. In one of the best of those William
Shakspere was born, in April, 1854; and in
a much more elegant one, called New Place,
he died, April %, 1916. His father, John
Shagspur, or Sharper, or S~hakspere, could
not write, but was a fairly well to do citi-