The Arkansaw traveler., 1888-06-16
THE GREAT cRYProGRAM
San Francisco Muslc and Drama,

San Francisco Musc and Drama.
 There is no earthly use in denying the fact that "The Great Cryptograms of lgnatius Donnelly has destroyed cur belief that Shakespeare wrote the plays that are surely the work of Sir Francis Bacon. The evidence advanced by MT. Donnelly is overw helming, and though much as we sorrow at the dethrone- ment of our player, we must render unto C@sar tho things that are Ca- sar's, The fact that Ben Jonson and Bacon. himself, went to their graves without making any direct assertion that Bacon was a great poet as well as great philosopher, counts for noth- ing against the testimony of the W;s- consin sage. In addition to writing Shakespearc's plays, the sage of St. Albans also wrote the plays of Mar lowe, "Burton's Anatomy of Melan- choly," and, In course of time, some future Donnelly will prove that the mighty Bacon also wrote Beautiful Snow"
 The generosity of Mir. Donnelly's treatment of the great poet Is shown in this statement: And there arc not wanting proofs, as we shall sec here- after, that Hamlet appeared In 1885, the very year Shakespearc's wife was delivered of tho twins, Hamnet and Judith; the very year, probably, when Shakespeare, aged twenty -one, whipped, scourged and imprisoned for poaching, fled from Stratford to Lon don;" and further on he adds that he must have understood Danish to have been able to use the Danish history of Saxo Grammaticus. live arc correct in believing that the work ot Saxo Grammaticus was written In Latin, MT. Donnelly shows strange carelcss- ness when he makes such statement, and when he says that Shakespearc's "Hamlet" was written in l5s5 he tasks the patience of all students of the poets career. That an old play on the subject ot Hamlet existed there can be no doubt. It Is referred to In 1889 (perhaps in i5S7) by Nash, in his epistle prefxed to Greene's "Mena- phon," and again in 1896 by Lodge ("Wit's Miserie and tho Worlds Mad nesse'') but that Shakcspeare's "Ham- let" was not produced until 1903 Is shown by the statement of RoseHcrdat=, in Act II, Sc. II, l.. S46, that the tra- gedians of the city are compelled to travel on account of an inhibition" which is caused by "the late innova- tion," which much more learned men than Donnelly agree in believing AS having reference to an order passed In council of 1900, limiting the number of play-houses about London to two or perhaps 1t referred to the license given January, 1903, 1904. to the chil- dren of the Queens Revels to play at the Blackfriay's theatre-a building belonging to the company of which Shakespeare was member. The license to the children (of whom Ro- sesicrdnfz speaks sdeprecatingly) would act AS an inhibition to the company of adult actors whose place they occu- pied. The speech of Roscacrcat= thus conclusively proves that, in saying Shakespeare's "Hamlet" was produced in 1889, Mir. Donnelly Is false churl as far as this part of "The Great Cryp- togram" is concerned.
 Unto her
 He gave the Establishment of Egypt. made her Of Lower Syria, Cyprus. Lydia,
 Absolute Queen. Antony dad Cfeopdfra.
 This error shows that If Bacon wrote the plays lie did not make much use of his Greek, for In Plutarch 1t is "Libya," while in the translation of Sir Thomas North 1t is "Lydia." This same learned Donneily says that "Ti- mon of Athens," being an untranslated Greek play of Lucian's, Shakespeare, with his (said to bel imperfect knowl. edge, could not have written what he gave to the world in 1907. For Mir. Donnelly's benefit, we will inform him that Erasmus had translated into Latin the "Timon" of Lucian many a year before Shakespeare was born.
 In the third act of "Julius Cesar," Antony, reading the will, says:
 Moreover. he hath left you all his waIks, His private .rbors, and new planted orchards On this side Tiber.'
 Plutarch says beyond the Tiber while North, In the translation, says "He left his gardens and arbors unto the people, which he had on Mfs side of the river Tiber." Now, if Bacon was the demi-god that Donneily as- serts he was, why did he go to trans- htion for the materials of the Roman plAys7 We can readily understand the hard worked actor and manager doing 1t but why should the genius, fresh from the colleges of England and the courts of France, have done it7
 We have not reached the cipher part of "The Great Cryptogram" as we write; but if 1t is as fuii of mistakes as the portion of 1t we have read we will not be very mnch impressed with it. The downright blsckguardism of some of Donneily's attacks on Shakes