Mexico weekly ledger., 1889-12-05

ern libraries and educational ia
c~ilities it would take a man a life
time to acquire; but the lecturer
seemed to forget that this applied
as well to whomsoever did write
the plays as to Shakespeare. He
showed that all his contemporaries
were college bred men, and he
stood alone as the ignoramous of
literary pretentions of his day !;
that the only school he was
known to attend did not teach
the classics that Ben JON
son had said of him that
he "knew small Latin and less
is readily give a $1,000 bond as
Creek" that these plays show a
knowledge of the Renaissance lit
nature which at that time could
'nl> have been attained by travel
n Italy, and yet there is no evi
ience that Shakespeare was ever
out OF England. There were no
public libraries then. Shakespeare
"a not of a studious but convivial
nabit. No real evidence exists that he
ever owned a book. True there was ID
volume in British museum with his
name upon the fly leaf-the only
evidence of ownership and the only
instance. He evidently had no ap
probation Of learning for he allow
ed his children to grow up in ignor-
ance, his daughter Judith signing
her marriage bond with a mark.
and yet these dramas abound with
knowledge of the classics-Greek
plays-the circulation of the blood
even before Harvey's discovery
European custom. costumes and
laws. He left no correspondence
in his will which the Doctor read
he mentions no books, manu-
scripts or other literary remains
though minute to the merest de-
tails about all else.
The Doctor at this point, disgust
ed with the fulsome apology for the
great poets domestic relations, set
forth in the Encyclopedia Britain
lea, allowed himself to be led off
into what may not have been SO in
tended but what seemed an lronical
Inference that because his relation
with his wife was not pleasant and
he had only left her his ''second
best bed' that it was impossible to
imagine that he had written such
pieces as Hamlet's soliloquy, &C., a
diversion that weakened the force
# his argument to some extent,
for the anne line of reasoning
would cast doubts on the author
ship of Paradise Lost or The
| Corsair-both authors having
tlso been unfortunate IN their do
mestic affairs. With regard to the
meagerness of Shakspeare's gift to
| his wife the lecturer seems to forget
| that a large amount of the poets
estate was freehold in which his
wife would have mad a dover in.
terest by law, independent of her
husbands will. The lecturer also
quoted some things that are ira.
litional against the poet and omit
ted to notice some well estab,
| lished facts tt at are in his favor.
| Such were Ben J~onson's highly
eulogistic lines under Droeshout's
engraving-the patronage of Lord
Southampton, the friendship of the
accomplished Pembroke and the
nigh testimony to the poets genius
as a writer expressed IN the Chettle
| apology, and other contemporary
notices of his work. The envy Of
his contemporaries can hardly be
counted against him. no more thar
We would call Byron a dolt becaus.
| Leigh Hunt hated him, or Mrs.
| Browning wanting in genius be
| cause Edward Fitzgerald thankec
God she was dead. Still the cast
is strong against Shakespeare out
side of his genius. As to that the
Doctor passed it over by saying
that genius did not give the knowl
edge Of abstruse sciences. &c bu
ne did cot consider the fact that
genius for wonderful acquisition s
a we'll known fact, and that wha
might be called a genius of Won
derful intuitions is well establish.
ed. A Chicago astronomer at the
age of twelve could perform in
SANITY abstruse calculations tbs
It took men of acknowledged matt.
ematical ability hours to figure out
There are many instances where
Latin Grammar has been mastered
at the age of five and six. The
eruditlon OF Pope and Milton
while in their teens was astound
ing. If Shakespeare had genius a
Ill, beyond thatef a mere compiler
II was a genius that was in n intui