The Iola register. [volume] (Iola, Allen County, Kansas) 1875-1902, 1891-04-03

the actor and the dramatist were dis
reputable, but in that surrounding he
reached the heights of the Intellectual
heavens. There has been no great play
written since Shakespeare It never
occurred to Shakespeare to go to the I'M
natural. BE never thought about writ
ing play in which wiie's lover should
become Jealous of her husband laugh
teri. He above all things idea ID
because he was genius. Your reatist
but copyist. They are to true poet
ramatists what stone is to statue.
hat painting is TO paint. Shakespeare
does not need to rely upon the arts of
the stage carpenter and the scene paint
err. He is painter in words. He does
not need to rely upon the tricks Of sur
prises.
When he writes a Greek play he
takes you to Greece. In Julius Cesar
you are with the Romans. Then again
he takes you to Egypt. In Romeo and
Juliet he takes you to Italy. The sur
roundings are perfect in each place.
Imagine yourself to be in the country
where the play is located. He himself
experienced all the emotions. If there
are defects you forget them in the pres
ence of his masterful work. We know
that at that time the church was COR
rupt, and yet how did Bacon write
about 1.-THE Lord Bacon who, it is
claimed, wrote Shakspeare's PLAYS. II
was this Bacon who dropped into poetry
at 60 and wrote in fulsome praise of
King James. who is described by
Macaulay in such contemptuous terms.
1t is not probable that Bacon wrote
Sbakspeare's plays because we can
Judge by all that Bacon did write that
he was not able to write them. Bacon
never claimed to have written the
plays He published lists of his books,
and never put Shakespeare in his list.
Shakespeare did claim the authorship
and nobody doubted him or disputed
his claim while he lived. 1t is not at
all improbable that Bacon did not fail
to claim all that he was entitled to.
Having been detected as bribe-taker
it is probable that if he was entitled to
claim the authorship he would have
risked the disgrace Of being known as
the author of Hamlet. Laughter.
Suppose man was known as the inven-
tor OF a dOg-churn. and he should make
a list of his inventions and should put
in as his great work a dog-churn, would
it be possible to believe that that
man was the inventor of the locomotive
and telegraph and had omitted to put
it in the list of his inventions? Laugh
ter. 1t can not be possible that Bacon
wrote Shakespeare, because no one but
Shakespeare was capable of writing as
he wrote. He made the greatest
sculpture and the greatest statues in
words. He was the master of the emo
lions. He knew the hearts of men,
knew their passions, their reason. He
knew how desire warps the Judgment
and cOrrupts the will. He knows how
differently the murderer feels before
and after his crime and he knew how
to bring that crime wildly before the
mind. He brings you the evidence of
guilt. In Macbeth when the bell tolls
before the murder Macbeth takes TO
note of it, but after the murder he says:
Hear it not, Duncan, for it is thy
knell." When Lady Macbeth pretends
to be surprised at the news of the muir
der she is made to betray herself by the
natural expression which she makes of
her first thought that it should occur
in her house. Had she been innocent,
her first thought would have been of
horror that the murder had been COM
mitted at all.
As to the charge Of plagiarism that has
been brougt against Shakespeare it has
not been sustained. 1t is true that he
took the materials that he found. He
did not take them to adorn his work,
but to make something new of them.
Whenever he took thought he beau
titled it, and made it his own. When we
see great statute we do not call the
sculptor a plaglarist because somebody
furnished him with the stone. We
know all the books that Shakespeare
claimed in 1901, and we know that
what he claimed as his did not exist
before his time. We can see where he
took an old dry fact of history and put
it into burning words of poetry that
shall live forever. Take what Lear
says in describing the storm, A COM
mon man would have written, ,'On |
such night dog might have sat at
my fire." A great poet might have
written. ''mine enemy's dog should
have sat against my fire." but the great
est of all poets made a thrilling |
word picture of the storm when he
wrote. mine enemy'S dog, though he had
bit me, he should have sat that night |
against my fire" Applause.