The Seattle post-intelligencer. [volume] (Seattle, Wash. Terr. [Wash.]) 1888-1914, 1892-08-14

Cydnus with the description of the same
scene in the English translation of
Plutarch of Shakspeare's time, shows that
Shakespeare lifted this passage almost
bodily out of this translation and trans
ferred it to the text of his play. The
Italian novels that he adapted to his pur-
pose, even as Dion Boucicault in our day
adapted French plays to his stage, were
either translated or could easily have been
translated for him by any one of Shaks-
peares scholarly friends, like Jonson,
Sidney or Spenser.
Rabelais was very popular in England at
this time. and there are plain indications
in the play of Henry the Fourth " that
Shakespeare had read Rabelais, or heard
him read, but there are no marks in the
plays of the large apd accurate learning of
a university scholar like Bacon. There is
no ground for the assertion of the advo-
Gates of the Baconian theory that 1.-THE
writer of the plays was lawyer" The
plays have no more technical phraseology
of the law than any bright, oDservant man
of the world today, meeting lawyers, drop
ping into courts, drinking in all kinds OF
conversation from all kinds Of men, could
easily pick up and incorporate correctly
into his written utterances. Take the
single chapter in Rabelais concerning
Judge Bridlegoose. and it contains an
amount of legal phraseology and clear
familiarity with courts and court proceed
ings in excess Of what is found in the
whole of Shakespeare, and yet Rabelsis
was not lawyer, but monk.
You might as well say that Shakspears
must have been horse jockey, because he
30 correctly defines the points Of good
horse, or that he was doctor. because he
so accurately describes certain diseases,
showing that he knew the theory Of the
circulation of the blood and the general
anatomy of the human body; or that he
must have known and practiced hum
dred other callings. mechanical. mercan-
tile and professional, as to say he must
have been q lawyer. He had the eyes,
ears, the observation, the memory, the
concentration. the faculties Of apprehen-
sion, absorption and assimilation that are
comprehended in q man of genius; and,
oO0tC Oil, Az VOC q AAoh va PCCsaS AA0SAh0O
ton who could put himself in any time
and in any place, just as Walter
Scott caught the Oriental spirit with
out visiting the Orient, just as
George Eliot, after two months residence
in Italy, is able to describe the talk and
growth of common people in an Italian
barber shop 80 faithfully as to astonish
Italian readers, just as John Keats, who
knew no classics. could write poetry
Hellenic in both form and spirit. instinct
with classical culture. Shakespeare was
not more wonderful as . contemplative
genius in this respect than Napoleon as q
practical genius. Napoleon came out of
school with far less learning than
Shakespeare in everything save mathe-
mates. and yet without reading, study
or experience he apprehended, absorbed.
assimhated and solved everything as fast
as he met it to the astonishment and ad-
miration of the ablest and most learned
men of his court. Shakespeare is no moro
myth or mystery except so far az
q poetic genius is loftier and rarer
fight than military genius.
Shakespeare describes king taking ship
from Sicily to Bohemia, which is like TAX
ing ship at Seattle for Butte. Montana.
He introduced billiards into "Antony and
Cleopatra" game unknown to antiquity;
quote from Aristotle, who was not born
until Troy. had become dim tradition; his
grammar in as loose and incorrect a. his
geography. A great university scholar
like Bacon would no more make such
blunders than our own Longfellow would
be guilty of anachronisms in ''Hiawatha."
Bacon's poetic remains have recently been
published, and anybody who reads them
will be satisfied that the author
of such dull, metallic. pinchbeck,
labored verses, utterly destitute of
imaginative light or radiance,
could never have created Falstaff. Ariel,
Mercutio, Rosalind, Romeo, Juliet Intel
lect and knowledge must be backed for
this work by an imagination, an expert
ence and temper that no more resembled
the Imagination, the training and the
temper of Bacon than the singing fight
of the skylark does the life and voice and
motion of a powerful and stately Nor
mandy dray horse.
1t would be easier to believe that Bacon
wrote "Pilgrim's Progress" than to be-
lieve that he wrote "Hamlet" or LEAR"
easier to believe that DR.. Franklin
wrote the "Adonais" of Shelley.
Bacon with all his rare intellectual
endowment and learning lacked the splen-
did imagination, the spontaneity of
great poet. Of course Shakespeare took
rough ore from everybody, high an low,
ancient and modern, passed it through
the crucible of his own genius, and put
his own stamp on the gold he got, but the
only mystery is the mystery of genius;
grant as We must that the author Of the
plays was a man of vast poetic genius, he