The Stark County Democrat. [volume] (Canton, Ohio) 1833-1912, 1892-09-01
HE BARD oF AVON.

f1E bAND OT WON.
The best result of the controversy
which has been raging for some years
as to whether Shakespeare was Shakes
peare, or Shakespeare was Bacon in
Shakespeare's clothes, has been the for
nation of clubs and circles for the
study of shakespeare and Shakespear-
can literature.
OF one of these Shakespeare circles
Mrs. Mary II. Silsby, of Syracuse, New
York, has been member and to her
belongs the honors of compiling one Of
the most notable works, not only in
Shakespearean, but historic-poetic lit
erature, which has yet appeared.
This work bears the title of Tributes
to Shakespeare" fresh as daisy from
the presses of Harper Brothers, New
York, and Is dedicated to the Shakes
pearean scholar and editor of the
Shakespearean department of the Lit
erary World, William j. Rolfe, Lift. ID.
These tributes are the best selections
from the poets of three centuries, rang
ing from 1895 to 1891, followed by ex-
cerpts from the writings of few fam
Gus prose writers who have believed
Shakespeare was Shakespeare.
The volume opens with selections
from the poets contemporary with
Shakespeare, chronologically arranged,
with brief explanatory notes after each
selection, adding greatly to their value.
The first selection is from John
Viewers "Epigrammes in the Oldest
Cut and Newest Fashion" printed in
1896, nearly three hundred years ago
and beginning:
"Honle- tongued Shakespeare, when 1 saw thine
Issue,
swore Apollo got them, and none otheri
Their rosle.tinted features clothed In tissue,
Some heayen-rorn goddess said to be their mother"
This is followed by lines from Barne-
fields "Poems in Divers Humors" to
Shakespeare, published in 1898, the last
two of which are:
Live ever you at least in fame live
Well may the Bodye die but Fame dies never"
Then comes William Barkstead, actor
and dramatist in the reign of James l.,
thus invokes his muse:
"But stay my muse
His song was worthe MERIT Shakespeare hee)
Sung the falre blossome, thou the withered tree.
Lawrell is due to him. his art and wit
john Davies the epigrammatist, fam
Gus as a poet and writingmaster and
one of the instructors of Prince Henry
at the court of James l, whose asso-
ciates were Beaumont, Fletcher, John
son, Maxston, Bacon, Drayton, Sidney,
Sir Thomas Lucy and Shakespeare, to
each of whom epigrams were addressed
in his "Scourge of Folly" published in
1907, is the fourth quoted, and here are
four of his lines to Shakespeare:
"Thou hast no railing, but regnlng wit,
AAd honesty, thou sow'st which they do reap,
so to increase their stock, which they do keep
In 1914, Thomas Freeman, in Grub
and Great Cast" a book of 200 epi-
grams, wrote Of Shakespeare, said to be
his friend end critic:
"Then let thine owne works thine owne worth up
raise,
And help Z adorn thee with deserved Bales"
All these are from novels written by
contemporaries of Shakespeare before
his death in 1915 and indicate very
clearly that the friends and associates
of the matchless Bard of Avon had no
doubts In their minds as to the author
ship of Shakespeare's shakespeare"
An epitaph by William Basse, 1922,
said to be the first written after Shakes
peare's death, closes as follows:
sleep, brave Tragediau, shakespear4! sleep alone;
Thy unmoested rest, not tenant, TO Thy grave,
That unto others, 1t may counted be
Honor hereafter to be laid by thee"
Ben Johnson's famous lines on the
portrait of Shakespeare, prefiXed to the
folio edition of 1923 are given, also his
splendid eulogy "To the memory of my
beloved, the author, Mr.. William
Shakespeare, and what he has left us"
in the same edition. There are also
eulogistic lines prefxed to the first folio
edition, from Hugh Holland, L. Digges,
and an unknown writer, who writes as
follows:
"wee thought thee dead but this thy printed WORTH
Tells thy Spectators that thou went'ss but forth
To enter with applause
Among the tributes are lines from
John Milton, John Dryden, Thomas
Otway, David Garrick, John Gilbert
Cooper, Thomas Gray, Mark Akenside,
Alexander Pope, John Keats, Washing
ton Irving, Walter Savage Landor,
Matthew Arnold, H. w. Longfellow,
Oliver Wendell Holmes, Martin Tup-
per, Ralph Waldo Emerson, Bayard
Taylor, Algernon Charles Swinbourne,
Robert Browning, Thomas Baily AL
drich and many others.
1t is little singular that the present
poet laureate of England, Lord Tenny-
son, has no note of praise to the master
spirit Of the ages, and that but
seven women, including Frances
Anne Kemble, the famed Shakespear-
can reader, Sarah nj. B. Piatt, and Julia
Ward Howe, have tuned their Tyres to
his robust measures Among the latter
is Kate Brownlee Sherwood, whose
poem, written for the Literary World,
after reading "The Great Cryptogram"
by Ignatius Donnelly, vainly trying to
prove that Bacon wrote Shakespeare"
is given, as follows:
SHAKESPEARE.
On tabled CALIFORNIA; iowery strand,
There stands great girthed and towering to the SUM-
A tree before whose front the gods might stand,
A-tremble at the sign OF Mightier One;
Within whose tunneled trunk, meath emerald spires
The Indian shapes his flnts aud fans his fires,
And coyotes creep. and horse andrider chase,
Through ceaseess cycles OF the human race,
The fool win sneer II You the story tell,
The wise man worship-maTyes please him we'll.
SO thou perennial Shakespeare, aye must stand,
The mightlest marvel Of the human mind
Let maunderlng nomads mar with axe and brandi
Pau.e, master splrlsi here your master find
KATE BROwNLEE SHERWOOD.
Tributes To Shakespeare" may be
ordered from Harper Bros, New York;
price SIPS.
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