The sun. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1833-1916, 1892-03-27

NoW ict us eAdmlne III uetali what Mr. Nht6
imagines himself to have established. He
starts with the two inquiries. first. are the
plays attributed to Shakespeare original COM
positions, and secondly. who were or was the
authors or author2 His attempt to answer
these questions is summed up In some fifteen
propositions. He AYERS that English litera-
sure. when the plays appeared. was extern
sively tinctured with classical learning. This
u true enough. but it proves nothing. Accord
ing to the authors own admission. London to-
ward tho close OF the sixteenth century was
Hooded with cheap Transitions Of Greek and
Latin plays. histories. biographies. and essays.
from which such classical knowledge as Is
evinced In the Shakespearean dramas could
have been obtained ut second hand by n self
educated actor. In the next place. Mr.. White
asserts that the drama which had lust come
into fashion was formed on classical models.
and that tho characteristics Of the plays show
than to have been written by learned men. 1t
tstTue that some OF the Shakcspearean come
diea Raem to have been composed with trans
lattons Of Plautus or Terence before the wrl-
tegA eye. but the tragedies point rather to
Spanish than classical exemplars. AS for the
so-callod learning exhibited In the plays it is
fun OF gaps and blunders OF which Bacon or
any university man. like Chapman. Daniel.
Nash. Lodge. Poole. or Marlowe would have
been incapable. The dramas contain no owl
dsnce OF FIRST hand. comprehensive. and accu-
ratio 'orudiIon. Mr. White goes on to argue
that the plays are not only not rig!nnl. but
thAt their originals are to be found respect
lively In the Greek Roman. Spanish. and Ital-
ian drama. He succeeds. as we have Just said,
In showing that two or three comedies may be
described as adaptations or paraphrases OF
Latin originals. That Is tire sum OF his dem
onstration. The attempt to connect Macbeth
III IA ASRa a IL Ia. IL.
@aStra, ID Visionary and futile. There Is not
even any pretonco OF producing the Spanish or
Italian original OF any Shakespearean play
That the plots Of some OF the dramas were
taken from Italian stories has long been known.
The author contends that the incidents con-
nscted with the publication OF the dramas do
net reveal the author, 1t is tlu. that SHAKE
speare himself was very careless about claims
ofSutkorahip. and about tho collection and re-
vision OF HIS writings. but il is Impossible for
MI White to explain away the address pre-
xa4rby, the players HemyGe and Condell to
the Arst folio edition Of 1923 seven years nftor
the poets DEATH. In which they uneIuivocally
represent Shakespeare as the author OF the
thirty-six dramas contained in tho folio copy.
The same declaration Is made Enthusiastically
In the Idudat >ry verses composed for the same
edition by Ben Jopson. The assertion that
6kakespearc's literary character NJ gathered
from contemporary opinion. was not such a
beoame the author OF tho plays. y built mainly
on the absurd assum ption tha' ben Jonsons
eulogtstio testimony was purchased. Not
indeed that anyone aalrms that the Shake
spesrean plays were as highly Hprreciatutnt
any period in the seventeenth century as We
now think they should have been. None Of
them was as popular during Shakespeares
lifetime as some other dramas now forgotten.
W8 evident from Ailton's L'Allegro" that he
sEAzsd Shakespeare chiefly as q writer Of