The Roanoke times. [volume] (Roanoke, Va.) 1890-1895, 1894-09-15
THE BARD OF AVON.
EDITOR ASToR ON THE QUESTION.
'!WHO WROTE SHAKESPEARE?n

the Stratford Man Was Not tho Author
of the Plays and Poems Attributed to
Him-Looks Like II Strong Case.
Fifty years ago, says William Waldorf
Astor in tho Pail Mall Gazette, tho asscr-
ton that tho man of Stratford did not
write tho plays attributed to him was
laughed out of court Today 1t Is admit
ted by all bus tho worthy dwellers by the
Avon to DO n subject for serious discus
sion. Even the stanchest adhercnts of the
Stratford man admit the existence of a
few awkward facts which cannot be OK
planned away Let us glance briefly at
some of them.
OF William Shakespearo's youth little is
known, and that little tells against him.
He is supposed to have received "a common
school education, there being no other mt
StratfOru, which would have been a course
of rudimentary instruction in writing,
rcading, arithmetic and general informa-
ton inferior to that now possessed by the
average London cabby Shakespeare could
certainly bonst but little of his handwrit-
ing and it is astounding that ono who is
supposed to have written so voluminously
could have employed SO barbnrous and IL
legiblc chirogrnphy. Fancy II play traced
in such barbarous characters! It is use
less TO affirm that such was the general
style of tho age, for the signatures of
many of Shakospcarc's contemporaries
show that educated men wrote well
Tho village tradition paints him in col
ors VIC should not expect to belong to the
author of tho ''Sonncs.' He was reputcd
incorporate; he was whipped for ponch-
ing; he married Anne Hathaway under
circumstances discrcditablc to them both
At IL he is said to have been npprcnticcd
tO "A hltphnr "A " hicb 40 hoo 81 IL
or in wool. Amid so many uncertainties
VIC know positively that he came of IL fam
lily not ono of whom could tell the lcttcrs
of the alphabet and was brought up to
speak the jargon used by the village folk
OF all England in those good old days"
which is saying that his speech was us
rude as his writing.
Tho first 20 years of his life were evil
IDENTIFY spent without books, among illitcr-
ate people in tho narrow limits of squat
Id village. We find him mt this period en-
ploycd as stage carpenter, vcnturing oc-
casionally upon subordinate parts, and
more often holding horses at the stage
door. His life up to this time was one
of poverty, of mental tasks and base com
partnerships, while his writings from the
very first arc marked by an unrivnlcd re-
fincment and subtlety.
More than this, however, tho plays cvincc
not only IN Incompatible knowledge of
the English language, but u wide famil-
1arity with foreign tongues as well. Their
composer is man of universal reading
dclighting in the classics, convcrsant with
untranslatcd French, Spanish, Danish
and Italian literature, loving philosophic
spcculations, and, in spite of several geo
graphical errors, evidently u traveller
Where could the Stratford man have
mr. irnfI oil hie u.
nomcnon of universal knowledge, this
born aristocrat, who has already learned
to dcspise trade and the vulgar multitude
this natural genius who has educated and
trained himself to the lofticst intellectual
lights and who repeatedly dilatcs upon
tho sacred duty of parents to their chill
drcn, SO ncglccts his own daughter, Jul
dith, that ut the age of 81 her best in the
way of signature Is n mere scrawl.
In all England there is no trace of any
thing written by Shakespeare except four
signatures, nor is there any indication
that he possessed library. 1t might he
that after his death his papers were Who'll
ly destroyed but this could not include
the letters he must have written. 1t is
not possible to conceive of him as never
writing letter The active brain, the
varied experience, the knowledge of man
kind, all mark one who lived among men
Yet not only have we not u line from his
hand but in all contemporary correspond
encc there is not an allusion to him. He
never met with authors and thinkers new
or was present ut single memorable occa-
sion, never appeared ut court never at
tractcd the notice of that intellectual gal
aXy which made up the Elizabcthan era,
and no man thought enough of him to
write his biography during his life.
1t is impossible to reconcile the untutor-
ed and sordid conditions, which are all we
know of Shakespeare, with the philosophy
and crudition of the plays. 1t is incredible
that the great student of that scholarly
age should have spent his life without
books; that he did not gather library of
choice volumes about him, or that, if he
possessed them, he should, in making his
will, have forgotten these companions of
his intellectual domain and have rcmcm
bcrcd only tho commonplace Of wearing
apparel" and n ''second best bed 1t Is
impossiblc to understand the total disap-
pcarancc Of his notes, his manuscripts his
correspondence, his books, his diary or to
reconcile his utter carclessncss and indif
ference to the fate of his own copies or of
those masterpieces Of which no proudly
declares
Not marble
Nor the giided monuments of princes
Should outlivc this powerful rhyme.
1t was in 1886 or 1887 that tho man
Stratford, then aged about 81, removed to
London, and Immediately upon his ar.
rival, if not just before, appeared the first
plays, exquisite in diction, evincing a
vast experience of the world and filled
with technical information. From 1892 to
1893 eight editions Of Shakcspcarc's plays
were published without his namo and