Iowa County democrat. [volume] (Mineral Point, Wis.) 1877-1938, 1894-09-13

of the Plays and Poems Attributed to
Hm-Looks Like a Strong Case.
Fifty years ago, says William Waldorf
Ast0r in the Pail Mall Gazette, the asSer-
ton that the man Of Stratford did not
write the plays attributed to him was
laughed out of court Today it is admit
ted by all but the worthy dwollcrs BY tho
Avon TO he u subject for serious discus
sion. Even the stanchost adhcrcnts of the
Stratford man admit the existence of q
few awkward facts which cannot be OK
planned away. Let us glance briefly at
some of them.
OF William Shakespeare youth little is
known, and that little tells against him.
He is supposed TO have received common
school education, there being no other at
Stratford which would have been course
of rudimcntary instruction in writing,
reading, arithmetic and general informa-
ton inferior to that now possessed by the
average London Cabby. Shakespeare could
certainly boast but little of his handwrit-
Ing, and it is astounding that one who is
supposed to have written so voluminously
could have employed SO barbarous and H.
legiblc chirOgraphy Fancy play traced
in such barbarous characters! 1t is use
less to affirm that such was the general
style of the age, for the signatures of
many of Shakespeare contemporaries
show that educated men wrote we'll
The village tradition paints him in col,
ors we should not expect to belong to tho
author of the ''SonnCs. He was reputcd
incorporates; he was whipped for poach-
ing; he married Ammo Hathaway under
circumstances discrcdtablc to them both
AT Is he is said to have been apprcnticcd
to a butcher, after which he became deal
CIR in wool Amid SO many uncertainties
we know positively that he came of a fam
lily not one of whom could tell the letters
of the alphabet and was brought up to
speak tho jargon used by the village folk
of all England in those good old days"
which is saying that his speech was us
rude as Iris writing.
The first 20 years of his life were evil
IDENTIFY spent without books, among litter
ate people in the narrow limits of squal-
Id village. We find him at this period en-
ploycd as u stage carpenter vcnturing oc-
casionally upon subordinate parts, and
moro often holding horses at the stage
door. His life up to this timo was ono
of poverty, of mental tasks and base COM
Partnerships, while his writings from tho
very first are marked by an unrivalcd re-
1lncmont and subtlcty.
More than this, however, the plays cyinco
not only an Incompatible knowledge of
the English language, but wide famil
iarity with foreign tongues as we'll Their
composer is u man of universal reading,
delighting in The classics, convcrsant with
untranslatcd French, Spanish, Danish
and italian literature, loving philosophic
speculatiOns, and, in spite of several geo
graphical errors evidently u traveller.
Where could the Stratford man have
acquired all this cruditionY Yet this pho
nomcnon of universal knowledge, this
born aristocrat, who has already learned
to dcspisc trade and tho vulgar multitude,
this natural genius who has educated and
trained himself to the loftiCst intellectual
flights and who repeatedly dilatcs upon
the sacred duty of parents to their chill
dren, so neglccts his own daughter, Jul
dith, that at tho age of 81 her best in the
way of a signature is Il 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 be
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, tho
varied experience, the knowledge of man
kind, all mark one who lived among men.
Yet not only have we not a line from his
hand but in all contemporary correspond
ence there is not an allusion to him. He
never met with authors and thinkers, new
or was present at single memorable occa-
sion, never appeared at court, never at
tracted the notice of that intellectual gal
do hn oHnfb
and no man thought enough of him to
write his biography during his life.
It Is impossible to reconcile the untutor-
ed and sordid conditions, which are all we
know of Shakespeare, with the philosophy
and erudition 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, II he
possessed them, he should, In making his
will have forgotten these companions OF
his intellectual domain and have remem-
bered only the commonplaces Of wearing
apparel and second best bed" 1t "
impossible to understand the total disap-
pearance of his notes. his manuscripts, his
correspondence, his books, his diary or to
reconcile his utter carelessncss and indif-
ference to the fate of his own copies or Of
those masterpieces Of which he proudly
declares
Not marble
Nor the gilded monuments of princes
Should outlive this powerful rhyme.
1t was in 1888 or 1887 that the man OF
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
vast experience Of the world and filled
with technical information From 1892 to
1898 eight editions of Shakespeare plays
were published without his name and
without being copyrighted, Ten years
later he returned to Stratford, to disappear
from our view and from that of his con-
temporaries. During the eight years that
he resided there until his death he wrote
nothing and was content to pass from
no reason from an activity that embraced
the world to the vacuity OF dirty and
soulless little village Is this consistent
with great mans nature?
Tradition deals unkindly with the man
Of Stratford to the very last, and his end
Is not what might have boon expected of