The Wichita daily eagle. [volume] (Wichita, Kan.) 1890-1906, 1894-09-09
IT BOBSs UP AGAIN
EDITOR ASTOR ON HEsQUESTlON,
"WhO WROTE SHAKESPEARE"


of the Plays and Poems Attributed t,
Him-Looks Like 3 Strong Case.
Fifty years ago, says William WALDORF
>Astcr in the Pail Nall Gazette, the asser
ton that the man of Stratford did moi
write the plays attributed to him wa:
laughed out Of court. Today it is admit
ted by all but the worthy jewellers by the
Avon 10 be subject for serious discus
sion. Even the stanchest adherents of the
Stratford man admit the existence of q
few awkward facts which cannot be ex-
planned away. Let US glance briefly at
some of them
OF William Shakespeare'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 at
Stratford, which would have been course
or rudlmentary 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 il
legible chirography. Fancy play traced
~ such barbarous charactersi 1t is use
less TO affirm that such was the general
style of the age, for the signatures of
many of Shakespeare's contemporaries
show that educated men wrote well
The village tradition paints him in col
ors we should not expect to belong Co the
author Of the ''Sonnes. He was reputed
sntemperate; he was whipped for poach-
Ing; he married Anne Hathaway under
circumstances discreditable to them both
At Is he is said TO have been apprenticed
TO butcher, after which he became deal
er 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 the jargon used by the village folk
Of all England in those good old days, "
which is saying that his speech was as
rude as his writing.
The first 20 years of his life were evil
IDENTIFY spent without books among Hitter
ate people in the narrow limits of squat
I'd village. We find him at this period en-
ployed as stage carpenter, venturing 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
htAs 4tiSb etLG ludIhSu UH al UuTlNdItu
Nnement and subtlety.
More than this, however, the plays evince
not only an Incompatible knowledge of
the English language, but wide famil-
iarity with foreign tongues as well. Their
composer is a man of universal reading,
delighting in the classics, conversant with
untranslated French, Spanish, Danish
and Italian literature, loving philosophio
sr1prral atinuE and in Of
graphical errors, evidently a traveller
here could the Stratford man have
acquired all this erudition? Yet this phc-
nomenOn of universal knowledge, this /
born aristocrat, who has already learned /
10 deSpise trade and the vulgar multitude, /
this natural genius who has educated and |
trained himself to the Hottest intellectual /
flights and who repeatedly dilates upon /
the sacred duty of parents to their chill /
dren, so neglects his own daughter, Ju
dith, that at the age of 81 her best in the /
way OF a signature is a 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 a 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 a 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 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
er was present at a single memorable occa-
sion, never appeared at court, never at
tracted the notice of that intellectual gal
axy which made up the Elizabethan 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 erudition of the plays. 1t is incredible
that the great student of that scholarly
age should have spent his life without
books; that be did not gather a library of
choice volumes about him, or that il he
them, he should, in making his
will, have forgotten these companions of :
his intellectual domain and have rcmem-
bered only the commonplace of wearing
apparel and second best bed" Ii is
impossible to understand the total disaD-
pearance of his notes, his manuscripts, his ]
his books, his diary or TO ]
reconcile his utter oarelessness and indif- {
ference TO the fate of his own copies or of !
those masterpieces of which he proudly
declares: I
Not marble {