New-York tribune. [volume] (New York [N.Y.]) 1866-1924, 1895-04-28

crav's In, when Bacon was resident there was
! h, as SPEEDING supposes, then We may oe sure
that his manner as a dramatlst would have been
Just such as his attempts at fiction in laie' Gays
/ indcated-a manner as IA" removed from poetry
az T. l.. POSSIBLE { conceive. The writings 81
Bacon most read a. the present da% are proo"p'S
his ESSAYS. Mr.. Ruggles speaks Of them as tn uEh
tl,i. literary form was a novelty. THIS sc''"S Z"
| he the case only to those who lack familiarity WIN
the literature especially the Latin literature OF
the medieval period. Whoever takes the U'u-
! HE TO look IN that uncommon little book AlpertuS
! N3gnus's "parad!sus Arimae," will find colIec-
,i,r - short ESSAYS on themes very similar ana IN
Some cases identical with those Of Bacon essays
treated in much the same manner. : man VINO
/ boosted tha- he had real all the past ha' IT,
4 offer of Significance 10 his purpose c'uih haTdy
/ have allowed anything to escape HIM mat cane
from the hand OF the greatest naturalist o' the
| Middle Ages II would be iabori'us. but not "'h'r-
! wise difficult. to show the sources OF most 81
/ Hacon's learning. The result would be 10 demon
strate that his mind was receptive, not cl'aIFe
| on the other hand only creative mlhd uAl'c"
/ T., irnumarab,e WAYS but for the most part uncoa-
sciously could have produced the dramas ~
shakespeare If Mr. Ruggles Will reverse his
scheme if he will concede that Bacon might nave
found time in the midst Of philosophical studies
+, he a frequent spectator at the play and might
/ have drawn thence many Of the thoughts which
bolnod IN nerfect his system. he will then fohoW
tn. order Of nature and will be able t. explain
ALL the parallels he has drawn more pausioly
than by his present theory. Bacons acquaint-
ance with Shakespeare's plays must have begun
in Youth for at the carnival in Grays Inn al
ready mentioned. the festivities Of one day ended
| T., .Comedy Of Errors" which Speeding. with
| more or less reason. supposes u have pe'h
/ Shakespeare's work. He matured as a thinker al
most in the shadow OF the greatest drama that
the world has known, and II would be very
rational inquiry - ask how much he owed t. the
writers Of this drama. not merely Shakespeare
hut Jonson and Marlowe and al the rest. That
he Influenced any Of them in an important sense
&c - he doubted The way in which a philosopher
may act upon the mind Of a poet most effectively
il illustrated by what Nj. Collins says in an APP
nreciative essay IN Menander. This poet was the
friend and disciple Of Aristotlcs favor.te pupil
Theopbrastus He may even have been a member
Of the youthful circle about Aristotle himself A.
all events he had in Thcorhrastus n teacher who
knew all that Aristotle could teach. familiar win
all the branches Of science then studied, ANA
above all On acute and genial critic o. human nat
ire Theophrastus's "Characters" remains 10 ih's
dav a popular book. the germ o; a distinct growth
in literature The young Menander. not yet con-
scious Of his own powers. was aroused ana stmu-
lated by the companionshp Of such man INNS
perceptions were quickened. his humor deepenei,
his mind enriched But when ne came II write
plays. If the fragments that remain are any CYL
terion. il was to the works OF Euripldes and not
to those OF Aristotle that he turned. not merely
for his poetry. but for his philosophy
A point t. which Mr. Rugges recurs. a topic
Of endless disputes in connection with shape
hat Of q cleared
hv one Of DR. Butchers essays Mr. Ruggles con-
siders the fact 50 surprising that but one snake
epearian play observes the so-cilled unity OF tine
that he makes it's title The Tempest an eX-
PLANTATION Of its moral. which, he SAYS, incuicaies
the wise use of time. He accOmplishes this by
referring 10 the meaning of the Latin word from
which TEMPEST" is derived But according to
! Dr. Butcher a reference TO Arietotla's "Poetics'
| would have saved this ingenius effort The only
dramatic unity enjonei by Aristotle, says he
"is that Of action" He thinks 1t strange that this
! should nave to be said at this late day. Bur he
| finds that in popular writings nyeterate traii-
| ton leads to the mention Of the three unites'
as the rule Of Aristotle. All that Aristotle said
| about time was that tragedy sought usually to
| confne itself TO a single revolution Of the sun
| But ne added that this not the practice ~
ca rlier times and there were important exceptions
! in the best days Of the Attic drama. on the sub
| ject OF unity Of place Aristotle said never word
| Modern views the subject grew out " an error
! in translation. Where Aristotle said tragedy
tried TO limit itself 70 one day the French critics
wrote dot" meaning that II ought to do
| Here the discussion began. Should the day be
| simply the twelve hours Of light. or should II IN
clude the whole twenty-lour? Extremists. even
Voltaire said that if the dramatis took NOR"
| than day he must account for everything that
| happened in the added time. To Shakespeare the
problem presented itself Just as II did = Aristotle
as a matter for which no fixed rule could be made.
But the unity which Aristotle did insist he Oh
served in his own way with ecrupulous care. In
The Tempest" It happened that the plot could
be worked out in just the time that required
for the stage performance. end 50, for once Shake
speare satisfied the critics who thought they
knew Aristotle who quoted him in Greek perhaps,
but read him. as Matthias says. in French.
Among the studies in Mr.. Cons's book there
| If one on The predecessors OF Shakespeare. 1t Ia
partly drawn from Symonds's book, shake
| spores Predecessors in the English Drama" and
partly from the essayists studies. There in
brief form will be found very clever statement
OF the debt that Shakespeare really owed 90
| others. He takes his place among those who were
poets as he was men often Of more book learn
| ing. OF wider range travellers. but Of genius
! inferior to his In their companonshp and in their
! example as well as in the tentative efforts Of
long past are to be found the explanation Of
what Shakespeare accomplished. aside from what
can be said for his own personality. In their ia
miliarty with the whole range Of the classics and
with modern. especially with Italian, literature,
can be seen the sources from which Shakespeare
coulG draw varied learned tradition even had
he been less schooled than he was. Everything
had, as it were. been made ready for his advent"
says the essayist. The tools with which he was
to work had been forged; the patterns on which
he was to work had been designed; the material
on which he was 10 work had been prepared"
Without this poetic preparation, all the phoso-
ply in the world could not have inspired single