The Anaconda standard. [volume] (Anaconda, Mont.) 1889-1970, 1896-04-18
SHAKESPEARE'S LIFE
Frederick Warde Delivers an Address
TO the High School.
WORKS OF THE GREAT MAN
How to Read His Lines and How
One VIII Want to Reread Them
The Bacon Mlstake-An
Interesting ak.

Friedrich Warde delivered an address
yesterday afternoon to a large. audi
ence of students of the High school
teachers and others. on the subject o
The Life and Works of Shakes
peare." The address was an education
al treat such as the pupils of the pub
lie schools seldom have the opportu
nifty OF enjoying. Mr.. Warde was in
troduced by Professor Warman. The
eminent actor was greeted with warn
applause and he began his lecture with
a brief sketch of Shakespeare's life, be-
ginning with his birth, which occurred
1872 years ago next Thursday. on April
20. 1864. John Shakespeare. the poets
father. was not a man of poverty, but
man of some note in the shire In
which he lived. He was dealer in
grain and afterwards was raised to
the position of alderman. The poet s
mother was a woman OF some account
and could trace her ancestry back to
William II.
Little is known of the details Of
young Shakespeare's childhood. but II
is presumable that he was no different
from all children: that he had ell the
ailments that all other children have
that he had the mumps and measles
and gave his parents the usual amount
of concern. At the age of 7 he was
sent to school, but nothing is known
OF his progress there, and 1t is again
reasonable to presume that he was an
ordinary kind of student; that some
times he had his Lessons and sometimes
he had not; that he played truant, and
that he may sometimes have stood on
chair In the corner with FOOLS cap
on his head. At the age of IL he left
school, and little more is known of him
during the succeeding four years but
at the age of IS he committed the first
act Of indiscretion by getting married
to a woman eight years his senior.
They had several children who died
early. so that there has never been a
lineal descendant of the great Shakes
peare. He had not yet sown all his
Wild oats when he became married and
at the age of q he, with several COM
panions, were caught at deer stealing
and were punished. On his release he
wrote a lampooning sonnet on the gen
tleman who caused his arrest and for
this ofense he was again to be pun
ished when he ran away to London,
leaving his wife and children behind.
He next turned up in London In the
position of holding horses in front of a
theater with a number of men in his
employ. Next he became an assistant
call boy and then an actor in the COM
pany. He won the friendship of the
L<hii VI OullOlk anu naQ access 10 ana
the use of the earl's library and there
probably read the books from which
he afterwards adopted many of his
plays. He next secured a partnership
in the theater. and at the age of AZ
he retired to his home I'm affluence and
devoted the remainder OF his life TO
writing new plays and died on the date
of his birth, April %, 1916. aged so
years. coincidence worthy Of note is
(tfsr~xv af4t he liz
writer. died on the same day.
This age Is one OF iconoclasm and |
doubt. and there is a tendency of men |
to destroy the legends we have believed |
in so many years. Almost 300 years |
after the death of Shakespeare. |
poor insane woman named |
Miss Della Bacon advanced the |
plays were not written by Shakes |
peare. but by her great ancestor, Sir |
Francis Bacon. The idea was subse- |
quently taken up by Donnelly I'm his |
cryptogram and also by DIR. owen OF |
Detroit. who discovered alleged hidden |
passages in the works of Shakespeare
to prove that Bacon wrote them and |
was ashamed OF them. These hidden |
passages, they claim, run all through |
the writing as IL the writer knew when
he wrote the first book that he would
write the others that followed Sir |
Francis Bacon was the son OF Nicholas
Bacon, keeper of the seals in Queen |
Elizabeth's reign. Sir Francis be-
came a great lawyer. a renowned schol-
ar and great traveller. He wrote
great deal and anyone who reads his
writings will find that he was not a
poet. Shakespeare's works are full of
errors in geography and history and
his Latin and French are abominal
Gould Francis Bacon, the scholar have
made such blunders? In all OF Sir
Francis essays there are but two ref
erences to the theater. or drama. an
important institution in his days-show-
ing conclusively that his tastes in writ
ing were not in that direction. In one
Of his essays he declares that love be-
longs to the comedies OF the theater."
Could the author OF Romeo and Juliet
have written that? The essays of Ba-
con are hard and unrelenting in their
while there is not n chord
In the gamut Of human passions that
is not touched upon in the plays of
The works OF Shakespeare have An
effect on human life. In
this land. more than 5000 miles from
the place where they were written and
nearly 800 years after the death of their
author. his words are used in the SER
mons delivered from the pulpit, by the
laWyer IN MS argument ana by the
judge in his charge TO give force 10
their language. The educational effect
of the works Of Shakespeare and their
Eject on civilization are wondrous The
student who has witnessed the play OF
Julius Caesar knows more about the
,istory of Julius Caesar than the schol-
n who has devoted weeks TO the study
IF the history In the school room. And
.ould a student or a son be given better
ldvice than that given by old PoIonius .
o his son in gae play OF Hamlet?
Shakespeare was Inspired and proph- .
'tical. for the ghost in Hamlet. In de- ,
ailing the manner Of his death. the {
circulation Of che blood is distinctly ,
described IS years before the discovery !
4 the blood's circulation was first an !
bounced to the world. ShakeSpeare :
led before Sir Isaac Newton was horn !
ct the doctrine and the law Of specific ,
'Tavity was perfectly described in !
- A. I