The Middleburgh post. [volume] (Middleburgh, Snyder Co., Pa.) 1883-1916, 1896-11-12
Thursday, Nov. II, 1896.
Shakespeare VS.. Bacon.

friends in claiming that Shakespeare
was not well educated are establish.
ing a strong point in favor of Shakes.
peare's authorship. These plays
show no originality Of research in
the line of tales. AL the plots are
taken from older romances and GER
tainly it required no great skill to
arrange them. The fables may all
be traced as follows:
(aD THe Tico Gentie Of Verona.
The writer of this play is indebted
for many of its incidents TO the
Icadiu Of Sidney aud the Diana Of
WOHtemdyOr.
o. THE Merchant Of VeRice.
Whoever wrote tins play is indebted
for portion of it to Pecorone Of
GiOguaHi FTOrcntiUS aud for an-
other portion to GcStd ROmdHorun.
(cD Romeo anil Juiiet. The story
of this play was first related bv n
novelist of ViceRsd as early as 1885.
1t was also the subject Of u novel by
Blaudell in 1914, Bristeau, Brooke,
and Painter all used this talo before
it was used in these plays.
Id Uamie,. With the excep
tion of the grave digger's scene the
foundation of the play is to be found
in SanO EXAMINATIONS. Even the
famous soliloquy, "To be or not to
be" is a liternal translation from
Plato.
(e) As you like 10. This play has
no greater originality than Romeo
and Juliet. It's fable has its source
in Thomas Lodges ROsalinde.
g. Midsummer Nights Dream,
The Tanning Of the .Shrey, Loue's
Ldbor Lost, The Comedy of Errors,
Julius Caesardnd nearly every one
can be TRACED to a former produc-
tion for its fable.
A varied aud perfect knowledge of
science and art and the habits and
customs of different classes of so.
ciety which these dramas exhibit can
best be explained by the foregoing
exposition. This is certainly sat
isfactory answer to the question,
"Was ShakespeaIe n lawyer, or sur
geon, or botanist, or sailor, or ar
tisan, or soldier, or linguist, or his
torian, or only Il pcet, priest or n
monk? p We are approaching the
truth. We know he was an actor
and know what kind of plays he
wanted on his boards. As for the
original scientific ideas and tech
nical information found in the plays,
this small amount could have been
acquired with worry little exertion.
All the vulgarity and obscenity in
these plays, no one doubts, belongs
to William Shakespeare.
The Latin aud French quotations
are imperfect and incorrect, clearly
showing that no mastery mind such
as Bacon possessed could have been
connected with their authorship
Shakespeare connection with the
stage and his knowledge of its re-
quirement inspired him to n careful
study of what the people wanted.
This course of thinking led to the
long list of plays now presented
everywhere the English language is
spoken.
The claim of Baconians that tho
plays were never claimed by Shakes
peare and were not attributed &c
him until nearly half century after
his death can be met by the fact
that Milton, in his sonnet, in 1852
l6 years after the death of Shakes
peare, acknowledged the latter as
the writer of dramas.
TO meet the claim that Bacon
wrote the plays, it is but necessary
to cite the fact, that Bacon possess
cd n mastery mind whose fondest
pleasures existed in the pursuit O
scientific researches. His time anC
energy were ever spent in phisophic
al Investigations and even gave hi,
life for the science he sought to de
velop. Bacon was entirely too bus,
and too much enraptured in philos
ophy to be found in the lower call
ing of writing dramas for the amuse
ment of fun-loyiug and vulgar peo
pie.
1t has been proved that the autho
of Shakespeare had keen insigh
into the philosophy of Montaigne
whom Bacon is known to have stud
led. This, however, is no argument
against Shakespeare, for he as wei
as Bacon may have studied that