The morning news. [volume] (Savannah, Ga.) 1887-1900, 1897-03-05
WICKED WILLIAM.
Thorpe Says shakespeare Stole Deer
and Babies.


and Babies.
London Letter in New York Press
William Shakespeare has been found out
at last. w. G.. Thorpe, +. S. A., did the
deed, From youth upwards" Mr.. Thorpe
has felt that something was wrong with
Williams early days. Williams admirers
point out, on the one hand, the poor re-.
wards he received in his time for literary
work, and, on the other hand. how Will
lam became part owner of a theater In
London and owner of the finest house in
his native town. No playwright in the
prosperous close of the nineteenth CEN
fury owns the smallest part of theater.
Some OF them have married rich women,
too. William s marriage was so impolitic
that he almost had to sleep on the wood
en- trencher on which his wife served his
meager meals. Poverty alone started him
to London. a pound then was worth as
much as five pounds now William was
worth $iO0,GO when ne quit the BUSH
ness as Mr.. Thorpe calls it.
Few modern playwrghts have saved as
much. The populate of England in Eliz-
abeth's reign was 100000. 1t is SO, 100000
now. Then there We're no provincial the
aters and no big royalties from America.
Then play ran only i'm London. Hence
William must have made his pile" on
side line as the drummers say
Mr.. Thorpe knocks Ignatius Donnelly
into smithereens by saying that Lord Ba-
con and William were rogues In the same
boat. There Is no need of offering any
new evidence TO prove Bacon's villainy. He
was the worst of men who wrote the best
of thoughts. We now learn for the first
time that he kept "scrivenny" out at
Twickeuham. A "scrivenny" was a tyne
writing office of that day. 1t was in Ba-
10 --tuw
was copied by the only man on earth, ex-
elusive Of William who could read Will
Hams writing. Probably none other than
a descendant of this copyist used TO set
up Horace Greeley's editorials ON the Trlb-
une.
Bacon saw young Shakespeare almost as
soon as he reached London and took lil-
| Ing to him. After exchanging condolences
they went into partnership. This high-class
| literary firm started Ito use the words of
| MIR. Thorpe) "a gold silver and copper
| hell, carrying on this last in the open
| streets with yokels ard putting on work.
mems dress in order to appear TO be on
| their level and thus more easily to gain
| their confidence" Two sharper, deeper
| knaves never worked together. They did
| not stop at robbing poor common people.
| They got rich young men under their in
| fiuence and heeced them and kidnapped
| babies for ransom.
/ These facts Mr.. Thorpe has gained by
| much research and by placing small de-
| tails into a logical sequence. which has es-
capped the reasoning of other students.
| VIII any one suggest an easier likelier
| or indeed any other means by which
| Shakespeare could keep himself and his
/ family al Stratford?' he asks put money
| in his purse and obtain the costly clothing
| which, as Jack Factotum, was ndispensa-
| BILE? There Is prima facie no other
i way than this gambling TO account for
4 Shakespeare's rise from worse than moth
| ing; from being a young butcher. wanted
| for deer stealing, to burgess, landholder
| and country gentlemen, with coat armor.
win any one at this point offer better
| solution?
Although public ordinaries lin the peri
DDS of Shakespeares plays) reeked with
| gambling and taverns as well, there are
no gambling scenes in Shakespeare's plays
| Does not this show that Williams con-
| science smote him?"
| Not for an instance does Mr.. Thorpe
| think that William did not write his own
| works. His dishonesty did not cast any
/ doubts upon his great intellect, but rather
| proved it. Their eminent cleverness ena-
i bled Bacon and Shakespeare to be the big
| ger rogues and the more successfully to
| hide their villainy William, as We al
/ ready know, was a poor actor. He was no
| 500 a week matinee sensation. His limp
/ prevented him from playing juvenile
/ part. Throughout his whole stage career
/ he was limited to palsied old men and hir-
| ed murderers who squeai on the villain at
| the last moment.
When the brain Of so bad an actor con-
| ceived the assembling Hamlet, what more
natural than that he should dissemble a
| little on his own account? Besides, a
man of such a magnificent mind must
/ have been proud. He must have been des-
perately ambitious to return to the rel
| atives in Stratford, who had looked down
| upon him because of his marriage 10 Ann
| Hathaway with money to burn" Again.
/ the failure of society TO appreciate his
/ plays, conscious of his merit no must
| have been, must have made him cynical.
| and he must have determined that any
/ means which enabled him TO get even
/ with sordid world and enjoy little sor-
| didity Of his own was fair. Possibly when
| he met Bacon, whose villainy no one
doubts, the only thing he had to eat was
| his own manuscripts.
Look here. William" said the tempter
| you arc a bright young man. But you
arc starving. and you can't get your plays
| copied, let alone produced. My hobby Is
writing noble thoughts. Yours is writing
\ plays. Posterity will care for them, no
doubt, as we are superior beings but a
| draft on posterity for tuppence wouldn't
| be honored. Nevertheless, we want some-
thing TO drink well as the other fellows
| And what are these other fellows, VIII
| liam? Little pygmies crawling around I'M
der our insteps. But they have the neces-
| sary coin for buying comforts. II we can
/ get some OF the necessary and keep out OF
| jail, what Is the difference? Posterity
won't mind II will think only Of my
noble thoughts and of your plays Thus
we will get even with the world Of to-day
that doesn't appreciate us and play a nice
little joke on posterty, ehY I'm expect
ing office from the queen soon Ali Will
\ liam, you have no idea of the amount OF
wire-pulling required 70 get just one little
| office--and then I'll see that all indict-
| ments against you are quashed."
Thus" says Mr.. Thorpe. 1.-The two were
In cooperation and intimate handenp Tor
twenty-five years" Their first meeting.
IL may be said parenthetically. was az the
Grays Inn Revels. where all the thinkers
In town met az regular intervals to get
| gloriously drunk on sack. But Bacon
hadn't even "a thiefs honor" II seems.
| He overcharged william for copying from
| The nrst-thongh the mild render NAV