The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-09-24
Authorship is Questioned AI0lg a
New Line.
CAREFUL AND LOGICAL ANALYSES
Considering the Actor and Writer as Boy and
man-His Time and Connections.
Argument.


whether DR.. Gauden or Charles l wrote
"Eikon Basilike" are questions tha
will never cease to interest class
thought it Will be only a small class
but as long as the best literature ever
yet produced by the human mind shall
continue to be read on any part of the
globe men viii be found willing 10
hear further, If only rational conjec-
ture, on the question who wrote
Shakespeare He that expects GER
tainty, or even, after a lapse of 300
years, expects an array of facts and a
course of reasoning that will leave the
linguistic mind satisfied, must be
disappointed Only a probable case is
now possible, but probable case will
be welcomed by the cultured mind.
Years ago Judge Holmes, of St Louis,
a learned and strong writer, published
book on the inquiry. He missed the
mark completely. A conclusive reason
against Shakespeare authorship of
thirty-siX plays, many of them among
the best ever penned, is that the task
is too great for any one mind.
Holmes only increases the difficulty by
guessing that the plays came from the
pen of Bacon one of the most fertile
prose writer's of that age The world
is growing increduIous of miracles as
modern and secular facts. Up to fifty
years ago it was believed that one
mind, Homer produced the "lliad -
and carried the whole twenty-four
books in his memory. Today all schol-
ars agree that that "Iliad" is made up
Of a number of poems, composed by
bards who never saw each other, and
gathered together and welded into one
uyb oil In Il inc
one literary miracle the production of
the body of plays called shakespeare"
But is it in fact a miracle?
William Shakespeare was born in
the village of Stratford, in Warwick
shire. in 1854 His father, John
Shakespeare, was in early life rich but
afterward became poor, quite poor. In
childhood William went to the free
school, where, probably, only primary
studies were taught but seems to have
left that school at an early age. As
to the fathers vocation, there are two
traditions, one that he was a wool
dealer, another that he was a butcher
Probably both are true. In the middle
of the Sixteenth century cleared land.
for meadows was scarce in England.
and to gather the clip of wool in the
neighbOrhood of a village, clean it of
burrs, wash and card it for the use of
farmers wives would be no great job
The butchering business for so small a
market would be light A boy of II
with occasional help could do the
whole. William seems to have been
hayward. He married when barely
turned of II, and appears to have mar
ried under compulsion. Nor did he
have d nice respect for the property
rights of his neighbors. He stole deer,
and when about 10 found it prudent to
flee from Stratford to London. In his
new abode immediate subsistence was
a necessity. London was then a small
place, and people rode on horseback
TO the theater hiring persons to care for
their horses during the play. Young
Shakespeare took up the business OF
holding horses at the theater. BY his
promptness and politeness, perhaps |
boldness, he gave such satisfaction |
that patronage increased, and he hired |
other boys who, when a gentleman !
rode up stepped forward with I'm !
Shakespeare boy" Unless we ex-
eept his tact in getting venison this /
is the first piece of enterprise we hear |
of in Shakespeare. But not the last.
Enterprise was his notable merit
Soon our adventurer got employment
inside the playhouse as a callboy, or
supernumerary. At that time the word
theater was not much used, but jim it's
steady playhouse, and the performers
were called, not actors, but players. In
the tragedy of Hamlet they are called
players: There be players that l have
seen play, etc" The playhouse was a
large room in or attached to a tavern
and taking the name of the tavern as
Globe. Blackfriar's Fortune, Red Bull,
Bears Head.
In Shakespeare day Puritanism was
at its height, and it hated and detest-
ed playhOuses, players and plays. 1t
procured sharp legislation against
them. One prohibition reads that no :
playes be printed eXcepte they bee al (
lowed by sutch as have authoritye''
The Archbishop of Canterbury occas-
ordered a bonfire of books f
The religious world regarded players S
and playing as it did gamblers and =
gambling that is, with abomination. I
No man of ambition dared to attend /
he playhouse unless in disguise, or. if
a writer, to write for the playhouse :
lnless by stealth. The mercantile man a
would lose patronage, the incumbent i
of scholarly position would lose his Y
place, the cOurtier his possibility of {
promotion by any known connection h
With the drama. Shakespeare pros a
)ered. He became an actor, though ! n
lever rose higher than to play inferi- n
II parts, such as the Ghost" in Ham Z
ct. He also became manager of the II
ilobe. Enterprise led him to form :
nd cultivate the acquaintance of my .
ord Southampton, who made him a Il
1Unificent present, and he became a "
art owner of the Globe. His conuec- =,
ion with the Globe gave further room A.
Or enterprise. Plays were abundant, r
ut were chiefly worthless. Here was 81
further call for enterprise. In those II
avs every playhouse could use only h;
he plays which belonged to it or cl
hich it stole from other pIayhOuses. al