The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1898-09-24

man IN England, c1leHy residing IN
london, finished scholar, sometimes
counting the muses., in intellect second
to Lord aBcon only, if Macaulay's es-
innate is to be accepted, the most ac-
cOmplished sailor of that day, and
withal a personal acquaintance of
Shakespeare, Sir Walter Raleigh. He
and he alone of all men then on God 5
fOOtstOol had the learning and genius
requisite to the production of that
gorgeous drama, The Tempest.
King Lear is one of the greatest of
dramas. Near its close the steward at
ttempts to Stay Gloster and Edgar, the
Halter being dressed as a peasant.
Finding it necessary to disguise his
speech, Edgar adopts a peasants dia-
lect and selects, not the dialect of
Warwickshire, the only one Shake
speare knew, but the peasant dialect
to which Sir Walter Raleigh had been
bred. The fact is significant. Few
other men ever lived who had the
genius to produce that masterpiece. If
the view | am taking, that the Shake
speare plays, like the component po-
ems of the Had, were produced by a
number of minds, there is reason for
conjecture that Macbeth is from the
pen of a Scotchman, connected, per-
haps, with the court of James 1. Rea-
sons, but not conclusive ones, could be
given for imputing Scotch paternity to
that great play.
A reason Wellnigh conclusive against
the hypothesis that the plays were
written by Shakespeare is found in
their horribly mutilated condition. 1t
would be insufferabIy tedious to set
forth many Illustrations of the shame
full deprivation of the text of the
plays. l will give only one. In Mac
beth these lines occur:
that we but teach
Bloody instructions which, being
taught, return
To plague the inventor. This even
handed justice
COmmends the ingredients of our pois-
oned chalice
To our own lips.
In 1852 a reprint of Macbeth was be-
ing made. The tpyesetter had finished
the words ITO plague the" when he
was called away. On his return, glanc-
ing at his type, he saw that his last
word was the, and, pursuing the SEN
tence, as he supposed, but in fact, be-
after the next the" he made
such stuff as this:
Which, being taught, return
To plague the ingredients of our pOis-
Oned chalice
To our own lips.
Luckily the original copy remained
to furnish the true reading, but no
5a gacity could guess it from this bOtch-
ed reading. But there were other
of error in the text quite as
fruitful as typographical errors. The
errors were so great and so numerous |
hat in spite of the diligence of the |
.ritics for the last $50 years there re- !
main abundance of passage of which |
he meaning can not be cOnjectured. |
Well. as Shakespeare himself, armed !
With authority as manager, was on the !
,round six days in the week, and these
and horrible plumbers
we're being made daily under his very
lose. is it not absurd to say that he
would quietly allow the children of his
rain to be gashed and mutilated and
estrOyed? Shakespeare knew him
elf to be a money-making stage man
ger, but not a dramatic poet. The
lays were mangIed because there was
o author to read proof.
The only evidence that l know of
hat any given play was written by
is that when it was first
rinted for stage use its title page con-
lined the words. written by William
There were seven
Their plays marked in the same way.
Thy are they not published with the
lirty-six that we have? Seven years
fter Shakespeare's death two Of his
ID colleagues published the thirty-siX
ut found the other seven so utterly
orthless that they dropped them out.
hus we have fOTty-thTee plays pur-
)rting to be written by an uneducated
an, and written while he was per
rming double duty as player and as
anageT~
Presumably in 1908 Shakespeare,
own rich, quit the playhouse, re
rned to Stratford, bought himself
lie property and planted the mulber-
tree. He was yet in middle life.
robust health, without employment q
id without care. He must have [
own the corrupted condition of his h
avs. Naturally he would find it a o
light to devote two or three hours u
lay for month or so to an elimina- u
N Of the errors. Not a line did he q
lite He seem TO have lived seven
ars longer, and in good health, but
wrote not line. The imputed
ldren of his brain he utterly neg
ted in their mangled, misshapen
ldition.
ISAAC BICKERSTAFF, JR. of