The representative., 1900-05-31
- ! ~ z
THE TRUTH WINNING.

- 11y1 ~ III s8DAY. MA
THE TRUTH WHINING.
We have been abused, and ridiculed
almost as much for advocating the prin-
ciples Of the Peoples party as for writ
ing books to prove that the plays which
go by the name of William Shakespeare
were really. written by England's great
est intellect, the i illustzions Francis
i Bacon. s
| but time 4 len4tn sets al things
! even.% The 81 II ata1 truths q
Populism are pt1sdiiy1 winning their
way to broaderand deeper recognition.
and we print elsewhere in this issue
| . review of 1 book entitled .sShalsper
not Shakespeare" from a newspaper
publisher in the cntef city Of the county
Of WarwickshfreI England, where
shaksper was bern and died, which
pretty clearly inthmates that the play
actor OF Stratford never wrote a line Of
the plays
In 1888, when we were in England and
visited 5Stratford, and lectured in Bir-
mingham, we were threatened with
mob-violence for assailing the memory
OF the Sweet Swan of Avon" and now
the leading newspaper of that county,
printed only a, few. miles from where
shaksper lies puried,> practically gives
It up, and admits that the advocates OF
4 the play actor must come to the rescue
at once, or he must be abandoned as
venerable fraud.
This marks tremendous revolution
of public opinion. ~
The truth Is, nine-tenths of the intel
ligent people of England are. now con-
verts to. the Baconian theory; and the
fools will not be long in trailing into
line behind them. And in this country
the men who are most ardent in their
advocacy of the fetish of stratford are
/! those who have never spent an hour in
the study of the plays or the writings OF
Bacon.
| But it is hard to. receive uproarious
Safeguarding for preaching the truth
and trying to elevate mankind. I. D.
! ''SHAKSPER" AGAIN.
'shaksper Not Shakespeare. BY Will
liam H. Edwards! With portrait
and fac-simnes. Cincinnati, the
Robert Clarke company Two dol
lars. g.
! From review which appeared in the
Birmingham, England, Daily Gazette,
Friday, April 2o,l 1900
In few days most Of the literary So
cieties of England will be celebrating
the anniversary OF the life and death of
our national poet, the sweet swan of
Avon, the myriad-mihded man. Mr..
Edwards has prepared bombshell for
1.-The enthusiasts.
We would only point out that the op-
pohents of Shakespeare have been SO
| long ignored that they are getting
stronger every year, and that books Of
| the class which Mr. Edwards has pro-
! duced are multiplying with alarming
rapidity. Would it not therefore be
worth while to give the case little
stroy it? Mr.. Edwards, we learn has
given many years of careful study"
to the subject he deals with. The list
| of authorities he cites occupies several
pages. He lays particular emphasis
upon the testimony Of Halliwell-Phil-
lipps, F. G. Fleay, Richard Grant White,
F. J. Furnivall, j. p Collier, j. Adding
ton Symons, Prof. Craik and other prom
inent Shakespearean biographers and
investigators. He revels in old docu-
ments and contemporary records. He
accumulates such q formidable array of
facts, literary, biographical and histori-
CAL that it seems to need a giant to hurl
the pile to the ground. He advances
his authority for every statement, and
practically refrains from expressing per-
sonal opinions of his own or imparting
color to his arguments. This is doubt
less the right way to go about the matter
and it leaves Mr.. Edwards adversaries
to combat-not Mr. Edwards-but the
whole army of 'Shakespeareans whom
he has pressed into his service.
The first chapter deals with the fam
lily of "Shaksper'' Of Stratford, his
youth, his environments, his residence,
his early escapades,s. his marriage and
the many assumptions" which .im-
aginative biographers" have made to
show that the stratford man wrote the
plays" without one historical fact to
support them" The school il dealt
with at considerable length. "Shaks-
per's" early departure for London is re-
morselessly treated and his first expert
ences in the capital Are explained. Mr..
Edwards then proceeds to show how the
name Of Shakespeare (not Shaksper)
began to appear in connection with new
dramas, some dozen of which are no
longer included in the Shakespeare
catalogue at all. ut became the custom
to print under the same name, and the
world accepted the sobriquet as the true
title of the unknown author or authors"
Mr.. Edwards argues that 1t would not
have been to the interest OF an actor
(Which "Shaksper" was) to publish the