The Pacific commercial advertiser. [volume] (Honolulu, Hawaiian Islands) 1885-1921, 1901-01-23
BACON OR SHAKESPEARE?

tfarRSC IN The tftueoIy elAot LII
wrote the plays attributable Shakes
lpeare Briefly stated, the argument
with which this theory is borne up is
that Shakespeare was not nterale
lenough to write anything worth pre-
serving. 1t is in question whether he
leould write at ALL He left four sigma
lures indubitably genuine, all dissimi-
liar and evidently traced. He had no
books; there is no evidence that he
ever went to any but rural primary
school, not scrap of his manuscript
was left behind; he never correspondent
with anybody, and neither OF his
daughters could read or write, for
| both signed law papers with their
marks.
/ Could such a man, ask the Bacon
iians. have written thirty-six plays
which are packed so full of wit and
Wisdom that the world stands amazed
at the intellectual attachments of their
Iauthor? Poetry may come by insp1ra-
! ton but learning does not The map
who wrote the plays was lawyer, a
Imusician military student. pro-
found master of all the languages OF
Europe. and had travelled extensively.
Chief Justice Campbell said that the
j plavwrisft was a lawyer SO able and
Learned that had the plays been writ
Item In Lord Eldons time he would sus-
lpect that eminent jurist of their auth
lorship. There are references in the
works to law cases which have never
ibeen translated from the Norman
French. in which the English reports
were for awhile printed, showing that
1.-THE author of the plays had gone
Through thorough law course.
i But if Shakespeare did not write the
lplays what reason is there to think
THAT Bacon wrote them? Why. if Ba-
Icon was the author, should he have
tbeen willing. to let his fame rest on
works of inferior merit and interest
land treat as rubbish the greatest intel
llectual creations of his age? Bacon
Iclaimed DE Augmentis' but he want
led no responsibility for Hamlet and
king Lear" Surely his nature was
different from that of other literary
men if he wrote the three and put his
name alone on the least deserving; dis
claimed the pearls and held up the
. lleaden image to the gaze of the cen
, turtles.
Is it possible to reconcile Shakespeare
the man with the plays bearing hi:
name? Let the reader judge the argu
lment for himself Despite his seeming
: Ignorance of letters, Shakespeare was
: THE companion at the Mermaid Inn o
all the poets, travellers, jurists and phi
, losophers of England. Lord Bacon being
! lone. He must have been a man of part
, Ito sit in that high company. Now sup
a Ipose that nature had endowed him a
a she ofttimes does the humble and I'm
with the gift of genius, ant
s THAT Shakespeare's genius was that o
v taking the coin of other mems knowi
: edge and transmitting it into tn
n brighter gold of his imagination
" knowledge was there at hand in plen
8 lty On Mermaid nights Bacon poure
!. forth the pactolian stream of his learn
i ling when the choice spirits of the In
4 lwere Of a mood to receive it. Travel
e lers came and told of far countries an
: of gorgons and chimeras dire; 5urist
n debated one with another the abstrus
: Questions of the law: poets read son
Il inets to their mistresses eyebrows
. igeograptrers drew their. maps and sol
diers described their campaigns. Wit
spoke with epigrammatic point an
i sparkle and linguists revealed thel
p lspeil of foreign tongues. And anon
/ them sat William Shakespeare. poo
= iplayer of the London stage, yet a vas
d receptive genius whose mind was wa
$. to receive and marble to retain II
It heard the table talk of those who coul
a Isum' up the worlds knowledge; his ere
e lative fancy made new shapes of all h
It heard: his Unborn gift of speech whic
-Imay have been his passport to tn
/ Mermaid Inn. clothed his ment:
y impressions with grace which neithe
: the tongue nor pen of Bacon could eve
II reach; and the rest was task for tn
/ jscrivener who helped his patron max
'e plays for the theater where Shakes
, peare the actor earned his bread.
: These are some of the arguments fe
$ and against in the pleadings which tn
If controversialists file before the cou1
ID of literary Justice But no judge {
final resort has passed upon them an
IT unless Shakespeare's tomb. which wa
d never opened contains among tn
l. things deposited there with the bod
y some further and conclusive eyident
H. touching the authorship of the might
1t plays, the world will still sway betwee
n two opinions.