New-York tribune., 1902-02-21

with shakespeare's fne-hled phrase if they would
speak English"
It is. Of course. impossible to descant the au-
thorshp of Shakespeare without going over ground
that has often been traversed; but TO print dis
paragement of the poet without rebuke Of it is to
offer poison without its antidote The authorities
of Greene. Chettle, Jonson Drummond, Manning
ham, Haywood Fuller. Beeston. Aubrey. Meres'
Dugdale, Camden. Stowe Ward Forman. Cokayne'
Dowdan, Davenant. Milton. Rowe. Malone, Better
ton, Dryden. the 'Parnassus.' etc. have been
many times cited. Information about the lie or
Shakespeare is. naturally. considered meagre, when
confronted with the insatiate desire OF human
curiosity; but viewed in its aggregate. it IS very
considerable and as to his ancestry. his parenage,
his birthplace. his probable schooling his mar
riase, his vicisstudes of fortune. his friendships
HIS property, his occupations and achievements
as an actor and author, it is explicit and de-
cisive. Milton was twenty-five when he wrote his
superb commemorative sonnet ON Shakespeare
$3.50. and the poet had then been dead only four
teen years. Milton has never been considered
fool and, certainly. his authority Is better than
that of any modern luminary Of suburban New
York. Good old Fuller's testimony points the same
way. and it never has been shaken. Fuller G6O4-
1661) was twelve years old when Shakespeare died,
and his History Of the Worthless of England" was
written within considerably less than fifty years
after that event Fuller said that England might
be compared 10 IAN house not very great but con-
venient; other writers had described the rooms
in IT. his purpose. he declared ITO describe the
furniture of those rooms. such eminent commodi-
ties which every county doth produce, with the
persons of quality bred therein; and when he came
to describe Warwickshire he recorded some part. at
least Of what he had learned about Shakespeare
Fuller probably never sa the poet. but certainly
he must have possessed the records of him which
then existed. He did not Invent his facts. He was
not a liar: he was clergyman; and he declared
that his first object. in writing The Worthless.
was 10 gain some glory 10 God" Every word Of
Fullers has the ring Of truth He says that William
Shakespeare. born at Stratford -on-Avon, in War
wickshire, seemed to be a compound Of the three
eminent ancient poets. Martial Ovid, and Plautus'
that he was never any scholar that his genius,
generally was jocular, inclining him TO festivity.
yet could be solemn and serious, that he was a
born poet and that his learning was very little.
so that, Cornish diamonds are not polished by
any lapidary, but are pointed and smoothed even.
as they are taken of the earth nature itself
was all the art which used upon him" All this
the old historian had heard and he might have
heard It and probably did hear il, from men who
had seen Shakespeare, had talked with him, and
could speak from personal recollection Of him-or
OF his friends. Not otherwise, surely, did Fuller
learn of those many wit combats" between
Shakespeare and Jonson. so quantity figured in his
delightful book.
When the handwriting and the epitaph of Shake
speare are cited as evidence that he ignorant
and illiterate" it would seem that the measure OF
possible human folly has indeed. been filled. Set
ting aside the signature in the copy OF Florlos
Montaigne preserved at the British Museum,-the
authenticity of which is doubtful,-there are hve
genuine autographs Of Shakespeare in existence.
Two of them written in 1913 on separate legal
instruments relative property in Blackfriars,
London, and the other three, written in 1916, are
on Shakespeare's Will. Time has impaired the ap-
pearance of all of them but all of them legt-
BILE The chirography indicates that Shakespeare
wrote "a cramp hand (as Sir Walter Scott calls
it, who speaks OF his writing kitten
scratches') and also it indicates haste, nervous
tremor. and illness. Shakespeare died at nifty
two, and.-as may fairly be judged from the num-
Der, variety and character of his works. and the
passions they reveal of which his nervous system
was the volcanic fountain,-he must have been a
" orn-out man some time before he died His VIII !
written in January, 1916 signed in March, and
his death occurred in April 1t is not known that
he four lines cut in his gravestone, and
assuming that he did write them, no one can
possibly know whether they were written after
his famous drinking bout with Ben Jonson'' or be-
fore ii, or in the course Of it, Special illumination
as this point may, indeed have recently de-
scended upon Mount Vernon New-Yorli. but. II so |
it has confined itself to that favored locality. In |
themselves the lines simple, characteristics, d.
rect and good and they have efectually served the
purpose for which they were intended. It is |
tremely probable that Shakespeare them. |
but when, under what circumstances and where |
fore they should be associated with alleged |
drinking bout" can only be conjectured.
Some haze Of conjecture furthermore, hovers |
4
hand memorandum that the Rev. John Ward, Vicar |
Of Stratford. made in his diary. in 1902 only
tions certain gossip that had drfted to his sacer-
dotal ear. saying that Shakespeare Drayton and |
Ben Jonson had merry meeting, and. il seems |
drank too hard, for Shakespeare died Of a fever, !
there contracted" "A merry meeting between |
three old friends is necessarily "a drinking
bout" and, to the matter Of convivial bibuIa-
ton secondhand clerical impressions not per-
haps altogether the best kind of testimony. Lewis
Carroll has told Of an observer who thought |
but looked again and it a hippopotamus" |
Stomachs, like standards, vary. DR.. Watson used !
10 tell a story about Scotchman who, after con-
surning several bottles of champagne, asked for |
whiskey, by way Of something to drink.-with the |
observation that these mineral waters
are so tiresome." Champagne, however, copiously |
imbibed. produced effect whatever on Byron but
a single glass of it would upset Edgar Poe. One
pnt-stoup Of Warwickshire ale might have proved |
too hard" for gentle Shakespeare in his fral con-
dition, or-which comes TO the same thing-the
vestry gossips Of his little village may have
thought It is much TO be hoped that the three
bards really met, the reverend Ward was in |
formed they did, and that they had good time on
that occasion. But, accepting the Ward gossip as |
truth and assuming that the merry meeting be |
tween Shakespeare Drayton and Jonscn actually |
occurred the significant fact would seem to be
that Drayton and Jonson travelled all the wav
from London to Stratford. in order to feast with