The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-07

plays Bad spelling is no evidence of his
| ignorance, but 1t is an evidence of ig-
norance SO to consider It. Everybody
spelt badly at that day-eyen Bacon.
| Spelling was arbitrary; no standard had
| been erected. You cannot read Spenser
without a gloss of lexicon. Chaucer is
| far worse. When printing became gen
| eral the printing presses brought about
uniformity Ben Jonson mentions that
the players said that in writing Shake
speare never blotted a line, and Professor
Wallace AYERS that his handwriting was
clearer and more legible than that of
| the average of modern university grad
| uates."
| The Baconians contend that the man
| of Stratford was merely a player by
name Shagsper or 6haxper. while Shake
| speare-observe the hyphen-was the
pseudonym of Bacon, the real author of
the plays This was Mr.. Greenwood s
| opinion-whoever he was-iand this Is
the verdict of the Baconians. To prove
the contrary shall only call a single wit
ness, chum and bosom friend of Shake
speare a man who acted with him, ca
reused with him, dined with him, wined
with him, supped with him. shall not
formally question him. I prefer to catch
him unawares. Indirect evidence Is in
cdhtestable, and to that I resort. One
man at least of that age pronounced his
name Shake Spear. In a poem addressed
to the Memory of Ny Beloved Master,
William Shakespeare by Ben Jonson,
we read:
Look how a fathers face
Lives in his issue-even so the race
| OF Shakespeares mind and manners
brightly shine
In his we'll turned and true fired line.
In each of which he seems to shake a
| lance (sic)
AS brandished at the eyes of ignorance
| Shake a lance-a play upon shake a
spearAShakespeare A man Is daft who
perpetrates play upon words unless the
elements of 1t are severely obvious.
Shagsper, shaxper, Shacksberd, etc., were
merely corruptios of Shakespeare.
The Baconians say that Ben Jonson
was no friend of Shakespeare-that he
wrote bitter epigram upon him. in
which he denounces him as the poet
ape; and says that the bard resorted to
| 'low shifts" cribbed and pilfered other
mems works at will and laughed when
detected II this referred to Shakespeare
| ut did not) 1t looks very much as II JON
son regarded him as an author. CLIFFORD,
Jonsons biographer, takes no stock In
the ape charge, and scouts the idea OF
Jonsons enmity.
The Baconians say that Jonson's fina
estimate Of him was that he was lit
erary thief. Now. how many Anal esti-
mates has a man? Two, certainly, for
shall quote another by Jonson seven
years later. The first was penned In
1916. Jonsons lines on the Droeshout
portrait of Shakespeare, in the folio OF
1929 are as follows: f.
TO THE READER.
This figure that thou here seest put
It was for gentle Shakespeare cut,
Wherein the graver had strife
with Nature to Guido the life.
o could he but have drawn the wit
AS we'll in brass, as he hath hit
Ills face, the print would then surpass
| All that was ever writ in brass.
But since he cannot, Reader, look
Not on his picture. but his book"
Book? why, that sounds very much
| like he was an author. But the Bacon
ians say that he was only player. and
surely they are honorable men,"
But If he was no more than player
what does Jonson mean by calling him
the
'Soul of the Age,
The applause, delight and wonder of the
stage?"
Why did he say that he outshone Kyd
and Lily and Narrower If only a player
who did he not say, he outshone Burbags
and Condell and Heminge? Why did Jon