The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-12-04
THE BACONIAN LUNACY, NO. 2
By WAKEFIELD cREATH RIoHARDsoN, LII D.

leaves the victim poor indeed" to ROB
the innocent against whom 10 charge OF
dishonesty was ever preferred-in order to
bestow it upon an migrate bribe-taker,
judicial corruptionist, second in infamy
only to the bloody Jeffries himself-to
confer it upon a seryile and base trucker
to power. a cringing syscophant, a nau-
seous upholder of The divine right OF
kings'-the fawning parasite of Eliza
beth, whom behind her back he styled
"a hideous Jade" the obsequious minion
of James-to make haste to do 1t, when
the person whom they proposed to honor
in life Indignantly resented it-what mad
ness, what follyi Bacon did not three
times waive the crown aside, but three
dozen times, yet you violently jab 1t down
upon his helpless head and say, Bacon,
you shall wear it, not on your own ac-
count-we know that 1t bellies and OPP
presses you-but that our insight may be
indicated and our sagacity exalted.
| 1 would not belittle the abilities OF
Bacon; they are conceded. But l am
averse to having his shortcomings hoist
| ed into virtues. From my standpoint, he
was utterly incapable of penning the
plays ascribed to him. Schlegel asserts,
| that the wonder is not that Shakespeare
wrote the plays, but that anybody wrote
them The trouble with you prose fell
| lows is that with a foot rule you expect
to measure the height of a genius that
reaches up to Algol. Should you ascend
| to the moon, would you be any nearer
the sun-should you mount to Bacon.
would you be any nearer Shakespeare?
| Nay, verify.
| l have shown In a former paper that
Bacons learning would have been a bar
to his success as playwright. Ben
Jonson wrote plays, made plots, en-
bodied characters, devised scenes, but his
productions are dead. His little lyric ITO
Cupid" and his flynn to Cynthia" will
outlast his stately Mosques and inter-
ludes. Who reads his "Sejanus," who
his "Cataline?" They are dead. What
killed them? Learning killed them, classic
| ism killed them, just as it killed Millions
| great epic, for it is only where the bard
| of Buckinghamshre tears himself loose
| from ancient models, and scars on MS
| own majestic wing, that he becomes sub
| lime. Where his genius is overlaid with
Latin idioms and Latin Technology, he is
as helpless as CULVER in the tolls of the
Lilliputians. Jonson was profound
scholar; he translated Bacon's work into
Latin. He was thoroughly imbued with
ancient lore and ancient methods, but his
| tragedies-the pride and admiration of
| Elizabetflan scholars-now hang idly, like
| rusty armor, on the walls of the Temple
/ of Fame, to be gazed at by the curious
| to be avoided by the wise. Who doubts
| that had Bacon written Shakespeare
plays they would have been made to con-
form to the same frigid and pedantic
models.
| The bard of Avon on the contrary, did
not know enough Latin to vitiate his
style Selling the glorious language OF
| ST. James Bible, he addresses us In our
native vernacular, with a directness.
! purity, an eloquence, a dignity, subim-
| ity, which can be initiated but cannot be
equaled Turn from Hamlet to Bacon's
| "Wisdom of the Ancients," where, IL any
where, his Imagination and ingenuity
are displayed. You cannot read it-why?
Because 1t is so saturated with Latin and
| Greek dressing that it has grown rank
| and inedible from age.
Did you ever frequent a play in which
learning predominated? Would you at
tend one? Do you not go to theatre to
be entertained, to be thrilled? Is not a
play the vehicle of fable, of story of
mrth, of wit, of humor? Is not dramatic
poetry feigning-is it not the work of the
imagination? Suppose Bacon had designed
a play, could he have Invested himself
of Bacon? Could he have given you of
stores that he did not possess? Could he
have banished learning, fact, analysis,
precision? Could he have laid aside be-
hemoth and become Puck or Ariel? Abb
| surd.
was he familiar with stagecraft? Had
| he trod the boards for a lifetime? Could
books-could closet preparation have
given him histrionc technique? Impossi-
BILE. Such knowledge is the fruit of ex-
| perience, the outcome of years Such
knowledge Bacon did not possess. Had
space I could show you that his speech
| wa mo
vocabulary inadequate. He used inver
| sions that Shakespeare did not use; he
used words in senses that Shakespeare
did not use. He used archac forms that
| Shakespeare avoided. Any scholar will
| bear me out in this contention. Bacons
Mosques, his mines, his mummeries are
| obsolete or obsolescent We read Comus
| with delight, but who reads the Mosques
| of Bacon? 1.-The Worlds a Bubble is
as good as any poetry he ever perpetrat-
ed, but it would reflect no credit on Doone
or Sandys
| DR.. Evans says that LAS the man OF
Stratford has left not single signature
spelled Shakespeare. | do him no injus=
lice in calling him Shakspere." Certainly
not, call him Muggins, il you please, but
do not expect by this lurking sophistry to
foist upon us the petilent jeofall of the
Baconians that Shakespeare was play
er ana SnakS-Spere playwright, tnat
Shakespeare was Bacon and SHAKESPEARE
the poet-ape' of Jonson. The doctor
omitted to note that even in this sheer
Shakespeare Is recognized as a poet
Where did DIR. Evans get this idea of
Bacon's hyphenated pseudonym? He fol-
lowed the lead of his mastery friend,
Edwin Reed, and both fell into the ditch
1t is charged that Bacon laid his cuckoo
eggs in cipher in more nests than one
and it Is claimed that he wrote not only
Shakespeare's plays, but Montaigne's
works. Burtons Anatomy of Melan-
choy'' and Pope's Essay on Man" But
| it is certain that no treatise, history,
apothesis or epigram acknowledged by
Bacon, was ever subscribed by that
name with or without the hyphen. The
Baconians have asserted 1t, the Bacon
ians have imposed it upon needless in
uuircrs, but there is no truth in 1t. AS
there were no literary or other require
ments in the case, what mattered 1t
how Shakespeare spelled his name? He
spelled Il as he pleased. Had he spelled
it Evans. would that have changed his
personality? Had he spelled 1t Ullman,
would that have voided his Identity? Was
Bacon less Bacon when he spelled 1T
Bakon? Was Othello less Othello when
others spelled it Otello? Or Falstaff less
Falstaff when they spelled it Falstof or
Fa,stOffe? What about Handkerchief