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

| Orpheus, now the shell of st. Cecilia No
popinjay whose folly he did not mimic,
no sage whose wisdom he did not emu
late Now he moves majestically along
like "a rich burgher of the flood" now
like a pretty tranicker" he mods and
curtseys as he flies past with woven
wings Stormy he is as Lear pompous
as Polonius, equable as Antonio bitter
as Shylock. At one moment levity reigns,
at another dignity. You care not wheth-
er you turn to Macbeth or Hamlet or
Romeo, you know that you will be de-
lighted, ravshed, enchanted.
If Shakespeare was incapacitated by
his ignorance from writing the plays,
much more was Bacon by his learning
Do you suppose he would have killed
Julius Caesar in the Capitol? Every
school boy knows that the Capitol was
temple on the Capitoline Hill dedicated
to Jupiter. The senate met at that period
In the Curia Pompei in the entrance hall
of Pompey's theatre, and there Caesar
was murdered. Shakespeare got his no.
ton from an old play Polonius in Ham
let says Of himself II did enact Julius
Caesar; | was killed in the Capitol. Bru-
tus killed me-" Hamlet wittily rejoined,
1T was a brute part to have killed so
capital calf" There had been several
tragedies based on the death of Caesar
Shakespeare attended the free gram
mar school at Guild Hall at Stratford.
whore Jonson tells us he learned little
Latin and less Greek" In the plays he
quotes Terence not from the great play
wright himself, but from Lillys Latin
Grammar, one of his textbooks. The
scraps of Latin he puts into the mouths
of Sir Hugh Evans, Holofernes and 9TH
ers were culled from paltry sources Ba-
WI lXa ura11 In, tl,a ali e.,
authors of antiquity. would have gone
to the originals.
Shakespeare COMPOUNDED Decius and
Decimus Brutus. Bacon himself tells us
in one of his essays that Decimus, not
Decius, Brutus told Caesar that he
hoped he would not dismiss the senate
till his wife had better dream Shake
speare represented Bohemia as a mari
time country. He placed Caesars Gar
dens on the wrong side OF the Tiber. He
made a clock strike three. and break up
meeting of conspirators centuries be-
fore striking clocks were invented. He
wrote the name of Caesars wife Cal
phurnia instead of Calpurna. He
placed the wrong accent on Hecate and
Stephano. He made Baptista the name
of a man in the "Shrew," and of a wom-
an in Hamlet" He copied the very err
rors of translators, as Lydia for Lydia,
etc. You see, that If Bacon wrote the
plays he was devoid of scholarship.
might further show how he vilified Joan
OF Arc, how he scandalized the patriot
Jack Cade how he DETAINED Prince Hal,
how he lampooned Sir John Oldcastle.
This found some excuse in a mere play
wright, on the ground of popular effect,
where the demand was for sensation, not
for truth: but l doubt IL the friends Of
the immaculate Bacon would like to have
these things laid at his door. Shake
speares record goes with him. You can
not take his shining qualities and leaves
his faults behind
But this is talk, talk talk. Let us get
down to business Here is the problem
of the Baconians. Shakespeare could not
write the plays; Bacon could ergo Ba-
con did. Ergo is stubborn word 1t
will not always work. 1t needs to be
oiled continually Ergo, Bacon did. Do
you see nothing wrong about that? To
me 1t looks fishy. Should I say Togo.
the dog, could have stolen a marrow
bone; therefore he did, what a scandal
n would put upon respectable cur.
This is that dreadful dragon that logi-
clans call non sequtur.
Or suppose you Baconians set about
proving your contention by syllogism.
You begin-ShalSespeare could not write
the plays. / deny. You are compelled to
shape your premise so that it will COM
mand the assent of your adversary. II
you do not, you are guilty of that hippo
griff that logicians call a petitio principii.
aud here leave you.