The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-08-28
SHAKESPEARE OR
BACON, WHICH
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CONTINUED FROM PAGE 20.)
traditions. Indeed, the advantage that
Baconians always have is that they recog-
nize the overtowering worth, beauty and
unprecedented mastery of the plays, and
do not depreciate them in the least in
questioning the presumptive authorship of
? them; rather, as before mentioned this
Is the kernel out of which has arisen the
whole historic dispute. They have no
interest in Francis Bacon, but they do
have the greatest, most wholesome and
virtuous interest in those dramas which
only the nineteenth century appreciated
fully; and out of the wonderment that
was born in the last century concerning
their safeguarding, all-enveloping pow
er and technique (Which, the more they
are studied, the more they revealed of
scholarship, wisdom and experience),
came at last the great interrogation OF
their origin; for. as they became more re-
Hvealed more lucid, clear and better I'M
derstood, they also exposed a mystery
that mystery being the incompatibility of
the plays with their reputed author
Is is a wonder Emerson said: Il can
not marry the facts to his verSe?' Elmer
son had no traditional axe to grind, nor
is it certain that he thought Bacon the
real author; but at least he was agnostic
as to that
ignorance from writing the plays, much
more was Bacon by his learning" says
DR. Richardson Well has the doctor some
doubts, then, as to SHAKESPEARE really, or
Is 1t horse and horse? If not SHAKESPEARE,
-s then surely not Bacon, But somebody did
write them any way. Baconians are not
particular as to that; they only want to
know. 1t Is not so important who ono
more SO than ordinary human curiosity,
perhaps), but the stimulating effect OF
the research is important.
Shakspeareans seek to save themselves
In the known ignorance Of the actor, and
hide themselves from the superior learn
ing of Bacon. 1t would seem that
Shakspereans do not really value the
plays as highly as Baconians, as they
realize that frank avowal of their SUI
perlative value and scholarship would pre-
clude the Stratford actor from participa-
ton In their glory.
1t is remarkable how easily the reac-
tionary critics gag at gnats, and with
what facility they swallow elephants! All
the immense difficulties surrounding the
personality of Shakspere they lubricate
with the oil of tradition; WHILE with the
little problematic gnats which confess
eddy must arise out of the authorship of
Bacon they strain at and analyZe; they
become truly scientific in their anxiety
to arrest the ever-advancing and unre-
treating mass Of evidence slowly being
piled up by unprecedented critics and re-
!. searchers.
Critics assume to parallel the style of
Bacon's prose works with the Shakes
peare dramas to draw negative conclu-
sions therefrom, to discredit the author
ship of Bacon. Why not parallel the
history and actions of William Shaks-
pere as found In all true records, with
oil their show of narrowness, rusticity,
small calibre sordidness and distinctly
! middle class aspirations, their peculiarly
local limitations with the aristocratic,
Il, worldly, comprehensive and upper-class
movement and life of the plays? OF the
actors life we know naught but or all
uncouth unrespectable, unlearned and
little personality. OF the works attribu-
ted to him we see manifest largeness,
power. grandeur, psychologist incite and
mastery; and. too. the representatives OIL
ruling-class culture and civilization, with
naught good to say of the mass, the rap-
BILE, the subservent or lower classes OIL
which Shakspere himself was a type. If
William SHAKESPEARE was their author, then
no genius was ever further removed from
his work than he.
IF we are going to find a proper per-
son to lay the glory Of these works to
: let us have one who has the giant
. stride. the loftiness of his work. Dante
for his epics, Milton for his paradise
~ Lost" a Goethe for his Faust" Wag-
ner for his Nibeungen Trllogy, a Bee
4, thoven that measures up to his sympho-
NJ MES, a Whitman commensurate with his
"a Ieaves of Grass" Browning equal tc
SAUL"