The evening times. [volume] (Grand Forks, N.D.) 1906-1914, 1913-11-18
TIIE C MYTH.

In a recent discussion of the auth
orsllip of the plays usually ascrihed
to Shakespeare emphasis was. as U.S.
ual, placed on the fact that Shakes
peare is known 10 have been a man
of rather slight education-altlloush
he was by no means the ignoramus
that he is sometimes held to have
been-and that it would have been
impossible for Il man of his cpportu-
mites TO write plays indicating such
Il wide range of knowledge. There
fore-such is the conclusjon--Bacon,
or some other scholar, must have
written the plays.
The fatal defect in this argument
is that it is based on the assumption
that the man who wrote these plays
is 10 he Judged by the same standards
that are TO be applied to ordinary
men such an assumption is crro-
neous. The ma who wrote Shakes
pearc's plays. whatever else he was,
Was not all ordinary man. He was
not. as some of the Raconians assert,
a. great lawyer. or a profound CLASH
cal scholar, or a mai deeply read in
science. Eut he was a man of Won
derful versatility and remarkable
adaptability. and he had the sort of
knowledge Of law, and the classics.
and sciencc that an ordinary man.
versatile and rcsourceful. might have
hnor N~oootNl N e,, ,,;xS.z,A A.
course of book learning prescribed by
the schools.
1t is impossible to say Just what an
extraordinary man can or cannot do.
Fifty years ago tomorrow. one the hat
tletield of Gettysburg. there was de-
livered an Grafton which was one Of
the masterpieces OF the English Ian
guage, and that Grafton was delivered
by a man who vas born in a wilder
ness. reared in poverty, who had no
regular schooling, and whose sur
roundinss. from birth to manhood,
were crude, and harsh and severe. I'm.
possible: Yes, Lincoln's Gettysburs
address would have been impossible
fo him had he been an ordinary man
and had his achievements been only
those possible TO tho ordinary man OF
his time under like conditions.
Napoleon, the obscure Corsican
corporal. became the commander OF
great armies. the greatest military
genius Of his time, the ruler of an
empire. and what knowledge he had
he picked UP, hit and miss. Moreover.
this obscure soldier. slightly educated
living the life of a soldier, knowing
nothing Of the law. gave to the world
the Code Napoleon which rer1ains to.
day the law of fifty million Europeans
Impossible: Yes, IL Napoleon had
been ar ordinary man.
what knowledge of war and gov.
eminent had Oliver Cromwell have
when the parliament rebel!ed aSains,
the tyranny of Charles? He was thu
con of q brewer. a country gentleman
81 moderate substance, a relisious
zealot given to singing psalms an6
preaching by the wayside
Yet when the time came he 81. atteret
the armies of Charles. in which were
The flower of the kingdom, and, be.
coming dictator of the realm. he ad.
ministered its affairs with a wisdom
n skill which have been the marye'
Of succeeding generations.
Alfred, the Saxon king, taught b,
his mother 10 read, and adding to hi,
ineagre knowledge bit by bit as thu
opportunity afforded. for years a fur.
tive in the fens and, marshes of mid.
die England. a general without ar
army and a king without subjects
this Alfred, the unlearned man Of q
dark age. drove out the invader, weld
ed the shattered fragments Of the sax
on heptarchy into q. united nation
and left a code Of laws which afte,
twelve hundred years form the foun.
dation Of our " laws and those y,
h British nation. -
II we measure what is possible b,
the achievements Of the ordinary man
all these things were Impossible. The,
are myths, fairy tales, Ye
these things were done, and they wer,
done. just as the plays Of shakespear,
were written by men peculiarly f1tte,
by temperament and by that inheren
quality which We call genius, for tn,
work which they had to do.