Year: 1874

The inquiry into the authorship of tho
plays attributed to Shakespeare is still pur-
sued with an energy which shows not only
how great is the interest in the subject, but
how Unexpectedly extensive is the knowledge
OF it which our reading public possesses The
stage has done literature vast service, but
none greater than in keeping Shakespeare's
plays before the world. Imperfect and made
quate as any performances of Macbeth" and
''Hamlet" must be, they serve at least to
make thousands familiar with triumphs Of
genius who would otherwise probably never
have read the written works. That Shake
speare's plays keep the stage after nearly three
centuries is certainly strong proof that they
were written by man thoroughly acquainted
with stage affairs, and it is notable that he
was the only eminent dramatist of his time
who was also an actor. Ben Jonson, who
was man OF learning, survives almost en-
tirely as name, though 'Every Man in
His Humor' is occasionally presented as q
dramatic experiment. Middleton has entirely
disappeared from the stage; Beaumont and
Fletcher; Dekker, whose Candido, the patient
man, is strong character is scarcely even
read; Webster, who approaches Shakespeare
more nearly than either of his contempora-
ries, still keeps hold upon the stage with his
strange and terrible tragedy of the Duchess
of Malf, in which Mrs. Waller used to play
the heroine effectively few years ago. But,
speaking absolutely, Shakespeare alone sur
wives Of the dramatists of the Elizabethan era
to hold the mirror up to nature and chide or
cheer the dropping stage.


Something relative to this is pointed out by
Mr.. L. Clarke Davis in an interview to-day, in
which he argues that with every word stricken
out of ''Macbeth" or ga Midsummer Nights
Dream" those plays would be effective as
pantomimes He refers to the tremen-
dous effect of the knocking ut the
gate in macbeth" after the murder-a
point which De Quincy treated in one of
his finest essays as an instance of this knowl-
edge of stage effect, and then asserts that
'there is uniformity and consistency be-
tween the language and the situation that
conclusively proves that the author of the ono
was the originator of the other" A similar
view of the structure Of the plays is taken by
Professor Hiram Corson, who quotes Edwin
Booth as authority for the statement that sthe
author of the plays must have had an
intimate knowledge of stage business" The
entire argument Of Professor Corson is well
worth study he is one of the most exact and
impartial Of our Shakespearian scholars, and
his "Jottings Upon the Text of Hamlet "a
comparison of the readings of the first folio
and the Cambridge edition), is a splendid
contribution to this department of literature.


In presenting these able opinions to the
public, we would ask special attention to the
singular fact that the plays of Shakespeare
still hold the stage, while those of his marvel
lous contemporaries are almost forgotten, ex-
cept by the student. This fact seems to sus-
tain the arguments which Mr.. Davis and Pre-
fessor Corson have advanced, and is worthy
of the attention Of the advocates of the Ba-
CONAN theory. Thus far the Baconians are
in decided minority, and unless they arc
able to say more for their great chief and
master it is likely that the weight of evidence
will be against the bold claims they have
made in his behalf