Year: 1874

The Resemblances to Shakespeare and


We think we have discovered why Mr.. Dion
Boucicault is so violently opposed to the
theory that Bacon wrote Shakespeare plays.
His resemblance to the different portraits of
Shakespeare is we'll known, and were it not
that he is better looking than the Chandos
picture and the Stratford bust they would do
very well for his own. Mr.. Boucicault has
Droeshout picture prefxed to the first folio,
but with few alterations it would be thought
a good likeness. He also resembles the paint
ing found on the back of an ancient pair of
bellows, the terra Gotta bust discovered on the
site of an old theatre in London. and in fact
all the portraits of Shakespeare have q
decidedly Boucicaultian cir about them,
which is in the highest degree creditable to
both the distinguished parties. This being
the case Mr.. Bouccault can be easily supposed
to have reasoned thus:-"If Shakespeare
did not write these plays what the deuce is the
value of my resemblance to Shakespeare?
Nothing. 1t is therefore, necessary to the
dignity of my countenance that Shakespeare
should have written or adapted the plays which
bear his name, and I shall crush with indig-
nation the critics who say he did not"


This course is made more compulsory on
the part of Mr. Boucicault by the admitted
fact that he does not at all resemble Bacon.
II he resembled Bacon then he might, if he
wished, admit that Professor Holmes and
Miss Bacon and Mr. Smith have some reason
in their argument But here we find the
likeness which has been for years a source of
pride and distinction suddenly transformed
into cause of modification and regret Who
would not be glad to look like the magician of
all time, the consummate flower of human
genius, the poet Of nature2 Who would not
be panied to resemble the poacher, the igno-
rant manager, the crow so brightly decked in
the plumage of the swan? Yet this is the
renown the Baconians would take from
MIR. Boucicault, this the grief they would force
upon him. Perhaps the Baconians have not
considered the matter in this light Yet they
should do so. 1t is no trifing matter to ruin
mans features, and, in the case of Mr..
Bouccault they would give him the cup of
sorrow when they would take away his mug.


1t is Just here that another very grave sus-
picion is forced upon all thoughtful minds.
Why is this determined attempt made to
prove that Bacon wrote the plays2 Is it not
because of other Gkenesses? Professor
Holmes has q brow and eye much like
Bacon's, and the resemblance of Mr..
Dougherty to Verulam is also striking.
Is it true, then, as the public be-
gins to believe, that these gentlemen are
envious of those fortunate persons who are said
to 'look like Shakespeare" and are resolved
to make by this theory their own simllitude to
Bacon still more fatterng to themselves We
fear so, and We cannotapprove the effort. This
question should be argued upon high philo-
sophcal grounds it should be decided by
capable jury and not by the mero eyes and
nose. Gentlemen who are proud that they
look like Shakespeare and gentlemen who, re-
sembling Bacon want to show that Bacon was
Shakespeare, ought to meet and compromise
their personal differences. Perhaps if they
would agree that they all look like Beaumont
and Fletcher this painful dispute might be
arranged. Beaumont and Fletcher were very
great dramatists and anybody ought to be
happy to resemble thcm


But passing by this grievous wrong to Mr.
Boucicault, We call attention to the opinions
upon the authorship of Shakespeare's plays
which we publish to-day. They very ably
treat of similar phases of the subject. Pro-
fessor OLeary of Manhattan College, has
compared the two minds, and argued that
Bacon's classical habits of thought were in
congruous with the Gothic style of Shake
speare 1.-THE Doctor" by quotations from
the plays, desires to show that their geograph-
ical and chronological blunders could never
have been made by Bacon