00 
 
 
 
Henry 
 
 ' <~~ 
 
 WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 
 NOT AN IMPOSTOE, 
 
 BY 
 
 AN ENGLISH CRITIC. 
 
 
 'The words of Mercury are harsh after the songs of Apollo." 
 
 LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST. 
 
 J 
 
 LONDON: 
 G. ROUTLEDGE & CO. PARRINGDON STREET; 
 
 NEW YORK: 18, BEEKMAN STREET. 
 . 1857. 
 
 [The Author reserves tte Right of Transtatiuii. \ 
 

 PRINTED BY 
 COX AND WYMAN, GREAT QUEEN STREET, 
 
 LINCOLN'S INN FIELDS. 
 
ur 
 
 TO 
 
 THE ENGLISH PEOPLE, 
 
 AS 
 
 Cf;e ^Bfst 6u;irbuws of tjjos* !Eir!j Antics of 
 
 BEQUEATHED BY WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE 
 
 TO 
 
 ALL POSTERITY, 
 THIS VINDICATION 
 
 OF 
 THE CHARACTER OF THE MAN AND OF THE 
 
 FAME OF THE POET 
 
 IS RESPECTFULLY INSCRIBED, 
 
 BY 
 
 THE AUTHOR. 
 
 851 
 
PEEFACE, 
 
 THE Author has endeavoured to collect within 
 the compass of a small volume the historical docu- 
 ments and the testimonies of the "poet's contempora- 
 ries, by which the claim of William Shakespeare to 
 the authorship of the six-and-thirty plays, published 
 in the folio edition of 1623, is clearly established. 
 His title is confirmed by such a mass of evidence, that 
 many readers who have not investigated the matter 
 will wonder how it could ever have been called in 
 question. They must not forget that the province 
 of some critics is to scatter doubts broad-cast over 
 the literature of a country ; and that weeds always 
 spread more rapidly than wholesome plants and 
 sweet-smelling flowers. To vindicate the character 
 of our mighty Shakespeare, thus wantonly assailed, 
 has indeed been a labour of love ; and if this little 
 volume should have the effect of kindling in any 
 
vi PREFACE. 
 
 heart a deeper reverence for the memory of William 
 Shakespeare, or giving to a single reader a fairer idea 
 of his extraordinary superiority over all other poets, 
 ancient as well as modern, the author will not have 
 written in vain. 
 
 LONDON, 
 January 26tk, 1857. 
 
" TRUTH may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth 
 best by day ; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or car- 
 buncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth 
 ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken 
 out of men's minds, vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, 
 imaginations, as one would, and the like, but it would leave the 
 minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of melancholy 
 wind indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves ? One of the fathers, 
 in great severity, called poesy vinum dcemonum, because it filleth the 
 imagination, and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is 
 not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh 
 in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt, such as we spake of before. 
 But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments 
 and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that 
 the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making, or wooing of it the 
 knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it and the belief of 
 truth, which is the enjoying of it is the sovereign good of human 
 nature." FRANCIS BACON. 
 
SHAKESPEARE NOT AN IMPOSTOR 
 
 CHAPTER L 
 
 THE NATURE OF THE CHARGE. 
 
 "Then what do those poor Sank which nothing get? 
 
 Or what do those which get, and cannot keep ? 
 Like buckets Bottomless, which all out-let, 
 
 Those Souls, for want of Exercise, must sleep." 
 
 SIR JOHN DAVIES, 
 
 " ASSUREDLY that criticism of Shakespeare will alone be 
 genial which is reverential. An Englishman, who with- 
 out reverence a proud and affectionate reverence can 
 utter the name of William Shakespeare, stands dis- 
 qualified for the office of critic." Such are the words 
 of Samuel Taylor Coleridge, one of the most learned and 
 acute of Shakesperian students and commentators ; while 
 " Shakespeare is a vile impostor," is the cry of the latest 
 luminary of the age, 
 
 To the eternal disgrace of English literature, if the 
 effusion to which we refer can be classed amongst its 
 productions, a pamphlet has recently appeared, in every 
 way calculated " to fright the isle from its propriety." 
 It contains charges against the two most illustrious 
 names upon our list of authors, which, if proven, must 
 cover their names with infamy of the deepest dye, and 
 consign their memories to eternal execration. The ac- 
 cusations are made by one William Henry Smith,* with- 
 
 * Throughout this vindication of our immortal bard we have been 
 B 2 
 
4 THE NATURE OF 
 
 out, as we shall see in the course of this investigation, one 
 shadow of proof; and for such an offender there can be 
 neither consideration nor respect. On light and unjusti- 
 fiable grounds, seduced, as it would appear, by the reveries 
 of a disordered fancy, he has brought grave charges against 
 William Shakespeare and Francis Bacon, which he has not 
 attempted to establish by one particle of evidence. The de- 
 sire of notoriety, not of honourable distinction, has become 
 quite a passion with many of the new lights of the age ; 
 and we presume that the aspirant for literary honours, 
 whose wanton onslaught upon the memory of Shakespeare 
 must excite the indignation of all that great man's affec- 
 tionate admirers, cares little by what means he obtains 
 his end, or gratifies his uneasy ambition. 
 
 In the rambling sentences in which his accusations are 
 couched, he certainly does hint at proofs ; but in any 
 case Mr. William Henry Smith has acted unfairly both 
 towards the mighty dead whom he maligns, and the 
 British public which he would delude. Even if he were 
 in possession of proofs to substantiate his grave charges, 
 these ought most decidedly to have been produced, when 
 the charges were made ; and if he can adduce nothing 
 but his own disordered fancies to support his theories, 
 they should never have been given to the world. The 
 fame of the illustrious dead is the most precious me- 
 morial of the past ; it is not only the source of all our 
 glory, bnt it is the fountain of future greatness, and acts 
 as an incentive to others, impelling them to the per- 
 formance of noble and heroic actions. Yet this sacred 
 heirloom is not secure from the attacks of those who, to 
 speak most charitably of their conduct, can have but 
 a feeble notion of its real importance. 
 
 The author of the present defence of Shakespeare 
 
 very careful to give this purblind critic's name in full. It is fit that 
 the public should know which member of the large family of the 
 Smiths it is that has stepped out of his legitimate sphere to assail 
 the character of William Shakespeare, 
 
THE CHARGE. 5 
 
 if defence can be needed against such a charge has 
 waited anxiously for some time, hoping that a champion 
 better qualified to undertake the vindication of the 
 mighty dead, now wantonly and wilfully assailed, would 
 have come to the rescue, None have taken up the 
 gauntlet so deliberately thrown down before us : and he 
 cannot suffer it to be said, that when, in the nineteenth 
 century, dark suspicions were breathed against the cha- 
 racter of William Shakespeare, no Englishman could be 
 found to hurl them back at the head of the detractor. 
 The platitudes of M. Ponsard, who drivelled the other day 
 at Paris, about "the divine Williams," as only self-satis- 
 fied but incompetent critics can do, were too contemptible 
 to require notice ; but Mr. William Henry Smith, though 
 evidently a critic of the same class, cannot be allowed 
 to perpetrate his follies without rebuke. 
 
 The French critic may be excused for not fully under- 
 standing the character or appreciating the genius of 
 Shakespeare ; but the Englishman, who, at this advanced 
 stage of Shakespearian investigation, has no adequate 
 idea of either the one or the other, can plead nothing save 
 wilful blindness, or hopeless obtuseness, in extenuation of 
 his extraordinary ignorance. No inducement should lead 
 such a one to set himself up as a teacher ; and many 
 people will doubtless assert that an offender of this class 
 and calibre is beneath notice ; and that no well-educated 
 man, acquainted either with the dramas of Shakespeare, 
 the writings of Bacon, or the literary history of the 
 Elizabethan period, can possibly be misled by his shallow 
 speculations. 
 
 This is, to a certain extent, true ; but we must not 
 forget that Shakespeare has become a beloved and 
 honoured guest in the cottages and hamlets of the land ; 
 that his name is dear to thousands of the humble and 
 the lowly, who have neither the means nor the leisure 
 which will admit of their diving deeply into his history, 
 and to investigate accusations brought against him ; and 
 
6 THE NATURE OF 
 
 for such persons in particular the author is now induced to 
 take up his pen. Cheap literature has introduced the 
 works of our great dramatist to all classes of his country- 
 men ; it has opened unimagined mines of intellectual 
 wealth to the enraptured gaze of once neglected sections 
 of the community, and it has sunk shafts through the 
 grim haunts of ignorance and crime, letting in the glorious 
 rays of wisdom and intelligence. Wherever Englishmen 
 go, they carry with them their English Bible and their 
 English Shakespeare ; and neither of these can we 
 suffer to be lightly spoken of or undervalued. The 
 former we defend on account of its divine origin, as the 
 source of all our hopes ; the latter, as the most precious 
 of uninspired writings. 
 
 Moreover, it is fit and proper that the high priests of 
 literature should be protected from irreverent and wanton 
 assault. Let these, his new admirers in the lower, but not, 
 on that account, less honourable, ranks of life, know that 
 the Shakespeare whose magic power holds them spell- 
 bound in amazement and admiration, is not the greatest 
 literary impostor the world ever saw. Nor is it only 
 the humbler class of readers that may be misled by such 
 vagaries. Even the acute and sagacious editor of that 
 deservedly popular periodical, Notes and Queries, falls 
 into the snare, and, apparently without reflecting upon 
 the infamy that must for ever rest upon the names of 
 Bacon and Shakespeare, supposing that Mr. William 
 Henry Smith were able to substantiate his charges, says, 
 with reference to this pamphlet, " It is a Letter to the 
 Earl of Ellesmere, suggesting whether the plays attributed 
 to Shakespeare were not in reality written by Bacon. 
 The author has overlooked two points : one, the fact that 
 his theory had been anticipated by an American writer ; 
 the second, one which certainly tells strongly in favour 
 of his theory, and which has been on several occasions 
 alluded to in these columns, namely, the very remarkable 
 circumstance that nowhere in the writings of Shakspeare 
 
THE CHARGE. 7 
 
 is any allusion to Bacon to be met with ; nor in the 
 writings of the great philosopher is there the slightest 
 reference to his wonderful and most philosophic contem- 
 porary."* We are willing to allow Mr. William Henry 
 Smith to make the most of this admission, but how it 
 can possibly prove, either directly or indirectly, that 
 Bacon wrote Shakespeare, or Shakespeare Bacon, we are 
 at a loss to conceive. The former must have gone con- 
 siderably out of his way to drag the greatest of modern 
 philosophers into his dramas ; and, as regards Bacon, he 
 may have felt an influence which he did not choose to 
 acknowledge. Such strange admissions from authorities 
 highly qualified to give an opinion, and in every way 
 entitled to respect, render it expedient that the question 
 should be set at rest without delay, and that it should be 
 clearly shown not only that Mr. William Henry Smith's 
 arguments are untenable that they are altogether with- 
 out foundation, but that it is absolutely and utterly 
 impossible, in the teeth of the evidence that we actually 
 possess, that any one but William Shakespeare could 
 have written the dramas that have been for more than 
 two centuries attributed to him. Many years' earnest 
 and affectionate study of the works of Shakespeare have 
 served to increase the author's esteem and admiration for 
 the great and commanding superiority of his genius over 
 that of all other gifted men, and he has no hesitation in 
 asserting, what he is prepared to prove ; namely, that 
 Shakespeare merits that general tribute of affection and 
 admiration which he has won. 
 
 It is a most remarkable fact, that every fresh par- 
 ticular brought to light concerning his career becomes 
 an additional witness in his favour. The more we 
 learn of Shakespeare, the higher does our admiration 
 rise ; the nearer we get at the truth, the fairer does 
 the truth appear. Every advance made in our inves- 
 
 * Notes and Queries, Second Series, No. 42. Notes on Books, 
 p. 320. 
 
8 THE NATURE OF 
 
 tigations serves to remove a blemish from his portrait ; 
 arid were it not that fresh calumnies are invented ay 
 the old ones disappear, a defence of our great national 
 bard would be at this moment unnecessary. Vain is ! 
 it for this last assailant of the reputation of the mighty 
 dead to plead the controversy that has arisen respecting 
 the authorship of the Letters of Junius at his excuse 
 for starting this question. Junius was a writer who did 
 not wish to be known, and the public were, naturally 
 enough, anxious to strip off the mask ; but we have no 
 reason for entertaining the slightest doubt that Shake- 
 speare was the author of at least the majority of the 
 dramas that bear his name. 
 
 The writers who laboured to establish the identity of 
 Junius endeavoured to clear up a mystery, in the solution 
 of which all Englishmen had an interest. He was an 
 anonymous censor, who gloried in his secret, boasting 
 that he would carry it with him to the grave ; and he 
 thus threw out a challenge to every member of the com- 
 munity. It was a fair game at hide-and-seek between 
 him and the public ; the former did his best to evade 
 detection, the latter to unearth the literary fox. Cir- 
 cumstances pointed at various times to different persons ; 
 and even when a mistake was made, no great harm was 
 done. A temperate denial from some one able to speak 
 with certainty upon the matter, or the silent yet not 
 less certain testimony of evidence called circumstantial, 
 turned pursuit in another direction; and if to this hour 
 the authorship of those Letters, that created a wonderful 
 sensation at the time of publication, and have excited so 
 many keen encounters of wit, and provoked such ani- 
 mated controversies at intervals during the last fifty 
 years, remains to a certain extent a mystery, the 
 memories of the dead lie under no grievous imputations 
 on that account. An anonymous author is one thing ; 
 and a man who appropriates the reputation that does 
 not belong to him another. 
 
THE CHAEGE. 
 
 If the dramas of Shakespeare were really written by 
 Bacon, the former is the greatest of all impostors, and 
 the latter the basest of deceivers. Mr. William Henry 
 Smith seeks to consign these men to eternal degradation ; 
 he would have us believe that the lives of both were a 
 series of palpable deceits, an acted lie. To the hour that 
 Mr. William Henry Smith poured forth his dark sus- 
 picions, no critic, commentator, nor editor, had ventured 
 to hint that William Shakespeare was not the author of 
 the dramas published under his name. Certain crude and 
 disconnected pieces, that have been foisted upon him by 
 interested publishers, were indeed rejected by the most 
 discerning critics ; but the question, as it now stands, 
 deals not with particular dramas, but the whole collection. 
 The English people are asked to subscribe to the pre- 
 posterous theory, that the poet, whom, of all others, they 
 admire and respect, is no poet at all, and that for two 
 centuries, students and commentators have been groping 
 in the dark, and erecting a monument to a man who 
 practised one of the vilest deceptions of which human 
 nature is capable ; and who added to the degradation of 
 being a base-minded upstart, that of seeking to appro- 
 priate to himself the fame and the honour which belonged 
 by right to another. 
 
 What the public in general think of the matter, will be 
 seen from the following letter, published in the Illustrated 
 London News, of January 10, under the signature of 
 "John Bull:" 
 
 " I won't have Bacon. I will have my own cherished 
 1 Will.' I have borne a great deal, and never changed 
 my faith. I have seen him chipped, mauled, befrib- 
 bled and overdone. I have seen upholsterers and classic 
 managers cloud his glories in fustian and explanations. 
 I have heard shouts against his anachronisms, and 
 anathemas against his want of the unities and ignorance 
 of Greek ; but never thought that an Englishman, and a 
 1 Smith,' would try to prove that he was a swindler, a 
 
10 THE NATURE OF THE CHARGE. 
 
 thief, a jackdaw, and died, in the odour of sanctity, the 
 pilferer of Bacon. Have we no literary police no pen 
 jealeus of the honour of our 'immortal bard?' Oh, for 
 an hour with the giant Christopher North ! Oh, for 
 some swashing blows of his rhetorical cudgel to crush this 
 fungus ! I know the pestilent vapour will pass away, 
 and the steady glories of Will. Shakspeare blaze forth 
 again ; but in the mean time we shiver under the passing 
 cloud. First, a College of Monks wrote Shikspur ; now 
 it's the jurisprudist Bacon. Why not Sir Walter 
 Ealeigh 1 Why not Queen Elizabeth herself 1 But, as 
 I began, we won't have ' Bacon !' " 
 
11 
 
 CHAPTER II. 
 
 THE ASSAILANTS OF GENIUS, AND THE VARIOUS METHODS 
 BY WHICH THEY CARRY ON THE ASSAULT. 
 
 "Ah! how the poor world is pestered with such water-flies; 
 diminutives of nature." TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 HAPPILY, in the quaint language of Sir Thomas Browne, 
 this is " a fallacy that dwells not in a cloud, and needs 
 not the sun to scatter it ;" and before proceeding 
 to refute the same, we may glance for a moment at the 
 two principal classes by which the reputations of the good 
 and the gifted have been invariably assailed, as well as at 
 the manner in which their hostility has been manifested. 
 These classes are the over-learned, who account for every- 
 thing upon theory, and the hopelessly ignorant, whose 
 very souls shudder at every kind of mental superiority. 
 They are the assailants of genius, in whatever form it 
 may develop itself ; and to which of these the latest 
 detractor of Shakespeare belongs, or whether he is to be 
 regarded as the founder of a new school of cavillers, my 
 readers may decide for themselves. The former get 
 entangled in the cobwebs which they weave from their 
 own brains ; the latter vent their rage upon everything 
 calculated to give grace and dignity to our fallen nature. 
 We cannot, therefore, wonder that our most illustrious 
 author if not, indeed, the master-spirit of all time 
 should incur their fierce resentment. Meaner intellects 
 have at least one consolation ; if they cannot create, they 
 may succeed in destroying. He who would build up 
 some glorious edifice of learning and wisdom, must be 
 possessed of great mental endowments ; industry, which 
 
12 THE ASSAILANTS 
 
 no amount of toil can weary ; and patience and long- 
 suffering, bestowed upon few out of the many millions of 
 human beings who play their parts upon the theatre of 
 this world ; but for the work of destruction, none of these 
 qualifications are required. 
 
 The veriest tyro can assault a time-honoured institution 
 or bespatter with mud the noblest monument of genius. 
 Indeed the lower the position such a detractor occupies in 
 the intellectual scale, the better fitted will he be for the 
 performance of his unseemly task. Dirt} 7 - work requires 
 ifcs peculiar instrument ; and none more readily assail the 
 literary fame of others than those who have no literary 
 reputation of their own to lose. The leveller has generally 
 but little to boast of : he would not be so anxious to pull 
 down and destroy, did he possess anything worthy of 
 defence. It is the same in literature as in the common- 
 weal : he who has possessions will carefully uphold the 
 rights of property. 
 
 To create requires the skill of the master, but to over- 
 throw that which other men by patient labour, unwearied 
 diligence, and great ability, have erected, is an easier task. 
 Thus the authors of those sublime productions of genius, 
 which have formed the delight and wonder of successive 
 generations, have in all ages been the subjects of the most 
 envenomed and the vilest attacks. Nor have these attacks 
 been confined to the works of man, those coming directly 
 from God, and stamped with the impress of His holiness, 
 have been subjected to similar treatment. As the litera- 
 ture of a country is its most enduring possession, its pro- 
 ductions of course come in for the principal share of the 
 hostility of such narrow-minded despoilers. The greatest 
 treasures of universal literature are, it will, we imagine, be 
 admitted without dispute, the Bible, the works of Homer, 
 and the dramas of William Shakespeare. 
 
 The assault upon the Scriptures has been waged in 
 various ways. While some have sought to suppress 
 them, to make them a sealed book, and thus to rob man 
 
OF GENIUS. 13 
 
 of his best treasure, others have endeavoured to explain 
 them away altogether. Toland and his imitators would 
 account for miracles and mysteries in a perfectly natural 
 manner j while Sir William Drum m on d calmly endea- 
 voured to prove that the Hebrew Scriptures were a collec- 
 tion of astronomical emblems, and sought to identify the 
 patriarchs with the twelve signs of the zodiac.* 
 
 Vain were it for us to undertake the task of exposing 
 all the different methods in which, both in bygone and 
 even in more modern times, the sacred writings have been 
 assailed. One authority, incredulous in all things save 
 his own superior ability and discernment, assures us, with 
 a gravity ill becoming such ribaldry, that they are a 
 collection of fables ; another cannot admit that they are 
 inspired ; while a third will point out the particular por- 
 tions that are alone worthy of reception. All such 
 reasoners lack that humility which is the faithful attend- 
 ant of true wisdom : theirs is the presumption of over- 
 weening vanity, or the arrogance of ignorance as hopeless 
 as it is profound. In fact some people seem to fancy they 
 have a charter, liberal as the wind, to assail anything 
 that comes in their way, no matter how sacred it may be. 
 Yet while mercilessly severe against the productions of 
 the great thinkers and workers of the past, they treat the 
 pigmies of to-day with a ridiculous and totally uncalled- 
 for leniency. 
 
 Thus almost every department of literature is crowded 
 with shallow pretenders. True, we have noble-minded men, 
 toiling for the benefit of their fellows, and adding lustre 
 to our literary annals ; but these are not the popular 
 writers of the day. Those whose names will stand out 
 as beacons a century hence, are not most followed and 
 
 * See the " CEdipus Judaicns" by Sir W. Drnmmond, a work at 
 first printed for private circulation only, and therefore not published. 
 It was very admirably dealt with in a Satire by the Rev. G. Town- 
 send, D.D., who, adopting Sir \V. Drummond's line of argument, 
 contended that the signs of the zodiac represented the twelve Caesars. 
 
14 THE ASSAILANTS 
 
 best remunerated now. Take down what popular author 
 you please from the shelf, and examine his right and title 
 to celebrity. Look narrowly into his style, weigh his 
 sentences, break them up, parse them, dissect them : you 
 might as well hunt for a grain of gold-dust in a cart-load 
 of sand, as hope to find anything that will repay you for 
 your search. The composition will not bear inspection ; 
 the sentences will be found to consist of a strange medley 
 of foreign terms and absurd conceits. To distort a figure, 
 and to thrust a word into any position but the one which 
 it might legitimately occupy, is their highest aim. A 
 healthy, manly, nervous Shakesperian diction would be 
 so much Greek to these word-mongers, who have stocked 
 our vocabulary with slang terms, and introduced the 
 jargon of the stable into the drawing-room.* 
 
 Their productions are false in form, execrable in spirit, 
 and weak in expression. " I do not mean by expression," 
 to adopt the language of Coleridge, " the mere choice 
 of words, but the whole dress, fashion, and arrangement 
 of a thought." If their diction be vile, the views and 
 opinions they seek to propagate are calculated to shake 
 the very foundations of society ; to scatter the seeds of 
 enmity among all classes of the community. Their hand 
 is against everything holy and good ; in their sight the 
 most sacred institutions of the land are an abomination. 
 They delight in caricaturing Nature, but they never strive 
 to represent her or to interpret her oracles. They cannot 
 sit in humble meekness at her feet, studying her form, and 
 seeking to be illumined by her blessed light : their object 
 is not to adorn, but to deface everything they touch. t 
 
 * Numerous proofs of these assertions may be found by any 
 person willing to undertake the search amongst the productions 
 of our popular authors. Specimens and illustrations of these errors 
 shall, if leisure and opportunity permit, be given in a future work. 
 
 *t* While these sheets are passing through the press, the writer's 
 attention has been directed to some articles of great merit in the 
 Saturday Review, exposing some of the evils to which he alludes. 
 
OF GENIUS. Id 
 
 Their conclusions are as erroneous as their style is 
 faulty. They mutilate and mangle every subject, to raise 
 a smile, or to create what they term a sensation. To 
 Truth they pay no homage ; indeed, they have long since 
 turned their backs upon her. The simple beauty of her 
 appearance can have no attractions for those who love to 
 feast their eyes upon frippery and finery ; who prefer 
 gaudy tinsel to solid ore. 
 
 Exactly the same kind of process is in operation upon the 
 English stage. With one or two honourable exceptions, our 
 most popular performers act in precisely the same style as 
 our popular authors write. Those are most applauded who 
 have the trick of flattering the follies of the hour ; who, 
 by their vulgarity, have won the goodwill of the vulgar. 
 To exaggerate and distort is their vocation. Mounte- 
 banks have succeeded the Kembles, Kean, Listen, and 
 the bright spirits of a better period. People talk of the 
 decline of the drama, as if that were to be attributed 
 solely to a scarcity of good dramatists. Where shall we 
 find actors capable of interpreting the master-pieces of 
 tragedy and comedy, in which our literature is so rich ? 
 When the accomplished artist makes his bow to a dis- 
 criminating audience, we feel assured that he will not be 
 at a loss for something to represent. 
 
 The reader or student may always test the merits 
 of any composition by careful analysis. Anything in 
 literature which will not bear inspection, which can- 
 not be weighed and examined, which may not be 
 differently expressed, is mere verbiage. If paragraphs, 
 sentences, and words have a meaning, that meaning may 
 easily be seized upon and unfolded. One method in 
 particular has been noticed, in a recent number of 
 the Athenaeum* and the remarks of the critic in recom- 
 mending the adoption of such a system in our educa- 
 
 The reviewer's remarks are admirable, and may act as an antidote 
 to the poison swallowed in such quantities. 
 * January 3, 1857. 
 
16 THE ASSAILANTS OF GENIUS. 
 
 tional establishments are so good, that we have na 
 hesitation in quoting them : " It was Dr. Arnold, we 
 think, who regretted that it was not the custom in our 
 higher schools and colleges to read some of our best 
 English authors in the minute and careful manner univer- 
 sally practised in reading the Greek and Latin classics, 
 and who expressed a belief that, if this custom were once 
 well established, many of those benefits which result from 
 the learning of Greek and Latin might be derived, to 
 nearly the same extent, from vernacular studies alone. 
 The same idea must have occurred to many. If, in our 
 schools and colleges, pupils were made to read Shake- 
 speare or Milton, in short passages at a time, just as 
 Homer and Sophocles, or Virgil and Horace, are read ; if 
 each word of the text were carefully studied, each difficult 
 etymology traced, each unusual idiom investigated, each 
 peculiarity in syntax or prosody inspected, each allusion 
 explained, each beauty in thought or expression brooded 
 over lovingly ; if, in short, every particle of every line 
 were made to pass slowly, and perhaps three or four sepa- 
 rate times for separate purposes, through the mind, as a 
 good classical tutor makes his class parse Greek or Latin 
 text, there can be no doubt that, besides other advan- 
 tages, the process would serve as a logical discipline little 
 inferior to that which is, perhaps, the main recommend- 
 ation at present of classical studies. The difficulty, as 
 Dr. Arnold felt, is to introduce such a method, and become 
 master of it. Our very familiarity with our own language 
 prevents us from rolling every morsel of it under our 
 tongue in the slow and deliberate way in which we treat 
 dead vocables ; and besides, the art of exposition, as 
 applied to the classical authors, is one made perfect by 
 long usage and by academic tradition." 
 
 Ye admirers of popular authors, try, we beseech you, 
 this experiment upon the compositions of your favourites, 
 which you will speedily discover to consist of a grain of 
 sense concealed in a wilderness of verbiage ! 
 
17 
 
 CHAPTER III. 
 
 GERMAN ONSLAUGHT UPON HOMER AND SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 "There are nations, it is reported, who aim their arrows and 
 javelins at the sun and moon on occasions of eclipse, or any 
 other offence ; but I never heard that the sun and moon abated 
 their course through the heavens for it, or looked more angrily 
 when they issued forth again to shed light on their antagonists. 
 They went onward all the while in their own serenity and clear- 
 ness, through unobstructed paths, without diminution aud with- 
 out delay. It was only the little world below that was in 
 darkness." W. S. LANDOB. 
 
 HOMER of course attracted the attention of the critical 
 operators, and in their hands soon lost every trace of 
 the vigour and rotundity of life. The Germans, some 
 years since, won an unenviable notoriety for this style ot 
 criticism, which has been very ably described by a writer 
 in a recent Quarterly Review : " Wolf's erudite dis- 
 ciples, if they can be said to have agreed on anything 
 besides the great general articles of misbelief, seem to 
 have instinctively concurred in an antipathy to these 
 time-hallowed miracles of thought and word. Whenever 
 what they call tfie action comes to what they consider a 
 halt ; that is, whenever the Poet is tempted to relieve his 
 pictures of war and tumult by some exquisite glimpse of 
 domestic tenderness, or- heated by a self-kindled flame 
 of which those doctors have no more notion than Chesel- 
 den's patient had of scarlet expands into some delicious 
 commemoration of old personal reminiscence or dear 
 dream of romantic tradition it is luce clarius that this 
 is a patch. The antique manufacturing company knew 
 their business too well to have winked at such inter- 
 ferences with the rubrical continuity of the patent web 
 
18 ONSLAUGHT UPON HOMER 
 
 they were stuck on by the sciolists, who sent in their 
 accounts for travelling expenses, attendance at consult- 
 ations, copies made, and sundries, to the treasury of 
 Pisistratus. 
 
 " In this way they put out of court for ever, on the motion 
 of Counsellor Hermann, or Lachmann, or some other of 
 his understrappers, whatever has signally familiarized and 
 brought home to us the most masculine of Homer's cha- 
 racters ; whatever has made us sympathize with the flesh 
 and blood, and be merciful to the frailties of others ; what- 
 ever, in short, has made them living types of human nature 
 and the despair of all the poets of 3,000 years save one. 
 Apply the same sort of process to that one ; but let us 
 be merciful apply it only to the most learned, adroit, 
 and artistical (in the doctor's own sense of that last word) 
 among Homer's or Shakspeare's successors. What fortu- 
 nate riddances, now, in the case of Yirgil ! how many of 
 his crack paragraphs are manifest panni ! think of 
 fathering on such an expert as that such a gross inter- 
 polation as the purposeless episode of Euryalus, or such a 
 transparent clumsiness as a piece of flattery about Mar- 
 cellus ! Such superfcetations will not bear a touch of the 
 scalpel. 
 
 " Or take Milton : what a swoop of his pretty eaglets ! 
 What a world of stuffed-in abortive excrescences about 
 Pagan mythology, medieval romance, blindness of an ex 
 Latin secretary of Oliver Cromwell evil days of the 
 Cabal and Lely's bevies ! Imagine the gravest of 
 Christian poets mixing up Eve and Proserpine, the fall 
 of the angels with discharges of artillery Galaphron and 
 his city of Albracca Charlemagne and all his chivalry at 
 Fontarabia. So treated, no doubt, poets may be shorn of 
 their most troublesome beams and reduced by safe mani- 
 pulation within the comprehension of the critical lens." * 
 
 The remoteness of the era in which Homer lived 
 
 * Quarterly Review, vol. 87, No. 174, p. 445. 
 
AND SHAKESPEARE. 19 
 
 afforded these professors an excellent opportunity for 
 attempting to destroy him altogether. They had no 
 sooner stowed away the glorious father of epic poetry in 
 safety among the myths, than the keen-eyed vultures of 
 the criticism of annihilation cast their greedy eyes upon 
 our own sweet Shakespeare. With him they were com- 
 pelled to deal in a different manner ; the proofs of his 
 having actually existed were too numerous to admit of 
 the application to his case of this summary process of 
 annihilation. 
 
 The man William Shakespeare had been a rather 
 important personage in his day and generation, and what 
 is more, Lad left several evidences of the part he had 
 played, that could not be explained away ; so the extin- 
 guisher was laid aside, and the critics grasped the toma- 
 hawk ; although they could not crush out his existence, 
 they thought they might manage to hew his reputation to 
 pieces. So to work they went ; and mighty were the 
 results. They could not annihilate the man Shakespeare, 
 but they might reduce the poet within reasonable dimen- 
 sions. This was the expedient by which they hoped to 
 gain their ends. 
 
 To overrate the merits of his contemporaries, and to de- 
 preciate his, was their solution of the difficulty. Zealously 
 did they labour at this new hobby, terrible were their efforts 
 to pull down Shakespeare, and to erect their own blocks 
 of wood and stone in his place. They plied their oars 
 vigorously against the stream of common sense and honest 
 truth, imagining that, because the water flowed past them , 
 they were making rapid advances. But the German 
 dreamers had hit upon something like a real difficulty 
 at last ; and they found Shakespeare possessed of a 
 vitality which they had little suspected. They could not 
 demolish a reputation that had taken root in every 
 quarter of the globe j a fame which, like the air, pervaded 
 the universe. 
 
 The sagacious writer in the Quarterly, to whom we 
 c 2 
 
20 ONSLAUGHT UPON HOMER 
 
 have already referred, has administered a castigation 
 upon these offenders, from the effects of which they 
 are not likely to recover. He says : " First of all, they 
 never see we really doubt if any even of their better 
 men, except Schlegel and Goethe (who never went 
 leisurely into the subject), had the least glimpse of the 
 immense gulf that intervenes between Shakspeare and 
 those whom it has been too common to speak of as the 
 other great dramatists of the Elizabethan period. One 
 makes every allowance for the purblind ecstasies of pro- 
 fessed black-letter moles and grubs at home or abroad ; 
 but what are we to say when we find persons enjoying 
 the reputation in their own country, not only of uni- 
 versal critics, but of original poets, who painfully trans- 
 late, edit, and comment upon 'the Fore-school of 
 Shakspeare,' that is, the limping poetasters that wrote 
 plays before Shakspeare produced his master-pieces, 
 and from whom he occasionally borrowed the thread of 
 a story, or the dim and tremulous outline of a character ; 
 and gravely proceed, from first to last, on the notion 
 that these worthies have been comparatively neglected 
 here, not because they are poetasters, but because Shak- 
 speare is with us a blind, bigoted, intolerant superstition 1 
 In like manner, when they grapple with the great bard 
 himself, the mark nine times out of ten is to saddle him 
 with some play which he had nothing to do with, or at 
 most, in his capacity of Globe proprietor, had gone over 
 pen in hand, touching up the dialogue here and there, 
 and perhaps sticking in some vivid speech or scene of his 
 own, ad captandum ; or else it is to prove that what 
 his benighted countrymen have voted a blot, is one of 
 his sublimest beauties ; to elucidate the profound phi- 
 losophy lurking under what Warburton and Johnson took 
 for a mere pun ; or how completely all English readers, 
 for two hundred and fifty years, have mistaken one of his 
 really simplest and most elementary characters ; that 
 men had always read him, in fact, straightforward, or 
 
AND SHAKESPEARE. 21 
 
 from left to right, or at best boustrophedon never in 
 the real authentic way that is, upside down until 
 salvation flashed on the world from some farthing candle 
 at Heidelberg. For example, one luminous professor 
 makes it clear as mud, that ' Arden of Feversham ' was 
 penned wholly by Shakspeare, and ranks with his 
 very first master-pieces ; to wit, not ' Macbeth ' or 
 ' Othello,' but ' Titus Andronicus,' or 'Pericles, Prince of 
 Tyre,' or the 'Two Noble Kinsmen.' Another esta- 
 blishes, in one hundred and fifty pages of text, with foot- 
 notes as long but not so light as Bayle's, that the same 
 poet never could have created both a Lear and a Falstaflf. 
 Another delivers as the result of a not less laborious 
 investigation, that we are wholly wrong about Dolly 
 Tearsheet, whose genuine affection for Sir John ought to 
 cover a multitude of early indiscretions, and who was 
 uttering the deepest emotion of a true heart when she 
 declared that she would never dress herself handsome 
 again, till her little tidy boar-pig came back from the 
 wars. 
 
 "Then there is a whole school who consider it as a capital 
 blunder to take Shakspeare's dramas for the best of his 
 performances, but fight lustily among themselves as to 
 whether that character belongs righteously to his Sonnets 
 or his 'Venus and Adonis ;' but we think the Sonneteers 
 are now the topping sect, though what half the Sonnets 
 are about, hardly two are agreed. Such is the art of extract- 
 ing sunbeams from cucumbers, exhibited with equal success 
 in the Homeric and Shakspearian departments. * * 
 Much of the same happy discrimination is to be admired 
 in their estimates of British authors generally dead or 
 living. Ossian has stood his ground : they are not to 
 be gulled with the vulgar romances about Macpherson ; 
 the originals were examined and approved by Sir John 
 Sinclair, and published in extenso by the Highland Society. 
 Ossian is infinitely the greatest as well as the oldest of 
 our insular bards ; he can never be too much studied, 
 
22 ONSLAUGHT UPON" HOMER AND SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 whether for mythology, history, manners, or metres. 
 Richardson, too, flourishes ; he, not Fielding, is the real 
 1 life-painter' of George the Second's time. Blackmore is 
 not without friends. Hervey (not Sporus, but the 
 Meditator) is in great feather. There are two charms 
 which never fail dulness and finery; choose between 
 drab and pink, but with either you are sure of im- 
 mortality. Creep, or walk on stilts. If you dance, let it 
 be on a barn-floor, or a tight-rope ; if you fiddle, play on one 
 string, or with your toes. Nature vibrates between truism 
 and conceit ; these are the legitimate alphabet, the rest 
 intrusive, not real Cadmus. If any gifted son of any Muse 
 be vilipended at home, whether on pretence of platitudes 
 or of affectations, let him be of good cheer, few prophets 
 are honoured in their own land. If Germany should by 
 any miraculous infelicity overlook him, America will not \ 
 but commonly the critical sentiment of these grand 
 arbiters will be in unison. Look at any Leipzig cata- 
 logue, and consider what sort of English books are most 
 translated. The only thing you may be confident of, is 
 that, if you see one author worried among half a dozen 
 rival oversetters, you had never heard of him in England. 
 And so in the other high appeal court of Parnassus 
 when Sir Charles Lyell last arrived at Boston, he found 
 all the town agog about some Professor's course of 
 lectures (we think the name was Professor Peabody) on 
 the poetry of Miss Eliza Cook, the Sappho, or Corinna, 
 we believe, of the ' London Weekly Dispatch' We cannot 
 doubt that she has also been illustrated by Frescoists of 
 Dusseldorff."* 
 
 Such was one kind of that fierce warfare waged against 
 Shakespeare and his productions, until Mr. William 
 Henry Smith discovered a fresh method of assault, in 
 comparison with which all former systems may be called 
 mild and benevolent. 
 
 * Quarterly Keview, vol. 87, No. 174, p. 440. The whole article 
 is well worth perusal. 
 
23 
 
 CHAPTER IV. 
 
 THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 "I had rather be a tick in a sheep, than such a valiant ignorance." 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA. 
 
 THERE is nothing more remarkable in the annals of 
 English literature than the vicissitudes that have attended 
 both the fame and the writings of Shakespeare. During 
 the Great Rebellion that broke out soon after his death, 
 the Puritans endeavoured to root out the stage from, 
 among the institutions of the country, and to obliterate 
 all traces of dramatic literature. Not only were the 
 writings of Shakespeare and those of his contemporaries, 
 sought out and destroyed, but his character was libelled, 
 and his fair fame assailed. Then came the adapters and 
 mutilators of every kind, and various denominations. 
 Some cut down, others amended ; some struck out a scene, 
 others annihilated a character. Improvement of Shake- 
 speare was their great canon of criticism. According to 
 the general idea, he had become famous by accident, and 
 grew a poet in his own despite. 
 
 Schlegel in Germany, and Coleridge in this country, 
 first instituted a more genial kind of criticism, and suc- 
 ceeded in restoring Shakespeare to the pedestal from which 
 he had been unjustly displaced. " Let me now proceed," 
 says Coleridge, " to destroy, as far as may be in my 
 power, the popular notion that he was a great dramatist 
 by mere instinct, that he grew immortal in his own 
 despite, and sank below men of second or third-rate 
 power, when he attempted aught beside the drama even 
 as bees construct their cells and manufacture their honey to 
 
24 THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 admirable perfection ; but would in vain attempt to build a 
 nest. Now this mode of reconciling a compelled sense of 
 inferiority with a feeling of pride, began in a few pedants, 
 who having read that ISophocles was the great model of 
 tragedy, and Aristotle the infallible dictator of its rules, and 
 finding that the Lear, Harnlet, Othello, and other master- 
 pieces, were neither in imitation of Sophocles, nor in 
 obedience to Aristotle, and not having (with one or two 
 exceptions) the courage to affirm, that the delight which 
 their country received from generation to generation, in 
 defiance of the alterations of circumstances and habits, 
 was wholly groundless, took upon them, as a happy 
 medium and refuge, to talk of Shakspeare as a sort of 
 beautiful lusus naturce, a cfelightful monster, wild, indeed, 
 and without taste or judgment, but, like the inspired 
 idiots so much venerated in the East, uttering, amid the 
 strangest follies, the sublimest truths. In nine places out 
 of ten in which I find his awful name mentioned, it is 
 with some epithet of ' wild,' ' irregular/ ' pure child of 
 nature,' &c. If all this be true, we must submit to it; 
 though to a thinking mind it cannot but be painful to find 
 any excellence, merely human, thrown out of all human 
 analogy, and thereby leaving us neither rules for imita- 
 tion, nor motives to imitate; but if false, it is a dangerous 
 falsehood ; for it affords a refuge to secret self-conceit, 
 enables a vain man at once to escape his reader's indig- 
 nation by general swollen panegyrics, and merely by his 
 ipse dixit to treat as contemptible, what he has not 
 intellect enough to comprehend, or soul to feel, without 
 assigning any reason, or referring his opinion to any de- 
 monstrative principle ; thus leaving Shakspeare as a sort 
 of grand Lama, adored indeed, and his very excrements 
 prized as relics, but with no authority or real influence. 
 I grieve that every late voluminous edition of his works 
 would enable me to substantiate the present charge with 
 a variety of facts, one-tenth of which would of themselves 
 exhaust the time allotted to me. Every critic, who has 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 25 
 
 or has not made a collection of black-letter books in 
 itself a useful and respectable amusement puts on the 
 seven-league boots of self-opinion, and strides at once 
 from an illustrator into a supreme judge, and, blind and 
 deaf, fills his' three-ounce phial at the waters of Niagara; 
 and determines positively the greatness of the cataract to 
 be neither more nor less than his three-ounce phial has 
 been able to receive." 
 
 His character, like his dramas, was assailed in every 
 possible manner. He was said to have been a papist, a 
 bad husband, a drunkard. Yet no sooner was a rigorous 
 investigation instituted, than the scales began to fall 
 from the eyes of the critics. He whom they had all made 
 their butt, came out of the ordeal unscathed ; and at 
 length it was established in the most satisfactory manner, 
 that the life and conduct of this glorious genius were as 
 fully entitled to respectful admiration as his works. Both 
 life and writings were found to be in all respects worthy 
 of a great soul of a king amongst mankind. On broad 
 and substantial grounds he has become an object of 
 veneration to the majority of Englishmen, as well as to 
 thousands of kindreds and countries, who have learned, in 
 his own expressive language, to believe that 
 
 " One touch of nature makes the whole world kin," 
 
 when Mr. William Henry Smith starts his new theory, 
 which we have not the slightest hesitation in denouncing 
 as the most infamous and wanton attack that has yet 
 been made, either at home or abroad, by insidious or 
 avowed enemy, upon his reputation. 
 
 Innovators and their admirers would doubtless claim 
 merciful and lenient treatment for this assailant of Shake- 
 speare and Bacon. Has he dealt tenderly with them ? 
 has he respected their reputations ? If what he advances 
 be correct, is not Shakespeare branded as a cheat and an 
 impostor 1 does not another stain fall on the escutcheon 
 of the lord of St. Alban ? That criticism alone can be 
 
26 THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 honest which is fearless, and shrinks not from calling 
 things by their right names. Mr. William Henry Smith 
 declares Shakespeare to be a rank impostor ; and we say, 
 without fear of contradiction, that such an accusation 
 ought to have been accompanied by proofs. It is neither a 
 light nor a trivial charge that he has brought against 
 the Bard of Avon ; it is one which no man of delicate 
 and refined feelings would have advanced against the 
 meanest of his fellows, unless able to substantiate it by 
 proofs that nothing could shake. The literary merits of 
 Shakespeare afford a fair and legitimate field for criticism 
 and discussion his private character ought to be sacred 
 from attack. 
 
 Mr. William Henry Smith tells us, in the coolest manner 
 possible, that Shakespeare did not write one of the dramas 
 which he palmed off upon his contemporaries and pos- 
 terity, and that he was content to strut in " borrowed 
 plumes." To prop up an assertion so rash, he does not 
 adduce one iota of evidence : on a bare surmise, he would 
 consign to eternal infamy the two names that stand first 
 in the roll of England's great spirits. Are we, then, to 
 spare one who shows no mercy towards others to crouch 
 before a critic who scatters calumnies at hazard 1 It is 
 this weak toleration of every new folly and absurdity, to 
 use the mildest terms, that has filled our literature with 
 false forms, raised up erroneous standards, and given a 
 certain semblance of importance to a mushroom class of 
 writers, who, although they make a stir now, will be 
 surely overwhelmed by the advancing tide of time, and be 
 as speedily forgotten. 
 
 It would be easy to show from Bacon's writings, his 
 position, his failures in poetical composition, and many 
 collateral circumstances, that he did not write the dramas 
 of Shakespeare ; but in this inquiry we intend to take 
 higher ground. Were Bacon's claim disposed of, Mr. 
 William Henry Smith would probably look about for 
 another candidate, or perhaps assert, as some have, we 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 27 
 
 believe, hinted, that these inimitable compositions were pro- 
 duced by a dramatic manufacturing company, formed upon 
 the soundest principles, with limited liability. We hope, 
 therefore, after disposing of his wretched pamphlet, with 
 its theories and its calumnies, to adduce proofs incon- 
 testable proofs sufficient so satisfy any reasonable man, 
 that Shakespeare's claim to be regarded as the author of 
 the dramas that bear his name cannot be for one moment 
 disputed : it is clear and unassailable, established as cer- 
 tainly as any fact in our literary annals, and never ought 
 to have been called in question. 
 
 The new theory is artfully introduced ; and in order to 
 pave the way for its reception, the principal events in the 
 life of the poet are summed up in the most partial manner. 
 The reader will perceive that such is the case from the 
 following table, in which Mr. William Henry Smith's 
 summary of what he would have the world suppose to be 
 known respecting Shakespeare and his family, and the 
 facts established by recent researches, are placed in opposite 
 columns. 
 
 Mr. William Henry Smith's Facts established by the latest 
 
 Account. investigations. 
 
 "It will be desirable, in the Richard Shakespeare, the 
 first instance, to bring together poet's grandfather, was a holder 
 the best-established facts re- of land ; and "thus," says Halli- 
 specting the family and conduct well, " we find the poet of nature 
 of Shakespeare, whose history, rising where we would wish to 
 disconnected from his plays, is find him rise, from the inhabit- 
 as ordinary and intelligible as ants of the valley and woodland, 
 can possibly be. His father, a carrying in his blood the impress 
 humble tradesman at Stratford- of the healthiest and most vir- 
 upon-Avon, by patient industry tuous class possessed in these 
 and perseverance conciliated the days by England." 
 respect and regard of his fellow- John Shakespeare, the poet's 
 townsmen ; and being admitted father, took up his residence at 
 a member of the Corporation, Stratford-upon-Avon in 1551. 
 rose, through the offices of Ale- As early as 1556, he became the 
 taster, Constable, and Chamber- holder of two copyhold estates, 
 lain, to that of Alderman and and in 155 7 married Mary Arden, 
 Bailiff, and became, consequently, the daughter of a landed pro- 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 Mr. William Henry Smith's 
 A ccount. 
 
 ex officio, a Magistrate : the fact 
 of his humble origin being at- 
 tested to the last, by his inability 
 to write his name. 
 
 He appears, as he rose in con- 
 Bequence, to have abandoned his 
 original trade of ' glover,' and to 
 have turned his attention to agri- 
 culture ; but this was not to his 
 permanent advantage, for his 
 fortunes seemed to have waned 
 from 1576 ; until, after having 
 received various indulgences from 
 his colleagues, the Corporation 
 of Stratford, in the year 1586, 
 came to a resolution depriving 
 John Shakespeare of his alder- 
 man's gown, because ' he doth 
 not come to the halls when 
 warned, nor hath not done of a 
 long time.' 
 
 The same reason which caused 
 him to be excused by his brother 
 aldermen, in 1578, from the petty 
 payment of fourpence per week 
 for a temporary purpose, still, 
 doubtless, continued to operate ; 
 and the obvious inference is, that 
 he had sunk into so low a grade 
 of poverty, that be was ashamed 
 to appear among his fellow-towns- 
 men. 
 
 These facts give colour to the 
 reports which were in existence, 
 that William Shakespeare was 
 removed from school at an early 
 age ; and it is natural that this 
 removal should have taken place 
 in or about the year 1577, when 
 the necessities of his father began 
 to show themselves openly. 
 
 Such being the circumstances 
 connected with the parentage of 
 
 Facts established by the latest 
 investigations. 
 
 prietor, of good standing in the 
 county of Warwick. In 1565 
 he was made alderman, in 1568 
 high bailiff, and in 1571 chief 
 alderman. He possessed pro- 
 perty, occupied and cultivated 
 land, reared sheep, and from a 
 union of different pursuits, by 
 no means uncommon at that 
 time, was a farmer, a dealer in 
 wool, and a glover. In 1579, 
 John Shakespeare parted with 
 some of his property, and his 
 prosperity suffered a temporary 
 decline. 
 
 This was not, however, so 
 great as some have represented, 
 nor was it of long duration. In 
 1596 we find him applying for 
 a grant of arms, in which he is 
 described as "John Shakespeare, 
 of Stratford uppon- Avon, in the 
 counte of Warwick, whose pa- 
 rentes and late antecessors were, 
 for there valeant and faithefull 
 service advanced and rewarded 
 by the most prudent prince King 
 Henry the Seventh of famous 
 memorie, sythence whiche tyme 
 they have continewed at those 
 paries in good reputacion and 
 credit ; and that the said John 
 having maryed Mary, daughter 
 and one of the heyrs of Robert 
 Arden, of Wilmcote, in the said 
 counte, yent," &c., which plain- 
 ly proves that, either by his own 
 exertions, or the good fortune of 
 his son William, John Shake- 
 speare had, at the time this ap- 
 plication was made, recovered 
 his former position in life. In 
 1580 he was classed among " the 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 29 
 
 Mr. William Henry Smith's 
 Account. 
 
 William Shakespeare, the infor- 
 mation we possess respecting his 
 early years is even more scanty. 
 There is neither record nor ru- 
 mour of his having exhibited any 
 precocity of talent. It is only 
 known that, at theage of eighteen, 
 he contracted, or was inveigled 
 into a marriage with a woman 
 eight years older than himself ; 
 and it is believed that, some- 
 where about the time at which 
 his father was deprived of his 
 alderman's gown, he left his wife 
 and family at Stratford upon- 
 Avon, and went to seek his for- 
 tune in the metropolis." Pam- 
 phlet, pp. 35. 
 
 Facts established ty/ the latest 
 investigations. 
 
 gentlemen and freholders," and 
 died in 1601. 
 
 William Shakespeare was born 
 in 1564, was most probably 
 educated at "the King's New 
 School of Stratford-upon-Avon," 
 to which a charter had been 
 granted by Edward VI. in 1553, 
 and in which there can be no 
 doubt that Latin, if not Greek, 
 was taught. Supposing the poet to 
 have been taken awa_y from school 
 in 1578, as Rowe suggests, on 
 account of the change in the 
 state of his father's affaire, he 
 would then have been in his 
 fifteenth year, and would, con- 
 sequently, have had ample time 
 to lay the foundations of a liberal 
 education, which his own tastes, 
 inclinations, and ambition would 
 induce him to complete. 
 
 In 1582 he married Ann Hath- 
 away, and probably soon alter 
 left Stratford for London, where 
 he would naturally enough hope 
 to find a fairer field for the ex- 
 ertion of those abilities with 
 which Providence had blessed 
 him, than within the narrow 
 precincts of a country town. 
 
 The marriage licence was discovered by Sir R Phillips, 
 in the Consistorial Court of Worcester, and published by 
 Mr. Wheler in 1836. It is dated November 28th, in 
 the 25th year of Elizabeth, 1582. The description of 
 the poet's wife is as follows : " Anne Hathwey, of Strat- 
 ford, in the Dioces of Worcester, maiden." 
 
 In his beautiful, though somewhat fanciful " Biography 
 of Shakespeare," Charles Knight deals very successfully 
 with the calumnies that have been invented by some 
 
30 THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 critics, with reference to this event. He says : " It is 
 scarcely necessary to point out to our readers that the 
 view we have taken presupposes that the licence for 
 matrimony, obtained from the Consistorial Court at 
 Worcester, was a permission sought for under no extra- 
 ordinary circumstances ; still less that the young, man 
 who was about to marry was compelled to urge on the 
 marriage as a consequence of previous imprudence. We 
 believe, on the contrary, that the course pursued was 
 strictly in accordance with the customs of the time, 
 and of the class to which Shakspere belonged. The 
 espousals before witnesses, we have no doubt, were then 
 considered as constituting a valid marriage, if followed 
 up within a limited time by the marriage of the Church. 
 However the Reformed Church might have endeavoured 
 to abrogate this practice, it was unquestionably the 
 ancient habit of the people. It was derived from the 
 Roman law, the foundation of many of our institutions. 
 It prevailed for a long period without offence. It still 
 prevails in the Lutheran Church. We are not to judge 
 of the customs of those days by our own, especially if 
 our inferences have the effect of imputing criminality 
 where the most perfect innocence existed."* 
 
 Mr. Halliwell, in that wonderful repository of facts 
 and documents connected with the history of Shakespeare, 
 prefixed to his new folio edition of that poet's works, 
 takes precisely the same view. He says : " The espousals 
 of the lovers were celebrated in the summer of 1582. 
 In those days, betrothment, or contract of matrimony, 
 often preceded actual marriage ; and there need be no 
 hesitation in believing that this ceremony was passed 
 through by Shakespeare and Anne Hathaway. There is 
 the direct testimony of an author of 1543 that, in some 
 places, it was regarded, in all essential particulars, as a 
 regular marriage ; and, provided the ceremony was cele- 
 
 * Book i. chap. xvi. p. 274, in the new and beautiful edition of 
 this book published by Messrs. Eoutledge and Co. 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 31 
 
 brated in a reasonable time, no criminality could be 
 alleged after the contract had been made. This opinion 
 is well illustrated by a passage in the ' Winter's Tale,' 
 Act i., Scene 2, expressive of disgust at one who ' puts to 
 before her troth-plight.' The parish register of Stratford 
 will show it was usual for cohabitation to take place 
 before actual marriage ; the existence of a contract fully 
 counteracting any charge of impropriety."* 
 
 It will be seen that Mr. William Henry Smith lays 
 great stress upon the supposed poverty of the poet's 
 father, as well as upon the fact that this worthy parent 
 could not write his own name. More importance has 
 been attached to both of these matters than they de- 
 serve. John Shakespeare was involved in litigation, and 
 he may have had some motive for wishing to conceal 
 the real state of his affairs. From 1577 till 1586, he 
 did not attend to his duties as an alderman, and was 
 consequently, in the last-mentioned year, struck off the 
 list, in precisely the same way as he had before been 
 excused certain municipal payments. Yet we must not 
 forget that, in two documents recently published, bearing 
 the date of 1580, John Shakespeare is described among 
 the " gentlemen and freeholders," in the first case of the 
 hundred of Barlichway, and in the second, of the county 
 of Warwick. The latter entry occurs in " A Book of 
 the Names and Dwelling-places of the Gentlemen and 
 Freeholders in the county of Warwick, 1580."t And 
 in this John Shakespeare is assigned to Stratford-upon- 
 Avon. 
 
 * Halliwell, Life, p. 88. 
 
 f See " A Calendar of State Papers, Domestic Series, of the Reigns 
 of Edward VI., Mary, Elizabeth, 1547 1580, preserved in the State 
 Paper Department of her Majesty's Public Record Office ;" edited 
 by Robert Lemon, F.S.A., under the direction of the Master of the 
 Rolls, and with the sanction of her Majesty's Secretary of State for 
 the Home Department. 1857. These valuable historical documents 
 have not been before published, although they have been referred 
 to and quoted by various writers. 
 
32 THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 The poet was then sixteen years old ; and there is no 
 positive evidence that he did not pursue his studies at 
 the Stratford-upon-Avon grammar-school up to this 
 period. So much for the supposed poverty of John 
 Shakespeare. Mr. William Henry Smith dwells with a 
 kind of painful satisfaction upon the fact that John Shake- 
 speare could not write his own name ; yet we do not 
 perceive how this can prove that his son was not the 
 most gifted man of the age. In the times in which John 
 Shakespeare lived, it was not by any means so uncommon 
 a thing for a man in good circumstances, arid even of 
 gentle parentage, to make his mark. The youth of John 
 Shakespeare was cast in a period of transition ; an old 
 system had been broken up and destroyed, and the new 
 one was not completely established in its .place. Amid the 
 troubles, the contentions, the revolutions and counter- 
 revolutions that occurred between the reigns of Henry 
 "VIII. and of James I. which eventful interval com- 
 prised the Reformation, followed by the re-ascendancy 
 of the Catholic party, and the bloody interlude of Queen 
 Mary's sway, and the re-establishment of pure religion 
 under Elizabeth, education and the gentler arts were but 
 too often neglected. 
 
 In those unsettled times, the mental training and 
 discipline of richer and more influential men than John 
 Shakespeare did not receive the attention which they 
 deserved, and there were many filling higher positions 
 in society, who were compelled to plead guilty to the 
 charge of want of scholarship, by affixing their mark to 
 whatever documents they were called upon to subscribe. 
 The poet, however, enjoyed advantages denied to his 
 parent ; learning had in his day once more regained its 
 rightful position ; and at the Stratford-upon-Avon gram- 
 mar-school he doubtless received the rudiments of a 
 liberal education. 
 
 Let us grant, for the sake of the argument, that 
 Mr. William Henry Smith's account of the change that 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 33 
 
 occurred in John Shakespeare's circumstances, is correct, 
 and that the extreme degree of importance which he 
 seems to attach to the fact that he could not write his 
 name, is also equally worthy of reception, what does he 
 gain by the concessions 1 John Shakespeare's poverty 
 and w^ant of education are rotten foundations upon which 
 to build arguments respecting the condition of the son. 
 Keith er the indigence of the former, nor his want of 
 gentle accomplishments, will prove that the latter was 
 not the first poet in the universe. The Omnipotent Ruler 
 of the world hath thought fit, in his wisdom, to scatter 
 his benefits freely amongst all classes and conditions, and 
 "often crowns the poor man^s progeny with the diadem 
 of intellectual superiority. The lengthy and honourable 
 list of those who have emerged from the lower walks of 
 life, into well-merited distinction, need not be inserted 
 here ; every student of history knows that all ranks and 
 conditions can boast of their great men ; and that while 
 the offspring of mighty and potent monarchs have died 
 in obscurity, the descendants of hewers of wood and 
 drawers of water have climbed the dazzling heights 
 of power. Mental endowments cannot be, like worldly 
 possessions, transmitted from father to son : the 
 intellectual order of merit does not recognize social 
 distinctions. 
 
 Starting from these false premises, Mr. Henry William 
 Smith proceeds to draw the erroneous conclusions that 
 " William Shakespeare was a man of limited education, 
 careless of fame, and intent upon money-getting;" neither 
 of which assertions he attempts to prove, probably as 
 fully aware as most reasonable people, that were they all 
 substantiated, his theory would not be thereby advanced. 
 In fact, the whole gist of the pamphlet may be summed 
 up in this manner : John Shakespeare was poor and 
 ignorant, and could not have given his son a good educa- 
 tion ; and in addition to this, William Shakespeare cared 
 little for fame, and only thought of money-making ; there- 
 
3 4: THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 fore he did not write the plays that have so long been 
 received as his productions. 
 
 Having settled matters with the poet and his father in 
 this arbitrary manner, Mr. William Henry Smith pro- 
 ceeds to search for a man after his own heart. Lord 
 Bacon suits his idea of a great dramatic author, and is at 
 once advanced to the throne from which poor William, 
 or what M. Ponsard would call "poor Williams,"* has 
 been ruthlessly ejected. Lord Bacon was of noble extrac- 
 tion, and had received a good education ; he possessed 
 considerable ability for dramatic composition, and wanted 
 money ; in fact, to borrow Mr. William Henry Smith's 
 own words, " His daily walk, letters, and conversation, 
 constitute the beau-ideal of such a man as we might sup- 
 pose the author of these plays to have been ; and the very 
 absence, in those letters, of all allusion to Shakespeare's 
 plays, is some, though slight, corroboration of his connec- 
 tion with them." t 
 
 Was ever theory raised upon such stubble ? By adopt- 
 ing this line of argument, the literary reputations of half 
 the great names in our list of authors might be demolished 
 in a few seconds. A single specimen from this medley of 
 inconsistencies will serve to show how obstinately and 
 absurdly their author contradicts himself. One reason 
 which he advances with much gravity as affording satis- 
 factory proof that William Shakespeare did not write 
 these plays, is that he was " careless of fame." J 
 
 Now let the reader consider for a moment what this 
 
 * We have a strong notion that Mr. Henry William Smith and 
 M. Ponsard are one and the same individual, and that this acute 
 critic merely assumed the latter name while lecturing foreign 
 audiences, in order to create for himself a twofold reputation. 
 At any rate, they are kindred spirits, and a night with Ponsard 
 and Mr. William Henry Smith, especially if the conversation hap- 
 pened to turn upon Shakespeare, would be a literary banquet, of 
 which even Athenaeus himself could not have formed a conception. 
 
 f Pamphlet, p. 10. J Pamphlet, p. 6. 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 35 
 
 insensibility to the allurements of fame induced William 
 Shakespeare to do 1 It was not to bury himself in ob- 
 scurity, or to take the profit arising from certain plays, 
 leaving the glory to another, but actually to appropriate 
 to himself the credit of having penned the masterpieces of 
 our dramatic literature, which credit belonged by right 
 to Francis Bacon. It must not be forgotten that the 
 merit of these dramas was recognized in the days of 
 Bacon and Shakespeare. Everybody possessed of a parti- 
 cle of common sense or discernment understood that they 
 were immeasurably superior to anything in our language, 
 in fact, to all compositions of the kind in universal litera- 
 ture. The man, " careless of fame, intent upon money- 
 getting,"* filches the former and relinquishes the gains 
 without compunction. " Cai-eless of fame," he wraps 
 himself in the mantle of Bacon's reputation ; " intent 
 upon money-getting," he perpetrates this great wrong, in 
 order to replenish Bacon's exhausted treasury. " Care- 
 less of fame," he receives the homage, to which he was 
 by no means entitled, of poets, statesmen, and crowned 
 heads ; " intent upon money-getting," he hands over the 
 cash to Francis Bacon. Admiring audiences, enraptured 
 students, patrons of learning and literature, pay tribute 
 after tribute to his genius, and William Shakespeare 
 receives them, and allows the press to pour forth edition 
 after edition of particular plays, of which the authorship 
 was assigned to him, without uttering a word of remon- 
 strance, while the noble intellect that produced these 
 masterpieces pined in comparative obscurity. 
 
 Reasoning more absurd never appeared in print ; Mr. 
 William Henry Smith actually endeavours to draw from 
 these facts a conclusion diametrically opposed to the one 
 they naturally convey. It is obvious that had Shakespeare 
 done as this sagacious critic insinuates, he would have 
 shown himself greedy of fame, and careless as to the 
 
 * Pamphlet, p. 6. 
 D L> 
 
36 THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 reward. Had he permitted one of his contemporaries to 
 take the credit of having written his dramas, in return 
 for pecuniary satisfaction, he must then have pleaded 
 guilty to the imputation of having been " careless of 
 fame, intent upon money-getting;" but this is not the 
 charge Mr. William Henry Smith wishes to fix upon him ; 
 and this over clever disputant has argued upon false pre- 
 mises and come to an opposite conclusion to the one which 
 he wished to establish. In fact he has lost himself in a 
 maze, and while seeking to show that Shakespeare was 
 " careless of fame and intent upon money-getting," has, if 
 his arguments are to be regarded as trustworthy, proved 
 the very contrary. 
 
 In order to afford Mr. William Henry Smith every pos- 
 sible advantage, we append the view taken of his pamphlet 
 in the communication of an intelligent though over-credu- 
 lous correspondent of " Notes and Queries." This writer 
 says : " As your correspondent has furnished a somewhat 
 striking coincidence* between 'an expression of Shak- 
 
 * The following is the "somewhat striking coincidence" alluded 
 to. 
 
 " In the play of Henry F., Act iii. Sc. iii., occurs the following 
 line : 
 
 ' The gates of mercy shall be all shut up.' 
 
 And again in Henry VI. : 
 
 ' Open the gate of mercy, gracious Lord ! ' 
 
 " Sir Francis Bacon uses the same idea in a letter written to 
 King James a few days after the death of Shakspeare : ' And 
 therefore, in conclusion, he wished him (the Earl of Somerset) not 
 to shut the gate of your majesty's mercy against himself by being 
 obdurate any longer.'"* 
 
 This, at the most, can only prove that Bacon took the expression 
 from Shakespeare. Henry V. was printed in 1600, and this letter 
 was written as late as 1616. It is probable that both authors got 
 the idea from the Bible, in which "gate of the Lord," "gate of 
 righteousness," and similar terms, frequently occur. 
 
 Notes and Queries, Second Series, No 40, p. 267. 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 37 
 
 speare and a passage of a letter written by Lord Bacon, it 
 may be worth while to preserve in ' N. and Q.' a sum- 
 mary of Mr. W. H. Smith's argument on the point in 
 question. He contends : 1. That the character of 
 Shakspeare, as sketched by Pope, is the exact biography 
 of Bacon. 2. That Bacon possessed dramatic talent to a 
 high degree, and could, according to his biographers, 
 ( assume the most different characters, and speak the 
 language proper to each with a facility that was perfectly 
 natural.' 3. That he wrote and assisted at bal-masques, 
 and was the intimate friend of Lord Southampton, the 
 acknowledged patron of Shakspeare. 4. That the first 
 folio of 1623 was not published till Bacon had been driven 
 to private life, and had leisure to revise his literary 
 works; and that as he was obliged to raise money by 
 almost any means, it is at least probable that he did so by 
 writing plays. 5. That Shakspeare was a man of busi- 
 ness rather than poetry, and acknowledged his poems and 
 sonnets, but never laid claim to the plays."* 
 
 This is, after all, as good a summary as can be given of 
 the wretched arguments upon which Mr. William Henry 
 Smith bases his new, preposterous, and altogether unten- 
 able theory. They may be dismissed in a few sentences. 
 1. Shakespeare's character could not possibly be the bio- 
 graphy of another man. 2. Bacon's ability for dramatic 
 composition cannot be accepted as a proof that he wrote 
 plays to the authorship of which he never laid claim, and 
 which were attributed to, and acknowledged by, one of 
 his contemporaries. 3. Lord Southampton, the friend of 
 Shakespeare and Bacon, is, as we shall see more fully hi 
 another chapter, a witness against Mr. William Henry 
 Smith and his theory. 4. Bacon's leisure and want of 
 funds will never justify even the suspicion that he wrote 
 the plays of Shakespeare. 5. The assertion that Shake- 
 speare was a man of business rather than poetry is directly 
 
 * Notes and Queries, Second Series, No. 45, p. 369. 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 at variance with the truth, as any person who has perused 
 the " Venus and Adonis," " Lucrece," and the Sonnets, will 
 at once admit. It is equally false to assert that Shake- 
 speare did not claim the authorship of these dramas. He 
 allowed them to be published with his name affixed to 
 them, not denying his right to be regarded as their 
 author, although he condemned the illegal manner in 
 which copies had been obtained by greedy publishers ; he 
 received and accepted various and numerous tributes of 
 commendation, not only from friends and associates, but 
 even from statesmen and rulers ; and he permitted his con- 
 temporaries to give him the credit of having penned these 
 inimitable productions without offering a remonstrance. 
 
 If these do not constitute a claim to their authorship, 
 and one that cannot be upset, save by unimpeachable evi- 
 dence, we should be glad to know upon what grounds we 
 can attribute any works we may possess to any particular 
 writer. If the summary of Mr. William Henry Smith's 
 arguments is to be enshrined in " Notes and Queries," or 
 any other periodical published in the United Kingdom, let 
 the refutation, which is simple enough, be placed at its 
 side, that the younger wayfarers on the great highroads 
 of learning may not be led astray, even for a moment, 
 by what we cannot honour with a better term than the 
 flimsiest productions of a disordered brain. 
 
 Mr. William Henry Smith quotes what he calls 
 " these remarkable words," from Lord Bacon's will : 
 " My name and memory I leave to foreign nations ; and 
 to my own countrymen, after some time be passed over." 
 That this passage contains no secret allusion to the 
 authorship of Shakespeare's plays must be evident to any 
 one acquainted with Lord Bacon's history. He merely 
 expressed a hope that the lapse of time might set him right 
 with posterity, and that the conduct which led to his 
 dismissal from office, degradation, and amercement, might 
 at some future day be regarded in a more favourable light. 
 He trusted that the stain that blotted his lofty repu- 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 39 
 
 tation, and somewhat tarnished the splendour of his deeds, 
 might, after a short interval, be removed, and that his 
 countrymen would some day consider him great in the 
 true acceptation of the term. Moreover, Lord Bacon 
 needed not the credit of having written the dramas of 
 Shakespeare : his renown is colossal ; and of all English- 
 men he has the least to gain by filching from the repu- 
 tations of others. 
 
 Mr. William Henry Smith brings his pamphlet to a 
 close with the following letter. 
 
 " To the Lord Viscount St. Alban, 
 
 " MOST HONOURED LORD. I have received your great 
 and noble token and favour of the 9th of April, and can. 
 but return the humblest of my thanks for your Lordship's 
 vouchsafing so to visit this poorest and un worthiest of 
 your servants. It doth me good at heart, that, although 
 I be not where I was in place, yet I am in the fortune of 
 your Lordship's favour, if I may call that fortune, which 
 I observe to be so unchangeable. I pray hard, that it may 
 once come in my power to serve you for it ; and who can 
 tell, but that, a,sfortis imaginatio general casum, so strange 
 desires may do as much 1 Sure I am, that mine are ever 
 waiting on your Lordship ; and wishing as much happi- 
 ness, as is due to your incomparable virtue, I humbly do 
 your Lordship reverence. 
 
 " Your Lordship's most obliged and humble servant 
 
 "TOBIE MATTHEW. 
 
 " POSTC. The most prodigious wit, that ever I knew of 
 my nation, and of this side of the sea, is of your Lord- 
 ship's name, though he be knovm by another." 
 
 The Italics in the last line are Mr. William Henry 
 Smith's ; and although that gentleman does not conde- 
 scend to offer note, comment, or explanation, either upon 
 the epistle itself or its author, he evidently wishes his 
 
40 THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 readers to draw the conclusion, from the words which he 
 has underlined, that Lord Bacon wrote the dramas of 
 Shakespeare, arid that to Sir Tobie Matthew the secret of 
 their authorship was intrusted. 
 
 The epistle is inserted by Dr. Thomas Birch, among 
 " Letters, Speeches, Charges, Advices, &c: of Francis 
 Bacon," * and may be found, with some others, at the end 
 of the volume. Dr. Birch says of them : " The following 
 letters, wanting both dates and circumstances to determine 
 such dates, are placed together.'' The communication is 
 not of the slightest consequence, nor does it contain one 
 tittle of evidence in support of Mr. William Henry Smith's 
 theory. But its author played a rather prominent part 
 in his day and generation, was very intimate with Lord 
 Bacon ; therefore some account of him may be acceptable 
 to many readers, and will also serve to convince them, 
 that had he possessed such information as that to which 
 Mr. William Henry Smith alludes, it would long since 
 have been given to the world. 
 
 Tobie Matthew, the son of Dr. Tobie Matthew, bishop 
 of Durham, and afterwards archbishop of York, was born 
 at Oxford, in 1578, his father being at that time dean of 
 Christchurch. In a letter to Sir Thomas Chaloner, Bacon 
 styles him " my very good friend," and " a very worthy 
 young gentleman ;" and Anthony Wood (Athence Oxoni- 
 enses, vol. iii. p. 403) says that " he had all his father's 
 name, and many of his natural parts ; was also one of 
 considerable learning, good memory, and sharp wit, mixed 
 with a pleasant affability in behaviour, and a seeming 
 sweetness of mind, though sometimes, according to the 
 company he was in, pragmatical, and a little too forward.'* 
 
 Whilst travelling upon the continent, Mr. Matthew was 
 induced, by the influence, it is said, of the Jesuit Father 
 Parsons, to abandon the religion of his family and country, 
 and to become a Roman Catholic. This did not diminish 
 
 * London, 1763, p. 392. 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 41 
 
 the friendship between him and Bacon, although it is 
 probably in reference to this perversion that the latter 
 wrote the following touching epistle, which has been 
 published, but without date :* 
 
 " Do not think me forgetfull or altered towards you. 
 But if I should say I could do you any good, I should 
 make my power more then it is. I do fear that which I 
 am right sorry for, that you grow more impatient and 
 busie then at first ; which makes me exceedingly fear the 
 issue of that which seemeth not to stand at a stay. I 
 myself am out of doubt that you have been miserably 
 abused when you were first seduced ; and that which I 
 take in compassion, others may take in severity. I pray 
 God, that understands us all better then we understand 
 one another, continue you, as I hope he will, at least, 
 within the bounds of loyalty to his Majesty, and natural 
 piety to your Country. And I intreat you much to 
 meditate sometimes upon the effect of Superstition in this 
 last Powder-Treason ; fit to be tabled and pictured in the 
 Chambers of Meditation, as another Hell above the 
 ground ; and well justifying the censure of the Heathen ; 
 that Superstition is far worse than Atheism j by how 
 much it is less evil to have no opinion of God at all, then, 
 such as are impious towards his divine Majesty and good- 
 ness. Good Mr. Matthews receive your self back from 
 these courses of Perdition. Willing to have written a 
 great deal more, I continue, <kc." 
 
 Controversy in those times ran high, and as Tobie 
 Matthew was unwilling to take the oath of allegiance, he 
 quitted England in 1609. In July, 1617, he obtained 
 permission to return, but was again compelled to depart 
 in October, 1618. In a letter written at Brussels, during 
 this second exile, he thus addresses Lord Bacon : 
 
 * Scrinia Sacra : Secrets of Empire, in Letters of Illustrious 
 Persons ; a Supplement to the Cabala, 1654, p. 67. 
 
42 THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 "Most Honoured Lord, I am here at good leisure to 
 look back upon your Lordship's great and noble goodness 
 towards me, which may go for a great example in this 
 age ; and so it doth. That, which I am sure of, is, that 
 my poor heart, such as it is, doth not only beat, but even 
 boil in the desires it hath to do your Lordship all 
 humble service."* 
 
 He was recalled in 1622 to lend his assistance in for- 
 warding the match with Spain ; and for his exertions 
 in furtherance of the same, was knighted by James I., 
 at Eoyston, on the 10th of October, 1623. He died 
 in a Jesuit College at Ghent, in Flanders, October 13, 
 1655. 
 
 Tobie Matthew is said to have been a man of " very 
 good parts and literature, but of an active and restless 
 temper." His change of religion seems to have deeply 
 affected Lord Bacon, who with reference to that subject in 
 another of his letters, thus addresses him : 
 
 " For in good faith, I do conceive hope, that you will 
 so govern your self, as we may take you as assuredly for 
 a good Subject, and Patriot, as you take your self for a 
 good Christian. And so we may again enjoy your com- 
 pany, and you your conscience, if it may no other ways 
 be. For my part, assure your self (as we say in the law), 
 mutatis mutandis, my love, and good wishes to you, are 
 not diminished." t 
 
 Whilst upon the continent, Tobie Matthew translated 
 his friend's essays into the Italian language, and in his 
 epistle to the duke of Florence, prefixed to that transla- 
 tion, refers to Lord Bacon in these terms : 
 
 " St. Austin said of his illegitimate son, Horrori mihi 
 erat illud ingenium, and truly I have known a great 
 
 * Birch, Letters, c., p. 225. 
 
 t Letters of Sir Francis Bacon, collected by K. Stephens, 1702, 
 p. 47. 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 43 
 
 number whom I much value, many whom I admire, but 
 none who hath so astonisht me, and, as it were, ravish t 
 rny senses, to see so many and so great parts, which in 
 other men were wont to be incompatible, united, and that 
 in an iininent degree in one sole Person. I know not 
 whether this truth will find easie belief, that there can 
 be found a man beyond the Alpes, of a most ready wit ; 
 most faithful memory ; most profound judgment ; of a 
 most rich and apt expression ; universal in all kinds of 
 knowledge, as in part may be seen by that rare incom- 
 parable piece, the 'Advancement of Learning,' which 
 future ages shall render in different languages. But be 
 the faith of other nations what it will in this point, the 
 matter I report is so well understood in England, that 
 every man knows and acknowledges as much, nay, hath 
 been an eye and ear- witness thereof ; nor, if I should 
 expatiate upon this subject, should I be held a flatterer, 
 but rather a suffragan to truth." 
 
 The following letter, written by Lord Bacon in 1623, 
 the very year in which the first folio of Shakespeare was 
 published, is so important that we are induced to give it 
 entire. It will be seen that in this communication 
 Bacon refers to his literary labours, and the works he had 
 been revising ; but amongst these no mention is made 
 either of poems or dramas ; and it is hardly possible to 
 believe that on such an occasion he would have refrained 
 from noticing the collected edition of his plays, had he 
 really been the author of the folio of 1623. To Tobie 
 Matthew he could unbosom himself; and there cannot be 
 the slightest doubt that to him, at least, he would have 
 spoken of his dramatic works without hesitation. The 
 letter is indorsed to " Mr. Matthew into Spain," and 
 the fact of the separation, though temporary, of the 
 friends, would afford an additional reason for con- 
 fidence : 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 " GOOD MR. MATTHEW, 
 
 "I THANK you for your letter of the 26th of June, 
 and commend myself unto your friendship, knowing your 
 word is good assurance, and thinking I cannot wish 
 myself a better wish, than that your power may grow to 
 your will. 
 
 " Since you say the Prince hath not forgot his com- 
 mandment, touching my History of Henry VIII., I may 
 not forget my duty. But I find Sir Robert Cotton, who 
 poured forth what he had, in my other work, somewhat 
 dainty of his materials in this. 
 
 It is true, my labours are now most set to have those 
 works, which I had formerly published, as that of 
 Advancement of Learning, that of Henry VIL, that of 
 the Essays, being retractate, and made more perfect, well 
 translated into Latin by the help of some good pens, which 
 forsake me not. For these modern languages will, at one 
 time or other, play the bankrupts with books : and since 
 I have lost much time with this age, I would be glad, as 
 God shall give me leave, to recover it with posterity. 
 
 For the essay of friendship, while I took your speech 
 of it for a cursory request, I took my promise for a com- 
 pliment. But since you call for it, I shall perform it. 
 
 " I am much beholden to Mr. Gage for many expres- 
 sions of his love to me ; and his company, in itself very 
 acceptable, is the more pleasing to me, because it retaineth 
 the memory of yourself. 
 
 " This letter of yours, of the 26th, lay not so long 
 by you, but it hath been as speedily answered by me, 
 so as with Sir Francis Cottington, I have had no speech 
 since the receit of it. Your former letters, which I 
 received from Mr. Griesley, I had answered before, and 
 put my letter into a good hand. 
 
 " For the great business, God conduct it well. Mine own 
 fortune hath taught me expectation. God keep you."* 
 
 * Letters, Speeches, Charges, Advices, &c. of Francis Bacon. 
 By Thomas Birch, D.D., 1763, pp. 346. 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 45 
 
 The request concerning the Essay on Friendship 
 particularly interesting. The first edition of the Essays, 
 published in 1597, contains only ten pieces, and not one 
 amongst these that treats upon Friendship. The same 
 thing occurs in the editions of 1598 and 1606 ; but in 
 1612, an enlarged edition appeared, containing thirty- 
 eight (the table of contents gives forty) essays, with one 
 upon Friendship standing thirteenth upon the list. It 
 is very short, differs materially from the text of the one 
 now in general use ; and as it may not be within the 
 reach of all readers, we append it. 
 
 "OF FRIENDSHIP. 
 
 " There is no greater desert or wilderness then to be 
 without true friends. For without friendship, society 
 is but meeting. And as it is certaine, that in bodies in- 
 animate, union strengtheneth any naturall motion, and 
 weakeneth any violent motion ; so amongst men, friend- 
 ship multiplieth joies, and divideth griefes. Therefore, 
 whosoever wanteth fortitude, let him worshippe Friend' 
 ship. For the yoke of Friendship maketh the yoke of 
 fortune more light. There bee some whose lives are, as 
 if they perpetually plaid upon a stage, disguised to all 
 others, open onely to themselves. But perpetuall dis- 
 simulation is painfull ; and hee that is all Fortune, arid 
 no Nature, is but an exquisit Hierling. Live not in 
 continuall smother, but take some friends with whom to 
 communicate. It will unfold thy understanding ; it will 
 evaporate thy affections ; it will prepare thy businesse. 
 A man may keepe a corner of his minde from his friend, 
 and it be but to witnesse to himselfe, that it is not upon 
 facility, but upon true use of friendship that he impart- 
 eth himselfe. Want of true friends, as it is the reward 
 of perfidious natures ; so it is an imposition upon great 
 fortunes. The one deserve it, the other cannot scape it. 
 And therefore it is good to retaine sincerity, and to put 
 it into the reckoning of Ambition, that the higher one 
 
46 THE BACONIAN THEORY. 
 
 goeth, the fewer true friends he shall have. Perfection 
 of friendship is but a speculation. It is friendship, 
 when a man can say to himselfe, I love this man without 
 respect of utility. I am open-hearted to him, I single 
 him from the generality of those with whom I live ; I 
 make him a portion of my owne wishes." 
 
 Our readers will readily perceive that the text of this 
 differs very materially from that of the Essay upon the 
 same subject, with which they are generally acquainted. 
 In 1625, a newly augmented edition of these Essays made 
 its appearance, in which the Essay upon Friendship was 
 greatly enlarged, being put forth, in fact, in pretty much 
 the form in which we find it in more modern editions ; 
 and it came twenty-seventh, in a list of fifty- eight. The 
 Essay on Friendship was, in all probability, rewritten and 
 extended in deference to the request of Tobie Matthew ; 
 and we may reasonably suppose that Lord Bacon had his 
 friend in view when engaged in this charming composition. 
 
 Sir Tobie survived his friend nearly thirty years ; 
 many of his letters have been published ; and it is 
 evident that, had he been possessed of any such secret 
 as that to which Mr. William Henry Smith refers, it 
 would have been revealed. He was fond of mixing 
 himself up in the affairs of celebrated people, and was 
 not the kind of person to have carried with him to the 
 grave a secret, the disclosure of which must have created 
 a profound sensation at the time, and produced quite 
 a revolution in men's minds respecting one of the most 
 important matters in English literature. 
 
 Many of Bacon's letters and papers have been published 
 at different times, and the absence from these of any 
 allusion to this supposed authorship is an additional proof, 
 were more required, that he did not write these dramas.* 
 
 * The new edition of Bacon's works, now in progress, in which 
 the public are promised some additional letters and MttS., will doubt- 
 less still further confirm this view. 
 
THE BACONIAN THEORY. 47 
 
 Moreover, not a scrap of blank verse is to be found 
 amongst his papers \ and it is utterly incredible that a 
 man who had composed between thirty and forty of the 
 finest plays in our language, should not have left any trace 
 of his peculiar facility for dramatic composition, either 
 in his other works, or amongst his private letters and 
 manuscripts. 
 
 One more fact before we turn to another branch of the 
 subject. In his will, Lord Bacon gave directions respecting 
 the disposal of his papers. One portion of it is as 
 follows : " But towards that durable part of Memory, 
 which consisteth in my Writings, I require my Servant, 
 Henry Percy, to deliver to my Brother Constable all my 
 Manuscript Compositions, and the Fragments also of 
 such as are not finished ; to the end that, if any of them 
 be fit to be published, he may accordingly dispose of 
 them. And herein I desire him to take the advice of 
 Mr. Selden, and Mr. Herbert, of the Inner Temple, and 
 to publish or suppress what shall be thought fit. In 
 particular, I wish the Elegie, which I writ iu felicein 
 memoriam Elizabethce, may be published."* 
 
 Lord Bacon says nothing of any dramatic works. 
 Neither those persons to whom his papers were intrusted, 
 nor others who have since submitted them to a searching 
 examination, chanced to hit upon any such disclosure, or 
 it would long since have furnished fresh matter of astonish- 
 ment to all who take an interest in what is passing in the 
 world of letters. 
 
 * Baconia, or Certaine Genuine Eemaines of Francis Bacon, 
 p. 203. 
 
48 
 
 CHAPTER Y. 
 
 PROOFS. 
 
 " Remember, 
 
 First to possess his books ; for without them 
 He's but a sot, as I am, nor hath not 
 One spirit to command." 
 
 IT is fit and proper that we should so far humour the 
 proposer of this new theory, as to exhibit the kind of 
 proofs which he deems sufficient to establish his charges 
 of fraud and imposture against the most honoured name 
 in literature. At the ninth page of this pamphlet, Mr. 
 William Henry Smith remarks : 
 
 " I purposely abstain from any attempt to compare the 
 writings of the author I am about to mention with the 
 plays which are attributed to Shakespeare, not merely 
 because that is a labour too vast to enter upon now, but 
 more particularly because it is essentially the province of 
 the literary student." 
 
 The writer might have added, because such a compari- 
 son must be altogether delusive, and could prove nothing, 
 A startling array of parallel passages might lead one to 
 suppose that Bacon had borrowed from Shakespeare, or 
 that Shakespeare had borrowed from Bacon, as the case 
 might be, but they could not be received as demonstrating 
 that the latter was the author of those dramas, which 
 have, for more than two centuries, passed current as the 
 productions of William Shakespeare. 
 
 Towards the close of his squib for the effusion really 
 merits no better title Mr. William Henry Smith states, 
 
PROOFS. 49 
 
 < It is not my intention NOW to adduce proofs ;" and the 
 pamphlet is dated Brompton, Sept., 1856. It would, 
 however, appear that the author managed to achieve the 
 " vast labour " to which he referred, or found some " lite- 
 rary student" to do it for him ; for in "Notes and Queries'* 
 of the 27th of December, a paper was published, entitled 
 " Bacon and Shakspeare," bearing the signature " W. H. S." 
 and dated from " Brompton, Middlesex." The initials 
 reveal the true state of the case. The correspondent is 
 Mr. William Henry Smith, who avails himself of the 
 medium of a deservedly-popular periodical to bring his 
 proofs before the public. As curiosities of the aberrations 
 to which human intellects are but too prone, or illus- 
 trations of the extremes into which men run in pursuit 
 of a favourite theory, they deserve especial notice ; and we 
 accordingly append them. We have made no alteration 
 whatever either in the wording or arrangement of these 
 quotations, which are indeed very carelessly thrown 
 together, and are not taken from the best editions ; and 
 have merely numbered them for facility of reference. 
 
 BACON AND SHAKSPEARE. 
 
 1. ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING : 
 
 Poetry is nothing else but feigned history. 
 TWELFTH NIGHT, Act i. Sc. ii. : 
 
 Viola. 'Tis poetical. 
 
 Olivia. It is more likely to be feigned. 
 
 As You LIKE IT, Act iii. Sc. vii. : 
 
 The truest poetry is the most feigning. 
 
 2. ON BUILDINGS : 
 
 He that builds a fair house upon an ill seat committeth himself 
 to prison ; neither do I reckon that an ill seat only, where the air 
 is unwholesome, but likewise where it is unequal. 
 
 E 
 
50 PROOFS. 
 
 MACBETH, Act i. Sc. vi. : 
 
 This castle hath a pleasant seat the air 
 Nimbly and sweetly recommends itself 
 Unto our gentle senses. 
 
 3. ADVANCEMENT or LEARNING : 
 
 Behaviour seemeth to me a garment of the mind, and to have 
 the conditions of a garment. For it ought to be made in fashion, 
 it ought not to be too curious. 
 
 HAMLET, Act i. Sc. iii. : 
 
 Costly thy habit as thy purse can buy, 
 But not exprest in fancy. 
 
 4. ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING : 
 
 In the third place I set down reputation, because of the 
 peremptory tides and currents it hath, which, if they be not taken 
 in due time, are seldom recovered, it being extreme hard to play an 
 after game of reputation. 
 
 JULIUS CAESAR, Act iv. Sc. iii. : 
 
 There is a tide in the affairs of men 
 Which taken at the flood leads on to fortune : 
 Omitted, all the voyage of their life 
 Is bound in shallows and in miseries. 
 
 5. ADVANCEMENT OF LEARNING : 
 
 Is not the opinion of Aristotle worthy to be regarded, where he 
 saith that young men are not fit auditors of moral philosophy, because 
 they are not settled from the boiling heat of their affections, nor 
 attempered by time and experience. 
 
 TROILUS AND CRESSIDA, Act ii. Sc. iii. : 
 
 Not much 
 
 Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought 
 Unfit to hear moral philosophy. 
 
 Aristotle quoted incorrectly in both these passages. He 
 says political, not moral, philosophy. 
 
PROOFS. 51 
 
 6. APOPHTHEGMS : 
 
 Bacon relates that a fellow named Hog importuned Sir Nicholas 
 to save his life on account of the kindred between Hog and Bacon. 
 
 "Aye, but," replied the judge, "You and I cannot be kindred 
 except you be hanged;, for Hog is not Bacon until it be well 
 hanged." 
 
 MERRY WIVES OF WINDSOR : 
 
 Evans. Hing hang hog. 
 
 S. Quickly. Hang hog is the Latin for Bacon. 
 
 7. ON CUNNING : 
 
 For there be many 
 kenances. 
 
 HENRY IY. : 
 
 For there be many men that have secret hearts, but transparent 
 countenances. 
 
 The cheek 
 Is apter than the tongue to tell an errand. 
 
 8. COLLECTION OF SENTENCES : 
 
 He that hath a satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of his 
 wit, so he had need be afraid of others' memories. 
 
 HENRY VI. : 
 
 An insult, when we think it is forgotten, 
 
 Is written in the book of memory, 
 
 E'en in the heart, to scourge our apprehensions. 
 
 9. INTERPRETATION OF NATURE : 
 
 Yet evermore it must be remembered, that the least part of 
 knowledge passed to man by this so large a charter from God must 
 be subject to that use for which God hath granted it, which is the 
 benefit and relief of the state and society of man. 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE, Act i. Sc. ii. : 
 
 Nature never lends 
 
 The smallest scruple of her excellence ; 
 But, like a thrifty goddess, she determines 
 Herself the glory of a creditor, 
 Both use and thanks. 
 E 2 
 
52 PROOFS. 
 
 10. ON ADVERSITY : 
 
 It is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and 
 solemn errand, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a 
 lightsome errand. 
 
 HENRY IY. : 
 
 Bright metals on a sullen errand 
 
 Will show more goodly and attract more eyes 
 
 Than that which hath no foil to set it off. 
 
 Note the peculiar use of the words knee and chew. 
 11. LIFE OF HENRY VII. : 
 
 As his victory gave him the knee, so his purposed marriage 
 with the Lady Elizabeth gave him the heart, so that both knee and 
 heart did truly bow before him. 
 
 EICHARD II. : 
 
 Show Heaven the humbled heart and not the knee. 
 HAMLET : 
 
 And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee. 
 
 12. ON STUDIES : 
 
 Some books are to be tasted, and some few chewed and digested. 
 JULIUS CAESAR, Act i. : 
 
 Till then, my noble friend, chew upon this ; 
 Brutus had rather be a villager. 
 
 13. Trench says "Essays" was a new word in Bacon's 
 time, and his use of it quite novel. Bacon thus writes of 
 his Essays : 
 
 Which I have called Essays. The word is late, though the thing 
 is ancient. 
 
 Mrs. Clarke, in her Concordance, reports the word 
 Essay as occurring twice in Shakespeare, which, indeed, 
 is true of Knight's Shakespeare ; but it only occurs once 
 
PROOFS. 53 
 
 in the Folio of 1623, in relation to Edgar's letter to 
 Edmund, in Lear. Edmund says, 
 
 I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an 
 essay or task of my nature. 
 
 I have not included the example furnished by your 
 correspondent. The allusion to " perspectives " in 
 Richard II., and the sirnile of Actaeon in Twelfth Night, 
 are worthy of remark. 
 
 I send these in the hope that your correspondents will 
 add to them.* 
 
 The learned and obliging correspondents of "Notes and 
 Queries" may save themselves the trouble ; for innume- 
 rable instances of this description would not, more parti- 
 cularly in the teeth of the actual evidence we possess of 
 Shakespeare's right to be regarded as the author of these 
 plays, prop up the Baconian theory. 
 
 Anxious to meet Mr. William Henry Smith upon his 
 own favourite and peculiar ground, we would ask, how is 
 it possible that the slightest importance can be attached 
 to these passages, paraded with so much satisfaction 1 
 Were they word for word and line for line alike, they 
 would not be sufficient to prove, nor could a hundred 
 such coincidences be regarded as a proof, that Lord Bacon 
 wrote the dramas of Shakespeare. The majority have not 
 sufficient in common to be called parallel passages; and if 
 we select those most entitled to the appellation, what do 
 they establish 1 Nothing more nor less than that Bacon 
 did not hesitate to borrow an idea from his mighty con- 
 temporary. With views too exalted for the compre- 
 hension of the smaller fry of critics, the founder of the 
 new philosophy was not afraid of showing that great 
 
 * Notes and Queries, Second Series, No. 52, p. 503. The 
 punctuation in these quotations is wretched ; and why should the 
 reference to particular acts and scenes be given in some instances 
 and not in others ? 
 
54 PROOFS. 
 
 minds may put forth similar ideas and sentiments without 
 dread of incurring a charge of plagiarism. 
 
 We cannot admit that these are parallel passages : were 
 we willing to do so, the admission would be of no advan- 
 tage to Mr. William Henry Smith. His quotations might 
 show that Bacon had borrowed from Shakespeare : this is 
 their only moral. With one exception, which shall be 
 noticed in due course, their testimony is to this effect. 
 Nos. 2 and 10 contain passages from essays written by 
 Lord Bacon, which were not published until some years 
 after Shakespeare's death, and the appearance of the first 
 folio. The essays on Buildings and on Adversity are not 
 found in any edition of Bacon's Essays previous to 1625. 
 A pretty fact this to bring forward in favour of a theory 
 that Lord Bacon wrote the dramas of Shakespeare. He 
 might have seen them acted, and conned them over in his 
 library hundreds of times, before he put forth a compo- 
 sition tinged with the magic hues of some of their richest 
 thoughts. In the quotations given under No. 1, a certain 
 degree of similarity will be found to exist between a 
 passage in the " Advancement of Learning," and the 
 comedy of " Twelfth Night." Bacon's treatise was first 
 published in 1605, whereas "Twelfth Night" had been 
 acted as early as 1602, if not before. In No. 6 on the 
 list, we find a sentiment in Bacon's Apophthegms, first 
 published in 1625, which resembles a passage in the 
 " Merry Wives of Windsor," which was printed in 1 602. 
 Again, in No. 11, passages in "Richard II.," printed in 
 1597, and "Hamlet/' in 1603, are similar to a sentence 
 in Bacon's " Life of Henry the Seventh," which was 
 written in 1616, and published in 1622. These facts, if 
 they prove anything at all, would, like those to which we 
 have already alluded in Nos. 2 and 10, show that Lord 
 Bacon had studied Shakespeare to some purpose. 
 
 " But," Mr. William Henry Smith will probably exclaim, 
 with an air of aggravated triumph, "you have not referred 
 to the fifth instance in the list, in which a clear case of 
 similarity is etablished between a passage in Lord Bacon's 
 
PROOFS. 55 
 
 'Advancement of Learning/ first published in 1605, and one 
 in ' Troilus and Cressida,' which did not appear till 1609 !" 
 Supposing for we are willing to concede as much as 
 possible, especially in a case in which all our concessions 
 will not be of much advantage to our opponent we 
 attribute to this fact its highest importance, and grant 
 that it clearly shows that Shakespeare borrowed that 
 particular idea, or error, from Bacon, what can that pos- 
 sibly matter 1 We will, however, repeat the passage, in 
 case any created being besides Mr. William Henry Smith 
 should be foolish enough to imagine that it is worthy 
 even of consideration. 
 
 In the "Advancement of Learning," first published, as 
 we said before, in 1605, Bacon commits a strange blunder, 
 in confounding the terms political and moral philosophy. 
 Mr. William Henry Smith quotes it thus : " Is not the 
 opinion of Aristotle worthy to be regarded, where he 
 saith that young men are not fit auditors of moral philo- 
 sophy, because they are not settled from the boiling heat 
 of their affections, nor attempered by time and experi- 
 ence." * Shakespeare, in the comedy of " Troilus and 
 Cressida," which was not printed until 1609, though it 
 had been previously acted, falls into precisely the same 
 
 * It is a well-known fact, that the " Advancement of Learning " 
 was first published in English, in two books. Bacon afterwards 
 enlarged this work, divided it into nine books, and caused it to be 
 translated into Latin. It was re-translated into English by Gilbert 
 Wats, and published in 1640. There is a remarkable difference in 
 the wording of this passage in the two treatises. 
 
 Editions 0/1605, 1629, and 1633. Gilbert Wat's edition, 1640. 
 
 "Is not the opinion of Aris- "It is not a wise opinion of 
 
 totle worthy to be regarded, Aristotle, and worthy to be re- 
 
 wherein he saith, that young garded : That young men are no 
 
 men are no fitte auditors of Mo- fit auditors of Morall Philosophy, 
 
 ral Philosophy, because they are because the boyliny heat of their 
 
 not setled from the boyling affections is not yet setled, nor at- 
 
 heate of their affections, nor at- temperd with Time and Expe- 
 
 tempered with Time and Expe- rience" Book vii. 
 rience ? " Book ii. 
 
56 PROOFS. 
 
 mistake. It occurs in Act ii. Scene 2, where tie 
 
 "Not much 
 Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought 
 Unfit to hear moral philosophy." 
 
 Aristotle, it appears, uses the term " political," not 
 " moral," as ID these extracts. " Therefore," says Mr. 
 William Henry Smith, "as both Bacon and Shakespeare 
 misquote him, the plays of Shakespeare were written by 
 Francis Bacon." "0 most lame and impotent conclusion !" 
 Why a thousand such instances would not prove that Bacon 
 was the author of Shakespeare. They might indeed con- 
 vince some minds that the latter was a plagiarist, but could 
 not be received as evidence that he did not write those 
 wonderful dramas, the glory of our literature, and one of 
 the wonders of the world. 
 
 Moreover, the similarity between many passages in the 
 poems and plays of Shakespeare is much more striking 
 than that pointed out in any of the afore-mentioned 
 instances. Jn order to give our readers an idea of the 
 manner in which Mr. William Henry Smith may be 
 worsted by his own weapons, we append thirteen illus- 
 trations, as a set-off against the same number which that 
 sagacious Shakespearian critic communicated to "Notes 
 and Queries." 
 
 We may as well remark that we have confined our- 
 selves to this number, merely because we are unwilling to 
 occupy more space with a theory that can lead to no 
 positive results. 
 
 1. The use of the word "vail," in the sense of "to 
 lower." 
 
 " Then like a melancholy malcontent, 
 
 He vailes his taile." Venus and Adonis. 
 " And see my wealthy Andrew docks in sand, 
 Vailing her high top lower than her ribs." 
 
 The Merchant of Venice, i. 1.* 
 
 * These passages are taken verbatim from the first editions of 
 
PROOFS. 57 
 
 2. Employment of the term " Eysell," or " Esile," which 
 has raised such discussion amongst the commentators, 
 and which Halliwell states to be an Anglo-Saxon word, 
 meaning " vinegar." 
 
 " Whilst like a willing pacient I will drinke, 
 Potions of Eysell 'gainst my strong infection." 
 
 Sonnet cxi. 
 " Woo't drinke up Esile, eate a Crocodile ? " 
 
 Hamlet, Act v. 2. 
 
 3. Peculiar use of the adjective "obsequious." 
 
 " How many a holy and obsequious teare 
 Hath deare religious love stolne from mine eye, 
 As interest of the dead, which now appeare, 
 But things remov'd that hidden in there lie ! " 
 
 Sonnet xxxi. 
 " The Surviver bound 
 In filiall Obligation, for some terme 
 To do obsequious Sorrow." Hamlet, i. 2. 
 
 4. Use of the word " rack," vapour. 
 
 "Anon permit the basest cloudes to ride, 
 With ougly rack on his celestiall face, 
 And from the for-lorne world his visage hide 
 Stealing unseene to west with this disgrace." 
 
 Sonnet xxxiii. 
 
 " That which is now a Horse, even with a thoght 
 the racke dislimes, and makes it indistinct 
 As water is in water." Ant. and Cleopatra, iv. 12. 
 
 "And like this insubstantiall Pageant faded 
 Leave not a racke behinde." Tempest, iv. 1. 
 
 5. Employment of the term "rigoll" to denote "a 
 circle, or wreath." 
 
 " About the mourning and congealed face 
 Of that blacke bloud, a watrie rigoll goes, 
 Which seemee to weep upon the tainted place." 
 
 Lucrece. 
 
 the " Lucrece " and the Sonnets, the second edition of the " Venus 
 and Adonis," and the folio edition, of 1623, of the Dramas. 
 
58 PROOFS. 
 
 " This is a sleepe, 
 
 That from this Golden Rigoll hath divorc'd 
 So many English Kings." 
 
 Henry IV., 2nd Part, iv. 4. 
 
 6. " Owe " used in the sense of " possess." 
 
 " If some suspect of ill maskt not thy show, 
 Then thou alone kingdomes of hearts shouldst owe ! " 
 
 Sonnet Ixx. 
 "Of all perfections that a man may owe" 
 
 Love's Labour's Lost, ii.-l. 
 
 7. Use of " quote," or " cote," in the sense of " to 
 note." 
 
 " Yea, the illiterate that know not how 
 To cipher what is writ in learned bookes, 
 Will cote my lothsome trespasse in my lookes." 
 
 Lucrece. 
 " What curious eye doth quote deformities ? " 
 
 Romeo and Juliet, i. 4. 
 
 8. " Suggested" used for "tempted." 
 
 " Perchance his host of Lucrece Sou'raigntie, 
 Suggested this proud issue of a King." 
 
 Lucrece. 
 
 " What Eve ? what Serpent hath suggested thee, 
 To make a second fall of cursed man ? " 
 
 Rich. II. iii. 4. 
 
 9- The word "vast" used to signify "a wide waste." 
 
 "Who like a late sack't Island vastlie stood 
 Bare and unpeopled, in this fearfull flood." 
 
 Lucrece. 
 
 " Shooke hands, as over a Vast ; and embrac'd as it were from 
 the ends of opposed winds." Winter's Tale, i. 1. 
 
 10. Peculiar use of the verb "to fall." 
 
 " For everie teare he/afo a Trojan bleeds." Lucrece. 
 
 "If that the Earth could teeme with woman s teares, 
 Each drop she falls, would prove a Crocodile." 
 
 Othello, iv. 1. 
 
PROOFS. 59 
 
 11. Employment of the word "foyzon." 
 
 " Speake of the spring, and foyzon of the yeare, 
 The one doth shaddow of your beautie show, 
 The other as your bountie doth appeare, 
 And you in every blessed shape we know." 
 
 Sonnet liii. 
 
 " Nature should bring forth 
 Of its owne kinde, all foyzon, all abundance 
 To feed my innocent people." 
 
 Tempest, ii. 1. 
 
 12. A quaint expression. 
 
 " Why should my heart thinke that a sevei'all plot, 
 Which my heart knowes the wide worlds common place ? " 
 
 Sonnet cxxxvii. 
 
 " My lips are no Common, though severall they be." 
 
 Love's Labour 's Lost, ii. 
 
 13. "Wood " used in the sense of " mad." 
 
 " Life-poysoning pestilence, and frendzies wood." 
 
 Venus and Adonis. 
 
 " And heere am I, and wood within this wood." 
 
 A Midsummer Night's Dream, ii. 2. 
 
 This list might be extended almost indefinitely, and 
 illustrations of particular passages might be adduced ; for 
 every student of Shakespeare is aware that the germ 
 of some of the finest portions in many of the dramas 
 may be traced to the poems. Any theory based upon 
 parallel passages must, however, be, in a great measure, 
 delusive. In the case of Bacon and Shakespeare, it cannot 
 do much more than illustrate the influence wielded by one 
 commanding mind over another of almost equal powers, 
 though differently displayed and developed. Did we place 
 any reliance upon such a system, we might, in addition to 
 the foregoing in stances, produce a startling array of kindred 
 sentiments and expressions, selected from the poems and 
 the dramas of Shakespeare, which would be sufficient to 
 
60 PROOFS. 
 
 convince the most sceptical that they were the produc- 
 tions of one man. 
 
 Mr. William Henry Smith has not yet carried his advo- 
 cacy of his theory so far as to deny that Shakespeare 
 wrote the " Yen us and Adonis," the " Lucrece," and the 
 Sonnets; and he is probably aware that he must first 
 destroy Shakespeare's reputation as the author of these 
 masterpieces, before he can hope to deprive him of his 
 glowing honours, as the greatest of dramatic authors. It 
 is impossible for the latest, and we hope the last, traducer 
 of Shakespeare to escape from this dilemma. In the 
 poems we find not only ideas, peculiar turns of thought, 
 strange uses of particular words, and quaint expressions, 
 but adumbrations of character that are more fully deve- 
 loped in the plays. If Mr. William Henry Smith still clings 
 to his theory, let him at once set to work, and not only 
 endeavour to demonstrate, but actually establish beyond 
 risk or possibility of refutation, that Francis Bacon wrote 
 the " Yenus and Adonis," the " Lucrece," and the Sonnets, 
 or the ground beneath his feet will be demolished by the 
 aid of his own dearly-prized weapons. These delightful 
 poems glowing proofs of the mighty powers and evident 
 superiority of their author rise up in judgment against 
 him ; and the literary Don Quixote of the nineteenth 
 century may as well attack windmills with bulrushes, as 
 assail our mighty Shakespeare with his idle reveries. 
 
 The theory of parallel passages never can, never did, 
 and never will, admit of the construction Mr. William 
 Henry Smith wishes to put upon it ; and if that 
 worthy successor of the narrow-minded critics of the 
 last century, none of whom ventured to question Shake- 
 speare's right to be regarded as the author of these exqui- 
 site productions, though they sought to prejudice mankind 
 against him, and to give the world an erroneous idea of 
 his works, persists in his endeavours to lead young 
 students astray, we shall use it as a cudgel to beat the 
 conceit out of him. Gladly indeed shall we 
 
PROOFS. 61 
 
 " Let it work, 
 
 For 'tis the sport, to have the engineer 
 Hoist with his own petar : and 't shall go hard, 
 But I will delve one yard below their mines, 
 And blow them at the moon." 
 
 Even had the plays universally, we were going to 
 say, but we had forgotten that important item of critical 
 humanity, Mr. William Henry Smith, and therefore 
 qualify it by saying, almost universally allowed to be 
 Shakespeare's, been published anonymously, there is no 
 evidence upon which they could be assigned to Francis 
 Bacon ; and, according to the parallel-passage theory, 
 the admirers of Mr. Alexander Smith, the bard of the 
 painful metaphors, and one of the heroes of the new and 
 popular style of elastic verse, might claim for him the 
 authorship of nearly every poem, above the average 
 scale of merit, published during the last half-century.* 
 
 If a readiness to make use of the ideas and sentiments 
 of other writers is to give the latest adapter a claim to the 
 proprietorship, we shall speedily have confusion in the 
 court of Parnassus. Let these canons of criticism be 
 once admitted as valid, and good-bye to our old authors : 
 they will speedily be devoured and poured forth in 
 another form ; and men will only have to steal skilfully 
 in order to establish a first-rate literary reputation. At 
 any rate, the parallel-passage theory has got Mr. William 
 
 * See "Athenaeum," Jan. 3, 1857. The process is very simple. 
 Most of our readers will remember Wordsworth's line in his sonnet 
 on Milton : 
 
 " His soul was like a star, and dwelt apart." 
 Mr. Alexander Smith turns it out gallantly : 
 " Alone he dwelt, solitary as a star." 
 
 He does not give himself much trouble about the transformation, 
 and scarcely deigns to follow Sheridan's hint, about treating the 
 idea "as gipsies do stolen children, disfigure them to make 'em 
 pass for their own." This new method may be called poetry with 
 variations. 
 
62 PROOFS. 
 
 Henry Smith into difficulty, and he must either abandon 
 it altogether, or prove that to Francis Bacon the world is 
 indebted for the " Yenus and Adonis," the " Lucrece," 
 and the Sonnets, to say nothing of some minor poems. 
 
63 
 
 CHAPTER VI. 
 
 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS, 
 WHICH PROVE THAT THEIR AUTHOR WILLIAM SHAKE- 
 SPEARE WROTE THE DRAMAS. 
 
 " Thus then Shakspeare appears, from his Venus and Adonis and 
 Rape of Lucrece alone, apart from all his great works, to have 
 possessed all the conditions of the true poet." S. T. COLERIDGE. 
 
 OUR principal object in launching this small venture 
 upon the wide ocean of literature, is not merely to show 
 the Baconian theory to be both a wicked libel upon the 
 memory of Shakespeare in particular, and a grievous 
 insult to the English nation at large, but to establish, upon 
 the clearest and most intelligible grounds, the identity of 
 William Shakespeare, and to prove by the testimony of 
 his contemporaries, and the evidence of historical docu- 
 ments, that he, and he alone, was the author of those 
 dramas that have long been received as his productions. 
 Upon the internal evidence to be derived from the in- 
 stitution of a careful and rigid comparison between the 
 poems and the dramas, we are not inclined to lay much 
 stress ; yet this, as we have before shown, is altogether 
 in favour of our view of the question. We purpose at 
 once proceeding to proofs more palpable ; the solemn 
 testimony of which cannot, we humbly imagine, be im- 
 pugned. 
 
 Let us deal with these in the order in which they 
 present themselves to our notice. We pass, with a brief 
 notice, the petition of " the shareholders in the Black- 
 friars playhouse," dated November, 1589, pleading against 
 the intolerant spirit which sought to deprive them of 
 
64 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 their means of subsistence ; on which, list of sixteen 
 shareholders, the name of William Shakespeare stands 
 twelfth ; we cannot now pause to determine whether 
 Edmund Spenser, the author of the " Fairy Queen," could 
 by any possibility have alluded to any other poet but 
 William Shakespeare in the verses we are about to 
 quote, although we believe the affirmative might be very 
 easily established. The stanzas occur in a small volume 
 entitled, " Complaints, containing Sundrie small Poemes 
 of the World's Yanitie," by Edmund Spenser, published 
 in 1591. The book contains several divisions; and in 
 one of these, called "The Teares of the Muses," Thalia 
 bewails the decline of comedy, and, as we believe, the 
 temporary retirement of Shakespeare. These lines have 
 been frequently quoted by commentators, but they are 
 not even now sufficiently known, perhaps because not 
 easily accessible to the generality of readers. 
 
 " Where be the sweete delights of learnings treasure, 
 That wont with Comick sock to beautefie 
 The painted Theaters, and fill with pleasure 
 The listeners' eyes, and eares with melodic ; 
 In which I late was wont to raine as Queene, 
 And maske in mirth with Graces well beseene ? 
 
 all is gone, and all that goodly glee, 
 Which wont to be the glorie of gay wits, 
 Is layd abed, and no where now to see ; 
 And in her roome unseemly Sorrow sits, 
 With hollow browes and greisly countenaunce, 
 Marring my joyous gentle dalliaunce. 
 
 And him beside sits ugly Barbarisme, 
 And brutish Ignorance, ycrept of late 
 Out of dredd darknes of the deep Abysme, 
 Where being bredd, he light and heaven does hate : 
 They in the mindes of men now tyrannize, 
 And the faire Scene with rudenes foule disguize. 
 
 All places they with follie have possest, 
 And with vaine toyes the vulgare entertaine ; 
 But me have banished, with all the rest 
 That whilome wont to wait upon my traine, 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 65 
 
 Fine Counterfesaunce,* and unhurtfull Sport, 
 Delight and Laughter deckt in seemly sort. 
 
 All these, and all that els the Comick Stage 
 
 With seasoned wit and goodly pleasance graced ; 
 
 By which man's life in his likest image 
 
 Was limned forth, are wholly now defaced ; 
 
 And these sweete wits which wont the like to frame, 
 
 Are now despizd, and made a laughing game. 
 
 And he the man, whom Nature selfe had made 
 To mock her selfe, and Truth to imitate, 
 With kindly counter, f under Mimick shade, 
 Our pleasant Willy, ah is dead of late : 
 With whom all ioy and iolly meriment 
 Is also deaded, and in dolour drent.J 
 
 In stead thereof scoffing Scurrilitie, 
 And scomfull Follie with Contempt is crept, 
 Rolling in rymes of shameles ribaudrie 
 Without regard, or due Decorum kept, 
 Each idle wit at will presumes to make, 
 And doth the Learneds taske upon him take. 
 
 But that same gentle Spirit, from whose pen 
 Large streames of honnie and sweete Nectar flowe, 
 Scorning the boldnes of such base-borne men, 
 Which dare their follies forth so rashlie throwe ; 
 Doth rather choose to sit in idle Cell, 
 Than so himselfe to mockerie to sell." 
 
 These notices would be sufficient to satisfy ordinary 
 inquirers that by the year 1593 William Shakespeare 
 had, by some means or other, attained a certain degree 
 of celebrity, and that many of his earlier dramas then 
 enjoyed high popularity. The most incredulous cannot 
 deny that the " Venus and Adonis," the first acknow- 
 ledged work of this great poet's that has come down to 
 us, made its appearance in this eventful year. It was 
 
 * /. e. counterfeiting. AIKIN. 
 f I. e. trial of skill. AIKIN. 
 $ /. e. drenched, drowned. AIKIN. 
 /. e. ribaldry. AIKIN. 
 F 
 
66 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 published in quarto, on the 18th of April, and a few 
 weeks before Christopher Marlowe, by some regarded 
 ias the founder of the English drama, lost his life in a 
 duel. A terrible plague had broken out in London during 
 the preceding autumn, and all the theatres were closed 
 l>y authority. Shakespeare, availing himself of an in- 
 terval of repose and leisure, prepared his poem for the 
 press. It appeared with the following dedication :- 
 
 " To the Right Honorable Henrie Wriothesly, 
 Earle, of Southampton) and Baron of Titch- 
 field. 
 
 " RIGHT HONOURABLE, I know not how I shall offend, 
 in dedicating my unpolisht lines to your Lordship, nor 
 how the world will censure me for choosing so strong 
 a proppe to support so weake a burthen ; onely if your 
 Honour seeme but pleased, I account my selfe highlie 
 praysed, and vow to take advantage of all idle houres, 
 till I have honoured you with some graver labour. But 
 if the first heyre of my invention prove deformed, I 
 shall be sory it had so noble a godfather: and never 
 after eare * so barren a land, for feare it yeeld me 
 still so bad a harvest. I leave it to your honourable 
 survey, and your Honor to your heart's content, which 
 I wish may alwayes answere your owne wish, and the 
 world's hopefull expectation. Your Honor's in all dutie 
 
 " WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE." 
 
 The use of the expression " first heyre of my inven- 
 tion " has induced certain critics to argue that Shake- 
 speare had not, up to this date, written anything for 
 the stage. Such a conclusion is altogether untenable. 
 In the first place, the " Venus and Adonis " might have 
 been the first-fruits of his youthful fancy, and yet have 
 been composed some time before it was given to the 
 
 * /. e. to plough. 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 67 
 
 world. Few authors are fortunate enough to get 
 their earlier poems printed so quickly as they might 
 desire. In the second place, Shakespeare may have 
 regarded this as his first offering at the shrine of the 
 Muses, although he had, previous to its publication, 
 written some dramas. We know, moreover, that the 
 earlier editions of his plays were not sent forth under 
 his sanction ; and the " Venus and Adonis " was con- 
 sequently the first work in the publication of which he 
 took an interest and was concerned. The early copies 
 of the dramas were, as we learn from the folio of 1623, 
 " diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed and 
 deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious im- 
 postors that exposed them." Thus, in every respect, 
 the " Venus and Adonis " was entitled to be regarded 
 as the first heir of the poet's invention ; and we can 
 readily imagine that Shakespeare, finding his occupation 
 gone, or at any rate temporarily interrupted, on account 
 of the plague, brought his early poem forth from its 
 concealment, revised it, and gave it to the world as the 
 freshest offering of his fervent genius the first-fruits of 
 his youthful labours, his first work. 
 
 This is the view of the question taken, though not on 
 precisely the same grounds, by two of the most intel- 
 ligent of the Shakesperian critics of this age, J. Payne 
 Collier and Charles Knight. Their opinion may be 
 considered as conclusive. Mr. Collier remarks (Life of 
 Shakespeare, p. cxiv.) : 
 
 " With regard to productions unconnected with the 
 stage, there are several pieces among his scattered poems, 
 and some of his sonnets, that indisputably belong to an 
 early part of his life. A young man, so gifted, would 
 not, and could not, wait until he was five or six and 
 twenty before he made considerable and most successful 
 attempts at poetical composition ; and we feel morally 
 certain that * Yenus and Adonis ' was in being anterior 
 to Shakespeare's quitting Stratford. It bears all the 
 F 2 
 
68 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 marks of youthful vigour, of strong passion, of luxu- 
 riant imagination, together with a force and originality 
 of expression which betoken the first efforts of a great 
 mind, not always well regulated in its taste : it seems to 
 have been written in the open air of a fine country like 
 Warwickshire, with all the freshness of the recent im- 
 pression of natural objects ; and we will go so far as to 
 say, that we do not think even Shakespeare himself could 
 have produced it, in the form it bears, after he had 
 reached the age of forty. It was quite new in its class, 
 being founded upon no model, either ancient or modern : 
 nothing like it had been attempted before, and nothing 
 comparable to it was produced afterwards. Thus, in 
 1593, he might call it, in the dedication to Lord South- 
 ampton, 'the first heir of his invention' in a double 
 sense, not merely because it was the first printed, but 
 because it was the first written of his productions." 
 
 Charles Knight comes to nearly the same conclusion, 
 which he establishes in the most satisfactory manner. 
 He says, 
 
 " But at a period when the exercise of the poetical 
 power in connection with the stage was scarcely held 
 amongst the learned and the polite in itself to be poetry, 
 Shakspere vindicated his reputation by the publication of 
 the ' Yenus and Adonis.' It was, he says, 'the -first heir 
 of my invention.' There may be a doubt whether Shak- 
 spere meant to say literally that this was the first poetical 
 work that he had produced ; or whether he held, in 
 deference to some critical opinions, that his dramatic 
 productions could not be classed amongst ' the heirs of 
 invention.' We think that he meant to use the words 
 literally ; and that he used them at a period when he 
 might assume, without vanity, that he had taken his rank 
 amongst the poets of his time. He dedicates to the Earl 
 of Southampton something that had not before been 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 69 
 
 jgiven to the world. He calls his verses ' unpolished 
 lines ;' he vows to take advantage of all idle hours, till 
 !he had honoured the young patron of the Muses with 
 1 some graver labour.' But invention was received then, 
 as it was afterwards, as the highest quality of the poet. 
 Dryden says, ' A poet is a maker, as the word signifies ; 
 and he who cannot make, that is invent, hath his name for 
 nothing.' * We consider, therefore, that ' my invention' is 
 not the language of one unknown to fame. He was ex- 
 hibiting the powers which he possessed upon a different 
 instrument than that to which the world was accustomed j 
 but the world knew that the power existed. We employ 
 the word genius always with reference to the inventive or 
 creative faculty. Substitute the word genius for inven- 
 tion, and the expression used by Shakspere sounds like 
 arrogance. But the substitution may indicate that the 
 actual expression could not have been used by one who 
 came forward for the first time to claim the honours of 
 the poet. It has been argued from this expression, that 
 Shakspere had produced nothing original before the' Venus 
 and Adonis' that up to the period of its publication, in 
 1593, he was only a repairer of the works of other 
 
 * This critic might have gone to an earlier source, even in our 
 own literature, for this idea. George Puttenham, in his " Arte of 
 English Poesie," a quaint work, published in 1589, and one of the 
 earliest critical treatises in our language, says: "A Poet is as 
 much to say as a maker. And our English name well conforrnes 
 with the Greeke word : for of TTOIIIV, to make, they call a maker 
 Poeta. Such as (by way of icsemblance and reverently) we may say 
 of God : who without any travell to his divine imagination, made 
 all the world of nought, nor also by any paterne or mould as the 
 Platonicks with their Idees do phantastically suppose. Even so 
 the very Poet makes and contrives out of his owne braine, both the 
 verse and matter of his poeme, and not by any foreine copie or 
 example, as doth the translator, who therefore may well be sayd a 
 versifier, but not a Poet." (Book i. chap, i.) The treatise is worthy 
 of perusal, as a curious specimen of the literature of the Elizabethan 
 period. 
 
70 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 men. We hold that the expression implies the direct 
 contrary."* 
 
 The success of the new poem was complete ; the second 
 edition appeared in 1594, the third in 1596, the fourth 
 in 1600, and the fifth in 1602 ; and but few alterations 
 occurred in these different editions ; which shows that 
 what Shakespeare published under his own direction, 
 was given to the world in a proper shape. 
 
 "Lucrece" followed, on the 1st of May, 1594, and was 
 also highly successful ; the fourth edition appeared in the 
 year 1600. It was, like its predecessor, dedicated to the 
 Earl of Southampton. 
 
 " The love I dedicate to your Lordship is without end ; 
 whereof this Pamphlet without beginning, is but a 
 superfluous Moity.t The warrant I have of your Hon- 
 ourable disposition, not the worth of my untutored 
 Lines, makes it assured of acceptance. What I have 
 done is yours, what I have to doe is yours, being part in, 
 all I have devoted yours. Were my worth greater, my 
 duety would shew greater, meanetime, as it is, it is 
 bound to your Lordship ; to whom I wish long life still 
 lengthened with all happinesse. Your Lordship's in all 
 duety, " WILLIAM SHAKESPEARE." 
 
 These dedications are, as Halliwell sagaciously ob- 
 serves, " precious fragments, the only letters of Shake- 
 speare that have descended to our times." Their value is 
 enhanced by the attacks made from time to time upon 
 the character and writings of the poet ; for were it not for 
 such evidences, which cannot be got rid of, the detractors 
 of Shakespeare would have everything their own way. 
 They are both addressed to Henry, third earl of South- 
 ampton. A young nobleman, who, although he had not 
 at that time attained his majority, received such homage 
 
 * A Biography, book ii. chap. iv. p. 361. f /. e. part. 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 71 
 
 from a rising poet, must have been a man of some account. 
 It is fitting that we inquire into his antecedents and pre- 
 tensions. He has, moreover, been appealed to by Mr. 
 William Henry Smith, who states correctly, that Bacon 
 " was on terms of intimacy with Lord Southampton, the 
 avowed patron of Shakespeare."* 
 
 The evidence of this young peer will therefore be 
 valuable; and before we summon him into the witness- 
 box, we may as well endeavour to glean a few particulars 
 concerning the man. 
 
 Henry Wriothesley was born on the 6th of October, 
 1573. ' He was a second son, but his father and 
 elder brother died before he had attained his twelfth 
 year ; for on the llth of December, 1585, he was entered 
 on the books of St. John's College, Cambridge, as " Earl 
 of Southampton." Towards the end of the sixteenth 
 century, he served against the Spaniards, with great 
 gallantry, both on land and sea. He became involved 
 in the Earl of Essex's conspiracy, if the affair can be thus 
 designated, and for this he was tried in 1601, and found 
 guilty of high treason. His honours, and even his life, 
 were declared forfeit, and he languished some time in the 
 Tower. Soon after the accession of James the First, in 
 1603, he was released, restored to his title and estates, 
 and made a Knight of the Garter. Sometimes basking 
 in the beams of royal favour, and at others under a cloud, 
 he outlived the poet, dying on the 10th of November, 
 1624. 
 
 Such is a brief summary of his eventful history. Let 
 us now search for evidence as to character and qualifica- 
 tions. Camden,t referring to the title, says, " King 
 Edward VI., in the first year of his reign, conferred that 
 honour upon Thomas Wriotheosley, Lord Chancellour of 
 England ; and his grandson Henry, by Henry his son, 
 
 * Pamphlet, p. 10. f Britannia ; edit. 1695, p. 128. 
 
72 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 now enjoys that title ; who, in his younger years, has 
 armed the nobility of his birth with the ornaments of 
 learning and military arts, that in. his riper age he may 
 employ them in the service of his king and country." 
 This is honourable testimony to the worth of the friend 
 of Bacon and Shakespeare; and although we might pro- 
 duce much more to the same effect, we shall content 
 ourselves by quoting the remarks of Edmund Lodge. 
 That author says : 
 
 " Of the life of this nobleman, who was the third Earl 
 of Southampton of his name, some pains have been of 
 late years taken to collect the scattered circumstances. 
 History could scarcely have avoided mentioning a man 
 who had been deeply and actively engaged in Essex's 
 singular conspiracy, and had suffered therefore a severe 
 punishment, but it has gone little further. He was 
 however, not only the friend of Essex, but the patron of 
 Shakspeare ; more than one of whose numerous com- 
 mentators, unwilling wholly to lose their labour, have 
 furnished us with many miscellaneous notices of South- 
 ampton, which occurred in their almost fruitless researches 
 on the peculiar subject of that patronage. He was a 
 man of no very unusual character, in whom several fine 
 qualities were shadowed by some important defects. His 
 understanding seems to have been lively and acute ; and 
 his acquired talents united to a competent erudition, an 
 extensive and correct taste for polite letters, and the 
 most highly finished manners. His friendships were 
 ardent and lasting ; his personal courage almost pro- 
 verbial ; and his honour wholly unsuspected : but his 
 mind was fickle and unsteady \ a violent temper engaged 
 him in frequent quarrels, and in enmities injurious to his 
 best interests ; and he was wholly a stranger to that wary 
 circumspection which is commonly dignified by the name 
 of prudence."* 
 
 * Portraits of Illustrious Personages (Bohn's Illustrated Library), 
 vol. iii. p. 155. 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 73 
 
 His very vices, as well as his virtues, plead trumpet- 
 tongued against the accusation brought against him by 
 Mr. William Henry Smith, that he was privy to one of 
 the most infamous literary deceptions ever practised. He 
 was imprudent ; therefore not a man to be trusted with an 
 important secret : his " honour was wholly unsuspected ;>" 
 therefore he was not the kind of person to dabble in such 
 wretched impostures. Yet he was intimate with Bacon, 
 and the patron of Shakespeare, and must consequently 
 have been acquainted with the true state of the case. 
 "We have seen what the poet thought of him, and letters 
 have come down to us in which Bacon addresses Lord 
 Southampton in the most flattering and affectionate 
 manner. Had Bacon been the author of the dramas of 
 Shakespeare, Henry, Earl of Southampton, must, as Mr. 
 William Henry Smith admits, have been privy to all the 
 particulars. Not only did he favour Shakespeare in every 
 possible manner ; not only did he either lend him money, 
 or present him with a handsome token of his approba- 
 tion, but he even interested himself in the affairs of his 
 theatre, as a letter, discovered by Mr. J. Payne Collier, 
 amongst Lord Ellesmere's manuscripts at Bridgewater 
 House, will show. This epistle bears the signature 
 " H. S.," and is certainly a copy of one written by the 
 Earl of Southampton in 1608, and addressed either to 
 Lord Ellesrnere, or to some person in authority. In that 
 year the Lord Mayor and Aldermen endeavoured to 
 expel the King's players from the Blackfriars. In their 
 behalf the Earl of Southampton wrote : 
 
 " MY VERIE HONORED LORD. The manie good offices I 
 haue receiued at your Lordship's hands, which ought to 
 make me backward in asking further favors, onely 
 imbouldens me to require more in the same kinde. 
 Your Lordship will be warned ho we hereafter you graunt 
 anie sute, seeing it draweth on more and greater 
 demaunds. This which now presseth is to request your 
 Lordship, in all you can, to be good to the poore players 
 
74 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 of the Black Fryers, who call them selves by authoritie the 
 servaunts of his Majestie, and aske for the protection of 
 their most graceous Maister and Sovereigne in this the 
 tyme of their troble. They are threatened by the Lord 
 Mayor and Aldermen of London, never friendly to their 
 calling, with the destruction of their meanes of livelihood, 
 by the pulling downe of their plaiehouse, which is a pri- 
 vate theatre, and hath never given occasion of anger by 
 anie disorders. These bearers are two of the chiefe of 
 the companie ; one of them by name Richard Burbidge, 
 who humblie sueth for your Lordship's kinde helpe, for 
 that he is a man famous as our English Roscius, one who 
 fitteth the action to the word, and the word to the action 
 most admirably. By the exercise of his qualitye, 
 industry, and good behaviour, he hath be come possessed 
 of the Blacke Fryers playhouse, which hath bene 
 imployed for playes sithence it was builded by his 
 Father, now nere 50 yeres agorie.* The other is a man 
 no whitt lesse deserving favor, and my especiall friende, 
 till of late an actor of good account in the companie, now 
 a sharer in the same, and writer of some of our best 
 English playes, which, as your Lordship knoweth, were 
 most singularly liked of Quene Elizabeth, when the com- 
 panie was called uppon to perform e before her Maiestie at 
 Court at Christmas and Shrovetide. His most gracious 
 Maiestie King James alsoe, since his coming to the 
 crowne, hath extended his royal favour to the companie 
 in divers waies, and at sundrie tymes. This other hath 
 to name William Shakespeare, and they are both of one 
 countie, and indeede allmost of one towne : both are right 
 famous in their qualityes, though it longeth not to your 
 Lo. gravitie and wisedome to resort unto the places where 
 they are wont to delight the publique eare. Their trust 
 and sute nowe is not to bee molested in their way of life, 
 whereby they maintaine themselves and their wives and 
 
 * This is a slight error ; as the theatre had only been built about 
 five-and- thirty years. 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 75 
 
 families, (being both maried and of good reputation) as 
 well as the widowes and orphanes of some of their dead 
 fellows. Your Lo. most bounden at com. 
 
 "Copiavera." "H. S.*" 
 
 Attempts have been made to cast suspicions upon the 
 genuineness of this remarkable document ; and Mr. 
 Halliwell, in his new and magnificent folio edition of 
 Shakespeare, does not accord to it that free and genial 
 reception which it undoubtedly deserves. This gentleman 
 seems to have forgotten that since its publication many of 
 the new facts which it revealed have been corroborated 
 in a most unexpected manner. The discovery afforded 
 the indefatigable Mr. Collier no mean satisfaction, and he 
 was perfectly justified in believing that it would prove 
 an acceptable offering to the student and admirer of 
 Shakespeare. 
 
 The arguments in favour of and against the genuine- 
 ness of the document in question have been very fairly 
 investigated and weighed by Charles Knight, who sums 
 up in the following terms : 
 
 " We have stated frankly, and without reserve, the 
 objections to the authenticity of this document which 
 have presented themselves to our mind. It is better to 
 state these fully and fairly, than to ' hint a doubt.' Looking 
 at the decided character of the external evidence as to 
 the discovery, and taking into consideration the improba- 
 bility of a spurious paper having been smuggled into 
 the company of the Bridgewater documents, we are 
 inclined to confide in it. But, apart from the interesting 
 character of the letter, and the valuable testimony which 
 it gives to the nature of the intercourse between South- 
 ampton and Shakspere ' my especial friend/ we might 
 lay it aside with reference to its furnishing any new 
 materials for the life of the poet, with the exception of 
 
 * This letter was first published in " New Facts regarding the 
 Life of Shakespeare, " by J. Payne Collier, 1835, p. 32. 
 
76 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 the statement that he and Burbage were ' both of one 
 county.' Confiding in it, as we are anxious to do, we 
 accept it as a valuable illustration of that life. We have 
 on several occasions referred to the letter of H. S. ; and 
 in this examination we can have no wish to neutralize 
 our own inferences from its genuineness. These, how- 
 ever, in this biography, have reference only to the asser- 
 tion, 1st, That Burbage and Shakspere were of one 
 county, and almost of one town : This was a conjecture 
 made by Malone. 2nd. That there was deep friendship 
 between Southampton and Shakspere : This is an old 
 traditionary belief, supported by the dedications ' of 
 'Yenus and Adonis,' and the ' Lucrece.' 3rd. That 
 Shakspere left the stage previous to 1608 : This differs 
 little from the prevailing opinion, that he quitted it 
 before 1605, founded upon his name not appearing to a 
 play of Ben Jonson in that year."* 
 
 This may be regarded as conclusive, and is another 
 fatal blow to Mr. William Henry Smith's preposterous 
 theory ; to all, in fact, who wish to tear the poet's wreath 
 from his benign and august brow. Lord Southampton 
 must have known the particulars of the gigantic literary 
 fraud which, according to Mr. William Henry Smith, 
 Bacon and Shakespeare had concocted between them, and 
 would not, as a man of honour, have gone out of his way 
 to pen several unblushing falsehoods, and send them to 
 some person high in authority. Lord Southampton is 
 the witness to whom Mr. William Henry Smith appeals ; 
 and this is his testimony on three points. 1st, that 
 Shakespeare not only deserved favour, but was his " ESPE- 
 CIAL FRIEND." 2ndly, that Shakespeare was " till of late an 
 actor of good account in the companie, now a sharer in 
 the same :" and 3rdly, that he was the " WRITER OF SOME 
 OF OUR BEST ENGLISH PLAYES, which, as your lordship 
 
 * William Shakspere. A Biography. Book ii. chap. x. note, 
 p. 500. 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 77 
 
 knoweth, were most singularly liked of Queen Elizabeth." 
 Never was witness summoned who gave more conclusive 
 evidence. Shakespeare's character, pursuits, and his 
 triumphs, are detailed in a few pithy sentences. 
 
 This letter was, we know from internal evidence, 
 written in 1608; and if Bacon had composed, or even 
 lent his assistance in the composition of these dramas, as 
 Mr. William Henry Smith supposes, the Earl of South- 
 ampton, the friend of both Bacon and Shakespeare, must 
 have been acquainted with the fact, and he would have 
 recoiled from lending his name to prop up a falsehood, 
 more particularly one that circumstances might at any 
 time have unveiled. This evidence settles the matter. 
 It not only shows the Baconian theory to be a snare 
 and a delusion, for that would be but a questionable 
 victory ; it establishes the fact, that William Shakespeare, 
 and William Shakespeare alone, was the author of those 
 delightful productions which have added a charm to the 
 existence of so many generations of his countrymen. 
 
 Of Shakespeare's sonnets and minor poems it is scarcely 
 necessary to speak. They were published with his name ; 
 and had it been otherwise, the internal evidences they 
 contain of having proceeded from the same mental 
 laboratory which produced the " Venus and Adonis," 
 the " Lucrece," and the dramas, would enable us to assign 
 them to him without the slightest hesitation. 
 
 Two very erroneous impressions are prevalent amongst 
 many who have not made any deep researches into our 
 literature and its history; the one being, that Shakespeare 
 was not much esteemed as an author in his own day, and 
 the other, that his poems are, on the whole, very inferior 
 productions. As these are altogether unfounded, we may 
 render a service to some of our readers by adducing 
 evidence, of the best and simplest kind, showing the 
 actual state of the case. 
 
 William Shakespeare was frequently mentioned by his 
 contemporaries ; but we do not intend to refer categori- 
 
78 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 cally to all these numerous allusions. We prefer quoting 
 the remarks of an author entitled to consideration, who 
 gives the modern reader a fair idea of the estimation 
 in which the poet was held about 1598, when he was in 
 his thirty-fifth year. If people will reflect upon the wide 
 difference between the state of literature in the sixteenth 
 and the nineteenth centuries, and call to mind how few 
 celebrated men in the present day, with all the facilites 
 which they enjoy for the circulation of their productions, 
 achieve distinction before completing their thirty-fifth year, 
 they will have a better conception of the real character of 
 Shakespeare's fame, and of the importance of the position 
 which he had attained, when even quite a young man. 
 It has long been the fashion among certain classes of 
 critics to bolster up the false notion that Shakespeare, as 
 an author, was comparatively unknown in his own day, 
 and that his merits were only recognized after a tedious 
 lapse of time. Nothing can be more directly at variance 
 with the truth, as we learn from evidence that is above 
 suspicion. In 1598, Francis Meres, a clergyman, educated 
 at Cambridge, put forth a small critical work, bearing the 
 following quaint title, " Palladis Tamia ; Wit's Treasury, 
 being the second Part of Wit's Commonwealth ;" and in 
 this book Shakespeare is honourably noticed. Our poet 
 is not only mentioned several times by name, but always 
 with high commendation. One instance will suffice to 
 show this. Meres says : 
 
 "As the soule of Euphorbus was thought to live in 
 Pythagoras ;* so the sweete wittie-soule of Ovid lives in 
 
 * For the benefit of readers not versed in classical allusions, the 
 following explanation from " Smith's Classical Dictionary" is ap- 
 pended : " Euphorbus, a son of Panthous, and brother of Hype- 
 renor, who was one of the bravest among the Trojans. He was the 
 first who wounded Patroclus, but was afterwards slain by Menelaus, 
 who subsequently dedicated the shield of Euphorbus in the temple 
 of Hera, near Mycenae. It is a well-known story, that Pythagoras 
 asserted that he had once been the Trojan Euphorbus ; that from a 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 79 
 
 mellifluous and honytongued Shakespeare, witnes his 
 Venus and Adonis, his Lucrece, his sugred Sonnets among 
 his private friends, &c. 
 
 " As Plautus and Seneca are accounted the best for 
 Comedy and Tragedy among the Latines : so Shakespeare 
 among the English is the most excellent in both kinds for 
 the stage ; for Comedy, witnes his Gentlemen of Verona, 
 his Errors* his Love labors lost, his Love labours wonne,^ 
 his Midsummers Night Dreame, and his Merchant of 
 Venice : for Tragedy his Richard the Second, RicJiard 
 the Third, Henry the Fourth, King John, Titus Andronicus, 
 and his Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 "As Epius Stolo^ said, that the Muses would speake 
 with Plautus tongue if they would speak Latin : so I say 
 that the Muses would speak with Shakespeare's fine filed 
 phrase, if they would speake English." 
 
 Francis Meres, the poet's contemporary, states explicitly 
 that William Shakespeare was the author both of the poems 
 and of the plays. The critic even goes farther than this, and 
 enumerates certain poems and plays that Shakespeare had 
 written. The manner in which this is done, justifies the 
 conclusion that Meres was perfectly well informed upon 
 the subject. Shakespeare's Sonnets were not published 
 until 1609, yet in 1598 he speaks of them confidently as 
 " his sugred Sonnets among his private friends." Thus 
 Shakespeare was recognized by his contemporaries as a 
 poet, and elevated by them to the highest rank. 
 
 A reputation of this kind is not easily achieved ; 
 
 Trojan he had become an Ionian ; and from a warrior a philo- 
 sopher." Pythagoras was the author of that system the principal 
 feature of which is a belief in the transmigration of souls. 
 
 * Comedy of Errors. 
 
 f All's Well that Ends Well. 
 
 J The grammarian L. ^Elius Stilo used to say, and Varro adopted 
 his words, "that the Muses would use the language of Plautus if 
 they were to speak Latin." Smith's Classical Dictionary. 
 
 % Page 281. 
 
80 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 certainly very few men accomplish so much at an early 
 age. How long this eulogium might have been written 
 previous to publication, we have no means of judging ; but 
 we do know that in 1598 Shakespeare was publicly 
 recognized as the author of 
 
 COMEDIES. 
 
 The Two Gentlemen of Verona. 
 The Comedy of Errors. 
 Lovers Labour 's Lost. 
 All's Well that Ends Well. 
 The Midsummer Night's Dream. 
 The Merchant of Venice. 
 
 HISTORICAL TRAGEDIES. 
 
 Richard II. 
 Richard III. 
 Henry IV. 
 King John. 
 Titus Andronicus. 
 
 TRAGEDY. 
 
 Romeo and Juliet. 
 
 POEMS. 
 
 Venus and Adonis. 
 Lucrece. 
 Sonnets. 
 
 Fifteen such works at the age of thirty-five were 
 indeed sufficient to constitute a glorious reputation, 
 even had their author then relinquished his pen and 
 abandoned the Muses for ever. Nor does Meres wish 
 his readers to suppose that he had enumerated 
 all the works which, at that early period in his 
 career, our great dramatist had produced. The critic 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 81 
 
 merely notices these fifteen as specimens of what Shake- 
 speare had done j we possess positive evidence that others, 
 not referred to in this list, were in existence at that time, 
 and may form some conception of the manner in which 
 he had laboured, and of the extraordinary reputation that 
 he had achieved. Even the fame of his Sonnets, which 
 were not published until eleven years later, had got 
 abroad, and the way in which Meres speaks of them 
 would of itself suffice to prove that all the productions of 
 this master-mind were in his own day sought after and 
 esteemed. We have pointed out the friendship that ex- 
 isted between the Earl of Southampton and Shakespeare, 
 and the honourable mention made by this well-known 
 peer of the manager, actor, and poet, to a third person ; 
 we have referred to the publication and the success of 
 the poems, and adduced the testimony of a contemporary, 
 an impartial writer, by whom Shakespeare is recognized 
 as the author of poems, sonnets, and dramas ; and we 
 imagine that few will feel inclined to cavil at the con- 
 clusions which we draw from these matters ; namely, that 
 it is utterly impossible that Bacon could have written the 
 dramas, or that any person but William Shakespeare is 
 to be regarded as their author. No writer enrolled in 
 our literary annals can be more clearly entitled to the 
 proud position he has gained, than this extraordinary 
 man. 
 
 Those who have studied these various productions of 
 his superior and commanding mind, in that reverential 
 manner in which everybody ought to approach the con- 
 sideration of such masterpieces of human genius, will not 
 experience the slightest difficulty in believing them to 
 have emanated from one gifted being. By indisputable 
 evidence, they are assigned to Shakespeare, and are 
 indeed the credentials by which he has won the homage of 
 successive generations. If Mr. William Henry Smith be 
 indeed in search of the wonderful, we can direct his 
 inquiring gaze to a marvel, upon which he seems to have 
 
 G 
 
82 FACTS CONNECTED WITH THE 
 
 stumbled quite unawares. His reasoning faculties must 
 be below the average, or he would long since have detected 
 this, lying in his path, .and almost inviting observation. 
 
 The wonder would be, not that William Shakespeare 
 should have produced several works, kindred in beauty and 
 character, but. that, after having taken mankind captive 
 by the magnitude of his powers, after having, at a com- 
 paratively early age, written poems of the highest order 
 of merit, he should suddenly abandon the cultivation of 
 this particular and glorious gift, and cease to ravish the 
 world by the sweet strains of his melodious lyre. Now 
 this is the marvel that Mr. William Henry Smith has 
 raised up ; and it is one inseparable from his theory. It 
 would be harder to believe this, even had we very strong 
 evidence in its support, than that in the "Venus and 
 Adonis," and the " Lucrece," may be recognized the first 
 soarings of that surpassing genius, which reached its 
 fairest development in these beautiful creations of the 
 human mind, " Hamlet," " King Lear," " Macbeth," and 
 " Othello." 
 
 Attempts have been frequently made to depreciate the 
 poems, and to under-rate their merits. The unprejudiced 
 reader will admit that they display much of the same 
 wonderful power that constitutes the excellence of the 
 dramas. They are superior to other poems of the 
 kind, just as the dramas excel all similar compositions. 
 The criticism upon the subject, of Samuel Taylor Cole- 
 ridge, is not only just, but profound : he felt what he 
 wrote, and had, moreover, a genuine appreciation of 
 Shakespeare. He says : 
 
 " The subject of the 'Venus and Adonis' is unpleasing; 
 but the poem itself is for that very reason the more illustra- 
 tive of Shakspeare. There are men who can write passages 
 of deepest pathos, and even sublimity, on circumstances 
 personal to themselves and stimulative of their own 
 passions ; but they are not, therefore, on this account 
 poets. Read that magnificent burst of woman's patriotism 
 
PUBLICATION OF THE POEMS. 83 
 
 and exultation, Deborah's song of victory ; it is glorious, 
 but nature is the poet there. It is quite another matter 
 to become all things, and yet remain the same, to make 
 the changeful god be felt in the river, the lion, and the 
 flame; this it is, that is the true imagination. Shak- 
 speare writes in this poem, as if he were of another 
 planet, charming you to gaze on the movements of Venus 
 and Adonis, as you would on the twinkling dances of two 
 vernal butterflies. 
 
 " Finally, in this poem, and the ' Rape of Lucrece,' 
 Shakspeare gave ample proof of his possession of a most 
 profound, energetic, and philosophical mind, without which 
 he might have pleased, but could not have been a great 
 dramatic poet. Chance, and the necessity of his genius, 
 combined to lead him to the drama, his proper province : 
 in his conquest of which we should consider both the 
 difficulties which opposed him, and the advantages by 
 which he was assisted."* 
 
 * Notes and Lectures upon Shakspeare and some of the Old 
 Poets and Dramatists, vol. i. p. 57. 
 
 G 2 
 
84 FOLIO EDITION OF 1623. 
 
 CHAPTER VII. 
 
 THE FOLIO EDITION OF 1623, AND THE EVIDENCE IT 
 AFFORDS RESPECTING THE QUESTION OF ITS AUTHOR- 
 SHIP. 
 
 " My book hath been so much my Pleasure, and bringeth daily to 
 me more Pleasure, and more, than in respect of it, all other 
 Pleasures in very deed, be but Trifles and Troubles unto me." 
 
 EOGER ASCHAM. 
 
 SHOULD the rash, absurd, and disgraceful accusations of 
 Mr. William Henry Smith against the character, and the 
 strictures of other self-satisfied critics and cavillers upon 
 the works, of William Shakespeare have the effect of making 
 the great majority of the English people better acquainted 
 with the facts clearly established concerning the poet's life, 
 and the circumstances under which both his poems and his 
 dramas were given to the world, good will decidedly grow 
 out of evil. The more we know of Shakespeare as a man 
 and an author, the higher does our veneration rise ; the 
 better reasons we have for exclaiming, in the words of 
 Dryden, " I love Shakespeare." Assuredly the English 
 people do not yet know what they owe to this incom- 
 parable genius, do not actually understand the real extent 
 of their obligations. 
 
 In seeking to direct attention to the dedicatory epistle, 
 preface, commendatory verses, &c., prefixed to the folio 
 edition of 1623, we feel that we are conferring a boon upon 
 many persons who may not hitherto have been able to meet 
 with this information in a cheap and convenient forn 
 They are found for the most part in voluminous and 
 expensive editions, but have not, so far as the author 
 is aware, been circulated in the cheap standard literature 
 of the day. Familiarity with these interesting documents 
 
EVIDENCE RESPECTING IT. 85 
 
 ought to form the rudiments, so to speak, of our 
 knowledge of Shakespeare. Every reader of his works 
 should know something of the manner in which the 
 first folio was issued ; of the internal evidence it 
 contained of being a genuine work : and these are 
 the matters we now desire to investigate. Everybody 
 who has been engaged in researches upon this subject is 
 aware that four folio editions of the dramas of William 
 Shakespeare were published during the seventeenth cen- 
 tury, in the following years : 1623, 1632, 1664, and 1685. 
 To the former of these the attention of our readers will 
 be principally directed, and the remaining three may be 
 dismissed with a passing notice. 
 
 The second edition, which appeared in 1632, was little 
 more than a reprint of the first folio. It contained, how- 
 ever, the following testimony to the merits of Shakespeare, 
 from the pen of England's greatest epic poet, John 
 Milton. The lines are valuable evidence. They show 
 the opinion of this largely- gifted man, with reference to 
 the dramatist ; and if taken in connection with others 
 written at a later period in Milton's life, prove that, in 
 spite of his religious prejudices, and his objections to stage, 
 performances, he had a thorough appreciation of Shake- 
 speare, and recognized his true position amongst the 
 literary worthies of England. 
 
 "An Epitaph, on the admirable Dramaticke Poet, W. SHAKESPEARE. 
 
 " What neede my Shakespeare for his honour'd bones, 
 The labour of an Age, in piled stones, 
 Or that his hallow'd Reliques should be hid 
 Under a starre-ypoiriting Pyramid ? 
 Deare Sonne of Memory, great Heire of Fame, 
 What needst thou such dull witnesse of thy Name ? 
 Thou in our wonder and astonishment 
 Hast built thy selfe a lasting Monument : 
 For whil'st to th' shame of slow-endevouring Art, 
 Thy easie numbers flow, and that each part* 
 
 This has since been changed to " heart." 
 
86 FOLIO EDITION OF 1623. 
 
 Hath from the leaves of thy unvalued Booke, 
 Those Delphicke Lines with deepe Impression tooke 
 Then thou our fancy of her selfe bereaving. 
 Dost make us Marble with too much conceiving, 
 And so Sepulcher'd in such pompe dost lie 
 That Kings for such a Tombe would wish to die." 
 
 If we are to receive this, as a fair account of the repu- 
 tation achieved by the poet, and we must remember that 
 these lines were published only sixteen years after his 
 death, what will become of all the vapourings of his 
 numerous detractors ? Shall we credit what his assailants 
 rashly assert, in preference to the solemn testimony of 
 John Milton, a man not inclined to favour either the 
 drama or its productions? Again, a few years later 
 Milton cannot refrain from offering another tribute to his 
 illustrious predecessor, whose works had made such a deep 
 impression upon his mind. In " L' Allegro," he says : 
 
 "Then to the well- trod stage anon, 
 If Jonson's learned sock be on, 
 Or sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child, 
 Warble his native wood-notes wild." 
 
 This is collateral evidence of the highest order. 
 
 The third impression in folio appeared in 1664, and it 
 contained a great innovation, being no less than seven ad- 
 ditional plays, some of which had, indeed, been previously 
 traditionally ascribed to Shakespeare, and others which had 
 merely appeared anonymously, or with the initials " W. S." 
 These plays were thus inscribed on the title-page : 
 
 1. Pericles, Prince of Tyre. 
 
 2. The London Prodigall. 
 
 3. The History of Thomas Ld. Cromwell. 
 
 4. Sir John Oldcastle Lord Cobham. 
 
 5. The Puritan Widow. 
 
 6. A Yorkshire Tragedy. 
 
 7. The Tragedy of Locrine. 
 
 In the composition of some of these Shakespeare may 
 
EVIDENCE RESPECTING IT. 87 
 
 have lent a helping hand ; but that the greater portion of 
 them were the productions of other authors, few can. 
 doubt. Moreover, the fact that they were not given to 
 the world in the first folio, which was, as we shall see pre- 
 sently, issued by authority, must be conclusive. Shake- 
 speare did not consider them worthy of acknowledgment : 
 what ever share he may have had in their com position, cannot 
 now be determined; and we possess enough, stamped with 
 the impress of his mighty powers, and acknowledged by 
 himselfj to make us, comparatively speaking, careless about 
 the authorship of these rather indifferent specimens. 
 
 The fourth impression of the dramas in folio, published 
 in 1685, was merely a reprint of the edition of 1664 ; so 
 we come at once to the great Shakesperian fountain, and 
 source of our knowledge and delight, the folio edition of 
 1623. This was issued just seven years after the death of 
 its author, whom we hope to convince our readers was 
 none other than William Shakespeare. The title-page 
 of this edition contained a portrait of William Shake- 
 speare, in itself a very significant fact, and one quite deci- 
 sive enough to upset any absurd notions respecting the 
 claims of Bacon to its authorship. The work was thus 
 described: "Mr. William Shakespeare's Comedies, His- 
 tories, and Tragedies. Published according to the true 
 originall copies. London. Printed by Isaac Jaggard, 
 and Ed. Blount. 1623." On the opposite page, the 
 following oft- quoted lines by Ben Jonson appear. They 
 are addressed " to the Header : " 
 
 " This Figure, that thou here seest put, 
 
 It was for gentle Shakespeare cut ; 
 Wherein the Graver had a strife 
 
 With Nature, to out-doo the life : 
 O, could he but have drawne his Wit 
 
 As well in Brasse, as he hath hit 
 His Face ; the Print would then surpasse 
 
 All, that was ever writ in Brasse. 
 But, since he cannot, Reader, looke 
 
 Not on his Picture, but his Booke. B. I." 
 
88 FOLIO EDITION OF 1623. 
 
 The witnesses summoned by the concoctors of the 
 gigantic fraud which Mr. William Henry Smith would 
 have us believe was perpetrated with reference to these 
 dramas, are certainly of quite an opposite character to 
 what we should have anticipated. They were all honour- 
 able persons, although the work they had in hand was the 
 most dishonourable and ignominious that could well be 
 conceived. Strange infatuation ! that the workers in this 
 iniquity, contrary to the general rule, should have been 
 high-minded men, of birth and position. First and fore- 
 most amongst them stands Ben Jonson, " rare Ben 
 Jonson," the bosom friend, the fellow dramatist, the con- 
 stant companion of Shakespeare. Ben Jonson knew the 
 bard of Avon well ; he appreciated his merits, and compre- 
 hended his mighty superiority, as we learn from many of 
 his sayings and criticisms that have escaped the ravages of 
 time ; and his evidence is so valuable that we shall avail 
 ourselves of it anon. But Ben Jonson also knew Bacon 
 the man and the author and understood what a mighty 
 figure he made in the realms of Literature. In " Timber, 
 or Discoveries," he says : 
 
 " / have ever observed it to have been the office of a 
 wise Patriot, among the greatest affairs of the State, to 
 take care of the Commonwealth of Learning. For 
 Schools, they are the Seminaries of State : and nothing is 
 worthier the study of a Statesman, than that part of the 
 Republick, which we call the advancement of Letters. 
 Witness the case of Julius Caesar, who, in the heat of the 
 civil war, writ his books of Analogy, and dedicated them, 
 to Tully. This made the late Lord St. Alban entitle his 
 work, Novum Organum. Which though by the most 
 of superficial men, who cannot get beyond the title of 
 Nominals, it is not penetrated, nor understood : it really 
 openeth all defects of Learning, whatsoever, and is a book, 
 
 Qui longum noto scriptori porriget sevum. 
 My conceit of his Person was never increased toward 
 
EVIDENCE RESPECTING IT. 89 
 
 him, by his place, or honours. But I have, and do 
 reverence him for the greatness that was only proper to 
 himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, one 
 of the greatest men, and most worthy of admiration, that 
 had been in many Ages. In his adversity I ever prayed 
 that God would give him strength : for Greatness he could 
 not want. Neither could I condole in a word or syllable 
 for him ; as knowing no accident could do harm to virtue ; 
 but rather help to make it manifest." 
 
 Most assuredly Ben Jonson would not have penned the 
 commendatory verses upon William Shakespeare which we 
 before quoted, nor have written this eulogium on Francis 
 Bacon, when both of these great men were in their 
 graves, had they committed the vile fraud with which, 
 after more than two centuries of honourable renown, they 
 are so unjustly charged. The irritable jealousy of Jonson's 
 nature would have exploded at the great wrong done to 
 him and others, and he would have burst forth in an 
 eloquent invective against both the transgressors. 
 
 Let us proceed to consider evidence of a similar kind 
 that is crowding upon us. On turning to the next page, 
 we encounter "the Epistle Dedicatorie." It is thus 
 addressed and worded : 
 
 " To the most noble and incomparable paire of 
 Brethren, William Earle of Pembroke, <kc. 
 Lord Chamberlaine to the King's most 
 excellent Maiesty, and Philip Earle of 
 Montgomery, &c. Gentleman of his Maiestie's 
 Bed-Chamber. Both Knights of the most noble 
 order of the Garter and our singular good 
 Lords. 
 
 " RIGHT HONOURABLE, Whilst we studie to be thankful 
 in our particular, for the many favors we have received 
 from your L. L. we are falne upon the ill fortune, to mingle 
 two the most diverse things that can bee, feare, and 
 
90 FOLIO EDITION OF 1623. 
 
 rashnesse ; rashnesse in the enterprize, and feare of the 
 successe. For, when we valew the places your H. H. 
 sustaine, we cannot but know their dignity greater, then 
 to descend to the reading of these trifles : and, while we 
 name them trifles, we have depriv'd our selves of the 
 defence of our Dedication. But since your L. L. have 
 beene pleas'd to thinke these trifles something, heeretofore; 
 and have prosequuted both them, and their Authour 
 living, with so much favour : we hope, that (they out- 
 living him, and he not having the fate, common with 
 some, to be exequutor to his owne writings) you will use 
 the like indulgence toward them, you have done unto 
 their parent. There is a great difference, whether any 
 Booke choose his Patrones, or tinde them : This hath done 
 both. For, so much were your L. L. likings of the seve- 
 rall parts, when they were acted, as before they were 
 published, the volume ask'd to be yours. We have but 
 collected them, and done an office to the dead, to procure 
 his Orphanes, Guardians; without ambition either of selfe- 
 profit, or fame : onely to keep the memory of so worthy 
 a Friend, and Fellow alive, as was our Shakespeare, by 
 humble offer of his playes, to your most noble patronage. 
 Wherein, as we have justly observed, no man to come 
 neere your L. L. but with a kind of religious addresse; it 
 hath bin the height of our care, who are the Presenters, 
 to make the present worthy of your H. H. by the per- 
 fection. But, there we must also crave our abilities to be 
 consider'd, my Lords. We cannot go beyond our owne 
 powers. Country hands reach foorth milke, creame, fruites, 
 or what they have : and many Nations (we have heard) 
 that had not gummes and incense, obtained their requests 
 with a leavened Cake. It was no fault to approch their 
 Gods, by what meanes they could : And the most, though 
 meanest, of things are made more precious, when they are 
 dedicated to Temples. In that name therefore, we most 
 humbly consecrate to your H. H. these remaines of your 
 servant Shakespeare ; that what delight is in them, may 
 
EVIDENCE RESPECTING IT. 91 
 
 be ever your L. L. the reputation his, and the fault ours, 
 if any be committed, by a payre so caerfull to shew their 
 gratitude both to the living, and the dead, as is 
 
 " Your Lordshippes' most bounden, 
 
 "JOHN HEMINGE. 
 
 "HENRY CONDELL." 
 
 Our readers will naturally enough ask who the noble- 
 men were, thus freely appealed to ; and what kind of 
 persons put forth the appeal 1 The answer is simple 
 enough : the former were amongst the highest in the 
 land, and the latter were just those very individuals most 
 intimately acquainted with the private life and affairs of 
 the poet, for whose works they besought patronage and 
 favour. It will be sufficient for our present purpose to 
 obtain some particulars concerning one of the noblemen 
 thus addressed, the highest in rank, station, and authority ; 
 and having satisfied ourselves upon this point, to pass on 
 to other matters. 
 
 The most distinguished of the noble pair who are said 
 to have treated the author of these dramas with so much 
 favour, while living, was William Herbert, Earl of Pem- 
 broke, justly regarded as the glory of his age. His mother 
 was Mary, the sister of that true mirror of chivalry, Sir 
 Philip Sydney. She died in 1621, and Ben Jonson, in 
 seeking to do honour to her memory, composed one of the 
 most beautiful epitaphs in any language : 
 
 " Underneath this marble hearse 
 Lies the subject of all verse : 
 Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother : 
 Death, ere thou hast slain another, 
 Wise, and fair, and good as she, 
 Time shall throw a dart at thee." 
 
 In 1609 Lord Pembroke was appointed governor of 
 Portsmouth, and in 1615 he was made Lord Chamber- 
 lain of the household. He was also elected Chancellor 
 of the University of Oxford, and enjoyed the confidence 
 
92 FOLIO EDITION OF 1623. 
 
 of all classes of the community. Wood says, " His 
 mind was purely heroic, often stout, but never disloyal."* 
 That biographer continues : " He was not only a great 
 favourer of learned and ingenious men, but was himself 
 learned ;" and he was well known as the author of 
 several small poems. He died in 1630. In Clarendon's 
 magnificent Portrait-Gallery this nobleman occupies a 
 most prominent position. Thus is he delineated : 
 
 " William, Earl of Pembroke, was a man of another 
 mould and making, and of another fame and reputation 
 with all men, being the most universally loved and 
 esteemed of any man of that age ; and having a great 
 office in the court, he made the court itself better es- 
 teemed, and more reverenced in the country. And as he 
 had a great number of friends of the best men, so no 
 man had ever the wickedness to avow himself to be his 
 enemy. He was a man very well bred, and of excellent 
 parts, and a graceful speaker upon any subject, having 
 a good proportion of learning, and a ready wit to apply 
 it, and enlarge upon it ; of a pleasant and facetious 
 humour, and a disposition affable, generous, and magni- 
 ficent. He was master of a great fortune from his 
 ancestors, and had a great addition by his wife, another 
 daughter and heir of the Earl of Shrewsbury, which he 
 enjoyed during his life, she outliving him : but all served 
 not his expense, which was only limited by his great 
 mind, and occasions to use it nobly. 
 
 ***** 
 
 He was a great lover of his country, and of the re- 
 ligion and justice, which he believed could only support it ; 
 and his friendships were only with men of those prin- 
 ciples. And as his conversation was most with men of the 
 most pregnant parts and understanding, so towards any 
 who needed support or encouragement, though unknown, 
 if fairly recommended to him, he was very liberal. And 
 sure never man was planted in a court, that was fitter 
 * Athense Oxonienses. 
 
EVIDENCE RESPECTING IT. 93 
 
 for that soil, or brought better qualities with him to 
 purify that air."* 
 
 These are gracious praises ; and, to say nothing of 
 his brother Philip, who was associated with him in this 
 dedicatory epistle, it hardly seems possible that Bacon 
 would have allowed this insult to have been offered to a 
 nobleman of Lord Pembroke's influence and authority, 
 had he really been the author of those dramas then, 
 according to Mr. William Henry Smith's view of the 
 case, palmed off upon the world as the productions of 
 William Shakespeare. 
 
 . It must be noticed, that this is no simple compli- 
 mentary dedication. The writers state plainly that the 
 Earl of Pembroke had favoured the author of these plays 
 while living, that he liked the several parts when acted ; 
 thus signifying that he and all the world were well 
 acquainted with the fact of their authorship ; and while 
 they address this nobleman by his proper title, they 
 sign their own names to the dedication. Rarely is 
 fraud or forgery of any kind committed in this open 
 business-like manner. Indeed, they associate with him 
 his brother, the Earl of Montgomery, and by their con- 
 duct in each part of the transaction, give an air of truth 
 and honesty to the proceeding. 
 
 These indefatigable editors, and, according to Mr. 
 William Henry Smith's statement, egregious liars, en- 
 deavoured next to win the confidence and favour of the 
 general public. Having dedicated the work to two 
 noblemen, who were acquainted with its author, and 
 admirers of his unrivalled genius, they seek to establish 
 friendly relations with the reading portion of the com- 
 munity. A kind of preface,. " To the great Variety of 
 Readers," couched in these terms, comes next : 
 
 " From the most able, to him that can but spell : 
 There you are number'd. We had rather you were 
 * Works ; edition 1849, vol. i. book i. s. 120, p. 80, &c. 
 
94 FOLIO EDITION OF 1623. 
 
 weighd. Especially, when the fate of all Bookes de- 
 pends upon your capacities : and not of your heads alone, 
 but of your purses. Well ! It is now publique, and you 
 wil stand for your priviledges wee know : to read, and 
 censure. Do so, but buy it first. That doth best com- 
 mend a Booke, the Stationer saies. Then, how odde 
 soever your braines be, or your wisedomes, make your 
 licence the same, and spare not. Judge your sixpen'orth, 
 your shilling's worth, your five shillings' worth at a time, 
 or higher, so you rise to the just rates, and welcome. But, 
 what ever you do, Buy. Censure will not drive a Trade, 
 or make the Jacke go. And though you be a Magistrate 
 of wit, and sit on the Stage at Black-Friers, or the Cock- 
 pit, to arraigne Playes dailie, know, these Playes have 
 had their triall alreadie, and stood out all Appeales ; and 
 do now come forth quitted rather by a Decree of Court, 
 then any purchas'd Letters of commendation. 
 
 "It had bene a thing, we confesse, worthie to have 
 been wished, that the Author himselfe had liv'd to have 
 set forth j and overseen his owne writings ; But since it 
 hath bin ordain'd otherwise, and he by death departed 
 from that right, we pray you do not en vie his Friends, the 
 office of their care, and paine, to have collected and pub- 
 lish'd them ; and so to have publish'd them, as where 
 [before] you were abus'd with diverse stolne, and surrep- 
 titious copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and 
 stealthes of injurious impostors, that expos'd them : even 
 those, are now oifer'd to your view cur'd, and perfect of 
 their limbes ; and all the rest, absolute in their numbers, 
 as he conceived them. Who, as he was a happie imitator 
 of Nature, was a most gentle expresser of it. His mind 
 and hand went together : And what he thought, he 
 uttered with that easinesse, that wee have scarse received 
 from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our pro- 
 vince, who onely gather his works, and give them you, 
 to praise him. It is yours that reade him. And there 
 we hope, to your divers capacities, you will finde enough, 
 
EVIDENCE RESPECTING IT. 95 
 
 both to draw, and hold you : for his wit can no more 
 lie hid, then it could be lost. Reade him, therefore ; 
 and againe, and againe : And if then you doe not like 
 him, surely you are in some manifest danger, not to 
 understand him. And so we leave you to other of his 
 Friends, whom if you need, can bee your guides : if you 
 neede them not, you can leade yourselves, and others. 
 And such Readers we wish him. 
 
 " JOHN HEMINGE. 
 
 " HENRIE CONDELL." 
 
 Such is the testimony borne by two men who had 
 acted in his plays, were his associates, in every sense of 
 the term, partners in his pursuits, his emoluments, and 
 his fame ; and their evidence must be regarded as con- 
 clusive. Are we to suppose that if Bacon had written 
 these dramas, and Shakespeare had been the impostor 
 that Mr. AVilliam Henry Smith imagines, these editors, 
 who knew the man well, would have declared, " We have 
 scarce received from him a blot in his papers " ? With 
 Shakespeare's handwriting they must have been familiar, 
 and that, at least, Bacon could not imitate. The poet 
 had been dead seven years when the folio edition was 
 published. According to the new theory, Bacon revised 
 these dramas between 1621 and 1623 ; the manuscript 
 must, therefore, have been in his own handwriting, or in 
 that of the friend or scribe whose assistance he sought ; 
 and John Heminge and Henry Condell would not have 
 ventured to assert that they had received Shakespeare's 
 papers, and that they scarcely contained a blot. 
 
 Bacon, too, had some regard for the opinion of pos- 
 terity, some respect for his own fair fame ; and had 
 he committed this literary fraud, would not have allowed 
 it to go forth branded as a double deception. It would 
 have been bad enough to deceive the public respecting 
 the authorship of these incomparable works, without 
 adding to the wrong, and aggravating the injustice, by 
 
96 FOLIO EDITION OF 1623. 
 
 the assertion, " It had been a thing, we confess, worthy 
 to have been wished, that the author himself had lived 
 to have set forth and overseen his own writings. But 
 since it hath been ordained otherwise, and HE BY DEATH 
 DEPAKTED FROM THAT EIGHT, we pray you do not envy 
 his friends, the office of their care and pain, to have 
 collected and published them." Few men could be found 
 bad arid degraded enough to have affixed their names to 
 such a wanton desecration of the memory of the dead, to 
 such a gross injustice to the living. That preface forbids 
 the thought that any person but William Shakespeare 
 was the author of those dramas. This portion of the 
 address to the general reader is remarkable ; it is fatal 
 to the Baconian theory, fatal to any conceivable theory 
 that would attribute these productions to any conceivable 
 person but William Shakespeare. 
 
 The secret, moreover, of William Shakespeare's sup- 
 posed indifference to fame is also explained. Whilst 
 engaged in his theatrical duties, he did not enjoy leisure or 
 opportunity to superintend the publication of his dramatic 
 works. But in his retirement at Stratford-upon-Avon, 
 he addressed himself to the task; and the consequence 
 was, the collection of the thirty-six plays in the folio, 
 which he bequeathed to mankind as the productions of 
 his mighty mind. 
 
 His editors state that the public had been before 
 abused with " diverse stolen and surreptitious copies, 
 maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealths of inju- 
 rious impostors that exposed them ;" and that they had 
 received the poet's own papers, establishing the Shake- 
 spearian canon, and they could assert, without fear of con- 
 tradiction, " EVEN THOSE ARE NOW OFFERED TO YOUR VIEW 
 CURED, AND PERFECT OF THEIR LIMBS ; AND ALL THE REST 
 ABSOLUTE IN THEIR NUMBERS, AS HE CONCEIVED THEM." 
 
 The men who penned that preface are well known, their 
 assertion was not challenged when there were plenty of 
 persons able to do so, had it been false, and posterity may 
 
EVIDENCE RESPECTING IT. 97 
 
 receive their testimony without hesitation. It may suit 
 Mr. William Henry Smith's ideas of equity and fair- 
 dealing to declare that William Shakespeare did not 
 write these dramas ; but with such evidence as this in our 
 possession, we can smile at his frivolous expedients. 
 
 The corrupt state of the text cannot in the least degree 
 prejudice the view we have advocated ; for, in the first 
 place, the folio of 1623 was very carelessly edited; and 
 in the second place, our language has undergone many 
 transformations since the days of Elizabeth and the first 
 James ; and numerous changes in the outward circum- 
 stances of life, manners, and habits, have rendered allu- 
 sions and sayings obscure, which, at the time of the 
 publication of the first folio, were intelligible enough to 
 the least enlightened of the poet's readers. That the 
 folio of 1623 contains the real text of Shakespeare, few 
 can doubt. That must be our basis to work upon : all 
 else is rottenness. All ideas of new texts and infallible 
 correctors must end in smoke. Every attempt to clear 
 up an obscure passage, or to hit upon the solution of an 
 apparently corrupt reading, merits the warmest com- 
 mendation ; but conjectural emendations must not be 
 received for more than they are worth. The text of 1623 
 is the rock upon which we take our stand. Self-evident 
 blunders can be, of course, corrected ; the various readings 
 of the former quarto editions, whenever such readings are 
 entitled to consideration, can be added in foot-notes, and 
 the more discriminating suggestions of later commentators 
 appended. These form the legitimate materials of foot- 
 notes and illustrations, but they ought, on no account 
 whatever, to be given forth to the world as the words 
 which Shakespeare wrote. 
 
 Making due allowance for the blunders that would 
 inevitably occur in a work published ere printing had 
 attained any great degree of excellence, we are constrained 
 to admit that this edition was issued in a very slovenly 
 state. A single fact will prove the assertion. The 
 
 H 
 
98 FOLIO EDITION OF 1623. 
 
 name of " John Heminge" is spelt in two ways; and innu- 
 merable errors might be, and indeed have been, pointed 
 tout. 
 
 For the benefit of those who are not yet satisfied that 
 "William Shakespeare's claim to the authorship is fully 
 made out, another illustration of the fact is appended. 
 Following close upon the Address to " a great Variety of 
 Headers," comes this commendatory tribute from Ben 
 Jon son's ready and prolific pen : 
 
 " To the memwy of my beloved, the Author, MK. WILLIAM 
 SHAKESPEAKE : and what he hath left us. 
 
 "To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name, 
 
 Am I thus ample to thy Booke, and Fame : 
 While I confesse thy writings to be such, 
 
 As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much. 
 'Tis true, and all men's suffrage. But these wayes 
 
 Were not the paths I meant unto thy praise : 
 For seeliest* Ignorance on these may light, 
 
 Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right ; 
 Or blinde Affection, which doth ne're advance 
 
 The truth, but gropes, and urgeth all by chance ; 
 Or crafty Malice, might pretend this praise, 
 
 And thirike to ruine, where it seem'd to raise. 
 These are, as some infamous Baud, or Whore, 
 
 Should praise a Matron. What could hurt her more ? 
 But thou art proofe against them, and indeed 
 
 Above th' ill fortune of them, or the need. 
 I, therefore will begin. Soule of the Age ! 
 
 The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our Stage ! 
 My Shakespeare, rise ; I will not lodge thee by 
 
 Chaucer, or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lye 
 A little further, to make thee a roome : 
 
 Thou art a Moniment, without a Tombe, 
 And art alive still, while thy Booke doth live, 
 
 And we have wits to read, and praise to give. 
 That I not mixe thee so, my braine excuses ; 
 
 I meane with great, but disproportion'd Muses : 
 For, if I thought my judgement were of yeeres, 
 
 I should commit thee surely with thy peeres, 
 
 * I. e. most foolish. 
 
EVIDENCE RESPECTING IT. 99 
 
 And tell, how farre thou didst our Lily out-shine, 
 
 Or sporting Kyd, or Marlowe's mighty line. 
 And though thou hadst small Latine, and lesse Greeke, 
 
 From thence to honour thee, I would not seeke 
 For names ; but call forth thund'ring ^Eechilus, 
 
 Euripides, and Sophocles to us, 
 Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead, 
 
 To life againe, to heare thy Buskin tread, 
 And shake a Stage : Or, when thy Sockes were on, 
 
 Leave thee alone, for the comparison 
 Of all, that insolent Greece, or haughtie Rome 
 
 Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. 
 Triumph, my Britaine, thou hast one to showe, 
 
 To whom all Scenes of Europe homage owe. 
 He was not of an age, but for all time ! 
 
 And all the Muses still were in their prime, 
 When like Apollo he came forth to warme 
 
 Our eares, or like a Mercury to charme ! 
 Nature her selfe was proud of his designes, 
 
 And joy'd to weare the dressing of his lines ! 
 Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit, 
 
 As, since, she will vouchsafe no other Wit. 
 The merry Greeke, tart Aristophanes, 
 
 Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please ; 
 But antiquated, and deserted lye 
 
 As they were not of Nature's family. 
 Yet must I not give Nature all : Thy Art, 
 
 My gentle Shakespeare, must enjoy a part. 
 For though the Poet's matter, Nature be, 
 
 His Art doth give the fashion. And, that he, 
 Who casts to write a living line, must sweat, 
 
 (Such as thine are) and strike the second heat 
 Upon the Muses' anvile : turne the same, 
 
 (And himselfe with it) that he thinkes to frame ; 
 Or for the lawrell, he may gaine a scorne, 
 
 For a good Poet's made, as well as borne. 
 And such wert thou. Looke how the father's face 
 
 Lives in his issue, even so, the race 
 Of Shakespeare's minde, and manners brightly shines 
 
 In his well torned,* and true-filed lines : 
 In each of which, he seems to shake a Lance, 
 
 As brandish't at the eyes of Ignorance. 
 
 * /. e. turned. 
 H 2 
 
100 FOLIO EDITION OF 1623. 
 
 Sweet Swan of Avon ! what a sight it were 
 
 To see thee in our waters yet appeare, 
 And make those flights upon the bankes of Thames, 
 
 That so did take Eliza, and our James ! 
 But stay, I see thee in the Hemisphere 
 
 Advanc'd, and made a Constellation there ! 
 Shine forth, thou Starre of Poets, and with rage, 
 
 Or influence, chide or cheere the drooping Stage ; 
 Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourn 'd like night, 
 And despaires day, but for thy Volume's light. 
 
 "BEN JONSON." 
 
 This constitutes another link in the long chain of posi- 
 tive evidence by whichWilliam Shakespeare is proved to be 
 the author of these dramas ; and people may rest assured 
 that in any case his fellow-dramatist and colleague, Ben 
 Jonson, knew the whole truth of the matter. With him 
 there could have been no deception ; and he was about 
 the last man in the world to have winked at the atrocious 
 literary fraud which Mr. William Henry Smith would 
 have us believe was concocted by Bacon and Shakespeare. 
 In these commendatory verses Jonson speaks of William 
 Shakespeare's genius with the voice of authority. From 
 other sources we learn what wit-encounters occurred 
 between the sturdy rivals, what meetings they had at 
 the Mermaid, and how Shakespeare's life and soul were 
 revealed, as it were, to the eye of his friend. Jonson 
 would not have mentioned Shakespeare as being superior 
 to all poets, both ancient and modern, if he had not felt 
 his manifest superiority, and had something better than 
 mere rumour or idle gossip in support of the opinion. 
 While calling him 
 
 " Soul of the age ! 
 The applause ! delight ! the wonder of our Stage ! " 
 
 and placing him above Chaucer, Spenser, Beaumont, Lyly, 
 Kyd, Marlow, -^schylus, Euripides, Sophocles, and other 
 poets, he does not forget to notice, 
 
 "And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek." 
 
EVIDENCE RESPECTING IT. 101 
 
 Jonson did not aim at extravagance in his eulogium, and 
 he felt that he was uttering sober truth in saying, with 
 reference to Shakespeare, 
 
 " Triumph, my Britain ! thou hast one to show, 
 To whom all scenes of Europe homage owe ! 
 He was not of an age, but for all time ! " 
 
 And the almost unanimous assent of successive gene- 
 rations, for more than two centuries, has, in a wonderful 
 manner, approved the justice of the tribute. 
 
 Such were the seals of authenticity with which the 
 first folio was given to the world. The witnesses who 
 speak to the character and the identity of the poet are 
 of three classes. First, two noblemen, high in honour 
 and authority ; secondly, two of the poet's fellow-actors 
 and associates ; thirdly, his bosom friend and companion, 
 Ben Jonson. The concurrent testimony of so many wit- 
 nesses establishes the fact of authorship beyond even the 
 suspicion of a doubt ; and we may be sure, that if these 
 men were in error, Mr. William Henry Smith is not the 
 kind of person to set them right. William Shakespeare, 
 and not Francis Bacon, produced these masterpieces : of 
 this fact we possess irrefragable evidence ; and it is not 
 only an injustice to the character of the poet, but is also 
 an insult to the English nation, to maintain the contrary; 
 nor do we envy the detractor who voluntarily comes 
 forward to assail the reputations of the two most honoured 
 names in our literature. 
 
102 THE TESTIMONY OF 
 
 CHAPTER VIII. 
 
 THE TESTIMONY OF RARE BEN JONSON. 
 
 " Oh his desert speaks loud ; and I should wrong it, 
 To lock it in the ward of covert bosom, 
 When it deserves with characters of brass 
 A forted residence 'gainst the tooth of time 
 And razure of oblivion." 
 
 MEASURE FOR MEASURE. 
 
 THAT William Shakespeare and Ben Jonson were bound 
 together by the holiest ties of friendship, is a fact sub- 
 stantiated in the most satisfactory manner. Shakespeare 
 is even said to have befriended his contemporary, and been 
 a kind of godfather to many of Ben's productions ; but, 
 be that as it may, this much is certain, they lived in the 
 closest intimacy, harmony, and companionship. Many 
 anecdotes of their friendship have been preserved ; of 
 which none can be more pleasing than the following, 
 introduced by Mr. William J. Thorns, in his " Anecdotes 
 and Traditions, illustrative of Early English History and 
 Literature, derived from MS. sources."* 
 
 11 SHAKSPEARE'S GIFT TO HIS GOD-CHILD. 
 
 " Shake-speare was god-father to one of Ben Jonson's 
 children, and after the christ'ning, being in a deepe study, 
 Jonson came to cheere him up, and ask't him why he 
 was so melancholy? ' No, faith, Ben, (sayes he) not I, 
 but I have been considering a great while what should 
 be the fittest gift for me to bestow upon my god -child, 
 and I have resolv'd at last.' ' I pr'y the, what 1 ' sayes 
 
 * Part i. p. 2, No. 3. Published amongst the works of the 
 Camden Society. 
 
RARE BEN JONSON. 103 
 
 he. ' I' faith, Ben, I'le e'en give him a douzen good 
 Lattin Spoones, and thou shalt translate them.' " 
 
 For the assistance of the general reader, to whom the 
 meaning of this anecdote may not be perfectly intelligible, 
 the editor adds this explanatory note. 
 
 " The MS. from which we are selecting, is the original 
 authority for this anecdote, which we cannot forbear 
 inserting, although we know it has frequently been 
 printed. To omit it would be to destroy the complete- 
 ness of our selection ; and few persons will object to be 
 reminded of so pleasant an illustration of the friendship 
 betwixt the Bard of Avon and rare old Ben. It gives 
 us, as it were, a taste of the combats between the wits of 
 those days, so charmingly described by Beaumont in his 
 letter to Jonson : 
 
 ' What things have we seen 
 
 Done at the Mermaid ! heard words that have been 
 So nimble and so full of subtle flame, 
 As if that every one from whom they came 
 Had meant to put his whole wit in a jest ! ' 
 
 The practice of giving apostle spoons at christenings has 
 been thus described by Steevens, in a note to Henry VIII., 
 Act v. Sc. 2 : 
 
 "'It was the custom formerly for the sponsors at 
 christenings, to offer gilt spoons as a present to the child. 
 These spoons were called Apostle spoons, because the 
 figures of the Apostles were carved on the top of the 
 handles. Such as were at once opulent and generous 
 gave the whole twelve ; those who were either more 
 moderately rich or liberal escaped at the expense of the 
 four Evangelists, or even sometimes contented themselves 
 with presenting one spoon only, which exhibited the 
 figure of any saint in honour of whom the child received 
 its name.' 
 
 " Shakspeare following this custom, and willing to show 
 his wit, if not his wealth, gave a dozen spoons, not of 
 
104 THE TESTIMONY OF 
 
 silver but of latten ; a name formerly used to signify a 
 mixed metal, resembling brass, as being the most appro- 
 priate gift to the child of a father so learned." 
 
 In his history of the Worthies of England, Fuller,* 
 speaking of Shakespeare, refers to his intimacy with Ben 
 Jonson, in these terms : " Many were the wit-combates 
 betwixt him and Ben Johnson, which two I behold like a 
 Spanish great gallion, and an English rnan-of-war ; Master 
 Johnson, like the former, was built far higher in learning ; 
 solid, but slow in his performances ; Shake-spear, with the 
 English man-of-war, lesser in bulk, but lighter in sailing, 
 could turn with all tides, tack about and take advantage 
 of all winds, by the quickness of his wit and invention." 
 
 Having established the fact of their firm friendship, 
 cordial intimacy, and constant intercourse, let us endeavour 
 to ascertain what kind of a man Jonson was ; to discover 
 whether he was a person likely to wink at Shakespeare's 
 fraudulent appropriation of the fame of another, or even to 
 allow him to strut in " borrowed plumes." Jonson, it ap- 
 pears, had a marvellous good opinion of himself, and though 
 willing to bow to such a superior mind as he recognized 
 in Shakespeare, was rather inclined to jealousy, and 
 was, moreover, a thorough and an avowed enemy to 
 pretenders of every class and denomination. 
 
 In 1619, Ben Jonson went into Scotland, on a visit to 
 Drummond of Hawthornden, who noted down many of 
 Ben's conversations, and appended to these a sketch of the 
 man. Drummond thus describes him : " He is a great 
 lover and praiser of himself ; a contemner and scorner of 
 others ; given rather to losse a friend than a jest; jealous 
 of every word and action of those about him, (especiallie 
 after drink, which is one of the elements in which he 
 liveth;) a dissembler of ill parts which raigne in him, a 
 
 * Published in 1662 (Warwickshire), p. 126. 
 
RARE BEN JONSOX. 105 
 
 bragger of some good that he wanteth; thinketh nothing 
 well but what either he himself or some of his friends 
 and countrymen hath said or done ; he is passionately 
 kynde and angry ; careless either to gaine or keep ; vin- 
 dicative, but, if he be well answered, at himself. 
 
 " For any religion, as being versed in both. Interpreteth 
 best sayings and deeds often to the worst. Oppressed 
 with fantaisie, which hath ever mastered his reason, a 
 generall desease in many Poets. His inventions are 
 smooth and easie ; but above all he excelleth in a 
 Translation. When his play of a Silent Woman was first 
 acted, ther was found verses after on the stage against 
 him, concluding that that play was well named the 
 Silent Woman, ther was never one man to say Plaudit e 
 to it."* 
 
 Making due allowance for a little exaggeration, the 
 effect, probably, of wounded pride, we may regard this as 
 a fair sketch of Ben Jonson's character. It cannot be 
 disputed that he was of a jealous temperament. 
 
 Drummond, whose Scotch prejudices had received a 
 shock from some jest or biting sarcasm uttered by the 
 poet, may, however, have sketched his faults a little too 
 roughly. Jonson knew Shakespeare thoroughly, had 
 tested both his abilities and his friendship, and being 
 an enemy to all pretenders, would, had Shakespeare 
 not been the author of the dramas that bear his name, 
 instead of penning laudatory verses in honour of his 
 genius, have overwhelmed him with shame and confusion. 
 
 It is recorded in these memorable conversations, that 
 Jonson asserted that "Shakespeare wanted art." That 
 he was not blind to his contemporary's faults, nor anxious 
 to spare him, we may learn from what follows : 
 
 " His wit was in his oune power ; would the rule of it 
 had beene so too. Many times hee fell into those things, 
 
 * Drummond's Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations, p. 40. Pub- 
 lished amongst the works of the Shakespeare Society. 
 
106 THE TESTIMONY OF 
 
 could not escape laughter : As when he saide in the 
 person of Ccesar, one speaking to him : Ccesar tJwu dost 
 me wrong. He replied : Ccesar did never wrong, but with 
 just cause : and such like, which were ridiculous. But 
 hee redeemed his vices, with his vertues. There was ever 
 more in him to be praysed, then to be pardoned."* 
 
 This criticism was uttered some time after Shakespeare's 
 death ; and is recorded in his " Timber, or Discoveries," 
 collected at a late period in Ben Jonson's life. It is in- 
 troduced after the following : 
 
 " I remember, the players have often mentioned it as an 
 honour to Shakespeare, that in his writing, (whatsoever 
 he penned) he never blotted out line. My answer hath 
 been, Would he had blotted a thousand. Which they 
 thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity 
 this, but for their ignorance, who choose that circumstance 
 to commend their friend by, wherein he most faulted. 
 And to justify mine own candour, for I loved the man, 
 and do honour his memory (on this side idolatry) as much 
 as any. He was (indeed) honest, and of an open, and free 
 nature; had an excellent Phantasy, brave notions, and 
 gentle expressions : wherein he flowed with that facility, 
 that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped. 
 fSufflaminandus erat, as Augustus said of Haterius." 
 
 We are approaching the end of this labour of love, and 
 as the proofs accumulate around us, feel almost tempted 
 to ask, whether any sane being can be found who partici- 
 pates in the delusions of the traducer of Shakespeare, 
 whose calumnies have induced us to take up our pen] 
 Was Ben Jonson, and were the poor players also liars and 
 deceivers ? Here J onson asserts in the most solemn 
 manner, while seeking, as he himself confesses, the con- 
 fidence of posterity, that Shakespeare " WAS INDEED 
 
 * Timber, or Discoveries (1641), p. 98. 
 
RARE BEN JONSON. 107 
 
 HONEST, AND OF AN OPEN AND FREE NATURE ; HAD AN EX- 
 CELLENT PHANTASY, BRAVE NOTIONS, AND GENTLE EXPRES- 
 SIONS : WHEREIN HE FLOWED WITH THAT FACILITY, THAT 
 SOMETIMES IT WAS NECESSARY HE SHOULD BE STOPPED/' 
 
 His honesty, and his open and free nature, would have 
 revolted at the idea of the fraud ; his excellent fancy, 
 and his ready wit, were equal to the task of producing 
 all that went forth to the world with the authority of his 
 name. 
 
 Jon son, the friend, fellow-dramatist, and constant 
 associate of the poet, who survived him several years, 
 declares, that " Shakespeare was indeed honest, and of an 
 open and free nature ; had an excellent fancy, brave 
 notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with 
 that facility, that sometimes it was necessary he should be 
 stopped ;" and in another place, " I loved the man, and do 
 honour his memory (on this side idolatry) as much as 
 any." Mr. William Henry Smith, who knows nothing of 
 the man, and cannot even appreciate his wonderful pro- 
 ductions, more than two centuries after he has been dead 
 and buried, declares that he was an arrant impostor, that 
 he did not write the dramas attributed to him, and that 
 his name, instead of being a blessed light, and a beacon 
 on the high-places of literature, is a mere mockery, a fitful 
 and a treacherous Jack o'Lantern. 
 
 Henceforward, we are told, William Shakespeare is to be 
 classed amongst those who have appeared under false colours 
 amongst their fellows. Like a holiday mimicry of fire, by 
 their rapid rise and brilliant glare, such meteors in the intel- 
 lectual firmament may dazzle for a moment ; but if watched 
 and examined, they will prove to be, not planets, shining 
 with a steadfast light, from age to age, but a mere evanescent 
 flame, that glitters for a season, and as suddenly expires. 
 They are the Will-o'-the- Wisps of literature, and instead 
 of guiding men to their quiet and happy homes, lead them 
 among brambles, into bogs and over precipices. 
 
 Reader, look upon " this picture and on that." Which 
 
108 THE TESTIMONY OF RARE BEN JONSON. 
 
 testimony do you deem worthy of credit, that of the 
 poet's contemporary of the seventeenth, or that of his 
 traducer of the nineteenth century ? Ben Jonson's com- 
 mendations were penned long after both Bacon arid Shake- 
 speare had been removed from the busy scenes of life ; * 
 when there could consequently have been no necessity for 
 further concealment, and he would have gladly availed 
 himself of the opportunity of unmasking the impostor. 
 But no such task fell to his lot ; he knew the real extent 
 of Shakespeare's powers, and fully comprehended his 
 immeasurable superiority. He experienced a sacred 
 delight in assisting to erect a monument to the memory 
 of William Shakespeare, for he entertained a deep and 
 reverential affection for his deceased friend, and was pro- 
 bably aware that the humblest labourer in that pious 
 work would secure renown as the reward of his exertions. 
 Jonson, with his noble zeal, and his manly, honest love 
 of the poet, had the sagacity to perceive that his friendship 
 with the Bard of Avon would be a surer passport to the 
 grateful remembrance of posterity than the merit of his 
 own dramatic productions, though excellent of their 
 kind. Jonson felt himself safe under the fostering pro- 
 tection of his mighty contemporary ; he knew that, hand 
 in hand with Shakespeare, he could bid defiance to the 
 mouldering touch of time ; that he should not die as 
 meaner mortals do, whose remembrance is buried with 
 them : and the result has justified his sagacity. By cling- 
 ing to the skirts of Shakespeare's mantle, he has become 
 a partner in his immortality upon earth ; and when men 
 talk of that mighty genius, they make honourable mention 
 of his constant friend, his fellow- dramatist, and his warm 
 admirer rare Ben Jonson. 
 
 * Shakespeare died in 1616 ; Bacon in 1626 ; and Jonson in 1637. 
 The latter had been made poet laureate in 1619. 
 
109 
 
 CHAPTER IX. 
 
 SHAKESPERIAN CRITICISM. 
 
 "It maybe regretted, that a large capacity and vigorous imagination 
 are so seldom accompanied by Taste. The tender blossom of 
 fancy faded in the hard pressure of Warburton. He has become 
 his own accuser in the annotation he wrote upon these two lines 
 of Shakspere : 
 
 'And cuckoo-buds of yellow hue 
 Do paint the meadows with delight ;' 
 
 a description so rural and eaay, that we might have expected it 
 to escape even the predatory pen of a commentator. Hear 
 Warburton : ' I would read thus, 
 
 Do paint the meadows much bedight, 
 
 i. e. much bedecked and adorned, as they are in spring-time.' 
 Yet, if they are much bedight already, they do not require 
 to be painted. The image has two sides. One looks to the 
 eye ; the other to the feelings. The emotional appeal is the 
 more affecting. But Warburton runs his pen through it, for- 
 
 fetting how that tuneful friend, whom he delighted to honour, 
 ad lashed the conjecturing tribe ; 
 
 * Whose unwearied pains 
 ^ Made Horace dull, and humbled Maro's strains.' 
 
 The lovers of Shakspere will hope that the last revision of his 
 works is inflicted. His poetry has been too long the orchard of 
 editors, who leave disastrous proofs of their activity in trunks 
 stripped of ivy, shattered boughs, and trampled enclosures. 
 Some squalid article of intellectual dress, which they call an 
 emendation, sticking among the rich fruit, proclaims the plun- 
 derer to have been up in the tree. It happens, indeed, that the 
 sentiment of anger is occasionally softened by a sense of the 
 ridiculous. One adventurer has no sooner packed up his little 
 bundle of pillage, than he is way -laid by a fierce contemporary 
 on the opposite side. Then begin the clamour, the reproach, 
 and the struggle. Pamphlets are hurled ; satirical blows are 
 showered ; the quarrel waxes furious : 
 
 ' Collecti flores tunicis cecidere remissis.' 
 
110 SHAKESPERIAN CRITICISM. 
 
 The assertion of Bacon, that the most corrected copies of an 
 author are commonly the least correct, may advantageously 
 be stamped as an introductory motto for every copy of Shak- 
 spere." WILLMOTT, Pleasures, Objects, and Advantages of Lite- 
 rature, chap. vii. p. 28. 
 
 LITERATURE may be termed the garden or pleasure- 
 grounds of the mind, in which the choicest productions, 
 either for purposes of improvement or recreation, are 
 freely disclosed to all comers. A part of the goodly heritage 
 is devoted to the cultivation of those plants which are used 
 for food, and nourish the mind with knowledge, while the 
 remainder is enriched with blossoms and flowers, intended 
 for ornament and intellectual relaxation. The enchant- 
 ing domains of literature and the beautiful groves of phi- 
 losophy and science abound with the choicest treasures 
 that man can possess. Here are varied enjoyments, all 
 perfect in their kind, and of the rarest excellence. On 
 one side, the giant evergreens of history, rejoicing in 
 the freshness of their perennial strength, charm with 
 their verdure, and invite the wanderer to repose beneath 
 their shade. In another portion of this truly happy 
 valley, the fragrant flowers of poesy enrich the air with 
 their choice perfumes. At another bend in the fair scene, 
 the ear is soothed, and the mental vision gratified, by the 
 gently-lapsing streams of narrative and biography meander- 
 ing among the rich contrasts afforded by various regions 
 'and eccentric minds. Here long vistas of philosophy 
 beguile the adventurer into intermingling paths and 
 labyrinthine arbours, where of old the noble Socrates, 
 the gentle Plato, arid the princely Bacon, were accustomed 
 to ramble and discourse ; while the whole prospect is 
 enlivened by the sunshine of wit, humour, and highly- 
 cultivated imaginations. 
 
 Amongst the kingly intellects assembled in this fair 
 domain, our Shakespeare stands pre-eminent. He made 
 a great figure in his own day, being generally recognized 
 
SHAKESPERIAN CRITICISM. Ill 
 
 as the master-spirit of his time. Other gifted men were 
 proud to do homage to his superior genius; and "his art 
 was of such power," that even mighty sovereigns acknow- 
 ledged its influence. The " Merry Wives of Windsor," 
 as Dennis tells us, was written at the command of Queen 
 Elizabeth.* " I knew very well," he says, speaking of this 
 comedy, " that it had pleased one of the greatest queens 
 that ever was in the world, great not only for her wisdom 
 in the arts of government, but for her knowledge of 
 polite learning, and her nice taste of the drama, for 
 such a taste we may be sure she had, by the relish 
 which she had of the ancients. This comedy was written 
 at her command, and by her direction, and she was so eager 
 to see it acted, that she commanded it to be finished in 
 fourteen days, and was afterwards, as tradition tells us, 
 very well pleased at the representation." Howe, in 1709, 
 repeats the story, and asserts that " Elizabeth was so 
 well pleased with that admirable character of FalstafF, in 
 the two parts of Henry IV., that she commanded him to 
 continue it for one play more, and to show him in love : 
 this is said to be the occasion of his writing the Merry 
 Wives of Windsor." A year later Gildon confirms these 
 traditions. 
 
 One fragment from the account of the revels in the 
 reign of James I., discovered by Mr. P. Cunningham 
 at the Audit Office, shows the popularity of Shake- 
 speare in his own day; and as a proof how, even in 
 contemporary historical documents of undoubted authen- 
 ticity, his name was connected with the authorship of the 
 plays, a copy of this interesting paper is annexed. 
 
 * Comical Gallant, or the Amours of Sir John Falstaff (1702). 
 The Epistle dedicatory. 
 
112 
 
 SHAKESPERIAN CRITICISM. 
 
 ThePlaiers. 
 
 1605. 
 
 By the 
 
 Kings 
 
 Ma tis 
 
 plaiers. 
 
 By his 
 
 Ma tis 
 
 plaiers. 
 
 By the 
 Kings 
 players. 
 
 The 
 
 Kings 
 players. 
 
 Hallamas Day being the first of No- 
 vembar, A play in the Banketinge 
 House att Whithall called the Moor of 
 Venis. [Nov. 1st, 1604.] 
 
 The Sunday ffollowinge, a play of the 
 Merry Wives of Winsor. [Nov. 4th, 
 1604.] 
 
 On St. Stivens night in the hall a play 
 called Mesur for Mesur. [Dec. 26th, 
 1604.] 
 
 On Inosents Night the Plaie of Errors. 
 [Dec. 28th, 1604.] 
 
 Betwin Newers day and Twelfe day a 
 play of Loves Labours Lost. [1605.] 
 
 On the 7 of January was played the 
 play of Henry the fift. [1605.] 
 
 On Shrovsunday a play of the Mart- 
 chant of Venis. [Mar. 24th, 1605.] 
 
 On Shrovtusday a play cauled the 
 Martchant of Venis againe commanded 
 by the Kings Ma tie [26 Mar. 1605.] 
 
 [Accounts from Oct. 31st, 1611, to 
 Nov. 1st, 1612.] 
 
 Hallomas nyght was presented att 
 Whithall before the Kinges Ma tie a play 
 called the Tempest. [Nov. 1st, 1611.] 
 
 The 5th of November : A play called 
 the Winters Nightes Tayle. [1611.] 
 
SHAKESPERIAN CRITICISM. 113 
 
 From these notices it is evident enough, that early in 
 the seventeenth century Shakespeare was the sole drama- 
 tist popular at court. It is true that his popularity soon 
 after suffered a decline, that the glory ot the drama was 
 temporarily obscured ; and when a revival ensued, false 
 notions respecting both his works and his life prevailed ; 
 but this is the first time that anything like a determined 
 and deliberate attempt has been made to brand him as 
 an arrant impostor. 
 
 The current of Shakesperian criticism during the last 
 century was neither worthy of the poet nor honourable 
 to our literature. The various commentators and editors 
 of that period may be said to have tolerated rather than 
 to have admired or comprehended Shakespeare. Eager 
 to discover blemishes, they scarcely noticed his beauties ; 
 intent upon finding out his weakness, they never paused 
 to consider what a giant he was when he put forth all his 
 strength. Even Samuel Johnson, with his fervent love 
 of what was truthful and good, and his manly detestation 
 of quackery and tinsel, betrayed something like presump- 
 tion in his way of treating Shakespeare, and can scarcely 
 be said to have fathomed the depths of his mighty genius. 
 
 Without going further into details, we may select his 
 criticisms upon the " Midsummer Night's Dream," and 
 " Twelfth Night, or What you Will," as illustrations of 
 this fact. He sneered at the former, as being " wild and 
 fantastical," and declared that the latter exhibits no "just 
 picture of life." 
 
 Wild and fantastical, indeed, is that lovely " Midsummer 
 Night's Dream," which unfolds before one, 
 
 " Like the sweet south 
 That breathes upon a bank of violets, 
 Stealing and giving odour." 
 
 How fair, too, are the scenes to which, like an en- 
 chantress, this comedy transports our minds ! How soft 
 the skies, how balmy the air, how fragrant the perfume ! 
 and who can forget the gentle trip of the fairies that 
 
114 SHAKESPERIAN CRITICISM. 
 
 flit before one like the soft hues of twilight ! Bo not 
 the accents of love, passionate, melancholy, and tender, 
 linger in our ears, like a half-remembered melody 1 Can 
 we be insensible to the rustic humour of the clowns, and 
 the glorious consummation of the entire performance ? 
 Wild and fantastical it may be ; but the wildness and 
 the fantasy are above all human effort ; and we can only 
 pity those upon whose minds these manifold beauties pro- 
 duce no agreeable impression. 
 
 In "Twelfth Night," do we find "no just picture of 
 life " ? Is it not one grand picture of human life, made 
 up of pleasant scenes, set like choice miniatures, in 
 the ample canvas of the complete work ? as thousands 
 of stars, and the moon progressing in glory through the 
 blue expanse of the firmament, and the fantastic clouds, 
 looking down upon the grove and the forest, the meadow 
 and the cornfield, the mountain and the valley, reflecting 
 their beauty and their brightness, in a world of streams, 
 in the calm bosom of the waveless lake, and in the 
 rugged breast of the expanded ocean, are all of them 
 small, yet perfect accessories, grouped together in rich 
 profusion, to form the magnificent picture of a summer's 
 night. Is it not all life, all nature, all reality ? So much 
 so, indeed, that we are almost tempted to yield to the 
 influence of the softer passion, with Olivia, Viola, and 
 the Duke ; are ready to quaff with Sir Toby and Sir 
 Andrew ; to plot innocent stratagems with Maria ; to 
 laugh, philosophize, and make merry with the Clown ? 
 
 Shakespeare was poetry itself ; the stream flowed from 
 him naturally, as from a fountain. He is truly the 
 oracle of Nature ; and this " Twelfth Night " may be 
 regarded as one of his sublimest interpretations. To 
 those who have been in the South, the perusal of those 
 plays of Shakespeare in which the scene is laid in that 
 sunny clime, seems to bring the whole country, as if by 
 enchantment, before the mind. The same dark-eyed and 
 sylph-like damsels smile j the same careless and exuberant 
 
SHAKE6PERIAN CRITICISM. 115 
 
 beings make love, and pass the time in gentle dalliance ; 
 the same glorious sun shines; the same quiet landscapes, 
 prodigal of abundance, reveal their richness; and the 
 same large-souled Nature, if we may apply the term, 
 appears in all. And " Twelfth Night " tells of such a 
 clime. In reading it, we are led through gardens, bowers, 
 and streets, where the busy hand of restless occupation 
 does not forbid sweet converse. So unlike our own land, 
 yet so like those climes in which the present hour is 
 looked upon as the sole treasure. There life does not, 
 like the great philosophy of the master mind, 
 
 " Look both before and after." 
 Bulwer Lytton says, in " King Arthur," 
 
 " Life may have holier ends than happiness." 
 
 It would be a dangerous thing to preach this to those 
 gay children of the South. Could they, receive the 
 doctrine ? Could they be induced to look beyond the 
 present hour ? Perchance they might. Perhaps, under 
 all the levity of outward appearance, this sunshine of 
 existence, a latent current flows strong within. 
 
 Our own sweet Shakespeare has made the Clown (no 
 mean philosopher) ask the question, " What is the opinion 
 of Pythagoras concerning wild fowl 1 " The oppressed 
 answers, and adds, 
 
 " I think nobly of the soul, and no way approve his 
 opinion." 
 
 And what is the Clown's reply ? Is it nob a com- 
 mentary upon the present condition of the inhabitants 
 of that clime ? " Remain thou still in darkness : thou 
 shalt hold the opinion of Pythagoras, ere I will allow of 
 thy wits." 
 
 Gentle Reader, " for," in the words of Southey, " if 
 
 thou art fond of such works as these, thou art like to be 
 
 the Gentleman arid the Scholar," is it not so now 1 
 
 Does not the spiritual and temporal despot demand 
 
 I 2 
 
116 SHAKESPERIAN CRITICISM. 
 
 implicit obedience to doctrines almost as pernicious as 
 those of Pythagoras ; and does he not keep the people 
 bound in an iron and hopeless tyranny 1 Do they not 
 remain in darkness still 1 Does not something worse 
 than folly reign, and are not all ranks oppressed beneath 
 it ? Are not these scenes, then, living pictures, speaking 
 to our inmost souls ? 
 
 Thus were the perfect productions of Shakespeare 
 criticised by those who might have been expected to ap- 
 proach the contemplation of them in a reverential spirit. 
 That species of criticism lias, however, been replaced by 
 something more worthy of the poet, and more honourable 
 to the critic. We had triumphed over the deer-story, 
 the poverty, the imperfect education, and a thousand 
 minor matters relating to the career of the man and the 
 works of the poet, when up springs Mr. William Henry 
 Smith with his new theory. 
 
 We have .shown by infallible proofs, that it is alto- 
 gether untenable. -Not only is it contrary to all our 
 knowledge and experience ; it is decidedly the opposite 
 of what we might expect. The inconsistencies of the 
 whole story, apart from the evidence against it, are 
 monstrous. The imperfect education of Shakespeare has 
 formed the subject for the keenest attacks of the critics, 
 and these dramas of the poor and ignorant player are at 
 length assigned to the most learned man of the age ! 
 Shakespeare has been derided for his assumed ignorance 
 of Latin and Greek ; now we are told that these dramas 
 were composed by one of the best classical scholars of 
 the Elizabethan period. Moreover, if Bacon superin- 
 tended the publication of these works, how are we to 
 account for the slovenly manner in which they issued 
 from the press 1 Even had he been unable to attend to 
 the actual correction of the sheets at the time of publi- 
 cation, he lived three years after the first folio appeared, 
 and could, of course, have inserted corrections in the 
 margin, which might have been used for the second 
 
SIIAKESPERIAN CRITICISM* 117 
 
 impression. Why did he lay down his pen at Shake- 
 speare's death, whom he survived ten years 1 All the 
 dramas which are even attributed to Shakespeare are 
 known to have been in existence previous to 1616. We 
 cannot suppose that, having written thirty-six such plays 
 before that date, Bacon would not have penned another 
 line of blank verse, nor have left a scrap of that kind 
 of composition amongst his papers. The story, from 
 beginning to end, is almost too absurd to be dealt with 
 seriously. 
 
 No two minds could be more dissimilar than those of 
 Bacon and Shakespeare ; they were both monarchs in the 
 realms of literature, but they sat upon different thrones : 
 theirs was not a joint sovereignty ; they ruled over 
 separate empires. Shakespeare possessed great natural 
 genius ; Bacon's mind was a store-house of learning. 
 The one had power to create, the other to mould all 
 human knowledge to his mighty will. Bacon was a 
 dictator amongst philosophers and schoolmen ; Shake- 
 speare, a king amongst poets. The one dived deep 
 beneath the surface, and brought up rich pearls of 
 thought ; the other plucked the flowers as he passed 
 along ; received his inspiration direct from all-bounteous 
 Nature ; and held mysterious communion with her. 
 
 Bacon's fine reasoning powers, his rich and varied 
 acquisitions of learning, his firm grasp of thought, all 
 assisted to render him one of the mightiest beings that 
 ever appeared upon earth. Yet his was not intuitive 
 wisdom ; he accumulated rich stores, and extracted their 
 essence ; he fed upon the fruit of the tree of knowledge, 
 and waxed strong. What a prince he was amongst 
 philosophers ! Yet how unlike our 
 
 " Sweetest Shakespeare, fancy's child, 
 Warbling his native wood-notes wild." 
 
 In all the treasures Bacon amassed for posterity, we 
 do not find a trace of the magic power that holds us 
 
118 BHAKESPERIAN CRITICISM. 
 
 spell-bound in the antechamber of Macbeth's castle, or 
 draws tears from our eyes, when we read of Ophelia's sad 
 fate in " the weeping brook." 
 
 Our great dramatist died at a comparatively early age, 
 yet in what a blaze of splendour did his sun go down ! 
 What glorious treasures did he bequeath to mankind ! 
 What a priceless legacy to posterity ! What acquisi- 
 tions for the literature of this country, rich as it was 
 at that period ! " King Lear," " Troilus and Cressida," 
 " The Tempest," and " The Winter's Tale," were amongst 
 the latest of his productions ; not to mention " Henry 
 the Eighth," with the completion of which he pro- 
 bably laid down his pen. His genius was lofty and 
 commanding, but nature and men, not books, were the 
 works that he studied. He felt that no two human 
 beings are alike, and when he wanted a character, he 
 knew where to find one. He did not need books, for he 
 looked into man. From the busy and unheeding throng, 
 he selected his imperishable types, and he handled them 
 with the same facility that the showman does his puppets. 
 He had a deep insight into objective and subjective (if the 
 terms may be thus applied) nature. He had anatomized 
 man's heart, and was thoroughly acquainted with its 
 numerous complications. He saw the world around him, 
 under the sunbeam ; and the light of his genius shed its 
 rays upon the inner world of passion and impulse, and 
 penetrated its every mystery. 
 
 And thus amongst the kings of literature he fills the 
 highest throne. The glory of his fame did not burst 
 upon the world like a brilliant meteor, dazzling for a 
 moment, and as suddenly disappearing ; it has advanced 
 steadily towards its meridian, and is now the brightest 
 planet in the firmament of English literature. It may, 
 indeed, be termed the centre of the system ; for around 
 it all the lesser lights revolve, illumined by the effulgence 
 of its surpassing splendours. 
 
119 
 
 CHAPTEK X. 
 
 CONCLUSION. 
 
 " Tis slander, 
 
 Whose edge is sharper than the sword ; whose tongue 
 Outvenoms all the worms of Nile ; whose breath 
 Rides on the posting winds, and doth belie 
 All corners of the world, kings, queens, and states, 
 Maids, matrons, nay, THE SECRETS OF THE GRAVE 
 This viperous slander enters." 
 
 CYMBELINE. 
 
 OUR labour of love draws near its termination, and we 
 entertain but slight apprehension lest our toil should be 
 lost ; for seldom indeed is any historical fact capable of 
 illustration by such overwhelming evidence. The bard 
 of Stratford-upon-Avon bears his literary honours thick 
 around his venerable brow. If William Shakespeare's 
 title to the authorship of the six-and-thirty plays of the 
 folio of 1623 cannot be considered as fully substantiated, 
 we may at once bid farewell to our elder classics, and 
 open the flood-gates to the most terrible deluge of incre- 
 dulity and doubt that ever spread desolation over the 
 literature of any country. 
 
 In a former chapter we promised to adduce proofs - 
 incontestable proofs sufficient to convince any reason- 
 able inquirer that Shakespeare's claim to be regarded as 
 the author of the dramas that bear his name is un- 
 questionable. It is clear and precise ; a fact, indeed, 
 established as completely as any in our literary annals, 
 and one which does not therefore admit of the slightest 
 doubt. This pledge has, we believe, been redeemed ; and 
 if in our vindication we have spoken with warmth and in- 
 dignation, it is because we feel, and feel strongly, that this 
 charge ought never to have been put in circulation. We 
 
120 CONCLUSION. 
 
 regard it both as a degradation and a disgrace to the litera- 
 ture of the day, being nothingless than an attempt to destroy 
 the good name of the greatest poet the world ever saw. 
 
 The truth is, that an irreverent spirit has got abroad ; 
 and a certain class of writers deem nothing sacred from 
 assault. Reference has already been made to the manner 
 in which this predatory warfare is generally conducted, 
 and but few authors of merit have escaped the unwarrant- 
 able attacks of some of these critical hornets. Only a 
 short time since Sir Walter Scott's memory was wantonly 
 assailed, and most triumphantly vindicated.* Yet, had 
 the fray been postponed until those able to speak. with 
 certainty in the great novelist's defence were removed 
 from the scene, the author of the " Waverley Novels " 
 might have suffered therefrom in general esteem. 
 
 Had Mr. William Henry Smith, in his profound wisdom 
 and extended philosophy, thought fit to challenge the 
 almost unanimous verdict of mankind respecting the merits 
 of Shakespeare's plays ; had he declared that he deemed 
 these much overrated, and that he could by no means allow 
 them to be such masterpieces as certain critics chose to 
 represent, nobody would have complained. Mr. William 
 Henry Smith, possesses as much right to cavil as others to 
 praise ; and might even publish such opinions in any form 
 that he deemed most expedient. There is no act of par- 
 liament in existence to prevent men from making absurd 
 exhibitions of themselves ; nor can those that have a fancy 
 for the thing be hindered from taking up a position on the 
 great high-roads of literature, arrayed in a gaudy fool's 
 cap of their own construction. He would riot be the only 
 delinquent that has carried his own rod to the place of 
 punishment ; nor the first to discover that the hardest 
 blows are generally those inflicted by the whip that folly 
 places in one's own hands. 
 
 These and other absurdities Mr. William Henry Smith 
 
 * See Notes and Queries, 1st Series, vol. xii. 
 
CONCLUSION. 121 
 
 might have perpetrated without giving offence to any 
 save himself; but the private character of William 
 Shakespeare, as well as that of Francis Bacon, ought 
 not to be used as a target for his roving bolts. The 
 reputation of these great men, that have now been in 
 their graves for more than two centuries, forms one of 
 the richest treasures of the commonwealth ; and those 
 who dare to cast a slur upon it must be dealt with as 
 offenders against decency and common sense. Had such 
 an accusation been brought against Shakespeare during 
 his lifetime, in the courts of law, he would have found 
 means for vindicating his character and chastising the 
 aggressor. Were any person to hazard the assertion that 
 Earl Stanhope had not penned one line of the " History 
 of England," published with his name, at the same time 
 adding that it had been written by Mr. Hallam, the noble 
 author would be able to punish his traducer through the 
 agency of the legal institutions of the land. We can well 
 fancy how a jury would treat a culprit who pleaded in 
 justification, that, in the first place, Lord Stanhope was 
 unequal to the task of historical composition ; that, 
 secondly, Mr. Hallam had not noticed Lord Stanhope 
 in his works, nor Lord Stanhope Mr. Hallam ; and, 
 therefore, thirdly, the last-mentioned gentleman must 
 be the author of the history in question. 
 
 This is precisely the course that has been adopted by 
 Mr. William Henry Smith with reference to Shakespeare ; 
 , and if the living author has a protection against such 
 scandalous attacks, why should the dead be left exposed 
 to all their bitterness 1 It is for this reason that we call 
 upon the English people to become the defenders of 
 Shakespeare and Bacon. We appeal to that love of 
 justice and fair play which has long been a distinguishing 
 characteristic of the nation, convinced that it is high time 
 to put a stop, at once and for ever, to these outrages upon 
 the memories of the mighty dead, these unseemly exhi- 
 bitions that cause so much scandal. 
 
122 CONCLUSION. 
 
 Were the matter properly taken up, meetings would be 
 summoned, and a memorial prepared, containing a forcn/e 
 expression of the indignation of the English people at 
 this "wanton attempt to fix a stain of deepest dye upon 
 the fair fame of Francis Bacon and William Shakespeare. 
 Much good might be achieved by the publication of such 
 a memorial in the newspapers and periodicals of the day. 
 The example would serve as a salutary warning to discon- 
 tented critics, and for the future deter them from attacking 
 private character ; whilst we feel assured that any ex- 
 pense might be defrayed by a penny subscription, to which 
 thousands of all classes would joyfully contribute. 
 
 Another, and perhaps even a better plan, would be to 
 gibbet the offender. We inscribe the names of public 
 benefactors and philanthropists in gilt letters upon marble 
 monuments in churches and public edifices, why not adopt 
 a similar system in dealing with delinquents of this descrip- 
 tion ? If they voluntarily become scarecrows, they cannot 
 grumble at being nailed, with outstretched wings, in 
 some place of general resort. The new reading-room of 
 the British Museum seems to be the proper arena for 
 the punishment of those who offer violence to our great 
 literary heroes. Let a large black board be erected in 
 this new temple of learning, on which the names of all 
 those condemned by a fairly-constituted jury, of wanton 
 and wicked assaults upon the reputations of the illus- 
 trious dead, and other literary misdemeanours, may be 
 inscribed. We doubt not that first and foremost upon the 
 list will appear the name of William Henry Smith, found 
 guilty of traducing the characters of Bacon and Shake- 
 speare. 
 
 THE END. 
 
 PRINTED BY COX AND WYMAN, GREAT QUEEN-STREET. 
 
14 DAY USE 
 
 URN TO DESK FROM WHICH BORROWED 
 
 LOAN DEPT. 
 
 This book is due on the last date stamped below 
 on the date to which renewed ' 
 
 renewed books are subject to immediate recall. 
 
 or 
 
 ~*M'--- r- 
 
 -f&- 7 1967 7 _ 
 
 "HtCt'lVHET 
 
 FEB b'67-8 
 
 PIT 
 
 LOAN DE 
 
 T. 
 
 g.ro 9 fr-4Q67-ft 
 
 
 r tB ** & '^ 
 
 
 
 
 
 
 _ 
 
 LD 21A-50m-4,'60 
 
 
 General Libmrv 
 
 (A9562slO)476B 
 
to