SHAKESPEARE FIND

Evening Post, Volume CXXIV, Issue 59, 7 September 1937, Page 20

SHAKESPEARE FIND

A FRESH AUTOGRAPH

ONLY SIX OTHERS KNOWN

Of all that came from the pen of William Shakespeare, only six specimens of liis penmanship are known positively to exist, says a writer in the "Christian Science Monitor." These are signatures to various documents. Discovery by Dr. Nathan van Patten, director of libraries at Stanford University, of a new signature of more than possible authenticity, has aroused great interest among Shakespearean scholars. If this is indeed the handwriting of the dramatist, it has large significance. For this, unlike the other signatures, is the penmanship of a man in his prime. Moreover, it is the writing of a cultured gentleman, one accustomed to using a pen. The Stanford director of libraries discovered this signature in one of the volumes of the Cardonnel-Lawson collection of autographs, which came into the possession of the university last year. The collection is in two volumes, numbered I and 111. The location of Volume II is unknown. The collection was made prior to the year 1835. There are more than 3000 clipped signatures and a number of holographic letters in the two volumes. Among the autographs are those of all the rulers of England from Henry VIII to Victoria, besides hundreds of signatures of the nobility of those times. Famous men of letters, artists, and statesmen are represented, including Oliver Cromwell, "Junius," Warren Hastings, William Hogarth, antl Joseph Addison. There are holographs of the Duke of Wellington, Lord Nelson, and others. In looking through the volumes, Dr. van Patten found a section of not less than half a page, headed "Philosophers and Men of Science." Under this heading appear the autographs of Sir Francis Legatt Chantrey, the sculptor; Sir Humphry Davy, the chemist; Lady Hester Lucy Stanhope, explorer and mystic; Edmund Waller and Robert Southey, poets; and, away down in a corner, on a piece of yellowed paper, hardly larger than two fingers would cover, "William Shakespeare." "A TRUE SIGNATURE." So far, the evidence seems to favour the conclusion that this is indeed the dramatist's handwriting. In greatly enlarged photographs the lines of the writing appear firm and decided, the penmanship of one who writes his accustomed signature—not the cramped strokes of a copyist nor the uncertain waverings of a tracing. Dr. van Patten says, "It has the appearance of a true signature." . Compared with Shakespeare's other signatures, remarkable resemblances I appear. Not only are the characteristics of individual letters alike, but the whole of this signature is written in the Elizabethan Court hand, which Shakespeare is known to have used. Of the six known Shakespeare signatures, three are appended to legal papers, and the other three are scrawled upon the three sheets of his will. The first three named are of small value in studying the writer's penmanship, since they are written in crowded, abbreviated form on narrow strips of parchment attached to documents. That which is appended to the Bellott deposition, in the Public Record Office, reads as follows: Willm ShakpThe iinal letter in each word carries the customary mark of abbreviation. The mortgage and conveyance Shakespeare signed in connection with his purchase of the Blackfriars property in London, bear signatures respectively as follows: William Shakesper Wm Shakspe with sharks to show the abbreviations. THE ONLY ONE VALUABLE. Of the three signatures to the will, only that on the third and last sheet is complete. The other two merely attest the first and second sheets, and are more like initialed approvals than like signatures. Only the signature to the third sheet is, then, of serious value to students of the poet-dramatist's life. It reads: By me William Shakespeare Sir Edward Maunde Thompson, the great English paleographer, says of the signatures to the will, in his book, "Shakespeare's Handwriting": "Shakespeare's will, now preserved in Somerset House, was prepared in draft on three sheets of paper, and was originally dated January 25, 1616. The testator is therein stated to be 'in perfect health,' as no doubt he was at the time, and the execution of the will was deferred ... It was executed on March 25 ... There can be no question that at' the date of the execution of the will he was sorely stricken; of this the imperfections of the signatures afford ample evidence." The only complete signature we have is imperfect. How can such examples of Shakespeare's handwriting afford proof that this man, whose education is known to have been limited, was capable of writing his epochal works? That is one reason why this newlydiscovered signature may be so important. MANUSCRIPTS UNKNOWN. The fact that no manuscript of a Shakespeare play .is known to have survived has never been explained. Discovery of the Boswell letters encouraged those who hope for further Shakespearean discoveries. In the last century a writer (who undoubtedly was familiar with the conditions in many English libraries) predicted thai some time someone would "just reach up" and take down a Shakespearean manuscript from a library shelf. Indeed, in 1870 an English scholar may have done just that. There are three pages of additions to a manuscript play, "Sir Thomas More," which show dramatic skill clearly beyond that of the play's author, -Anthony Munday, an Elizabethan dramatist. Sir Maunde Thompson and others have declared, their belief that'these additional pages were written by Shakespeare. They base their conclusions partly upon the handwriting as compared with the known signatures, and partly upon internal evidence. Other scholars have argued just as positively, however, that these additions were not written by the dramatist. Of the third page of the manuscript Sir Maunde Thompson says, "If, as we believe, the addition ... is the composition, and in the handwriting of Shakespeare, it must be placed in the earlier period of his career as a dramatist, when he was employed in such work as adapting and supplementing the plays of other authors." If this Stanford signature proves to be genuine it may furnish sufficient additional evidence to establish the authenticity of these additions. On the other hand, it may disprove the assertion that they were written by Shakespeare.

At. all events, experts are studying the signature with interest. Scientists will test the ink it is written in, and the paper it is written upon. Ultimately all the evidence will be weighed, and a verdict rendered, as to whether this is just another eighteenth century forgery, or a signature of WiUiamShakespeare.