SHAKESPEARE AND BACON.

Timaru Herald, Volume XCIV, Issue 14658, 27 January 1912, Page 1 (Supplement)

SHAKESPEARE AND BACON.

The "Book Fellow,'* a now Sydney literary magazine which lias been started hy Jlr A. CI. Stephens, the well-kixrvvn Australian critic and man of letters, in its-January 21 umber, has eome sensible and brightly expressed observations upon h-lmkespearo and the Shakespeare-Bacon argumont. The reason (it states) why Francis Bacon didn't write Shakespeare's plays, and why the ShakcspeareJ3acon controversy is rather stupid even as a play-game, is simply that Francis Bacon couldn't. Play and pop try were not in him. _ No man of letters, no judge of literary values, over had the least doubt upon thv> point. Bacon was au .able man, a learned man according to the learning of his time, and a wise mail according to the wisdom of all tini-e —though., like many others, he did not always apply his wisdom personally. But he Wiis not a poet; ho could not be; the kind of mind that was Bacon's, and the kind of iniud that produces poetry, are radically opposed. Now, whatever else Shakespeare was., whatever knowledge he had. with whatever learning he overlaid his work, whatever ho borrowed or paraphrase! or atol-e, he had the poetic imagination; he %\as poet in grain. Bacon just .wasn't. There arc some opposite* that never can be reconciled, *»o matter how plausible the evidence liiat is brought to justify the reconciliation. Von can no 11101© create real art without tho faculty of artistic creation than you can gather grap?s from thorn* or figs from thistles. And all Bacon's life, all Bacon's work's, rise up to prove that ho had not this faculty, lie was not in the Sbak.>sp : >a"Ofln category, ho was uut of thef poetic uourt. So clearly is this tho case that jf a holograph copy of "Tho Tempest" Were found written in Bacon's" own liand, one would straightway declare it a fair copy of Shakespeare/;s work with learne<l emendat'ons. Such n finding is impossible, pot only by t lie injury of tira«. hut because Bacon's mind, which held so much, dd not hold fairies except as subjects of speculation. And Poetry is a fairy, tiie Queen of them all. Besides, Bacon wrote pcetry—or no made rhymes, and some of the rhymes are extant. They are very like the lines on Shakespeare's gravestone: Good friend.. for Jesus' sake forbare To dig the du&t encloased hears; Blest bo ye man yt spares those stones, 'And curst be he yt moves my bones. Bacon could have written that* ii 5s level with his capacity in verse. a?d not foreign to his character. Shakespeare could have written it; .sine?, ji.lthruigli any man may not riso> •«> '«iiy height, any man mav fall -;p m.v depth. But the overwhelming probability is that it was a current "111 jMemoriam" stanza—of the class t on-

j l.uuailv reproduced to this day fcy • jhous» and wuitiiy paoyio dcni'.c «'c i "the poi.-t.ro sense—and wi\s .>up t )i od ly : Shakespeare's iriends or by .iio monu- I men Lai ma/iuu. j THE CRITICAL FALLACV. J was obscure. L'eyoud clini lie was a ninn oi' iio cpi;j:eni a'.^iint—a.n actor, i.e.. a vagabond ; a piji.v.vriKliL—one of many, and li'.t* wiih t!if> vrodit: a p.ci, but not a remirkahh- p:;et. \L* W'.rl:s were us dramas j'or :v'i:wj. nut as literature lit his In tor Strati;.l'd retirrmen t, doubtless ho was 1 0 !'•_! 'IL -! I 1;y Lulillci K- . Stl'U tf O I'd JriiOkV 11Tin a< a man who had made ' money out. oi n ilioatre The erltieaj fallaey ruiiii":-: nlway.- in. the iil-mieation ei_ c'.ii' of Shakos ;::rir:i to tJie minds oi h:s eoneeniwrarie.s. lio was n-"-vo> - S!n-,kr>neare to them. versatility. he jr-;. brooms ready made. Tlioro amnle ijr'cof of a lar^o 1 11; eft, nad we infer :> theft that uv cannot t-ac-'. : j>eai , e wa- not for the <]r hi--. ;;v ;l plV.yu-ritor; ho was j a j> j[o made plays fcr ilif v.ini;e them, adapter! them. l-catv-:.' lie stole f.ll;e !>>•_•-,t apchor. t i ,,c h : >' .^preia 1 hrnv]r:];o pre lid. I'ha.c. rII that s r:<':e.-;-s:a 3 'y to the eompre!]r-n.-ion of Sin!:; r^.enre —ex'e'd h;.r» fr-mi;;. —the viv.d thatP'crcd and p-\tehod merit of a hmmrrd men'.-; minds, and the ordinal imnjimriUoii flint eirenlated red b':.cd thronrdi the? fiv.jnev/ork and rprekenrd j the to life. Robert Greene wa> liali r'f.d't in his Ci erow henutiji-cd v.'irh our !orJhor. y .' J The foathers are there; hut the crow was an eagle.