Mr. Sidney Lee and the Stratford Bust.
One word to the Stratfordians. The "Shakespeare of Stratford-on-Avon"
myth has been shattered and destroyed by the mass of inexactitudes
collected in the supposititious "Life of Shakespeare" by Mr. Sidney Lee,
who has done his best to pulverise what remained of that myth by
recently writing as follows:--
"Most of those who have pressed the question [of Bacon being the real
Shake-speare] on my notice, are men of acknowledged intelligence and
reputation in their own branch of life, both at home and abroad. I
therefore desire as respectfully, but also as emphatically and as
publicly, as I can, to put on record the fact, as one admitting to my
mind of no rational ground for dispute, that there exists every manner
of contemporary evidence to prove that Shakspere, the householder of
Stratford-on-Avon, wrote with his own hand, and exclusively by the light
of his only genius (merely to paraphrase the contemporary inscription on
his tomb in Stratford-on-Avon Church) those dramatic works which form
the supreme achievement in English Literature."
As a matter of fact, not a single scrap of evidence, contemporary or
otherwise, exists to show that Shakspere, the householder of
Stratford-on-Avon, wrote the plays or anything else; indeed, the writer
thinks that he has conclusively proved that this child of illiterate
parents and father of an illiterate child was himself so illiterate that
he was never able to write so much as his own name. But Mr. Sidney Lee
seems prepared to accept _anything_ as "contemporary evidence," for on
pages 276-7 (1898 edition) of his "Life of Shakespeare" he writes
"Before 1623 an elaborate monument, by a London sculptor of Dutch birth,
Gerard Johnson, was erected to Shakespeare's memory in the chancel of
the parish church. It includes a half-length bust, depicting the
dramatist on the point of writing. The fingers of the right hand are
disposed as if holding a pen, and under the left hand lies a quarto
sheet of paper."
As a matter of fact, the _present_ Stratford monument was not put up
till about one hundred and twenty years _after_ Shakspeare's death. The
original monument, see Plate 3 on Page 8, was a very different monument,
and the figure, as I have shewn in Plate 5, instead of holding a pen in
its hand, rests its two hands on a wool-sack or cushion. Of course, the
false bust in the existing monument was substituted for the old bust for
the purpose of fraudulently supporting the Stratford myth.
When Mr. Sidney Lee wrote that the present monument was erected before
1623 he did not do this consciously to deceive the public; still, it is
difficult to pardon him for this and the other reckless statements with
which his book is filled. But what are we to say of his words
(respecting the _present_ monument) which we read on page 286? "It was
first engraved--very imperfectly--in Rowe's edition of 1709." An exact
full size photo facsimile reproduction of Rowe's engraving is shown in
Plate 19, Page 77.
[Illustration: Plate. XIX. The Original Stratford Monument, from Rowe's
Life of Shakespeare, 1709]
As a matter of fact, the real Stratford monument of 1623 was first
engraved in Dugdale's "Warwickshire" of 1656, where it appears opposite
to page 523. We can, however, pardon Mr. Sidney Lee for his ignorance of
the existence of that engraving; but how shall we pardon him for citing
Rowe as a witness to the early existence of the present bust? To anyone
not wilfully blinded by passion and prejudice, Rowe's engraving [see
Plate 19, Page 77] clearly shews a figure absolutely different from the
Bust in the present monument. Rowe's figure is in the same attitude as
the Bust of the original monument engraved by Dugdale, and does not hold
a pen in its hand, but its two hands are supported on a wool-sack or
cushion, in the same manner as in the Bust from Dugdale which I have
shewn in Plate 5, on Page 14.
What are we to say respecting the frontispiece to the 1898 edition of
what he is pleased to describe as the "Life of William Shakespeare,"
which Mr. Sidney Lee tells us is "from the 'Droeshout' painting now in
the Shakespeare Memorial Gallery at Stratford-on-Avon"?
As a matter of fact there is no "Droeshout" painting. The picture
falsely so called is a manifest forgery and a palpable fraud, for in it
all the revealing marks of the engraving by Martin Droeshout which
appeared in the 1623 folio are purposely omitted. A full size photo
facsimile of Martin Droeshout's engraving is shewn in Plate 8, pp.
20-21. In the false and fraudulent painting we find no double line to
shew the mask, and the coat is really a coat and not a garment cunningly
composed of two left arms.
Still it does seem singularly appropriate and peculiarly fitting that
Mr. Sidney Lee should have selected as the frontispiece of the romance
which he calls the "Life" of Shakespeare, an engraving of the false and
fraudulent painting now in the Stratford-on-Avon Gallery for his first
edition of 1898; and should also have selected an engraving of the false
and fraudulent monument now in Stratford-on-Avon Church as the
frontispiece for his first Illustrated Library Edition of 1899.
Mr. Sidney Lee is aware of the fact that Martin Droeshout was only
fifteen years old when the Stratford actor died. But it is possible that
he may not know that (in addition to the Shakespeare Mask which
Droeshout drew for the frontispiece of the 1623 folio edition of the
Plays of Shakespeare, in order to reveal, to those who were able to
understand, the true facts of the Authorship of those plays), Martin
Droeshout also drew frontispieces for other books, which may be
similarly correctly characterised as cunningly composed, in order to
reveal the true facts of the authorship of such works, unto those who
were capable of grasping the hidden meaning of his engravings.
One other point it is worth while referring to. The question is
frequently asked, if Bacon wrote under the name of Shakespeare, why so
carefully conceal the fact? An answer is readily supplied by a little
anecdote related by Ben Jonson, which was printed by the Shakespeare
Society in 1842, in their "Notes of Ben Jonson's conversations with
William Drummond of Hawthornden".
"He [Ben Jonson] was dilated by Sir James Murray to the King, for
writting something against the Scots, in a play Eastward Hoe, and
voluntarly imprissonned himself with Chapman and Marston who had written
it amongst them. The report was that they should then [have] had their
ears cut and noses. After their delivery, he banqueted all his friends;
there was Camden, Selden, and others; at the midst of the feast his old
Mother dranke to him, and shew him a paper which she had (if the
sentence had taken execution) to have mixed in the prisson among his
drinke, which was full of lustie strong poison, and that she was no
churle, she told, she was minded first to have drunk of it herself."
This was in 1605, and it is a strange and grim illustration of the
dangers that beset men in the Highway of Letters.
It was necessary for Bacon to write under pseudonyms to conceal his
identity, but he intended that at some time posterity should do him
justice and it was for this purpose that, among the numerous clues he
supplied to reveal himself he wrote "The Tempest" in its present form,
which Emile Montegut writing in the _Revue des Deux Mondes_ in 1865
declared to be the author's literary Testament.
The Island is the Stage. Prospero the prime Duke, the great
Magician, represents the Mighty Author who says "my brother ...
called Anthonio who next thyself of all the world I lov'd" ...
"graves at my command have wak'd their sleepers op'd and let them
forth by my so potent Art" ...
"and deeper than ever plummet sound
He drown my booke."
Yet he does not forget finally to add "I do ... require my Dukedome of
thee, which perforce I know thou must restore."
The falsely crowned and gilded king of the Island who had stolen the
wine (the poetry) "where should they find this grand liquor that hath
gilded them" and whose name is Stephanos (Greek for crown) throws off
at the close of the play, his false crown while Caliban says "What a
thrice double asse was I to take this drunkard for a God."
The mighty Magician Prospero says "knowing I lov'd my bookes, he
furnished me from mine own Library, with volumes, that I prize above my
Dukedome." Bacon when he was dismissed from his high offices, devoted
himself to his books. Not a book of any kind was found at New Place,
Stratford. Bacon's brother "whom next himself he loved" was called
Anthony. "Gentle" Shakespeare of Stratford died from the effects of a
"Drunken" bout!
It does matter whether it is thought that the Immortal works were
written by the sordid money-lender of Stratford, the "Swine without a
head, without braine, wit, anything indeed, Ramping to Gentilitie"; or
were written by him who was himself the "Greatest Birth of Time"; the
man pre-eminently distinguished amongst the sons of earth; the man who
in order to "do good to all mankind," disguised his personality "in a
despised weed," and wrote under the name of William Shakespeare.
It does matter, and England is now declining any longer to _dishonour_
and _defame_ the greatest Genius of all time by continuing to identify
him with the mean, drunken, ignorant, and absolutely unlettered, rustic
of Stratford who never in his life wrote so much as his own name and in
all probability was totally unable to read one single line of print.
The hour has come for revealing the truth. The hour has come when it is
no longer necessary or desirable that the world should remain in
ignorance that the Great Author of Shakespeare's Plays was himself alive
when the Folio was published in 1623. The hour has come when all should
know that this the greatest book produced by man was given to the world
more carefully edited by its author as to every word in every column, as
to every italic in every column, as to every apparent misprint in every
column, than any book had ever before been edited, and more exactly
printed than there seems any reasonable probability that any book will
ever again be printed that may be issued in the future.
The hour has come when it is desirable and necessary to state with the
utmost distinctness that
BACON IS SHAKESPEARE.
[Illustration: Plate XX. Reduced Facsimile of Page 136 of the
Shakespeare Folio, 1623]
[Illustration: Plate XXI. Portion of Page 136, full size, as in the
Shakespeare Folio 1623]