Bard Theories

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Date: 5/6/2002 8:04:32 AM Central Daylight Time 
From: Fenyx3204 
To: Triad3204 
 
Am amusing and enlightening piece from Sarah in England. Probably nothing new to
you but on the chance . . . 
----------------- 
Forwarded Message: 
Subj: Bard encore 
Date: 5/3/2002 3:50:08 AM Central Daylight Time 
From:
101336.2336@compuserve.com (Sarah J. Mason) 
Sender: 101336.2336@compuserve.com (Sarah J. Mason) 
To: Fenyx3204@aol.com (Gail) 
 
On Mon, 29 Apr 2002, <snip> wrote: 
 
<<"What a great collection of knowledgeable opinions and comments this 
Shakespeare thing has brought us! 
 
<<"Now here's the mystery question that just occurred to me: who started 
the 
rumor that Will didn't write his stuff? And why, do you suppose?">> 
....====.... 
 
I don't exactly know who started the rumor that Shakespeare was not the 
author of the Shakespeare plays; it seems to have been fairly current among 
the literati of the late 1700s and late 1800s. Nearly all of them were 
University educated (that is, Oxford / Cambridge / Harvard / Yale]. Every 
one of them was therefore steeped to the marrow in literary snobbery. I 
 
know; I've been in the academic literary loop myself. 
 
As to WHY the rumor was started, I can show a collection of quotes, 
gathered 
into one site by Penn Leary, who adheres to the Sir Francis Bacon theory: 
 
<http://home.att.net/~tleary/> 
 
<<Ralph Waldo Emerson wrote: "As long as the question is of talent and 
mental power, the world of men has not his equal to show... The Egyptian 
verdict of the Shakespeare societies comes to mind that he was a jovial 
actor and manager. I cannot marry this fact to his verse." [Joviality, good 
management, and acting, you see, must be fatal to writing ability--sk]. 
 
<<John Greenleaf Whittier said, "Whether Bacon wrote the wonderful plays or 
not, I am quite sure the man Shakspere neither did nor could." [Why an 
English grammar [that is, Latin grammar] school education does not fit a 
gifted man to write in a genre he'd been acting in, working in, and 
probably 
thinking in for ten years, Whittier doesn't say--sk]. 
 
<<James M. Barrie put it more whimsically: "I know not, sir, whether Bacon 
wrote the works of Shakespeare, but if he did not it seems to me that he 
missed the opportunity of his lifetime." [You gotta love Barrie, a 
dramatist 
himself. Leary does not tell us why this quote from Barrie implies that 
Shakespeare was not a dramatist; only that the Shakespeare plays were 
really 
good stuff--sk]. 
 
<<Samuel Taylor Coleridge said, "Ask your own hearts, ask your own common 
sense, to conceive the possibility of the author of the Plays being the 
anomalous, the wild, the irregular genius of our daily criticism. What! are 
we to have miracles in sport? Does God choose idiots by whom to convey 
divine truths to man?" [It is not clear just why Coleridge calls 
Shakespeare 
an idiot; Shakespeare did very well for himself in his life, unless it is 
because WS didn't go to Coleridge's school--sk]. 
 
Notice that the men quoted here are about as fine a collection of 
intellectual snobbery as could be read at one sitting without tossing the 
book away in disgust. 
 
The main reason WHY they could not stomach the idea that the son of a 
Stratford alderman and glove-maker might write poetry and drama is that HE 
NEVER WENT TO COLLEGE! 
 
And they, of course, did. 
 
Then, too, WS was an actor. There is never any explanation of why being an 
actor is imcompatible with writing drama; nor even a theory as to why being 
a mediocre actor is more incompatible with writing successful drama than 
being a Star would be. 
 
These opinions are supported by: 
 
(1) the fact that WS's whole life is not historically documented; 
(2) the fact that WS received only a grammar school education--which, by 
the 
way, was for a writer of drama and poetry far superior to most modern 
American MA curricula; 
(3) the fact that WS was a bit of a hellion in his younger days; 
(4) the fact that WS was an actor; 
(5) the fact that WS was not a Star; 
and, as Mark Twain says, 
(6) the fact that the newspapers of the day did not make a fuss when WS 
died 
[Twain was actually not a University man; thus, he apparently was unaware 
that what passed for newspapers in the 1620s did not provide coverage of 
deaths among the middle classes, especialy the deaths of men who wrote 
plays]. 
 
Cryptography, which played a considerable number of roles in early 1900s 
mysteries (there! I'm on topic), is Penn Leary's subject on the above site, 
and if it is not also his passion, then Penn Leary is a man of considerable 
parts indeed. 
 
Leary posts an elaborate essay to prove that certain cyphers exist 
throughout the Shakespeare oeuvre, proving that Bacon must have been the 
one 
who wrote the works of Shakespeare, including many faily bizarre ways to 
spell "Bacon". 
 
Why on earth Sir Francis would be so coy about taking credit for the 
sonnets 
and the long poems, and where Bacon came by the theatrical experience to 
make the dialogue and action do the work of scenery, lighting, and special 
effects, Leary doesn't say, perhaps because that is not the focus of the 
essay; perhaps because these are not questions that would occur to a 
passionate cryptologist. 
</XMP> 
 
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Date: Fri, 3 May 2002 04:49:26 -0400 
From: "Sarah J. Mason" <101336.2336@compuserve.com> 
Subject: Bard encore 
Sender: "Sarah J. Mason" <101336.2336@compuserve.com> 
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