THE "SHAKESPEARE" QUIZ
or
99 QUESTIONS
FOR THE STRATFORDIANS TO
ANSWER.
Arranged by EDWARD D. JOHNSON
(from a
Francis Bacon Society Pamphlet, 1950)
Edward D. Johnson was the author
of:
"The First Folio of Shakespeare"
"Francis Bacon's Cipher
Signatures"
"Shakespearean Acrostics"
"Don Adriana's Letter"
"The Fictitious Shakespeare Exposed"
"Bacon Shakespeare
Coincidences"
"The Mystery of the First Folio"
"The Bi-Literal Cypher of Francis Bacon"
"The Shaksper
Illusion"
"Francis Bacon versus Lord Macaulay"
"Francis Bacon and
"Shakespeare"
"Will Shakspere of Stratford"
"Francis Bacon of St. Albans"
"The Stratford Shakespeare Monument"
(1) Why did Will Shakspere never take
the slightest interest in any of the
plays imputed to him?
(2) Why has no manuscript of
any play in his handwriting ever come to
light?
(3) Why did Shakspere never in
any document acknowledge his authorship
or even refer to any plays?
(4) Why does his will make no
reference to any of the plays?
(5) Why is there nothing in his
life, as we know it, to connect him with
literature in any shape or form?
(6) Why do "the Shakespeare
Trust" tell visitors to Stratford-on-Avon that
the bust of Will Shakspere in the parish church at Stratford was erected prior
to
1623, when they know perfectly well that the original bust which depicted a
thin faced man with a drooping moustache and a ragged
beard with his two
hands resting on a bag was taken down in 1748 [or prior to Pope's 1625
illustration] and the present bust showing a
stout-faced man with a smirking doll-like face,
an upturned moustache and neatly
trimmed beard with his right hand holding a pen and his left hand
resting on a
piece of paper, erected in place of the original bust.
(7) Why has the bust been faked
by providing a pen and a piece of paper
which were not on the original monument if it is not for the
purpose of trying
to connect Will Shakspere the actor and tradesman with literature?
(8) Why does "the Shakespeare
Trust" charge visitors to Stratford the sum of
one shilling and sixpence for the privilege of gazing at a room at which
they are
told was where Shakspere was born when "the Shakespeare Trust"
know
perfectly well that the sup- posed birthplace is a sham and a fraud for the
following reasons:
(a) There is no evidence that
Shakspere's father ever owned or occupied
the house formerly on the site of the supposed birthplace until eleven
years after
Shakspere's birth.
(b) That the cellar is the only part
which remains of the house originally
on this site.
(c) That all the houses in Henley
Street that existed 400 years ago have
long since been demolished or destroyed by fires which swept Stratford on
several occasions. Two years before Shakspere's death there was a fire at
Stratford which destroyed 54 dwelling houses and other buildings.
(d) That the original dwelling
would have been thatched with mud walls,
whereas the present birthplace has brick walls timbered with a tiled roof.
(e) That in R. Wheler's "History
and Antiquities of Stratford-on-Avon"
(1806) there is a description of every public building at Stratford
but there is no
account whatever of the birthplace.
(f) That the original local tradition
has a pedigree beginning in 1759, 143
years after the death of Shakspere, but in 1760 no birthplace
was on view and it
was not until David Garrick arranged a Jubilee celebration in 1769 that there
was any intimation as to the site of the Birthplace.
(9) Why are the visitors to Stratford
told that the cottage known as Ann
Hathaway's Cottage was where Shakspere's wife lived prior to her marriage?
There is no evidence anywhere that this cottage ever belonged to Ann
Hathaway's father. J.O. Halliwell Phillipps spent 40 years of his life
investigating
Shakspere's life but he had to admit in 1882 that "unhappily there is no
tradition
indicating the birthplace of Shakspere's Ann upon which the least reliance can
be placed." The first mention of the cottage at Shottery, now shown to
visitors
as her maiden residence, was made by Samuel Ireland (father of William
Henry
Ireland the celebrated forger of Shakespearean documents) in 1795 nearly two
and a half centuries after Ann Hathaway's Birth.
(10) In 1902 Joseph Skipsey,
who for some time had been the
custodian of Shakspere's birthplace, wrote a letter to Mr. J. Cumming Walters
in
which he said "that the chief reason why he had resigned that position was
because he had gradually lost all faith in the so called relics which, as
custodian,
it was his duty to show, and if possible explain to the visitors at the
birthplace."
How is it that none of the relics have any definite history, and only serve to
perpetuate error and create false impressions?
(11) What has become of Shakpere's
armchair which was sold in 1777 and
taken away, reappearing again in 1815?
(12) All people agree that the
author of the "Shakespeare" plays must
have had a very good education. How is it that there is no record that Will
Shakspere ever went to school, either at Stratford or elsewhere, no record that
any fellow townsman was at school at the same time, no record that anyone
at
Stratford was able to say that his father or grandfather attended at the same
school as the celebrated dramatist? The common people were densely
ignorant,
they had to pick up their mother tongue as best they could. The First English
Grammar was not published until 1586, seven years after-Shakspere could have
left school, if he ever went to school, which is very doubtful.
(13) It is interesting to observe
that nearly all the English dramatists
of the 16th century had received a university education or were the sons of
landed gentry, with the exception of Will Shakspere. Lyly, Peele, Chapman,
Marston, Ford, and Massinger were educated at Oxford; Francis Beaumont,
Greene, Marlow, Nash, Jonson, Heywood, and Fletcher at Cambridge. How is
it
that Will Shakspere is the only one who cannot be shown to have received
any
education at all?
(14) Will Shakspere was a
countryman. How is it that he was
curiously unobservant of animated nature? His boyhood was passed among
the
woods and streams and yet apparently he neither saw or heard anything of the
birds and animals of his native country. He should have known something
about
the habits of bees.
(15) Why therefore do we find
in Henry IV, Act IV, scene 4, the
following erroneous statement referring to bees "our thighs packed with wax,
our mouths with honey"? He ought to have known that bees do not carry
wax
on their thighs but in their tails, and honey not in their mouths but in their
stomachs.
(16) Why does "Shakespeare" say
that "The old Bees die, the young
possess their hive."? Shakspere should have known that there are no
generations
of bees; they are all the offspring of the same mother. In the play of Henry V
is
a very elaborate description of a bee hive and its inmates which is absolute
nonsense with an error of fact in every line, showing that there could have
been
no personal observation by the author. For example "Shakespeare"
in Henry V,
Act I, Sc. 2, referring to bees says, "They have a King." Shakspere, the
countryman, should have known that bees have no King but a Queen. This
statement is of classical origin and "Shakespeare" found it in Virgil's
Georgics
IV.
(17) Why in Henry V, Act, I Sc.
2, does "Shakespeare" say that the
weasel steals the eggs of the eagle? Shakespere the countryman should have
known that the weasel does not plunder eagle's eyries.
(18) Why does "Shakespeare" in
Romeo and Juliet, Act III, Sc. 5,
write of the nightingale, "Nightly she sings on yon pomegranate tree."? It is
only the male nightingale that sings, not the hen bird. Surely the countryman
Will Shakspere should have known better than to make such erroneous
statements.
(19) The author of the
"Shakespeare" plays described with accuracy
the animals of the chase and is familiar with the aristocratic sport
of hunting.
Shakespere left Stratford before he was 21. It is unlikely that he could ever
have
seen a boar hunt. How therefore is it possible that he could have given us the
superb description of the boar and its chase which we find in Venus and
Adonis?
(20) The play of Love's Labour's
Lost dated 1589 is all about the
Court Life at Navarre with an accurate description of French manners
and
customs, and clearly shows that the author, whoever he was, must have
been
resident at the French Court, also that he was both a scholar and a
philosopher.
How could Shakspere of Stratford at the age of 24 have obtained the familiar
knowledge of French politics and courtly fashions in the French Court
displayed
in this play, if he had never been to France?
(21) How was it possible that a
young man coming straight from a
small provincial market town with only 1,500 inhabitants; a man who was the
son of parents neither of whom could write, a man who if he ever went to
school (which is very doubtful) left at the age of 13, could within a few years
master the language of the French Court and show an intimate
acquaintance
with aristocrats?
(22) How is it that this man could
have become an intimate friend of the
Earl of Southampton, as the author of Venus and Adonis and Lucrece must
have
been, as is indicated by the dedication of these poems to the Earl of
Southampton?
(23) How is it that no
biographer of Southampton has ever been able
to trace that any association whatever existed between Will Shakspere and
Southampton?
(24) Venus and Adonis is
written throughout in the purest most
elegant and scholarly English of that day without a trace of local patois. As
we
all know, different counties in England each have their own
peculiar, well-marked dialect and pronunciation, and it is quite easy to tell
from
a man's conversation if he comes from say Lancashire or Yorkshire. When
Will
Shakespere came to London he must have spoken the Warwickshire dialect or
patois; why is there not a trace of this in Venus and Adonis?
(25) How is it that "Venus and
Adonis" is evidently written by an
aristocrat as it displays a scholarly contempt for the illiterate and vulgar?
(26) In 1594 there was published
a quarto edition of Titus
Andronicus, in 1597 a quarto edition of Romeo and Juliet, in 1598 a quarto
edition of Henry IV Part I, in 1600 a quarto edition of Henry V. All these
plays
were published anonymously, which seems very extraordinary if
they were
written by Will Shakspere who as a coming playwright would naturally want
all
the publicity he could get and there would be no object in his hiding his light
under a bushel. How do the Stratfordians account for these facts?
(27) In 1597 there were
published quarto edition of Richard II and
Richard III; in 1604 there was published a third edition of Henry IV Part I; in
1600 there was published a quarto edition of The Merchant of Venice. All
these
plays are stated on the title pages to have been written by William
Shakespeare.
If the author desired publicity and wished the public to know that those plays
had been written by Will Shakspere--why divide the name by a hyphen, thus
showing that the author was the man who shakes the spear?
(28) In Romeo and Juliet, Act III,
Sc. 5, we read, "The county Paris, at St.
Peter's church shall happily make thee there a joyous bride." How did
Shakspere
know that there was a St. Peter's church in Verona unless he had seen it and
that this church was quite close to the reputed mansion of the Capulets?
(29) In the same play Act iv,
Sc. I, we read, "or shall I come to you
at Evening Mass." The
Stratfordians, say that this is a mistake as in Italy, Mass was only celebrated
in
the morning. On the contrary, at the Cathedral of Verona, Mass was said in
the
evenings even though it had been expressly forbidden by the Pope. How did
Shakspere know this fact if he had never been abroad?
(30) In The Merchant of Venice
"Shakespeare" tells us that Portia
went to Padua to seek legal aid for Antonio. Why to Padua?
Because Padua had
a famous university which granted legal degrees recognised as
qualifications for
Venetian lawyers. How could Shakspere know this if he had never been
abroad?
(31) Portia in this play obtains
the help of a lawyer Bellario. The
name Bellario is that of an old Paduan family, whose descendants still live
there.
Why should Shakspere choose the name Bellario for his character if he had
never been to Padua!
(32) In Othello "Shakespeare"
writes of "The Sagittary." It appears
that in Venice there was a residence for the commanding officers of the Army
and Navy and in front of this building were four statues, one of which was
the
figure of an archer with a drawn bow. The Venetians called this residence "Il
Sagittario" (the archer). How could Shakspeare know this if he had never
visited
Venice?
(33) In The Merchant of Venice
is a character "Launcelot Gobbo."
The name Gobbo is a peculiarly Venetian name not found in other cities.
How
could Shakspere know this if he had never visited Venice?
(34) In the Taming of the
Shrew, Act iv, Sc. 3, we read, "Like to a
censer in a barber's shop". A censer was a kind of brazier used by barbers in
Southern Italy to keep the water hot. How did Shakspere knows this if he
had
never visited Italy?
(35) In Othello we read,
"Forsooth, a great arithmetician one Michael
Cassio, a Florentine." If
Shakspere had never visited Italy, how did he know that men from Florence
were in great demand all over Italy as book-keepers, because the study of
mathematics was a speciality of Florence?
(36) In Othello, Act I, Sc. I, we
read, "raise some special officer of the
night." How could Shakspere know that in Venice there was a special night
police called "Signori di notte" unless he had visited Venice?
(37) If Shakspere had never
visited Italy, how is it that the Merchant
of Venice displays an intimate acquaintance not only with the
manners and
customs of Italy but with the minutest details of domestic life? In Act II of
The
Taming of the Shrew Gremio gives a complete list of all the goods and gear
with
which his house is stocked including a number of goods never seen in
Englewood but only in the palaces of Italian nobles.
(38) How did Shakspere if he
had never visited Italy know that in
that country a betrothal of two people is carried out by the father of the girl
joining their hands in the presence of two witnesses, as we find in The
Taming
of the Shrew, Act II, Sc. 2.?
(39) In The Merchant of Venice
we find the following---"This night,
methinks, is but the daylight sick. It looks a little paler: 'tis a day such as the
day is when the sun is hid." Act. v, Sc. I.
In Italy, the light of the moon and stars is almost as yellow as the sunlight in
England. How did Shakspere know this if he had never been in Italy?
(40) In The Winter's Tale we
read---"The Princesse hearing of her
mother's statue, a peece many yeeres in doing, and now newly perform'd by
that rare Italian Master, Julio Romano."---Act v, Sc. 2. Here we find Guilio
Romano described as a rare sculptor but in Shakspere's time
Romano was
known in England as a painter and architect only, not as a
sculptor. Vasari, however in 1550 and again in 1565, described him as a
sculptor--on both occasion in Italian, not in English. This means that
"Shakespeare" must either have studied Vasari in the original Italian or else
have
actually been to Mantua and seen Romano's sculptured works. No evidence
exists that Shakspere could read Italian or had ever travelled abroad.
(41) In Shaksperes day, there
was at Venice a common ferry at two
places, Fusina and Mestre, the ferries in Venice being called Tragetti.
In The Merchant of Venice we find "Unto the tranect, to the common
ferry which trades to Venice."
The word "tranect" appears to be a misprint for "traject"; presumably the
printers would not understand such an uncommon expression as "traject".
If Shakspere had not personally visited Italy, how did he
know that there
was such a ferry?
(42) In The Merchant of Venice
Portia and Nerissa travel from
Belmont Montebello to Padua and we find in this play the line "For we must
travel twenty miles to-day" (Act III, Sc. 4). How did Shakspere if he had never
visited Italy, know that the exact distance from Montebello to Padua is
twenty
miles?
(43) In The Taming of the
Shrew Lucentio changes places with his
servant Tranio and in doing so calls himself Cambio. Why should Shakspere
use
the name Cambio unless he had a good knowledge of the Italian language,
because the word Cambio means exchange?
(44) From 1585 to 1600 Correggio's
famous picture of Jupiter and Io was in the
palace of the sculptor Leoni at Milan and was on view to
travellers. In the
Introduction to The Taming of the Shrew we read--"We'11 show thee Io as
she
was a maid, and how she was beguiled and surpris'd as lively painted as the
deed
was done," which is clearly a reference to Correggio's picture at Milan. How
could Shakspere have inserted these words in the play if he had never seen the
picture at Milan?
With regard to the last eighteen questions it must be remembered that
there
were no guide books for the use of travellers in those days, so the author of
these plays could not have gathered his local knowledge of Italy from such
sources and must have visited Italy in person.
(45) In "As you like it" Rosalind
and Celia fled to the Forest of
Arden. The Stratfordians say "There you are, Arden was the name of part of
Warwickshire --here is a direct reference to the country where Shakspere lived
which proves that he wrote the plays."
They can produce no evidence that there was any forest or even
woodlands
in the district known as Arden, where the land was either enclosed pasture or
open field arable. They ignore or suppress the fact that the play of "As you
like
it" is taken direct from Lodge's novel Rosalynde where the forest scenes are
laid
in the Ardennes in Belgium, altered in the play to the English
equivalent Arden.
(46) The Stratfordians say that
the reference in "The Merry Wives of
Windsor" to the "dozen white luces" on Justice Shallow's coat identifies this
character with Sir Thomas Lucy of Charlecote Park near Stratford-on-Avon,
whose coat of arms had three luces on it. If this is so, how do the
Stratfordians
account for the fact that this reference to the luces first appeared in the First
Folio of the Plays published in 1623, seven years after Shakesper's
death and is
not found in the Quarto of the Play published in 1602 in
Shakspere's lifetime?
(47) Many years ago, Mr.
Appleton Morgan, the president of The
Shakespeare Society of New York, produced a glossary of 518 words which he
claimed as words exclusively used in Warwickshire.
The English Dialect Society's Dictionary shows that of those 518 so
called
pure Warwickshire words only 46 were not current in Surrey, Sussex, Kent,
Wiltshire, Hampshire, Lincolnshire and Leicestershire. How is it, therefore,
that not a single one of the 46 words which can be shown to have
been used exclusively in Warwickshire are to found in the
"Shakespeare" Plays? If Will Shakspere wrote the plays we should naturally
expect that he would use some of the local words. There is only one character in
all the plays who speaks a rustic dialect and that character is Edgar in "King
Lear". Edgar was son and heir to the Earl of Gloucester so he might reasonably
be expected when talking in dialect for the purpose of disguise to use the
Gloucestershire dialect, instead of which he uses the Kentish dialect.
(48) Edward Alleyn, who was
not only an eminent actor but also a
theatrical proprietor, who founded Dulwich College, left his
memoirs which
contain the names of all the notable actors and dramatists in
Shakspere's time, as
well as the name of every person who helped or received money in
connection
with the production of all the plays at the Blackfriars, Fortune
and other
theatres. How is it that Alleyn in this list of actors and dramatists
does not even
once mention Shakspere?
(49) Phillip Henslowe, the
theatrical manager who had erected the
Rose Theatre on Bankside, Southwark, in 1592, was the greatest theatrical
agent
and producer of his day and kept a diary (which has been preserved) in which
he sets down the sums that he paid to various authors for their work. How is
it
that the names of Shakespeare, Shakspere, Shaxspur or Shagsper do not appear
anywhere in this diary? In Henslow's diary we find the names of the
following
men who were all writers for Henslowe's theatres: Chapman, Chettle, Day,
Dekker, Drayton, Haughton, Heywood, Jonson, Marston, Middleton,
Munday,
Porter, Rankins, Rowley, Wadeson, Webster and Wilson. Here we find
mentioned practically all the dramatic writers of that day with any claim to
distinction, with one exception only, that of Shakspere who is never once
mentioned in Henslowe's diary, which completely ignores his existence.
(50) The Stratfordians refuse to
admit that Will Shakspere was
educated at Cambridge University. How therefore do they account for the
fact
that the following expressions appear in the "Shakespeare" plays, such
expressions being those which only a man educated at Cambridge
University
would use? In "King Lear" Act 2, Scene 4, we read "To bandy hasty
words, to scant my sizes". The expression "scanting of sizes" was
used exclusively at
Cambridge to denote the punishment of a sizar (a poor student who received
sizes or allowances) by cutting his rations or sizes. With the exception of the
"Shakespeare" plays the word sizes is not used by any other Elizabethan
dramatist except by the author of the "Return from Parnassus" written by an
anonymous Cambridge author. The Oxford Dictionary states the use of this
word was peculiar to Cambridge.
(51) In "Hamlet" Act 2, Scene 2,
we read--"Inquire me first what
Danskers are in Paris; and how, and who, what means, and where they
keep."
The Oxford Dictionary states that the use of the word "Keep" for "reside" is
peculiar to Cambridge University, and the use of this peculiar
word "Keep" is
found thirteen times in the "Shakespeare" plays.
(52) In "The Merry Wives of
Windsor" is the character of a physician
Dr. Caius. His character is identical with that of Dr. Caius who founded
Caius
College Cambridge, both being overbearing, choleric and revengful men. Dr.
Caius in the play hated Welshmen as is shown by his quarrel with Sir Hugh
Evans, a Welsh parson, and the real Dr. Caius hated Welshmen so much that
he
excluded Welshmen from the privileges of fellowship of Caius College. How
did
Will Shakspere who never went to Cambridge know anything about the
character of Dr. Caius who had died before Shakspere was 9 years old, and
why
should he put this character in the play of "The Merry Wives of Windsor.
There
were no newspapers in those days and it is very doubtful if the peculiarities of
Dr. Caius would have been known
outside University
circles, and there is no evidence that Shakspere had ever been to
Cambridge or
knew anyone
there.
(53) On 1st March, 1595 a play
entitled Laelia was performed by the
undergraduates of Oueens'
College, Cambridge. The character of Laelia in this play and the character of
Viola in the
"Shakespeare" play "Twelfth Night" are absolutely identical and "Shakspeare"
must have either
seen or read this played Laelia before writing Twelfth Night. How could
Shakspere who was never at
Cambridge, manage to obtain a copy of this play Laelia and develop the
character of Viola on
exactly similar lines?
(54) All references to Shakspere
direct and indirect in contemporaneous
literature during the period
1592-1616 have been carefully collated and published. They number 127
classified
as follows: those
made to his works, 120; those made to him as a man, 7. The seven references
to
him as a man are
made by Thomas Nashe 1589; Robert Greene, 1592 John Manningham, 1601;
two anonymous
writers in 1605; Thomas Heywood 1612, and Ben Jonson, 1616. Nashe calls
Shakspere an idiot,
Greene an upstart crow, Manningham makes him the hero of an amour, the
anonymous writers
only refer to his wealth, landed proprietorship and aspirations to a title,
Heywood because two of
Heywood's poems had been published as Shakspere's, and Jonson scoffs at
him
as a poet ape.
Here we find three authors Nashe, Greene and Jonson who knew the man
Will
well, treating him
with contempt and his literary pretensions with ridicule, sneering at him and
his
poetical claims.
Ben Jonson in particular scoffed at Shakspere's pretensions, well knowing that
many of the plays
were earlier than Shakspere's theatrical career and, moreover that he was
incapable of such
productions. Why are there only seven references to Will Shakspere's the
man,
and why is there
no word or hint anywhere that he possessed any literary ability whatsoever?
(55) Ben Jonson in his
Discoveries (1637) gives a list of all the
great men that he had known. In this list Shakspere's name is not mentioned.
Why did Jonson omit his name if he thought that he was the author of the
"Shakespeare" plays?
(56) The Stratfordians say that
Shakspere's earliest reputation was made
as an actor. If so, why is there no record anywhere of the parts he played
with
one exception, namely Rowe (in 1709) who wrote that Shakspere played
the Ghost in his own Hamlet and that this was the top of his performance?
(57) Will Shakspere's residence
in London extended over a period of
more than twenty years. The men of letters, his contemporaries, were Sir
Walter
Raleigh, Spenser, Bacon, Cecil, Walsingham, Coke, Camden, Hooker, Drake,
Hobbes, Inigo Jones, Herbert of Cherbury, Laud, Pym, Hampden, Selden,
Walton, Wotton and Donne, How is it that there is no evidence whatever
that
Will Shakspere was personally known to any of these men or to any others of
less note among the statesmen, scholars, soldiers and artists of his day?
(58) Why is it that of
Shakspere's social life during his long residence
on London we have not even a tradition?
(59) The three signatures to
Shakspere's Will are so atrocious that the
Stratfordians have suggested as a reason for this that he was suffering from
paralysis at the time, in spite of the fact that his Will states at the beginning
that
he was in perfect health. If Shakspere could produce these signatures when
suffering from paralysis, how is it that he could not produce a really legible
signature when in health as none has yet been discovered!
(60) Shakspere by his Will
bequeathed a number of memorial rings
and other mementos to his friends and associates, such as Sadler, Raynolds,
Heminge, Burbage, and Condell. How is it that he bequeathed nothing to Ben
Jonson who, according to Sir Sidney Lee, was one of his closest
friends?
(61) How is it, that when
Shakspere died, Jonson never referred to his
death, not mentioning his name for 7 years until the publication of "The First
Folio" in 1623?.
(62) Why did Will Shakspere in
his will leave no directions as to the
disposition of his plays or the manuscripts thereof? If these passed to his
daughter Susanna as residuary legatee, why did she not claim them as a
portion
of the residuary estate? The plays were valuable, and Susanna, if she was
anything like her father, would not be likely to give anything away. If
Shakspere had parted with the manuscripts in his lifetime, he must have had
in
his possession copies of his printed poems "Venus and Adonis"
and the "Rape of
Lucrece" and of "The Sonnets." What became of them?
It is clear that they were never in the possession of his daughter Susanna.
(63) Susanna Hall and her
husband had only one child--a daughter
Elizabeth, born in 1608, (Shakspere by his will bequeathed to this
granddaughter
the greater part of his plate). Elizabeth Hall first married Thomas Nash, and
afterwards John Barnard, who was subsequently knighted.
On her mother's, Susanna's, death, she became the owner of New Place
and
other property under Shakspere's will.
(64) Why is there no record
that Lady Barnard ever mentioned her
grandfather, the great poet?, or ever possessed any relics of him or any books
belonging to him?
(65) When Will Shakspere died,
why did none of his literary friends
attend the funeral of the great genius "Shakespeare", or express their grief that
the greatest poet that the world had ever seen had passed away?
(66) Why did not one of the
literary fraternity in London realize that
when Will Shakspere died a great poet and dramatist had passed away--not one
of them came to his funeral or sent their condolences to his family?
(67) Why did no one take the
slightest notice of the death of the
retired actor and tradesman of Stratford? The world of letters seems to have
been quite unconscious of any loss, for not a single note of regret that a great
poet had passed away has reached us from any source whatsoever.
(68) In the days of Elizabeth, it
was customary to write elegies on the
deaths of any well known men.
Ben Jonson was a very minor poet compared with "Shakespeare": why do
we find over fifty allusions to Jonson's death but not a single one to the death
of Shakspere? [Jonson does not mention the publication of the Manes
Verulamiani shortly after Franis Bacon's death, in which there are
thirty-two tributes to his genius.]
(69) The Historian William
Camden published in 1610 a Book entitled
"Britannia" in which there are several references to Stratford-on-Avon. Why is
it
that Camden does not mention Shakspere although the majority of the plays
had been written prior to the year 1610? Is it not clear that Camden saw no
connection between Stratford-on-Avon and the writer of the plays?
(70) When James Cooke, who
was an Army surgeon attached to
troops stationed at Stratford-on-Avon in 1642, called upon Shakspere's
daughter
Mrs. Susanna Hall, he asked to be shown any manuscripts or books belonging
to
her husband or father. Why did she say that she had not got any books or
manuscripts or anything in her father's handwriting?
(71) On 28th June, 1613, the
Globe Theatre was burnt to the ground.
In a published account of the catastrophe, why is reference made to Richard
Burbage, Henry Condell and others, but not a word is said about Shakspere?
(72) George Sandys published
his "Journey" a few months before
Shakspere died.
Sandys wrote "By the Pillar, standing in a vault within the castle, entered
by
the Nile, they measure his increase." "Shakespeare" wrote "They take the flow
of the Nile by certain scales on the Pyramid", which is practically the same
thing.
Sandys wrote "answerable to the increase of the river, is the plenty or
scarcity of the year succeeding." "Shakespeare" wrote "The higher Nilus
swells,
the more it promises" which is the same thought expressed differently. The
above quotations from "Shakespeare" are from Antony and Cleopatra, Act II,
Scene 7. Antony and Cleopatra was not published until 7 years. after
Shakspere's
death. How therefore could Shakspere have quoted from Sandy' work as he
had
no time to read this work before he died?
(73) Why did the late Dr. C. W.
Ingleby, who. in compiling his
Shakespeare's Centurie of Praise spend two years in research through English
literature from 1592 to 1693 to find every allusion, however slight it might be,
to the poet Shakespeare and his works. state that "no pains of research,
scrutiny
or study could find the most trivial allusions to the bard or his works by any
one of the great men of his day." He adds "It is plain for one thing,
that the
bard of our admiration was unknown to the men of that age."
(74) The letters of every great
man in literature have been preserved
with the sole exception of Shakspere. Is not this due to the fact that Shakspere
could not write?
(75) In the First Folio of the
"Shakespeare Plays'" there are over
634,000 words, each of which have been written out by hand in the first
instance. How is it that if Will Shakspere wrote the plays, there is not in
existence a single one of those 634,000 words in his own handwriting?
(76) Why does "Shakespeare"
always take the aristocratic point of view
and pour contempt on the common people. He refers to them as the common
herd--sweaty rabble, etc. Shakspere of Stratford came from the common
people--why should he foul his own nest?
(77) How do Stratfordians
account for the fact that in the first Folio of
the Plays published in 1623 there are nearly 10,000 lines absolutely
unknown in
any form before 1616, the year Shakspere died?
(78) Who was it who revised all
the Plays for the First Folio and
wrote all those additional lines in exactly the same style as the original matter?
(79) Twenty-two years after the
publication of the First Folio of the
"Shakespeare" Plays in 1623--namely 1645--the French people apparently had
not
heard of Will Shakspere of Stratford-on-Avon as a playwright, because in that
year Jan Blaeu published his "Theatre du monde" in which, describing
Stratfordon-on-Avon, he wrote:
"The Avon passes against Stratford, a rather agreeable little trading place,
but
which owes all its glory to two of its nurslings: to wit, John de Stratford,
Archbishop of Canterbury, who built a temple there, and Hugh de Clopton,
who threw across the Avon, at great cost, a bridge of fourteen arches."
How is it that there is not a word in this book about the man on whom
Stratford-on-Avon now depends for its sole claim to fame?
(80) In 1576 a play "A Historie
of Error" (probably the first form of
the "Shakespeare" Play "The Comedy of Errors") was acted before Queen
Elizabeth at Hampton Court. At this date Shakspere was 12 years old and still
at
Stratford. How therefore can you say that Shakspere was the author of this
play?
(81) In 1579 "The Merchant of
Venice" in its earlier title of "The Jew
showne at the Bull, representing the greediness of wurldly choosers and
bloody
minds of usurers" was produced. Shakspere at that date was
15 years of age. The plot of this play was taken from two Italian novels. How
could he have learnt Italian at Stratford at this early age?
(82) In 1584, when Shakspere
was 20 years old and still at Stratford,
the play "The Two Gentlemen of Verona" based on a play called "Felix and
Philomena" was acted before the Queen. The plot of this play was taken
from
the Spanish. If Shakspere wrote this play whilst he was still at
Stratford, how
was he able to read Spanish?
(83) "Hamlet" was played by
Lord Leicester's men before Queen
Elizabeth at Oxford in the Spring of 1585. This was before Shakspere left
Stratford for London. If he wrote this play how was he able while still
at
Stratford to get it produced by Lord Leicester's Company of Actors?
(84) In 1612, the performance
of all stage plays at Stratford was
forbidden by the municipality under a penalty of ten pounds. Shakspere was
then permanently residing at Stratford. If he was the celebrated dramatist,
why
did he not protest at this action of his fellow townsmen?
(85) The Boatswain in "The
Tempest" speaks in the true vernacular of
the Forecastle.
Salanio and Salarino in "The Merchant of Venice" use accurate sailor's
expressions.
"The Comedy of Errors" is full of nautical allusions and sea words. There
is
no evidence that Shakspere ever went to sea. How could he realize the life
and
language of a sailor by force of his imagination?
(86) Research has traced the life
of Shakspere from the cradle to the
grave, and by means of tradition, legal documents, records and inscriptions
formed quite an accurate biography. How is it that this research does not
record
a single item to connect Shakspere with "Shakespeare" the author of the
Plays?
(87) If Shakspere wrote the
Plays, why did he apparently conceal this
fact from his friends instead of being proud of his authorship?
(88) If he did not conceal it, why
did not his
friends say something about their friendship with the celebrated author?
(89) Why did not the other
authors and dramatists know of his
existence and make some reference to the man Shakspere?
(90) The Stratfordians say that
Shakspere made sufficient money to
buy New Place either through acting or writing plays. If he earned this
money
by acting, how is it that we have no record of the parts he played, which
seems
to show that he must have been a very inferior actor whose salary would
therefore be small?
(91) If he made money by
writing plays, how is it that there is no
record that any theatrical producer' or any other person ever paid him a
penny
piece for writing a play?
(92) There is nothing whatever
in Shakspere's. Will to connect the
testator with either plays or actors, except one erasure and one interlineation.
The Christian name of Hamnet Sadler has been scratched out and someone
has
written above it Hamlett instead of Hamnet in order
to suggest that the testator
was familiar with the name of the play. There is an interlineation of gifts "to
my
fellowes John Heminge, Richard Burbage and Henry Condell of 26s.
each to
buy rings". Neither of these alterations was initialled by the testator or the
witnesses as was customary. Why should the only indications in the will that
Shakspere had anything to do with the plays or actors have been apparently
inserted as an after-thought?
(93) When Shakspere died, he
was one of the richest men in Stratford.
Yet when his father mother and son died, he never spent a penny in marking
their resting places with a stone. Is this the man who in the Play "Cymbeline"
is
supposed to have written "Sore shaming those rich left heirs that let their
fathers
lie without a monument"? (Act IV Sc. 2.)
(94) The author of
"Shakespeare" Plays seems to have hated
drunkenness because we read.
"To be now a sensible man, by and by a fool, and
presently a beast, O strange." (Othello, Act 2,
Scene 3.)
"O monstrous beast, how like a swine he lies."
(The Taming of The Shrew, Act I, Scene 1.)
Are not these strange sentiments to be expressed by a man who was
himself
a heavy drinker?
(95) The "Shakespeare" Plays
denounce in scathing terms ignorance as
follows:
"O thou monster ignorance, how deformed dost thou look!"
(Love's Labour's Lost, Act 4, Scene 2.)
"Ignorance is the curse of God--Knowledge the wing on which we fly to
heaven."
(2 Henry VI, Act 4, Scene 7.)
"O gross and miserable ignorance". (2 Henry VI Act 4, Scene 2.)
How do you account for the fact that Shakspere who is supposed to have
expressed those sentiments allowed his two daughters to be brought up in
such a
state of ignorance that they could not even sign their names?
(96) Robert Greene in his
"Groatsworth of Wit" is believed by
Stratfordians to have alluded to Shakspere. Why therefore does he call
Shakspere
an upstart crow beautified in others feathers?
(97) How is it that after
Shakspere's death plays continued to pour
forth as if nothing had happened? Not only a number of new
plays which were
unheard of before and the greatest of them all, but the old plays were
considerably augmented, revised and virtually rewritten. Who was
responsible
for this?
(98) In the year 1777 a Mrs.
Hornby as a private enterprise opened at
Stratford a museum of relics of Shakspere. She exhibited as Shakspere's
personal
belongings, a carved oak chest, part of a carved bedstead, an iron deed box, a
sword, a lantern, pieces of
the famous mulberry tree, one of Mrs. Shakspere's shoes and a drinking glass.
In
1827 Mr. R. B. Wheler, The Stratfordfordian Historian and author of the
Local
Guide Book, denounced these relics without exception as being "scandalous
impositions," and stated that "It is well known that there does not exist a
single
article that ever belonged to Shakspere." Where now are these so-called relics?
(99) It is possible to make a list of
1500 celebrated Englishmen and go to
the Histories, Biographies and Encyclopaedias and find out the history of each
one of' them, with one exception only, namely Shakspere.
Is not the reason for this the
fact that Shakspere had no history, with
nothing whatever in his life worth recording--nothing to show that he was
anything but possibly a third rate actor and a tradesman in a small town,
nothing to show that any single person regarded him as a person of
importance,
nothing to show that he had any prominence when he lived, nothing to show
that he was anything but utterly obscure and unimportant? not only in
London
but in his own native town?
Edward D. Johnson
