Part 12 (2/2)

In that case how negligent was Bacon of his immortal works! Now Bacon was a scholar, and this absurd conduct cannot be imputed, I hope, to him.

Mr. Pollard is much more lenient than his fellow-scholars towards the Editor or Editors of the Folio. He concludes that ”ma.n.u.script copies of the plays were easily procurable.” Sixteen out of the thirty-six plays existed in quartos. Eight of the sixteen were not used for the Folio; five were used, ”with additions, corrections, or alterations”

(which must have been made from ma.n.u.scripts). Three quartos only were reprinted as they stood. The Editors greatly preferred to use ma.n.u.script copies; and showed this, Mr. Pollard thinks, by placing plays, never before printed, in the most salient parts of the three sets of dramas in their book. {215a} They did make an attempt to divide their plays into Acts and Scenes, whereas the quartos, as a general rule, had been undivided. But the Editors, I must say, had not the energy to carry out their good intentions fully--or Bacon or Bungay, if the author, wearied in well-doing. The work is least ill done in the Comedies, and grows worse and worse as the Editor, or Bacon, or Bungay becomes intolerably slack.

A great living author, who had a decent regard for his own works, could never have made or pa.s.sed this slovenly Folio. Yet Mr.

Greenwood argues that probably Bungay was still alive and active, after Shakspere was dead and buried. (Mr. Greenwood, of course, does not speak of Bungay, which I use as short for his Great Unknown.) Thus, Richard III from 1597 to 1622 appeared in six quartos. It is immensely improved in the Folio, and so are several other plays. Who made the improvements, which the Editors could only obtain in ma.n.u.scripts? If we say that Shakespeare made them in MS., Mr.

Greenwood asks, ”What had he to work upon, since, after selling his plays to his company, he did not preserve his ma.n.u.script?” {216a} Now I do not know that he did sell his plays to his company. We are sure that Will got money for them, but we do not know what arrangement he made with his company. He may have had an author's rights in addition to a sum down, as later was customary, and he had his regular share in the profits. Nor am I possessed of information that ”he did not preserve his ma.n.u.script.” How can we know that? He may have kept his first draft, he may have made a fair copy for himself, as well as for the players, or may have had one made. He may have worked on a copy possessed by the players; and the publisher of the quartos of 1605, 1612, 1622, may not have been allowed to use, or may not have asked for the latest ma.n.u.script revised copy. The Richard III of the Folio contains, with much new matter, the printer's errors of the quarto of 1622. I would account for this by supposing that the casual Editor had just sense enough to add the new parts in a revised ma.n.u.script to the quarto, and was far too lazy to correct the printer's errors in the quarto. But Mr. Greenwood asks whether ”the natural conclusion is not that 'some person unknown'

took the Quarto of 1622, revised it, added the new pa.s.sages, and thus put it into the form in which it appeared in 1623.” This natural conclusion means that the author, Bungay, was alive in 1622, and put his additions and improvements of recent date into the quarto of 1622, but never took the trouble to correct the errors in the quarto.

And so on in other plays similarly treated. ”Is it not a more natural conclusion that 'Shakespeare'” (Bungay) ”himself revised its publication, and that some part of this revision, at any rate, was done after 1616 and before 1623.” {217a}

Mr. Greenwood, after criticising other systems, writes, {217b} ”There is, of course, another hypothesis. It is that Shakespeare” (meaning the real author) ”did not die in 1616,” and here follows the usual notion that ”Shakespeare” was the ”nom de plume” of that transcendent genius, ”moving in Court circles among the highest of his day (as a.s.suredly Shakespeare must have moved)--who wished to conceal his ident.i.ty.”

I have not the shadow of a.s.surance that the Author ”moved in Court circles,” though Will would see a good deal when he played at Court, and in the houses of n.o.bles, before ”Eliza and our James.” I never moved in Court circles: Mr. Greenwood must know them better than I do, and I have explained (see Love's Labour's Lost, and Shakespeare, Genius, and Society) how Will picked up his notions of courtly ways.

”Another hypothesis,” the Baconian hypothesis,--”nom de plume” and all,--Mr. Greenwood thinks ”an extremely reasonable one”: I cannot easily conceive of one more unreasonable.

”Supposing that there was such an author as I have suggested, he may well have conceived the idea of publis.h.i.+ng a collected edition of the plays which had been written under the name of Shakespeare, and being himself busy with other matters, he may have entrusted the business to some 'literary man,' to some 'good pen,' who was at the time doing work for him; and why not to the man who wrote the commendatory verses, the 'Lines to the Reader'” (opposite to the engraving), ”and, as seems certain, the Preface, 'to the great variety of Readers'?”

{218a}

That man, that ”good pen,” was Ben Jonson. On the ”supposing” of Mr.

Greenwood, Ben is ”doing work for” the Great Unknown at the time when ”the business” following on the ”idea of publis.h.i.+ng a collected edition of the plays which had been written under the name of Shakespeare” occurred to the ill.u.s.trious but unknown owner of that ”nom de plume.” In plain words of my own,--the Author may have entrusted ”the business,” and what was that business if not the editing of the Folio?--to Ben Jonson--”who was at the time doing work for him”--for the Author.

Here is a clue! We only need to know for what man of ”transcendent genius, universal culture, world-wide philosophy . . . moving in Court circles,” and so on, Ben ”was working” about 1621-3, the Folio appearing in 1623.

The heart beats with antic.i.p.ation of a discovery! ”On January 22, 1621, Bacon celebrated his sixtieth birthday with great state at York House. Jonson was present,” and wrote an ode, with something about the Genius of the House (Lar or Brownie),

”Thou stand'st as if some mystery thou didst.”

Mr. Greenwood does not know what this can mean; nor do I. {219a}

”Jonson, it appears” (on what authority?), ”was Bacon's guest at Gorhambury, and was one of those good 'pens,'” of whom Bacon speaks as a.s.sisting him in the translation of some of his books into Latin.

Bacon, writing to Toby Mathew, June 26, 1623, mentions the help of ”some good pens,” Ben Jonson he does not mention. But Judge Webb does. ”It is an undoubted fact,” says Judge Webb, ”that the Latin of the De Augmentis, which was published in 1623, was the work of Jonson.” {219b} To whom Mr. Collins replies, ”There is not a particle of evidence that Jonson gave to Bacon the smallest a.s.sistance in translating any of his works into Latin.” {219c}

Tres bien, on Judge Webb's a.s.surance the person for whom Ben was working, in 1623, was Bacon. Meanwhile, Mr. Greenwood's ”supposing”

is ”that there was such an author” (of transcendent genius, and so on), who ”may have entrusted the editing of his collected plays” to some ”good pen,” who was at the time ”doing work for him,” and ”why not to”--Ben Jonson. {220a} Now the man for whom Ben, in 1623, was ”doing work”--was BACON,--so Judge Webb says. {220b}

Therefore, by this hypothesis of Mr. Greenwood, {220c} the Great Unknown was Bacon,--just the hypothesis of the common Baconian.

Is my reasoning erroneous? Is the ”supposing” suggested by Mr.

Greenwood {220d} any other than that of Miss Delia Bacon, and Judge Webb? True, Mr. Greenwood's Baconian ”supposing” is only a working hypothesis: not a confirmed belief. But it is useful to his argument (see ”Ben Jonson and Shakespeare”) when he wants to explain away Ben's evidence, in his verses in the Folio, to the Stratford actor as the Author.

Mr. Greenwood writes, in the first page of his Preface: ”It is no part of my plan or intention to defend that theory,” ”the Baconian theory.” Apparently it pops out contrary to the intention of Mr.

Greenwood. But pop out it does: at least I can find no flaw in the reasoning of my detection of Bacon: I see no way out of it except this: after recapitulating what is said about Ben as one of Bacon's ”good pens” with other details, Mr. Greenwood says, ”But no doubt that way madness lies!” {221a} Ah no! not madness, no, but Baconism ”lies that way.” However, ”let it be granted” (as Euclid says in his sportsmanlike way) that Mr. Greenwood by no means thinks that his ”concealed poet” is Bacon--only some one similar and similarly situated and still active in 1623, and occupied with other business than supervising a collected edition of plays written under his ”nom de plume” of Shakespeare. Bacon, too, was busy, with supervising, or toiling at the Latin translation of his scientific works, and Ben (according to Judge Webb) was busy in turning the Advancement of Learning into Latin prose. Mr. Greenwood quotes, without reference, Archbishop Tenison as saying that Ben helped Bacon in doing his works into Latin. {221b} Tenison is a very late witness. The prophetic soul of Bacon did not quite trust English to last as long as Latin, or he thought Latin, the lingua franca of Europe in his day, more easily accessible to foreign students, as, of course, it was. Thus Bacon was very busy; so was Ben. The sad consequence of Ben's business, perhaps, is that the editing of the Folio is notoriously bad; whether Ben were the Editor or not, it is infamously bad.

<script>