Part 13 (1/2)

Conceivably Mr. Greenwood is of the same opinion. He says, ”It stands admitted that a very large part of that volume” (the Folio) ”consists of work that is not 'Shakespeare's' at all.”

How strange, if Ben edited it for the Great Unknown--who knew, if any human being knew, what work was ”Shakespeare's”! On Mr. Greenwood's hypothesis, {222a} or ”supposing,” the Unknown Author ”may well have conceived the idea of publis.h.i.+ng a collected edition of the plays which had been written” (not ”published,” WRITTEN) ”under the name of Shakespeare, and, being himself busy with other matters, he may have entrusted the business to” some ”good pen,” ”and why not to”--Ben.

Nevertheless ”a very large part of that volume consists of work that is not 'Shakespeare's' at all.” {222b} How did this occur? The book {222c} is ”that very doubtful 'canon.'” How, if ”Shakespeare's” man edited it for ”Shakespeare”? Did ”Shakespeare” not care what stuff was placed under his immortal ”nom de plume”?

It is not my fault if I think that Mr. Greenwood's hypotheses {222d}- -the genuine ”Shakespeare” either revised his own works, or put Ben on the editorial task--are absolutely contradicted by his statements in another part of his book. {222e} For the genuine ”Shakespeare”

knew what plays he had written, knew what he could honestly put forth as his own, as ”Shakespeare's.” Or, if he placed the task of editing in Ben's hands, he must have told Ben what plays were of his own making. In either case the Folio would contain these, and no others.

But--”the plat contraire,”--the very reverse,--is stated by Mr.

Greenwood. ”It stands admitted that a very large portion of that volume” (the Folio) ”consists of work that is not 'Shakespeare's'”

(is not Bacon's, or the other man's) ”at all.” {223a} Then away fly the hypotheses {223b} that the auto-Shakespeare, or that Ben, employed by the auto-Shakespeare (apparently Bacon) revised, edited, and prepared for publication the auto-Shakespearean plays. For Mr.

Greenwood ”has already dealt with t.i.tus (Andronicus) and Henry VI,”

{223c} and proved them not to be auto-Shakespearean--and he adds ”there are many other plays in that very doubtful 'canon'” (the Folio) ”which, by universal admission, contain much non-Shakespearean composition.” {223d} Perhaps! but if so the two hypotheses, {223e} that either the genuine Shakespeare {223f} revised (”is it not a more natural solution that 'Shakespeare' himself revised his works for publication, and that some part, at any rate, of this revision {223g} was done after 1616 and before 1623?”), or {223h} that he gave Ben (who was working, by the conjecture, for Bacon) the task of editing the Folio,--are annihilated. For neither the auto-Shakespeare (if honest), nor Ben (if sober), could have stuffed the Folio full of non-Shakespearean work,--including four ”non-Shakespearean” plays,-- nor could the Folio be ”that very doubtful canon.” {224a} Again, if either the auto-Shakespeare or Ben following his instructions, were Editor, neither could have, as the Folio Editor had ”evidently no little doubt about” Troilus and Cressida. {224b}

Neither Ben, nor the actual Simon Pure, the author, the auto- Shakespeare, could fail to know the truth about Trodus and Cressida.

But the Editor {224c} did NOT know the truth, the whole canon is ”doubtful.” Therefore the hypothesis, the ”supposing,” that the actual author did the revising, {224d} and the other hypothesis that he gave Ben the work, {224e} seem to me wholly impossible. But Mr.

Greenwood needs the ”supposings” of pp. 290, 293; and as he rejects t.i.tus Andronicus and Henry VI (both in the Folio), he also needs the contradictory views of pp. 351, 358. On which set of supposings and averments does he stand to win?

Perhaps he thinks to find a way out of what appears to me to be a dilemma in the following fas.h.i.+on: He will not accept t.i.tus Andronicus and Henry VI, though both are in the Folio, as the work of HIS ”Shakespeare,” his Unknown, the Bacon of the Baconians. Well, we ask, if your Unknown, or Bacon, or Ben,--instructed by Bacon, or by the Unknown,--edited the Folio, how could any one of the three insert t.i.tus, and Henry VI, and be ”in no little doubt about” Troilus and Cressida? Bacon, or the Unknown, or the Editor employed by either, knew perfectly well which plays either man could honestly claim as his own work, done under the ”nom de plume” of ”William Shakespeare”

(with or without the hyphen). Yet the Editor of the Folio does not know--and Mr. Greenwood does know--Henry VI and t.i.tus are ”wrong ones.”

Mr. Greenwood's way out, if I follow him, is this: {225a} ”Judge Stotsenburg asks, 'Who wrote The Taming of a Shrew printed in 1594, and who wrote t.i.tus Andronicus, Henry VI, or King Lear referred to in the Diary?'” (Henslowe's). The Judge continues: ”Neither Collier nor any of the Shaxper commentators make (sic) any claim to their authors.h.i.+p in behalf of William Shaxper. Since these plays have the same names as those included in the Folio of 1623 the presumption is that they are the same plays until the contrary is shown. Of course it may be shown, either that those in the Folio are entirely different except in name, or that these plays were revised, improved, and dressed by some one whom they” (who?) ”called Shakespeare.”

Mr. Greenwood says, ”My own conviction is that . . . these plays were 'revised, improved, and dressed by some one whom they called Shakespeare.'” {226a} (Whom WHO called Shakespeare?) In that case these plays,--say t.i.tus Andronicus and Henry VI, Part 1,--which Mr.

Greenwood denies to HIS ”Shakespeare” were just as much HIS Shakespeare's plays as any other plays (and there are several), which HIS Shakespeare ”revised, improved, and dressed.” Yet HIS Shakespeare is NOT author of Henry VI, {226b} not the author of t.i.tus Andronicus. {226c} ”Mr. Anders,” writes Mr. Greenwood, ”makes what I think to be a great error in citing Henry VI and t.i.tus as genuine plays of Shakespeare.” {226d}

He hammers at this denial in nineteen references in his Index to t.i.tus Andronicus. Yet Ben, or Bacon, or the Unknown thought that these plays WERE ”genuine plays” of ”Shakespeare,” the concealed author--Bacon or Mr. Greenwood's man. It appears that the immense poet who used the ”nom de plume” of ”Shakespeare” did not know the plays of which he could rightfully call himself the author; that (not foreseeing Mr. Greenwood's constantly repeated objections) he boldly annexed four plays, or two certainly, which Mr. Greenwood denies to him, and another about which ”the Folio Editor was in no little doubt.”

Finally, {227a} Mr. Greenwood is ”convinced,” ”it is my conviction”

that some plays which he often denies to his ”Shakespeare” were ”revised, improved, and dressed by some one whom they called Shakespeare.” That some one, if he edited or caused to be edited the Folio, thought that his revision, improvement, and dressing up of the plays gave him a right to claim their authors.h.i.+p--and Mr. Greenwood, a dozen times and more, denies to him their authors.h.i.+p.

One is seriously puzzled to discover the critic's meaning. The Taming of a Shrew, t.i.tus, Henry VI, and King Lear, referred to in Henslowe's ”Diary,” are not ”Shakespearean,” we are repeatedly told.

But ”my own conviction is that . . . ” these plays were ”revised, improved, and dressed by some one whom they called Shakespeare.” But to be revised, improved, and dressed by some one whom they called Shakespeare, is to be as truly ”Shakespearean” work as is any play so handled ”by Shakespeare.” Thus the plays mentioned are as truly ”Shakespearean” as any others in which ”Shakespeare” worked on an earlier canvas, and also t.i.tus ”is not SHAKESPEAREAN at all.” Mr.

Greenwood, I repeat, constantly denies the ”Shakespearean” character to t.i.tus and Henry VI. ”The conclusion of the whole matter is that t.i.tus and The Trilogy of Henry VI are not the work of Shakespeare: that his hand is probably not to be found at all in t.i.tus, and only once or twice, if at all, in Henry VI, Part I, but that he it probably was who altered and remodelled the two parts of the old Contention of the Houses of York and Lancaster, thereby producing Henry VI, Parts II and III.” {228a}

Yet {228b} t.i.tus and Henry VI appear as ”revised, improved, and dressed” by the mysterious ”some one whom they called Shakespeare.”

If Mr. Greenwood's conclusion {228c} be correct, ”Shakespeare” had no right to place Henry VI, Part I, and t.i.tus in his Folio. If his ”conviction” {228d} be correct, Shakespeare had as good a right to them as to any of the plays which he revised, and improved, and dressed. They MUST be ”Shakespearean” if Mr. Greenwood is right {228e} in his suggestion that ”Shakespeare” either revised his works for publication between 1616 and 1623, or set his man, Ben Jonson, upon that business. Yet neither one nor the other knew what to make of Troilus and Cressida. ”The Folio Editor had, evidently, no little doubt about that play.” {228f}

So neither ”Shakespeare” nor Ben, instructed by him, can have been ”the Folio Editor.” Consequently Mr. Greenwood must abandon his suggestion that either man was the Editor, and may return to his rejection of t.i.tus and Henry VI, Part I. But he clings to it. He finds in Henslowe's Diary ”references to, and records of the writing of, such plays” as, among others, t.i.tus Andronicus, and Henry VI.

{229a}