Ben Jonson's eulogies of Shakespeare, in verse, nowhere surpass, as we have seen, his eulogies of Bacon, in prose. He calls Lord Bacon "the acme of our language," and, as Mr. Thompson suggests, "no pinnacle has two acmes."
"On every variety of court enfolding," continues that writer, "was Bacon daily employed, writing in others' names; and, if we do not think worse of Plato for personating Socrates, or of Cicero for personating Cato," neither should ill be thought of Bacon for borrowing a name "to cover his aim," etc.2 Meanwhile, "this acme of our language 'was poor and a borrower." In 1605, is published an anonymous pamphlet, called "Ratsei's Ghost."
* Holmes' "Authorship of Shakespeare," 3d edition, pp. 657-
-682.
*** The Renascence Drama, p. 59.
In it, one Ratsei, a highwayman, is about to be hung, and gives some parting advice to a strolling player; tells him to go to London, where he would learn to be frugal and thrifty; to feed upon all men, hut let none feed on him; make his hand stranger to his pocket, his heart slow to perform his tongue's promise; and when he felt his purse well lined, to buy some place of lordship in the country; that, growing weary of playing, his money may then bring him to dignity and reputation; that he need care for no man—no, not for them that before made him proud with speaking their words on the stage.
"If this satirical passage," says Mr. Thompson, "plainly alludes to him who went to London very meanly, and came, in time, to be exceedingly wealthy, it confirms Greene's saying, that Shakespeare made his money by acting, not by writing, plays, and by usury." *
As to Miss Bacon's question, "What did William Shakespeare do with Bacon's manuscripts?" Mr. Thompson ** seems to think that they may yet be brought to light. They "appear to have been so many times hypothetically burned, at Stratford, in the Globe theater, the London fire, by their owners (by purchase) at the play-house, to hinder rivals from using them," that Mr. Thompson argues that "it is probable they are still to the fore." Bacon's Will directs certain papers laid away in boxes, cabinets, and presses, to be collected, sealed up, and put away, "so as not to have them ready for present publication."
* Id., p. 200.
* Renascence Drama, or History made Visible. By "William
Thompson. Melbourne, 1880.
He was "not ignorant that those kind of writings would, with less pains and embracement (perhaps), yield more luster and reputation to my name, than those other which I have in hand." They could bide their time, and, since William Shakespeare and his fellows do not dispose of them, the inference is that they were not allowed to retain them.
The Baconian theory, it is to be noticed, is quite indifferent as to whether William Shakespeare, on first turning up at London, found employment (as Mr. Grant White asserts) in his "cousin's law-office" or not: or whether, at any stage in his career, either in Stratford or London, he was an attorney's clerk, hard 'prentice at the trade of "noverint." (By which slur Mr. Fullom believes that Nash meant, not that Shakespeare was a "noverint," but that the young "nove-rints" of the time were "Shakespeare's;" that is to say, that they scribbled, out of hand, for the stage.) The Shakespearean problem is neither increased nor diminished by the proposition; even an attorney's clerk could not have written all the Shakespearean pages. Should it be necessary, however, to find a law-student in London who could have managed some of them, why not allow Francis Bacon his claim among the rest? He has, at least, this advantage of his rival; that, while it is the general impression now-a-days that William Shakespeare was not a law-student, as a matter of fact Francis Bacon was. *
* And too good a law student, we think, to have written the
law in the "Merchant of Venice." For, although Lord Bacon
was apt to discover the public feeling, and quick to array
himself on the right side (and spitting at Jews has always
been accounted of Gentiles for righteousness), he must have
seen that Shylock had a standing in court on the merits of
his case.
But Portia begins her extraordinary (according to common law
at least) judgment by deciding for the Jew in that, not
having paid the principal sum, Antonio must suffer in the
foreclosure of the mortgage, as it were, upon his person.
This is against the letter of any known law, which gives an
equity of redemption to the debtor in all such cases. Her
next decision is, that the Jew has his election between the
principal sum and the penalty, and that, with his election,
not the law itself can interfere. This, again, is not law;
for the law abhors a penalty, and even in a foreclosure will
not allow the debtor to be mulcted in more than the face of
his debt, interest, and costs. But now, having decided,
against all law, for the Jew, Portia begins deciding for the
Christian, and the first point she makes is that, when
Shylock takes his pound, he must not take a hair's weight
more or less, nor yet one ounce of blood. This, again, is
clearly not law, since it is an eternal principle of
jurisprudence that, when the law grants any thing it also
grants everything that is necessary to the conversion of
that thing to possession (as, when it grants a farm, it
likewise tacitly grants a right of way to that farm). So, if
Shylock had had any title to his pound of flesh, he would
certainly have had a title to draw as much blood as it was
absolutely necessary to draw in cutting out that pound, and
such portions of flesh over and above a pound as it would be
absolutely necessary to cut out, providing the cutting out
was done by a skillful operator and not a bungler. Astounded
at this turn of the tide, Shylock deliberates, and finally
cries, "Well, give me my principal and let me go!" Portia
thereupon renders her fourth decision, which is the most
astounding of all—namely, that, having once refused a
tender of the money in open court, the Jew is not entitled
to change his mind and take it! Since the days of Moses—
certainly since the days of Littleton—a tender has never
quite destroyed a debt, but only the interest and costs
accruing upon it, after the tender! Such a glaring and high-
handed sacrifice of common law and common sense to stage
effect might have been conceived of by a manager anxious for
the plaudits and pence of a crowded house, scarcely by a
future lord chancellor of England.