As to the date of his decease, we
only know that it must necessarily have been later than the
composition of the last genuine Shakespearean play--for this paragon
wrote it.
Such is the Being who occupies, in the theory of the non-Baconian,
BUT NOT ANTI-BACONIAN, Anti-Willians, the intellectual throne filled,
in the Will Shakespeare theory, by Will; and in the Baconian, by
Bacon--two kings of Brentford on one throne.
We are to be much engaged by the form of this theory which is held by
Mr. G. G. Greenwood in his The Shakespeare Problem Restated. In
attempting to explain what he means I feel that I am skating on very
thin ice. Already, in two volumes (In Re Shakespeare, 1909, and The
Vindicators of Shakespeare), Mr. Greenwood has accused his critics of
frequently misconceiving and misrepresenting his ideas: wherefore I
also tremble. I am perfectly confident in saying that he "holds no
brief for the Baconians." He is NOT a Baconian. His position is
negative merely: Will of Stratford is NOT the author of the
Shakespearean plays and poems. Then who is? Mr. Greenwood believes
that work by an unknown number of hands exists in the plays first
published all together in 1623. Here few will differ from him. But,
setting aside this aspect of the case, Mr. Greenwood appears to me to
believe in an entity named "Shakespeare," or "the Author," who is the
predominating partner; though Mr.
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