We now turn to Mr. Greenwood's chapter, "Shakespeare and 'Genius.'"
It opens with the accustomed list of poor Will's disqualifications,
"a boy born of illiterate parents," but we need not rehearse the
list. {91a} He "comes to town" (date unknown) "a needy adventurer";
in 1593 appeared the poem Venus and Adonis, author's name being
printed as "W. Shakespeare." Then comes Lucrece (1594). In 1598
Love's Labour's Lost, printed as "corrected and augmented" by "W.
Shakespere." And so on with all the rest. Criticism of the learning
and splendour of the two poems follows. To Love's Labour's Lost, and
the amusing things written about it by Baconians, I return; and to
Shakespeare's "impossible" knowledge of courtly society, his "polish
and urbanity," his familiar acquaintance with contemporary French
politics, foreign proverbs, and "the gossip of the Court" of
Elizabeth: these points are made by His Honour Judge Webb.
All this lore to Shakespeare is "impossible"--he could not read, say
some Baconians, or had no Latin, or had next to none; on these points
I have said my say. The omniscient Baconians know that all the early
works ascribed to the actor were impossible, to a man of, say thirty-
-who WAS no more, and KNEW no more, than they know that the actor was
and knew; and as for "Genius," it cannot work miracles. Genius
"bestows upon no one a knowledge of facts," "Shakespeare, however
favoured by nature, could impart only what he had learned.
Pages:
74
75
76
77
78
79
80
81
82
83
84
85
86
87
88
89
90
91
92
93
94
95
96
97
98