Judge Webb asks: 'Was it a pseudonym, or was it the real name of the author of the poem?' Well, Shakespeare signs 'Shakspere' in two deeds, in which the draftsman throughout calls him 'Shakespeare:' obviously taking no difference.* People were not particular, Shakespeare let them spell his name as best pleased them.
*Phillipps, ii. pp. 34, 36.
Judge Webb argues that Southampton 'took no notice' of the dedication. How can he know? Ben Jonson dedicated to Lady Wroth and many others. Does Judge Webb know what 'notice' they took? He says that on various occasions 'Southampton did not recognise the existence of the Player.' How can he know? I have dedicated books to dozens of people. Probably they 'took notice,' but no record thereof exists. The use of arguments of this kind demonstrates the feebleness of the case.
That Southampton, however, DID 'take notice' may be safely inferred from the fact that Shakespeare, in 1594, dedicated to him 'The Rape of Lucrece.' Had the Earl been an ungrateful patron, had he taken no notice, Shakespeare had Latin enough to act on the motto Invenies alium si te hic fastidit Alexin. He speaks of 'the warrant I have of your honourable disposition,' which makes the poem 'assured of acceptance.' This could never have been written had the dedication of 'Venus and Adonis' been disdained. 'The client never acknowledged his obligation to the patron,' says Judge Webb. The dedication of 'Lucrece' is acknowledgment enough. The Judge ought to think so, for he speaks, with needless vigour, of 'the protestations, warm and gushing as a geyser, of "The Rape."' There is nothing 'warm,' and nothing 'gushing,' in the dedication of 'Lucrece' (granting the style of the age), but, if it were as the Judge says, here, indeed, would be the client's 'acknowledgment,' which, the Judge says, was never made.* To argue against such logic seems needless, and even cruel, but judicial contentions appear to deserve a reply.
Webb, p. 67.
We now come to the evidence of the Rev. Francis Meres, in 'Palladis Tamia' (1598). Meres makes 'Shakespeare among the English' the rival, in comedy and tragedy, of Plautus and Seneca 'among the Latines.' He names twelve plays, of which 'Love's Labour's Won' is unknown. 'The soul of Ovid' lives in his 'Venus and Adonis,' his 'Lucrece,' and his 'sugred sonnets among his private friends.'
Meres also mentions Sidney, Spenser, Daniel, Drayton, and so forth, a long string of English poetic names, ending with 'Samuel Page, sometime Fellow of C.C.C. in Oxford, Churchyard, Bretton.'*
*Phillipps, ii. pp. 149,150.
Undeniably Meres, in 1598, recognises Shakespeare as both playwright and poet. So Judge Webb can only reply: 'But who this mellifluous and honey-tongued Shakespeare was he does not say, AND HE DOES NOT PRETEND TO KNOW.'* He does not 'pretend to know' 'who' any of the poets was--except Samuel Page, and he was a Fellow of Corpus. He speaks of Shakespeare just as he does of Marlowe, Kid, Chapman, and the others whom he mentions. He 'does not pretend to know who' they were. Every reader knew who they all were. If I write of Mr.
Swinburne or Mr. Pinero, of Mr. Browning or of Mr. Henry Jones, I do not say 'who they were,' I do not 'pretend to know.' There was no Shakespeare in the literary world of London but the one Shakespeare, 'Burbage's deserving man.'
*Webb, p. 71.
The next difficulty is that Shakespeare's company, by request of the Essex conspirators (who paid 2 pounds), acted 'Richard II.' just before their foolish attempt (February 7, 1601). 'If Coke,' says the Judge, 'had the faintest idea that the player' (Shakespeare)
'was the author of "Richard II.," he would not have hesitated a moment to lay him by the heels.' Why, the fact of Shakespeare's authorship had been announced, in print, by Meres, in 1598. Coke knew, if he cared to know. Judge Webb goes on: 'And that the Player' (Shakespeare) 'was not regarded as the author by the Queen is proved by the fact that, with his company, he performed before the Court at Richmond, on the evening before the execution of the Earl.'*
*Webb, pp. 72, 73.
Nothing of the kind is proved. The guilt, if any, lay, not in writing the drama--by 1601 'olde and outworne'--but in acting it, on the eve of an intended revolution. This error Elizabeth overlooked, and with it the innocent authorship of the piece, 'now olde and outworne.'* It is not even certain, in Mr. Phillipps's opinion, that the 'olde and outworne' play was that of Shakespeare. It is perfectly certain that, as Elizabeth overlooked the fault of the players, she would not attack the author of a play written years before Essex's plot, with no political intentions.
*Phillipps, ii. pp. 359-362.
We now come to evidence of which Judge Webb says very little, that of the two plays acted at St. John's College, Cambridge, in 1600-
1601, known as 'The Returne from Parnassus.' These pieces prove that Shakespeare the poet was identified with Shakespeare the player. They also prove that Shakespeare's scholarship and art were held very cheaply by the University wits, who, as always, were disdainful of non-University men. His popularity is undisputed, but his admirer in the piece, Gullio, is a vapouring ignoramus, who pretends to have been at the University of Padua, but knows no more Latin than many modern critics. Gullio rants thus: 'Pardon, faire lady, though sicke-thoughted Gullio makes amaine unto thee, and LIKE
A BOULD-FACED SUTOR 'GINS TO WOO THEE.' This, of course, is from 'Venus and Adonis.' Ingenioso says, aside: 'We shall have nothinge but pure Shakespeare and shreds of poetry that he hath gathered at the theaters.' Gullio next mouths a reminiscence of 'Romeo and Juliet,' and Ingenioso whispers, 'Marke, Romeo and Juliet, O monstrous theft;' however, aloud, he says 'Sweete Mr. Shakspeare!'-- the spelling varies. Gullio continues to praise sweete Mr.
Shakspeare above Spenser and Chaucer. 'Let mee heare Mr.