SHAKESPEARE’S NAME.

Hokitika Guardian, 24 May 1924, Page 4

SHAKESPEARE’S NAME.

(By Francis Jackson.)

There have been sundry conjcctnros as to the origin of the name. One ijf the most interesting is its derivation from Jacques Pierre, the appellation of a peasant. According to Btt Sydney Lee. the surname was borne through the .Middle Ages by residents in many parts ol England -at Penrith in Cumberland, at Kirkland, and Horn aster in Yorkshire, as well as in nearly all the midland counties. 'I he surname had a martial significance, implying capacity in the yielding of the spcr. It first appears in the ns-siz-1 tolls for (iloucestorshilo. where it i.-, recorded that one "\\ illiam “nksj ere” was i onvicted of rimhery and hanged in 1218. lie belonged vo a hamlet about seven miles smith el Stratford-on-Avon.

There is no record extant til the poet’s birth, hut in the register ol baptisms at Ilolv T unity Church. Stratford, may he read tin- iran-eript, made in Midi), of tho original entry: l.Vi-l. .A; iil 2li. Bulielmtis Filins Johannes Shakspere.’’ As the custom in Elizabethan times was In baptise the child within a lew days of birth, the common belief '.hat tin* birthday was Ap’il 23 may. tlicvet I,e io; reel. Dating his life, and since his death, his name has been spelt in various way.-, (n the registry idlin' ol the bishop of the diocese there is a honu dated X'ovemher 28. 1582. signed by two Ktmilord farmers, that “.AYilliatn Shagspcie, one thone partie, and Anno Highway, in the diocese of Worcester, maiden, may lawfully solemnise marriage together.” The Stratlord register of baptisms records; “ISB*T. May 20, Susannah dam- to William Shakspero." A letter Iron) a fellow-towns-inim. one liir-lnird Quyney. a vintner. of (letnher 2.1. l-'flti. is address t*i “My l.oveiuge good !r*nd and countryman. Air Wm Shitckespcie." Francis .Meres, in his “ Ballad,is Ttunia. Wits Treasury.” published in 1 598, refers to hint as “the mellifluous and lmny-tongued Shakespeare." The entry of his burial, in the Stratford register, reads:--“1018 April 25, AYill Shakspeare gent.”

In the body of his will tie* name tspelt “Shaekspeare,” but it is signed “William Shakespeare.'’ Alnst of the quart') editions of hr* 1 lays bear the name Win. or AYilliatn Shako-sjenio. A coliect'ion of the plays published in 1023 refers to the author re; “Master AYilliatn Shakpe*eei-." The title-page of the famous first folio bears above the Drocshiuit cngiaving the heading “Air AA illiam Shakespeare’s Comedies, Histones and Tragedies." Amongst other records is the appointment by James I. of the late I.ni'd Chamherlaine's servants to “I he King’s .Veters." It is headed: "( om-inis-do specialis pro Laurencin Fletcher c-t Willelmo Shaekspeare et aliis." There are other records of the rime in which the name is variously written “Shakspere." “Shaxpere,” '.tad “Shags] ur." These discrepancies ui the spelling of the name of the Stratford man have I won used as niguinouts

against his authorship ol the pla's contained in the first folio by vb* ■'*' who have either started, or suppictod, the various sceptical theories which have been so truitfti 1 in controversy since Joseph C. Hart, the I’.S. Consul at Santa Cruz, first raised douht.s as to the authorship in 1813. He was followed in January, ISSO. hv Ali-s Delia Bacon s famous article in “Putnam’s Alonthly.’’ This was the beginning of the great Baconian heresy, to which the main objection (inter alia) is that it takes no account whatever of the mystery of all poetic genius exemplified in many men of humble rank and limited education since the time of AA dliant Shakespeare. The age of Eliza-

beth was. to our minds, curiously careless of tho orthography of proper names. Christopher Alavlov.e's name, for example, was variously spelt “Alarlow.” -Marin,’’ “Alnrloe." “Alarley,” and “Alarlin.” There is a Ilnrleian manuscript in the British Aluseum containing the greater part of a play called “The Boox of Sir Thomas. Alore." In his play Afore appears and quiets a riot by the London mob. Afo-t of it is in

tho kno'vn handwriting of Anthony Mttnday, but nt the top of the first page is written ‘T/eave out ye insurrection wholly and the cause thereof?, and begin with Sir Tho. Moore at- ye mayors sessions, with a report afterwards off his good service don, being shrive off London, ttppon a mutiny agaynst ye Lombardos, only a sliorrt teporlt, and not otherwise att your own perriles. E. Tylincy.” Now Sir Edmund Tilney was Elizabeth’s Afaster of the Bevels and licensor of plays. A grant part of the play has been “now written.” The alterations are in four or five different hands. One of these is believed to he the hand of Shakespeare himself. Amongst the interesting hooks upon Elizabethan literature published last year was one entitled “Shakespeare’s Hand in ‘Sir Thomas Afore.’” ’I ho object of this hook was stated by Professor Alfred W. Pollard to be “to strengthen the evidence in the Harjoian MS 7:108, at the British Museum, of-three pages written by Shakespeare in his own hand, us part of the play of Sir Thomas 7>fore.”

Sir Edward Mnunde Thompson and Air Dover AYilson, two exports upon bandwriting, make out a strong ease. They give facsimiles of Shakespeare s six authentic signatures, and of tho letters small and largo in the signatires, and in the three pages of Sir Thomas .More. The drift of the analy-

sis is obvious. The hand that wrote the signatures made its letters just like the hand that wrote the three pages. The writer had the same little tricks, and had calligraphic huliits. Sir Edward and Mr AA'ilson are modest and cautious in their conclusion: - “It looks vety much. then, as if we laid in tlie.'K: three pages Shakespeare’s hand.” If this scholarly hook is light, the (lays were written by the man of Stratford, player and poet, and by no other, except in deliberate collaboration with his fellow dramatists. Tim theories of authorship which have been spun within the last century may he sho.liy uummarised as follows: (1) The Baconian Theory, which- is ;i plain and sliaightl'orv.ard statement I hat • Bacon wrote Shakespeare.’ 'I Ins t'aeorv, which long lound its principal supporters in America achieved its wildest manifestation in Ignatius Donnelly’s hook, “The (treat Cryptogram Francis Bacon's Cypher in tlm •='>- 1 idled Shakespeare I’lays.” Mr Donnelly's ingenuity applied to the text of the first lolio a numerical cypher wills 1 1 enabled him to pick out leltets

it certain intervals, forming wonts

and sentences, showing that Francis Ihleou was the author, not merely ol the pines attributed to Shakespeare. ! i;t, also to .Marlowe, of Montaigne’s Essays, and of Burton’s Anatomy of M -laii.-holy. In the ‘.Meretire do France of December. 1921. and September, |'.•22, (ieaeral Cartier lias with marvellous ingenuity developed the Id'a and application ol the cryptogram, founded mien Bacon’s own dosepption of a. svslooi given in tile "De Dignitaie et Augnientis S‘i ieul iitrtim. Ihe ~--tilts el the liiiitornl cipher thus iibteiimd are ama-.ing and romantic. Bacon tells his auto-biography in Inworks, lie was the son of (ptcon Elizabeth, he llohert Dudley, h.arl el l.eieesler. and was i unsigned for Slate reasons to the (are of Sir Nicholas Bareli and his wi: . and be mgbt up ■,v them e.s tlieir ion. Ibe ill-lated Karl of E-sex was his ymciger hrotiier. “I me.-ked many grave secrets in iny poems, whi'-h I have pnldished now -., Boole's or Spenser’s, now as my own, then, again, the mime of authors. so tailed who placed works o! mixed -oft hei'ore a reading world, loose and poetry. To Robert Broom* did I entrust luost of that work. Ai.arloue is a!-o a pen-name employed etc

irking V. oi. Shakes;! are’s as my mask nr \ i-,ard, that I should remian unknown. inasmuch as I. having worked : i iTa.ma history that is must vigorous! v .*e,i[i-.n*Mied. have pill myseli si) Livai 1 -. in danger that a word iliito (tin .a Fiizahel ii. v. ith'iut doubt would -jve me a sudden horrible end. 'so stei-v of tlu* wonderful * :-\-;-t, * : am. :!) Tl:** story .of M. Abel | ;; 1 in I!!l9 under the s Masque de Wilham ; : !-ak -pei-re, William Stanley sixieim* ii tuti- da Derby.” ,:'i 'ill,. 1 1 1 •, •: v of Mr .1. T'bomar I illi:i. i! “Sh:tkes|ieai-e idenitAt .••in-dill'!; to this gentietimt; the p r. 11 ::i!i!y behold l!:e plays is Edward ibe \b •-. -evi ideenl Ii Fail ol who is reeind*. d in Francis .Mere’ i’alhalis Tamia - 15!:,S). to have -i |, i ,i: ,r!f a iilavu I'ighl , and one i .) has*, mi- Mitmley a'mmg-t us. T!e--i* iliivi* theories i.leulify. or aim ai ti.,- iilen;iiii a.tiuii ol lerlaiu d*'linile IK'r ima In the Elizabel Imn :u i-t-a-re.ey n | lie ::.||l-.-: i;f the id.iys. There I" 111 r; i: i; J j-■**.»jir-r tl.eiu-y. a iii-galive i-!.,*. wid.-il j'jipears in' “Tie* .'-hak-s----r.-* iVohli-M Bi-s'.ale.!." of Air (!. {;rccn . *. 1. 1. in ibis ,-iilum.* the ant h* r, :: lawy-i 1 . ;;i**l a. member oi i’nrli -me , -*l. *e\l Ids i-oniioig ex|iiv.ii;i* u ai *.!',»' ih *oi-v '..on! “*A id

• i-ir-iti-,-” i with many other spel-di-'.l, is ;,!] u'-t'-t* from tia* i-imnlry :i unto of dele: live oluraiton and ifh.'ilv li-st ii--it-.* ol book-.: whilst "Williiim Shakesp* itr*-, ’ i r w ith t!ti hyphen “STmlce-sin-aro. is a itom de ttuerre ;ii!o;ii"i! by some “Brent lUI tnuvit," a <-i.ii." :t!;*d p ml. Air Breen wend (.uii * ignores the fact that at Et rat for. 1 :;;:d in AYarwit k-hire (he aim: was sprit in many different v,".vs, F\i rvinie eliO':e l-is own mode I.f sj,L Hi t,.- ;*i t!„.-.e "a eij old days. A 1,-,*.* till* mr.i-she-i n! tlime ir.geuiiins -ti..11, and out-id" ti n lahvrinth•iia t-.i-i- of tb*--e line-mn theories. -,ve still reav:' the wonder of the plays. B,* mirai-b* of tie-ir composition, and (ii-ille l*Oi* 11".'". These Ill's* OUI h-rilage. safe froni ih** attacks of morbid crit iei-m. As TTnmm-i' f'avlylt* .a*.“A’e-s. this fsimkesia'iu- is ourswe iu-.;’eie-| him. t*-i> simaic and lliink 1,... l, : tn : e-e :*-,-<> of om* Me d and kin ! v- i! It Into.”

A true and tiiod. r*-me-!y lor coughs eo’.-ls. itillm-uz::, :>!••! sore threat is • NAZOL.” CO doses Is fid.

At- tier instance of tiie t, muring of ;; ,s,.iit bank note occurred last week (savs the •■Auckland Herald"), when the proprietor! -- of a c.mleeLumerv -i'.vp in Queen Street received the reverse kali of a 21 Bank of New y,| Tits* in ;i who trm'.icd v.;. • or bah'y of it • frantltl-i!-m eitara-ter, a, i.e handed il in loided up, -o '••• *'- *:• ,::! ’he bianat iie jcCeived D .- “d id change. S.-i,i* months ago several note- manipulated in '.hi- manner -.vert- in circulation. 'file halves aie not unduly flimsy, a- after separation they are backed with a thickness ot blank paper. creased and begrimed to harmonise with tho fine oi the note. Ihe hanks will pa.v the full value id Die half of the note bearing the signature and number, hut the reverse i'. of course valueless.