memoirs or accounts. The reader will remember that Alleyn was not only an actor but a theatrical proprietor, and that he was the founder of Dulwich College. His papers and memoirs, which were published in 1841 and 1843, contain the names of all the notable actors and play-poets of Shaksper's time, as well as of every person who helped directly or indirectly or who paid out money or received money in connection with the production of the many plays at the Blackfriars Theatre, the Fortune, and other theatres. His accounts were very minutely stated, and a careful perusal of the two volumes shows that there is not one mention of such a poet as William Shaksper in his list of actors, poets, and theatrical comrades.

CHAPTER V.

SHAKSPER COMMENDED NO CONTEMPORARY.

"Our praises are our wages."

-The Winter's Tale, i, 2.

It was the universal custom in England during the period when Shaksper lived for poets and prose writers to praise the writings of contemporary authors, either in verse or prose. If the reader will turn to the works of Thomas Heywood, Ben Jonson, George Chapman, Thomas Middleton, Michael Drayton, John Marston, Thomas Dekker, or any of the distinguished writers of that era, he will discover that such commendatory verses invariably accompany the preface or dedication when the book issued from the press.

I will give a brief illustration from the works of Heywood. His works are prefaced by the commendation of three contemporaries. One of them begins thus:

"To his worthy friend, the author Thomas Heywood.

Heywood, when men weigh truly what thou art,
How the whole frame of learning claims a part
In thy deep apprehension; and then see,
To knowledge added so much industry;
Who will deny thee the best palm and bays?
And that to name thee to himself is praise."

In further illustration of this custom, the poet Drayton wrote commendatory verses for Chapman's "Hesiod," Tuke's "Discourse against the painting and tincturing of

Women," Monday's "Primaleon of Greece," and his own compositions were in a like manner commended by Browne, Sir William Alexander, Drummond, and other contemporaries and friends. Beaumont and Fletcher received for their plays poetical commendation and gave such commendation in courteous exchange to their associates in the art of poesy. Marston and Dekker did the same, and Ben Jonson, who was regarded as morose, surly, and envious, took delight in praising the works of others and in being praised for his own. The celebrated poem ascribed to Charles Best was commended in verse by Ben Jonson, George Chapman, William Browne, Robert Daborne, and George Wither. I need not multiply illustrations. It was the common custom of the poets of that era.

Let us consider for a moment how the learned commentators picture Shaksper. He is called by them "Our pleasant Willy," and "the gentle Shepherd," and they describe him as the intimate friend and companion of Ben Jonson in his revelries and of Burbage in his amours. They picture him as a man of amiable and generous disposition and one who would naturally interest himself in the advancement of his friends, and especially of the young men who were aspiring to be poets or dramatists. Collier says that "he must have been of a lively and companionable disposition; that we can readily believe that when any of his old associates of the stage, whether authors or actors, came to Stratford, they found a hearty welcome and free entertainment at his house." If Shaksper was such a companionable and amiable fellow, and if he was the writer of plays and poems, he would naturally have followed the universal custom of obliging and gratifying

his writer friends with commendatory verses to accompany their works. But we look in vain for even one such act of courtesy and commendation. The great writers and poets of that era wrote and published books, and their plays were printed from time to time while Shaksper lived, but Shaksper's name is not found among the commenders. Whether a poet in those days was an ill-natured churl or a gentleman, he could not very well refuse the request, if asked by a brother poet, for a short commendatory stanza or two to give standing to the issue of his brain. And if Shaksper had been a poet at all, if he had been on such familiar terms with Beaumont, Fletcher, Jonson, Chapman, Dekker, and the other poetical frequenters of the Mermaid tavern as his admirers assert that he was, these poets or some of them would naturally have solicited a few lines from Shaksper if he was the honey-tongued, heaven-inspired king of poets. The plea of Shaksper's indifference is the only refuge and defense of the Shaksperites against these assaults. He was indifferent, they assert, to praise or dispraise. That is the very ground of the charge the seekers after the truth make against him. He was unquestionably indifferent, and naturally so, for the reason that he was not a poet and he was too ignorant to compose a decent and readable commendation, either in verse or prose. He may have had, and probably did have, all the business capacity of Philip Henslowe, who associated with and gave suppers to the poets who sold the coinage of their brains to him, but no poet would have ever asked Henslowe for commendatory verses; and if Shaksper's indifference was founded upon ignorance, he could not give and certainly would not receive commendatory verses.

There is one thing which the Shaksper worshipers do not consider and are unable to answer, and that is the potent argument against their indifference theory which the real writer or writers of the plays advances against them. The real Shakespeare says:

"Canst thou the conscience lack,

To think I shall lack friends?"

-Timon of Athens, ii, 2.

"The friends thou hast, and their adoption tried, Grapple them to thy soul with hoops of steel."

"Is all forgot?

-Hamlet, i, 3.

All school-days' friendship, childhood, innocence?"

-Midsummer Night's Dream, iii, 2.

"What friendship may I do thee?"

-Timon of Athens, iv, 3.

"A friend should bear his friend's infirmities."

"I have heard you say

-Julius Cæsar, iv, 3.

That we shall see and know our friends in heaven."

-King John, iii, 4.

And many other instances might be cited from the plays of the value given to friendship and courtesy by the writer or writers of the plays.

Whether the custom of the poets of that era as to commendation was followed for the purpose of helping the sale of the book or as a mere matter of courtesy and gratulation, it was the prevailing custom among the poets and writers of the time; and if William Shaksper was a poet and dramatist, and if he was imbued with the spirit