"Though all the winds of doctrine were let loose to play upon the earth, so truth be in the field, we do injuriously to misdoubt her strength; let her and falsehood grapple; whoever knew truth put to scorn in a free and open encounter?" So spake John Milton in his essay on the liberty of the press. Somebody recently reproached Prof. Max Muller for wasting his time on mythology. He replied: "All I can say is that this study gives me intense pleasure, and has been a real joy to me, all my life. I have toiled enough for others; may I not in the evening of my life follow my own taste?" What I have, written in intervals of leisure I trust has not been a waste of time. JOHN H. STOTSENBURG. TABLE OF CONTENTS. Doubts Raised as to Shaksper's Ability and Learning II. How to Reach the Truth About the Plays and Poems 12 III. How Plays were Written in Shaksper's Time....... IV. William Shaksper has no Place in Henslowe's Diary. V. Shaksper Commended no Contemporary.. VI. Shaksper Left no Letters and Had no Library. IX. Shaksper's Utter Indifference to Literary Proprieties 94 X. Spenser's "Pleasant Willy" was not Shaksper...... 102 XI. Daniel's Letter to Egerton does not Refer to Shaksper 109 XII. Shaksper not the Shakescene of Robert Greene..... 116 XIII. Lies Fabricated in Aid of the Shaksper Pretension.. 132 XV. Shaksper's Real Name and Traditional Life.. XXXII. Richard the Second and Julius Cæsar Examined.... 406 XXXIII. Henry the Sixth, Parts 1, 2, and 3, Examined.. AN IMPARTIAL STUDY OF THE SHAKESPEARE TITLE. CHAPTER I. DOUBTS RAISED AS TO SHAKSPER'S ABILITY AND LEARNING. T "Come, go along and see the truth hereof." -Taming of the Shrew, iv, 5. HE reading public will probably agree with me that if any one should show to the world by convincing proof, and beyond doubt or cavil, that some one, other than William Shaksper, the son of John and Mary Shaksper, was the author of the plays and poems now attributed to him, they would nevertheless be always called and known, while the world lasts, as the Shakespeare plays and poems. Like the "No-Name Series" or the "Waverley Novels," they would be classified in literature as the original publishers classified them. How then would the literary world be advantaged, if it could be clearly shown that the real authorship of the Shakespeare plays and poems should be rightfully ascribed to one man or to several collaborators, other than Shaksper, who have been hitherto unhonored and unsung? I answer that the world is helped when a wrong, literary or otherwise, is righted. Honor to whom honor is due. Whenever the scales of error fall from the eyes of the |