Scott F. Surtees

“ Shakespeare, you know, had quietly settled himself in his father’s trade of a wool-dealer, and to insure greater steadiness in his pursuit of business, had taken unto himself a wife, the daughter of one Hathaway, in the neighbourhood of Stratford. Good-nature or incaution, however, led him into the society of some idle youths, who committed occasional depredations in the parks of the surrounding gentry. ”

“ What is there in three dice to make a man draw thrice three thousand acres into the compass of a little round table, and with the gentleman’s palsy in the hand shake out his posterity thieves or beggars? ”

“ Woodmancote and Edburton are next parish to Wiston, aye, and joining on “Nightingale” Hill, how fond he was of them, he gives us even their notes; his father’s woods were as full of them as his park of deer. There is no question, it appears to me, I cannot answer, no puzzled point I cannot explain, no stumbling-block to commentators I cannot take out of their way. Why then not believe me? “All the world against nothing,” Romeo, III. 5. Although I have run a dark horse, he has run straight and true, and distanced Bacon, whilst Shakespere has alike dropped out of both betting and running. ”

“ Dispark’d my parks, and fell’d my forest woods;
From my own windows torn my household coat,
Raz’d out my impress, [32] leaving me no sign,
Save men’s opinions and my living blood,
To shew the world I am a gentleman. ”

“ What for? treason? rebellion? murder? sedition? some rash crime? No; but for having “disparked” his parks and pulled down “his impress” (only one!) , and his “household coat,” and tells us what he would like to have done to his enemies at Court if he had had the chance, as they had done when they cut off his patron and his kinsman Essex’s head. Now to return to the reason why he should have written a play to unfold the reasons of his family decay. ”

“ Shakespeare was a natural wit without any art at all: hee frequented the plays all his younger time, but in his elder days lived at Stratford, and supplied the stage with two plays every year and for itt had an allowance so large that he spent at the rate of £1000 a year as I have heard.”—From Diary of Rev. John Ward. How came Shakespeare’s brother stage-player to be worth thousands, whilst the other’s income saved was only about £200 or at most £300 a year? Was he the trusted middle man, or Kemp, or both, in the secret? ”

“ A thorough knowledge of a sailor’s life, their own peculiar phrases and ship-shape ways are his to speak of as a sailor would; perils by sea and land, he had gone through them all. Languages, most of them on his mouth-tips dwell (Alls Well that Ends Well, “If there be here German or Dane, low Dutch, Italian, or French, let him speak to me”) . ”

“ Give the devil his due, as we say in the proverb, but don’t give one iota of credit to that stingiest, and vainest of womenkind. Ray’s Glossary of words—“Stingy, pinching, sordid, narrow spirited.” Read all these quotations from Shakespeare’s plays, and compare them line with line and the lives of Sherley’s brothers, and conviction must follow. I might just notice that Anthony Sherley’s knowledge of the localities and people where most scenes of the plays are fixed was unequalled. ”

“ Is it not better to make a foole of the world as I have done than to be fooled of the world as you schollers are.” There is also that well-known allusion to “our fellow Shakespeare putting them all down, I and Ben Jonson too, and giving him a purge that made him beray his credit” (whatever that may mean) . Also p. xiv, “The Travailes of the Three English Brothers, Sir Anthony, Sir Thomas, and Sir Robert Shirley, as it is now play’d by Her Majesties Servants,” the following scene is supposed to take place at Venice:—“Servant. An Englishman desires accesse to you. ”

“ Whateley on Shakespeare, “The characters which he has drawn are masterly copies from nature.”
p. 36Now to return to Sonnet 105, which has always been a stumbling block to commentators, as it clearly was intended to explain some mystery or enigma connected with the author of the plays. I have never yet noticed any reasonably satisfactory explanation of this Sonnet. Why even the person who wrote on the religion of Shakespeare claims it as a sort of William Shakespeare’s Athanasian creed, and meant to express a belief in the Trinity, “three in one!” “All’s one” I noticed may be met with often ”

“ He no doubt visited Chartley (Erdeswick’s Staffordshire) . “The park is very large and hath therein red deer, fallow deer, wild beasts, and swine,” passed on to Tamworth, the ancient seat of Ferrers family (see Shirley Annals, p. 183) . “In the principal chamber is a very noble chimney piece of dark oak, reaching to the ceiling, carved with the story of Venus and Adonis, and the arms of Ferrers and the motto, [20] ‘only one.’” May be the young Southampton was with him there. His education must have been liberal—Oxford, Hart and All Souls’ Colleges—he was at them both. ”

“ In a lower room of the public-house, which is part of the premises wherein Shakspeare was born, is a curious ancient ornament over the chimney, relieved in plaster, which, from the date 1606, that was originally marked on it, was probably put up at the time, and possibly by the poet himself; although a rude attempt at historic representation, I have yet thought it worth copying. In 1759 it was repaired and painted in a variety of colours by the old Mr. Thomas Harte before mentioned, who assured me the motto then round it had been in the old black-letter, and dated 1606. ”

“ Heylin, p. 124, “When they intend to scoff a man, are wont to put their thumb between two of their fingers, saying, ‘Ecco le Fico.’” This would answer to our “taking a sight.” Must not the familiar use of this and similar proverbs point to residence? “Basta,” what a useful word one finds in it when dwelling in Italy. “A Bergomask dance” (Midsummer Night’s Dream) . Who could know, unless resident, that the Venetians looked down on them as coarse and vulgar? Notice also all sorts of trifling incidents which prove the writer was a dweller at Venice, and moved about among the Italian States. ”

“ Cyprus on the brow of the sea “stand ranks of people and they cry a sail.” May—nay, must have witnessed it in person.
The leading qualifications for the author of Shakespeare’s Plays to possess are summed up on the medallion of Sir Anthony p. 20Sherley’s picture, Antonius Sherleyus Anglus Eques aurati (Annals of the Shirley Family, second edition, p. 297, “Multorum mores hominum qui vidit et urbes”) , and it was his and his alone to fulfil them to the letter. He must have a familiarity with sylvan life, its beauties, its copses, and its ferns and flowers ”

“ No doubt there were many other such-like epitaphs in churches in London which have been destroyed or effaced by lapse of time, but these are a sufficient specimen to show how little variation there is in them, and that mainly in the spelling. The epitaph on the stone over Shakspere’s grave has been pressed into the service by a believer in his writings to prove—first, that he “curst those who should move his bones,” because that he was fearful that when his renown was acknowledged, his bones would be moved from their last resting-place in the Stratford that he loved, p. ”

“ Shakespeare’s Plays—Who Wrote them?
There is a quaint story printed by the Camden Society—Kemp’s “Nine Daies’ Wonder,” published 1600. Kemp was one of the leading performers in that company in which Shakespere had subordinate parts assigned him, and Edward Alleyne was chief manager. Nash was a friend of his, and his tract, “An Almond for a Parrot,” is dedicated to him, “Monsieur du Kempe.” He talks of another great journey, and signifies that he keeps it dark whether “Rome, Jerusalem, Venice, or any other place at your idle appoint” (p. 20) . ”

“ Samuel Ireland, 1795: “From the similarity of the name and the consideration that no such place as Barton Heath has been by any inquiry of mine discovered in the neighbourhood, I am led to conceive that Barton Heath, which lies in this county about 18 miles from Stratford, must have been the spot to which Shakespeare refers. It is worth hazarding a conjecture to have even a chance of tracing him in any one of his haunts.” Well, I p. 42need not such subterfuges, but go down to Stanford’s and buy an Ordnance Map of Sussex, and find both places within an easy reach of Wiston. ”

“ As to their other candidate, that weakly youth never could have been physically equal to have taken his share in youthful sports. Campbell’s Life of Bacon: “Francis was sickly and unable to join in the rough sports suited for boys of robust constitution,” if so he could not have described them so vividly and true; his poetry, such specimens as we have, is hardly-third rate, his prose on stilts, his history discredited. Preface to Bacon’s Essays, 1814: “His History of Henry VII. is in these days only consulted by a few.” p. 43Can this be said of his contemporary’s Historical plays? ”

“ All this had Anthony Sherley heard and seen. Had Bacon? Had John Bull’s Stratford pet? Then, as for field sports, hunting in every form or fashion, he describes as none but he and Jorrocks could. (R. S. Surtees, of Hamsterley, I know, drew all his pictures from p. 40originals, and that is why they hold their own.) The dying hare, “Venus and Adonis,” was there ever anything more touching? The same repeated, “As You Like It,” Act II. i. the dying deer, and Jacques weeping over it. ”

“ Hart Hall is thus described by a contemporary, 1st Elizabeth: “By the advantage of the most famous and learnedest of tutors he acquired a knowledge not common of the Greek and Latin tongues, p. 38of philosophy, of history, of politicks and other liberal sciences.”—Would not Shakesperians have been delighted if they could have this said of the tutors W. Shakespere studied under!! ”

“ Might he not even have heard Essex or Sir Philip Sidney give orders to saddle his gray charger to the field to-morrow.
Anthony Sherley and no other was he who wrote these plays.
p. 23CHAPTER III.
Mr. Donnelly’s Cryptogram.
I have waited until I had Mr. Donnelly’s book before me. The marvellous industry, research and intelligence displayed is simply astounding. I dare not express an opinion on the subject. But why or wherefore should Bacon take such an interest in and spend so much ingenuity on Anne Hathaway and her marriage? It is a strange tale. ”

“ Far and near have they been sought after by Shakesperians, but from Dan to Beersheba it is all barren; they locate poor Christopher Sly here, there, and everywhere, or else declare there must be mis-spelling; as follows is what one of the best and shrewdest of the commentators is driven to: Steevens: “I suspect we should read Barton Heath. Barton and Woodmancot, or as it is vulgarly pronounced, Woncot, are both of them in Gloucestershire, near the residence of Shakespeare’s old enemy Justice Shallow. Very probably also this fat ale wife might be a real character.” Dr. ”

“ What is the substance of the play? It tells the story in blank verse, which we have almost word for word in prose in “The Sherley Brothers,” viz. that of Sir Thomas Sherley the elder gambling away his extensive property. “Elizabeth had seized and sold everything belonging to him except (Wiston) , his wife’s dowry.” “Wife: If you suspect a plot in me to keep my dowry . . . you are a gentleman of many bloods ”