(6) Pp. 382, 383. “Some of us” (some of whom?) “have long looked upon
it as axiomatic . . . that Jonson’s ‘small Latin and less Greek,’ if
meant to be taken seriously, can only be applicable to Shakspere of
Stratford and not to Shakespeare,” that is, not to the Unknown author.
Unluckily Ben, in 1623, is addressing the shade of the “sweet Swan of
Avon,” meaning Stratford-on-Avon.
(7) The next references in the laudable Index are to pp. 474, 475.
“Then follow these memorable words, which I have already discussed:
“‘And though thou hadst small Latin and less Greek,’
words which those who see how singularly inappropriate they are to the
author of the _Plays_ and _Poems_ of Shakespeare have been at such
infinite pains to explain away without impeaching the credit of the
author, or assuming that he is here indulging in a little Socratic
irony.”
_I_ do not want to “explain” Ben’s words “away”: I want to know how on
earth Mr. Greenwood explains them away. My view is that Ben meant what
he said, that Will, whose shade he is addressing, was no scholar (which
he assuredly was not). I diligently search Mr. Greenwood’s scriptures,
asking How does he explain Ben’s “memorable words” away? On p. 106 of
_The Shakespeare Problem Restated_ I seem to catch a glimmer of his
method. “Once let the Stratfordians” (every human and non-Baconian
person of education) “admit that Jonson when he penned the words ‘small
Latin and less Greek’ was really writing ‘with his tongue in his cheek.’
. . . ”
Once admit that vulgarism concerning a great English poet engaged on a
poem of Pindaric flight, and of prophetic vision! No, we leave the
admission to Mr. Greenwood and his allies.
To consider thus is to consider too seriously. The Baconians and
Anti-Willians have ceased to deserve serious attention (if ever they did
deserve it), and virtuous indignation, and all that kind of thing, when
they ask people who care for poetry to “admit” that Ben wrote his verses
“with his tongue in his cheek.” Elsewhere, {253a} in place of Ben’s
“tongue in his cheek,” Mr. Greenwood prefers to suggest that Ben “is here
indulging in a little Socratic irony.” Socrates “with his tongue in his
cheek”! Say “talking through his throat,” if one may accept the evidence
of the author of _Raffles_, as to the idioms of burglars.
To return to criticism, we are to admit that Jonson was really writing
“with his tongue in his cheek,” knowing that, as a fact, “_Shakespeare_”
(the Great Unknown, the Bacon of the Baconians) “had remarkable classical
attainments, and they, of course, open the door to the suggestion that
the entire poem is capable of an ironical construction and esoteric
interpretation.” {254a}
Public-domain text, read in full here on John Shaqi.
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