[Illustration: 0001] [Illustration: 0005] [Illustration: 0006] THE SHAKESPEARE MYTH By Edwin Durning-Lawrence, 1912 Halliwell-Phillipps says: "It was not till the Jubilee of 1769 that the tendency to the fabrication of Shakespeare anecdotes and relics at Stratford Museum became manifest. All kinds of deception have since been practised there." THE FOLIO OF THE PLAYS, 1623. |IT is now universally admitted that the Plays known as Shakespeare's are the greatest "Birth of Time," the most wonderful product of the human mind which the world has ever seen, that they evince the ripest classical scholarship, the most perfect knowledge of Law, and the most intimate acquaintance with all the intricacies of the highest Court life. The Plays as we know them, appeared in the Folio, published in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death in 1616. This volume contains thirty-six plays. Of this number only eight are substantially in the form in which they were printed in Shakespeare's lifetime. Six are greatly improved. Five are practically rewritten, and seventeen are not known to have been printed before Shakespeare's death, although thirteen plays of similar names are registered or in some way referred to. The following particulars are mainly derived from Reed's "Bacon our Shakespeare," published 1902. The spelling of the first Folio of 1623 has, however, been strictly followed. THE EIGHT WHICH ARE PRINTED IN THE FOLIO SUBSTANTIALLY AS THEY ORIGINALLY APPEARED IN THE QUARTOS ARE:-- 1. Much ado about Nothing. 2. Loves Labour lost. * 3. Midsommer Nights Dreame. 4. The Merchant of Venice. 5. The First part of King Henry the fourth. 6. The Second part of K. Henry the fourth. 7. Romeo and Juliet. 8. The Tragedie of Troylus and Cressida. ** * Note.--The scene of the play is Navarre and one of the characters is Biron. A passport given to Bacon's brother Anthony in 1586 from the court of Navarre, is signed "Biron." (British Museum Add. MS. 4125). ** Note.--This has a new title and a Prologue in the Folio. This extremely learned play which we are told was "never clapper-clawd with the palmes of the vulger.... or sullied with the smoaky breath of the multitude," has recently been shewn by Mrs. Hinton Stewart to be a satire upon the court of King James I. THE SIX WHICH HAVE BEEN GREATLY IMPROVED ARE:-- 1. The Life & death of Richard the second. Corrections throughout. 2. The Third part of King Henry the sixt. New title, 906 new lines, and many old lines retouched. 3. The Life & Death of Richard the Third. 193 new lines added, 2,000 lines retouched. 4. Titus Andronicus. One entire new scene added. 5. The Tragedy of Hamlet. Many important additions and omissions. 6. King Lear. 88 new lines, 119 lines retouched. THE FIVE WHICH HAVE BEEN PRACTICALLY REWRITTEN ARE:-- 1. The Merry Wives of Windsor. 1,081 new lines, the text rewritten.