Columbus discovered the continent we call after the name of another. Where shall we find written the names of the genii whose fruit and fame this Shakespeare has stolen. Having lost "our Shakespeare" both to-day and forever, it will doubtless remain--as it is--the question, "Who wrote the Shakespearean dramas?" The evidence is all in--the testimony is all taken. Perhaps it is a secret that even Time will never tell, that is hidden deep down in the crypt and sacristy of the Past, whose seal shall never more be broken. In the wise land of China it is said that when a man has deserved well of the state, his countrymen honor, with houses and lands and gifts and decorations, not himself, but his father and his mother. Perhaps, learning a lesson from the Celestials; we might rear a shaft to the fathers and the mothers of the Immortality that wrote the Book of Nature, the mighty book which "age can not wither, nor custom stale" and whose infinite variety for three centuries has been and, until Time shall be no more, will be close to the hearts of every age and cycle of men--household words for ever and ever, The Book--thank heaven!--that nothing can divorce from us. THE END. INDEX A. Actors, names of Shakespeare, printed by mistake in first folio, 314. Actors, fellows of W. S. Did they suspect imposition? 37. Of Shakespeare's day, expected to improvise, 260. Actresses, none in Shakespeare's day, 273. Addison, Joseph, his estimate of Shakespearean plays, 26. Alterations of the plays in 1st folio. See Emendations. Althea, classical error as to, 210. Angling, knowledge of, displayed in plays, 228. Anonymous authorship, 283. Or pseudonymic, fashionable in those days, 176. Anti-Shakespearean theories-- A compromise of, suggested, 300. Theobald anticipates, 301. Areopagitica, Milton's, first asserted author's rights, 108. Aristotle, Bacon and Shakespeare misquote passage of, 241. Arms, John Shakespeare's, purchased by his son, 97. Coat of, "cut from whole cloth," 274. Obtained by falsehood, 274-275, note. Protest against them, 274, note. Purchased with Shakespeare's first earnings, 274. Why Shakespeare purchased, 274. Article in Chambers' Journal first raises authorship question, 185. Aubrey, his testimony, 47, 69-71. Expert evidence of, 303-304. Audiences. See Plays. Did not want scientific treatises, 229. Formative days of, 263. Not critical, 13. The Shakespearean, 114-259. Author, his interest to be anonymous, 113. Eights, what were, 108. Compensation, how obtained, 108. Author of the plays. See Plays. His fidelity to national characteristics, 42. Insight of, into the human heart, no guess work, 43. Of text, did not write stage business, 117. Authorship of Henry VI., R. 0. White's idea of, 303.