The Valet's Tragedy and Other Stories [123]
Professor Dowden then proved, in 'The National Review,' that both Shakespeare and Bacon used the widely spread pseudo-scientific ideas of their time (as is conspicuously the case), and Mr. Tyrrell confessed that he was sorry he had spoken. 'When I read Professor Dowden's article, I would gladly have recalled my own, but it was too late.' Mr. Tyrrell adds, with an honourable naivete, 'I AM NOT VERSED IN THE LITERATURE OF THE SHAKESPEAREAN ERA, and I assumed that the Baconians who put forward the parallelisms had satisfied themselves that the coincidences were peculiar to the writings of the philosopher and the poet. Professor Dowden has proved that this is not so. . . .' Professor Dowden has indeed proved, in copious and minute detail, what was already obvious to every student who knew even such ordinary Elizabethan books as Lyly's 'Euphues' and Phil Holland's 'Pliny,' and the speculations of such earlier writers as Paracelsus. Bacon and Shakespeare, like other Elizabethans, accepted the popular science of their period, and decorated their pages with queer ideas about beasts, and stones, and plants; which were mere folklore. A sensible friend of my own was staggered, if not converted, by the parallelisms adduced in Judge Webb's chapter 'Of Bacon as a Man of Science.' I told him that the parallelisms were Elizabethan commonplaces, and were not peculiar to Bacon and Shakespeare. Professor Dowden, out of the fulness of his reading, corroborated this obiter dictum, and his article (in 'The National Review,' vol. xxxix., 1902) absolutely disposes of the Judge's argument.
Mr. Tyrrell went on: 'The evidence of Ben Jonson alone seems decisive of the question; the other' (the Judge, for one) 'persuades himself (how, I cannot understand) that it may be explained away.'*
*Pilot, August 30, 1902, p. 220.
We have seen how Judge Webb 'explains away' the evidence of Ben. But while people 'not versed in the literature of the Shakespearean era' assume that the Baconians have examined it, to discover whether Shakespearo-Baconian parallelisms are peculiar to these two writers or not, these people may fall into the error confessed by Mr. Tyrrell.
Some excuse is needed for arguing on the Baconian doctrine. 'There is much doubt and misgiving on the subject among serious men,' says Judge Webb, and if a humble author can, by luck, allay the doubts of a single serious man, he should not regret his labour.
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Mr. Tyrrell went on: 'The evidence of Ben Jonson alone seems decisive of the question; the other' (the Judge, for one) 'persuades himself (how, I cannot understand) that it may be explained away.'*
*Pilot, August 30, 1902, p. 220.
We have seen how Judge Webb 'explains away' the evidence of Ben. But while people 'not versed in the literature of the Shakespearean era' assume that the Baconians have examined it, to discover whether Shakespearo-Baconian parallelisms are peculiar to these two writers or not, these people may fall into the error confessed by Mr. Tyrrell.
Some excuse is needed for arguing on the Baconian doctrine. 'There is much doubt and misgiving on the subject among serious men,' says Judge Webb, and if a humble author can, by luck, allay the doubts of a single serious man, he should not regret his labour.
End