of "the dreaded and incurable malady" into England is a specimen; what philosophical reflections; what disquisitions on religion; what profound and unrestrained meditations! It will be, in short, the inner story of the most important era in human history, told by the keenest observer and most powerful writer that has ever lived. And then think of the light that will be thrown upon the Plays themselves; their purposes, their history, their meaning! A great light bursting from a tomb, and covering with its royal effulgence the very cradle of English Literature. And so I trust my long-promised book to the tender mercies of my fellow-men, saying to them in the language of the old rhyme: Be to its faults a little blind, And to its virtues very kind. BOOK III. CONCLUSIONS. CHAPTER I. DELIA BACON. Patience and sorrow strove Which should express her goodliest. King Lear, iv, 3. No O work in regard to the Baconian theory would be complete without some reference to Miss Delia Bacon, who first announced to the world the belief that Francis Bacon was the real author of the Plays. America should especially cherish the memory of this distinguished lady. Our literature has been, to too great an extent, a colonial imitation, oftentimes diluted, of English originals. But here is a case where one of our own transplanted race, out of the depths of her own consciousness, marshaled to her conclusions by her profound knowledge, advanced to a great and original conception. I. MISS BACON'S BIOGRAPHY. I am indebted to Mr. W. H. Wyman' for the following notes of Miss Bacon's biography: Delia Bacon was born in Tallmadge, Ohio, February 2, 1811. She was the daughter of Rev. David Bacon, one of the early Western missionaries, and sister of the late Rev. Dr. Leonard Bacon. She was educated at Miss Catharine E. Beecher's school, in Hartford, and is described as a woman of rare intellect and attainments. Her profession was that of a teacher and lecturer: the first woman, 1 Bacon-Shakespeare Bibliography. 899 3 M Mrs. Farrar says, whom she had ever known to speak in public. At this time she resided in Boston. Having conceived the idea of the Baconian authorship, she became a monomaniac on the subject. Visiting England, in 1853, in search of proofs for her theory, she spent five years there; first at St. Albans, where she supposed Bacon to have written the Plays; then at London, where she wrote The Philosophy of Shakespeare Unfolded, and subsequently at Stratford-on-Avon. Here, after the publication and non-success of her book, she lost her reason wholly and entirely. She was returned to her friends in Hartford, in April, 1858, and died there, September 2, 1859. Mrs. John Farrar, in her interesting little book, Recollections of Seventy Years, (pp. 319, etc.), gives the following account of Miss Bacon's first appearance as a lecturer: The first lady whom I ever heard deliver a public lecture was Miss Delia Bacon, who opened her career in Boston, as teacher of history, by giving a preliminary discourse describing her method, and urging upon her hearers the importance of the study. I had called on her that day for the first time, and found her very nervous and anxious about her first appearance in public. She interested me at once, and I resolved to hear her speak. Her person was tall and commanding, her finely-shaped head was well set on her shoulders, her face was handsome and full of expression, and she moved with grace and dignity. The hall in which she spoke was so crowded that I could not get a seat, but she spoke so well that I felt no fatigue from standing. She was at first a little embarrassed, but soon became so engaged in recommending the study of history to all present, that she became eloquent. Her course of oral lessons or lectures on history interested her class of ladies so much that she was induced to repeat them, and I heard several who attended them speak in the highest terms of them. She not only spoke but read well, and when on the subject of Roman history she delighted her audience by giving them, with great effect, some of Macaulay's Lays. I persuaded her to give her lessons in Cambridge, and she had a very appreciative class, assembled in the large parlor of the Brattle House. She spoke without notes, entirely from her own well-stored memory; and she would so group her facts as to present to us historical pictures calculated to make a lasting impression. She was so much admired and liked in Cambridge, that a lady there invited her to spend the winter with her as her guest, and I gave her the use of my parlor for another course of lectures. In these she brought down her history to the time of the birth of Christ, and I can never forget how clear she made it to us that the world was only then made fit for the advent of Jesus. She ended with a fine climax that was quite thrilling. In her Cambridge course she had maps, charts, models, pictures, and everything she needed to illustrate her subject. This added much to her pleasure and ours. All who saw her then must remember how handsome she was, and how gracefully she used her wand in pointing to the illustrations of her subject. I used to be reminded by her of Raphael's sibyls, and she often spoke like an oracle. She and a few of her class would often stay after the lesson and take tea with me, and then she would talk delightfully for the rest of the evening. It was very inconsiderate in us to allow her to do so, and when her course ended she was half dead with fatigue. |