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Show By JOHN BAUER. General Manager, Valley Music Hall ' When public opinion had begun to assign to Shakespeare Shake-speare the very high station sta-tion which he was Henceforth Hence-forth destined to maintain in the dramatic literature not only in England but of the world, he became the promising object of fraud and imposture. He didn't escape this threat even in his own days. However, he had the spirit or the policy to despise and ignore it. At various times there have been lists of plays ascribed as-cribed to him, either by the editors of the two later folio editions of his works (1664 and 1655) or by the compilers com-pilers of ancient catalogues. But it was reserved for 18th Century impostors t- avail themselves of the obscurity in which Shakespeare's personal per-sonal history is involved, and of the unequalled popularity pop-ularity of his nar In the year 1751 a book was published wli.'rh was entitled "A compendious or brief examination of cer-tayne cer-tayne ordinary complaints of divers of our countrymen in those our days; which, although they are in some parts uniust and frivolous, yet are they all, by w of dialogue, thorough! debated debat-ed and discussed bv William Wil-liam Shakespeare, qentle-man." qentle-man." This book was originally ori-ginally published in 1581 and has since been clearly proven that the initials, W.S., the only authority for attributing it co Shakespeare Shake-speare in the reprinted edition, edi-tion, meant William Stafford. Staf-ford. In 1770, there was reprinted, re-printed, at Feversham, an old play called, "-'he tragedy trag-edy of Adren of Feversham, and Black Will," with a preface, in which, without the smallest foundation, it was attributed to Shakespeare, Shake-speare, who certainly had nothing to do with its composition. com-position. But these were trifles, compared to the attempt made in 1795-6 hen. besides be-sides a vast mass of prose and verse, letters, etc., pre-tendedly pre-tendedly in the hand-writing of Shakespeare, and his correspondents, an entire play, entitled, "Vortigern and Rowena," was not only brought forward, to the astonishment of the admirers ad-mirers of Shakespeare, accredited ac-credited by the opinions of some of the most eminent emi-nent literary men of the day. but actually performed perform-ed on the Drury - Lane stage, whence the good sense of the audience speedily speed-ily compelled it to take flight. A future column will deal with the extraordinary events which occurred at the time that "Vortigern and Rowena" was produced. |
