humanities.lit.authors.shakespeare

> Art Neuendorffer wrote:
>
> > Mark Twain >> Is Shakespeare Dead? >> Chapter 8
> > .
> > <> > uncheapened, unwatered by guesses, and surmises, and maybe-so's,
> > and might-have-beens, and could-have-beens, and must-have-beens,
> > and the rest of that ton of plaster of paris out of which the
> > biographers have built the colossal brontosaur which goes by
> > the Stratford actor's name, that it quite convinces me that
> > the man who wrote Shakespeare's Works knew all about law
> > and lawyers. Also, that that man could not have been
> > the Stratford Shakespeare--and WASN'T.>>
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"conradc...@gmail.com" wrote:
>
> Twain bases his case on the argument that the author couldn't have
> been a country hick. What I find so remarkable about that is the fact
> Twain himself was a country hick.
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Guess which of these was written by
a country hick (and which wasn't):
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1) <of The Adventures of Tom Sawyer; but that ain't no matter. That book
was made by Mr. Mark Twain, and he told the truth, mainly. There was
things which he stretched, but mainly he told the truth. That is
nothing. I never seen anybody but lied one time or another, without it
was Aunt Polly, or the widow, or maybe Mary. Aunt Polly -- Tom's Aunt
Polly, she is -- and Mary, and the Widow Douglas is all told about in
that book, which is mostly a true book, with some stretchers, as I
said before.>>
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2) Then hear me, gracious sovereign, and you peers,
. That owe yourselves, your lives and services
. To this imperial throne. There is no bar
. To make against your highness' claim to France
. But this, which they produce from Pharamond,
. 'In terram Salicam mulieres ne succedant:'
. 'No woman shall succeed in Salique land:'
. Which Salique land the French unjustly gloze
. To be the realm of France, and Pharamond
. The founder of this law and female bar.
. Yet their own authors faithfully affirm
. That the land Salique is in Germany,
. Between the floods of Sala and of Elbe;
. Where Charles the Great, having subdued the Saxons,
. There left behind and settled certain French;
. Who, holding in disdain the German women
. For some dishonest manners of their life,
. Establish'd then this law; to wit, no female
. Should be inheritrix in Salique land:
. Which Salique, as I said, 'twixt Elbe and Sala,
. Is at this day in Germany call'd Meisen.
. Then doth it well appear that Salique law
. Was not devised for the realm of France:
. Nor did the French possess the Salique land
. Until four hundred one and twenty years
. After defunction of King Pharamond,
. Idly supposed the founder of this law;
. Who died within the year of our redemption
. Four hundred twenty-six; and Charles the Great
. Subdued the Saxons, and did seat the French
. Beyond the river Sala, in the year
. Eight hundred five. Besides, their writers say,
. King Pepin, which deposed Childeric,
. Did, as heir general, being descended
. Of Blithild, which was daughter to King Clothair,
. Make claim and title to the crown of France.
. Hugh Capet also, who usurped the crown
. Of Charles the duke of Lorraine, sole heir male
. Of the true line and stock of Charles the Great,
. To find his title with some shows of truth,
. 'Through, in pure truth, it was corrupt and naught,
. Convey'd himself as heir to the Lady Lingare,
. Daughter to Charlemain, who was the son
. To Lewis the emperor, and Lewis the son
. Of Charles the Great. Also King Lewis the Tenth,
. Who was sole heir to the usurper Capet,
. Could not keep quiet in his conscience,
. Wearing the crown of France, till satisfied
. That fair Queen Isabel, his grandmother,
. Was lineal of the Lady Ermengare,
. Daughter to Charles the foresaid duke of Lorraine:
. By the which marriage the line of Charles the Great
. Was re-united to the crown of France.
. So that, as clear as is the summer's sun.
. King Pepin's title and Hugh Capet's claim,
. King Lewis his satisfaction, all appear
. To hold in right and title of the female:
. So do the kings of France unto this day;
. Howbeit they would hold up this Salique law
. To bar your highness claiming from the female,
. And rather choose to hide them in a net
. Than amply to imbar their crooked titles
. Usurp'd from you and your progenitors.
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"conradc...@gmail.com" wrote:
>
> It's an excellent work of propoganda -- he takes a chapter or two, as
> I recall, to subtly link Shakespeare to Lucifer -- but I don't think
> he successfully knocks down Shakespeare's authorship
> or builds up Bacon's.

Twain takes a chapter or two, to subtly link Shakespeare to Satan:
---------------------------------------------
Is Shakespeare Dead? from My Autobiography (1909)
by Mark Twain

<ago, I became interested in Satan, and wanted to find out all I could
about him. I began to ask questions, but my class-teacher, Mr.
Barclay, the stone-mason, was reluctant about answering them, it
seemed to me. I was anxious to be praised for turning my thoughts to
serious subjects when there wasn't another boy in the village who
could be hired to do such a thing. I was greatly interested in the
incident of Eve and the serpent, and thought Eve's calmness was
perfectly noble. I asked Mr. Barclay if he had ever heard of another
woman who, being approached by a serpent, would not excuse herself and
break for the nearest timber. He did not answer my question, but
rebuked me for inquiring into matters above my age and comprehension.
I will say for Mr. Barclay that he was willing to tell me the facts of
Satan's history, but he stopped there: he wouldn't allow any
discussion of them.

In the course of time we exhausted the facts. There were only five or
six of them; you could set them all down on a visiting-card. I was
disappointed. I had been meditating a biography, and was grieved to
find that there were no materials. I said as much, with the tears
running down. Mr. Barclay's sympathy and compassion were aroused, for
he was a most kind and gentle-spirited man, and he patted me on the
head and cheered me up by saying there was a whole vast ocean of
materials! I can still feel the happy thrill which these blessed words
shot through me.

Then he began to bail out that ocean's riches for my encouragement and
joy. Like this: it was "conjectured"--though not established--that Satan
was originally an angel in Heaven; that he fell; that he rebelled, and
brought on a war; that he was defeated, and banished to perdition.
Also, "we have reason to believe" that later he did so and so; that
"we are warranted in supposing" that at a subsequent time he traveled
extensively, seeking whom he might devour; that a couple of centuries
afterward, "as tradition instructs us," he took up the cruel trade of
tempting people to their ruin, with vast and fearful results; that by
and by, "as the probabilities seem to indicate," he may have done
certain things, he might have done certain other things, he must have
done still other things.

And so on and so on. We set down the five known facts by themselves on
a piece of paper, and numbered it "page 1"; then on fifteen hundred
other pieces of paper we set down the "conjectures," and
"suppositions," and "maybes," and "perhapses," and "doubtlesses," and
"rumors," and guesses," and "probabilities," and "likelihoods," and
"we are permitted to thinks," and "we are warranted in believings,"
and "might have beens," and "could have beens," and "must have beens,"
and "unquestionablys," and "without a shadow of doubt"--and behold!

MATERIALS? Why, we had enough to build a biography of Shakespeare!

Yet he made me put away my pen; he would not let me write the history
of Satan. Why? Because, as he said, he had suspicions--suspicions that
my attitude in the matter was not reverent, and that a person must be
reverent when writing about the sacred characters. He said any one who
spoke flippantly of Satan would be frowned upon by the religious world
and also be brought to account.

I assured him, in earnest and sincere words, that he had wholly
misconceived my attitude; that I had the highest respect for Satan,
and that my reverence for him equaled, and possibly even exceeded,
that of any member of the church. I said it wounded me deeply to
perceive by his words that he thought I would make fun of Satan, and
deride him, laugh at him, scoff at him; whereas in truth I had never
thought of such a thing, but had only a warm desire to make fun of
those others and laugh at THEM. "What others? "Why, the Supposers, the
Perhapsers, the Might-Have-Beeners, the Could-Have-Beeners, the Must-
Have-Beeners, the Without-a-Shadow-of-Doubters, the We-Are-Warranted-
in-Believingers, and all that funny crop of solemn architects who have
taken a good solid foundation of five indisputable and unimportant
facts and built upon it a Conjectural Satan thirty miles high."
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<originates from the Abrahamic faiths, being traditionally applied to
an angel in Judeo-Christian belief, and to a jinn in Islamic belief.
While Hebrew ha-Satan is "the accuser" and Satan itself means "to
overcome" -- the one who challenged the religious faith of humans in
the books of Job and Zechariah -- Abrahamic religious belief systems
other than Judaism relate this term to a demon, a rebellious fallen
angel, devil, minor god and idolatry, or as an allegory for evil.>>
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<"light", and ferre, "to bear, bring"), a Roman astrological term for
the "Morning Star" the planet Venus. The word Lucifer was the
translation of the Septuagint Greek heosphoros, ("dawn-bearer"; cf.
Greek phosphoros, "light-bearer"; itself the translation of the Hebrew
Helel ben Shahar, Son of Dawn), used by Jerome in the Vulgate, having
mythologically the same meaning as Prometheus who brought fire to
humanity.

Passage 14:12 from the Book of Isaiah referred to one of the popular
honorific titles of a Babylonian king; however, later interpretations
of the text, and the influence of embellishments in works such as
Dante's Inferno and Milton's Paradise Lost, led to the common
interpretation in Christian belief that Lucifer was a poetic
appellation of Satan.

Modern and late Medieval Christian thought derived from this
interpretation the idea that Lucifer is a fallen angel who is Satan,
the embodiment of evil and an enemy of God. In Christian literature
and legend, Lucifer is generally considered to have been a prominent
archangel in heaven, although Book of Ezekiel 28:14 says: "You were
the anointed cherub who covers, And I placed you there." In the fully-
developed theme of "The War of Heaven", Lucifer had been motivated by
pride to lead a revolution against God. When the rebellion failed,
Lucifer was cast out of heaven, along with a third of the heavenly
host, and came to reside in the world.
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Art Neuendorffer