Excerpt from The Open Court, Vol. 30: A Monthly Magazine Devoted to the Science of Religion, Religion of Science, and the Extension of the Religious Parliament Idea; April, 1916

At the outset, it is insisted with much fervor that Shakespeare's father could neither read nor write. If this were demonstrated beyond any doubt, it would prove nothing more than that Shake speare's father did not write the plays. But the fact is that Shake speare's father, who was once the chief magistrate of Stratford, could write with facility, of which the Stratford archives afford proof. Undaunted, the ardent Baconians further insist that Shake speare's mother co'uld neither read nor write. That is merely an other proof that Shakespeare must have written the plays himself, for it shows that his mother did not. What tremendous logic such contentions evince! The mother of Napoleon Bonaparte never owned a cannon; therefore Napoleon could not_have won the battle of Austerlitz. The mother of Christopher Columbus never ran a ferry; therefore Columbus did not discover America.

Our Baconian friends, not content with proving Shakespeare's ancestors illiterate, also insist that his daughter Judith could neither read nor write. Shakespeare had another daughter, named Susan nah, who was called witty above her sex. The Baconians forget to mention 'her, perhaps because they are afraid some one might suggest-that Susannah Shakespeare wrote the plays. But what difference does it make how dull or how clever the other members of the Shakespeare family were? No one suspects or accuses them of having written the plays. We are concerned only with Master William.

At this point the Baconian hastens to exhibit a series of Shake speare's own autographs - badly written and variously spelled. These, if they are genuine, are all the traces left by Shakespeare's pen - flve badly written signatures, not a syllable more. 'this might be a hard fact to get over if we had bales of manuscript by other Elizabethan writers. But from most of them we have not even a single signature. As for poor writing showing absence of genius, many a man can write a copper - plate script, but has not a thought worthy of setting down. Horace Greeley wrote such a wretched scrawl that frequently he himself could not decipher it. Of course that settles it; Horace Greeley never wrote any editorials in the Tribune.

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