The Philosophy of the Plays of Shakspere Unfolded | Page 2

This Volume contains the argument, drawn from the Plays usually
attributed to Shakspere, in support of a theory which the author of it has
demonstrated by historical evidences in another work. Having never
read this historical demonstration (which remains still in manuscript,
with the exception of a preliminary chapter, published long ago in an
American periodical), I deem it necessary to cite the author's own
account of it:--
'The Historical Part of this work (which was originally the principal
part, and designed to furnish the historical key to the great Elizabethan
writings), though now for a long time completed and ready for the
press, and though repeated reference is made to it in this volume, is, for
the most part, omitted here. It contains a true and before unwritten
history, and it will yet, perhaps, be published as it stands; but the vivid
and accumulating historic detail, with which more recent research tends
to enrich the earlier statement, and disclosures which no invention
could anticipate, are waiting now to be subjoined to it.
'The INTERNAL EVIDENCE of the assumptions made at the outset is
that which is chiefly relied on in the work now first presented on this
subject to the public. The demonstration will be found complete on that
ground; and on that ground alone the author is willing, and deliberately
prefers, for the present, to rest it.
'External evidence, of course, will not be wanting; there will be enough
and to spare, if the demonstration here be correct. But the author of the
discovery was not willing to rob the world of this great question; but
wished rather to share with it the benefit which the true solution of the
Problem offers--the solution prescribed by those who propounded it to
the future. It seemed better to save to the world the power and beauty of
this demonstration, its intellectual stimulus, its demand on the
judgment. It seemed better, that the world should acquire it also in the
form of criticism, instead of being stupified and overpowered with the

mere force of an irresistible, external, historical proof. Persons
incapable of appreciating any other kind of proof,--those who are
capable of nothing that does not 'directly fall under and strike _the
senses_' as Lord Bacon expresses it,--will have their time also; but it
was proposed to present the subject first to minds of another order.'
In the present volume, accordingly, the author applies herself to the
demonstration and development of a system of philosophy, which has
presented itself to her as underlying the superficial and ostensible text
of Shakspere's plays. Traces of the same philosophy, too, she conceives
herself to have found in the acknowledged works of Lord Bacon, and in
those of other writers contemporary with him. All agree in one system;
all these traces indicate a common understanding and unity of purpose
in men among whom no brotherhood has hitherto been suspected,
except as representatives of a grand and brilliant age, when the human
intellect made a marked step in advance.
The author did not (as her own consciousness assures her) either
construct or originally seek this new philosophy. In many respects, if I
have rightly understood her, it was at variance with her pre-conceived
opinions, whether ethical, religious, or political. She had been for years
a student of Shakspere, looking for nothing in his plays beyond what
the world has agreed to find in them, when she began to see, under the
surface, the gleam of this hidden treasure. It was carefully hidden,
indeed, yet not less carefully indicated, as with a pointed finger, by
such marks and references as could not ultimately escape the notice of
a subsequent age, which should be capable of profiting by the rich
inheritance. So, too, in regard to Lord Bacon. The author of this volume
had not sought to put any but the ordinary and obvious interpretation
upon his works, nor to take any other view of his character than what
accorded with the unanimous judgment upon it of all the generations
since his epoch. But, as she penetrated more and more deeply into the
plays, and became aware of those inner readings, she found herself
compelled to turn back to the 'Advancement of Learning' for
information as to their plan and purport; and Lord Bacon's Treatise
failed not to give her what she sought; thus adding to the immortal
dramas, in her idea, a far higher value than their warmest admirers had

heretofore claimed for them. They filled out the scientific scheme
which Bacon had planned, and which needed only these profound and
vivid illustrations of human life and character to make it perfect.
Finally, the author's researches led her to a point where she found the
plays claimed for Lord Bacon and his associates,--not in a way that was
meant