364 A. Century of ^Science 



absorbing an immense fund of knowledge uncon- 

 sciously. 



It is evident that the author of Shakespeare's 

 plays possessed an extraordinary " instinctive power 

 of observation and assimilation." There was no- 

 thing strange in such a genius growing up in a 

 small Warwickshire town. The difficulty is one 

 which the Delia-Baconians have created for them- 

 selves. As it is their chief stock in trade, they 

 magnify it in every way they can think of. Shake- 

 speare's parents, they say, were illiterate, and he 

 did not know how to spell his own name. It ap- 

 pears as Shagspere, Shaxpur, Shaxberd, Chacsper, 

 and so on through some thirty forms, several of 

 which William Shakespeare himself used indiffer- 

 ently. The implication is that such a man must 

 have been shockingly ignorant. The real igno- 

 rance, however, is on the part of those who use 

 such an argument. Apparently, they do not know 

 that in Shakespeare's time such laxity in spelling 

 was common in all ranks of society and in all 

 grades of culture. The name of Elizabeth's great 

 Lord Treasurer, Cecil, and his title, Burghley, 

 were both spelled in half a dozen ways. The name 

 of Raleigh occurs in more than forty different 

 forms, and Sir Walter, one of the most accom- 

 plished men of his time, wrote it Rauley, Raw- 



