Allene quincy biography of william shakespeare

Excerpt from A Life of William Shakespeare

The materials for a life of Shakespeare have been gradu-a ally assembled by the industry of hundreds Of scholars, extending through more than two centuries; and prob ably little new matter Of importance remains to be dis covered, except through a happy, and at present quite unforeseen, accident.

The arduous labors of Professor and Mrs. Wallace in the manuscript archives of England, during the course Of which they examined over a million documents, recently yielded some fresh information; yet the small number Of their finds assures us that nearly all that we are likely to know Of the personal affairs of the great dramatist has already been made pub lic.

This stagnation in discovery is perhaps responsible for the tendency, especially marked in the last decade, for writers to deal in fanciful speculation, evolving from Slight evidence, or none worthy of the name, bizarre and Often elaborat