Life, 1916-04-20 · page 29 of 52
Life — April 20, 1916 — page 29: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This is a literary essay satirizing Frank Harris, a controversial biographer who claimed Shakespeare used him as a pen name. Chesterton mocks Harris's shifting national identities (claiming American citizenship while previously regarded as English) and his obsessive theory that Shakespeare's works centered on a mysterious "Dark Lady" he identifies as Mary Fitton. The satire targets Harris's biographical method: imposing a single personal narrative onto Shakespeare's works and chasing unprovable historical details. Chesterton suggests this scholarly obsession leads to madness—comparing it to people claiming Shakespeare's mysterious patron "Mr. W.H." was Kaiser Wilhelm II (Hohenzollern). The decorated border contains Shakespearean theatrical scenes and Tudor-era imagery, reinforcing the classical subject matter being debated.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
On Shakespeare By G. K. Chesterton R. FRANK HARRIS, who in his really poignant and pathetic M autobiography used the nom de plume of “ Shakespeare,” has, 1 hear, suddenly discovered that he is an American citizen. It makes an Englishman feel a little nervous; as if he might wake up in bed and suddenly remember that he was an Ancient Roman or a celebrated Russian dancer. There is nothing to be said, except that if Mr. Frank Harris is an American citizen he must be a very bad American citizen; for he was generally regarded as an English Jingo. But though Mr. ris has apparently been a bad American and a bad Englishman, it is really probable that he would be a good German. Many of the more all-embracing of the Teutons say that Shakespeare was a German: and if Mr. Harris describes Shakespeare correctly it would seem as if they were right; for he describes the poet as sentimental and sulky and inor- dinately interested in himself, in defiance of all the facts of existence. 1 do not believe that Shakespeare was sulky; but then I am also suffi- ciently paradoxical not to believe that he was German. Mr. Harris made all Shakespeare’s emotions revolve round himself and the Dark Lady ; who was exactly like Ophelia, and also Cleopatra, as well as being the replica of Desdemona and the very image of Lady Macbeth. Anyhow, she was like all Shakespeare's heroines at once, Shakespeare being unable to imagine anyone else; and in that case she must have been a lady of highly compli- cated character, and what the nurses describe as “a handful.” It is Mr. Harris’ mission and excuse upon this earth to prove that the Dark Lady was Mary Fitton; a lady of whom noboby seems to know anything to speak of, except that she was fair. The objection to this line of study is, that if you ask who the Dark Lady was, you will go on to ask who Mr. W. H. was; and if you ask who Mr. W. H. was, you will go mad. There are probably people at this moment, in and out of asylums, who are proving that he was Mr. William Hohenzollern, For my part, I very much doubt whether there ever was any Dark (Continued on page 765) comicbooks.com