Life, 1919-11-13 · page 20 of 36
Life — November 13, 1919 — page 20: what you’re looking at
What you’re looking at
This page mocks the emerging "Shakespeare Authorship Question" — specifically a new claim that William Stanley, Earl of Derby, wrote Shakespeare's plays rather than the man from Stratford-upon-Avon. The cartoons illustrate the absurdity: the top sketches show a bewildered figure and scholars examining a globe, representing the scholarly chaos these competing claims create. The bottom cartoon depicts three figures with ever-growing hats labeled "IF THEIR HATS CONTINUE TO GROW," satirizing how inflated and ridiculous these alternative-authorship theories become. The text's tone is deliberately tongue-in-cheek: the author gives "three rousing cheers" to Stanley's claim while acknowledging it's likely false, suggesting that harmless speculation beats actual legal warfare between the families. The satire's real point: these authorship debates are comical exercises that ultimately serve only to generate more publicity for Shakespeare anyway.
📄 Transcribed text from this page (OCR, searchable)
Machine-transcribed from the original scan — historical spelling and the odd misread are preserved.
PROBLEMS Welcome Claimants NEW claimant to the authorship of the plays com- monly ascribed to the late William Shakespeare has been introduced in the person of William Stan! of Derby. Three rousing cheers for Wi anley He may have written Shakespeare; and then again he may not have done so; but three rousing cheers for him anyway. To say that he wrote Shak rare does nobody any harm. The heirs and assigns will never go to law about it; and regiments of lawyers will never have the opportunity of opening up the long-sealed graves of the Stanley and Shakespeare families for the purpose of rattling the Shakespeare and Stanley bones and discredit ing everyone of that name, to say nothing of throwing unsightly gobbets of mud on everyone who associated with them. Shakespeare has had the benefit of three hundred years of advertising as the author of his plays; and even if William Stanley were decided to be the true au Shakespeare’s reputation wouldn’t suffer. On the other hand, if a sufficient to-do is made over the claims of Wil liam Stanley, more people may read Shakespeare, and will become wiser and better for so doing. So three rousing cheers for William Stanley and for any other claimants THEIR HATS CONTINUF TO GROW to Shakespeare's laurels who find the claiming propitious. comicbooks.coify