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CHAPTER XVI.
SIXTH SUNDAY – THE MAN CONTINUES THE TRUE STORY OF SHAKESPEARE

“The evening following what I have already told, the young man presented himself at the little red house where dwelt the Lady Bowenni, and was met at the door by Harriette, the daughter. Servant and stranger he no longer was, but friend. The young woman’s cheeks glowed, her eyes flashed with all the eagerness of restless purpose.

“Spread out on the table were sundry curiously-bound books and pamphlets, some written and some in print; for the nobleman had been a great collector, and had secured the best wherever literary treasures were to be found. The young man was cool, composed, and had not the slightest idea of what the work would be or where it should begin.

“‘Draw up your chair to yonder table, William, while I sit on the other side. Now look straight at me (‘I can’t do otherwise,’ he gravely said), and listen close while I the story tell which I have got from three old books – two of them from Spain were brought, one from France. I have dropped and left out this and that, and put in more, here interpolated, there proclaimed a truth I once did hear you say. Now let us get the plot all firmly fixed in our two hearts, and then you it is shall write; for you do toy with words – they are your playthings. You strive not, nor reach out, nor falter, search or look around, but straightway you do get the thought, words, gentle words come trooping to you like a thousand fairies, each in its own order, leading its mate full gently by the hand. For learned men may work and strive and sweat and never do they reach the smoothness you do bring even without a second thought. Careless, William, you are in manner. You know no rule, yet I might study a thousand years and could not thus express the feeling that within me burns; but hinted once by me to you, straightway you weave the beauteous thought into a chaplet gay, and then upon my brow you place it, and seriously you proclaim it mine, when ’tis not mine, nor thine, but ours.’

“Thus did speak this winsome girl after the story she had told, and thoughtful sat the man and not a word he seemed to hear as still she chatted on. When suddenly he aroused and said:

“‘The pens, my lady! An eagle’s pinion, and this story you have told shall we give wing! But note you! three stories have you taken and woven into two instead of one. So shall it stand. Two stories shall we tell, the one within the other held.’²

“And straightway were pens and paper brought and he did write – steadily and seemingly without thought of form or rounded sentences, but surely without stop – and as the pen went gliding o’er the parchment, and page on page were turned aside, the fair young girl did seize and greedily did read, with pen in hand to make an alteration, although but slight, and her cheeks did burn and now and then she sighed and raised her hands. But the young man, he looked not up, but with calm face and steady hand the work went on; and as he held the pen in his right hand, his left hand moved, as though unknown to him, across the narrow table, and gently did she hold it fast – and still the work went on. A few more nights – the play was done and to the judges sent. They read aloud. Some wondered, others sniffed the air, one said: ‘What rubbish is this sent to us? What folly! and written by a big peasant boor! – use it to light the fire. Here, servant, you, bring on the next so to quickly get this horrid taste out of our mouths.’

“The young man heard the sentence, smiled softly, and to himself did say, ‘Oh man, proud man, clothed in a little brief authority, doth cut such fantastic tricks before high heaven as does make angels weep! Now for myself I do not care, but the lady forsooth, whose play it is, or was before ’twas burned – shame on them! – how can I tell her?’ And so he wandered forth and met but who? Why, Harriette, who sought the youth full far and wide, for she had heard the news and grieved she was and sick, fearing the blow might prove too much for him whose play it was. ‘I care not for myself,’ she said; ‘but how – how can I tell him?’ They met – each read full in the other’s eyes what each would say. Both smiled and walked away.”

CHAPTER XVII.
THOSE TWO

“The disappointment caused by the harsh rejection of this first play of William Shakespeare and Harriette Bowenni was not great. Each had had a more than speaking acquaintanceship with sorrow, and trouble is only comparative anyway; so they looked upon the matter rather as a thing to be expected, an amusing circumstance. They knew the play was better than the one accepted, and that was enough. ‘Is not William Shakespeare just as great as though his name was on the bill board?’ the lady said. Another reason that made them look on the matter lightly was that each read their fate in the other’s face, and as long as no separation is threatened love not only laughs at locksmiths but at all disaster. No awkward love-making scene had ever come between them, no formal declaration. As he wrote that first night, the young man unconsciously reached out his hand toward the girl. She took it, and held it lovingly between her own. When they parted he stooped and their lips met.

“When next they walked along the street, among other things he said, ‘I love you, dear.’ The young woman made no sign of surprise, but when she wrote to him the following day (strange how lovers find excuse to write so often!), there were terms of endearment, all inserted without apology. No wooing – no effort at winning – no affected coyness. They loved, and true love need not be ashamed, for ’tis God’s own gift, and given only to the worthy.

“Each day she wrote a letter to her lover – each day he wrote to her. These messages were often in verse, and part of them are preserved in the sonnets of Shakespeare, one hundred and fifty-four in number. These sonnets, it will be noticed, have no special relation one to the other. Part, it can be seen, are written by a woman to her lover. Mixed in with these are others written by a man. You will notice that in those written by the woman she entreats the young man to marry, and expresses much regret and surprise that though he loves her well he will not wed.

“These sonnets were first published in 1609, and were dedicated —

“‘To Mr. W. H. Their onlie begetter.’

“The W stands for William, the H for Harriette. The prefix of ‘Mr.’ is a mere whimsicality, (a thing all lovers are guilty of, yet which we are ever ready to forgive), simply to mystify the world. The first twenty-six of these sonnets were written by Harriette during the years 1585 and 1586, before she knew that Shakespeare was already married; and the perplexity in her ignorance of the real facts of his life can be imagined.

“Long years after these letters were written, Shakespeare turned those which were not already in rhyme into verse for his and her amusement, and now that they had come to know each other perfectly and the oneness was complete, many was the laugh they had over their youthful trials. Anyone who will read the Sonnets, Venus and Adonis and the Passionate Pilgrim, and read them carefully in the light of what I now tell, will get a clear idea of the first few years’ relations of Shakespeare and this beautiful and accomplished young woman. I do not attempt to defend the style or wording of these poems. They are written in all the hot restless desire of youth where flesh is not ruled by soul – where the earthy is not yet transmuted into the spiritual.

“Said ‘rare Ben Jonson’ – ‘I loved the man, and do reverence his memory on this side of idolatry as much as any! He was honest and of an open and free nature, had an excellent fancy, brave notions and excellent expressions, wherein he flowed with such facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped. His wit was in his own power – would the rule of it had been so too! but he redeemed his vices with his virtues. There was in him ever more to be praised than pardoned. The players have often mentioned it as an honor to Shakespeare that in his writing whatsoe’er he penned he never blotted out a line. My answer has been, Would he had blotted out a thousand.’

“So with Ben Jonson I say, Oh would that these two had left unwritten a thousand lines! – but who shall dictate to genius?

“When Shakespeare left Stratford he attempted to leave the last year’s dwelling for the new – to steal the shining archway through – close up the idle door. The past was to him dead. He did not hug it to his heart, mourn over it, and attempt to kiss it back to life. He said, ‘The past we cannot recall, the future we cannot reach, the present only is ours.’ So with no attempt at concealment, yet with no disclosure of his history, he said to Harriette Bowenni:

“‘That I do love you, you do know; that I do desire to wed you, you may guess; and that I cannot is but fact. Now why should speak I more? You put your arms about my neck and swear your faith in pretty verse, and next you contradict this faith by still demanding Why? No! If I say it is not best, is not that Why enough?’

“In sonnet number twenty the appearance of Shakespeare is described at this time. A writer says, ‘He has a lady’s face and scarce a beard.’

“Harriette urged the youth to leave his shabby lodgings, marry her, and take up his abode with her and her mother; and in Venus and Adonis we hear of the number of noble lovers that had sought her hand, and yet she almost on her knees besought William to wed her. In a spirit of jolly ridicule of this wooing on the part of Harriette, he wrote the poem of Venus and Adonis and presented it to her. In this poem you will notice he represents himself as cold and unfeeling, when the real truth is he was just as full of desire to marry as she; but the divorce laws of England at that time were very strict, so much so that only the rich or influential could secure a divorce at all.

“Shakespeare should have been frank with this girl and told her his history at once, but he did not do so until over a year after their first acquaintance. You can well imagine the surprise of mother and daughter when he one night said, ‘Come, my history you would know. Well, I’ll run it through, even from my boyish days, to the very moment that you bade me tell it,’ and so he told from childhood to the time he took one last look at the little village and set his face toward London. The story being done she gave him for his pains a world of sighs. She swore in faith ’twas strange, ’twas passing strange, ’twas pitiful, ’twas wondrous pitiful! she wished she had not heard it. Yet she wished that heaven had made her such a man. She thanked him, and bade him if he had a friend that lov’d her, he should teach him how to tell the story, and that would woo her. On this hint he spake:

“‘Now you do know full well why I, according to England’s law, do not you wed – yet heaven hath decreed it so. You are my rightful mate; and here and now, in the sacred presence of her who brought you forth, I do declare you shall be from now henceforth my true and only wife.’

“Madame Bowenni was generous, gentle and good, a woman of most rare and discriminating mind, great and loving. Years had not soured nor turned to dross the great and tender heart. She knew for her daughter to accept William Shakespeare for her husband without the consent of England’s law, would not be the one thousandth part the sin as to see her wed a man she did not love, although good and noble the man might be. So Shakespeare took up his abode with this fair lady, and was a faithful and true husband to her, and she a loving and true wife till death called her hence.

“Harriette Bowenni died in the year 1614, leaving one child, Shakespeare’s only son. Anne Hathaway had died some years before, and be it said to his credit Shakespeare sent her ample funds from time to time, and that she shared in his prosperity. It is greatly to be regretted that Harriette died before her lover, otherwise she would have acted as his literary executor and collected his writings in proper form. As it is this work was done by those entirely unfitted for it, and his papers were brought together from many sources seven years after his death; and to-day not a single scrap of his manuscript exists, excepting the letters I possess and the diary of Harriette Bowenni, in which are various entries made by Shakespeare. All these letters and the diary you shall see.

“From his grief at the death of Harriette, Shakespeare never rallied. He left London, the scene of his mighty success, and back to his boyhood’s home did he turn, broken in health and spirit. City men who were once country boys, always look forward to the coming of old age, when they can return again to their childhood’s home. In less than two short years those simple villagers carried to its last resting-place the worn out body of the mightiest man of thought the world has ever known.

“When Shakespeare took Harriette Bowenni as his wife, at once they began their life-work in earnest. Women then were never recognized in literary work, and in fact did not ever act upon the stage, their parts being taken by boys. Harriette knew English history probably better than any man in England at that time, having studied it for several years with her father, and written it out for the nobleman. The first successful plays of Shakespeare were those of English history. Then followed tragedy and comedy in rapid and startling succession. Thirty-seven plays are known positively to be Shakespeare’s, all written in the space of twenty-six years; there being scarcely any repetition of plot or plan, all sweeping forward in that matchless and noble diction possessed by no other writer. The source of nearly all the plots have been well traced. Many of the plays are combinations of two or three others. In several instances the story is taken pure and simple from other writers, and the dialogue changed, modified, interpolated, as if it was necessary to get the play out at a certain time; yet the work is always nobly done, although many of the plays show very plainly the work of two persons.

“In every one of these thirty-seven plays William Shakespeare and Harriette Bowenni worked side by side, she supplying the plot and historical connection and he the language. The philosophy and by-play was worked in between them.

“Shakespeare’s conception of womanhood is higher than that of any other dramatist, even of modern time. Generally we find the saints and sinners pretty evenly divided between the sexes. Not so with the Master! His women are wise, gentle and good. Look at Portia, Rosalind, Cecelia, Viola, Jessica and others. The character of Lady Macbeth was worked out by Harriette alone, as I will show you in her diary where she protests against William parsing excellencies in the feminine gender continually, and she asks leave to portray Lady Macbeth herself alone.

“Each was constantly alert for metaphor, hyperbole, figure, trope, philosophy or poetical expression. Nothing escaped – every thought or fancy to which love could give birth was woven in. Neither went in society, and the fact that Shakespeare could not present this woman as his wife, was rather an advantage than otherwise. They had no friends but books, and thus were not distracted, diverted or dragged down by common-place connections, ignorant or vain people. To be with people was to lose their relationship to the whole. They were merely onlookers in Venice – the world knew them not. This fully accounts for the total lack of knowledge we possess of Shakespeare’s life. It has been stated that Shakespeare belonged to the club to which belonged Sir Walter Raleigh, Jonson, Beaumont, Fletcher, Donne, Selden and others, that met at the Mermaid Tavern, but there is no proof at all that he ever attended these meetings. How such a man lived with such a mind and still was not known, has astounded humanity; and it is not to be wondered at that many now doubt that he ever wrote at all, and very plausibly prove (or think they do), that this unlettered, untraveled and untutored man could not (mark the words) have written Shakespeare. It is not to be wondered at that they cast about for the most learned man of his time, and pick out Lord Bacon, not knowing that six Lords Bacon all melted into one could never (mark my words) equal the work of one great man and one great woman, who having put away all society but each other, cast out all frivolity, set themselves the task (if task it may be called) solely to assist that alchemist, the only one who can transmute base material into good – Love, undying Love. Love is creative. It is the one and only source of all creation!”

I had been taking the words of The Man at the rate of one hundred words a minute. Suddenly they came faster, faster. I could scarcely keep up. For the first time I saw The Man had lost his composure. I looked up. The tears were streaming down his cheeks. He arose from his seat, paused, raised his hands and exclaimed:

“This woman, Harriette Bowenni; she was my mother!!”

CHAPTER XVIII.
SEVENTH SUNDAY. – THE SECRET OF SUCCESS

I began the conversation by a protest against attributing the success of Shakespeare so entirely to woman’s influence for “you cannot make a statue out of basswood,” I said.

“Yes, you are right,” answered The Man, “but Shakespeare, you must remember, won the love of this great woman, and thus proved his capacity and ability to succeed. We succeed by means, that is by the help of, others. Now take your pencil and paper and write what I speak —

“The word success scarcely carries the same meaning to two people, and I will make no attempt now to a pedagogic definition of the word, but simply a statement of facts which will not be disputed by any thinking person.

“There are certain conditions which we see surrounding men that are the reverse of success, and on these we are all agreed. So it might be easier to state what success is not, than what it is.

“If we see a person whose face is filled with lines of anxious care, proving to every passerby that the wearer of this look is nervous, apprehensive, restless, fast losing the capacity for enjoying the good things of life, we cannot call this person successful, though he is a millionaire. Yet we find men whom we know are not worth a hundred dollars, but their faces beam with the health that comes only from right living. Their entire bodily attitude tells that they are in line with the harmony of the universe. They are successful.

“The world is rich beyond the power of man to compute. We are just beginning to turn the wheels of commerce with a motive power the vast extent of which seems limitless, and which we use over and over again without destroying its substance. The material things which go to make life comfortable are in extent as boundless as is the oxygen which makes the combustion that we call life possible. For do you think for a moment that the Supreme Intelligence that quickened life into being would make too much of this and only half enough of that, so men would have plenty of air to breathe and plenty of water to drink, but only half enough food or raiment?

“No, the world is rich – surpassing rich, but, alas! men are poor.

“One man gets many things more than he can use and makes himself poor, that is, unsuccessful, by a vain attempt to keep that which in fact is not his. He draws on the material world for more than he needs, but fails to absorb from the world of spirit of the pure oxygen of life to aid digestion; he is like a man who has eaten twice as much as he can digest, he is full of fear and distrust and his life is a failure. He is not a success.

“And we see men great and good in soul whose bodies are not properly nourished and who shiver with the cold. This is not success.

“There is no virtue in poverty. To do without things we do not need is both manly and right (for to do right is manly), but to deprive ourselves of the bounties and blessings that have been provided for us, is not only to be lacking in common sense, but it is to be guilty of sin.

“So we say that the unsuccessful man is he who does not secure for his use all that which his being needs for its growth and advancement.

“I have spoken of the pure air we should breathe being supplied in limitless quantities, but every physician knows that the most prolific cause of disease is the breathing of a bad atmosphere. People deliberately fire up the coal stove, close the drafts so that the poison cannot escape up the chimney, shut down the windows and pray for sweet, refreshing sleep. This is done as much out in the open country as in the crowded city. At daylight this morning, just as the summer sun was coming up from behind the far-away hills, I walked through the sleeping village and noticed that in almost every house the windows were tightly shut, blinds closed, and, of course, the doors locked to keep out burglars, forgetful that the murderer who sought their lives was already in the house.

“The rich in cities ride in closed carriages, breathing the same air over and over. They are pale, yellow and despondent. The coachman rides outside ruddy and full of life.

“Thousands upon thousands die yearly of consumption, a disease coming entirely from improper breathing. If we use only a part of the lungs, the rest of the cells collapse, decay and we die – die through poverty – die through not using enough of that which is supplied so plenteously. And, yet, air is free, but whether through ignorance or inability (and ignorance is inability) we die, for nature takes no thought of the individual. You must comply with her rules or suffer from noncompliance. ‘Here are these good things,’ she says, ‘use them freely;’ and if we do not know how to use them we suffer just as surely as though we wilfully rebelled and knowingly said, ‘We will not use them.’

“So if you ask me to define success, I will say that he is successful who uses that which his well-being requires for its best development. To fail is not to use what your physical, mental and moral well-being demands. Whether you fail through ignorance of your needs or inability to supply them makes no difference.

“Thus it might truthfully be said that no life is a complete success, for no man lays hold on the forces of the universe and uses to the fullest extent. So there are all degrees of success. Now I propose to give a few plain and simple rules for securing to yourself that which your body and soul demand, and when I speak of one’s ‘Being’ I always mean body and soul – one no less than the other, for without soul there would be no body – body is here the instrument of soul. And what is more, I mean worldly success, for the world is but the sensual manifestation of spirit. You cannot separate spirit from matter – matter from intelligence.

“One of the worst mistakes man has made in times past has been the attempt to separate things into two parts – the ‘sacred’ and the ‘worldly.’ All things are sacred. There is nothing above the natural. There can be no ‘Super-Natural,’ without we say the supernatural is natural, which is in fact the truth.

“The wheeling stars, the great sun which warms our planet into life and light, every manifestation of beauty which we behold, man himself with his aspirations, his longings and his unknown possibilities, are natural. The natural is the all in all.

“We are here for growth, and live on the world. To achieve a success here, is to achieve a worldly success; and the highest ambition any man can have is to secure success, and the only success you can achieve here is a worldly success.

“Success is the result of right thinking. ‘As a man thinketh so is he,’ and what is most encouraging to me is the thought that a gigantic brain and a mighty grasp of mind are not at all necessary to success. The secret is simple, and the wayfaring can comprehend it as well as the prince. A few plain rules well followed and you are in the majority, for all nature is on your side and working in your behalf. What need you of influential friends? And yet the kind of thinking I am about to describe will bring the noble and the powerful to your side. They will seek your acquaintance, they will be your friends, and it will be their delight to help you, for it is the way nature assists her children by sending the love of good people. Night and day your spirit thinks. Stop thinking now for five minutes and tell me what you thought. No, you cannot stop. You may not remember what you thought, when you were in your sleep, but you thought just the same. But, while you cannot stop thinking you can direct the thought. You can control its tendency, and in the course of time (not long either), you will think only good thoughts – thoughts that will insure success to yourself and assist all those with whom you come in contact.

“Success in every undertaking has come from a right mental attitude. But your ambition must be worthy and founded on right or there can be no success. There can be no such thing as a successful burglar, for the act that is wrong brings a reaction that is weakness, defeat, and disgrace – the end may be postponed for a day, but the result is no less sure; while the reaction from a good act brings to the person an increased self-respect, a power for good, and this is his reward.

“I will not attempt to give one plan for success in business, another for success in religious work, and another set of rules for scholarly attainment. We cannot separate life into parts, for there can be no success in a business that is not right, but if your business is honorable it affords you a most excellent opportunity for the exercise of spiritual and mental attainment. You cannot imagine a sincere follower of Truth being engaged in a bad business, and the personal contact which a profession or business gives a man with other men affords him the opportunity to let his light shine.

“The first requisite of success is to know what you desire. Misty, uncertain hopes and changing wishes bring uncertain results. The reason we hear so much of luck and chance in life is on account of the absence of clear ideals. You must work out in your own mind what you wish to achieve. Are you a clerk in a big store, and see yourself in the future always as a clerk, you will always be one. Suppose, on the other hand, you see yourself in imagination as the head of the establishment, and hold this constantly in mind as you work away in your lowly position day after day. This very thought is bringing you toward your ideal. You will have an alertness for business, a desire to please, and the welfare of the establishment will be constantly before you. You will always be on time, and when there is extra work you will remain a little later and never think of asking if you are to be paid for over time.

“This cheerful and attentive disposition is sure to bring you promotion, and even over the heads of older employees. When a foreman is wanted for the head of a department you will be the one selected – no mistake, it cannot be otherwise. The ideal you hold in your mind is coming toward you sure. The whirligig of time, which is ever sifting, assorting, and bringing to the top the best, is a spiritual law as strong as fate – in fact, it is fate – and you will be the head of this establishment, and a rich man.

“We do not say that to be the head of a big business and to be rich are the chief ends for which to work, but as far as you prize these things, you can only secure them in the way I have mentioned.

“If you are a country school-teacher, on a small salary, and never expect to be invited to teach in a higher school, you never will. But if your ambition is to be principal in a college, you can attain this position. You will read the educational journals, and will know all of the great teachers who now live, and all of those who have gone before. Their names and lives will be familiar to you. You will dwell in thought on the virtues of Roger Ascham, and Arnold of Rugby will be your friend. You will attend the Teachers’ Institutes and take part, too, and encourage the leader by your sympathy. You will attract to your side all the good teachers in the neighborhood, and will soon be in communication with the chief educators in the country, and your promotion is sure as sunrise. As soon as you are made worthy by holding fast to the ideal, you will be called up higher. But suppose you seek to attain promotion by connivance and wire-pulling, your defeat is certain. The thing to do is to be worthy and be ready to accept the invitation promptly, and it will come.

“The necessity of this clearness of ideal which brings a calm certainty of manner is more marked perhaps in the professions of law and healing than elsewhere.

“We are just beginning to appreciate the fact that the good physician heals more by his presence than his potions. A physician who believes that man is made in the image of his Maker and that his body is the dwelling-place of an immortal spirit, has ever before him a most lofty ideal. To come within the atmosphere of such a man, clean in body and pure in heart, is to absorb to a certain extent his qualities of mind, which is a powerful force acting on the body for health. He fills the patient with hope and faith, allays apprehension, calms the mind of disorder, and allows the vis medicatrix natura to act. A doctor of this kind believes in his power to succeed – and he does. The lawyer who fears the other side and is doubtful of his case and who believes the judge is partial, has already lost his cause. But if he believes his client is innocent and that the jury will clear him, if they can be made to see the true state of affairs, brings judge and jury to this way of thinking, and receives the verdict he asks for.

“To make people work against you and get the world in opposition to you, just hold in thought that you are unfortunate and unlucky and that no one appreciates you, and then the world is down on you sure enough. You bring about the thing you fear. But what we want is men who are positive without being pugnacious; men who are cheerful but not frivolous. These are the successful men, and wherever they go they carry help, health and healing.