Two figures were substituted for one,
and the unmistakable name of Will Shakebag was cut in half and divided
between them. Care had moreover been taken to disguise the person by
altering the complexion of the individual aimed at. That the actual
Shakespeare was a fair man they had the evidence of the coloured bust at
Stratford. Could any capable and fair-minded man--he would appeal to
their justly honoured Founder--require further evidence as to the
original of Black Will Shakebag? Another important character in the play
was Black Will's accomplice and Arden's servant--Michael, after whom the
play had also at one time been called _Murderous Michael_. The single
fact that Shakespeare and Drayton were both of them Warwickshire men
would suffice, he could not doubt, to carry conviction with it to the
mind of every member present, with regard to the original of this
personage. It now only remained for him to produce the name of the real
author of this play. He would do so at once--Ben Jonson. About the time
of its production Jonson was notoriously engaged in writing those
additions to the _Spanish Tragedy_ of which a preposterous attempt had
been made to deprive him on the paltry ground that the style (forsooth)
of these additional scenes was very like the style of Shakespeare and
utterly unlike the style of Jonson.
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