"noisy nights," notoriously noisy.

Now, as we shall later show, Bacon's rapid production of the plays,
considering his other contemporary activities and varied but always
absorbing interests, was as much a miracle as the sudden blossoming
of Henry's knowledge and accomplishments; for all Bacon's known
exertions and occupations, and his deepest and most absorbing
interest, were remote from the art of tragedy and comedy. If we are
to admit the marvel of genius in Bacon, of whose life and pursuits we
know much, by parity of reasoning we may grant that the actor, of
whom we know much less, may have had genius: had powers and could
use opportunities in a way for which Baconians make no allowance.

We now turn to Mr. Greenwood's chapter, "Shakespeare and 'Genius.'"
It opens with the accustomed list of poor Will's disqualifications,
"a boy born of illiterate parents," but we need not rehearse the
list. {91a} He "comes to town" (date unknown) "a needy adventurer";
in 1593 appeared the poem Venus and Adonis, author's name being
printed as "W. Shakespeare." Then comes Lucrece (1594). In 1598
Love's Labour's Lost, printed as "corrected and augmented" by "W.
Shakespere." And so on with all the rest. Criticism of the learning
and splendour of the two poems follows. To Love's Labour's Lost, and
the amusing things written about it by Baconians, I return; and to
Shakespeare's "impossible" knowledge of courtly society, his "polish
and urbanity," his familiar acquaintance with contemporary French
politics, foreign proverbs, and "the gossip of the Court" of
Elizabeth: these points are made by His Honour Judge Webb.

All this lore to Shakespeare is "impossible"--he could not read, say
some Baconians, or had no Latin, or had next to none; on these points