"Conceding that Shaksper was a miracle of intuitive force, such a gift would not have conferred knowledge or science, the inevitable result of studies and opportunities, which latter did not then exist. It almost seems ridiculous to talk about the writings of any man, when not a line of his has come down to us, and not a word, except his own signature. Is it a matter of possibility or probability that if Shaksper wrote so well in every sense of the word and such a vast amount, that no manuscript of his, good, bad or indifferent, has been preserved, when the writings of so many men of far lesser note, conceding any greatness to Shaksper, should not only exist but abound?"General J. Watts de Peyster
SOURCE: An impartial study of the Shakspeare title: with facsimiles by John Hawley Stotsenburg (John P. Morton & Company; 1904), who pulls from Joseph C. Hart's--'the first public disputer and denier of the Shaksper title'--book The Romance of Yachting (Harper and Brothers; 1848) who transcribes from a pamphlet by General J. Watts de Peyster: 'Was the Shakespeare after all a Myth?' (1888).
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