she desired Bacon to report upon it. He replied that he could not discover' treason,' but that the author had committed felony' by appropriating passages from Tacitus. (2) In a letter to James I. in 1622 Bacon quoted Wolsey's speech, qualifying it, in the original draft, by adding : My conscience says no such thing. For I know that, in serving you, I have served God in one. But it may be, if I had pleased men, as I have pleased you, it would have been better with me. Henry VIII. appeared in the first folio the following year with Shakespeare's name, he having been dead six years. (3) Writing upon the drama, Bacon quotes from Tacitus the following description of an actor who in a fiction, in a dream of passion, could force his soul so to his whole conceit, that from her working, all his visage warm'd, tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, a broken voice, and his whole function suiting to his conceit. It is a strange coincidence that this idea should have been transferred to Hamlet, while it was Bacon who revealed a theft from Tacitus in Richard II. The identity of words and phrases in the works of the two authors being beyond dispute, it is not honest to withhold mention of them or to omit descriptions of works by Bacon in which this identity is most conspicuous. The Baconian theory has suffered from the acceptance of two gross fallacies-that Bacon's known works prove him not to be a poet, and that he never took part in the production of plays. What is still, perhaps, a common view was brutally expressed by an American writer in 1874: The idea of robbing the world of Shakespeare for such a stiff, legalheaded old jackass as Bacon is a modern invention of fools." Macaulay, whose biased judgments generally need correction, managed to convey a most unpleasant and wholly unjust impression of Bacon, which still widely prevails; but he could not help paying notable tributes to the poetic genius of the author of the Novum Organum. Here is one : The creative fancy of a Dante or a Milton never called up more gorgeous images than those suggested by Bacon, and we question whether their worlds surpass his in affording scope for the imagination. Shelley was as emphatic : Bacon was a poet. His language has a sweet and majestic rhythm which satisfies the sense no less than the almost superhuman wisdom of his philosophy satisfies the intellect. Mrs. Pott's and other conscientious researches have revealed ''The Humbug of Bacon' (letter in the New York Herald, quoted by Mrs Pott). much evidence of contemporary opinion of Bacon's genius, and more remains to be unearthed. Ben Jonson's tribute in his Discoveries (1641) is well known. After mentioning other writers, not including Shakespeare, he spoke of Bacon as: he who hath filled up all numbers and performed in our time that which may be compared or preferred to insolent Greece or haughty Rome. But Jonson in 1623 had written of the soi disant author of the plays : Leave thee alone, for the comparison Of all that insolent Greece or haughtie Rome Ben Jonson knew Bacon well, and once at least wrote in his house. Some of Sir Tobie Mathews's letters to Bacon are enigmatic and prove him to be deep in Bacon's confidence. The following extract is significant : 5 The most prodigious wit that I ever knew is of your Lordship's name, albeit he is known by another. The only sane interpretation' of these words, according to Sir Sidney Lee, is that the writer referred to 'some Englishman of the name of Bacon, whom he met abroad.' This, in American parlance, is really too' perpendicular.' Bacon referred to himself as a 'concealed poet,' and in the Sonnets there occur expressions which seem to have only one rational explanation. Why write I still all one, ever the same, And keep invention in a noted weed,' That every word doth almost sel my name, Sonnet 76. The earth can yield me but a common grave, Sonnet 81. In the second place, Bacon's biographers have either ignored or slurred over one aspect of his life. His essay on 'dramatic poesy,' which was kept back and first published in De Augmentis Scientiarum, some years after his death, claims the theatre as an educative instrument and shows intimate knowledge of stagecraft. The records of the Inns of Court disclose the fact that, whenever it was desired to produce revels of more than ordinary importance 'Wit' is of course used in the Elizabethan sense. Invention' was used by Bacon in this sense in a letter the same year. ?' I have (though in a despized weed) procured the good of all men.'-BACON. in which Gray's Inn was anxious to shine, the assistance of Bacon, not of Shakespeare or Ben Jonson, was sought and obtained. Here The Comedy of Errors was first performed before the Prince in 15948 under Bacon's management. There is no doubt of the authorship of The Conference of Pleasure, printed as 'by Mr. Bacon in praise of his Sovereigne,' or The Order of the Helmet, both redolent of Shakespeare. Mrs. Pott has dealt fully with this important class of evidence, establishing the fact that Bacon was a playwright and a producer of plays, which is not recorded even in Spedding's monumental Letters and Life. 10 Only two of Shakespeare's works his narrative poems Venus and Adonis and Lucrece-were published with his sanction and co-operation,' states Sir Sidney Lee 1o; but sixteen plays, some with his name and some without, appeared before his death in 1616. Seven years later the first folio of collected works, with his name and a portrait subsequently altered' and used for various purposes, was printed. The whole story of the successive publication of the poems and plays, with which Sir Sidney Lee deals at length, is shrouded in mysteries still unexplained. Supporters of the Baconian theory point to certain periods in Bacon's life which seem to connect him with the plays. Thus, being in want of money, he gave a bond to a 'hard Jew,' from whose clutches he was rescued by his brother Anthony. In the following year The Merchant of Venice appeared, with Antonio as the chivalrous surety. Sir Sidney Lee, on the other hand, believes that Shylock was partly drawn from Queen Elizabeth's Jewish physician, Roderigo Lopez, who was hanged, and finds in the fact that this man acted as interpreter to one Antonio Perez a 'curious confirmation' of his far-fetched explanation. There is no evidence that Shakespeare was a borrower, and, from what is established of his proclivities, he might well have been a fellow tribesman of Shylock. Shakespeare could never have gone abroad; but Bacon 'put forth into the world with happy auspices in his sixteenth year,' 11 in the train of the English Ambassador to the Court of Henri III., visiting Blois, Tours and Poictiers, remaining for several years in France, 'probably' (as Sir Sidney Lee would say) making trips to Italy, studying law, and becoming familiar with scenes depicted in Shakespeare's plays, and notably It was in this year that Anthony Bacon, who worked in concert with Francis, left Gray's Inn to live close to the Bull Inn, where some Shakespearean plays were performed. This shocked Lady Anne Bacon, who just after the production of The Comedy of Errors admonished the brothers that they should 'not mum, nor mask, nor sinfully revel.' • Bacon and his Secret Society, 1911. First edition, 1891. 10 There is of course no evidence whatever of 'co-operation,' though": 'sanction must be presumed, as Shakespeare's name was attached to the dedication. 11 Spedding. . in Henry VI., Pt. I. Certain of the plays appeared at times when the nature of Bacon's activities is somewhat obscure. 12 The late Sir E. Durning-Lawrence draws special attention to evidence of a totally different kind. He reproduced 13 an engraving of the bust originally erected at Stratford, showing it to have no resemblance to the horrible effigy put up more than a century later in which Shakespeare holds a pen, his left hand resting on a sheet of paper. In the first memorial 14 the hands press a sack (a woolsack?) towards the body. The existing bust shows no connexion with the portrait, which formed the title page of the first folio of 1623, and is stated to be by Martin Droeshout, a Flemish engraver, who, according to Sir Sidney Lee, was fifteen when Shakespeare died and had no personal knowledge of his subject. The face is a mask which appears clearly in the enlargement, and 'the dress, in which there are patent defects of perspective,'15 shows two left arms. These are most suggestive facts. The frontispiece of Bacon's Cryptography, significantly published at Lunoeburg the year after the Shakespeare folio, is an astonishing production. This engraving, which is beautifully executed, represents a figure, evidently Bacon, handing a book or paper to a man with a spear and an actor's boots. Another figure on horseback, with a spur emphasised, rides towards a city blowing a horn. At the top, a boat is being rowed towards the beacon (then pronounced bacon') lights of a city. At the bottom, a figure, elaborately dressed, is taking a cap of maintenance from the head of a writer plainly intended for Bacon. The title page of Bacon's History of Henry VII. (1642), also printed in Holland, presents a most carefully elaborated allegory, in which a figure, with one spur and a sword on the wrong side, grasps a spear held with both hands, apparently by Bacon. There is much more symbolism, difficult to interpret, but evidently pregnant with meaning. The title page of Bacon's De Augmentis (1645) is even more remarkable. Bacon, seated, with his right hand in full light resting on a folio, pushes forward with his left, in dark shadow, towards a temple (of fame ?) on a hill the figure of an actor, who holds a clasped book bearing the symbol of a mirror. Baconians naturally claim that these most carefully drawn pictures were intended to reveal the Shakespeare imposture. Who thought out in detail these pictorial allegories, two of them published years after Bacon's death, but one appearing 12 Thus The Merchant of Venice and A Midsummer-Night's Dream, which is crowded with Bacon's fancies, appeared when he was living in seclusion at Twickenham. 18 Bacon is Shakespeare, 1910. 14 From Rowe's Life of Shakespeare, 1709, and corresponding with the engravng in Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1656. 15 Sir Sidney Lee. as a prompt antidote to the first folio? What meaning did their designers intend to convey? Sir E. Durning-Lawrence's book deals with many other matters of great importance which demand, and have not received, explanation. Sir Sidney Lee's Life is a mine of valuable information of all kinds relating, directly and indirectly, to Shakespeare's works and times, and is a shining example of industrious and highly skilled research. I read the first edition many years ago, and it instantly convinced me that the Shakespearean authorship was absolutely untenable, though I never examined the Baconian theory till long afterwards. There are 720 pages in the last edition; but six would more than suffice to contain all that is known with certainty about the life of our greatest genius, while of direct evidence connecting him with the poems and plays there is not a shred. When Shakespeare the man comes into the Life, we are presented with such phrases as' probably,'' It may be justly inferred,' ' It may be presumed,' There is no reason to doubt,' etc. Occasionally, however, Sir Sidney Lee ventures upon such amazing statements as that 'Ovid's poems filled the predominant place among the studies of Shakespeare's school-days.' If he had been able to produce any evidence that Shakespeare ever went to school, this pronouncement, prefixed by 'probably,' might be pardoned; but he tells us incidentally that in 1578, when Shakespeare was fourteen, his father' was unable to pay, with his colleagues, the weekly sum of fourpence for the relief of the poor,' and the books alone necessary for the 'studies,' among which Ovid held a 'predominant place,' would have involved a heavy charge on John Shakespeare's dwindled income. All that we really know with certainty is that Shakespeare went to London about 1585, eventually became an actor, made money in some way which enabled him to purchase land and New Place when he was thirty-three, was able by some unexplained means to obtain a grant of arms for his father, engaged in much litigation for the recovery of small debts,16 promoted the enclosure of common lands, returned to Stratford in or before 1611, living on for at least five years and accomplishing nothing of a literary character. To this lean record may be added a few traditions of doubtful validity and some discreditable, collected after his death, when, apparently, people were beginning to talk about the authorship of the plays. Rowe, 'his first biographer '17 (1709), coldly remarks: His Name is printed, as the Custom was, amongst those of other Players before some old Plays, but without any particular account of what 1 Sir Sidney Lee, referring to a sharp suit against a Stratford blacksmith, who may have been Shakespeare's playfellow, ingeniously explains that the author of Romeo and Juliet had 'caught the prevailing spirit of rigour '! 17 Sir Sidney Lee, who, however, refers to an earlier effort in Fuller's Worthies, which apparently failed.. |