Bacon is Shake Speare

S >> Sir Edwin Durning Lawrence >> Bacon is Shake Speare

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11

Produced by Jonathan Ingram, Graham Smith,
Tapio Riikonen and the Online Distributed Proofreading Team.

[Illustration: Plate I From "Sylva Sylvarum," 1627]

BACON IS SHAKE-SPEARE

BY

SIR EDWIN DURNING-LAWRENCE, BT.

"Every hollow Idol is dethroned by skill,
insinuation and regular approach."

Together with a Reprint of
Bacon's Promus of Formularies and Elegancies.

Collated, with the Original MS. by the late F.B. BICKLEY,
and revised by F.A. HERBERT, of the British Museum.

MCMX

TO THE READER

The plays known as Shakespeare's are at the present time universally
acknowledged to be the "Greatest birth of time," the grandest
production of the human mind. Their author also is generally
recognised as the greatest genius of all the ages. The more the
marvellous plays are studied, the more wonderful they are seen to be.

Classical scholars are amazed at the prodigious amount of knowledge of
classical lore which they display. Lawyers declare that their author
must take rank among the greatest of lawyers, and must have been
learned not only in the theory of law, but also intimately acquainted
with its forensic practice. In like manner, travellers feel certain
that the author must have visited the foreign cities and countries
which he so minutely and graphically describes.

It is true that at a dark period for English literature certain
critics denied the possibility of Bohemia being accurately described
as by the sea, and pointed out the "manifest absurdity" of speaking
of the "port" at Milan; but a wider knowledge of the actual facts
has vindicated the author at the expense of his unfortunate critics.
It is the same with respect to other matters referred to in the
plays. The expert possessing special knowledge of any subject
invariably discovers that the plays shew that their author was well
acquainted with almost all that was known at the time about that
particular subject.

And the knowledge is so extensive and so varied that it is not too much
to say that there is not a single living man capable of perceiving half
of the learning involved in the production of the plays. One of the
greatest students of law publicly declared, while he was editor of the
_Law Times_, that although he thought that he knew something of law, yet
he was not ashamed to confess that he had not sufficient legal knowledge
or mental capacity to enable him to fully comprehend a quarter of the
law contained in the plays.

Of course, men of small learning, who know very little of classics and
still less of law, do not experience any of these difficulties, because
they are not able to perceive how great is the vast store of learning
exhibited in the plays.

There is also shewn in the plays the most perfect knowledge of Court
etiquette, and of the manners and the methods of the greatest in the
land, a knowledge which none but a courtier moving in the highest
circles could by any possibility have acquired.

In his diary, Wolfe Tone records that the French soldiers who invaded
Ireland behaved exactly like the French soldiers are described as
conducting themselves at Agincourt in the play of "Henry V," and he
exclaims, "It is marvellous!" (Wolfe Tone also adds that Shakespeare
could never have seen a French soldier, but we know that Bacon while in
Paris had had considerable experience of them.)

The mighty author of the immortal plays was gifted with the most
brilliant genius ever conferred upon man. He possessed an intimate and
accurate acquaintance, which could not have been artificially acquired,
with all the intricacies and mysteries of Court life. He had by study
obtained nearly all the learning that could be gained from books. And he
had by travel and experience acquired a knowledge of cities and of men
that has never been surpassed.

Who was in existence at that period who could by any possibility be
supposed to be this universal genius? In the days of Queen Elizabeth,
for the first time in human history, one such man appeared, the man who
is described as the marvel and mystery of the age, and this was the man
known to us under the name of Francis Bacon.

In answer to the demand for a "mechanical proof that Bacon is
Shakespeare" I have added a chapter shewing the meaning of
"Honorificabilitudinitatibus," and I have in Chapter XIV. shewn how
completely the documents recently discovered by Dr. Wallace confirm the
statements which I had made in the previous chapters.

I have also annexed a reprint of Bacon's "Promus," which has recently
been collated with the original manuscript. "Promus" signifies
Storehouse, and the collection of "Fourmes and Elegancyes" stored
therein was largely used by Bacon in the Shakespeare plays, in his own
acknowledged works, and also in some other works for which he was mainly
responsible.

I trust that students will derive considerable pleasure and profit from
examining the "Promus" and from comparing the words and phrases, as they
are there preserved, with the very greatly extended form in which many
of them finally appeared.

EDWIN DURNING-LAWRENCE.

CONTENTS

I. Preliminary

II. The Shackspere Monument, Bust, and Portrait

III. The [so-called] "Signatures"

IV. Contemporary allusions to Shackspere in "Every
Man out of his Humour"; and "As you Like it"

V. Further contemporary allusions in "The return
from Parnassus"; and "Ratsei's Ghost"

VI. Shackspere's Correspondence

VII. Bacon acknowledged to be a Poet

VIII. The Author revealed in the Sonnets

IX. Mr. Sidney Lee, and the Stratford Bust

X. The meaning of the word "Honorificabilitudinitatibus"

XI. On page 136 of the Shakespeare Folio of 1623, being a portion
of the play "Loves labour's lost," and its connection with
Gustavi Seleni "Cryptomenytices"

XII. The "Householder of Stratford"

XIII. Conclusion, with further evidences from Title Pages

XIV. Postscriptum

XV. Appendix

Addenda et Corrigenda

Introduction to Bacon's "Promus"

Reprint of Bacon's "Promus"

LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS

PLATE.

I. _Frontispiece_. Portrait of Francis Bacon, from his "Sylva
Sylvarum," 1627.

II. Portrait of Francis Bacon, by Van Somer.
Engraved by W.C. Edwards.

III. The original "Shakespeare" Monument in Stratford Parish Church,
a facsimile from Dugdale's "History of Warwickshire,"
published in 1656.

IV. The Shakespeare Monument as it appears at the present time.

V. The original Bust, enlarged from Plate III.

VI. The present Bust, enlarged from Plate IV.

VII. Reduced facsimile of the title page of the first folio edition
of "Mr. William Shakespeare's" plays, published in 1623.

VIII. Facsimile, full size, of the original portrait
[so-called] of "Shakespeare" from the 1623 Folio.

IX. Verses ascribed to Ben Jonson, facing the title page which is
shewn in Plate VII.

X. The back of the left arm, which does duty for the right arm
of the figure, shewn on Plates VII. and VIII.

XI. The front of the left arm of the figure, shewn on Plates VII.
and VIII.

XII. The [mask] head from the [so-called] portrait by Droeshout
in the 1623 Folio.

XIII. Portrait of Sir Nicholas Bacon. By Zucchero.

XIV. The five [so-called] "Shakespeare" Signatures.
[The sixth is shewn in Plate XXXVIII., Page 164].

XV. Francis Bacon's Crest, from the binding of a presentation copy
of his "Novum Organum," published in 1620.

XVI. Facsimile of the title page of "The Great Assises holden
in Parnassus."

XVII.-XVIII. Facsimiles of pages iii. and iv. of the same.

XIX. The original "Shakespeare" Monument in Stratford Parish Church,
a facsimile from Rowe's "Life and Works of Shakespeare,"
Vol. I, 1709.

XX. Reduced facsimile of page 136 of the first folio edition of
the plays, 1623.

XXI. Full size facsimile of a portion of the same page 136 of the
first folio edition of the plays, 1623.

XXII. Full size facsimile of page F4 of "Loves labor's lost," first
quarto edition, published in 1598.

XXIII. Facsimile of a portion of a contemporary copy of a letter by
Francis Bacon, dated 1595.

XXIV. Facsimiles from page 255 of Gustavi Seleni "Cryptomenytices
et Cryptographiae," published in 1624.

XXV. Facsimile from page 2O2b of "Traicte des chiffres ou secretes
manieres d'escrire," par Blaise de Vigenere, published in 1585.

XXVI. Ornamental Heading, from William Camden's "Remains,"
published in 1616.

XXVII. Reduced facsimile of the title page of Gustavi Seleni
"Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiae," published in 1624.

XXVIII.-XXXI Various portions of Plate XXVII. enlarged.

XXXII. Scene from "The Merry Wives of Windsor," from a painting
by Thomas Stothard.

XXXIII. Facsimile of the title page of Bacon's "De Augmentis
Scientiarum," published in 1645.

XXXIV. Facsimile of the title page of "New Atlantis, begun by Lord
Verulam and continued by R.H., Esquire," published in 1660.

XXXV. Facsimile of the title page of Bacon's "Historia Regni Henrici
Septem," published in 1642.

XXXVI. Nemesis, from Alciati's "Emblems," published in 1531.

XXXVII. Nemesis, from Baudoin's "Emblems," published in 1638.

XXXVIII.-IX. Portion of the MSS. mentioning Shakespeare, discovered
by Dr. Wallace.

XL. Facsimiles of three examples of law clerks' writing of the name
"Shakespeare."

XLI. Facsimile of the Dedication of "The Attourney's Academy." 1630.

XLII. Facsimile of portion of Folio 85 of the original MS. of Bacon's
"Promus."

XLIII. Portrait of Francis Bacon, from painting by Van Somer, formerly
in the collection of the Duke of Fife.

The Ornamental Headings of the various Chapters are mostly variations of
the "Double A" ornament found in certain Shakespeare Quarto Plays, and
in various other books published circa 1590-1650.

A few references will be found below:--

_Title Page_, and _To the Reader_.
Shakespeare's Works. 1623.

_Contents_. Page ix.
North's "Lives." 1595.
Spenser's "Faerie Queene." 1609, 1611.
Works of King James. 1616.
Purchas' "Pilgrimages." 1617.
Bacon's "Novum Organum." 1620.
Seneca's Works. 1620.
Speed's "Great Britaine." 1623.
Bacon's "Operum Moralium." 1638.

Page 1. Heading of CHAPTER I.
"Contention of Yorke and Lancaster," Part I. 1594.
"Romeo and Juliet." 1599.
"Henry V." 1598, 1600.
"Sir John Falstaffe." 1602.
"Richard III." 1602.
"Regimen Sanitatis Salerni." 1597.

Page 6. Heading of CHAPTER II.
Hardy's "Le Theatre," vol. 4. 1626.
Barclay's "Argenis." 2 vols. 1625-26.
Aleman's "Le Gueux." 1632.

Page 35. Heading of CHAPTER III.
Mayer's "Praxis Theologica." 1629.
Ben Jonson's Works, Vol. 2. 1640.

Page 40. Heading of CHAPTER IV.
"The Shepheard's Calendar." 1617.
"The Rogue." 1622.
Barclay's "Argenis." 1636.
Bacon's "Remaines." 1648.
"The Mirrour of State." 1656.

Page 47. Heading to CHAPTER V.
Preston's "Breast-plate of Faith." 1630.

Page 51. Heading to CHAPTER VI.
"Venus and Adonis." 1593.
"Unnatural conspiracie of Scottish Papists." 1593.
"Nosce te ipsum." 1602.
The ornament reversed is found in:
Spenser's "Faerie Queene." 1596.
"Historie of Tamerlane." 1597.
Barckley's "Felicitie of Man." 1598.

Page 55. Heading to CHAPTER VII.
James I. "Essayes of a Prentise in the Art of Poesie."
1584, 1585.
De Loque's "Single Combat." 1591.
"Taming of a Shrew." 1594
Hartwell's "Warres." 1595.
Heywood's Works. 1598.
Hayward's "Of the Union." 1604.

Page 55 _(continued)_.
Cervantes' "Don Quixote." 1612.
Peacham's "Compleat Gentleman." 1622.

Page 69. Heading of CHAPTER VIII.
"Richard II." 1597.
"Richard III." 1597.
"Henrie IV." 1600.
"Hamlet." 1603.
Shakespeare's "Sonnets." 1609.
Matheieu's "Henry IV." [of France.] 1612.

Page 74. Heading of CHAPTER IX.
Hardy's "Le Theatre." 1624.

Page 84. Heading of CHAPTER X.
Boys' "Exposition of the last Psalme." 1615.

Page 103. Heading of CHAPTER XI.
Bacon's "Henry VII." 1629.
Bacon's "New Atlantis." 1631.

Page 113. Printed upside down.
Camden's "Remains." 1616.

Page 134. Heading of CHAPTER XII.
Preston's "Life Eternall." 1634.

Page 144. Heading of CHAPTER XIII.
Barclay's "Argenis." 1636.

Page 161. Heading of CHAPTER XIV.
Martyn's "Lives of the Kings." 1615.
Seneca's Works. 1620.
Slatyer's "Great Britaine." 1621.
Bacon's "Resuscitatio," Part II. 1671.

Page 177. Heading of CHAPTER XV.
Gustavi Seleni "Cryptomenytices." 1624.

Page 187. Introduction to "Promus."
"King John." 1591.
Florio's "Second Frutes." 1591.
De Loque's "Single Combat." 1591
Montaigne's "Essais." 1602.
Cervantes' "Don Quixote," translated by Shelton. 1612-20.

Page 287. Tail Piece from Spenser's "Faerie Queen." 1617.

[Illustration: Plate II Portrait of Francis Bacon,
By Van Somer.
Engraved by W.C. Edwards]

BACON IS SHAKESPEARE.

CHAPTER I.

"What does it matter whether the immortal works were written by
Shakespeare (of Stratford) or by another man who bore (or assumed) the
same name?"

Some twenty years ago, when this question was first propounded, it was
deemed an excellent joke, and I find that there still are a great number
of persons who seem unable to perceive that the question is one of
considerable importance.

When the Shakespeare revival came, some eighty or ninety years ago,
people said "pretty well for Shakespeare" and the "learned" men of that
period were rather ashamed that Shakespeare should be deemed to be
"_the_" English poet.

"Three poets in three distant ages born,
Greece, Italy and England did adorn,
. . . . . . . . . .
The force of Nature could no further go,
To make a third she joined the other two."

Dryden did not write these lines in reference to Shakespeare but to
Milton. Where will you find the person who to-day thinks Milton comes
within any measurable distance of the greatest genius among the sons of
earth who was called by the name of Shakespeare?

Ninety-two years ago, viz.: in June 1818, an article appeared in
_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_, under the heading "Time's Magic
Lantern. No. V. Dialogue between Lord Bacon and Shakspeare" [Shakespeare
being spelled Shakspeare]. The dialogue speaks of "Lord" Bacon and
refers to him as being engaged in transcribing the "Novum Organum" when
Shakspeare enters with a letter from Her Majesty (meaning Queen
Elizabeth) asking him, Shakspeare, to see "her own" sonnets now in the
keeping of _her_ Lord Chancellor.

Of course this is all topsy turvydom, for in Queen Elizabeth's reign
Bacon was never "Lord" Bacon or Lord Chancellor.

But to continue, Shakspeare tells Bacon "Near to Castalia there bubbles
also a fountain of petrifying water, wherein the muses are wont to dip
whatever posies have met the approval of Apollo; so that the slender
foliage which originally sprung forth in the cherishing brain of a true
poet becomes hardened in all its leaves and glitters as if it were
carved out of rubies and emeralds. The elements have afterwards no
power over it."

_Bacon_. Such will be the fortune of your own
productions.

_Shakspeare_. Ah my Lord! Do not encourage me to
hope so. I am but a poor unlettered man,
who seizes whatever rude conceits his own
natural vein supplies him with, upon the
enforcement of haste and necessity; and
therefore I fear that such as are of deeper
studies than myself, will find many flaws in
my handiwork to laugh at both now and
hereafter.

_Bacon_. He that can make the multitude laugh and
weep as you do Mr. Shakspeare need not
fear scholars.... More scholarship
might have sharpened your judgment
but the particulars whereof a character is
composed are better assembled by force of
imagination than of judgment....

_Shakspeare_. My Lord thus far I know, that the first
glimpse and conception of a character in
my mind, is always engendered by chance
and accident. We shall suppose, for instance,
that I, sitting in a tap-room, or
standing in a tennis court. The behaviour
of some one fixes my attention.... Thus
comes forth Shallow, and Slender,
and Mercutio, and Sir Andrew Aguecheek.

_Bacon_. These are characters who may be found alive
in the streets. But how frame you such
interlocutors as Brutus and Coriolanus?

_Shakspeare_. By searching histories, in the first place,
my Lord, for the germ. The filling up
afterwards comes rather from feeling than
observation. I turn myself into a Brutus
or a Coriolanus for the time; and can, at
least in fancy, partake sufficiently of the
nobleness of their nature, to put proper
words in their mouths....
My knowledge of the tongues is but small,
on which account I have read ancient
authors mostly at secondhand. I remember,
when I first came to London, and
began to be a hanger-on at the theatres, a
great desire grew in me for more learning
than had fallen to my share at Stratford;
but fickleness and impatience, and the
bewilderment caused by new objects, dispersed
that wish into empty air....

This ridiculous and most absurd nonsense, which appeared in 1818 in
_Blackwood's Edinburgh Magazine_ was deemed so excellent and so
_instructive_ that (slightly abridged) it was copied into "Reading
lessons for the use of public and private schools" by John Pierpont, of
Boston, U.S.A., which was published in London nearly twenty years later,
viz., in 1837.

As I said before, the dialogue is really all topsy turvydom, for the
writer must have known perfectly well that Bacon was not Lord Keeper
till 1617, the year after Shakspeare's death in 1616, and was not made
Lord Chancellor till 1618, and that he is not supposed to have began to
write the "Novum Organum" before the death of Queen Elizabeth.

I have therefore arrived at the conclusion that the whole article was
really intended to poke fun at the generally received notion that the
author of the plays was an _un_lettered man, who picked up his knowledge
at tavern doors and in taprooms and tennis courts. I would specially
refer to the passage where Bacon asks "How frame you such interlocutors
as Brutus and Coriolanus?" and Shakspeare replies "By searching
histories, in the first place, my Lord, for the germ. The filling up
afterwards comes rather from feeling than observation. I turn myself
into a Brutus or a Coriolanus for the time and can at least in fancy
partake sufficiently of the nobleness of their nature to put proper
words in their mouths."

Surely this also must have been penned to open the eyes of the public to
the absurdity of the popular conception of the author of the plays as an
_un_lettered man who "had small Latin and less Greek"!

The highest scholarship not only in this country and in Germany but
throughout the world has been for many years concentrated upon the
classical characters portrayed in the plays, and the adverse criticism
of former days has given place to a reverential admiration for the
marvellous knowledge of antiquity displayed throughout the plays in the
presentation of the historical characters of bygone times; classical
authority being found for nearly every word put into their mouths.

What does it matter whether the immortal works were written by
Shakspeare (of Stratford) or by a great and learned man who assumed the
name Shakespeare to "Shake a lance at Ignorance"? We should not forget
that this phrase "Shake a lance at Ignorance" is contemporary, appearing
in Ben Jonson's panegyric in the Shakespeare folio of 1623.

CHAPTER II.

The Shackspere Monument, Bust, and Portrait.

In the year 1909 Mr. George Hookham in the January number of the
_National Review_ sums up practically all that is really known of the
life of William Shakspeare of Stratford as follows:--

'We only know that he was born at Stratford, of illiterate parents--
(we do _not_ know that he went to school there)--that, when 18-1/2
years old, he married Anne Hathaway (who was eight years his senior,
and who bore him a child six months after marriage); that he had
in all three children by her (whom with their mother he left, and
went to London, having apparently done his best to desert her before
marriage);--that in London he became an actor with an interest in a
theatre, and was reputed to be the writer of plays;--that he
purchased property in Stratford, to which town he returned;--engaged
in purchases and sales and law-suits (of no biographical interest
except as indicating his money-making and litigious temperament);
helped his father in an application for coat armour (to be obtained
by false pretences); promoted the enclosure of common lands at
Stratford (after being guaranteed against personal loss); made his
will--and died at the age of 52, without a book in his possession,
and leaving nothing to his wife but his second best bed, and this
by an afterthought. No record of friendship with anyone more
cultured than his fellow actors.

No letter,--only two contemporary reports of his conversation, one
with regard to the commons enclosure as above, and the other in
circumstances not to be recited unnecessarily.

In a word we know his parentage, birth, marriage, fatherhood,
occupation, his wealth and his chief ambition, his will and his
death, and absolutely nothing else; his death being received with
unbroken and ominous silence by the literary world, not even Ben
Jonson who seven years later glorified the plays _in excelsis_,
expending so much as a quatrain on his memory.'

[Illustration: Plate III. The Stratford Monument,
From Dugdale's Warwickshire, 1656.]

[Illustration: Plate IV. The Stratford Monument as it appears
at the present time.]

To this statement by Mr. George Hookham I would add that we know W.
Shakspeare was christened 26th April 1564, that his Will which commences
"In the name of god Amen! I Willim Shackspeare, of Stratford upon Avon,
in the countie of warr gent in perfect health and memorie, god be
praysed," was dated 25th (January altered to) March 1616, and it was
proved 22nd June 1616, Shakspeare having died 23rd April 1616, four
weeks after the date of the Will.

We also know that a monument was erected to him in Stratford Church. And
because L. Digges, in his lines in the Shakespeare folio of 1623 says
"When Time dissolves thy Stratford Moniment,"[1] it is supposed that the
monument must have been put up before 1623. But we should remember that
as Mrs. Stopes (who is by no means a Baconian) pointed out in the
_Monthly Review_ of April 1904, the original monument was not like the
present monument which shews a man with a pen in his hand; but was the
very different monument which will be found depicted in Sir William
Dugdale's "Antiquities of Warwickshire," published in 1656. The bust
taken from this is shewn on Plate 5, Page 14, and the whole monument on
Plate 3, Page 8.

[Illustration: Plate V. The Stratford Bust, from Dugdale's Warwickshire.
Published 1656.]

The figure bears no resemblance to the usually accepted likeness of
Shakspeare. It hugs a sack of wool, or a pocket of hops to its belly and
does not hold a pen in its hand.

In Plate 6, Page 15, is shewn the bust from the monument as it exists
at the present time, with the great pen in the right hand and a
sheet of paper under the left hand. The whole monument is shewn on
Plate 4, Page 9.

[Illustration: Plate VI. The Stratford Bust as it appears at the
present time.]

The face seems copied from the mask of the so-called portrait in the
1623 folio, which is shewn in Plate 8.

[Illustration: Plate VIII. Full size Facsimile of part of the Title Page
of the 1623 Shakespeare folio]

It is desirable to look at that picture very carefully, because every
student ought to know that the portrait in the title-page of the first
folio edition of the plays published in 1623, which was drawn by Martin
Droeshout, is cunningly composed of two left arms and a mask. Martin
Droeshout, its designer, was, as Mr. Sidney Lee tells us, but 15 years
of age when Shakspeare died. He is not likely therefore ever to have
seen the actor of Stratford, yet this is the "Authentic," that is the
"Authorised" portrait of Shakspeare, although there _is_ no
question--there _can be_ no possible question--that in fact it is a
cunningly drawn cryptographic picture, shewing two left arms and a mask.

Pages:
1 | 2 | 3 | 4 | 5 | 6 | 7 | 8 | 9 | 10 | 11