Part 1

Produced by David Widger.

*BACON AND SHAKSPERE*

_By_

*William Henry Burr*

_PROOF THAT WILLIAM SHAKSPERE COULD NOT WRITE_

_BACON IDENTIFIED AS THE CONCEALED POET IGNOTO_

_1886_

CONTENTS

PROOF THAT SHAKSPERE COULD NOT WRITE NO TRUE LIKENESS OF SHAKSPERE THE SONNETS OF SHAKSPERE BACON IDENTIFIED AS THE CONCEALED POET IGNOTO AS THE CONCEALED POET IGNOTO BACON AND SHAKSPERE A CHRONOGRAPH A CHRONOGRAPHIC PARALLEL

QUEEN ELIZABETH'S "YOUNG LORD KEEPER." FROM BUST.

[3]

PROOF THAT SHAKSPERE COULD NOT WRITE

No handwriting of Shakspere has ever been discovered except five autographs. In March 1613, when he was nearly 49 years old, he signed his name to a mortgage, and again to a deed relative to the same transaction. Three years later he subscribed his name to three briefs or sheets of his will. The five facsimiles are here reproduced:

They are all such signatures as an illiterate person, unaccustomed to write, would be likely to scrawl; and

[4]

they are so different that an acquaintance with one is little help to the recognition of another.

In the first signature he writes Wm. for William.

The second and third autographs have William written above Shakspere. Who but an illiterate person would sign his name thus?

In the last two signatures (being told perhaps that his name ought to be written on one line) he puts William before Shakspere; but the fourth William reads Willin.

See now how differently each letter is formed in the name Shakspere, beginning with the initial:

Did anybody ever write the first letter of his name so differently? After four attempts to form a capital S he succeeds tolerably well the fifth time. The second S, though of singular shape, appears to have been a customary one as early as 1598. (See examples of that year below.) Shakspere's first attempt to form the crooked letter is a failure, but the second passably good. So again in 1616, when he has a different form to copy, his first attempt is futile, the second is passable, and the third quite successful.

But in attempting the next letter he makes it worse every time:

With the letter a he is more successful, making it legible three times out of five:

[5]

But the attempt to form a k is a signal failure:

With the long s he succeeds best the first time, and worst the second and third:

The letter p is legible the first time, but grows worse and worse to the last:

It seems as if in the first attempt to sign his name in 1613 he thought it was complete when he made it end with sp e; but being reminded that it lacked a letter or two he undertook to add one by putting an a over the e thus:

The next time, which was probably the same day,(1) he seems to have written his name Shaksper, though the terminal letters are uncertain:

The third time he gets it more like Shakspoze:

The deed to Shakspere and two other trustees is dated March 10 and signed Henry Walker. The mortgage from Shakspere and the other trustees is dated March 11. But for some unaccountable reason a duplicate verbatim copy of the deed from Henry Walker is signed by William Shakspere. This duplicate is in the Library of the city of London; the mortgage is in the British Museum. The duplicate deed we suspect was signed after the mortgage. Hence the improvement in the autograph; it was probably Shakspere's second attempt to write. Compare it with the third.

[6]

The fourth time he seems to have tried to disguise the termination with awkward flourishes, making the letters totally illegible:

Finally, he omits the flourishes and comes nearer legibility, but still it is impossible to tell whether he meant to write _ear, ere, or eare_:

And now let the reader mark, that notwithstanding the orthodox spelling of the name from 1593 to 1616, and indeed up to the present time, was and is Shakespeare, there is no e in the first syllable and no a in the last, although some have imagined the letter a to exist in the last part of the final autograph.

We have said that these signatures are all that. Shakspere is known to have written; we ought to add that he prefixed to the last one the following scrawl:

For a long time we puzzled over this. Could it be an attempt to write "25th of March," the day of the execution of the will? At last we read the following in Hallowell-Phillipps's Shakspere:

"It may be observed that the words By me, which, the autograph excepted, are the only ones in the poet's handwriting known to exist, appear to have been penned with ordinary firmness."

Presuming that the signatures were made in a sick bed, the author concedes that the words "By me" were penned with ordinary firmness. Very good; but could not almost any five-year-old boy do as well the first time?

[7]

In 1775 certain papers and legal instruments were published, attributed to Shakspere, Queen Elizabeth, and Southampton. In 1796 Edmund Malone proved them to be forgeries. Here is one of the forged autographs of Shakspere:

This is superior to any of the genuine ones, which in some degree it resembles. The letter a is pretty clearly written in the last syllable, as if the forger meant to establish the proper spelling of that part of the name. Malone, who at first pronounced the genuine orthography to be Shakspeare, subsequently declared Shakspere to be the poet's own mode of spelling his name beyond all doubt. But others do not accede to this decision, because they think there is an a in the last of the five genuine signatures.

The solution of the whole mystery is in the fact that Shakspere was unable to write or even to spell his own name.

In 1598 Richard Quiney addressed a letter to him asking for a loan of L30, and the name was written Shackesper:

In the same year among thirteen names of holders of corn in Stratford the last but one is Shakesper:

The form of the letter a in both these fac-similes

[8]

was peculiar to that time. It occurs in Shakspere's second autograph. Why did he thus vary the form? Probably because he followed the copy set for him.

Note now the various spellings of his name:

In 1582, as a bridegroom, Shagsper.

In 1593 and 1594, as a poet, Shakespeare; and the same uniformly as a playwright from 1598 to 1623. but sometimes with a hyphen--Shake-speare.

In 1596, as an inhabitant of Southwark, Shaksper.

In 1598, as addressed by letter, Shackesper.

In 1598, as owner of corn, Shakesper.

In 1604, as plaintiff in a suit, Shexpere.

In 1604 and 1605, as author of plays performed at Whitehall before King James, Shaxberd.

In 1609, as plaintiff in a suit, Shackspeare.

In 1612, as plaintiff in a suit, Schackspeare.

In 1614, as written by his cousin, Shakspear.

In 1616, as twice written in his will, Shackspeare; but in signing the same three times he omits the c in the first syllable, and it is impossible to tell what the last three or four letters are. And although in the two Deeds of 1613 the name is written repeatedly Shakespeare, in signing them he omits the e in the first syllable both times, and varies the termination of the name, just as an illiterate person would be likely to do.

But there are more of these various spellings. All the records of Shakspere's lifetime have been hunted up and printed. From these documents, consisting of deeds, bills of complaint, letters, poems, plays, etc.,-- most of which especially concerned either the father or son or both--we extract the following spellings, giving; the dates:

[9]

Shakspere 1558, '62, '63, '64, '66, '69, '71, '79, 80, '83, '85, '90, '96, 1616, '17. (John Shakspere and all his offspring so registered, except Richard Shaks peer, baptized 1574.)

Shaxpere 1558, '79, 1607, '08.

Shakspeyr 1567, ("Mr.," meaning John.)

Shakysper 1568, ("Mr. John.")

Shackespere 1573, '89, 1602.

Shakespere 1575, '79, '96, '97, '98, '99,1602, '04, '06, '08, '09, '10, '11, '13.

Shackspere 1579, (Deed. "Joannis Shaxpere -j-.") 1608.

Shagsper 1582, (Marriage bond--twice so written.)

Shake-scene 1592, (Greene, the playwright, in derision.)

Shakespeare 1593-1594, (Poems,) 1596, '98, 1603, '05, '13, (and all Plays from 1598 to 1623.)

Shaksper 1596, '98, 1613, (Signature,) 1616.

Shakesper 1598, (Owner of corn.)

Shackesper 1598, (Letter from Quiney to Shakspere.)

Shakspeare 1601, '03, '07, '12, '13, '14, 1623.

Shackespeare 1603, '14, (Agreement.)

Shexpere 1604, (Suit for mult sold.)

Shaxberd 1604, '05, (Dramatist, Whitehall.)

Shakespear 1605, (Conveyance.)

Shakesphear 1605, (Same conveyance.)

Shackspeare 1608, '12, '14, '16.

Scliackspeare 1612, '14, (Complaint and agreement.) Shaksp; 1613, (Signature.)

Shakspear 1614, (Cousin's letter.)

Shaksp.... 1616, (Signatures to Will.)

Shaxper 1616, ("Bell and pall for Mr. Shaxpers dawghter, viii. d.")

If we divide the name between the s and p we have the following variations of each part:

Shaks, Shakes, Shakys, Shacks, Shackes, Schacks, Shags, Shax, Shex; per, pere, peer, pear, peare, peyr, phear, berd, pj, p ....

Shakspere's daughter Judith in 1611 witnessed two instruments by making her mark. And his other

[10]

daughter Susanna in 1642 disputed the unmistakable handwriting of her deceased husband in such a manner as to betray her illiteracy.

Mr. C. F. Gunther, of Chicago, claims to have obtained a copy of the Shakspere Folio of 1632, (i.e., the second Folio,) containing the author's autograph pasted on a fly-leaf, underneath which is written:

"The works of William Shakespeare. Born in April, 1564, and died in April, 1616. John Ward."

And on the same fly-leaf is pasted a letter from Charles Godwin, of Bath, dated February 16, 1839, to Dr. Charles Severn, of London, who was then editing "The Diary of the Rev. John Ward, A. M.," Vicar of Stratford-upon-Avon from 1648 to 1679.

The book is said to have been owned by a Mormon, and is supposed to have been brought from England by an emigrant to Utah. Aside from the impossibility of such an autograph escaping from England to the wilds of America and remaining undiscovered so many years, the fac-simile in the Chicago _Current_ of May 23, 1885, betrays most certain evidence of fraud. Compare it with the five genuine scrawls of Shakspere. It is so exact a copy of the last signature to the will as to indicate that it was traced therefrom.

Shakspere's last signature:

Pretended autograph in Chicago:

[11]

This close resemblance in so clumsy an autograph would be extraordinary, if not impossible; but how easy to forge it by first tracing it lightly with a pencil and then completing it with a pen. Here is a hair-line tracing of the spurious over the genuine autograph:

Even the most illiterate man who is obliged often to sign his name, will do it uniformly, so that when you have seen his signature once you will know it again. For example, take the following autographs:

The undersigned, aged 78 years, wrote the above autographs in presence of the two subscribing witnesses. And he never wrote and cannot write anything but his name, though he can read print with ease. And he further says that he learned to write his name in the course of one month in the administration of President Polk (1845-'9) while serving as a Capitol policeman; otherwise he would have been obliged to sign the pay-roll with his cross.

Witness:

A. Watson, JOHN W. SMITH.

Wm. Henry Burr.

Bacon required a mask, and he found it in the illiterate play-actor Shakspere.

Washington, D. C., May 31, 1885.

[12]

NO TRUE LIKENESS OF SHAKSPERE

The likeness of Shakspere in the Folio of 1623 has frequently been called "an abominable libel on humanity." And yet its fidelity is certified by Ben Jonson in laudatory lines. Jonson was Bacon's friend and enthusiastic admirer. If there was an original portrait of that wooden face it has never been found. If there was a better likeness of Shakspere in existence why was it not reproduced in that famous Folio? The same ugly engraving reappeared in all the later editions up tu 1685.

The bust on the monument at Stratford was first noticed in 1623. It was not taken from life, and is unlike any picture of Shakspere. It presents him in the act of composition, and "the _vis comica_", says Boaden, "so broadens his countenance, that it is hardly a stretch of fancy to suppose him in the actual creation of Falstaff himself." More likely, we should say, Falltaff was Shakspere--Fall-staff, Shake-spear.

The most familiar pictures of Shakspere are very different from either of these, and generally far more intellectual and refined. They are pretended copies of what is called the Chandos portrait, but are not much like it. The Chandos picture was painted by an unknown artist, and has been altered by a later hand. It is said to have been owned by Sir William Davenant, who died in 1668; and he is said to have obtained it from an actor named Joseph Taylor, who died about 1653 at the age of 70. This we gather from Boaden's "Portraits of Shakspere," 1824. But now comes a further statement purporting to be written in Mr. Gunther's Folio, by one Charles Lomax,, in 1781, as follows:

"The only original picture now extant of Shakespeare was painted by Joseph Taylor, one of the actors," &c.

The rest of the pretended information agrees with what we find in Boaden's book, which has a picture taken from the Chandos portrait quite different from those we generally see, and not much like the Droeshout engraving in the Shakspere Folio.

Shakspere probably never had a portrait taken.

[13]

THE SONNETS OF SHAKSPERE

WRITTEN BY FRANCIS BACON TO THE EARL OF ESSEX AND HIS BRIDE, A. D. 1590

"The mystery of the Sonnets will never be unfolded." --Richard Grant White, 1865.

"All is supposition; the mystery is insoluble." --Dr. Charles Mackay, 1884.

The mystery unfolded by W. H. Burr, July 31, 1883.

The first published poem of Shakspere, so far as known, was "Venus and Adonis," in 1593. It was dedicated to the Earl of Southampton, then about twenty years of age. Five or six editions were called for in nine years. The "Sonnets" did not appear till 1609. The latter poem has 154 stanzas of 14 lines each; the first 126 are addressed to a beautiful and ardently beloved youth; the remainder to the young man's betrothed.

As to the merits of the composition, the American Cyclopedia says:

"These 'Sonnets,' though deformed with occasional conceits, far surpass all other poems of their kind in our own language, or perhaps any other."

The dedication is in these words:

"To the onlie begetter of | these insuing Sonnets | Mr. W. H. all happinesse | and that eternitie | promised by | our everliving poet | wisheth | the well-wishing | adventurer in | setting forth | T. T."

[14]

Some have believed that "Mr. W. H." was William Herbert; and a German critic supposes the initials to signify "William Himself." But the American Cyclopedia says:

"To whom they were written, and in whose person is among the most difficult of unsolved literary problems.... Who this 'onlie begetter' was no man has yet been able satisfactorily to show."(1)

(1) Dr. Charles Mackay attempts to solve the problem in an elaborate article in the Nineteenth Century, August, 1884, entitled "A Tangled Skein Unravelled." He claims only to have found indications of mixed authorship. But this only makes the tangle worse, which began with Shakspere's ostensible authorship; and the last despairing words of the astute un-raveller are: "All is supposition, the mystery is insoluble."

In regard to the hypothesis that "W. H." was William Herbert, the same authority says there is almost as much ground for the notion that the person addressed was Queen Elizabeth in doublet and hose.

In 1872 we first read Nathaniel Holmes's "Authorship of Shakspere;" since then we have never entertained a reasonable doubt that Bacon was the author of the Plays. In 1882 we reread them all in the light of that discovery; but until July 31, 1883, we had never read a page of the "Sonnets," nor when we began to read them on that day did we remember to have heard who "W. H." was supposed to be. But coming to the twenty-fifth sonnet, we suspected that the poem was addressed to the Earl of Essex, and subsequent research confirmed that suspicion.

Herbert was sixteen years younger than Shakspere, and nineteen years younger than Bacon. If, therefore, the poem was written in 1590, which we purpose to show, it is impossible for Herbert to have been the

[15]

"onlie begetter of these Sonnets," for he was then only ten years old.

Of course no one will date their composition as late as 1609, when Shakspere was forty-five and Bacon forty-eight. At that time the former had retired from the stage, and Bacon had been for six years King's counsel and three years a married man. And certainly two sonnets (138 and 144) were composed as early as 1599, for they are repeated at the beginning of "The Passionate Pilgrim," which was first published in that year.

All the internal and external evidence points to the year 1590 as the date, Francis Bacon as the writer, and the Earl of Essex as the person addressed.

It is said that Bacon made the acquaintance of Essex about 1590, but it would be remarkable if he did not know him years before. In sonnet 104 the poet says:

"Three winters cold Have from the forests shook three summers' pride, Three beauteous springs to yellow autumn turned In process of the seasons have I seen, Three April perfumes in three hot Junes burned, Since first I saw you fresh, which yet are green."

Let us suppose that Bacon began to cultivate the Earl's friendship in 1590. He was then twenty-two years old; three years earlier, when Bacon first saw him, the Earl was "fresh now he is yet green."(1)

1. A letter from Bacon to the Earl of Leicester, asking for his furtherance in some suit which the Earl of Essex had moved in his behalf, has recently been found, written in 1588. (Sped-ding's "Bacon," 1878, i, 50, note.)

Robert Devereux, the second Earl of Essex, was born Nov. 10, 1567, and was beheaded for treason

[16]

Feb. 25, 1601. He succeeded to the title at ten years of age. At twenty he was appointed master of the horse. At twenty-one the Queen created him captain-general of the cavalry, and conferred on him the honor of the garter. In the same year an expedition was undertaken against Portugal, and he secretly followed the armament. This was without the Queen's permission, but he was quickly reconciled with her after his return, and at once assumed a superiority over Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Charles Blount, rival competitors for royal favor. He was challenged by Blount and wounded in the knee, and the Queen is said to have expressed her gratification that some one had taken him down, as otherwise there would be no ruling him. He was an accomplished scholar and patron of literature. He erected a monument to Spenser and gave an estate to Bacon.

But we have omitted one striking characteristic which has an important bearing on the question of his identity with "Mr. W. H." The young Earl of Essex was a remarkably handsome man. Now the beauty of the person addressed in the "Sonnets" is a constantly recurring theme, and the burden of the poem is an appeal to the beloved and beautiful young man to marry. It begins thus:

"From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die."

The next Sonnet begins:

"When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's field, Thy youth's proud livery, so gazed on now, Will be a tattered weed of small worth held."

The last line of Sonnet 13 reads:

"You had a father; let your son say so."

[17]

The father of Essex died in 1576. In 1590 the second Earl married the widow of Sir Philip Sidney, Essex being twenty-two years old and she a little younger. The marriage was secret to avoid the opposition of Elizabeth. By October, concealment was no longer possible, and on the 22d of January, 1591, (not 1592 as some have it,) the first child was born. ("Earls of Essex," 1853.)

The mother of Essex was celebrated for her beauty; his father was not handsome. (See portrait in "Earls of Essex.") The son's inheritance of his mother's features is told in the third Sonnet:

"Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime; So thou through windows of thine age shalt see, Despite of wrinkles, this thy golden time."

For further description of the young Earl's beauty, take the following:

"If I could write the beauty of your eyes, And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say, 'This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces."

"Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit Is poorly imitated after you; On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set, And you in Grecian 'tires are painted new."

Essex having become the special favorite of the Queen, of course became an object of envy and slander. Mark now what the poet says:

"Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won; Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed."

"That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, For slander's mark was ever yet the fair; The ornament of beauty is suspect, A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air.

[18]

So be thou good-; slander doth but approve Thy worth the greater, being wooed of time."

In 1590 Bacon had acquired a reputation as an orator in the House of Commons, but was without available means of livelihood in keeping with his wants and station. Up to this time his efforts for promotion were thwarted by the Queen's minister, Lord Burleigh (Cecil) who regarded him as a dangerous rival for his son. With the rise of young Essex into royal favor Bacon turned to him as a friend at court. From 1590 to 1594 the Earl tried in vain to advance Bacon, and at last, when the vacant office of Attorney General was filled by another, Essex, blaming himself for the disappointment, insisted on presenting him with an estate worth L1,800.

With these facts in mind, see how perfectly the following lines fit the persons and the time, 1590:

"Let those who are in favor with their stars, Of public honor and proud titles boast, Whilst I, whom fortune of such triumph bars, Unlooked for joy in that I honor most."

"When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, I all alone beweep my outcast state, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, And look upon myself and curse my fate, Wishing me like to one more rich in hope.

Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, Desiring this man's art and that man's scope, With what I most enjoy contented least; Yet in these thoughts myself almost despising, Haply I think on thee, and then my state, Like to the lark at break of day arising, From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate; For thy sweet love remembered such wealth brings it then I scorn to change my state with kings."

"I may not evermore acknowledge thee, Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame, Nor thou with public kindness honor me, Unless thou take that honor from thy name; But do not so; I love thee in such sort As, thou being mine, mine is thy good report.

"As a decrepit father takes delight To see his active child do deeds of youth, So I, made lame by fortune's dearest spite, Take all my comfort of thy worth and truth. For whether beauty, birth, or wealth, or wit, Or any of these all, or all, or more, Entitled in my parts do crowned sit, I make my love engrafted to this store.