Is there any resemblance between Shakespeare and Bacon?

Front matter

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I fr.

UNITED STATES OF AMERICA.

Chapter I. Page

Bacon's pride in his writings, and their competency as testimony — General ignorance concerning him and his works — His 104th Psalm — His biographers' opinions of his attempts at versification — His manuscript— The cipher— The churlish priest, . . 9

Chapter II

Repugnance to the Baconites' claim— Queen Elizabeth's estimate of Bacon — His doubt of the permanency of the English language — His quotations — His opinion of stage acting — His Essay on Masques and Triumphs — Ben Jonson's description of Shakespeare's strolling company, 26

Chapter III

The stage as a symbol— Shakespeare— Bacon— Bacon's Notes on Conversation — Bacon's apparatus of rhetoric — The epitaph — Bacon's tomb— Bacon as an inquisitor — The quality of mercy— Earl of Southampton— Bacon's grants of patents to monopolies— Macaulay's estimate of Bacon's character— His servility to Buckingham— His pamphlet in favor of religious war— His falsification of history— Fairness of authorities quoted, 45

Chapter IV

Bacon as a " soaring angel "—Advice to the person who has incurred the displeasure of his prince— Thrift that follows fawning — Extracts from various essays— Essay on the True Greatness of Kingdoms— His attitude toward the civilization

of his time, 67

(iii)

IV CONTENTS.

Chapter V. Page

Bacon's interpretation of "A just man is merciful to his beast," etc. — His Essay on Deformity — His interpretation of another proverb — His habit of generalization— His Essay on Friendship — Mode of treatment for the human mind — His Essay on Love— His corpuscular study of Cupid, SO

Chapter VI

The New Atlantis— Bacon's sketch of Queen Elizabeth — His censure of fictions of the imagination — His resolve to publish all his writings — Time occupied in writing the plays — The Sonnets — Cause of Queen Elizabeth's dislike of Bacon — His debts, 101

Chapter VII

Court favorites as patrons of the stage — Shakespeare's industry — Bacon's manuscript — Bacon's experiment with the fowl — Bacon's whereabouts when the plays were collected — Heminge and Condell— Globe Theatre— Adverse criticism upon Shakespeare — The classics — Bacon and the poem of Lucrece — Bacon's marriage — The Promus, ; 126

. CHAPTER VIII.

What is known of Shakespeare during his life — Bacon's books and handwriting— His debts and enmities— His secretary — Cecil's letter to Bacon— Impossibility of writing in concealment—Shakespeare's independence of character— The play of Richard II.— Puritanical hostility to the theatre— Shakespeare's fortune, 150

Chapter IX

The record of Shakespeare's connection with the theatre and the plays performed before the court— Ben Jonson's sketch of Shakespeare— The court's protection of the players and slight esteem for Bacon's writings— Entry of King James into London,

PKBFAOE.

The following pages are not written with the expectation o'f affecting the attitude of those who, from some unexplained animus, desire to dethrone Shakespeare and to enthrone Bacon ; neither are they expected to interest (although I hope they may) those who think this subject undeserving of serious thought. There is, however, a very large number whose doubts have been awakened, and who are honestly interested, to whom much in the nature of ordinary information that directly concerns this inquiry may not be easily accessible, and to those I trust the matter that I have collected and the conclusions I have drawn may be acceptable.

I have sought to present such points as appeal to reason and common sense, and have not elaborated them as might easily be done, as the facts in themselves are convincing to my judgment, and seem to need very little in the shape of argument to emphasize their force. I have quoted Bacon and his biographers very freely in order to show that in every quality he was the opposite of Shakespeare ; that he never did anything except for profit or fame, and would not have bestowed any production upon the world without recognition or reward.

VI PEEFACE.

I have sought to show that he had neither the mind to form the language, the fancy to create the sentiment, the heart to feel the truth and beauty, nor the generosity to deny himself the authorship of such productions as the Shakespeare plays, and that absolutely no ground existed for concealment of poetic genius that would have aided his ambition : that he distrusted the permanency of the English language, disparaged the stage, condemned as wasted the time spent on fiction and works of the imagination, spoke contemptuously of love, and sneered at lovers. •

I have quoted some of the verse that Bacon positively did write, and have shown that for over forty years of his life (before Shakespeare's appearance and after his death) Bacon never wrote anything in the nature of poetry except the versification of a half dozen psalms, which his historians speak of as "flat effects," a bad lines," "ridiculous failures," and "low order," and which his present champions studiously ignore.

I have referred to Bacon's antagonistic attitude toward the play of Eichard II., but I have hardly given full importance to the fact of Shakespeare's activity at that time, as the records show that there was no cessation in the production of the plays. In the year (1601) of the Essex trials and executions, in which Bacon was so prominent, he also wrote, and rewrote under the exacting critical revision of the queen, a jus-

PREFACE. Vll

tification of her course. It was submitted to her ministers, and received the most careful examination and scrutiny before she would allow it to be issued. In that year Hamlet and AlFs Well that Ends Well were produced, much other writing and publishing done, and Shakespeare's company were travelling in Scotland part of the year.

It is impossible for me to imagine Bacon indulging in such absorbing dramatic recreation at such a time and under these circumstances ; yet the more marvellous his performances are supposed to be, the better they fulfill the expectations of those who have no belief in Shakespeare's genius.

In the Essex trials, where the play of Richard II. was a part of the indictment (probably drawn by Bacon), I have shown that Bacon, if he had written the play, could not have appeared as prosecutor without, at least, a guarantee of Shakespeare's silence (page 166). I might have inserted there, as a singularly pertinent answer to such a supposition, a verse from As You Like It, written about that time, which reads as though suggested by an aversion to the part that Bacon was acting :

As benefits forgot : Though thou the waters warp, Thy sting is not so sharp

As friend remember'd not.

Vlll . PREFACE.

In the life-time of these two men, one, by the " sweetness of his nature " and his " uprightness of dealing," won the love of his friends and fellows, while the other, by his "coldness of heart and meanness of spirit," drew upon • himself universal contempt and hatred. Now, after three centuries, a number of people appear who seem to delight in defaming the former and lauding the latter. They invent situations, invest historical characters with prejudices contrary to the facts, and one of them has quite outstripped all the others by constructing an arithmetical vagary, crazy enough to set bedlam in ecstasy, in order to show Bacon's genius and inclination to have been what every fact in his life naturally and logically disproves. They betray a marked neglect of simple inconsistencies and the tests of ordinary probability. According to the usual mode of reasoning, until these are examined the argument cannot properly advance to the consideration of mechanical impossibilities born of mental idiosyncrasy, of imaginary hidden meanings and aimless mysterious motives. But by whatever extraordinary devices they strive to influence opinion, in so far as their efforts invite a study of Bacon the friends of Shakespeare should wish them all success, for in that the most effective refutation of the Baconites' claims will be found.

Philadelphia, starch, 1888.

Chapter I

Bacon's pride in his writings, and their competency as testimony — General ignorance concerning him and his works — His 104th Psalm — His biographers' opinions of his attempts at versification — His manuscript — The cipher — The churlish priest.

If Lord Bacon could have foreseen that a dispute would arise at some future time concerning him, and especially as an author, he would have been perfectly satisfied to have his writings speak for him, for no one ever dwelt with more satisfaction than he on one's own literary productions.

His writings are pervaded with a tone of selfsatisfaction, or even felicitation, that betrays his belief that they shall be an enduring monument to his greatness of mind and his work ; indeed, he admits this to be his ambition.

His introduction to one of his works has this heading:

"Francis of Verulam's

GREAT INSTAURATION.

ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE AUTHOR.

" Francis of Yerulam thought thus, and such is the method which he determined within himself, and which he thought it concerned the living and posterity to know."

He nowhere conceals his concern as to the place ne shall occupy in history, or his anxiety as to how postered

10 IS THEKE ANY BESEMBLAXCE

ity shall judge him, and to secure for himself the fame that he so earnestly desired he spent untold time and labor upon the works that have been issued in his name. His Xovuni Organum was revised and copied twelve times before he gave it to the public, and he is said to have had it under reflection for forty years.

Some idea may be formed of the value he placed upon his works and his solicitude for their preservation from the following paragraph, written by Joseph Devey, M.A., in his introduction to Bacon's works : " The fate of Chaucer haunted him. He thought that modern languages would play the bankrupt with books ; and if he did not enshrine his thoughts in a dead language, his name would never travel abroad, and would positively die out among his own countrymen in the next generation. With the assistance of Herbert, Playfair, and some add Ben Jonson, he gave his new treatise, together with his essays and many of his minor pieces, a Latin dress ; but on contrasting those works with the Xovum Organum, originally written by him in Latin, it does not appear that he was much indebted to the attainments of his translators."

Macaulay says of him, " In his will he expressed with singular brevity, energy and pathos a mournful consciousness that his actions had not been such as to entitle him to the esteem of those under whose observation his life had been passed, and at the same time a proud confidence that his writings had secured for him a high and permanent place among the benefactors of mankind."

The high estimate that he placed upon his writings and the care with which he prepared them make them most competent testimony for him in a matter of literary comparison. They go further than that. They define his character, taste and opinions with such emphasis, repetition and uniformity as to mark his attitude distinctly toward every phase of the Shakespeare controversy.

What " Francis of Verulam thought " (and what it now seems to "concern posterity to know") of the stage , of fiction and of works of imagination is expressed in so pronounced a manner in his writings as to leave no doubt as to his judgment upon this pertinent point of the present inquiry.

The fame that admirers of Bacon are trying to secure for him is not only very different from, but quite opposite to, the kind of reputation that he tried to establish for himself; and if many of the people who allow themselves to doubt Shakespeare's authorship, because " so little is known of him," will examine their own knowledge, they will discover, I think, that they know fully as much about him as about Bacon.

Bacon's fame rests chiefly upon what somebody else knows of him. His books have been relegated to remote places in libraries, and the general idea of what they contain is largely supposition. He is supposed to have written a large number of moral essays, and to have discovered a new system of physics, both of which ideas are only partly true. His scientific work contains grave and fundamental errors. King James, to whom it was dedicated, said of it, " It is like the peace of God, that passeth understanding ;" and it is not going too far to say that some of his essays are contemptible. In support of which assertion I will produce a number in the course of this article.

Hume says of him, " Most of his performances were composed in Latin ; though he possessed neither the elegance of that nor his native tongue. If we consider him merely as an author and philosopher, the light in which we view him at present, though very estimable, he was yet inferior to his contemporary Galilseo, perhaps even to Kepler. Bacon pointed out at a distance the road to true philosophy ; Galilaeo pointed it out to others, and made, himself, considerable advances in it. The Englishman was ignorant of geometry ; the Florentine revived that science, excelled in it, and was the first that applied it, together with experiment, to natural philosophy. The former rejected, with the most positive disdain, the system of Copernicus; the latter fortified it with new proofs, derived both from reason and the senses. Bacon's style is stiff and rigid. His wit, though often brilliant, is also often unnatural and far fetched, and he seems to be the original of those pointed similes and long- spun allegories which so much distinguish the English authors."

His reputation exists now upon a preconceived idea of his mind, taste and character. He retains an erroneous place in the estimation of the public generally from being so little read. This is the case to that extent that one finds numbers of people who readily admit that they know little or nothing of him themselves, that they have not read his books ; yet they are willing to admit the probability of his having written

Shakespeare's marvellous works, simply from a vague impression of the universal nature of his acquirements.

I have thought that perhaps this easy admission of what seems to me to be without a single fact or probability to support it might be owing to a belief that the voluminous character of his writings makes it difficult to decide, without great labor, as to his poetic and dramatic talent. This is certainly an error. His metaphysical and legal works are entirely irrelevant to this subject except as showing the nature of the study to which he devoted himself. His speculative works are not at all bulky, and are too positive to permit more than one interpretation of his attitude toward the stage and the drama. His faith in himself is too firm to allow any doubts to enter his mind in regard to the subjects which concern this inquiry ; consequently his opinions are expressed in a manner not easily misunderstood. To discover what manner of man he was does not require much speculation, analysis or sharpness of intellect; for one can judge, with far greater confidence, the probabilities and possibilities of a nature that is fixed, dogmatic and matter-of-fact than of a tolerant, imaginative and subtle mind and disposition. Also in addition to his own writings we have the opinions of his historians, who are critics very partial to him ; and history furnishes facts in his political career that have an important bearing upon his relation to the plays.

Bacon never wrote any poetry ; at least he published none ; and this suggests some pertinent inquiries. For instance, granting him Shakespeare's genius, why should he confine himself to writing plays ? It is quite natural that Shakespeare should do so, for he was au actor and the stage was his profession and livelihood. Bacon had no such interest. If a prejudice existed against play writing, there was certainly none against such verses as those of Spenser, Sydney, Raleigh, Milton and a hundred others. Yet there is nowhere as much as a stray fragment of such poetry among his manuscripts. The theory of his champions supposes that he never wrote the things which he might safely acknowledge, but that he schemed and labored exclusively to produce only such works as would jeopard his reputation and position. It cannot be conceived that he would have felt no pride in his art, or that he would not have been recognized by the poets of his time, or that he would not have contributed largely to the verse of that age had he possessed such talent ; and it cannot be believed that he would have devoted such genius to any one field to the total exclusion of everything else, especially to a calling that he considered " corrupt and disreputable," and which could bring him little if any profit, and might do him much mischief, if his friends' views are correct. It is frequently urged by Shakespeare's friends that he could not have secured and maintained the respect and love of his fellows and patrons if he had not been capable of writing the plays which he produced. It is fully as pertinent to point out that Bacon could not have concealed such talent from the wits of the age had he possessed it.

Again, why should Bacon's muse expire when Shakespeare left the stage ? He lived fifteen years after that, but there were no more such plays or productions. If

Shakespeare had only been a mask for him, his absence would merely have necessitated another disguise ; and as Ben Jonson outlived Bacon eleven years and was his intimate friend and eulogist, he might have been a most opportune substitute for Shakespeare. Bacon did write some verses, or, at least, he put some psalms into rhyme ; but there is nothing in this feat that contradicts the assertion that he wrote no poetry. I think there are eight of these versifications, and I will copy the 104th Psalm, which is the longest :

" Father and King of powers, both high and low,

Whose sounding fame all creatures serve to blow ;

My soul shall with the rest strike up thy praise,

And carol of thy works and wondrous ways.

But who can blaze thy beauties, Lord, aright ?

They turn the brittle beams of mortal sight.

Upon thy head thou wearest a glorious crown

All set with virtues, polished with renown :

Then round about a silver veil doth fall

Of crystal light, mother of colors all.

The compass heaven, smooth without grain or fold,

All set with spangs of glittering stars untold,

And striped with golden beam of power unpent,

Is raised up for a removing tent.

Vaulted and arched are his chamber beams

Upon the seas, the waters, and the streams : . The clouds as chariots swift do scour the sky ;

The stormy winds upon their wings do fly.

His angels spirits are that wait his will,

As flames of fire his anger they fulfill. '

In the beginning, with mighty hand,

He made the earth by counterpoise to stand,

Never to move, but to be fixed still ;

Yet hath no pillars but his sacred will.

This earth, as with a veil, once covered was,

The waters overflowed all the mass : But upon his rebuke away they fled, And then the hills began to show their head; The vales their hollow bosoms opened plain, The streams ran trembling down the vales again ; ' And that the earth no more might drowned be, He set the sea his bounds of liberty ; And though his waves resound, and beat the shore, Yet it is bridled by his holy lore. Then did the rivers seek their proper places, And found their heads, their issues, and their races ; The springs do feed the rivers all the way, And so the tribute to the sea repay : Running along through many a pleasant field, Much fruitfulness unto the earth they yield ; That know the beasts and cattle feeding by, Which for to slake their thirst do thither hie. Nay desert grounds the streams do not forsake, But through the unknown ways their journeys take : The asses wild that hide in wilderness Do thither come, their thirst for to refresh. The shady trees along their banks do spring In which the birds do build, and sit, and sing; Stroking the gentle air with pleasant notes, Plaining or chirping through their warbling throats. The higher grounds, where waters cannot rise, By rain and dews are watered from the skies ; Causing the earth put forth the grass for beasts, And garden herbs served at the greatest feasts ; And bread, that is all viands' firmament, And gives a firm and solid nourishment; And wine, man's spirits for to recreate ; And oil, his face for to exhilarate. The sappy cedars, tall like stately towers, High-flying birds do harbor in their bowers : The holy storks, that are the travellers, Choose for to dwell and build within the firs ;

The digging conies in the rocks do bide.

The moon, so constant in inconstancy,

Doth rule the seasons orderly ;

The sun, the eye of the world, doth know his race,

And when to show and when to hide his face.

Thou makest darkness that it may be night

When the savage beasts that fly the light

(As conscious of man's hatred) leave their den,

And range abroad secured from sight of men.

Then do the forests ring of lions roaring

That ask their meat of God, their strength restoring;

But when the day appears, they back do fly,

And in their dens again do lurking lie.

The rolling seas unto the lot doth fall

Of beasts innumerable, both great and small.

The fishes there far voyages do make ;

To divers shores their journey they do take.

All these do ask of thee their meat to live

Which in due season thou dost give.

All life and spirit from thy breath proceed,

Thy word doth all things generate and feed ;

If thou withdrawest it, then they cease to be,

And straight return to dust and vanity.

The earth shall quake if aught his wrath provoke;

Let him but touch the mountains, they shall smoke.

As long as life doth last I hymns will sing

With cheerful voice to the eternal King.

I know that he my words will not despise,

Thanksgiving is to him a sacrifice.

But as for sinners, they shall be destroyed

From off the earth; their places shall be void.

Let all his works praise him with one accord ;

Oh, praise the Lord, my soul ; praise ye the Lord !"

These rhymes were not written in Bacon's youth, but two years before his death, and eight years after Shake- 2 speare died. He dedicated them to his friend Herbert, and published them. They are of particular importance as evidence of his talent for versification on account of being written so late in his life. They were published about the time that Heminge and Condell were publishing the folio edition of 1623, under difficulties so well known, when the real author of the plays could have rendered such inestimable service. The plays had then been in existence many years, some at least thirty, none less than twelve ; the sonnets thirty years, and Lucrece nearly as long. Therefore, to believe Bacon the author of the plays is to suppose, not that he was an unskilled versifier when he wrote the psalms, but that the author of these rhymes was the ripe and unequalled poet, the veteran who had already given Shakespeare's works to the world.

Spedding of Trinity College is one of Bacon's most partial historians, and it is interesting to know what he, as one of Bacon's friendliest critics, thinks of his ability in this department of literature : — " The translation of certain psalms into English verse are the only verses certainly of Bacon's making that have come down to us, and probably with one or two exceptions are the only verses he ever attempted." This historian goes on then to say that he has " watched Bacon's progress in versification," and that the " effect of the two first experiments is flat enough," but as he advances, " although there is an inevitable loss of lyric fire and force, this is compensated by the development of meanings," etc. Again he says : " In compositions upon which a man would have thought it a culpable waste of time to bestow any serious labor, it would be idle to seek either for indications of his taste or for a measure of his powers."

And again : " Of these verses of Bacon's it has been usual to speak not only as a failure, but as a ridiculous failure : a censure in which I cannot concur. An unpracticed versifier, who will not take time and trouble about the work, must of coarse leave many bad verses ; for poetic feeling and imagination, though they will dislike a wrong word, will not of themselves suggest a right one that will suit metre and rhyme ; and it would be easy to quote from the few pages, not only many bad lines, but many poor stanzas."

I have copied what Bacon's historians say of his half dozen attempts at versification, because I wish to draw attention to the fact that the men who had such abundant opportunity to discover the nature of his life's work speak of his few experiments in rhyme at the age of sixty — upwards — as a new form of mental activity. These men had made it the business of many years to learn everything concerning Bacon's life. They had searched every place and studied every piece of writing to discover and preserve any and everything that could throw light upon his character and genius; and yet there is no hint of a suspicion that any rumor or report had ever reached them that he might be Shakespeare in disguise. If they overlooked anything that could establish Bacon's right to Shakespeare's genius, then what they missed was infinitely more than that which they found.

A singular feature in this discussion is that Bacon's biographers, who had access to his manuscripts, memorandums, letters, and the private recesses of his library, are not among those who connect him with Shakespeare. This is because the claim is not made upon evidence, but is simply a belief in Bacon founded upon a disbelief in Shakespeare. Bacon's biographers do not share this belief or disbelief. Mr. Devey, for instance, says, " In casting the horoscope of the future, or tracing, with certain hand, the progress of civilization, who shall account for the appearance of such men as Dante and Shakespeare, who have created a new language; of Cromwell and Luther, who have revolutionized empires ; of Newton and Archimedes, who have introduced a new element into science?"

It is no obstacle to the belief of Bacon's friends that the plays are the work of an average lifetime, that they were put upon the stage by Shakespeare, and that Bacon's biographers (and his brother to whom his manuscripts were bequeathed) found no scrap or hint of an incident to indicate or betray the accomplishment of such an immense work and involving the agency of at least one other person.

His historians say he considered even the versification of the psalms a " culpable waste of time;" yet one "great student" (at least) is not influenced by such testimony, and he is said to have accumulated tons of evidence to prove not only that he wrote plays greater in volume than his scientific works, but that he had the time, patience and ingenuity to insert an arithmetical device in them to attest his authorship.

It would not be any more incongruous to suppose Beethoven running a drum movement containing some occult alphabetical trade-mark through his symphonies, than to think such compositions could be accompanied by anything so cheap and mechanical.

This " great student" has undertaken the task of adding even more than Shakespeare to Bacon, for his theory ascribes to Bacon also the divination to foresee that a man would appear who could and would work out his puzzle. The enigma, of course, would be of no use unless some one could solve it, and might easily defeat its own object. Considering how many easier and common-sense ways might be devised to disclose a posthumous secret, the choice of such an uncertain and extraordinary one needs explanation, and this perhaps is furnished by the assumption of Bacon's faith in the zeal and cleverness of one for centuries yet unborn.

The Trinity College historians were great admirers of Bacon. Their account of- him says he had the " natural faculties a poet wants : a fine ear for metre, a fine feeling for imaginative effect in words, and a vein of poetic passion," and that he was " not without fine frenzy." Here then is a voluntary admission by a most indulgent and partial critic, that Bacon was usually considered a ridiculous failure as a versifier, followed by an apology for his lack of success at poetry, on the ground of a want of practice and a lack of interest. I have said the plays had then been in existence many years, but they existed in such an uncared-for shape that the attention of some one capable of appreciating their worth and putting them in their original form would doubtless have given them to us more complete and beautiful in many parts than we have them. As Bacon did nothing toward their preservation or publication (in such strong contrast with his solicitude for his writings), his indifference about them or ignorance of them cannot be reconciled with any claim to their authorship; and it seems as though his friends were willing to commit him to any absurdity when they picture him concocting a scheme to insure himself the fame in the future of having written the plays, while quite unconcerned what becomes of them in the present; especially as he had so little faith in the survival of the language in which the plays were written, that he had taken the precaution to put his works into a dead tongue to insure their perpetuity.