Bacon 

Shakespeare

Question

THE BACONIAN THEORY MADE SANE
N. B. COCKBURN
1998

1. INTRODUCTION Bacon's life, 1-Shakspere's life, -History of the Baconian Theory, -.The scale of doubt -.The Stratfordians -.-Ridicule of the Baconians - No burden of proof - The present book's aims - Notes on procedure	1
2. BACON WAS A POET -Bacon's poetic environment -his familiarity with poetry -His sonnet to the Queen -His postscript to John Davies -Stow's Annals -Bacon's Psalm paraphrases -Edmund Waller -John Aubrey -Conclusion -Postscript on James Spedding	13
3. BACON'S INTEREST IN THE THEATRE -Bacon's theatrical personality -His theatre-loving environment -His involvement in amateur dramatics -His comments on the public Theatre(and on poetry) -In the Advancement of Learning -In De Augmentis -In other works -His fondness for theatrical metaphors -His proposed science of human nature -Did he formulate it in the Shake-Speare plays? -The Stratfordian answer to his interest in the Theatre -Postscript on Shake-Speare Quartos perhaps once in Bacon's possession	21
4. BACON'S REASONS FOR  ANONYMITY -Poetry infra dig -An impediment to high office -Writing plays risky -Bacon secretive by nature -Bacon's puritan mother -Classical precedents for anonymity -The use of Shakspere as a front -Some actors wrote plays -Some actors posed as playwrights -The financial arrangement -Posthmous anonymity	40
5. BACON'S SPARE TIME -His legal work -Other calls on his time -His prose works up to 1613 -How did he use his leisure? -Shake-Speare plays fewer as Bacon gets busier - Did Shakspere have time to write the plays? -Shakspere's acting	55
6. THE METAPHORICAL SHAKE-SPEARE -The pronunciation of "Shakspere" -"Shake-Speare" an ideal pen name for Bacon -Pallas, the spear-shaker	62
7. THE LEARNING OF  SHAKE-SPEARE, BACON AND SHAKSPER SHAKE-SPEARE'S LEARNING -Learning on the face of the Works -Submerged learning -His wide reading -Plot sources -classical sources -His knowledge of Latin -Did he know Greek? -His knowledge of French and Italian -His play sources in languages other than English -His knowledge of Spanish -His vocabulary -His abstruse reading -His alleged mistakes BACON'S LEARNING SHAKSPERE'S LEARNING -His background, His schooling, The curriculum at Stratford Grammar School, Echoes of School learning in the Shake-Speare plays, The glorification of Stratford Grammar School, Comparison with university education, Shakspere a schoolmaster in the country?, Shakspere's limited opportunities for self-education, The cost of books, Shake-Speare's early learning, Richard Field, Shake-Speare's early knowledge of French and Italian, Shake-Speare's knowledge of Italy, Other self-educated people, Shakspere's small Latin and less Greek,Shakspere lacked contemporary reputation for learning, Shakspere's signature's, No books in Shakspere's Will, The Wills of some other authors, Shakspere's daughters uneducated, Conclusion	65
8. THE COMEDY OF ERRORS AND THE GRAY'S INN REVELS OF  CHRISTMAS 1594-5 Introduction, The course of the Revels and Bacon's involvement in them, His authorship of The Masque of Proteus,Parallels between the Revels and Bacon's works, The mock disorders, The mock trial, Sorcery a theme of The Comedy of Errors and the Revels, Was the "sorceror" Bacon?, Other Parallels between The Comedy of Errors and the rest of the Revels, The Comedy of Errors written specially for the Revels, Bacon's activities around the time of the Revels, The Comedy of Errors written by an Inn member, Did Shakspere's company act The Comedy of Errors at Gray's Inn? Possible provenance of The Comedy of Errors, Conclusions	105
9. LOVE'S LABOUR'S LOST The background, Written for an educated audience, which would be uneconomic for a professional playwright, The play's in-jokes favour Bacon's authorship, It uses historical details within Bacon's purview, The academy, Marguerite de Valois's embassy to Navarre, Marguerite's journeys, French names in the plays, The King's riding and writing habits, Helene de Tournon and Hamlet's Ophelia, Local topography at Nerac, Evaluation of the historical parallels, Shakspere's likely ignorance of them, Parallels between the play and the Gray's Inn Revels 1594-5, The play probably written for the Revels, Sudden death of the Princess's (and Bacon's) father, Conclusion	129
10. "MERRY TALES" AT  TWICKENHAM A Promus entry which suggests that Bacon was writing plays at his Twickenham Lodge, Bacon's partaking of the Waters of Parnassus	147
11. THE RETURN FROM PARNASUS PARTS 1 AND TWO -Part One -Part Two	151
12. JOHN FLORIO, SHAKE-SPEARE AND BACON Florio's life summarised, The anonymous Phaeton sonnet by Shake-Speare, Florio's description of the Phaeton sonnet as by "a friend of mine that loved better to be a poet than to be counted so," But Shakspere had no need for anonymity, Two other anonymous Shake-Speare sonnets in Florio works, Conclusion	157
13. THE NORTHUMBERLAND  MANUSCRIPT Introduction, The MS once belonged in Bacon's possession, The inventory, The MS in 1867, Scribbling on the cover, Date of the MS, The MS included copies of Shake-Speare's Richard II and Richard III, the Richard plays being anonymous, The scribbling suggests that Shakespeare was Bacon's pen-name, the inventory item Asmund and Cornelia the probable projected title of Shake-Speare's A Lover's Complaint, Conclusion, Stratforian counter-attack on Richard II (based on comments by Bacon on the play)	164
14. THE HALL AND MARSTON"S SATIRE'S  AND A FREEMAN EPIGRAM Introduction, Hall's Virgidemiarum, Labeo and the thirsty swain, "Labeo is whip't and laughs me in the face," Other references to Labeo, Marston's The Metamorphosis of Pigmalion's Image, identifies Labeo with Shake-Speare, Martston's Certain Satires, very probably identifies Bacon ("mediocria firma") with Labeo and Shake-Speare, Summary of Hall and Marston evidence, Hall and Marston unlikely to be mistaken, The Statfordian answer, A Thomas Freeman epigram, probably identifies Labeo with Shake-Speare and Bacon, The Stratforian answer to Freeman	184
15. TROILUS AND CRESSIDA The background, The epistle, The Inns of Court theory, Baconian points, The epistle treats Shake-Speare as someone independent of Shakspere's company, Bacon the play's likely author	210
16. SHAKE-SPEARE'S LINKS  WITH THE  INNS OF COURT Schedule of plays and masques presented at or by the Inns of Court from 1560-1616, Only one such play or masque known to have been written by someone who was not an Inn member, so unlikely that Shakspere wrote any play performed at Inn of Court	217
17. SHAKESPEARE A CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY MAN Cambridge University slang in Shake-Speare plays, Dr. Caius, Richardus Tertius and Richard III, Laelia and Twelfth Night, Postscript on Polimanteia	223
18. EPICENE OR THE SILENT   WOMAN Ben Jonson 's Sir John Daw a Councillor Extraordinary and a concealed poet, Bacon the only Councillor Extraordinary?	235
19. A JOHN DAVIES SONNET TO  BACON The sonnet tends to imply that Bacn wrote verse	239
20. THE TEMPEST The background, Strachey's letter (to which Shakspere would not have access) The True Declaration, very probably by Bacon	241
21. KING JAMES PROSE WORKS-SHAKESPEARE'S COMMENDATORY LINES The lines likely to have been written by Bacon	251
22. THE TOBIE MATHEW  POSTSCRIPT Introduction, Description of Mathew's letter, "the mos prodigious wit that ever I knew," The Baconian case on the postsript, The Stratfordian answer (Thomas Bacon the prodigious wit), Flaws in the Stratfordian answer, The Shake-Speare "collection of 1619" , A possible via media, Conclusion, Postscript on Sir John Falstaff	255
23. THE FIRST FOLIO Stratfordian arguments on it, Baconian arguments,	277
24. CRYPTOMANIA The fallacies of Baconian cryptograms	280
25. THE SONNETS The title page, The dedication to Mr. W.H., Mr. W. H. is William Hall, William Hall published Bacon's Essays, Are the sonnets fictional? The Fair Youth, The Dark Lady, The Rival Poet, The sexuality of Bacon, Shakspere, and Shake-Speare, Southampton, Shakspere and Bacon, French influence on the Sonnets, The dating and order of the Sonnets, Sonnet 94, Sonnet 107, , Sonnet 110, Sonnet 111, Sonnet 112, Sonnets 135 & 136, Sonnet 145, Conclusion	281
26. DID SHAKSPERE HAVE A  PATRON? The dedications to Shake-Speare's long poems, in Bacon's style, Sir W. Davenant's story of Southampton's £ 1000 gift to Shakspere, Why Southampton 's patronage ended	317
27. THE UNBLOTTED PAPERS Probably unblotted because fair copies made; the significance of this,	324
28. SHAKE-SPERE'S STRANGE  ALOOFNESS The absence of dedications, commendatory poems, elegies and epitaphs by Shake-Speare, His aloofness from controversy, (1HenryVI, Titus Andronicus, Pericles, Henry VIII, The Two Noble Kinsmen, )	327
29. A MURAL AT ST. ALBANS Another Bacon-Shake-Speare coincidence	335
30. WAS  SHAKE-SPEARE A LAWYER? Introduction, The number of legal allusions in Shake-Speare, compared with other playwrights, Shake-Speare's alleged bad law, Valid pointers to his being a lawyer, legalisms "slipped from him", King John (Falconbridge v Falconbridge) Hamlet("cautel") Hamlet (the King's body natural and body politic), Hamlet (Hales v Petit) Other striking legalisms, Legalisms in Shake-Speare's Sonnets, The Barnabe Barnes sonnets, The Zepheria sonnets, Conclusion	338
31. OPINIONS ATTITUDES &  INTERESTS SHARED BY  SHAKE-SPEARE AND BACON Snobbery, Political views, Aristocratic settings of the plays, Knowledge of aristocratic life? Passion for politics, Love of History, Religion, Philosophical bent, Moderation, Sympathetic and sensitive disposition, Attitude to love (Bacon's comments on love compared with Shake-Speare's, attitude to money, Sense of humour, Interest in medicine, Sports, Gardening, The weather, Music, animals, especially birds, Dogs, Shared opinions on specific points, The Stratfordian counter-attack(alleged differences in the opinions, etc. of Shake-Speare and Bacon) Conclusion	367
32. THE LITERARY STYLES OF  SHAKE-SPEARE AND BACON Computer tests, Bacon's poetic faculty, The philosophical poet and the poetical philosopher, Bacon's sense of the dramatic, Bacon too cold to be Shake-Speare? Parallels as evidence of similiar style, Similiarities in method, One genius or two? (Bacon's versatility), Bacon's spoken eloquence, Some detailed shared stylistic traits (especially antithesis, metaphor and concision, Alleged differences in style (vocabulary different?) Shake-Speare's prose compared with Bacon's, Conclusion	400
33. PARALLELISMS Introduction, Mutual borrowing? The number of parallels, SECTION 1 NON-PROMUS PARALLELISMS Index to 100 best parallels, The best parallels, Hamlet parallels, Troilus And Cressida parallels, The Tempest parallels, The Bacon-Shake-Speare Theory of "spirits", The 70 next best non Promus parallels SECTION 2 PROMUS PARALLELISMS Introduction, Contents and sources, The nature and number of the parallels, Mutual Borrowing?, Fewer Promus parallels with other authors, Promus entries in Bacon's prose works, Parallels which may explain Shake-Speare's texts, Parallels between the Promus (especially Folio 112) and Romeo and Juliet, Parallels between Folio 112 and other Shake-Speare plays, Friar Gilbert and Friar Lawrence, 12 more parallels, SECTION 3- NON-SPECIFIC PARALLELS SECTION 4 PARALLELS BETWEEN SHAKE-SPEARE AND WRITERS OTHER THAN BACON SECTION 5 THE STRATFORDIAN ANSWER SECTION 6 CONCLUSION ON PARALLELS	425
34. SOME OTHER BACONIAN  POINTS The Merry Wives of Windsor and Dr. Caius, Count Momplegard and Lord Compton, Hamlet and Lord Burleigh, poor Yorick and Historiae Danicae, King Lear and Sir Brian Annesley, Macbeth and the imperial theme, the Cuthbert Burbage petition	565
35. THE TRUE AMBIT OF THE  SHAKE-SPEARE CANON Probably more short poems by Shake-Speare, Some possible examples, The Passionate Pilgrim, The "Charles Best" poems,	572
36. RIVAL CLAIMANTS Christopher Marlowe, The Earl of Oxford, THE CASE FOR WILLIAM STANLEY, 6th EARL OF DERBY THE Fenner letters, Spenser's Aetion, The Nine Worthies, Histriomastix, John Speed's History of Great Britain, John Davies of Hereford's Paper's Complaint, Conclusion on rival claimants	579       582
37. THE STRATFORDIAN CASE The Stratfordian case so far, The alleged late birth of the Baconian theory, The alleged different spirit of the Bacon and Shake-Speare works, The greatest fraud in history? Would the secret have been known to Shakspere's colleagues? and to the outside world? Bacon's secret not entirely kept but not an open secret, How popular were Shake-Speare's plays? , the authorship of other patrician playwrights protected,	599
38. CONTEMPORARY REFERENCES TO  SHAKE-SPEARE By Robert Greene, By Henry Chettle, By John Davies of Hereford, By John Webster, References after Shakspere's death, The Stratford Monument, References in the First Folio, The Folio epistles, All Ben Jonson's references to Shakespere or Shake-Speare, All Jonson's references to Bacon, Conclusion on Jonson, Shakespere and Bacon, Other commendatory poems in the First Folio	614
39. A PLAY CALLED SIR THOMAS  MORE Introduction, Hand D probably a scribe's , The paleographic evidence, Alleged bibliographical links, including "scilens", Similarities in thought, imagery and style, More's soliloquoy, Conclusion	634
40. ALLEGED WARWICKSHIRE  REFERENCES Few genuine Warwickshire references, Burton Heath and Wincot, Sir Thomas Lucy, Ophelia, Katherine Hamlett and Helene de Tournon, Did Shake-Speare have a Warwickshire accent? St. Albans references	647
41. SOME OTHER STRATFORDIAN POINTS Shake-Speare's stagecraft, The Phoenix and Turtle , Anthony Bacon's letters, The Rutland Impressa, Timon of Athens not an unfinished play	656
42. CONCLUSION ON  SHAKE-SPEARE'S IDENTITY	662
APPENDIX 1 SOME BACON POEMS Bacon's Psalm paraphrases(and some other paraphrases of Psalm 1, 4 other probable Bacon poems (The world's a bubble, The world's a globe of state, The man of life upright, Seated between th od world and the new) Bacon's verse lines in his Meditatones Sacrae	666
APPENDIX 2 THE MASQUE OF PROTEUS The full annotated text, including two songs	693
APPENDIX 3 SHAKE-SPEARE'S  KNOWLEDGE OF ITALY Specific references	705
APPENDIX 4 EPITAPHS ON BACON -Manes Verulamiani (elegies Nos. 4, 9, 13, & 22)	713
APPENDIX 5 THE "CHARLES BEST" POEMS Introduction , Epitaph on Henry IV of France, Epitaph on Queen Elizabeth of England, Two panegyrics to King James I of England, Panegyric to Prince Henry, Panegeric to Princess Elizabeth, Two medieval Latin poems, with English translations, on the Fall of Man in Adam and the Restoring of Man by Christ, All these poems(except the two in Latin) probably by Bacon	717

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