The Indianapolis journal. [volume] (Indianapolis [Ind.]) 1867-1904, 1885-04-05
III.
"And that ISL"

H.
"And that ISL"
'NIr. Francis Bacon-plain Mr.. Francis Bacon
not the Lord Chancellor of England the great
founder of experimental philosophy, but Mr..
Francis Bacon not yet knighted not yet emf
nent; young, but profound, learned, vastly
laborous, and possessed of the greatest and most
universal genius ever given to the sons of men.
When one speaks of Francis Bacon having writ
ten the plays OF Shakespeare you naturally think
of the Lord Chameleon, and you say it is i'm
possible that the great jurist, sitting on the
woolsack, could have written the plays-that
he had not the time or cast of mind for such
work Very true; but that same man was
young once-young obscure and poor, bounded
by creditors, seized on by bailiffs, confined in
sponging houses, borrowing 5000 at time from
his brother Anthony, and yet withal, gentle
man. the son of Elizabeth's Lord High Chan
cellor, the nephew of the great Lord Treasurer
Burleigh, the cousin of Cecil but united by
blood or marriage with the greatest families of
the realm. Filled with tremendous genius,
forced to the occupation of the law, which he
disliked, oppressed by debt and poverty, sur
rounded by the impossible walls and barriers of
prejudice and CASTE he lived in an age when
there was novel-reading multitude or public
press to write for. There was no avenue open
to him but the playhouse at that time most
degraded institution, lower than the lowest of
our variety shows, filled with the refuse of Lon
don the roughs the prentices the thieves and
the abandoned women Of the city, who paid
penny or two to enter a dirty, rootless Struct-
ure.h
"But why did not Bacon acknowledge the
authorship of the playsW
To have done so would have been to acknowl-
edge that he, gentleman, had lived off the pen
MES taken in at the door of the playhouse. I'm
agine companion of the Prince of Wales to-
day confessing that he had been able to associate
with His Royal Highness only by sharing the
profits of some of the lowest of the taverns and
resorts of London. Suicide would be preferable
to such an admission. The social ostracism that
would follow would be worse than DEATH"
'You speak of the cipher depending upon the
numbers of the pages-what pages do you
mean2"
II should have explained that the whole cipher
turns upon the paging of the great folio edition
of 1923 This was the first collected edition of
the Shakespeare plays; seventeen of the plays APP
peared in it for the first time; the others had
been published from time 20 time in small, sepa
rate volumes. This folio is the corner stone of
the whole Shakspearian literature. 1t was pub
lished seven years after the death of William
Shakespeare, and while Francis Bacon was yet
alive but after he had been thrown down from
his high emnence as Lord Chancellor, and while
he was, as he says himself, putting his work in
order for posterlty. For, as have lost much
time with the present age, ] hope to recover it
why did Shakespeare fail to provide in his will
for the publication of his plays9 If he could
think of the disposition of his sword and his Sec
ond best bedstead, why should he leave seven
teen of his immortal plays to take the chance
of their seeing the light? Why
should he omit all reference to plays,
manuscripts or books? It does not appear
that he hadany library. He carried on brewing
in his great house, and sold the malt. But if
you desire to study this question, read Appleton
Morgan's Shakespeare Myth Judge Holiness
Authorship of Shakespeare, Mrs Potts's 'Bacon's
Promus,' or the condensed little books by the
latter author sold in England at sixpence apiece
which give the whole question in nutshell and
which ought to be republished in this country"
".
''Well, for one, am sorry if the great name of
Shakespeare is to go, with William Tell and
Robin Hood, into the land of myth9"
.sThat is a natural feeling entertained by
many, and yet it is not William Shakespeare of
Stratford- on Avon, whom the world worships
but the mighty genius, the comprehensive In
telect, the gentle SOUL the profound and tender
| philosophy the exquisite poetry and the match
| less dramatic power shown N the plays. This
| is the real Shakespeare. OF the other we know,
as has been said simply that he was born, mar
RED had children and died. We can, by an
| tiquarian research, find out as much of
| any one of the countless millions
who have gone down to death since his day.
| Not scrap of William Shakspeare's writing
has decended to US; not noble deed or great
thought is recorded as coming from the man
himself We only know that he was a canny
business man, a hard creditor and hard drink
er His traditional career opens with a drinking
bout and his last act was to get drunk and die
of fever contracted in the SPREE"