The Birmingham age-herald. [volume] (Birmingham, Ala.) 1902-1950, 1910-07-10

TIME Baconians call attention to
most striking fact, beyond explana-
ton except upon the hypothesis,
that the scholarly Lord Francis Bacon
and Shakespeare were one person. The
plays, one after another, were appearing.
AT that time Bacon was awaiting the
good fortune that should land him in po-
litical office. He had thus the time to
write the dramas, and so wrote them
But when his leisure ceased. he having
gained position in public life, the plays
stopped. Then when leisure came again.
the plays began again to appear. How
do you account for this fact by anything
IN the life of Shakspere, the actor?
There is no way to explain it by the
history of the Stratford man.
Further, SHAKESPEARE. the actor, died in
1915. OF course he could write no plays
after that date. But, remarkable to re-
late the plays continued to come. Not
only did new ones appear but the old
ones were revised, and appeared with
parts and lines distinctly altered. Who
did this work of writing new dramas
and altering old ones? The dead Shaks-
pere, or the living Shakespeare? Mark
you, these Celebrations, and addition to
the plays continued for years after
Shakspere's death. Indeed, they con-
tinued until Bacon died, and then they
suddenly stopped. Why this abrupt end
ing of the work of improving and chang
ing that which had been written? The
answer is. that the hand that wrote was
now still in death. Shakespeare, Francis
Bacon, was dead
In Lord Bacon's list of authors of that
period we find the only name omitted Is
that of Shakespeare. He could not insert
the name that Nhe himself had assumed
as his own. But in Ben Johnson's list or
authors of that period of literature we
find Bacons name leading them all; but
the name of the player, Shakspere
does not once appear, in any form or
spelling How account for this? Did not
Bacon know SHAKESPEARE as an actor?
No. There is not line to show that
Bacon ever knew the actor at all. They
We're living in London at the same time;
walked the same streets; saw many of the
same plays at the theatres, and yet they
never met. If they had been acquafnt-
ances is it possible to think that Bacon
could have overlooked so great a genius?
Would not he have mentioned him? Yes.
he would have done so, II the Stratford
actor had been writer of any merit at
all and not merely a player who never
Ghost in Hamlet
But there were other men of letters who
seem never to have heard of SHAKESPEARE
as a writer. I, of course, refer to his
contemporaries. Selden and Clarendon
were voluminous writer's of Shakespeare
time; yet, not once do they name him.
Henslow and Alleyn were theatrical man
ayers at that time. Alleyns papers never
mention SHAKESPEARE as a writer; neither
He
many playwrights. running through a
series of years. but not once does he
hint at SHAKESPEARE as ever having writ
ten a play Plainly never did Bacon
know the actor for a playwright nor for
a man of literary ability or literary work
If the latter bad been man OF letters,
would not Bacon have known him?
Would not their love for the one com
mon muse have brought them together?
But neither in Baoons letters nor In
anything that Shakspere left is there
any reason to believe that they had ever
met. But why did Jonson omit the actor
from the list of authors? He was ac-
ouainted with the man from Stratioro,
and, apparently knew that he was not
an author. 1t seeMs that at this time
Jonson knew that Bacon was the writer
of Shakespeare's plays. He had been let
into the secret. In neither list does
Shakspere appear as an author. JON
son knew the actor Shakspere, per-
sonally and calls him an APE"
Hhakspere, then, seems not to have
had place among literary people of his
day. His only approach to literature
seems to have been his trade of taking
old plays and arranging them for his
theatrical company who played them.
Many of these he seems to have palmed
off as his own. He was charged often
with dressing himself up for the public
IN borrowed plumes, and with buying lit
crary property from outsiders" Rob.rt
Greene. a voluminous writer contempor-
airy with Shakspere, said Of the STRAIT