Ch. 12: The Shakespeare-Bacon Imbroglio

The hypothesis that the works of Shakespeare were written by Bacon has now been before the world for more than forty years. It has been supported in hundreds of books and pamphlets, but, as a rule, it has been totally neglected by scholars. Perhaps their indifference may seem wise, for such an opinion may appear to need no confutation. 'There are foolisher fellows than the Baconians,' says a sage--'those who argue against them.' On the other hand, ignorance has often cherished beliefs which science has been obliged reluctantly to admit. The existence of meteorites, and the phenomena of hypnotism, were familiar to the ancient world, and to modern peasants, while philosophy disdained to investigate them. In fact, it is never really prudent to overlook a widely spread opinion. If we gain nothing else by examining its grounds, at least we learn something about the psychology of its advocates. In this case we can estimate the learning, the logic, and the general intellect of people who form themselves into Baconian Societies, to prove that the poems and plays of Shakespeare were written by Bacon. Thus a light is thrown on the nature and origin of popular delusions.

*(1) 'Bacon and Shakespeare,' by William Henry Smith (1857);

(2) 'The Authorship of Shakespeare,' by Nathaniel Holmes (1875);

(3) 'The Great Cryptogram,' by Ignatius Donnelly (1888);

(4) 'The Promus of Formularies and Elegancies of Francis Bacon,' by Mrs. Henry Pott (1883);

(5) 'William Shakespeare,' by Georg Brandes (1898);

(6) 'Shakespeare,' by Sidney Lee (in the Dictionary of National Biography, 1897);

(7) 'Shakespeare Dethroned' (in Pearson's Magazine, December 1897);

(8) 'The Hidden Lives of Shakespeare and Bacon,' by W. G. Thorpe, F.S.A. (1897).

(9) 'The Mystery of William Shakespeare,' by Judge Webb (1902).

The Baconian creed, of course, is scouted equally by special students of Bacon, special students of Shakespeare, and by almost all persons who devote themselves to sound literature. It is equally rejected by Mr. Spedding, the chief authority on Bacon; by Mr. H. H. Furness, the learned and witty American editor of the 'Variorum Shakespeare;' by Dr. Brandes, the Danish biographer and critic; by Mr. Swinburne, with his rare knowledge of Elizabethan and, indeed, of all literature; and by Mr. Sidney Lee, Shakespeare's latest biographer. Therefore, the first point which strikes us in the Baconian hypothesis is that its devotees are nobly careless of authority. We do not dream of converting them, but it may be amusing to examine the kind of logic and the sort of erudition which go to support an hypothesis not freely welcomed even in Germany.

The mother of the Baconian theory (though others had touched a guess at it) was undeniably Miss Delia Bacon, born at Tallmadge, Ohio, in 1811. Miss Bacon used to lecture on Roman history, illustrating her theme by recitations from