Bacon and Shakespeare 12

Bacon and Shakespeare 12

Bacon’s first claim to authorship, apart from the works which were

issued under his own name, is to be found, according to the cipher, in

the 1596 edition of the _Faerie Queene_:

 

“E. Sp. could not otherwise so easilie atchieve honours that pertyne to

ourself. Indeed, this would alone crowne his head, if this were all--I

speake not of golden crowne, but of lawrell--for our pen is dipt deepe

into th’ muses’ pure source.”

 

The first mention of Shakespeare as Bacon’s masque appears in the J.

Roberts’ edition (1600) of _Sir John Oldcastle_ and _The Merchant of

Venice_:

 

“See or read. In the stage-plaies, two, the oldest or earliest devices

prove these twentie plays to have been put upon our stage by the actor

that is suppos’d to sell dramas of value, yet ’tis rightlie mine owne

labour.”

 

In the _Advancement of Learning_ (1605) Bacon extends his claim to

embrace the works of Robert Greene, Peele, Marlowe, and Ben Jonson:

 

“My stage plaies have all been disguis’d (to wit, many in Greene’s

name, or in Peele’s, Marlowe’s, a fewe, such as the Queen’s Masques

and others of this kind published for me by Jonson, my friend and

co-worker) since I relate a secret history therein, a story of so

sterne and tragick qualite, it ille suited my lighte’ verse, in the

earlier works.”

 

The only other persons who are permitted the privilege of communicating

with posterity, through the medium of the cipher, are Bacon’s “friends

and co-workers,” Ben Jonson and William Rawley. In the folio edition of

Jonson’s plays (1616) at Bacon’s “constantly urged request,” Jonson,

who had his friend’s “fame in heart as much as my honour and dignitie,”

writes to the decipherer:

 

“It shall be noted, indeed, when you uncover his stile, my works do

not all come from mine owne penne, for I shall name to you some plays

that come forth fro’ Sir F. Bacon, his worthy hand or head, I bein’ but

the masque behind which he was surely hid. Th’ play entitled _Sejanus_

was his drama, and th’ King’s, Queen’s, Prince’s Entertainments; the

_Queen’s Masques_ are his, as also th’ short _Panegyre_.”

 

[Illustration: SHAKESPEARE.

 

The Droeshout Etching, from the 1623 Folio Edition.

 

To the Reader.

 

This Figure, that thou here seest put,

It was for gentle Shakespeare cut;

Wherein the Grauer had a strife

with Nature, to out-doo the life:

O, could he but haue drawne his wit

As well in brasse, as he hath hit

His face; the Print would then surpasse

All, that was euer writ in brasse.

But, since he cannot, Reader, looke

Not on his Picture, but his Booke.

 

B. I.

]

 

But we learn that, in addition to Jonson, “my foster-brother

Anthony, my owne brother Robert, Ben Jonson, my friend, adviser and

assistant, and our private secretary,” were also “cogniza’t of the

work,” and indeed after Bacon’s death in 1626, William Rawley, his

private secretary, took up the cipher story, and completed it in

Burton’s _Anatomy of Melancholy_, and in the 1635 editions of _Sylva

Sylvarum_ and the _New Atlantis_. It has been objected that Bacon

could not have dropped the cipher into books published after his death,

but this objection “vanishes into invisibility,” as Mr. Theobald would

say, when we remember that faithful old Rawley was living long after

Bacon’s work had been “cut short by th’ sickel o’ death.” He bobs up

serenely in _Sylva Sylvarum_, drops in another thirty pages of Bacon’s

cipher lamentations, and winds up with a dozen lines of his own “to

speak of th’ errata.” This last instalment was, it may be assumed,

written prior to 1626, and entrusted to Rawley to make use of on the

first opportunity, _i.e._, as soon as he could obtain command of the

proofs of another book.

 

In the first folio, published twenty years after the death of

Elizabeth, Bacon still appears to be affrighted by the memory of the

Queen; his life would still be forfeit if his identity were discovered,

“since she is my mother;” but in his valedictory address to his

decipherer, he declares that it is “not feare, but disstaste of th’

unseemly talk and much curiosity of the many who read these cipher

histories, that makes him still desirous to preserving his incognito.”

 

“My time of feare went from me with my greatness, but I still wish to

avoid many questionings--and much suspicion, perchance on the side of

the King, in his owne prope’ person. I have neede of the very caution

which kept these secrets from the many, when my mother made me swear

secrecy, and my life was the forfeit; nor may I now speake openly, yet

many men for a kingdom would break their oathes.”

 

It is possible that Bacon may have considered that “since witnesses to

th’ marriage and to my birth ... are dead, and the papers certifying

their presence” were destroyed, he would have a better chance of

obtaining credence for his story a few centuries hence than in his own

day. His belief in the credulity of posterity did not desert him:

 

“But my kingdome is in immortall glory among men from generatio’ unto

coming generations. An unending fame will crowne my browe, and it is

farre better worthe in any true thinking mind, I am assured, than many

a crowne which kings do have set on with shewe and ceremonie. Yet when

I have said it, my heart is sad for the great wrong that I must for

ever endure.”

 

Bacon appears to have foreseen that some future sceptic would question

the justice of his claims; would ask, for instance, how the hand that

wrote _Macbeth_ and _The Tempest_, came to produce such comparatively

indifferent stuff as _A Quip for an Upstart Courtier_, and he meets the

anticipated question with the following explanation:--

 

“It shall bee noted in truth that some greatly exceede their fellowes

in worth, and it is easily explained. Th’ theame varied, yet was always

a subject well selected to convey the secret message. Also the plays

being given out as tho’gh written by the actor to whom each had been

consigned, turne one’s genius suddainlie many times to suit th’ new man.

 

“In this actour that wee now emploie, is a wittie vayne different

from any formerly employed. In truth it suiteth well with a native

spirrit, humorous and grave by turnes in ourselfe. Therefore when we

create a part that hath him in minde th’ play is correspondingly better

therefor. It must be evident ... that these later dramas (this cipher

message is in the 1611 quarto of _Hamlet_) are superior in nearlie all

those scenes where our genius hath swaie”....

 

Over and over again, with almost childish iteration, the cipher repeats

the names of the authors whose works he claims as his own:

 

“Spenser, Greene, Peele, Marlowe have sold me theirs (their

names)--two or three others I have assumed upon certaine occasions such

as this (Ben Jonson’s _Masques_), besides th’ one I beare among men.”...

 

“My plaies are not yet finisht, but I intend to put forth severall

soone. However, bi-literall work requiring so much time, it will

readily be seene that there is much to doe aftee a booke doth seeme to

be ready for the presse, and I could not say when other plays will come

out. The next volume will be under W. Shakespeare’s name. As some which

have now beene produced have borne upon the title page his name though

all are my owne work, I have allow’d it to stand on manie others which

I myselfe regard as equall in merite.”

 

“My next work is not begun here: much of it shall bee found in th’

playes o’ Shakespeare which have not yet come out. We having put forth

a numbe’ of plays i’ his theatre, shall continue soe doing since we

doe make him th’ thrall to our will. Our name never accompanieth anie

play, but it frequently appeareth plainly in cipher for witty minds to

transla’e from Latine and Greeke....”

 

“This history (_The Tragical Historie of the Earl of Essex_) is

contained (_i.e._, hidden in cipher) in some stage plays that came

out in Shakespeare’s name. Ere long there will be many of like stile,

purpose and scope added thereto, which shall both ayd and instruct you

in th’ work. This should make it cleare, _e.g._, sixty stage-plays

which, in varyi’g stiles that are contrary to my owne well-known stile

of __EXPRESSION__, whylst for more of our lighter work an impenetrable

mask, for a history, much too varied: hence these great plays have been

devis’d which, being similar, often held this inne’ history therein

unsuspected....”

 

“Several comedies, which be now strangers, as might be said, bearing at

th’ most such titles ’mongst the plaiers as they would remember, but

th’ author’s name in disguise, if it bee seen at all, will, as soone

as may be found toward and propitious, be publisht by Shakespeare,

_i.e._, in his name, having masqued thus manie of the best plaies

that we have beene able to produce. To these we are steadily making

additions, writing from two to six stage plays every year....”

 

“All that learne that I, who accompte th’ truth better than wicked

vanitie, publish’d manie late playes under other cognomen will think

the motive some distaste of the stage. In noe respect is it true....”

His real reason is, firstly, that “all men who write stage-playes are

held in co’tempte,” and, secondly, the plays are employed to “send out

much hidden dang’rous matter.” “In my plays matters are chosen not

alone for value as a subject to heare and no longer heed. Each play is

the meane or th’ medium, by which cipher histories are sent forth.”

 

“Severall small works under no name wonne worthy praise; next in

Spenser’s name, also, they ventured into an unknowne world. When I,

at length, having written in diverse stiles, found three who, for

sufficient reward in gold added to an immediate renowne as good pens,

willingly put forth all workes which I had compos’d I was bolder....”

 

“Th’ evidence such plays give of being from the brayne of one who

hath for manie years made himself acquainted with th’ formes and th’

methode--or art--of this dramatick or representative poetry, maketh

also my claime to other workes, which have beene publisht in various

names, undeniable. The worke, despight a variety of styles, is mine owne....”