Shakespeare, Bacon and the Great Unknown

seen that Meres (1598) speaks of Shakespeare as the leading tragic and comic poet ("Poor poet-ape that would be thought our chief," quoth Jonson), as author of Venus and Adonis, and as a s

any personal knowledge of nine-tenths of the English authors, famous or forgotten, whom he mentions. "On the question-who was Shakespeare?-he throws no light." He "throws no light on the question" "who was?" any of the poets mentioned by him, except one, quite forgotten, whose College he names . . . To myself this "sad repeated air,"-"critics who praise Shakespeare d

er, purchaser of plays from authors, and so forth, Shakespeare is not mentioned at all. Here is a mystery which, properly handled, may advance the great cause. Henslowe has notes of loans of money to several actors

se notes the name of Shakespeare is never once mentioned as the author of any play. How weird! But in these notes

ll but antiquarians. We have also Ben Jonson (1597), Marston, Munday, Middleton, Webster, and others, authors in Henslowe's pay. But the same of Shakespeare never appears. Mysterious! The other men's names, writes Dr. Furness, occur "

ate as Baconians fervently believe, and sold Bacon's plays, what prevented him from selling a play of Bacon's (under his own name, as usual) to Henslowe? To obtain a Baconian reply you must wander into conjecture, and imagine that Bacon forbade the transaction. Then why did he forbid it? Because he could get a better price from Shakspere's company? The same cause would produce the same effect on Shakspere himself; whether he were the author, or were Bacon's,

ays; or to have let him keep the whole sum in each case. I know not whether the players paid Shakspere a sum down for his (or Bacon's) plays, or whether Will

ights, a player, holding a share in his company? If not, the fact makes an essential difference, for Shakspere was a shareholder. Collier, in his preface to Henslowe's so-called "Diary," mentions a playwright who was bound to scribble

accept,-whether the wares were his own-or Bacon's. He was a keen man of business. In such a case, he would not write for Henslowe's pittance. He had a better market. The plays, whether w

wood, "that Henslowe should make no mention in all this long diary, embracing all the time from 1591 to 1609, of the actor-author . . . No matter. Credo quia impossibile!" [160b] Credo what? and what is impossible? Henslowe's volume is no Diary; he does not tell a single anecdote of any description; he merely enters loans, gains, payments. Does Henslowe mention, say, Ben Jonson, when he is not doing business with Ben? Does he mention any actor or author except in conn

t he did not deal with Henslowe in his bargainings, and that is why Henslowe does not mention him. Mr. Greenwood, in one place, [161a] agrees, so far, with me. "Why did Henslowe not mention Shakespeare as the writer of other plays" (than Titus Andronicus and Henry VI)? "I think the answer is simple enough." (So do I.) "Neither Shakspere nor 'Shakespeare' ever wrote for Henslowe!" The obvious is perceived at last; and the reason given is "that he was above Henslowe's 'skyline,'" "he" being the Author. We only differ as to why the author was above Henslowe's "sky-line." I say, because good Will had a better market, that

making his dear fellows and friends a present of two masterpieces yearly was too incredible. So I suppose he did have royalties on the receipts, or oth

the darkened chamber wherein abides "The Silence of Philip Henslowe." "The Silence of Philip Henslowe," Mr. Greenwood writes, "is a very remarkable phenomenon .

e] for the most part impecunious dramatists to whom Henslowe paid money for playwriting." [163a] Nothing can be more natural, and, in fact, the name of Bacon, or Southampton, or James VI, or Sir John Ramsay, or Sir Walter Raleigh, or Sir Fulke Greville, or any o

ut original plays of his own," and yet "takes the works of others," say of "sporting Kyd," or of Dekker and Chettle

has his rewritings and transformations of the destitute author's work acted by Will's company. What a situation for Bacon, or Sir Fulke Greville, or James VI, or any "man in high position" whom fancy can suggest! The plays by the original authors, whoever they were, could only be obtained by the "concealed poet" and "man in

orted from the concealed poet of high position. [164a] Bacon did associate with that serpent Phillips, a reptile of Walsingham, who forged a postscript to Mary Stuart's letter to Babington. But now, if not Bacon, then some other concealed poet of high posi

, how more t

erby's) men" was Henry VI. Several other plays with names familiar in Shakespeare's Works, such as Titus Andronicus, all the three parts of Henry VI, King Leare (April 6, 1593), Henry V (May 14, 1592), The Taming of a Shrew (June 11, 1594), and Hamlet, paid toll to Henslowe. He "received

ying in Henslowe's theatre at Newington Butts. If the "Venesyon Comodey" (Venetian Comedy) were The Merchant of Venice, this is the first mention of it. But nobody knows what Henslowe meant by "the Venesyon Comodey." He does not mention the author's n