THE plays of Shakespeare show so much knowledge, thought and learning,
that many people--those who imagine that universities furnish
capacity--contend that Bacon must have been the author.
We know Bacon. We know that he was a scheming politician, a courtier,
a time-server of church and king, and a corrupt judge. We know that he
never admitted the truth of the Copernican system--that he was
doubtful whether instruments were of any advantage in scientific
investigation--that he was ignorant of the higher branches of
mathematics, and that, as a matter of fact, he added but little to the
knowledge of the world. When he was more than sixty years of age he
turned his attention to poetry, and dedicated his verses to George
Herbert.
If you will read these verses you will say that the author of "Lear" and
"Hamlet" did not write them.
Bacon dedicated his work on the _Advancement of Learning, Divine and
Human_, to James I., and in his dedication he stated that there had not
been, since the time of Christ, any king or monarch so learned in all
erudition, divine or human. He placed James the First before Marcus
Aurelius and all other kings and emperors since Christ, and concluded
by saying that James the First had "the power and fortune of a king,
the illumination of a priest, the learning and universality of a
philosopher." This was written of James the First, described by Macaulay
as a "stammering, slobbering, trembling coward, whose writings were
deformed by the grossest and vilest superstitions--witches being the
special objects of his fear, his hatred, and his persecution."
It seems to have been taken for granted that if Shakespeare was not the
author of the great dramas, Lord Bacon must have been.
It has been claimed that Bacon was the greatest philosopher of his
time. And yet in reading his works we find that there was in his mind a
strange mingling of foolishness and philosophy. He takes pains to tell
us, and to write it down for the benefit of posterity, that "snow
is colder than water, because it hath more spirit in it, and that
quicksilver is the coldest of all metals, because it is the fullest of
spirit."
He stated that he hardly believed that you could contract air by putting
opium on top of the weather glass, and gave the following reason:
"I conceive that opium and the like make spirits fly rather by malignity
than by cold."
This great philosopher gave the following recipe for staunching blood:
"Thrust the part that bleedeth into the body of a capon, new ripped and
bleeding. This will staunch the blood. The blood, as it seemeth, sucking
and drawing up by similitude of substance the blood it meeteth with, and
so itself going back."
The philosopher also records this important fact: "Divers witches among
heathen and Christians have fed upon man's flesh to aid, as it seemeth,
their imagination with high and foul vapors."
Lord Bacon was not only a philosopher, but he was a biologist, as
appears from the following:
"As for living creatures, it is certain that their vital spirits are a
substance compounded of an airy and flamy matter, and although air and
flame being free will not mingle, yet bound in by a body that hath some
fixing, will."
Now and then the inventor of deduction reasons by analogy. He says:
"As snow and ice holpen, and their cold activated by nitre or salt, will
turn water into ice, so it may be it will turn wood or stiff clay into
stone."
Bacon seems to have been a believer in the transmutation of metals, and
solemnly gives a formula for changing silver or copper into gold. He
also believed in the transmutation of plants, and had arrived at such
a height in entomology that he informed the world that "insects have no
blood."
It is claimed that he was a great observer, and as evidence of this
he recorded the wonderful fact that "tobacco cut and dried by the fire
loses weight" that "bears in the winter wax fat in sleep, though they eat
nothing" that "tortoises have no bones" that "there is a kind of stone, if
ground and put in water where cattle drink, the cows will give more milk"
that "it is hard to cure a hurt in a Frenchman's head, but easy in his
leg;" that "it is hard to cure a hurt in an Englishman's leg, but easy in
his head;" that "wounds made with brass weapons are easier to cure than
those made with iron;" that "lead will multiply and increase, as in
statues buried in the ground" and that "the rainbow touching anything
causeth a sweet smell."
Bacon seems also to have turned his attention to ornithology, and says
that "eggs laid in the full of the moon breed better birds," and that
"you can make swallows white by putting ointment on the eggs before they
are hatched."
He also informs us "that witches cannot hurt kings as easily as they can
common people" that "perfumes dry and strengthen the brain" that "any one
in the moment of triumph can be injured by another who casts an envious
eye, and the injury is greatest when the envious glance comes from the
oblique eye."
Lord Bacon also turned his attention to medicine, and he states that
"bracelets made of snakes are good for curing cramps" that "the skin of
a wolf might cure the colic, because a wolf has great digestion" that
"eating the roasted brains of hens and hares strengthens the memory"
that "if a woman about to become a mother eats a good many quinces and
considerable coriander seed, the child will be ingenious," and that
"the moss which groweth on the skull of an unburied dead man is good for
staunching blood."
He expresses doubt, however, "as to whether you can cure a wound by
putting ointment on the weapon that caused the wound, instead of on the
wound itself."
It is claimed by the advocates of the Baconian theory that their hero
stood at the top of science; and yet "it is absolutely certain that he
was ignorant of the law of the acceleration of falling bodies, although
the law had been made known and printed by Galileo thirty years before
Bacon wrote upon the subject. Neither did this great man understand the
principle of the lever. He was not acquainted with the precession of
the equinoxes, and as a matter of fact was ill-read in those branches of
learning in which, in his time, the most rapid progress had been made."
After Kepler discovered his third law, which was on the 15th of May,
1618, Bacon was more than ever opposed to the Copernican system. This
great man was far behind his own time, not only in astronomy, but in
mathematics. In the preface to the "De-scriptio Globi Intellectualis,"
it is admitted either that Bacon had never heard of the correction of
the parallax, or was unable to understand it. He complained on account
of the want of some method for shortening mathematical calculations; and
yet "Napier's Logarithms" had been printed nine years before the date of
his complaint.
He attempted to form a table of specific gravities by a rude process
of his own, a process that no one has ever followed; and he did this in
spite of the fact that a far better method existed.
We have the right to compare what Bacon wrote with what it is claimed
Shakespeare produced. I call attention to one thing--to Bacon's opinion
of human love. It is this:
"The stage is more beholding to love than the life of man. As to the
stage, love is ever matter of comedies and now and then of tragedies,
but in life it doth much mischief--sometimes like a siren, sometimes
like a fury. Amongst all the great and worthy persons there is not one
that hath been transported to the mad degree of love, which shows that
great spirits and great business do keep out this weak passion."
The author of "Romeo and Juliet" never wrote that.
It seems certain that the author of the wondrous Plays was one of the
noblest of men.
Let us see what sense of honor Bacon had.
In writing commentaries on certain passages of Scripture, Lord Bacon
tells a courtier, who has committed some offence, how to get back into
the graces of his prince or king. Among other things he tells him not to
appear too cheerful, but to assume a very grave and modest face; not to
bring the matter up himself; to be extremely industrious, so that the
prince will see that it is hard to get along without him; also to get
his friends to tell the prince or king how badly he, the courtier,
feels; and then he says, all these failing, "let him contrive to
transfer the fault to others."
It is true that we know but little of Shakespeare, and consequently
do not positively know that he did not have the ability to write the
Plays--but we do know Bacon, and we know that he could not have
written these Plays--consequently, they must have been written by a
comparatively unknown man--that is to say, by a man who was known by no
other writings. The fact that we do not know Shakespeare, except through
the Plays and Sonnets, makes it possible for us to believe that he was
the author.
Some people have imagined that the Plays were written by several--but
this only increases the wonder, and adds a useless burden to credulity.
Bacon published in his time all the writings that he claimed. Naturally,
he would have claimed his best. Is it possible that Bacon left the
wondrous children of his brain on the door-step of Shakespeare, and kept
the deformed ones at home? Is it possible that he fathered the failures
and deserted the perfect?
Of course, it is wonderful that so little has been found touching
Shakespeare--but is it not equally wonderful, if Bacon was the
author, that not a line has been found in all his papers, containing a
suggestion, or a hint, that he was the writer of these Plays? Is it
not wonderful that no fragment of any scene--no line--no word--has been
found?
Some have insisted that Bacon kept the authorship secret because it
was disgraceful to write Plays. This argument does not cover the
Sonnets--and besides, one who had been stripped of the robes of office
for receiving bribes as a judge, could have borne the additional
disgrace of having written "Hamlet." The fact that Bacon did not claim
to be the author, demonstrates that he was not. Shakespeare claimed
to be the author, and no one in his time or day denied the claim. This
demonstrates that he was.
Bacon published his works, and said to the world: This is what I have
done.
Suppose you found in a cemetery a monument erected to John Smith,
inventor of the Smith-churn, and suppose you were told that Mr.
Smith provided for the monument in his will, and dictated the
inscription--would it be possible to convince you that Mr. Smith was
also the inventor of the locomotive and telegraph?
Bacon's best can be compared with Shakespeare's common, but
Shakespeare's best rises above Bacon's best, like a domed temple above a
beggar's hut.