_Lord Bacon and Shakspeare._--Can any of those correspondents of "N. & Q."
who have devoted attention to the lives of two of England's greatest
worthies, Francis Bacon and William Shakspeare, account for the
extraordinary fact that, although these two highly gifted men were
cotemporaries, no mention of or allusion to the other is to be found in the
writings of either? Bacon was born in 1561, and died in 1626; Shakspeare,
who was born in 1563, and died ten years before the great chancellor, not
only loved
"To suck the sweets of sweet philosophy,"
but breathes throughout every page of his wondrous writings a spirit of
philosophy as profound as his imagination is unlimited; yet nowhere, it is
believed, can he be traced as making the slight allusion to the great
father of modern philosophy. Bacon, on the other hand, whom one can
scarcely suppose to have been ignorant of the writings of the dramatist,
but who indeed may rather be believed to have known him personally, seems
altogether to ignore his existence, or the existence of any of his
matchless works. As the solution of this problem could not but throw much
light on that most interesting subject,--the history of the minds of
Shakespeare and Bacon,--I venture to throw it out as a fit subject for the
research of some of your contributors versed in the writings of these great
spirits of their own age, no less than of all time.