Saturday, March 27, 2004

The difficulty with the case of Francis Bacon as Shakespeare is not so much in establishing that it is true. That part is relatively straightforward: the Northumberland manuscript, the Promus notebook, Ben Jonson's testimony, the Hall/Marston satires, the parallels between Bacons work and Shakespeares, the evidence from contemporary letters, his involvement in theatre at Gray's Inn and elsewhere, the tributes paid to him afer death in the Manes Verulamium, the evidence from with the Plays themselves, including plotlines, characters and signatures. No, this is not the problem. The problem is knowing when to stop. For example, by equally compelling evidence he can just as readily be shown to be the author of Don Quixote, writing under the mask of Miguel Cervantes. He was also Edmund Spenser. And Robert Greene and George Peele. Christopher Marlowe. Nashe. Montaigne. Sir Philip Sidney. Not to mention, he was also Francis Bacon, himself, let us not forget.