983,120,370 visitors served.

The Baconian theory of Shakespearean authorship holds that Sir Francis Bacon wrote the plays conventionally attributed to William Shakespeare.

Terminology

Sir Francis Bacon, was a major scientist, philosopher, courtier, diplomat, essayist, historian and successful politician, who served as Solicitor General (1607), Attorney General (1613) and Lord Chancellor (1618).

Those who subscribe to the theory that Sir Francis Bacon wrote the Shakespeare work generally refer to themselves as Baconians, whilst terming those who maintain the orthodox view that William Shakspere of Stratford wrote the works Stratfordians.

Baptised as William Shakspere, the Stratford man used several variants of his name during his lifetime including Shakespeare. Baconians use "Shakspere" for the glover's son from Stratford and "Shakespeare" or "Shake-speare" for the author to avoid the assumption that the Stratford man wrote the work.

Overview

The most popular view today is that William Shakespere of Stratford who was an actor in the Lord Chamberlain's Men (later the King's Men) wrote the poems and plays that bear his name and it is the view to which most academic scholars subscribe. However, Baconians believe that scholars have been so focused on the details of Shakspere's life that they have neglected to investigate the wider picture, namely, the many facts that they claim connect Sir Francis Bacon to the Shakespeare work.

The Baconian's first objective is to attempt to establish a reasonable doubt in the Stratford man's authorship claim, then having justified the need to examine an alternative candidate, cite the many perceived connections between Sir Francis Bacon and the Shakespeare work (see Shakespearean authorship). As with all alternative candidates, the Stratford man is claimed to have acted as a mask for the concealed author.

The main Baconian evidence consists of the following: the presentation of a motive for concealment; the circumstances surrounding the first known performance of The Comedy of Errors; the close proximity of Bacon to the William Strachey letter upon which many scholars think The Tempest was based; perceived allusions to legal personalities in the plays that Bacon knew; the many supposed parallels with the plays of Bacon's published work and entries in the Promus (Bacon's private wastebook); Bacon's interest in writing civil histories; and perceived autobiographical allusions in the plays. Since Bacon had a first-hand knowledge of government cipher methods,^[1] Baconians usually see it as feasible that he left his signature somewhere in the Shakespeare work.

History of Baconian theory

In a letter to the barrister and poet John Davies in 1603, Bacon refers to himself as a 'concealed poet'.^[2] Consequently, Baconians claim that certain of his contemporaries knew of and hinted at his secret authorship. For example, the satirical poets Joseph Hall (1574-1656) and John Marston (1575-1634) in the so-called Hall-Marston satires,^[3][4] between them discuss a character called Labeo in relation to Shakespeare's long poem Venus and Adonis (1593). Perceiving that Hall is criticising Venus and Adonis as a lewd Mirror-genre poem,^[5] Marston writes 'What, not mediocria firma from thy spight?', mediocra firma being Bacon's family motto.

In 1781, a Warwickshire clergyman and scholar called James Wilmot, having failed to find significant evidence from his research in the Stratford district relating to Shakspere's authorship, suspected that Shakspere could not be the author of the works that bear his name. Wilmot was familiar with the writings of Francis Bacon and formed the opinion that he was more likely the real author of the Shakespearean canon. Persuaded of Bacon's authorship of the Shakespeare poems and plays, he related his view to James Cowell who revealed it in a paper read to the Ipswich Philosophical Society in 1805.

The idea that Sir Francis Bacon penned the Shakespeare work was revived by William Henry Smith in a letter to Lord Ellesmere in 1856.^[6] This took the form of a 16-page pamphlet entitled Was Lord Bacon the Author of Shakespeare's Plays?^[7] in which Smith noted several letters to and from Francis Bacon that apparently hinted at his authorship. A year later, both Smith and Delia Bacon published books expounding the Baconian Theory.^[8][9] In the latter work, Shakespeare was represented as a group of writers, including Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser, whose agenda was to propagate an anti-monarchial system of philosophy by secreting it in the text.

After a diligent deciphering of the Elizabethan handwriting in Francis Bacon's wastebook, the Promus of Formularies and Elegancies, Constance Mary Fearon Pott (1833-1915) noted that many of the ideas and figures of speech in Bacon's book could also be found in the Shakespeare plays. Potts later founded the Francis Bacon Society in 1885 before publishing her Bacon-centered theory in 1891.^[10] In this, Potts developed the view of W.F.C. Wigston^[11] that Francis Bacon was the founding member of the Rosicrucians, a secret society of occult philosophers, and claimed that they secretly created art, literature and drama, including the entire Shakespeare canon, before adding the symbols of the rose and cross to their work.

The late 19th century interest in the Baconian theory continued the theme that Bacon had secreted encoded messages in the plays. In 1888, Ignatius L. Donnelly, a U.S. Congressman, science fiction author, and Atlantis theorist, set out his notion of ciphers in The Great Cryptogram, while Elizabeth Wells Gallup, having read Bacon's account of his 'bi-literal cipher' (in which two fonts were used as a method of encoding in binary format), claimed to have found evidence that Bacon not only authored the Shakespearean works but, along with the Earl of Essex, he was a child of Queen Elizabeth and the Earl of Leicester who had been secretly married. Unfortunately, no one else was able to discern these hidden messages, and the cryptographers William and Elizabeth Friedman showed that the method is unlikely to have been employed^[12].

Friedrich Nietzsche (1844-1900) expressed interest in and gave credence to the Baconian theory in his writings.

The German mathematician Georg Cantor believed Shakespeare was Bacon, although he was apparently afflicted with bipolar disorder and/or depression and was suffering a bout of illness in 1884 when he researched the subject, eventually publishing two pamphlets supporting the theory in 1896-1897.

The American physician Dr Orville Ward Owen (1854-1924)) was so convinced in his own cipher method that in 1909 he began excavating the bed of the River Wye, near Chepstow Castle, England, in the search for Bacon's original Shakespeare manuscripts. Such was his conviction, that only his death in 1924 prevented him from persisting with the project.

The American art collector Walter Conrad Arensberg (1878-1954) believed that Bacon had concealed messages in a variety of ciphers in the works of Shakespeare relating to a secret history of the time and esoteric secrets of the Rosicrucians. He published a variety of decipherments between 1922 and 1930, eventually concluding that there were concealed messages but that he had failed to find them. He established the Francis Bacon Foundation in California in 1937 and left it his collection of Baconiana.

More recent Baconian theory ignores the esoteric following that the theory had earlier attracted.^[13] Whereas previously the main reason for secrecy was Bacon's desire for high office, this theory posits that his main motivation for concealment was the completion of his Great Instauration project.^[14][15] The argument runs that in order to advance the project's scientific component, he intended to set up new institutes of experimentation to gather the data (his scientific 'Histories') to which his inductive method could be applied. However, he needed to attain high office to gain the requisite influence,^[16] and being known as a dramatist (a low-class profession) would have impeded his prospects. Realising that play-acting was used by the ancients 'as a means of educating men's minds to virtue,'^[17] the claim is that he set out the otherwise unpublished moral philosophy component of his Great Instauration project in the Shakespeare work (moral 'Histories'). In this way, he could influence the nobility through dramatic performance with his observations on what constitutes 'good' government (e.g. Prince Hal's relationship with the Chief Justice in Henry IV, Part 2).

Autobiographical evidence

It is known that as early as 1595, Bacon employed scriveners^[18] which, one could argue, would protect his anonymity and account for Heminge and Condell, two actors in Shakspere's company, remarking about Shakspere that 'wee have scarce received from him a blot in his papers'.^[19] Baconians point out that Sir Francis Bacon's rise to the post of Attorney General in 1613 coincided with the end of Shakespeare the author's output. They also stress that he was the only authorship candidate still alive when the First Folio (1623) was published and that it occurred in a period (1621-1626) when Bacon was publishing his work for posterity after his fall from office gave him the free time.

Shakespeare's King Henry VIII (1613) can be interpreted as containing an allusion to Bacon's fall from office in 1621 suggesting that the play had been altered at least five years after Shakspere's death in 1616. The argument relates to Cardinal Wolsey's forfeiture of the Great Seal in the play which might be construed as departing from the facts of history to mirror Bacon's own loss. Bacon lost office on a charge of accepting bribes to influence his judgment of legal cases, whereas Wolsey's crime was to petition the Pope to delay sanctioning King Henry's divorce from Katherine of Aragon. Nevertheless, in Act 3, Scene 2, just before the Great Seal is reclaimed, King Henry's main concern is an inventory of Wolsey's wealth that has inadvertently been delivered to him:

::King Henry. ... The several parcels of his Plate, his Treasure,

::Rich stuffs, and ornaments of household, which

::I find at such a proud rate, that it outspeaks

::Possession of a subject.

A few lines later Wolsey loses the Seal with the stage direction:

::Enter to Cardinal Wolsey the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the Earl of Surrey

::and the Lord Chamberlaine.

However, in history, only the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk performed this task^[20] and Shakespeare has inexplicably added the Earl of Surrey and the Lord Chamberlaine. In Bacon's case King James 'commissioned the Lord Treasurer, the Lord Steward, the Lord Chamberlaine, and the Earl of Arundel, to receive and take charge of it'.^[21] Given that Thomas Howard was the 2nd Earl of Arundel and Surrey, then the two noblemen that Shakespeare has added may be construed as references to two of the four that attended Bacon.

Credentials for authorship

There is evidence that appears to confirm that Bacon had some of the credentials for writing the Shakespeare work. For example, in relation to Shakespeare's extensive vocabulary, there are the words of Dr Samuel Jonson, the author of the first dictionary: 'a Dictionary of the English language might be compiled from Bacon's writing alone'.^[22] The poet Percy Bysshe Shelly apparently testifies against Bacon's supposed unwavering dry legal style: 'Lord Bacon was a poet. His language has a sweet majestic rhythm, which satisfies the sense, no less than the almost superhuman wisdom of his intellect satisfies the intellect ..."^[23]

In Ben Jonson's First Folio tribute to 'The Author Mr William Shakespeare' he writes:

:Or, when thy sockes were on

:Leave thee alone

:Of all, that insolent Greece, or haughtie Rome

:Sent forth, or since from their ashes come.

In a later work, Jonson uses an identical figure to commend Sir Francis Bacon: 'But his learned and able (though unfortunate) successor [Bacon] is he who hath filled up all the numbers [verses], and performed that in our tongue which may be compared or preferred either to insolent Greece or to haughty Rome ... so that he may be named, and stand as the mark [target] of our language.'^[24]

Bacon had an interest in civil histories, the evidence for this being his book History of the Reign of Henry VII (1621), his article the Memorial of Elizabeth (1608), and his letter to King James in 1610 lobbying for financial support to write a history of Great Britain stating that 'I shall have the advantage which almost no writer of history hath had, in that I shall write of times not only since I could remember, but since I could observe.'^[25] Bacon and Shakespeare together managed to completely cover the monarchs in the period 1377-1603 and avoid duplicating each other's historical ground and, in 1623, Bacon gave different excuses to Prince Charles for not working on a commissioned treatise of Henry VIII (which had already been covered by the Shakespeare play in 1613).^[26] In the end, he wrote only two pages.

Gray's Inn revels 1594-5

Gray's Inn law school traditionally held revels over Christmas where dancing and feasting were complemented by plays and masques. Prior to the 1594-5 revels, the evidence points to all the performed plays being amateur productions.^[27] In his commentary on the Gesta Grayorum, a contemporary account of the 1594-5 revels, Bland^[28] informs us that they were 'intended as a training ground in all the manners that are learned by nobility ... dancing, music, declamation, acting.' James Spedding, the Victorian editor of Bacon's Works, thought that Sir Francis Bacon was involved in writing this account.^[29]

The Gesta Grayorum^[30] is a pamphlet of 68 pages and was first published in 1688. It informs us that The Comedy of Errors received its first known performance at these revels at 9pm, 28 December 1594 (Innocents Day) when 'a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus) was played by the Players'. Whoever the players were, there is evidence that Shakspere and his company were not among them for according to the royal Chamber accounts dated 15 March 1595 (see Figure^[31]) he and the Lord Chamberlain's Men were performing for the Queen at Greenwich on Innocents Day. Chambers^[32] informs us that 'the Court performances were always at night, beginning about 10pm and ending at 1pm' so that their presence at both performances is unlikely. Furthermore, the Gray's Inn Pension Book that recorded all payments made by the Gray's Inn committee, exhibits no payment to either a dramatist or professional company for this play.^[33] Baconians interpret this as suggesting that, following precedent, The Comedy of Errors was both written and performed by Inns of Court members as part of their participation in the Gray's Inn celebrations. One problem with this argument is that the Gesta Grayorum refers to the players as "a Company of base and common fellows",^[34] which would apply well to a professional theatre company, but not to law students. However, given the jovial tone of the Gesta and given that the description occurred during a skit in which a 'Sorceror or Conjuror' was accused of causing 'disorders with a play of errors or confusions', Baconians interpret the phrase as a comic description of the Gray's Inn players. Gray's Inn actually had a company of players during the revels because the Gray's Inn Pension Book records on 11 February 1595 that "one hyndred marks [£66.67] [are] to be layd out & bestowyd upon the gentlemen for their sports and shewes this Shrovetyde at the court before the Queens Majestie".^[35]

There is evidence that Bacon had control over the Gray's Inn players. In a letter to Lord Burghley from prior to 1598, he writes "I am sorry the joint masque from the four Inns of Court faileth ... [and] there are a dozen gentlemen of Gray's Inn that will be ready to furnish a masque"^[36], and the dedication to a masque by Francis Beaumont performed at Whitehall in 1613 describes Bacon as the "chief contriver" of its performances at Gray's Inn and the Inner Temple.^[37] He also appears to have been their treasurer prior to the 1594-5 revels.^[38]

The discrepancy surrounding the whereabouts of the Chamberlain's Men is normally explained by theatre historians as an error in the Chamber Accounts. W.W. Greg suggested the following explanation:

"[T]he accounts of the Treasurer of the Chamber show payments to this company [the Chamberlain's Men] for performances before the Court on both 26 Dec. and 28 Dec ... These accounts, however, also show a payment to the Lord Admiral's men in respect of 28 Dec. It is true that instances of two court performances on one night do occur elsewhere, but in view of the double difficulty involved, it is perhaps best to assume that in the Treasurer's accounts, 28 Dec. is an error for 27 Dec."^[39]

Verbal parallels

Gesta Grayorum

The final paragraph of the Gesta Grayorum (see Figure) uses a 'greater lessens the smaller' construction that occurs in an exchange from Act 5, Scene 1 of the Merchant of Venice (1594-97):

::Ner. When the moon shone we did not see the candle

::Por. So doth the greater glory dim the less,

:::A substitute shines brightly as a King

:::Until a King be by, and then his state

:::Empties itself, as doth an inland brooke

:::Into the main of waters ...

The Merchant of Venice uses both the same theme as the Gesta Grayorum and the same three examples to illustrate it: a subject obscured by royalty, a small light overpowered by that of a heavenly body, and a river diluted on reaching the sea. Sir Francis Bacon, in an essay^[40] from 1603, makes use of two of these examples: 'The second condition [of perfect mixture] is that the greater draws the less. So we see that when two lights do meet, the greater doth darken and drown the less. And when a small river runs into a greater, it loseth both the name and stream.' A figure similar to 'loseth both the name and stream' occurs in Scene 3, Act 1 of Hamlet (1600-01):

::Hamlet. With this regard their currents turn awry

::::And lose the name of action.

Sir Francis Bacon was careful to cite his sources and he does not mention Shakespeare once in any of his work. Furthermore, Baconians claim that if the Gesta Grayorum was circulated prior to its publication in 1688 (and no one knows) then it was probably only among Inns of Court members.

Promus

In the nineteenth century, a waste book entitled the Promus of Formularies and Elegancies^[41] was discovered containing 1,655 hand written proverbs, metaphors, aphorisms, salutations and other miscellany. Although some entries appear original, many have been drawn from the Latin and Greek writers Seneca, Horace, Virgil, Ovid; John Heywood's Proverbes (1562); Michel de Montaigne's Essays (1575), and various other French, Italian and Spanish sources. Apart from a section at the end, Sir Edward Maunde-Thompson declared the writing to be in Bacon's hand, and in fact his signature appears on folio 115 verso. Only two folios of the wastebook were dated, the third sheet (5 December 1594) and the 32nd sheet (27 January 1595 [that is, 1596]). Many of these entries also occur in Shakespeare's First Folio and a few examples are given below:

Parolles. So I say both of Galen and Paracelsus (1603-5 All's Well That Ends Well, Act 2, Scene 3)

Galens compositions not Paracelsus separations (Promus, folio 84, verso)

Launce. Then may I set the world on wheels, when she can spin for her living (1589-93 The Two Gentlemen of Verona, Act 3, Scene 1)

Now toe on her distaff then she can spynne/The world runs on wheels (Promus, folio 96, verso)

Hostesse. O, that right should o'rcome might. Well of sufferance, comes ease (1598 Henry IV, Part 2, Act 5, Scene 4)

Might overcomes right/Of sufferance cometh ease (Promus, folio 103, recto)

While the orthodox view is that these are commonplace phrases, the occurrence in the last two examples of two ideas from the same Promus folio in the same Shakespeare speech must decrease this probability.

Published work

There is an example from Troilus and Cressida (2.2) that shows that both Bacon and Shakespeare shared the same interpretation of one of Aristotle's opinions.

:Hector. Paris and Troilus, you have both said well,

:And on the cause and question now in hand

:Have glozed, but superficially: not much

:Unlike young men, whom Aristotle thought

:Unfit to hear moral philosophy:

:The reasons you allege do more conduce

:To the hot passion of distemper'd blood

We find a similar view in Bacon's work: "Is not the opinion of Aristotle very wise and worthy to be regarded, 'that young men are no fit auditors of moral philosophy', because the boiling heat of their affections is not yet settled, nor tempered with time and experience?"^[42]

In fact, what Aristotle actually said was: "Hence a young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; ... and further since he tends to follow his passions his study will be vain and unprofitable ...".^[43] The added coincidence of heat and passion and the replacement of "political science" with "moral philosophy" is used by both Shakespeare and Bacon. One could argue that since Shakespeare's play precedes Bacon's publication then the latter borrowed from the former, although one needs to consider whether Bacon would have cited his source.

Raleigh's execution

James Spedding, the Victorian editor of Bacon's works, suggested that lines in Macbeth appear to refer to Sir Walter Raleigh's execution, which occurred two years after Shakespeare of Stratford's death and 14 years after the Earl of Oxford's.^[44] The lines in question are spoken by Malcolme about the execution of the "disloyall traytor / The Thane of Cawdor" (1.2.53):

:King. Is execution done on Cawdor?

:Or not those in Commission yet return’d?

:Malcolme. My Liege, they are not yet come back,

:But I have spoke with one that saw him die :

:Who did report, that very frankly hee

:Confess’d his Treasons, implor’d your Highnesse Pardon

:And set forth a deepe Repentance:

:Nothing in his Life became him,

:Like the leaving it. He dy’de,

:As one that had been studied in his death,

:To throw away the dearest thing he ow’d,

:As ‘twere a carelesse Trifle.(1.4.1)

Several sources had remarked on Raleigh’s frivolity in the face of his impending execution^[45][46] and the assertion that ‘[the Commission who tried him] are not yet come back’ could refer to the fact that his execution was swift (it took place the day after his trial for treason).^[47] Holinshed, the main source for Macbeth, mentions 'the thane of Cawder being condemned at Fores of treason against the king'^[48] without further details about his execution, so whoever wrote the lines in the play has gone beyond the original source. In Raleigh's trial at Winchester on 17 November 1603, Raleigh's statement was read out declaring that "Lord Cobham offered me 10,000 crowns for the furthering the peace between England and Spain". ^[49] In Act 1, Scene 2 of Macbeth, the King's messenger reports on the king of Norway who has been assisted by the thane of Cawdor:

:Rosse. That now

:Sweno, the Norwayes king, craves composition:

:Nor would we deigne him burial of his men,

:Till he disbursed, at Saint Colmes ynch,

:Ten thousand Dollars to our general use.

Some scholars believe that Macbeth was later altered by Middleton although a reference to Raleigh's execution in Shakespeare would be particularly advantageous to the Baconian theory because Sir Francis Bacon was one of the six Commissioners from the Privy Council appointed to examine Raleigh's case.^[50]

However, more than one Elizabethan traitor put on a brave show for their execution. In 1793, George Steevens suggested that the speech was an allusion to the death of the Earl of Essex in 1601 (a date that does not conflict with Shakespeare's or Oxford's authorship): "The behaviour of the thane of Cawdor corresponds in almost every circumstance with that of the unfortunate Earl of Essex, as related by Stow, p. 793. His asking the Queen's forgiveness, his confession, repentance, and concern about behaving with propriety on the scaffold are minutely described."^[51] As Steevens notes, Essex was a close friend of Shakespeare's patron, the Earl of Southampton. Essex also employed Bacon as an adviser in the latter's early career in Parliament, until Essex fell out of favor, and was prosecuted with Bacon's help.

Most editors of Macbeth simply assume the speech to be fictional and not a deliberate allusion to a specific event.

Criticisms

Mainstream scholars reject the Baconian theory along with other "alternative authorship" theories, citing a range of evidence against the anti-Stratfordian position, not least the fact that it relies on a conspiracy theory.

They reject the anti-Stratfordians' claim that Shakespeare had insufficient education to write the plays. It is usually pointed out that as the son of an Alderman, Shakespeare grew up in a family that had a position of some importance in Stratford, and it would be surprising if he had not attended the local grammar school. Such schools were founded to educate boys from Shakespeare's moderately well-to-do background.

They also argue that the 1623 First Folio states that Shakespeare is the plays' author,^[52] and, in his prefatory poem to the First Folio, Ben Jonson also refers to Shakespeare as the "swan of Avon", circumstantially tying the "Shakespeare" of the Folio to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon.^[53]

Stratfordian scholars often cite Occam's razor: the principle that the simplest and best-evidenced explanation (that the plays were written by Shakespeare of Stratford) is likely to be the correct one. A critique of all the alternative authorship theories can be found in Samuel Schoenbaum's Shakespeare's Lives.^[54].

See also

•  • [ e] Part of a series on the Shakespearean Authorship Question
Theories	Oxfordian theory Baconian theory Marlovian theory Chronology of Shakespeare's plays – Oxfordian
Candidates	Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford Francis Bacon Christopher Marlowe William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby Edward Dyer Henry Neville Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland Mary Sidney
Theorists and supporters	J. Thomas Looney Charlton Ogburn Irvin Leigh Matus James Wilmot Calvin Hoffman James Wilde, 1st Baron Penzance George Greenwood Mark Twain

Notes

External links

Baconian

• N. Cockburn, The Bacon–Shakespeare Question, private publication 1998 (Contents) A barrister's presentation of the evidence.
• Peter Dawkins: The Shakespeare Enigma, Polair Publ., London 2004, ISBN 0-9545389-4-3 (engl.)
• Amelie Deventer von Kunow, Francis Bacon: Last of the Tudors, trans. Willard Parker (1924)
• Penn Leary, Cryptographic Shakespeare (n.d.)
• Why I'm Not an Oxfordian, by Jerome Harner

Stratfordian

• The Shakespeare Authorship Page
• The Bard's Beard — A Time Article

Shakespeare authorship question is the debate, dating back to the 18th century, over whether the works attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon were actually written by another writer, or a group of writers.
..... Click the link for more information.

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, and essayist. He is also known as a proponent of the scientific revolution.
..... Click the link for more information.

William Shakespeare

The Chandos portrait, artist and authenticity unconfirmed. National Portrait Gallery, London.
Born: April 1564 (exact date unknown)
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
Died: 23 March 1616
Stratford-upon-Avon, Warwickshire, England
..... Click the link for more information.

Francis Bacon, 1st Viscount St Alban (22 January 1561 – 9 April 1626) was an English philosopher, statesman, and essayist. He is also known as a proponent of the scientific revolution.
..... Click the link for more information.

A courtier is a person who attends upon, and thus receives a privileged position from a powerful person, usually a head of state. In the United States, the term has taken on negative connotations as a synonym for favorite or hanger-on.
..... Click the link for more information.

Generically, in the United States and Canada, a Solicitor General or Solicitor-General is a legal officer of a city or town, or a government advocate. The term may refer to:

..... Click the link for more information.

8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.

In most common law jurisdictions, the Attorney General or Attorney-General is the main legal advisor to the government, and in some jurisdictions may in addition have executive responsibility for law enforcement or responsibility for public prosecutions.
..... Click the link for more information.

16th century - 17th century - 18th century
1580s  1590s  1600s  - 1610s -  1620s  1630s  1640s
1610 1611 1612 - 1613 - 1614 1615 1616

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.

The Lord High Chancellor of Great Britain, or Lord Chancellor is a senior and important functionary in the government of the United Kingdom. He is the second highest ranking of the Great Officers of State and is appointed by the Sovereign on the advice of the Prime Minister.
..... Click the link for more information.

8th century - 9th century - 10th century
850s  860s  870s  - 880s -  890s  900s  910s
885 886 887 - 888 - 889 890 891

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.

The Lord Chamberlain's Men was the playing company that William Shakespeare worked for as actor and playwright for most of his career. Formed at the end of a period of flux in the theatrical world of London, it had become, by 1603, one of the two leading companies of the
..... Click the link for more information.

The King's Men may refer to:

• The King's Men (playing company), William Shakespeare's playing company, led by Richard Burbage.
• The King's Men (Númenor) from J. R. R. Tolkien's fictional continents of Númenor and Middle-earth.

..... Click the link for more information.

Shakespeare authorship question is the debate, dating back to the 18th century, over whether the works attributed to William Shakespeare of Stratford-upon-Avon were actually written by another writer, or a group of writers.
..... Click the link for more information.

The Comedy of Errors is one of William Shakespeare's early plays, written between 1592 and 1594. It is his shortest and one of his most farcical: for a major part of the humour comes from slapstick and mistaken identity, added to the puns and wordplay.
..... Click the link for more information.

William Strachey (4 April 1572 – c. 1621) was an English writer, whose works are among the primary sources for the early history of the English colonization of North America.
..... Click the link for more information.

barrister is a lawyer found in many common law jurisdictions which employ a split profession (as opposed to a fused profession) in relation to legal representation. In split professions, the other type of lawyer is the solicitor.
..... Click the link for more information.

Warwickshire (pronounced IPA: /ˈwɒrɪkʃɚ/ or /ˈwɒrɪkʃɪɚ/
..... Click the link for more information.

James Wilmot (born at Warwick in 1726, died at Barton in 1808) was a Warwickshire clergyman and scholar. In 1780 Wilmot looked into records in Stratford on Avon relating to William Shakespeare.
..... Click the link for more information.

18th century - 19th century - 20th century
1770s  1780s  1790s  - 1800s -  1810s  1820s  1830s
1802 1803 1804 - 1805 - 1806 1807 1808

:
Subjects:     Archaeology - Architecture -
..... Click the link for more information.

A Long Distance Swim
W.H. Smith: "Hooray - another stroke or two and we've done it."
Cartoon satirising Smith as rowing and Lord Salisbury, Prime Minister, swimming towards the prorogation (ending) of the Parliamentary year, to escape the twin waves of Free Education
..... Click the link for more information.

Delia Bacon, a sister of Leonard Bacon, (February 2, 1811 - September 2, 1859), is best known for her work on Shakespearean authorship.

She was born in Tallmadge, Ohio and became a teacher in schools in Connecticut, New Jersey, and New York, and then, until about 1852,
..... Click the link for more information.

Sir Walter Raleigh^[1] (c.1552 – 29 October, 1618), was a famed English writer, poet, courtier and explorer. He was responsible for establishing the second English colony in the New World (after Newfoundland was established by Sir Humphrey Gilbert nearly one year
..... Click the link for more information.

Edmund Spenser (c. 1552–13 January, 1599) was an English poet and Poet Laureate. Spenser is a controversial figure due to his zeal for the destruction of Irish culture and colonisation of Ireland, yet he is one of the premier craftsmen of Modern English verse in its infancy.
..... Click the link for more information.

Rosicrucian Order is a legendary esoteric order with its roots in the Western mystery tradition. This hermetic order is viewed among earlier and many modern Rosicrucianists as a "College of Invisibles" from the inner worlds, composed of great Adepts, aiming to give assistance in
..... Click the link for more information.

secret society is an organization that conceals its activities and membership from outsiders. The term "secret society" is also often used by the general public to describe a wide range of organizations that do not fit this definition, such as collegiate fraternities and fraternal
..... Click the link for more information.

The word occult comes from the Latin occultus (clandestine, hidden, secret), referring to "knowledge of the hidden".^[1] In the medical sense it is used commonly to refer to a structure or process that is hidden, e.g. an "occult bleed.
..... Click the link for more information.

Ignatius Loyola Donnelly (November 3, 1831 – January 1, 1901) was a U.S. Congressman, populist, and writer, known primarily today for his theories on the history of Atlantis and Shakespearean authorship.
..... Click the link for more information.

worldwide view.

A Congressman or Congresswoman is a politician who is a member of a Congress. In countries with a parliament rather than a congress, MP (Member of Parliament) is used instead; however, this can be adapted (see below).
..... Click the link for more information.

worldwide view of the subject.
Please [ improve this article] or discuss the issue on the talk page.

Science fiction (abbreviated SF or sci-fi
..... Click the link for more information.

Delia Bacon Elizabeth Wells Gallup Francis Bacon Ignatius L. Donnelly

Is Shakespeare Dead? James Wilde, 1st Baron Penzance James Wilmot Lindsay Bernard Hall

Marlovian theory Orville Ward Owen Oxfordian theory Shakespeare authorship question

Walter Conrad Arensberg William Cecil, 1st Baron Burghley Wilmot (surname)