Epilogue

A Summary Of What Is Recorded Of The Whereabouts And Doings From Time To Time Of
Francis Bacon And William Shakspere.

1560
Francis Bacon, Born January 22, At York House, London. His early education could not have been in better hands. Nicholas and Lady Bacon were distinguished for character and scholarship.

1564
William Shakspere, baptized at Stratford, April 26, 1564; born of illiterate parents. Despite Lee’s positive statement to the contrary there is not a shred of proof that his father could write his name. In all cases he made his mark.

I572-I577
Francis Bacon, phenomenally precocious, was reared amid intellectual surroundings. His attainments were such that before twelve his bust was made, and before eighteen his portrait was painted and inscribed “Could we but behold his mind.” At this time he had “run through the whole circle of the liberal arts,” and, dissatisfied with the methods of education then practiced, was devising means for improving them. It is said that he had acquired a knowledge of Hebrew, Greek, Latin, Spanish, Italian, and French. He was sent in 1577 with Sir Amyas Paulet, the British Ambassador, to the Court of France, where he mingled with the most exalted statesmen and wits of that brilliant period, and acquired knowledge of foreign courts and politics. Such proficiencies are freely displayed in the Shakespeare Works.
Shakspere is supposed to have attended the Grammar School for a short time. Is supposed to have been removed from this school and apprenticed at the age of thirteen to a butcher, his father being in financial distress.

1579
Bacon called home, Sir Nicholas Bacon having died, bequeathing his property to Anthony and other children, but Francis virtually unprovided for. Lady Bacon provides him a home at Gorhambury, St. Albans; studies law “against the bent of his genius” Evidence that he was on the Continent some time in 1580-81.

1582
Bacon admitted to the Bar. Between 1579 and this date Reed assigns production of King John, Henry V., and King Lear.
Shakspere marries, November 28, Anne Hathaway, an illiterate, under disreputable circumstances. Traditions of poaching and drinking-bouts survive. Six months later (May 26) daughter Susanna born.

1584
Bacon, well versed in law and state affairs, writes letter of advice to the Queen, who accepts it “graciously.” Between this date and 1582, Reed assigns Pericles, Titus Andronicus, and Two Gentlemen of Verona.

1585-86
Bacon writes Greatest Birth of Time, forerunner of Advancement of Learning. Malone assigns The Contention, or Henry VI., to this period; its author’s “earliest complete drama,” says Phillipps. The play is cast in the province of France, where Bacon had resided, and in England. Its scenes are laid in localities especially familiar to him Westminster Abbey, Temple Grafton, Parliament House, and Saint Albans.
Shakspere’s children, Hamnet and Judith, born.

1587
Bacon assists in presenting, at Gray’s Inn Revels, an anonymous play, The Tragedy of Arthur, a reminiscence of King John, containing many extracts found in his notebook, the Promus. Between 1585-87, Reed places Hamlet, Taming of the Shrew, and Comedy of Errors; in 1588, Love’s Labours Lost. Furnivall agrees; Staunton thinks 1587-91. The scene is laid at the Court of Navarre where Bacon passed the romantic springtime of his life in close intimacy with the brilliant men and women who composed it. Anthony Bacon, attached to the foreign diplomatic corps, residing in Italy, was in constant correspondence with Francis. During this period Italian plays were produced; actors in four of them named Antonio, Italian for Anthony. The scenes where these plays were laid, Rome, Venice, Padua, Milan, Vienna, etc., were familiar to Anthony and Francis.
Shakspere, forsaking the trade of butcher’s apprentice, wife, and children, flees on foot to London to escape prosecution for stealing deer and rabbits. Reaching London, a rude peasant speaking the “patois” of Warwickshire, says Phillipps, he finds employment in Burbage’s stable. Hamlet, an anonymous play then on the stage, the same play that the best critics now admit is in the canon.

1588-89
Bacon in Parliament. He writes Advertisement Touching the Controversies of the Church; is given reversion of clerkship in Star Chamber yielding no immediate salary. Delius assigns this date to Venus and Adonis; others even earlier.
Shakspere “a servitor” in the company of Burbage. Is mentioned in a bill of complaint against John Lambert of Stratford.
Bacon residing at Gray’s Inn with intervals at Gorhambury and Twickenham. During four years, though a man never idle, he published no works under his own name. He writes Lord Burghley that he has “vast contemplative ends,” but “moderate civil ends,” and that “philanthropia is so fixed” in his “mind that it cannot be removed.” The Queen visits him at Twickenham and he presents her with a sonnet. To this period is attributed The Two Gentlemen of Verona, and by some Henry VI. Anthony Bacon returns from abroad.

1592
Francis and Anthony secretaries to the Earl of Essex, whose extravagance leaves salaries unpaid. Francis, who has given bond for “two months” to a Jew, is sued and imprisoned. Anthony relieves him by mortgage on his property. The faithful friend in the play of the Merchant of Venice is another
Antony, a good likeness of the Anthony whom Spedding depicts. 1
Henry VI., acted by Lord Strange’s men. Shakspere’s personal description, comporting with what is hitherto known of him, is given by Greene. Venus and Adonis, is published with name William Shakespeare on the title-page. In the dedication to Bacon’s friend, Southampton, the author says, it is “the first heir of mine invention,” which would carry it back to a much earlier date.
Bacon publishes reply to attack upon the Government, and espouses popular cause, to displeasure of Burghley and the Queen. Obliged by plague he leaves Gray’s Inn, suspending his lectures there, and takes refuge at Twickenham, “not to play and read, but to pursue philosophy, and to discuss the laws of thought.”
Shakspere’s name, for the first time since coming to London, appears in a list of actors in a Christmas play before the Queen.

1594
Bacon’s Promus begun, December 5. It contains 1.560 phrases, poetical expressions, quotations, and proverbs from various languages for use in literary composition. These are found scattered throughout the Shakespeare Works, as well as Bacon’s philosophical works, especially after this date. The Christmas Masque at Gray’s Inn proves a failure, and Bacon is solicited for aid “in recovering” its “lost honour.” Lady Bacon is greatly disturbed at the connection of Anthony and Francis with dramatic performances.
Lucrece, dedicated to Bacon’s friend, Southampton, is published. Richard II., and Richard III., appear and II Henry VI. Bacon, “poor and sick working for bread.” Essex, in debt to the Bacons for salary, asks the Queen to appoint Francis Solicitor-General. Angered by him, she refuses, and Essex conveys to him land adjoining Twickenham valued at eighteen hundred pounds. The Queen forgives Essex, who entertains on the Queen’s Day. Bacon composes The Device of an Indian Prince for the occasion. He writes in notebook, Law at Twickenham for ye merry tales; writes Essex that “Law drinketh too much time dedicated to better purposes.”

1595
After “a great consultation for the recovery of their honour,” carried on in amusing manner, on January 3, an entertainment, “one of the most elegant, that was ever presented to an audience of statesmen and courtiers,” entitled the Order of the Helmet, is produced, and the lost honour of Gray’s Inn is saved by Bacon. Midsummer Night’s Dream, All’s Well that ends Well, and The Merchant of Venice presumably were written. III Henry VI., published; Collins says, “All’s Well perhaps produced in 1593 or 1594, under title Love’s Labour’s Won.” 2 In this play we find “the law for ye merry tales,” which greatly impressed Lord Campbell by the author’s accurate knowledge of law.
Shakspere listed on subsidies tax list in St. Helens, Bishopsgate.

1596
Bacon writes Colours of Good and Evil and Meditationae Sacrae.
The Lord Chamberlain’s Company before the Queen. She pays Burbage, Shakspere, and Kempe the sum of twenty pounds. Shakspere returned as defaulter in subsidy tax in St. Helens. His son, Hamnet dies August.

1597
Bacon speaks in Parliament against enclosures January 30. Writes his friend Mathews, of “Works of his Recreation,” and that “Tragedies and Comedies are made of one Alphabet.” His Essays, dedicated to Anthony, published. Romeo and Juliet, Richard II., and Richard III., the two latter partly rewritten and published anonymously.
Shakspere is recorded living near “Bear Garden, Southwark.” Buys New Place, Stratford. Is taxed at St. Helens. Is returned as householder in Chapel Street, Stratford, and as owner of ten quarters of corn.

1598
Bacon is embarrassed by the Queen’s anger because of a pamphlet by Hayward based upon the play of Richard II.; I Henry IV., and Love’s Labours Lost published; the latter, first drama bearing name William Shake-speare. Says Lee: “Love’s Labour’s Lost embodies keen observation of contemporary life in many ranks of society, both in town and country, while the speeches of the hero, Biron, clothe much sound philosophy in masterly rhetoric, contemporary projects of Academics for disciplining young men, fashions of speech and dress current in fashionable society; recent attempts on the part of Elizabeth’s government to negotiate with the Tsar of Russia; the inefficiency of rural constables and the pedantry of village schoolmasters and curates, are all satirized good humour. 3 Lee here summons before us the personality of Bacon, not of the Stratford actor.
Bacon proffers Burghley a masque at Gray’s Inn; he writes, “It happened that Her Majesty had a purpose to dine at Twickenham Park at which time I had prepared a sonnet, directly tending, and alluding to draw on Her Majesty’s reconcilement to my lord (of Essex).”
Shakspere is “supposed to have played in Jonson’s Every Man in his Humour; “supposed” part Old Knowell. Again taxed in St. Helens. Bought stone to repair his house. Is written to by friends about buying some odd yardland at Shottery and loans of money. Phillipps says: “It is certain, that his thoughts were not at this time absorbed by literature, or the stage. So far from this being the case, there are good reasons for concluding that they were largely occupied with matters relating to pecuniary affairs. He was then considering the advisability of purchasing an “odd yardland or other” in the neighbourhood.”

1599-1600
Bacon busy with his literary work and a scriptorium which he and Anthony are carrying on. Employs Ben Jonson and others writing for it.
Shakspere fraudulently obtains confirmation of coat of arms, formerly applied for by his father, which causes protest to be made to the Herald-at-Arms, and excites ridicule among the wits and writers of the metropolis.
Essex is prosecuted for treason. Bacon endeavours to placate the Queen. Drafts letters for Essex to that end. Bacon writes the Queen about the condition of Lady Bacon, who is lapsing into insanity, a subject so well treated in Hamlet and Lear, that alienists have admiringly commented upon it. Henry V., Midsummer Night’s Dream, Merchant of Venice, Much Ado, and Titus Andronicus, published. Shakspere recovers debt of seven pounds of John Clayton, London.

1601
Bacon, studying in his “poor cell” at Gray’s Inn, removes to Twickenham. By command of the Queen he conducts the prosecution of Essex. Essex is executed. Anthony dies. Furnivall assigns Julius Caesar to this date and cites this contemporary allusion: “The lesson of Julius Caesar is that vengeance, death, shall follow rebellion for insufficient cause, for misjudging the political state of one’s country and taking unlawful means to obtain your ends.” 4

1602
In May Shakspere purchases 107 acres of land in Old Stratford, and September 28 a cottage and garden near New Place; plants an orchard.

1603
Elizabeth dies. Everybody about Court anxious to be brought to the notice of James, their living depending upon his favour. Bacon writes Sir John Davis, known as a poet, then on his way to meet the King, desiring him “to be good to concealed poets,” and remember him with a good word when at Court. His Valerius Terminus published. In Parliament Bacon speaks against abuses in weights and measures, and in favour of repealing superfluous laws. Writes Certain Considerations Touching the Better Pacification of the Church of England, and the beginning of the Advancement of Learning. Measure for Measure is played for the first and only time, until after publication twenty years later, when it was played at Pembroke House, Wilton, to entertain the King who was attending the trial of Ralegh at Winchester. In this play we meet Bacon face to face, and hear again what he has said about “absolute” and “sleeping” laws: the “law’s delay,” “judicature,” abuses of weights and measures, etc. It has been suggested that Isabella’s speech was introduced in Ralegh’s behalf to incline the King’s heart to mercy. Merry Wives of Windsor is also published.

1604
Bacon writes Apology in Certain Imputations concerning the Late Earl of Essex, and four Drafts and Acts of Proclamations: appointed a member of the Learned Counsel, and chosen spokesman for Committees of Conference with House of Lords.
Othello is attributed by Delius to this year, and Lear by others. Shakspere is listed with other actors as licensed by the King; “supposedly” acts in Jonson’s play of Sejanus; walks in procession from the Tower to Westminster with other actors, and is allowed four yards and a half of scarlet cloth to deck himself withal. Sues Rogers, a neighbour, for one pound, fifteen shillings and ten pence, for malt delivered him on several occasions; is listed as holding a cottage and garden in Stratford.

1605-06
Bacon publishes two books of Advancement of Learning. Spedding says, prorogation of Parliament gave him best part of year for literary work. Proposes to Lord Chancellor to write history of Great Britain. Marries daughter of Lady Packington; third edition of Essays published by Jaggard who printed the Shakespeare Folio. A Lover’s Complaint written about this time; Sonnet XII reveals thoughts on youth and age.
Shakspere buys moiety of the tithes of Old Stratford and adjoining parishes for four hundred and forty pounds. Is bequeathed “a thirty shillinges peece in goold” by Phillips, a fellow actor. The company to which he belongs performs King Lear and Macbeth, at Whitehall, December 26, 1606, but his name is not mentioned. Is engaged in trade and agriculture; listed in Stratford as holder of copyhold estate.

1607
Bacon is promoted to the office of Solicitor-General. Is interested in founding colony in Virginia; comparatively free from public business this year.
Shakspere’s daughter, Susanna, marries Dr. Hall at Stratford.

1608-09
Bacon is near nervous breakdown affecting his “imagination” seriously. His good friend, Sir Tobie Matthews, becomes a Roman Catholic, is banished. Bacon secures suspension of decree, and, subsequently, befriends him; is abused therefore.
Pericles and A Yorkshire Tragedy on the stage. Bacon in correspondence with Matthews to whose critical judgment he submits his manuscripts; speaks of his scientific and historical works, and of “other writings” and “the little work of my recreation.”
Troilus and Cressida published, also the Sonnets, dedicated to Bacon’s lifelong friend, William Herbert.
Shakspere recovers suit against John Adenbrook for seven pounds, four shillings, and, upon failure to pay, sues his bondsman. Godfather to son of William Walker, a neighbour. Purchases twenty acres of pasture land of Combe. The company to which he belongs is at the Blackfriars, but his name not mentioned.

1610-12
Bacon begins a history of Great Britain.
Cymbeline and Winter’s Tale attributed by Delius to this date. The latter contains Bacon’s horticultural observations. Is member of the Virginia Company with his friends, Southampton, Pembroke, and Montgomery, who send Sir John Somers to West Indies; his ship wrecked on Bermudas; the “still vexed Bermoothes.” To this voyage is due The Tempest, written soon after, which embodies so many of the results of Bacon’s studies as to distinctly fix its authorship. 5 It was played before the King, November I, 1611.
Shakspere’s name was not mentioned as present.
Bacon is made Secretary of State; takes principal part in masque at Gray’s Inn.
Shakspere’s estate, bought of the Combes, fined. His name appears in a lawsuit, and he is also engaged in litigation over his share in the tithes bought on speculation seven years before.

1613
Bacon appointed Attorney-General. Wrote masque which he presented at Gray’s Inn in honour of the Earl of Somerset, which cost him two thousand pounds; refused to permit others to contribute, though Yelverton desired to subscribe five hundred pounds.
Henry VIII., ascribed to this date. Shakspere is still at Stratford engaged in petty trade according to Phillipps; attentive to business, growing in estate, purchasing farms, houses, and tithes in Stratford, bringing suits for small sums against various persons for malt delivered, money loaned, and the like; carrying on agricultural pursuits, and other kinds of traffic. The best evidence we can produce exhibits him as paying more regard to his solid affairs than to his profession. It seems that he must have practically deserted the stage shortly after the purchase of his Stratford home.
June 29, the Globe Theatre is burned; his name is not mentioned. Burbage is employed by Lord Rutland’s steward to paint his master’s cognizance, or “impresso,” as it was called, for a celebration at the castle of Belvoir. This was a coat of arms with coarse mantlings gaudily painted on canvas or boards to impress the gaping mob with the importance of their lord. His former associate residing in the vicinity, Burbage procures his assistance, and Shakspere is paid for his services forty-four shillings. Buys with three others house near Blackfriars in London for one hundred and forty pounds; mortgages it back for sixty pounds; “was unpaid at his death.” 6

1614-15
Bacon is returned Member of Parliament for Cambridge University; engaged in the trial of Earl and Countess of Somerset, et al., for poisoning Sir Thomas Overbury.
Shakspere, at Stratford, shrewdly secures an agreement to indemnify him from loss in his old investment in the tithes. John A. Combe dies and leaves Shakspere five pounds; is said to have composed an epitaph for his benefactor, which Phillipps discredits, as he may well do for one he supposes to be the author of the Shakespeare Works. Shakspere conspires to acquire certain common land in the purlieus of Stratford by enclosure.
Correspondence and notes in Greene’s diary reveal the actor’s interest in this unjust proceeding. April 26, 1615, a petitioner with others to Chancellor Egerton to compel Mathew Bacon to deliver up certain papers relative to title of the Blackfriars property.

1616
Bacon is made Privy Councillor. Projects a compilation and revision of the laws of England.
Shakspere dies after an illness superinduced by having “drank too hard,” leaving will covering his minutest belongings, cutting off his wife with “second best bed.” His children were reared in profound ignorance, yet his partisans ask us to believe that he wrote that Ignorance is the curse of God; Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven. He was never a manager of a theatre, and the particulars concerning him in this summary may all be found in Rowe, Malone, Knight, Phillipps, Furnivall, Lee, and other authors of biographies of him, and of Bacon in Rawley, Montagu, and Spedding.
With respect to the Shakespeare Works, it is proper to here repeat that seven years after the actor’s death, they were collected and printed in a volume the First Folio, by Jaggard, Bacon’s printer, and that this volume contained, of the fifty-two dramas since attributed to the author of the Shakespeare Works, thirty-six, twenty of which had never before been published, and several never before known. Many of these had been enlarged by additions after the actor’s death, unmistakably by their original author, and all of them are found to contain hundreds of extracts or expressions found in Bacon’s notebook, and his other works. This is so significant that to escape a fatal dilemma some critics have adopted the impossible theory that the actor and philosopher collaborated.
We have endeavoured to embody in this summary every fact and tradition recorded relative to the Stratford actor. The reader will see that, despite Mr. Lee’s dogmatic assertions to the contrary, not a single fact of importance in its bearing upon his life and authorship has been added to the common stock of knowledge regarding him which existed when Nicholas Rowe wrote his misleading Life, and we ask, “Does not what we have here recorded point unmistakably to the conclusion, that when he purchased his home in Stratford in 1597, he took up his permanent residence there, making an occasional visit to London, as Phillipps has suggested, and that from about this time till his death he was engaged in trade as his father had been, dealing in land, and other local products, especially wool, as the wool sack upon his original monument indicated?”
Every possible effort has been made to show that he continued his titular profession, but beyond the enrolment of his name in two or three instances with other actors, without assignment of parts, which might have been done if he were a shareholder, nothing appears. Phillipps, impressed by the absence of knowledge respecting his theatrical employment, laboriously traced for a period of twenty years, ending with the date of his death, the movements of the company with which he had been connected in London “his company” and though he gathered the records of its performances in all the principal towns which it visited during that period, he was obliged to acknowledge that his name nowhere appeared among the names of his former associates; indeed, Greene’s description of him as a factotum, or man of all work, seems to have been an accurate one, which his subsequent employment by Burbage in arranging the decorations for the show at Belvoir Castle in 1613 accentuates. He had acquired by some means a few hundred pounds, and would hardly have had an incentive to remain in a profession in which “the top of his performance was the ghost in Hamlet,” and according to John Davies, “kingly parts in sport.”
Even Oldys’s story of his impersonation of an old man, Phillipps dismisses as containing “several discrepancies,” without “a glimmering of truth.” 7 Though forced to make this important admission, that “there is no reason for believing that he was ever one of the royal actors” he has to console his readers with the suggestion that “we may be sure that he must have witnessed either at Stratford or London some of the inimitable performances of the company’s star, the celebrated Richard Tarleton.” Such consolation would be funny were it not pitiable. The same may be said of the oft-repeated story that he wrote the Merry Wives of Windsor at the Queen’s command; there is nothing to sustain it. The wonder is that so many towering fabrics have been reared upon such flimsy foundations.