"All praise worthy Lucrecia.-Sweet Shakspeare!*

Why quote these things-surely, say the "Baconian Theorists," the contemporaries of Shakspere could not be as good judges as we are-they have all been deceived; under the light of our judicious criticisms, the cloud of their ignorance will now be dispelled. We want no collateral evidence. We rely on parallelisms-If Bacon is the author of Novum Organum, The Essays &c. &c., he must be the author of Shakspere's plays, they are the same in subject, idea and language; all other evidence is superfluous.

† Touchstone says:-" I knew when seven Justices could not take up a quarrel; but when "the parties were met themselves, one of them thought but of an IF, as If you said so,

* See Shakspere Allusion-Books, edited by C. M. Ingleby, M.A., L.L.D., &c., published by the New Shakspere Society, 1874.

† As You Like It. Act V., Sc. 4.

then I said so; and they shook hands, and swore brothers. Your If is your only peace "maker; much virtue in If."

Much virtue in that oily monysyllable If! Truly, my "motley fool," much virtue. The Baconian Theorists" are full of hypothetical and "glibbery" propositions.

If Shakspere's dedication of the first heir of his invention, "Venus and Adonis" is a deceit, or, in another word, a lie, and my Lord Southampton accepted the dedication, rewarded the filcher, called him "my especial friend" and dubb'd him "writer of some of our best English plays," without knowing any of Shakspere's antecedents [which is very improbable, unless the copia vera is a lie], where shall we seek for truth?

If Shakspere is a fraud, and my Lord Southampton an egregious dupe, there need be no further question, for it has never been doubted amongst learned critics that the sonnets, poems, and plays were the work of one and the same author.

Were Shakspere, Ben Jonson and Milton liars? were my Lords Pembroke and Southampton egregiously duped? If so, then it matters not to us who wrote the plays; all our faith in manhood will be gone, chaos will have come again and we shall ask ourselves where shall we find a man with sufficient light in himself to say Fiat Lux, and out of chaos make a Shakspere? or to endow any piece of mortality with such power of vision and faculty of thought as Shakspere? Will a whole Bench of Philosophical Jurists such as Bacon make up such a compound as Shakspere? Are all our great traditions, and glorious memories, and monuments of antiquity, and hallowed spots to

be swept away by an, If? Are we to be cheated of our heritage and birthright by a mere hypothesis or sophism? No!-nothing short of absolute proof-Something more relative we must have than Othello's handkerchief, venerated as the dying gift of his mother, endowed with supernatural virtues, embroidered with silk, spun from hallowed worms, given to

Desdemona, and found wiping the beard of Michael Cassio, ere we can doubt Shakspere's authorship! Let the "Theorists" produce in Bacon's hand writing any of the sonnets or poems attributed to Shakspere, or the hand writing of Southampton acknowledging his guilty participation in the false dedication of the "Venus and Adonis" and "Lucrece "; then, however much we may regret the discovery, we shall consent to the dethronement of Shakspere.

My Lord Southampton, by accepting the dedication, and rewarding the dedicator, has conclusively, to my mind, established the authorship of "Venus and Adonis," and "The Rape of Lucrece," unless he was guilty of simulation, a crime inconsistent with his career, and his highly chivalrous and daring spirit.

Bolingbroke says:-" Simulation and dissimulation, for instance, are the chief arts of cunning: the first will be esteemed always by a wise man unworthy of him, in every possible case. According to South, simulation is the pretending that to be which is not.

It is said that Bacon was much in the habit of writing sonnets; some of them were addressed to the Queen, some were written for Essex, to be addressed to her in his name; and one, at least, was commended by great persons.

Bacon writes in the apology concerning Essex: "A little before Michaelmas term, (1599) her Majesty had a purpose to dine at my lodge at Twickenham, at which time I had, though I profess not to be a poet, prepared a sonnet, directly tending and alluding to draw on her Majesty's reconcilement to my Lord; which I remember, also, I shewed to a great person and one of my Lord's nearest friends (Southampton?) who commended it."

This certainly smacks of simulation-Essex getting credit for a sonnet written by Bacon, and Bacon professing not to be a poet, when at the same time the Poems had been dedicated, and the Comedies and Tragedies, mentioned by Francis Meres, had been either published or acted these assuredly enough to establish a lasting reputation for any poet.