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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 47
tremendous literary knowledge of the author of the
dramas.
Numerous investigators have proved beyond
doubt that the poet was not only thoroughly acquainted
with English literature, but was also equally versed in
the literatures and languages of the Romans, Greeks,
Italians, French, and Spaniards, that he possessed an
exhaustive knowledge of English
and of Roman his
tory, that he was an authority on all natural, legal,
political, and medical sciences, commanding a vocabu
lary of the English language such as hitherto no mortal
had ever called his own. He was also familiar with
the philosophic systems of the Greeks and Romans,
and with the mythology of remote antiquity, all of
which he put to good use. In short, the works,
bearing on their front the name of " William Shake
speare " are inconsistent with what we know about the
personality of the man "William Shakspere."
The contrast is still more striking when we come to
consider the periods in, and the various conditions
under, which the Shakespeare dramas were published.
At first, a whole series of those dramas, which in
subsequent, or revised editions, bear the name of
" William Shakespeare," appeared without any name,
i.e., as anonymous works ; viz., KingJohn, The Taming
of a Shrew, four King Henry plays, Richard the
Second, Richard the Third, The Comedy of Errors,
and Romeo and Juliet. All these were printed anony
mously in the years 1591 to 1598. A nobleman who
wrote plays had every reason to conceal his name, as
a playwright. Why an actor, a man of the theatrestage,
should disguise his authorship, no one can give
us a plausible reason.
And it surprises us all the more that, just
at the