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50 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
works state that at the fall of Wolsey, the Chancellor
of King Henry the Eighth an event which then was
not a hundred years old two gentlemen appeared, to
demand from the mighty prelate the surrendering of
the Great Seal, the sign of his dignity and high
office.
Sudden as was the fall of Wolsey, that of Francis
Bacon, the Chancellor in the year 1621, was not less
so. Once again the Great Seal was demanded, from
the disgraced minister. The individuals, however,
who, in Henry the Eighth, come to demand the
Seal from the Chancellor, are not two in number, as
stated in the history of Wolsey, but four, their names
agreeing exactly with those of the four, who in 1621,
demand the surrender of the Seal from Francis Bacon.
ask, could the actor William Shakspere know
How, I
what was going to happen on May i, 1621 ? He
had been lying buried in the church at Stratford since
1616.
The only gap, however, in the historical Shakespeare
plays, that between Richard the Third and Henry the
Eighth, Francis Bacon filled up in the year 1622 with
the only historical work bearing his name, viz., The
History of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh.
There is also a mystery attaching to the legal rights
and conditions under which the plays were printed. As
we know, the earlier prints are still looked upon as
pirated.
And yet one important fact directly contra
dicts this argument, namely, that, before its publication,
each was duly and legally entered in the registers of
Stationers' Company, so that pirated editions are
extremely improbable, and could have had but a short
existence. Besides, such registration could not possibly
be effected for any other than the person who had a