Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AXD HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 313
age, I very carefully produced my first specimens of the writing
on such sheets of old paper as had no marks whatever. Having
heard it frequently stated that the appearance of such marks
on the papers would have greatly tended to establish their validity,
I listened attentively to every remark which was made
upon the subject, and from thence I at length gleaned the intelligence
that a jug ivas the prevalent water-mark of the reign of
Elizabeth, i in consequence of which I inspected all the sheets of
old paper then in my possession, and, having selected such as had
the jug upon them, I produced the succeeding manuscripts upon
these,' being careful, however, to mingle with them a certain
number of blank leaves, that the production on a sadden of so
many water-marks might not excite suspicion in the breasts of
those persons who were most conversant with the manuscripts."
" Thus," continues our guide, " this notorious literary forgery,
through the cunning ingenuity of the perpetrator, ultimately
proved so successful as to deceive many learned and able critics
of the age. Indeed, on one occasion, a kind of certificate was
drawn up, stating that the undersigned names were affixed by
gentlemen who entertained no doubt whatever as to the validity
of the Shakspearian production, and that they voluntarily
gave such public testimony of their convictions upon the subject.
To this document several names were appended by persons
as conspicuous for their erudition as they were pertinacious
in their opinions. " 2
And so the little accurate information which is vouchsafed to us
poor "profani," standing in the outer courts, the few acorns
which are dropped for our nourishment from the wide-spreading
tree of knowledge, begin and end in Shakespeare. In Shakespeare
we read of the erection of the first great paper-mill —
an anachronism being perpetrated to facilitate the record. In
the forged Shakespeare manuscripts, the workings of that same
paper-mill, and the handing down of Bacon's lamp of tradition,
are even now to be seen. These signs are so sure as to have
gulled the learned, " as conspicuous for their erudition as for
their pertinacity.
l Readers are invited to bear in mind this sentence in italics.
1 Po.jw and Pa^er-maldnr/, p. iii.