.. seldom uses more than about 3,000 or 4,000 words.
... The Hebrew Testament says all that it has to say with 5,642 words,
Milton's poetry is built up with 8,000; and Shakespeare, who probably
displayed a greater variety of expression than any writer in any
language ... produced all his plays with about 15,000 words."
Shakspeare the householder of Stratford could not have known so many as
one thousand words.
But Bacon declared that we must make our English language capable of
conveying the highest thoughts, and by the plays he has very largely
created what we now call the English language. The plays and the sonnets
also reveal their author's life.
In the play of "Hamlet" especially, Bacon seems to tell us a good deal
concerning himself, for the auto-biographical character of that play is
clearly apparent to those who have eyes to see. I will, however, refer
only to a single instance in that play. In the Quarto of 1603, which is
the first known edition of the play of "Hamlet," we are told, in the
scene at the grave, that Yorick has been dead a dozen years; but in the
1604 Quarto, which was printed in the following year, Yorick is stated
to have been dead twenty-three years.
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