"; the
historical play which so excited the ire of Queen Elizabeth. Bacon, as
we have already pointed out, succeeded in discovering a man who had
little, if any, repute as an actor, but who bore a name which was called
Shaxpur or Shackspere, which could be twisted into something that might
be supposed to be the original of Bacon's pen name of Shake-Speare.
When in 1597 through the medium of powerful friends, by means of the
bribe of a large sum of money, the gift of New Place, and the promise of
a coat of arms, this man had been secured, he was at once sent away from
London to the then remote village of Stratford-on-Avon, where scarcely a
score of people could read, and none were likely to connect the name of
their countryman, who they knew could neither read nor write and whom
they called Shak or Shackspur, with "William Shakespeare" the author of
plays the very names of which were absolutely unknown to any of them.
Bacon, when Shackspur had been finally secured in 1597, brought out in
the following year 1598 "Loues Labor's lost" with the imprint "newly
corrected and augmented by W. Shakespere," and immediately he also
brought out under the name of Francis Meres "Wits Treasury," containing
the statement that eleven other plays, including "Richard II.
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