Are the words of Shakespeare really from Shakespeare?
6/15/2000
The View from Marrs by Jim Marrs challenges bureaucratic secrecy and the status quo. Big Media watch out!
Recent film releases dealing with both the person William Shakespeare and his famous works, such as Shakespeare in Love and A Midsummer Night's Dream, clearly show that interest in the Bard has not slackened since his reported death in 1616.
Nearly every person in America has been exposed to Shakespeare's works, whether in school or in a production. We all at one time or another have used a Shakespeare quote - or misquote, such as "Lead on, MacDuff" for the true line heralding MacBeth's sword fight with MacDuff, "Lay on, MacDuff, and damn'd be him that first cries, 'Hold, Enough!'"
Yet one of the most enduring mysteries in English literature concerns the person who penned the world-renowned sonnets and plays of Shakespeare, sometimes spelled Shakspere. Despite the longevity and contentiousness of this debate, most modern Americans are blissfully unaware of this controversy.
The argument began in 1852 when a prim New England spinster named Delia Bacon shocked literary circles with her contention that Shakespeare's works were actually produced by a secret Elizabethan club which included Sir Walter Raleigh, Edmund Spenser, and the noted Sir Francis Bacon, no relation to Delia.
She claimed that William Shakespeare was no more than a vulgar, illiterate stable hand and deer poacher whose name was used to shield the real authors from official reprisals. Bacon, Raleigh, and Spenser all were members of an underground company of Freemasons and Rosecrusians known as the "Baconian Circle" which quietly promoted Knights Templar philosophies that were both anti-royalty and anti-Church.
Eventually, this secret society coalesced into the famous Invisible College, which, in turn, became the still-existent scientific organization, the Royal Society.
Delia Bacon offered a compelling argument that Sir Francis Bacon was the principal author of the writings of William Shakespeare, an allegation not as ludicrous as it sounds. Ample evidence supports this contention and believers included Mark Twain, Walt Whitman, Henry James, Sigmund Freud, and poet Ralph Waldo Emerson.
It was even rumored that Bacon was actually the illegitimate child of Queen Elizabeth. Whether true or not, it is clear that some Elizabethans possessed secrets which had to be kept from the reigning authorities.
The evidence that Miss Bacon may have been correct is both considerable and largely uncontested.
Every official biography acknowledges that very little to nothing is known about the Bard's personal life and associations. Only official records mention Shakespeare, who apparently was baptized in Stratford-upon-Avon on April 26, 1564. Without any evidence, The New Encyclopedia Britannica states Shakespeare "enjoyed a grammar school of good quality" even though no list of students has ever been found. His father was listed as a bailiff of the town and the encyclopedia writers rationalized, ". . .it would be absurd to suppose the bailiff of the town did not send his son there."
No biography of Shakespeare was written for more than 100 years after his death. Additionally, not one remnant of an original Shakespeare script has ever been found, not even correspondence with producers, patrons or fellow actors and there is really no proof of his official biography as an actor and playwright other than that a certain Shakespeare did exist.
"When serious scholarship [concerning Shakespeare] began in the 18th century, it was too late to gain anything from traditions," noted authors of The New Encyclopedia Britannica. "Modern scholarship is more concerned to study Shakespeare in relation to his social environment, both in Stratford and in London. This is not easy, because the author and actor lived a somewhat detached life: a respected tithe-owning country gentleman in Stratford, perhaps, but a rather rootless artist in London."
Another document showed that in 1582, this Shakespeare married Anne Hathaway and later produced two daughters and a son, Hamnet, who died prematurely.
With little or no demonstrable schooling, one story was that Shakespeare entered the world of performing arts by tending the horses of theater patrons. What is demonstrable is that highly-placed persons provided well for the young Shakespeare and his family, which was granted a coat of arms in 1596 and purchased a large Stratford home in 1597. Was this attention merely a payoff for Shakespeare's silence regarding the true authors of the plays and sonnets?
Except for once participating in a parade for King James I, Shakespeare had no known contact with officialdom or the court.
In his will, this Shakespeare made no mention whatsoever of his literary works, left his wife merely his "2nd-best bed and furniture" and signed the document "William Shackspeare."
Upon his death on April 23, 1616, this "Shackspeare" was buried in the chancel of the parish church in Stratford-upon-Avon. While some have theorized that documents within the grave might resolve the mystery, it is clear that either he or someone else did not want any tampering as a curse was mentioned on his nameless inscription, which reads:
Good friend, for Jesus's sake forbear
To dig the dust enclose here.
Blest be the man that spares these stones,
and curst be he that moves my bones.
In the 154 Shakespeare sonnets there are cryptic references to the author's relations with certain characters such as a handsome young man, a dark woman, and a rival poet. Yet, no such persons are known to have been associated with Shakespeare.
One of the strongest arguments against Shakespeare's authorship was that the dramas and comedies evinced knowledge of history, politics, geography, and court etiquette unlikely to be found in a commoner.
In Love's Labour's Lost there supposedly was found an anagram in Latin which translated, "These plays, the offspring of F. Bacon, are preserved for the world." Acknowledged as a "master of English prose," the courtly Bacon would certainly seem the prime candidate as author of the Shakespeare material and he was connected with secret societies with plenty to hide.
Poor spinster Bacon could never provide conclusive evidence for her allegation that Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare's work and died penniless in a mental asylum near Stratford in 1859.
But the controversy she provoked continues today, another fascinating issue you are never taught in school. But then to paraphrase the Bard from Romeo and Juliet:
What's in a name?
That which we call Shakespeare by any other name would sound as sweet.
If you would like to learn more about Sir Francis Bacon and the secret Elizabethan societies and their ties to modern secret societies, be sure a get a copy of the latest book by Jim Marrs, Rule by Secrecy. And don't miss his new e-book on the U. S. Army's top-secret remote viewing program titled Psi Spies, or the most comprehensive book ever on UFOs, Alien Agenda.