rate in Southwark, April 6, 1609, in
which Shakespeare's name appears.
First printed in Collier's 'Memoirs
of Edward Alleyn,' 1841, p. 91. The
forged paper is at Dulwich. {369b}
1611 (November). Forged entries in Master of the
Revels' account-books (now at the
Public Record Office) of performances
at Whitehall by the King's Players of
the 'Tempest' on November 1, and of
the 'Winter's Tale' on November 5.
Printed in Peter Cunningham's
'Extracts from the Revels Accounts,'
p. 210. Doubtless based on Malone's
trustworthy memoranda of researches
among genuine papers formerly at the
Audit Office at Somerset House.
{369c}
II.--THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE CONTROVERSY.

Its source. Toby Matthew's letter.

The apparent contrast between the homeliness of Shakespeare's Stratford
career and the breadth of observation and knowledge displayed in his
literary work has evoked the fantastic theory that Shakespeare was not
the author of the literature that passes under his name, and perverse
attempts have been made to assign his works to his great contemporary,
Francis Bacon (1561-1626), the great contemporary prose-writer,
philosopher, and lawyer. It is argued that Shakespeare's plays embody a
general omniscience (especially a knowledge of law) which was possessed
by no contemporary except Bacon; that there are many close parallelisms
between passages in Shakespeare's and passages in Bacon's works, {370}
and that Bacon makes enigmatic references in his correspondence to secret
'recreations' and 'alphabets' and concealed poems for which his alleged
employment as a concealed dramatist can alone account. Toby Matthew
wrote to Bacon (as Viscount St. Albans) at an uncertain date after
January 1621: 'The most prodigious wit that ever I knew of my nation and
of this side of the sea is of your Lordship's name, though he be known by
another.' {371} This unp