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Bacon, Marlowe & Stanely Authorship Arguments

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Sir Francis Bacon (Lord Verulam),

"Those things which are explained in the prose works of Bacon are to be found repeated, or alluded to, or forming the basis of beautiful metaphors and similes, in the Plays. And the vocabulary of Bacon and Shakespeare is to a surprising degree the same." Constance Pott.

Like Edward De Vere, it is believed that Sir Francis Bacon wrote under the nom de plume of "Shakespeare" to hide his royal background and to abide Rosicrucian order, were anonymity had to be maintained for a hundred years.

A major proof that Sir Francis Bacon truly authored the the Bard's plays is the "Northumberland Manuscript". This bore both Shakespeare’s name and Sir Francis Bacon’s. It also mentions by name the plays Richard II and Richard III. Tellingly, it included the phrase 'by Francis William Shakespeare', and the words, 'essays by the same author'. This has been used to prove Sir Francis Bacon used the name "Shakespeare" as a nom de plume.

Sir Francis Bacon’s eligibility as the true author of Shakespeare’s work rests in his legal knowledge and general education. It is known that Bacon was familiar with Rosicrucian, Hermetic, Kabbalistic and Neoplatonic themes. The poem Venus and Adonis, As You Like It, and Love’s Labour’s Lost all feature Rosicrucian themes but this does not mean Sir Francis wrote them; only that he was in a position to write about Rosicrucian themes.

Unfortunately this is where the similarity ends as the Bard discusses legal concepts and terms far more abstractly than Bacon. Even worse for Bacon supporters is the question of where Bacon could find the time to write 37 plays, and 154 sonnets, and act in many of these own plays whilst leading a double life.

Furthermore the claim that Bacon authored Shakespeare’s poetry suffers from the fact that Bacon’s poetry is abrupt and stilted unlike the Bard's. Bacon supporters reply that Francis Bacon’s Promus is the only surviving collection of terms and phrases which occur commonly in Shakespeare’s plays. Unfortunately this does not mean Bacon authored them. Like Stratfordians, evidence for authorship is highly subjective.

Christopher Marlowe.

The biggest problem Marlowe suffers is he died in 1593, too early to author many of the famous plays and to appear before Queen Elizabeth and James I. Furthermore, all the plays he wrote were published after his death and attributed to him personally. Why weren’t 37 other plays and 154 sonnets attributed posthumously as well. Stylistically, Marlowe has little in common with the Bard and so is a poor contender in the authorship debate.

William Stanley (Sixth Earl of Derby).

Only two documents, dated around 1599, form the basis of Stanley’s claim. Unfortunately they only contend that Stanley "busied only in penning comedies for the common players," and is said to take " delight in the players". This does not prove Stanley was wrote 37 plays and 154 sonnets. Furthermore Stanley lived beyond the publishing date of the 1623 First Folio. This clearly states that Shakespeare was dead.

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