Bacon is Shake-Speare: Together with a Reprint of Bacon's Promus of Formularies and Elegancies

In Short

Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence presents a detailed argument asserting that William Shakespeare of Stratford was an unlettered actor who served merely as a mask for the true author, Francis Bacon. Through an examination of public documents, literary allusions, frontispieces, and ciphers, the author argues that the plays reflect a level of legal, classical, and courtly knowledge far beyond a country actor's reach. The volume concludes with a transcription of Bacon's Promus, a personal notebook of phrases and expressions intended to prove how Bacon constructed the literary language of the plays.

The Story

The book opens with an evaluation of the extraordinary intellectual breadth displayed in the Shakespearean canon. The author highlights that the plays exhibit an intimate acquaintance with foreign geography, court etiquette, classical antiquity, and intricate legal practice—knowledge so specialized that legal experts and scholars openly admit to struggling with its depth. Arguing that such erudition could not belong to an unlettered man who acquired his knowledge in taverns, the author dismisses traditional accounts of Shakespeare’s life as absurdities.

Turning to physical evidence, the narrative examines the monument in Stratford-upon-Avon, noting that early engravings showed a figure holding a sack or cushion rather than a pen. The five known signatures of Shakespeare are analyzed and dismissed as marks or legal clerk transcriptions, leading to the conclusion that Shakespeare was unable to write his own name. Contemporary satirical literature, such as the anonymous tract Ratsei's Ghost and the academic play The Return from Parnassus, is introduced to show that contemporaries viewed Shakespeare as an illiterate actor who grew wealthy by mouthing words written by better wits.

To explain why the true author remained hidden, the author details the extreme political hazards facing writers in the Jacobean era, citing Ben Jonson’s imprisonment and threat of mutilation over the play Eastward Hoe. Bacon’s concealment is framed as a necessary protection. The text then traces how Bacon embedded clues throughout early editions. Through visual ciphers in frontispieces—such as the portrait in the First Folio described as a mask supported by two left arms—and mathematical cipher systems based on long words like Honorificabilitudinitatibus, the author purports to reveal hidden signatures pointing directly to Bacon.

Finally, the text presents a printed transcription of Francis Bacon's Promus of Formularies and Elegancies, a private collection of thousands of aphorisms, greetings, and foreign idioms in Latin, French, Spanish, and English. The author offers this manuscript as proof of Bacon systematically inventing turn-of-phrase devices and expanding the English vocabulary to build the very plays that redefined English literature.

How It Unfolds

The literary impossibility The author demonstrates the vast classical, legal, and courtly learning embedded in the plays, arguing that no unlettered actor could possess such depth.

The evidence of the monuments and signatures An inspection of the Stratford effigy and the surviving signatures leads to the assertion that Shakespeare of Stratford could not write his own name.

The testimony of contemporaries Satirical texts like Ratsei's Ghost are analyzed to argue that contemporaries knew the Stratford actor was merely purchasing land while reciting lines framed by superior minds.

The danger of authorship The severe censorship of the era, illustrated by Ben Jonson's imprisonment, provides the motivation for Francis Bacon to adopt a pseudonym.

The cryptographic revelations Mathematical squares, page number calculations, and the famous long word Honorificabilitudinitatibus are used to uncover embedded ciphers pointing to Bacon.

The manuscript evidence A reprint of Bacon's Promus displays the raw linguistic materials, expressions, and morning greetings that Bacon compiled to enrich the plays.

The People

Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence The author and investigator who mounts a relentless campaign to dethrone Shakespeare of Stratford, seeking to restore Francis Bacon to what he considers his rightful place as the world's greatest genius.

Francis Bacon The brilliant philosopher, lawyer, and statesman whom the text frames as the true mastermind behind the plays, driven to enrich the English language while hiding his identity behind pseudonyms to survive a dangerous political climate.

William Shakespeare of Stratford Portrayed throughout the text not as a poet, but as an illiterate actor, usurer, and front man who accumulated wealth and local property while allowing his name to be used to conceal Bacon's work.

Dr. Charles William Wallace An archival researcher whose discoveries regarding Shakespeare's legal depositions in London are critiqued by the author, who contends Wallace misread law clerk handwriting as Shakespeare's own signature.

In Its Own Voice

"Every hollow Idol is dethroned by skill, insinuation and regular approach." The author opens the work with a statement on how long-held literary illusions are dismantled through methodical examination.

"I think that everybody in Stratford must have known that William 'Shackspeare' could not write so much as his own name..." In examining the monument and historical records, the author asserts the complete absence of authentic literacy on the part of the Stratford actor.

"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 text frames the creation of the plays as Bacon's deliberate project to expand and elevate the English tongue.

What It's Really About

Underneath its polemical argument, the book is about the nature of genius, elite education, and historical evidence. It wrestles with the fundamental question of whether transcendent literary art can emerge from modest origins without formal university training or legal practice. The text argues that vast vocabulary and specialized technical knowledge must directly reflect an author's documented life experiences. By attempting to solve what it perceives as an impossible historical paradox through ciphers and manuscripts, the work reveals a deep fascination with secret histories, hidden codes, and the desire to reorder the canon of English literature.

Why Read It Today

This volume offers a compelling look into the height of the Anti-Stratfordian movement at the turn of the twentieth century. Readers interested in historiography, literary controversy, and the history of ciphers will find it a captivating window into how passion and meticulous archival study can be combined to support an unorthodox thesis.

The reading experience is intense and uncompromising, shifting rapidly between legal analysis, satirical Jacobean literature, typographic examination, and raw manuscript transcription. The second half of the book requires patience, as it transitions into an unedited reprint of Bacon's Promus, filled with Latin phrases, archaic English expressions, and early modern proverbs in foreign languages. Yet, for those fascinated by the ongoing cultural obsession with Shakespeare's identity, Durning-Lawrence's work remains an indispensable historical artifact that shows how far a dedicated advocate will go to challenge accepted historical truth.

<ElicitationsGroup message="Where would you like to go next?">

{/* Reason: Provides logical next steps to explore the literary theory or historical context discussed in the text. */}

<Elicitation label="Explore the Baconian authorship theory" query="Can you explain the historical origins and key arguments of the Baconian theory of Shakespeare authorship?"/> <Elicitation label="Analyze Bacon's Promus notebook" query="What is Bacon's Promus of Formularies and Elegancies, and why is it significant in English literature?"/> <Elicitation label="Examine the First Folio ciphers" query="How did 19th and early 20th century scholars attempt to find ciphers in Shakespeare's First Folio?"/> </ElicitationsGroup>