The following is comparison between Bacon and Shakespeare is from Barry Clarke, an author of logic puzzles, also of a book on the Shakespeare authorship question, and also one of the notable signatories on the DoubtAboutWill Declaration:
Barry's book The Shakespeare Puzzle can be downloaded from here:
http://barryispuzzled.com/shakpuzz.pdf
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Here is a new comparison between the work of Bacon and the famous Hamlet speech which predates Bacon’s major publications. Bacon is the only authorship candidate who can be demonstrated to have had the necessary vocabulary and figures to compose this piece.
Hamlet. … The Slings and Arrowes of outrageous Fortune
… ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d …
For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time,
The Oppressors wrong, the poore man’s Contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
…When he himself might his Quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would these Fardles beare,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
… And makes us rather beare those illes we have
Than flye to others that we know not of.
… And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their Currants turne away,
And lose the name of Action …
(1600-01 Hamlet, Scene 3, Act 1)
Let us now compare this with Francis Bacon’s published work.
"… and ever as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts [a] from thee have pierced me;" (April 1621 Prayer in Lord Bacon’s first will [1])
Hamlet. … The Slings and Arrowes of outrageous Fortune
… ‘Tis a consummation
Devoutly to be wish’d …
For who would beare the Whips and Scornes of time,
The Oppressors wrong, the poore man’s Contumely,
The pangs of despised love, the law’s delay,
…When he himself might his Quietus make
With a bare bodkin? Who would these Fardles beare,
To grunt and sweat under a weary life,
… And makes us rather beare those illes we have
Than flye to others that we know not of.
… And enterprises of great pith and moment
With this regard their Currants turne away,
And lose the name of Action …
(1600-01 Hamlet, Scene 3, Act 1)
Let us now compare this with Francis Bacon’s published work.
"… and ever as my worldly blessings were exalted, so secret darts [a] from thee have pierced me;" (April 1621 Prayer in Lord Bacon’s first will [1])
Key : (a) arrows: Marcius. "Filling the air with swords advanced and darts" (1608 Coriolanus, Act 1, Scene 6)
"… the condition of man is mortal and exposed to the blows of fortune"
(1623 De Augmentis Scientarium [2])
"… others regarding it [childlessness] as the crown and consummation of felicity …" (1608 Felicem Memoriam Elizabethae [3])
"For with this state of mind there is commonly joined an indisposition to appear much in public or engage in business; because business would expose then to many neglects and scorns, by which their minds would be dejected and troubled." (1609, Wisdom of the Ancients [4])
"It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely [a] : and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity … And as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men." (1625 Of Superstition [5]) Key : (a) insulting language
"First, for the causes or parties that sue. ‘There be’ (saith the Scripture) ‘that turn judgment into wormwood’; and surely there be also that turn it into vinegar; for injustice maketh it bitter, and delays make it sour."
(1625 Of Judicature [6])
There is no justification for classifying the following example as commonplace.
"Your two last acts which you did for me, in procuring the releasement of my fine and my Quietus est, I do acknowledge were effects real and material of your love and favour;" (Bacon's 1621 Letter to the Marquis of Buckingham [7])
"… a man might wish to die, not only from fortitude or misery or wisdom, but merely from disgust and weariness of life …" (1623 De Augmentis Scientarium [8])
"Revenge triumphs over death; Love slights it; Honour aspireth to it; Grief flieth to it;" (1625 Of Death [9])
"But in enterprises, pursuits and purposes of life there is much variety"
(1623 De Augmentis Scientarium [10])
"… for Aphorisms, except they should be ridiculous, cannot be made but of the pith and heart of sciences;" (1605 Advancement of Learning [11])
"… to place as it were before the eyes … the courses and currents of actions"
(1623 De Augmentis Scientarium [12])
"And when a small river runs into a greater, it loseth both the name and stream." (1603 A Brief Discourse touching the Happy Union of the Kingdom of England and Scotland [13])
By way of comparison, Shake-speare’s nearest rival as a poet was Ben Jonson and in his Timber: Or Discoveries (1641), a work of some 33,000 words, he makes use of four of the above: “… it shall not fly from all humanity”[14]; “… if refused [coining of new word], the scorn is assured”[15]; “… these styles [of languages] vary, and lose their names”[16]; and “… as if the contumely respected their particular …”[17]. However, the first two examples appear in Bacon’s Essays which Jonson assisted in translating into Latin before the Timber appeared, and they all appear in Shake-speare’s First Folio (1623), the publication of which appears to have involved Benjamin Jonson.
[1] Bacon, Francis, “Of Gardens”, in Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625), Francis Bacon The Major Works (Oxford University Press : 2002), p.430
[2] Spedding 5.230
[3] Bacon, Francis, De Augmentis Scientarium, Book VII (1623) Chap II, p.1
[4] Spedding 6.310, English translation
[5] Spedding 6.705
[6] Bacon, Francis, “Of Superstition”, in Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625), Francis Bacon The Major Works (Oxford University Press : 2002), p.373
[7] Bacon, Francis, “Of Judicature”, in Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625), Francis Bacon The Major Works (Oxford University Press : 2002), pp.446-447
[8] Spedding 14.316
[9] Bacon, Francis, De Augmentis Scientarium, Book VII (1623) Chap. II, p.11
[10] Bacon, Francis, “Of Death”, in Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625), Francis Bacon The Major Works (Oxford University Press : 2002), p.343
[11] Bacon, Francis, De Augmentis Scientarium, Book VII (1623) Chap. II, p.11
[12] Bacon, Francis, Advancement of Learning (1605), Francis Bacon The Major Works, (Oxford University Press : 2002), p.234
[13] Spedding 4.302
[14] Spedding 10.98
[15] Jonson, Benjamin, Timber: or Discoveries made upon men and matter (Cassell : 1889), p.53; first published in 1641 four years after Jonson died
[16] Ibid., p.113
[17] Ibid., p.120
"… the condition of man is mortal and exposed to the blows of fortune"
(1623 De Augmentis Scientarium [2])
"… others regarding it [childlessness] as the crown and consummation of felicity …" (1608 Felicem Memoriam Elizabethae [3])
"For with this state of mind there is commonly joined an indisposition to appear much in public or engage in business; because business would expose then to many neglects and scorns, by which their minds would be dejected and troubled." (1609, Wisdom of the Ancients [4])
"It were better to have no opinion of God at all, than such an opinion as is unworthy of him. For the one is unbelief, the other is contumely [a] : and certainly superstition is the reproach of the Deity … And as the contumely is greater towards God, so the danger is greater towards men." (1625 Of Superstition [5]) Key : (a) insulting language
"First, for the causes or parties that sue. ‘There be’ (saith the Scripture) ‘that turn judgment into wormwood’; and surely there be also that turn it into vinegar; for injustice maketh it bitter, and delays make it sour."
(1625 Of Judicature [6])
There is no justification for classifying the following example as commonplace.
"Your two last acts which you did for me, in procuring the releasement of my fine and my Quietus est, I do acknowledge were effects real and material of your love and favour;" (Bacon's 1621 Letter to the Marquis of Buckingham [7])
"… a man might wish to die, not only from fortitude or misery or wisdom, but merely from disgust and weariness of life …" (1623 De Augmentis Scientarium [8])
"Revenge triumphs over death; Love slights it; Honour aspireth to it; Grief flieth to it;" (1625 Of Death [9])
"But in enterprises, pursuits and purposes of life there is much variety"
(1623 De Augmentis Scientarium [10])
"… for Aphorisms, except they should be ridiculous, cannot be made but of the pith and heart of sciences;" (1605 Advancement of Learning [11])
"… to place as it were before the eyes … the courses and currents of actions"
(1623 De Augmentis Scientarium [12])
"And when a small river runs into a greater, it loseth both the name and stream." (1603 A Brief Discourse touching the Happy Union of the Kingdom of England and Scotland [13])
By way of comparison, Shake-speare’s nearest rival as a poet was Ben Jonson and in his Timber: Or Discoveries (1641), a work of some 33,000 words, he makes use of four of the above: “… it shall not fly from all humanity”[14]; “… if refused [coining of new word], the scorn is assured”[15]; “… these styles [of languages] vary, and lose their names”[16]; and “… as if the contumely respected their particular …”[17]. However, the first two examples appear in Bacon’s Essays which Jonson assisted in translating into Latin before the Timber appeared, and they all appear in Shake-speare’s First Folio (1623), the publication of which appears to have involved Benjamin Jonson.
[1] Bacon, Francis, “Of Gardens”, in Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625), Francis Bacon The Major Works (Oxford University Press : 2002), p.430
[2] Spedding 5.230
[3] Bacon, Francis, De Augmentis Scientarium, Book VII (1623) Chap II, p.1
[4] Spedding 6.310, English translation
[5] Spedding 6.705
[6] Bacon, Francis, “Of Superstition”, in Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625), Francis Bacon The Major Works (Oxford University Press : 2002), p.373
[7] Bacon, Francis, “Of Judicature”, in Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625), Francis Bacon The Major Works (Oxford University Press : 2002), pp.446-447
[8] Spedding 14.316
[9] Bacon, Francis, De Augmentis Scientarium, Book VII (1623) Chap. II, p.11
[10] Bacon, Francis, “Of Death”, in Essays or Counsels Civil and Moral (1625), Francis Bacon The Major Works (Oxford University Press : 2002), p.343
[11] Bacon, Francis, De Augmentis Scientarium, Book VII (1623) Chap. II, p.11
[12] Bacon, Francis, Advancement of Learning (1605), Francis Bacon The Major Works, (Oxford University Press : 2002), p.234
[13] Spedding 4.302
[14] Spedding 10.98
[15] Jonson, Benjamin, Timber: or Discoveries made upon men and matter (Cassell : 1889), p.53; first published in 1641 four years after Jonson died
[16] Ibid., p.113
[17] Ibid., p.120
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