meant to apply them, have no peculiar value. That they were set down, not as he read, but from memory afterwards, I infer from the fact that many of the quotations are slightly inaccurate; and because so many out of the same volume come together, and in order, I conclude that he was in the habit of sitting down, from time to time, reviewing in memory the book he had last read, and jotting down those passages which, for some reason or other, he wished to fix in his mind. This would in all cases be a good exercise for the memory, and in some cases. it may have been practised for that alone. But there is something in his selection of sentences and verses out of the poets which seems to require another explanation, for it is difficult sometimes to understand why those particular lines should have been taken, and so many others, apparently of equal merit, passed by. My conjecture is, that most of these selected expressions were connected in his mind by some association, more or less fanciful, with certain trains of thought, and stood as mottoes (so to speak) to little chapters of meditation.'

Some specimens are then given of the forms of expression and quotations which Bacon noted: the particular application of each, or the change from one subject to another, there is no hope of discovering;' but Mr. Spedding conjectures that they were connected with certain trains of thought,' to which there is at present no clue.

'In wise sentences, and axioms of all kinds, the collection, as might be expected, is rich; but very many of them are now hackneyed, and many others are to be seen to greater advantage in other parts of Bacon's works, where they are accompanied by his comments, or shown in his application. . .

"The proverbs may all, or nearly all, be found in our common collections, and the best are of course in everybody's mouth.' He therefore only thinks it worth while

See the conclusion of this chapter for evidence that the similies,

to give, as examples, a few which he considers to be amongst the least familiar to modern ears. Of the sheet which is filled with forms of morning and evening salutation, and of the sentences from the Bible and from the Adagia of Erasmus, he gives no specimens; 'for,' he says, 'I can throw no light on the principle which guided Bacon in selecting them.'

This is not the proper place for discussing the many arguments which have been held for and against the socalled 'Baconian theory' of Shakespeare's plays. Nevertheless, since the publication of these pages is the result of an investigation, the sole object of which was to confirm the growing belief in Bacon's authorship of those plays, and since the comments attached to the notes of the Promus would otherwise have no significance, it seems right to sum up in a few lines the convictions forced upon the mind with ever-increasing strength, as, quitting the broad field of generality, the inquirer pursues the narrow paths of detail and minute coincidence.

It must be held, then, that no sufficient explanation of the resemblances which have been noted between the writings of Bacon and Shakespeare is afforded by the supposition that these authors may have studied the same sciences, learned the same languages, read the same books, frequented the same sort of society. To satisfy the requirements of such a hypothesis it will be necessary further to admit that from their scientific studies the two men derived identically the same theories; from their knowledge of languages the same proverbs, turns of expression, and peculiar use of words; that they preferred and chiefly quoted the same books in the Bible and the same authors; and last, not least, that they derived from

proverbs, quotations, turns of expression, &c., which are entered in the Promus and used in the plays, were not used in previous or contemporary literature, excepting in certain rare cases, and chiefly by authors who were amongst Bacon's personal acquaintance and admirers.

See Appendix G for lists of works read in order to ascertain the truth on this point.

their education and surroundings the same tastes and the same antipathies, and from their learning, in whatever way it was acquired, the same opinions and the same subtle thoughts.

With regard to the natural, and at first sight reasonable, supposition that Bacon and Shakespeare may have 'borrowed' from each other, it would follow that in such a case we should have to persuade ourselves, contrary to all evidence, that they held close intercourse, or that they made a specific and critical study of each other's writings, borrowing equally the same kinds of things from each other; so that not only opinions and ideas, but similes, turns of expression, and words which the one introduced (and which perhaps he only used once or twice and then dropped), appeared shortly afterwards in the writings of the other, causing their style to alter definitely, and in the same respects, at the same periods of their literary lives. We should almost have to bring ourselves to believe that Bacon took notes for the use of Shakespeare, since in the Promus may be found several hundred notes of which no trace has been discovered in the acknowledged writings of Bacon, or of any other contemporary writer but Shakespeare, but which are more or less clearly reproduced in the plays and sometimes in the sonnets.

Such things, it must be owned, pass all ordinary powers of belief, and the comparison of points such as those which have been hinted at impress the mind with a firm conviction that Francis Bacon, and he alone, wrote all the plays and the sonnets which are attributed to Shakespeare, and that William Shakespeare was merely the able and jovial manager who, being supported by some of Bacon's rich and gay friends (such as Lord Southampton and Lord Pembroke), furnished the theatre for the due representation of the plays, which were thus produced by Will Shakespeare, and thenceforward called by his name.1

See The Authorship of Shakespeare, Holmes, p. 50, where the author

If this book should excite sufficient interest to encourage the writer further to encounter public criticism, it is hoped to submit hereafter the larger work from which this small one has sprung, and to show in almost every department of knowledge and opinion Bacon's mind in Shakespeare's writings.

With regard to the Promus notes, which are at present under consideration, it seems desirable to state at the outset that the passages from the plays which have been appended to the entries do not profess to be, in all cases, parallels; nor, in many cases, to be brought forward as evidence—each taken singly—of the identity of the authorship in the Promus and in the plays. Neither does the collection of extracts profess to be a complete one; for no doubt a persistent study of the notes will add more, and sometimes better, illustrations than those which have been collected. It will require the combined efforts of many minds to bring the work which has been attempted to a satisfactory state of completion, and it is not to be hoped that there should not be at present errors, omissions, and weak points which will be corrected by further study.

The extracts are inserted for many different purposes. Some are intended to show identical forms of speech or identical phrases. Such, for instance, are the two hundred short turns of expression,' many of the English proverbs, the morning and evening salutations, and a few miscellaneous notes, chiefly metaphors, as 'Haile of Perle,' the air of his behaviour,'' to enamel' for to feign,' mineral wits,' &c. Other passages show texts from the Bible, and Latin and foreign proverbs and sayings, either literally translated or apparently alluded to.

A third class of passages includes certain verbal like

shows that it was no unusual thing in those days for booksellers to set a well-known name to a book 'for sale's sake,' and that at least fifteen plays were published in Shakespeare's lifetime under his name or initials which have never been received into the genuine canon, and of which all but two, or portions of two, have been rejected by the best critics.

nesses introducing to the notice of the reader words, or uses of words, in Bacon and Shakespeare, which have not been found in previous or contemporary writers. Some of these are from the Latin or from foreign languages. Such are 'barajar,' for shuffle, 'real,' 'brazed,' 'uproused,' 'peradventure,' &c.

A fourth and very large class consists of illustrations of the manner in which the quotations which Bacon noted seem to have been utilised by him, or of quotations which, at any rate, exhibit the same thoughts cogitated, the same truths acquired, the same opinions expressed, the same antitheses used. There are, lastly, extracts from Shakespeare in which may be seen combined not only the sentiments and opinions of Bacon, but also some of his verbal peculiarities.

No one or two of these, perhaps not twenty such, might be held to afford proof that the writer of the notes was also the author of the plays; but the accumulation of so large a number of similarities of observation, opinion, and knowledge, mixed with so many peculiarities of diction, will surely help to turn the scale, or must at least add weight to other arguments in support of the so-called 'Baconian theory of Shakespeare,' of which arguments the present pages present but a fraction. It is observable that although references to the earlier plays are chiefly to be found in the notes of the earlier folios-whilst references to the later plays are abundant in the later folios—yet the later plays contain allusions to many of the earlier notes, but the earlier plays contain no allusions, or hardly any, which can be referred to the later notes, allowing for a few mistakes in the arrangement of the folios.

The subtle thoughts and highly antithetical expressions contained in folios 116 to 123b, and 128, are almost entirely absent from the early plays; whereas the turns of speech which are noted in folios 87, 126, and other places, run in increasing numbers through all the plays.

It will also be seen that in the Comedy of Errors and in