There is a
little book with this title containing 154 Sonnets
dealing with a number of different
subjects. The Stratfordians say that these Sonnets
were written by Will Shakspere of Stratford,but they
offer no explanation of the fact that Shakspere has
changed his name from Shakspere to Shake-spear. The
name Shake-spear is not the name of any person but
is a "nom-de-plume" derived from the Greek goddess
Pallas Athene, who in statuary art is depicted as
holding a spear striking at a serpent representing
ignorance. These Sonnets are
autobiographic and are a poetical record of the feelings
and experiences of the man who wrote them. We find
in these Sonnets direct and emphatic allusions to the
life of the author but they cannot be
reconciled with any known account of the life of Will
Shakspere. It is quite clear that these Sonnets are
telling us a story of some sort, staring us in the face
if we could only see it. These Sonnets are the
keys to unlock the great secret of the true
authorship which has to be discovered. If the
greatest problem in literature is
the authorship of the Shakspeare plays and
poems-then the greatest mystery
is the riddle of Shakespear's Sonnets.
The words on the title page of this book are as
follows:
"Shake-spears Sonnets-never
before imprinted-at London- by G. Eld for T.T.
and are to be solde by John Wright dwelling at Christ
Church Gate 1609."
In the middle of this title page is a
blank space between two lines. If
Shakspere wrote these Sonnets, we would naturally expect
that his name would appear on the title page or at any
rate that the publisher, in order to sell this
book to the public, would have added a note that the
Sonnets were the work of Shakspere, the author of the
celebrated plays. At the bottom of this title page
is the number 1609. If this is supposed to represent the
year when the Sonnets were published then it is a false
date for the following reasons:
1. In 1609 anything written by Shakespeare
was in great demand
-the quartos of the plays were reprinted over and
over again.
If these Sonnets had been published in
1609 then there
would have been so great a demand for the work of a
popular
writer like Shakspere that this book of Sonnets would
have been
reprinted again and again. Why was it not
reprinted? Because
it was not originally printed in 1609. The absence
of reprints
is a problem which has never been explained by the
Stratfordians.
Even J. M. Robertson admitted this when he wrote: " it
belonged
to the sonnet age-its failure to reach a second edition
calls for
an explanation that has not yet been forthcoming
." The
explanation is given above.
2. There is absolutely no mention of the Sonnets
as a complete
body of verse or any phrase or quotation in letters,
diaries,
printed book or pamphlet between the years 1609 and 1624,
a
period of 15 years. This book was not seen by the
public
until 1640, when an edition was printed, 31 years after
1609.
3. In 1609 Shakspere, born in 1564, would be 45
years old.
Then in the prime of life-a successful man, wealthy
and the
owner of the largest house in Stratford, with no
troubles, so
far as we know. How could he at this age have
written a number
of Sonnets which have all the characteristics of old
age.
In Sonnet No.63 we read: "As I am now
with times injurious
hand crushed and oer worn." How could Shakspere at the
age
of 45 describe himself as crushed by time and worn
out?
In Sonnet No. 30 we read: " When in the sessions
of sweet
silent thought I summon up remembrance of things
past- then
can I drown an eye for precious friends hid
in death's dateless
night." It is clear that this Sonnet was written by
someone
near the close of life. How could Shakspere
write that at the
age of 45, he had lost all his friends who were then
dead?
In Sonnet No.51 we read: "No longer mourn for me
when I
am dead." The man who wrote this Sonnet was clearly
some-
one who owing to length of years was nearing
death. How could
Shakspere at the age of 45 write that he thought that he
would
shortly die and tell his friends not to mourn for
him?
In Sonnet No.73 we read:
"That time of
year-thou may'st in me behold,
When yellow
leaves, or none, or few do hang
Upon those
boughs which shake against the cold,
Bare, ruined
choirs, where late the sweet birds sang.
In me thou
seest the twilight of such day
As after
sunset fadeth in the west,
In me
thou seest the glowing of such fire.
That on the
ashes of his youth doth lie.
As the
death bed whereon it must expire."
The man who wrote this Sonnet tells us that he had
reached
the age of the sere and yellow leaf that he was
nearing the
sunset of his life and that the ashes
of his youth were expiring
on the death bed of his old age.
We see the words-in me, in me, in me, which shows
that me
is the writer of this Sonnet and that therefore this
Sonnet could
not have been written by Shakspere at the age of 45 when
he
was only in middle age. These quotations prove that
the
Sonnets were not published in 1609.
4. That there was neither printed nor
published any book
entitled Shake-spear's Sonnets in 1609 is also proved by
the
fact that there is no reference to this book by any
Shakespearian
commentator between the years 1609 and 1640 when John
Benson published these Sonnets under the title of
:
POEMS :
WRITTEN
BY
WIL.
SHAKES-SPEARE.
Gent.
Printed at London
by Tho. Cotes and
are
to
be sold by John Benson dwelling in
St.
Dunstan's Churchyard 1640.
So that for a period of 31 years-
there is no record of this book.
Between the years 1640 and 1766, a
period of 126 years, there is
still no mention of the quarto-in 1766
George Steevens
reprinted " Shake-spear's Sonnets from a copy published
by
G. Eld". Note this is the first mention of
the 1609 quarto in
English Literature-156 years after its
alleged publication. There
was never a whisper during this period of 156 years that
such
a book had been published in the lifetime of the
supposed author.
If it had been published in Shakspere's lifetime it would
have
been known to the public and would have been referred to
and
read by people interested in the "Shakespeare" plays.
5. The Scotch poet and sonneteer-Drummond of
Haw-
thornden, a close friend of Ben Johnson in 1614-prepared
a
list of all the books in his library which he had
acquired up to
that date. If the 1609 quarto had been publicly on
sale for
five years prior to the date when he made this list-it is
un-
believable that he did not acquire a copy of this
book of sonnets
to add to his library. This is evidence that he had
never even
heard of this book so it could not have been in print at
the time
that he made the list of his books.
6. The Stratfordians say that the Sonnets were
published in
1609. How do they account for the fact that this
book of
sonnets contains distinct references to public incidents
which
occurred in 1620-21-four years after Shakspere's death,
which
proves that the author could not have been Shakspere.
One of the difficulties encountered when trying to
solve the
mystery of the Sonnets is that the Stratfordian
critics when they
come across anything thay they do not understand, ignore
it
entirely. They are so obsessed with the idea that
Shakspere
wrote the Sonnets that when they are not able to connect
the
Sonnets with any incident in the life of Shakespere, they
are
completely baffled and unable to offer any explanation of
the
meaning of a great number of the Sonnets beyond making
the
wildest guesses and surmises.
The Stratfordians say that the book "Shake-Speares
Sonnets"
published at London by G. Eld for TT, 1609, was the work
of
Will Shakspere of Stratford. They have no
authority whatso-
ever for making this statement. This book does not
state that
it was the work of Will Shakspere or anyone else.
No name of
the author appears on the title page or anywhere in
the book itself.
If the reader wishes to understand the Shake-Speare
Sonnets
-it is necessary for him to read these sonnets as
originally
printed and to ignore the alterations made by modern
editors,
who are not capable of understanding these sonnets.
There is
nothing in any of these sonnets to connect them
in any way with
the life of Will Shakspere of Stratford.
If Will Shakspere had written the" Shakespeare " plays
when
he published his sonnets he would naturally inform the
public
that these sonnets were the work of the man who had
written
the celebrated plays because he would wish to get all the
publicity
he could and not hide his light under a bushel by
publishing
sonnets without acknowledging that he was the author.
It can be shown that the Shake-speare sonnets were
written
by Francis Bacon and record certain incidents in
his own life.
The reader can prove this for himself if we will take the
trouble
to study these sonnets carefully and intelligently.
The literary critics cannot
understand "Shake-spears
Sonnets" because they try to link them with the life of
Will
Shakspere but without any success because these sonnets
have
nothing to do with Shakspere or his life-they are
groping about
in the dark because they can find no key anywhere to
unlock
the secrets contained in the sonnets. If
they could only
realise that the sonnets were the work of Francis Bacon
and refer
to incidents in his life and not the life of Shakspere,
they would
be able to understand the meaning of the sonnets.
They labour
under the delusion that the word love in the sonnets
refers to
physical love, whereas Bacon uses this word love
to refer to his
love of Pallas Athene the Greek goddess of
wisdom who is
the same as Minerva the Roman goddess of
wisdom. He also
uses the word love to refer to his love for his plays-the
children
of his brain. He also writes of his love for his
other personality,
the dramatist Shakes-spear. Bearing this in mind,
the true
meaning of the word love in the sonnets will be
found and
enable the reader to understand the
sonnets of Shakes-speare.
Anyone reading " Shake-spear's " Sonnets for the first
time
must come to the conclusion that certain of the Sonnets
are out
of order because he will find certain Sonnets the subject
matter
of which has no relation to Sonnets which appear
before or
after them as printed in the book. When it is
discovered that
there are numerous Sonnets where this appears it is
obvious
that these Sonnets have been purposely
disarranged. What
was the object in doing this? The object would
appear to be
that Bacon did not wish to give the reader any broad
hints to
disclose that he was writing under the name of
"Shake-spear."
The Sonnets when re-arranged will be found to form
groups
dealing with different subjects. It is necessary
therefore to
re-arrange some of the Sonnets to achieve this
result. The first
thing to do is to discover which of the Sonnets should
come first
in any re-arrangement. It will be found that the
first Sonnet is
No.23 which is addressed to the readers, followed
by Sonnets
relating to Apollo-the Greek patron of poetry-which
are
Sonnets numbered 24, 26, 53, 54, 55.
The Sonnets of Shake-speare refer to certain
persons and
events as well as to a number of different subjects, so
for con-
venience I have divided them into different groups as
follows:
1. Those relating to
Marguerite de Valois-these
were the
first Sonnets that Bacon wrote
during the years 1577-1579
when he was abroad.
2. Those relating to William
Herbert, Earl of Pembroke,
written during the years 1599 to
1602.
3. Those relating to King James of England
and Scotland.
4. Those relating to Mistress Mary Fitton,
written during
the years 1595 to 1602.
5. Those relating to the First Folio and his
nom-de-plume
Shake-speare.
6. Those relating to Apollo.
7. Those relating to Pallas Athene.
8. Those relating to Time.
9. Miscellaneous Sonnets.
In the demonstration which follows, I set out the Sonnets
in
the order in which they appear in the quarto but I put at
the
head of each Sonnet the subject to which it refers.
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