Printing Presses

[Kate]

A short video from the Globe Theatre

and a clip on Twitter showing one of the Sonnets 

I pressed ‘copy link’. I am not sure how to isolate the video, but that’s what I’m pointing to.

[Lawrence Gerald]

The piece of handwriting I believe she is referring to that is possibly William Shakspere's is from HAND D of Sir Thomas More. It was established erroneously by the British Library and behind closed doors without a major public notice or a visual demonstration. They are not very good at faking the fake. But interesting youtube video for sure. Thanks Kate for sharing!

[Christie Waldman]

The Folger says:

"On the basis of poetic style, many scholars believe that a three page revision to the play is in Shakespeare’s handwriting. However, we don’t really know what Shakespeare’s handwriting looks like. Six signatures of Shakespeare, found on four legal documents, are the only handwriting that we know for certain are his. This is too small a sample size to make any sort of reliable comparison." Paul Werstine and Shakespeare Library Staff, "Shakespeare's Handwriting: Hand D in the Booke of Sir Thomas More," Shakespeare Documented, The Folger, July 13, 2020.

https://shakespearedocumented.folger.edu/resource/document/shakespeares-handwriting-hand-d-booke-sir-thomas-more

"Too small a sample size." By the same token, it would seem, six signatures are "too small a sample size" to know for sure they are all Shaxpere's. It might be different if they all looked the same. Some or all of them could have been made by clerks signing for an illiterate person (as, has, of course, been discussed by many, numerous times).

Has any forensic handwriting specialist ever compared the writing in Hand D to Bacon's handwriting? Or to that of other writers of the period--not limiting it to known dramatists? Of course, Hand D could be in a secretary's handwriting.  Hand D could still be the real Shakespeare's without being Shaxpere's.

If the Stratfordians ever compared Hand D to Bacon's known handwriting, would they have told the world of their results? Stanley Wells reported that Bacon had signed letters written in his own handwriting in the name of "Henry Cuffe," the Earl of Essex's secretary. (Stanley Wells and Gary Taylor, William Shakespeare: A Textual Companion (New York: W. W. Norton, 1997), p. 76. So, Wells recognizes Bacon's handwriting.

There was that printer who compared Hand D to Bacon's handwriting in the early twenties. Edwin J. Des Moineaux.  https://sirbacon.org/stmcover.htm. The Folger has the book, as do a few other libraries, according to Worldcat. I wonder, has no one since Des Moineaux made the comparison?

 

[Light-of-Truth]

Bacon's beautiful handwriting to me has become somewhat recognizable. I've heard about some handwriting comparisons over the years. Mr SirBacon.org Lawrence would know what has been done I bet!

I believe Bacon's handwriting was so perfect that it would be easy to distinguish. 😉

 

[Lawrence Gerald]

In the early 90's I interviewed Maureen Ward Gandy one of the top Graphologists in England. She was brought to my attention by Francis Carr who found out about a discovered manuscript thought to be  from the 1590's and the play Henry IV. https://sirbacon.org/links/handwriting1.html

The quality of the video may not be that good but here's about 4 minutes of Maureen Ward Gandy pointing out the similiarities between Bacon''s handwriting and this Henry IV manuscript.

https://www.dropbox.com/home/BaconPDF?preview=Maureen+Gandy.mp4

[Lawrence Gerald]

https://www.dropbox.com/t/T3EljcTQgBaziFWa

 

See if this download link works instead

[Light-of-Truth]

Mr SirBacon.org Lawrence Gerald our King of Bacon on the internet, I remember this! And it was what was in my mind when I mentioned your name above.

Now the video lives on B'Hive forever.

 

Edited July 15, 2022 by Light-of-Truth

[Light-of-Truth]

I LOVE this video!! So many years ago I saw it and it helped shape my thinking. Watching again is like WOW!

Bacon's handwriting is incredible. We can see his mind flow in a beautiful flow, like music. The image below is from Alamy:

https://www.alamy.com/stock-photo-letter-from-francis-bacon-to-sir-john-puckering-28th-july-1595artist-11063418.html

But anything we see that Bacon wrote with a pen is nothing less than fine art.

I must be honest, my handwriting is nearly as bad as Willy Shakspur. Thank God for keyboards, backspace, and sometimes spell check. So Stratfordians may run with my thoughts that Willy's handwriting is almost as bad as a Baconian on B'Hive. LOL

But at the end of the day, only Bacon could write Shake-speare and his handwriting is just as high quality!

I can see biliteral possibilities. Did Bacon have the brilliance and mind to leave his biliteral ciphers he described in his own gorgeous handwriting?

Of course. Did he?

On the above, I love to read his writing. I have yet to be able to translate what I see into words. I get more than years ago, but can't read yet. But it is so beautiful! Like the words don't even matter, just flow in the stream...

 

 

 

 

 

[Kate]

1 hour ago, Light-of-Truth said:

Mr SirBacon.org Lawrence Gerald our King of Bacon on the internet, I remember this! And it was what was in my mind when I mentioned your name above.

Now the video lives on B'Hive forever.

 

 

Fascinating. I think it’s like when you walk into someone’s home, you can tell a great deal about their personality, (eclectic, controlled, traditional, chaotic etc) by the decor. Likewise handwriting betrays our character. That said, my hand writing is so bad nowadays as I never write but always type.

His writing is beautiful. A very Royal signature!

Thanks for sharing. 
 

PS. I did a graphology evening course for 12 weeks at Roehampton when I was about 25. It never leaves you. 

[Light-of-Truth]

1 hour ago, Kate said:

PS. I did a graphology evening course for 12 weeks at Roehampton when I was about 25. It never leaves you. 

I did a few typography courses in college and of all topics it may have been the most eye opening! I had a great Professor.

Programming, coding, graphics, photography, all were valuable for me but I already had a lot of experience and bad habits. But learning the core of typography in design was new and shocking. Typography was already well developed in Bacon's life. Maybe even more than now, but the same principles still apply.

I rarely and only write with pen in hand, except maybe a quick shopping list I can't read while shopping, every few months when for whatever reason I have to write a check. UGH. Often takes two attempts...

 

 

Edited July 16, 2022 by Light-of-Truth

[Light-of-Truth]

I can read "from" and "July". I'm struggling with everything else. Can anyone help?

[Kate]

Looks like July 1591 or 1595. Can also see from France or Francis above 

I can’t make it out but he starts with

It may please you x x nothing happened to me in the course of my business most contrary to expectation.

(x is unintelligible to me)

K

[Allisnum2er]

I second Kate, I think that the date is 9 July 1595.

Here is an idea for one part of the text.

I will try to decrypt  the other parts for you but English being not my mother tongue, it is complicated.

At least, I learned two new words today : Sutour and Flummery 🙂  

[Light-of-Truth]

Quote

At least, I learned two new words today : Sutour and Flummery

Me too!! 🙂

 

 

[Allisnum2er]

The second line : Humble vespere 🙂 

https://archive.org/details/cu31924013125418/page/n145/mode/2up

And for the afficionados of James Bond 😉 ... 

https://www.thespruceeats.com/vesper-martini-recipe-760130

[Light-of-Truth]

Hmm, oo7 Martini? Love it!

https://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Hesperus

"Hesperus' Roman equivalent is Vesper (cf. "evening", "supper", "evening star", "west"^[1]). By one account, Hesperus' father was Cephalus, a mortal, while Phosphorus was the star god Astraios. Other sources, however, state that Hesperus was the brother of Atlas, and thus the son of Iapetus.^[2]"

 

[Christie Waldman]

Here's the Sotheby's advertisement for the auction of the play fragment back in 1992, https://sirbacon.org/links/baconwrite.htm, and enlarged. https://sirbacon.org/henryivlarge.htm

Here's Hand D.   https://oxfraud.com/HND-handwriting. The Oxfraud site ignores the fact that the Folger website admits that six handwriting samples are not enough to prove authorship.

I printed them out to compare them better. I see some similarities but am not a trained forensic handwriting analyst like Maureen Ward-Gandy.

Maureen Ward-Gandy compared the "unknown," the play fragment, a scene analogous to Shakespeare's The First Part of Henry The Fourth, to the "known," a 1595 letter known to be Francis Bacon's, as well as to a number of other handwriting exemplars of the time. I wrote about it in my book, Francis Bacon's Hidden Hand, appendix 4, and Maureen's entire report is printed there. I wrote more about it here, "Shakespeare Play Fragment Found--Said to be in Francis Bacon's Handwriting," Sept. 25, 2020, https://christinagwaldman.com/2020/05/14/fragment-of-i-henry-iv-found-in-binders-waste/.

Edited July 17, 2022 by Christie Waldman
change "cite" to "site" in 3d line.