Sounds like Lord Bacon...

[Eric Roberts]

Quotations from dedications, prefaces or any other contemporary sources which have a high probability of being written by Francis Bacon under a pseudonym: Shakespeare, Cervantes, Spencer, Marlow... you name it.

 

"Shakespeare's" dedication to nineteen year-old Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton from "Venus and Adonis"published in 1593

(Note: A first reading the author seems to be the embodiment of humility, referring to his own work as "burthensome". Closer examination provides a different reading, one of peer to peer. "I know NOT how I shall offend..." could be read as meaning that the author sees no reason for Southampton to be offended. He ends by promising to do better next time: a polite diminishment of his literary achievements. Also, to me it reads as if it was almost dashed off as a note to a friend. Feel free to correct me.)

"Shakespeare's" dedication to twenty year-old Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton from "The Rape of Lucrece" published in 1594

(Note: Smells like Bacon to me: the triple repetition of "yours" in the last sentence; the disarming simplicity of "The love I dedicate to your Lordship is without end"; the authenticity of the voice of the author - "not the worth of my untutored lines"...etc. So elegant, so unconceited - human.)

 

Edited September 23, 2022 by Eric Roberts
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