The Authorship of the Shakespeare Works

An Expostion of all Points at Issue, From Their Inception to the Present Moment

by

James Phinney Baxter

with Illustrations

Boston and New York

Houghton Mifflin Company

The Cambridge Press

1915

I Dedicate
This Book to My Wife

In Whose
Presence it was written, yet who
Before it came from the press
Left me alone

TABLE OF CONTENTS

Prologue Why and how the Shakespeare-Bacon Controversy came about	xix
I. The Setting of the Stage The Elizabethan Age and its Influence in shaping the Thoughts and Acts of the Men of the Time	1
II. The Theme The Greatest Birth of Time--The "Shakespeare" Works and how they have been regarded by Commentators and Critics	19
III. The Ghost of Hamlet William Shakspere of Stratford--In London--His Favorite Role	32
IV. The Greatest of Literary Problems All that is known of him and supposed to be known of him-- An attempt to ascertain if the Author's Face shows in his Offspring--As seen by his contemporaries-- The Quartos--The Folios--Henslowe's Diary--Plays excluded from the First Folio-- Second, Third, and Fourth Folios--Blind Guides	65
V. A Study of Other "Shakespeare" Plays Do they reflect the same Face?	163
VI. Mythical Relics A Criticism of all the Relics in Existence accredited to the Actor with Comparative Illustrations	224
VII. A Crucial Question An essay in Graphology--Facsmiles from Will and other Documents--A Critic criticized, etc.	269
VIII. Francis Bacon, Viscount St. Albans, Baron Verulam of Verulam A Review of his life from the Various Angles of his Biographers from Rawley to Spedding-- His Role-- The Promus-- The Northumberland Manuscript	297
IX. The Sonnets The Great Assizes Holden in Parnassus	378
X. The Red Cross A Study of the Cult and its Bearing on the Secret of Bacon's Life	392
XI. Symbolism What it was and the Use it anciently performed--WaterMarks--Cryptograms-- Title -Pages--Anagrams--Acrostics	405
XII. Anonymous and Pseudonymous Authorship Edmund Spenser	436
XIII. A Literary Syncrisis Peele--The Arraignment of Paris--David and Bethsabe	464
XIV. Masks Robert Greene--Christopher Marlowe--Thomas Kyd--Burton	479
XV. Thumb Marks Curious Proofs determining the Authorship of the "Shakespeare" Works	489
XVI. Ciphers The Word Cipher--Method of Applying--The Biliteral Cipher--The Ciphers in Bacon's Works--The "Argenis"--Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex--The Queen's Ring	521
Epilogue A Summary showing where the Actor and the Courtier were, and what they were doing at Stated Periods of their Lives	615
Bibliography	633
Index	665

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