Christina Waldman

by Christina G. Waldman
June 1, 2026

Review of Alfred Dodd, Francis Bacon’s Personal Life-Story, 2 vols in 1 (London: Rider, 1986 [vol 1, The Age of Elizabeth, (London: Rider, 1949 [1910]); vol 2, The Age of James, [London: Century Hutchinson, 1986]). 580 pp.

The first duty of a biographer is to get his facts right, not merely the facts he wishes to be known, but all the facts, to suppress none and to slur over nothing; and not to be afraid lest an untoward discovery might falsify his prepossessions.
Alfred Dodd, Francis Bacon’s Personal Life-Story, p. 10

A stated goal of Alfred Dodd (1879‒1953), an English man of letters, in writing Francis Bacon’s Personal Life-Story, was to provide a truer, more personal portrait of Bacon than previously provided. “I have found more than sufficient evidence to satisfy me personally that Francis Bacon’s actual achievements were wider and deeper than traditional scholarship is disposed to admit.” (13) By 1949, Dodd had already published extensively on Bacon-Shakespeare topics. His Shakespeare’s Sonnet-Diary would see ten printings (Liverpool: Daily Post Printers, first pub. 1931). The first edition of Life Story was published in 1910. For the 1949 edition, Dodd had intended to add a second volume, The Age of James. However, he suffered a severe stroke in 1949, necessitating the postponement of the publication of volume 2 until 1986 (see Irene Rowland’s note, front matter, and Edward D. Johnson’s foreword to volume 2).

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Review-Dodd-Francis-Bacons-Personal-Life-Story-6-1-2026.pdf

by Christina G. Waldman

August 27, 2025

Christina Waldman in her latest essay takes a critical look at how Marlovians, Oxfordians and Elizabeth Winkler all conveniently misperceived Bacon’s famous letter where he writes :

“So Desiring You to be Good to Concealed Poets ….”

I have previously written in this blog about Elizabeth Winkler’s slight of the case for Bacon in her book, Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies (“Why Did Elizabeth Winkler Not Interview Any Baconians?” https://christinagwaldman.com/2024/06/27/why-did-elizabeth-winkler-not-interview-any-baconians/). In a comment made one year ago to that post, Mark Rylance attempted to apologize for not coming out stronger as a proponent for Bacon’s contribution to Shakespeare authorship in Winkler’s book. He seemed to be including Winkler in his apology. I had hoped Winkler was sincere and would try to “bone up” on the case for Bacon.

However, I just watched her talk last December at the American University in Paris, “The Shakespeare Industry with Elizabeth Winkler,” Youtube, 12/6/24, https://www.youtube.com/watch?v=bUafv5ryHm8. After rhetorically asking who might be the real Shakespeare, she said (beginning at 17:39):

“Was it Francis Bacon, the Elizabethan Philosopher and Statesman whose knowledge of law, philosophy, foreign languages seemed to match the knowledge in the works? In 1603 Bacon wrote a mysterious letter to a lawyer who was riding to meet the new King James I and he signed off with this wish, ‘So desiring you to be good to concealed poets ….’ So who was the concealed poet? Was it Christopher Marlowe, a playwright and government agent who disappeared in 1593 supported, uh, reportedly murdered just weeks before Shakespeare emerged? What about Edward de Vere, the eccentric 17th Century Earl of Oxford, probably the favorite candidate today …?“

(Actually, Bacon’s career spanned both Queen Elizabeth and King James’s reigns.) Read more…>>

https://christinagwaldman.com/2025/08/27/so-desiring-you-to-be-good-to-concealed-poets/

by Christina G. Waldman

Revised June 1, 2025

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Several years ago, I told Mark Johnson, an administrator of the “Oxfraud” group Facebook page, that when I had time, I would provide a written evaluation of their self-styled “Prima Facie Case (PFC)” (without conceding they have one) for the proposition that William Shaxpere/Shakespeare of Stratford was the true author of the Shakespeare works, as is traditionally assumed (presented at https://oxfraud.com/sites/PrimaFacie.html).

Using a legal analogy, the “Oxfraudians” (“Stratfordians” who reject the claim that Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford (1550-1604), was the true Shakespeare) have claimed their statement of the case was so strong that it entitled them to a presumption a favorable legal stance–which would put the burden on their opponents to rebut their proof. Under modern rules of civil procedure (New York, for example): if the rebuttal was insufficient (as hypothetically decided by an impartial judge), they would win the case on the pleadings. If the rebuttal raised reasonable doubt, there would be a full trial on the evidence.

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by Christina G. Waldman

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Review of María José Falcón y Tella, The Law in Cervantes and Shak
espeare, translated by Dierdre B. Jerry (Leiden: Brill Nijhoff, 2021), first published in Spanish as El Derecho en Cervantes y Shakespeare (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2021)

by Christina G. Waldman
Revised November 4, 2024

“In the Spanish-speaking world, María José Falcón y Tella stands out among those authors who have studied the theme of law and literature in its diverse modalities,” writes Carla Forelli, Professor of Legal Philosophy at the University of Bologna, in her foreword to Falcón y Tella’s The Law in Cervantes and Shakespeare (xiii). She goes on in her foreword to praise Falcón y Tella’s prior book, Derecho y Literature (Madrid: Marcial Pons, 2015; translated as Law and Literature (Leiden: Brill, 2016) as “one of the greatest contemporary European studies on law and literature” (xiii), thus recognizing Falcón y Tella as an acknowledged authority on law and literature. Read more…>

by Christina G. Waldman

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My late friend Sam had two favorite authors, William Butler Yeats and Alexandr Solzhenitsyn. The latter wrote One Day in the Life of Ivan Denisovich and The Gulag Archipelago. I have not read the latter, but the former was memorable. Solzhenitsyn’s essay, “Live Not by Lies,” was published February 12, 1974, the day after he was exiled from Russia. In it, he urges people to “never knowingly support lies.” Read more…>>

by Christina G. Waldman

https://christinagwaldman.com/2023/07/05/why-did-elizabeth-winkler-not-interview-any-baconians/

First posted July 5, 2023. Revised June 28, 2024.

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by Christina G. Waldman

1998 does not seem so long ago to me. That was when N. B.Cockburn, late British barrister, devoted 740 pages to setting forth his evidence in favor of Francis Bacon’s authorship of the works traditionally attributed to “William Shakespeare,” based largely on that name/pseudonym’s being printed on the title page of the 1623 First Folio. Barry R. Clarke (Francis Bacon’s Contribution to Shakespeare (New York: Routledge, 2019)), Brian McClinton (The Shakespeare Conspiracies, (Aubane: Aubane Historical Society, 2006 and Belfast: Shanway Press, 2008)), and other authors, including myself, have acknowledged their debt to Cockburn. Mather Walker has previously reviewed the book for SirBacon.org which prints in full its table of contents.

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What Francis Bacon Means to Me
By Christina G. Waldman
October 4, 2022

Francis Bacon knew the power of a metaphor, the ability of a story to teach and convey truths. A visionary, he saw through time and attempted to steer the course of history from his “helm” four hundred years ago. My interest in Shakespeare authorship ties in with an interest in legal history that began for me around 1980 with reading Mark Edwin Andrews’ book, Law versus Equity in The Merchant of Venice: A Legalization of Act IV, Scene 1 (Boulder: University of Colorado Press, 1965). The concept of equity as a component of law is one that truly concerned Francis Bacon and should concern all who care about a definition of justice that includes fairness.
Although planted years earlier, my interest in legal history started to bloom when I began researching for my book, Francis Bacon’s Hidden Hand in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice: A Study of Law, Rhetoric, and Authorship (New York: Algora Publishing, 2018). This research began as a book review at Lawrence Gerald’s suggestion. The historical relationship between rhetoric and equity is fascinating. It can be traced back to the ancient Romans, at least. Like the Roman God Janus which faces forwards and backwards, prudence going forward requires a knowledge of past events and accumulated wisdom. These concepts Bacon taught, for example, in his “Wisdom of the Ancients.”

I believe part of the significance of “Plus Ultra” is that, like a ship’s captain adjusts course in response to new information, so, too, must researchers be willing to consider each “fact” a hypothesis subject to modification by new evidence. That is the major problem I see with considering the case closed in favor of William Shaxpere of Stratford (to whom the works of the poet dramatist published under the name of “William Shakespeare” have been traditionally attributed). While humanity exists, the case for knowledge and truth can never be closed.

Bacon was also interested in the interpretation of dreams, in ways of knowing which cannot be explained logically that involve the unconscious. “There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio, than are dreamt of in your philosophy.” He himself had had the prophetic dream of his father’s house being plastered over in black mortar, at the time of his father Sir Nicholas Bacon’s death, while he was overseas in France in his youth.

Francis Bacon tried to show humanity the way to think clearly, to recognize the “four idols,” and to know the difference between fact and fiction, between appearance and reality, and to learn to read between the lines. Poetry is an important tool in stimulating the full use of human capabilities. Bacon was big on contrasting opposites. In the juxtaposition of two opposites, one may see each thing being compared more clearly in contradistinction. The theatre is a good example of a juxtaposition of the opposites of appearance and reality (stage and audience). Bacon realized the teaching value of the theatre. He praised the Jesuits’ use of it.

My interest in Shakespeare authorship has led me into a desire to better understand Bacon’s teachings and wisdom. It has also given me a way into understanding the Shakespeare plays better.

Bacon’s writing is eloquent, beautiful in the way that the King James Version of the Bible is beautiful. The English language is what it is today because of Bacon, “Shakespeare,” and the King James Version (KJV) of the Bible. In fact, there is evidence that King James did give the KJV over to Bacon for final editing before it saw publication.

The past holds many secrets. Some might argue, what possible good can come of unearthing some of these secrets? But I would say, we should be building history upon a solid foundation of truth, not on shifting sands (as Jesus taught by parable in the Bible). Bacon also recognized that to enter the Kingdom of Heaven one must become as a little child (as Jesus also taught in the Bible).

I am extremely grateful to all at SirBacon.org for giving me the tools and encouragement to start out on an adventure of Baconian exploration that has greatly enriched my life. Plus Ultra!

Christina G. Waldman

The “Oxfraudians” at Oxfraud.com claim to have stated a “prima facie case” establishing the authorship of William Shaxpere of Stratford to the plays and poems of “William Shakespeare,” the name appearing on the title page of the First Folio of Shakespeare’s plays in 1623. The Oxfraud.com page, “The Prima Facie Case for Shakespeare,” claims, “The prima facie case does not offer absolute, 100% certainty—it does establish a presumption in support of the conclusion. This conclusion admits only one hypothesis. Shakespeare of Stratford is the author. It may be overcome, but only if there is contrary factual evidence that serves to rebut the conclusion. Supposition, speculation and guesswork are not acceptable. Claiming the evidence has been suppressed or destroyed by a conspiracy is not acceptable.”

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by Christina G. Waldman

Dedicated to the memory of Brian McClinton, author of
The Shakespeare Conspiracies Part One: Thirteen Points of Evidence

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By Christina G. Waldman. 9-29-2021

“Bacon Shakespeare Conundrum was published posthumously by the author’s daughter, Janice Gold-Orland. Researching for this book was her father’s lifetime passion, she says. It is obvious from his book that Hall has studied the Bacon-Shakespeare authorship question in some depth. One of his main points is that “The only way out of the authorship enigma is to be found in the Shakespeare Folio of 1623″ (p. 12). There is a great deal of other evidence, of course, but that is the course he sets for himself in this book.” Read more:

Review Russell Storrs Hall by CGW 9-29-2021.pdf

by Christina G. Waldman

Christina G. Waldman reviews Alfred Dodd’s book, “The Martyrdom of Francis Bacon.”

(updated version) by Christina G. Waldman

Francis Bacon, Shakespeare, and Tortured Secrets: Violence, Violins, and–One Day–Vindication? by Christina G. Waldman
https://sirbacon.org/waldman/Waldman Violence Violins Vindication final 5-21-21.pdf

by Christina G. Waldman

A Study of Law, Rhetoric, and Authorship

Francis Bacon’s Hidden Hand in Shakespeare’s The Merchant of Venice

by Christina G. Waldman

If Bacon is Shakespeare, What Questions Does That Answer?

by Christina G. Waldman

If Bacon is Shakespeare, What Questions Does That Answer?

by Christina G. Waldman

Read Christina G. Waldman comments on Edwin Bormann’s “Francis Bacon’s Cryptic Rhymes and the Truth They Reveal” on SirBacon.org

by Christina G. Waldman

Christina Waldman offers a Brief Review of “Law Sports at Gray’s Inn” by Basil Brown

Basil Brown review for SirBacon 9-17-20.pdf

by Christina Waldman

In his 1958 article, “Francis Bacon and His Father,” Paul H. Kocher describes an incident that took place during Francis Bacon’s maiden speech to Parliament. This was in November, 1584, when Bacon was twenty-three years old. He had just been elected a member of the House of Commons for Weymouth and Melcombe Regis…

Bacon’s Maiden Speech to Parliament & His Royal Birth by Christina Waldman

by Christina G. Waldman

In his new book, Second-Seeing Shakespeare: “Stay Passenger, why goest thou by so fast?”, Peter Dawkins, respected teacher, author, and founder-principal of the Francis Bacon Research Trust, explains how the art adorning the Shakespeare Monument in Holy Trinity Church in Stratford-upon-Avon (ca. 1616-1623) corresponds beautifully with the enigmatic language and Shakespeare “portrait” (Droeshout engraving) in the front matter to the First Folio of 1623, the first comprehensive publication of Shakespeare’s plays.

Review of Second-Seeing Shakespeare: “Stay Passenger, why goest thou by so fast?” by Peter Dawkins