"
There have been forgeries in matters Shakespearean, alas, but not in
connection with the Baconian controversy.
It is an argument of the Baconians, and generally of the impugners of
good Will's authorship of the plays vulgarly attributed to him, that
the advocates of William Shakspere, Gent, as author of the plays,
differ like the Kilkenny cats among themselves on many points. All
do not believe, with Mr. J. C. Collins, that Will knew Sophocles,
Euripides, and AEschylus (but not Aristophanes) as well as Mr.
Swinburne did, or knew them at all--for that matter. Mr. Pollard
differs very widely from Sir Sidney Lee on points concerning the
First Folio and the Quartos: my sympathies are with Mr. Pollard.
Few, if any, partisans of Will agree with Mrs. Stopes (herself no
Baconian) about the history of the Stratford monument of the poet.
About Will's authorship of Titus Andronicus, and Henry VI, Part I,
the friends of Will, like the friends of Bacon, are at odds among
themselves. These and other divergencies of opinion cause the
Baconians to laugh, as if THEY were a harmonious circle . . . ! For
the Baconian camp is not less divided against itself than the camp of
the "Stratfordians." Not all Baconians hold that Bacon was the
legitimate son of "that Imperial votaress" Queen Elizabeth. Not all
believe in the Cryptogram of Mr. Ignatius Donnelly, or in any other
cryptograms.
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