(But why was
Bacon so wofully inaccurate in points of scholarship and history?)
By precisely the same argument Lord Penzance proves that Bacon (not
Ben, as Mr. Greenwood holds) wrote for the players the Dedication of
the Folio. {282b} "If it should be the case that Francis Bacon wrote
the plays, he would, probably, afterwards have written the Dedication
of the Folio, and the style of it" (stuffed with terms of law) "would
be accounted for." Mr. Greenwood thinks that Jonson wrote the
Dedication; so Ben, too, was fond of using legal terms in literature.
"Legal terms abounded in all plays and poems of the period," says Sir
Sidney Lee, and Mr. Greenwood pounces on the word "all." {283a}
However he says, "We must admit that this use of legal jargon is
frequently found in lay-writers, poets, and others of the Elizabethan
period--in sonnets for example, where it seems to us intolerable."
Examples are given from Barnabe Barnes. {283b} The lawyers all
agree, however, that Shakespeare does the legal style "more natural,"
and more accurately than the rest. And yet I cannot even argue that,
if he did use legal terms at all, he would be sure to do it pretty
well.
For on this point of Will's use of legal phraseology I frankly
profess myself entirely at a loss. To use it in poetry was part of
the worse side of taste at that period. The lawyers with one voice
declare that Will's use of it is copious and correct, and that their
"mystery" is difficult, their jargon hard to master; "there is
nothing so dangerous," wrote Lord Campbell, "as for one not of the
craft to tamper with our freemasonry.
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