SHAKESPEARE-BACON CONTRO VERSY, a controversy resulting from the contention that William Shakespeare (q. v.) did not write the plays which are at tributed to him. The beginning of this controversy dates back to 1848, and since that time there have appeared a compara tively large number of books, articles, and pamphlets on the subject. Most of these, at least as far as they deny Shakespeare's authorship, attempt to prove that the real author of Shakespeare's plays was Francis Bacon (q. v.). The question in volved has never been solved, and it is doubtful if it ever will be. There are only two principal points on which the contention, that Shakespeare did not write the plays, is based. Neither one of these points is subject to definite proof. For, while it is claimed that it is most unlikely that a country boy with as moderate an education as we know Shakespeare to have possessed, could have developed the genius and could have dis played the learning which his plays show, it is just as likely that Shakespeare should have succeeded in this as any other English boy. A second point which makes much of the fact that, as compared with Shakespeare's literary importance, we know very little regarding his life, is equally slight evidence. For the truth is that we know more about Shakespeare's life than about the life of any other Elizabethan dramatist, with the possible exception of Ben Jonson, and furthermore what we do know regarding Shakespeare's life indicates more or less clearly that the former country boy from Stratford and the author of the famous plays were one and the same. The positive evidence
that Bacon wrote the plays is equally slight. The similarities which are pointed out between Shakespeare's plays and Ba con's works are chiefly phrases of com mon usage, and they are to be found with equal frequency in the works of many other writers than Bacon. The cryptograms, which are claimed to be se cret signatures of Bacon, prove nothing, if considered with a fair amount of rea son and logic. For, if they really meant what their supporters claim for them, they could be used with equal facility to prove Bacon's authorship of works which were definitely known to have been writ ten both before and after his death. Gen erally speaking, the controversy has not been supported by any scholar definitely trained for literary investigation, and it is reasonably sure that the theoretical limits within which the controversy has been carried on will never be passed.