Excerpt from William Shakespeare, Player, Playmaker, and Poet: A Reply to Mr. George Greenwood, M. P MY dear treasurer, - One reason for asking your patronage of this little book is that I may have the pleasure of recording my thanks for many acts of kindness, both from yourself and from other members of your worshipful bench, since I was admitted to serve the Society in the first month of the new century; not the least of them being my recent election for a second term of office as Preacher. But a further reason more closely concerns the pamphlet itself; which is an attempt to meet the latest statement by a lawyer, Mr. George Green wood, m.p., of the Middle Temple, of a curious paradox which seems to have a special fascination for legal minds I mean, the opinion originated by a Miss Delia Bacon in America, and since imported into this country, that Shakespeare's works were written-by the great Lord Chancellor, her name sake. When, as Chaplain of the Inn, I was honoured with a seat at the barristers' mess, this topic came up frequently for discussion; and I should admit that as a recreation at dinner, and as a trial of wits, the theme was excellent, for it is always a good exercise to discover and test the grounds of a traditional belief. But the heresy, if I may call it so, which at the outset numbered but a few fanatical adherents, has of late made many converts among members of your profession and one or two distinguished Judges, both in England and America, have written books upon it. To their surprise and chagrin, as I am told, very little notice was taken of them; the reason, of course, being that most persons who have enough capacity to discuss the question at all, judge it as a question, not of evidence, but of the literary palate. If anyone can believe that the same vineyard produced King Lear and The Advancement of Learning, he must believe it there is nothing more to be said. But the latest defender of the paradox has restricted himself to a denial of the Shakespearian authorship, without asserting the Baconian - that is to say, he has changed the venue of the matter from the court of literature to that of history. In five hundred large octavo pages he has set out some of the evidence and the arguments which in his judgment make in favour of the negative proposition. About the Publisher Forgotten Books publishes hundreds of thousands of rare and classic books. Find more at www.forgottenbooks.com This book is a reproduction of an important historical work. Forgotten Books uses state-of-the-art technology to digitally reconstruct the work, preserving the original format whilst repairing imperfections present in the aged copy. In rare cases, an imperfection in the original, such as a blemish or missing page, may be replicated in our edition. We do, however, repair the vast majority of imperfections successfully; any imperfections that remain are intentionally left to preserve the state of such historical works.