The tale of the Shakspere epitaph, by Francis Bacon, ... Translated from the Anglo-Phonetic, by Edward Gordon Clark
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The tale of the Shakspere epitaph, by Francis Bacon, ... Translated from the Anglo-Phonetic, by Edward Gordon Clark Details
From Introduction: “The stone at Stratford that now marks the grave of William Shakspere was placed there about sixty years ago. The original slab, on which was carved the most exceptional epitaph known to history had been worn out and destroyed. The genuine text of that epitaph is reproduced here in picture with the authorities for it, and the reader should inspect it carefully as a first step. It is very strange; but after the lapse of more than two hundred and seventy years, these four lines of doggerel verse are found to declare a perfectly unsuspected crime. In April of 1616, when Francis Bacon was Attorney-General of England, William Shakspere had an ‘eerie-meeting’ with ‘Ben’ Jonson and Michael Drayton. As the supposed result of it, he died a few days later. A meaningless epitaph, not even bearing his name--an ‘uncouth’, misspelled, and unaccountably stupid thing, which has been the puzzle of all succeeding times--was carved on his gravestone. The real purpose of that epitaph was to hide for a time, but ultimately to reveal, a most frightful obituary of Shakspere, and a confession of the secret life of Bacon. This weird and curious thing purports to come from Francis Bacon himself. I think it does; for I doubt that any other man ever lived with the comprehensive ingenuity to produce it. One thing is certain: the Shakspere epitaph is only a string of thinly specious words which serve as counters for Bacon’s ‘bilateral alphabet’ or ‘cipher’ and somebody so arranged the epitaph and the ‘alphabet’ that they should weave a web of affirmations concerning the two men. One part of that web is the unqualified, iterated and reiterated statement--running, indeed, into almost tedious particulars--that, when Shakspere took part in that last ‘merrie-meeting’, he was drugged and poisoned, with a distillation from the English ox-eye, prepared by Bacon himself, who needed to close Shakspere’s mouth, and get him out of the way.” Read more
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