The Bacon- Shakespeare Folly 395 



speare s works. Thus, when the &quot; Promus &quot; has a 

 verse from Ovid, which means, &quot; And the forced 

 tongue begins to lisp the sound commanded,&quot; it 

 reminds Mrs. Pott of divers lines in which Shake 

 speare uses the word &quot; lisp,&quot; as for example, in 

 &quot; As You Like It,&quot; &quot; you lisp and wear strange 

 suits ; &quot; and she jumps to the conclusion that when 

 Bacon jotted down the verse from Ovid, it was as 

 a preparatory study toward &quot; As You Like It,&quot; 

 and any other play that contains the word &quot; lisp : &quot; 

 therefore Bacon wrote all those plays, Q. E. D. ! 

 On the next page we find Virgil s remark, &quot; Thus 

 was I wont to compare great things with small,&quot; 

 made the father of FalstafPs &quot; base comparisons,&quot; 

 and Fluellen s &quot; Macedon and Monmouth,&quot; as well 

 as honest Dogberry s &quot;comparisons are odorous.&quot; 

 When one reads such things, evidently printed in 

 all seriousness, one feels like asking Mrs. Pott, 

 in the apt words of Shakespeare s friend Fletcher, 

 &quot; What mare s nest hast thou found ? &quot; (&quot; Bon- 

 duca,&quot; V. ii.) 



There are many phrases, however, in the &quot; Pro 

 mus &quot; which undoubtedly agree with phrases in the 

 plays. They show that Bacon heard or read the 

 plays with great interest, and culled from them his 

 &quot; elegancies &quot; with no stinted hand. As for Mrs. 

 Pott s bulky volume, it brings us so near to the final 



