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Bacon, Shakespeare, and the 

 Rosicrucians. 



BY W. F. C. WIGS TON. 



WITH Two PLATES. 



CONTENTS : Chapter I. John Heydon The Rosicrucian Apologist His Family And 

 Character Identity of Bacon's " New Atlantis " with Heydon' s " Land of the Rosicrucians" 

 Bacon's Hand to be traced in the famous Rosicrucian Manifestoes Discovery of his 

 Initials among the Members of the Fraternity Proofs that the antedating of the Origins of 

 the Rosicrucian Brotherhood was a Splendid Fraud. Chapter II. The Prophecy of Para- 

 celsus A Stage Player one of the greatest impostors of his age, probably Shakespeare 

 Description of the Rosicrucian Manifestoes Lord Bacon as Chancellor of Parnassus 

 Meeting of the Rosicrucians in 1646 at Warrington, at a Lodge, in order to carry 

 out Lord Bacon's Ideas Adoption of his Two Pillars, etc., etc. 



' ' A most remarkable book. Like its predecessor, * A New Study of 

 Shakespeare,' one cannot open it without learning something. . . . But all 

 the same the book is a curiosity, and NO SHAKESPEARE-BACON LIBRARY 

 SHOULD BE WITHOUT IT." Shakspeariana (New York). 



"A noteworthy attempt has been made to fix the disputed authorship of 

 the Shakespearian, and likewise of other writings, upon a set of literary 

 eccentricities who existed in Shakespeare's time under the name of * Rosi- 

 crucians,' after one Christian Rosenkreuz, a German noble of the fifteenth 

 century. The fame of this curious literary ' sect ' has just been revived by 

 Mr W. F. C. Wigston. He endeavours to show that there existed in 

 Shakespeare's day a learned college of men who wrote in secret, among 

 whom were Lord Bacon, Sir Philip Sydney, Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson, 

 and that these together concocted the plays. " Westminster Review. 



' ' If Mr Donnelly's ' great cryptogram ' should turn out to be a real dis- 

 covery, we do not see why Mr Wigston's should not be so too. We fully 

 believe that the two theories must stand or fall together." Notes and Queries. 



Opinion of James Hughan, author of many Masonic books, and reputed to 

 be the highest Masonic authority in England: " MY DEAR SIR, I have care- 

 fully read your able article in the journal of the Bacon Soc. with great interest, 

 and much appreciation. Prima facie, the case is made out, it appears to me, 

 but beyond that I cannot go at present ; but the evidence is so remarkable, 

 as well as curious that no one of a thoughtful mind could possibly refuse 

 your claim to consideration. The New Atlantis seems to be, and PROBABLY 

 is, THE KEY to the modern Rituals of Free-masonry. YOUR NOBLE VOLUME 

 on Bacon, Shakespeare, and the Rosicrucians, does much to clear the way." 



