The Bacon- Shakespeare Folly 379 



the world has never seen surpassed. Coming to 

 London at the age of twenty-one, he achieves such 

 swift success that within thirteen years he is recog- 

 nized as one of the chief glories of English litera- 

 ture. During this time he is living in the midst 

 of such a period of intellectual ferment as the 

 world has seldom seen, and in a position which 

 necessarily brings him into frequent contact with 

 all the most cultivated men. Under such circum- 

 stances, there is nothing in the smallest degree 

 strange or surprising in his acquiring the varied 

 knowledge which his plays exhibit. The major 

 premise of the Delia - Baconians has, therefore, 

 nothing in it whatever. It is a mere bubble, an 

 empty vagary, only this, and nothing more. 



Before leaving this part of the subject, however, 

 there are still one or two points of interest to be 

 mentioned. Shakespeare shows a fondness for the 

 use of phrases and illustrations taken from the 

 law ; and on such grounds our Delia-Baconians 

 argue that the plays must have been written by an 

 eminent lawyer, such as the Lord Chancellor Bacon 

 undoubtedly was. They feel that this is a great 

 point on their side. One instance, cited by Na- 

 thaniel Holmes and other Baconizers, is the cele- 

 brated case of Sir James Hales, who committed 

 suicide by drowning, and was accordingly buried 



