The Bacon- Shakespeare Folly 395 



speare's works. Thus, when the " Promus " has a 

 verse from Ovid, which means, " And the forced 

 tongue begins to lisp the sound commanded," it 

 reminds Mrs. Pott of divers lines in which Shake- 

 speare uses the word " lisp," as for example, in 

 " As You Like It," " you lisp and wear strange 

 suits ; " and she jumps to the conclusion that when 

 Bacon jotted down the verse from Ovid, it was as 

 a preparatory study toward " As You Like It," 

 and any other play that contains the word " lisp : " 

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

 On the next page we find Virgil's remark, " Thus 

 was I wont to compare great things with small," 

 made the father of Falstaff's " base comparisons," 

 and Fluellen's " Macedon and Monmouth," as well 

 as honest Dogberry's " comparisons are odorous." 

 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, 

 " What mare's nest hast thou found ? " (" Bon- 

 duca," V. ii.) 



There are many phrases, however, in the " Pro- 

 mus " 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 

 " elegancies " with no stinted hand. As for Mrs. 

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



