July i8, 1918 
Land & Water 
15 
Life and Letters Qj J. C^ Squire 
I 
A Rise in Bacon 
MENTIONED last week that I had been reading 
Bacon-Shakespeare literature. Here is the result in the 
form of an imaginary diary. 
April 1st, 1919. General curiosity has been aroused bv 
a paragraph in the Mail beginning as follows : 
REAL ESTATE AT ST. ALBANS. 
Sudden Boom ! 
What is in the Wind ? 
The whole population of St. Albans is talking about a 
sensational series of transactions in land and house pro- 
perty which has been carried through with mysterious 
rapidity in the last few weeks. Al' the eligible building 
sites have been snapped up at figures unprecedented 
in the locality. At first it was supposed that the speculators 
— whose identity has not yet been disclosed — were acting 
on private information that the Government meditated 
extensive new factories, necessitating the provision of large 
housing facilities. But this explanation (writes our cor- 
respondent) is now considered inadequate in view of the 
fact, which came to light yesterday, that somebody (un- 
doubtedly the same group of operators) had bought up 
large quantities of business property which cannot be brought 
into relation with such a scheme. The property includes 
three principal hotels and, as far as can be gathered; every 
stationery business and tea-shop in the town. The land 
acquired in the district includes a lot on which stand the 
ruins of Francis Bacon's house. Bacon is, of course, St. 
Albans' chief worthy. 
April 2nd. Odd report that St. Albans speculators have 
bought from vicar of fortunate church (£1,000 mentioned 
as purchase price !), exclusive photographic rights of Bacon's 
tomb for a hundred years. They must be mad. Who on 
earth wants a photograph of Bacon's tomb ? Smith, of 
Pudbery's, tells me that his firm has sold outright to new 
firm of publishers their large stocks of Bacon's prose works 
in the Imperial and Henrietta editions, which have refused to 
budge for years. It beats me. 
April gth. Whew ! Two announcements simultaneous. 
Bacon Exploitation Co., Ltd.— assumed by those who noticed 
it in list of new companies, to be offshoot of Liptons — now 
revealed in true colours. Directors : Professor Gubb, of 
Leeds, his wife, and his assistant the lecturer in Elizabethan 
literature. And twelve columns in the Times, photographs, 
and facsimiles complete, of the contents of the box found by 
the trio in grounds of Ham House. Words not equal to it ! 
But indisputable. All the plays in Bacon's handwriting, 
two new plays, story of the whole fake, confession (signed 
with a cross — he couldn't write !) by Shakespeare, supple- 
mentary' notes by Ben Jonson : all vouched for (but 
authenticity obvious) by Bodley's librarian, keeper of MSS. 
at British Museum, Father Bernard Vaughan and Sir James 
Cricjiton-Browne. All London talking about it. Nothing 
else in papers. Cables humming. 
Met Sir Jabez Goole in Piccadilly. Only last week he 
published book about the sonnets on which he had spent 
twenty years. He was crying bitterly and did not see me. 
Horse called "Swan of Avon" running at Lingfield badly 
barracked by crowd. Marie Corelli telegraphs to Evening 
News from Stratford: "This is an infamous conspiracy 
aimed at me." 
April 10th. German wireless says : " British announce- 
ment as to Shakespeare clearly intended to discredit German 
kultur and undermine German educational system. We 
Germans know nothing of Bacon. Our Kaiser in speech at 
KSnigsberg says : ' VVith help of good old God we shall 
ignore hypocritical British plot.' Reports from front, 
however, prove that Germans take disclosure seriously. 
Sounds of weeping in their trenches heard on several sectors 
of line. It is hoped that their moral will be seriously im- 
paired. 
Marie Corelli now convinced. Leaves Stratford house and 
takes house at Verulam. Publicly refers to Bacon as " Him!" 
Sir Hall Caine shaves beard. 
Evening News- says statue of illiterate clown in Leicester 
Square insult to great nation. 
April nth. Lord Northcliffe, through Daily Mail, offers 
statue of Bacon to replace Shakespeare's in Leicester Square. 
In academic circles there is general disapproval of the way 
in which the Gubbs and their colleague sprung their discovery 
on the public. People feel that it is scarcely consonant 
with the dignity of British scholarship for two ornaments 
of an important University to market the greatest discovery 
in the history of letters as though it were a pill or a new 
kind of window frame. This feeling is shared — to put it 
mildly — by the restaurateurs, postcard vendors, and land 
owners of St. Albans, who regard it as a slieer swindle that in 
their innocence they should have been induced to trade 
away valuable concessions. Bacons are now quoted on 
the Stock Exchange at a premium of 5,000 per cent., a 
substantial rise havhig taken place this morning owing to 
the announcement that immediate steps were being taken 
to erect a Bacon Memorial Theatre on one of the recently 
acquired sites, where the immortal dramas of the Swan of 
Ver will be played throughout the year ; and that a Bacon . 
Museum will be erected on another site, a large number of 
Bacon relics having been quietly acquired at the old prices. 
Bacon, unfortunately, had few local relatives, but No. 123 High 
Street (now a cafe) , has been identified as the birthplace of 
his nurse, Ann Bakeaway, after acquisition by the company. 
Professor Gubb, interviewed to-day, openly admits that 
he and his wife have been unloading shares in thousands. 
"You see," he told the reporter with a shy smile, "I am not 
really a financier and I do not want to be bothered with 
company management. My wife and I feel that Bacon, 
were he alive, would wish us to put all we can into War Loan. 
None of our poets loved his country more fervently than he." 
German Emperor, with characteristic elan, now changes 
front. Refers in speech at Magdeburg to "Unser Bacon," 
and declares that German scholars always knew the truth, 
but had systematically concealed it in order not to hurt the 
feelings of English. German generosity, as usual, wasted. 
Special order from Ministry of Food enjoining that bacon, 
the 'flesh of the pig, should henceforth be called shakespeare 
out of respect for national bard. Shakespeare may now be 
had without coupons. 
April i^lh. Distress at Stratford alleged to be awful. 
Stream of visitors diverted to St. Albans ; frightful slump 
in property ; vast stocks of postcards now useless ; hotels 
ruined. Trustees of Shakespeare's Birthplace have held 
meeting at which possibility was discussed of retaining some 
interest in the house by describing it as Birthplace of World's 
Greatest Impostor. It is felt that this might still attract 
many Americans and others. But Anne Hathaway's cot- 
tage quite useless ; no one takes interest in impostors' wives. 
Already decided to let Shakespeare Theatre to Salvation 
Army as Meeting Hall. All swans in Avon killed and eaten. 
Town's meeting, with Mayor in chair, appeals for help. 
April i^lh. Lord Mayor of London opens Mansion House 
Fund for Stratford Relief. Subscription list headed with 
£5,000 from Bacon Exploitation Company. Stratford Town 
Council, hitherto restrained by lapidary inscription "Curst 
be he who moves my bones," opens Shakespeare's tomb with 
object of throwing remains in river. No bones found. Pro- 
fessor Gubb declares inscription to have been a hoax. 
Eight Shakespeare families change names by deed-poll. 
April 15th. Professor Sir Samuel Pryce, author of forty 
books on Shakespeare, found drowned in river. Pathetic 
message in pocket beginning "Othello's occupation's gone." 
Says that this is the only way of attracting attention to the 
distress of his own family and others which have been entirely 
dependent on Shakespearean biography. "I knew," he 
writes, " everything that was to be known about Shakespeare; 
and, it would now appear, a great deal more. I know nothing 
at all about Bacon, and, at the age of sixty, I haven't the heart 
to begin again. I see nothing before me but the workhouse. 
Even now, however, so great is my reverence for the author 
of the plays, that I cannot think that he would have behaved 
as he did had he foreseen the terrible consequences of his 
irresponsible deception." Star estimates that there are 596 
whole-time Shakespearean biographers, mostly elderly men 
with families, all thrown on the world without knowledge 
of any trade. Star, therefore, opens Distressed Shake- 
speareans' Sustentation Fund. 
Seven hundred and two statues of Shakespeare have now 
been pulled down in various parts of the world. President 
Wilson throws colossal metal statue at Cincinnati into 
melting pot to make Liberty Gun. 
Dean Inge, in sermon, says that others may take these 
things lightly but in his opinion Bacon nothing but a black- 
guard. Newspapers all rebuke him. 
Professor Gubb alleged to be worth four millions. Seen 
by Government Whip. 
April x6lh. Announced I^rofcssor Gubb created a peer. 
Probably worth only 3^ millions now. 
