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Did the actor, Shakespeare, actually pen his own works, or were they actually written by Francis Bacon? From what I have heard, the arguments in favor of Bacon as the true author are rather compelling, but I have not looked into the matter in enough depth to know with more clarity. Thoughts?
Let's start with: I have NOT studied the issue well. Nor do I remember most of what I studied about the issue eons ago when I was in college.I am, however, skeptical. IMO scholars get bored and love inventing new theories to break their boredom; I think this is what is happening here. Especially since we know there really was a Shakespeare. Plus his will indicates he was a man of means. If he did not make his money as a playwright then how did he make it?Shakespeare also popularized the Shakespearean sonnet; the reason I was thought he did this was to obtain literary fame. If Bacon “was Shakespeare” then why did he write sonnets as both Bacon and Shakespeare? To me that make no sense and makes me very skeptical of the claim that Francis Bacon “was Shakespeare.”
Which are the sonnets that Bacon is known to have written? Here is a list of some of his works, but it doesn't mention sonnet:http://en.wikipedia.org/wiki/Works_by_Francis_Bacon#Religious.2FLiterary_WorksIf Bacon did publish sonnets under his own name, then the answer as to "why" may have to do with the content of them, which may have differed from the content of Shakespearean sonnets. Also, I don't think we have to deny the existence of Shakespeare for this to be true; rather, that Bacon attributed works to him that weren't really his. [ot]While looking up Bacon, I saw that he died experimenting with freezing meat, something which would have been a significant help to people of that period:
Aubrey's vivid account, which portrays Bacon as a martyr to experimental scientific method, had him journeying to Highgate through the snow with the King’s physician when he is suddenly inspired by the possibility of using the snow to preserve meat: “They were resolved they would try the experiment presently. They alighted out of the coach and went into a poor woman’s house at the bottom of Highgate hill, and bought a fowl, and made the woman exenterate it.”After stuffing the fowl with snow, Bacon contracted a fatal case of pneumonia. Some people, including Aubrey, consider these two contiguous, possibly coincidental events as related and causative of his death: "The Snow so chilled him that he immediately fell so extremely ill, that he could not return to his Lodging... but went to the Earle of Arundel’s house at Highgate, where they put him into... a damp bed that had not been layn-in... which gave him such a cold that in 2 or 3 days as I remember Mr Hobbes told me, he died of Suffocation."
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