Starting from Henry James’s remark that the divine William was the biggest fraud ever practised on a patient world, Smithson argues that Francis Bacon stood behind the plays. Essays examine Ben Jonson’s masque Time Vindicated, Jonson’s view of Shakespeare, Bacon’s poetry, the symbolism of The Tempest and the Northumberland Manuscript, with a contribution by Sir George Greenwood.
A document of the Baconian movement at its height; its theory is rejected by virtually all scholars. Download the free EPUB.