THE SHAKESPEARE ENIGMA
Peter Dawkins
One of the most famous names in the world is Shakespeare. His plays and poetry have inspired and fascinated millions of people over the years, yet much of his life remains a mystery and an enigma. The standard story is that a young William Shakespeare was born in Stratford on Avon, was educated there, married and some years later travelled to London and became a successful actor and playwright with noble patronage. Later he was a joint owner and manager of The Globe theatre before retiring back to Stratford to follow agricultural interests, until his death in 1616.
In 1623 a complete edition of his plays was published as The First Folio, in which some plays appeared which had never been heard of before, and others had been greatly revised, even though he had left no papers, books or other signs of writing behind.
The plays show that the author was highly educated, and had used many classical sources in his works. He must have known Latin, Greek, French, Spanish, and been familiar with the geography of Europe, and the English and French Royal Courts. The author shows a vast knowledge of legal matters, an interest in science and natural history, in philosophy, and in English and ancient history.
The discrepancies between what we know of the life of the man from Stratford (whose family name was spelt Shaksper) and the qualities demonstrated in the Shakespeare works have puzzled people for over 200 years. Men and women have studied the archives, trying to piece together what actually happened and to discover the real identity of our greatest poet.
From the 1800's up to about 1950 many excellent books were written on the subject, but gradually they fell out of print, and modern scholars became cynical about the claims. So it is with great pleasure that we can welcome a new book which covers much of past scholarship which had appeared to have been lost, and demonstrates that there is a huge question to be answered.
The Shakespeare Enigma by Peter Dawkins (published by Polair Publishing and its publisher Colum Hayward), is the result of over 30 years research, and gives a fascinating account of the history of the Elizabethan and Jacobean period with special emphasis on the Shakespeare works and the search for the real author. It covers the lives of the principal characters involved and shows how their letters, writings and actions point to the answer that the true author was Francis Bacon (later Lord Chancellor of England) and that he wrote the plays with the support of many friends and associates who acted as secretaries, scholars, and writers - those whom he referred to as his 'good pens'.
Francis Bacon was a colossus of learning, who changed not just the face of literature but also was inspirational in starting the scientific method which encourages the direct examination of nature to discover what is actually happening, rather than believing blindly in the words of 'authority'.
I can thoroughly recommend 'The Shakespeare Enigma' to anyone who wants to know the background as well as the foreground to the story of the Shakespeare plays. However I am surprised that the illustration of the Stratford Monument of Shakespeare is of the modern refurbished version which was erected in about 1750, rather than the engraving of the original, put up in 1619, which shows a grim faced man with a sack holding what appears to be a pig. No pen, no paper just a pig and we all know that pigs point to bacon.
Robert Elliot, in Stella Polaris, December 2004