|
'This could be big' - Minneapolis Daily Peter Dawkins (SMN) - Polair Publishing, 2004, 477 pp., £16.99 p/b - ISBN 0 9545389 4 3 Readers may have noticed the Shakespeare authorship controversy surfacing in the news recently with the publication of new book, The Truth Will Out: Unmasking the Real Shakespeare, written by academics Brenda James and Professor William Rubinstein and arguing that the plays were written by Sir Henry Neville. Another recent publication is Michael Holroyd's widely reviewed biography of Shakespeare. Peter Dawkins's book, however, has received no attention in the press at all, despite its foreword by Mark Rylance, the artistic director of the Globe Theatre. Peter has devoted his life to the Francis Bacon Research Trust, and this fascinating book is the fruit of over 30 years of carefully documented research. I have not had the chance to read the Neville book, but reviews indicated that it shares a central argument with Peter's analysis: that there is a poor match between the author of the Shakespeare plays and the known life of Shakespeare the actor. Peter discusses this issue in great detail early in the book. The author of the plays must have been able to read Latin and Greek in the original (as well as French, Italian and Spanish) and his reading extends to over a hundred classical authors. His vocabulary was at least twice that of Marlowe (15,000 words minimum) and his knowledge of the law is deployed with a degree of precision that indicates a legal training. Moreover, there are insider references to Cambridge University and court life, and descriptions of places that the author must have visited (an argument also used in Neville's case). Shakespeare the actor and businessman does not appear to have had access to this range of learning (and it is no argument to say that this is snobbery). He left no letters, and no tributes were published on his death while lesser contemporary artists received fulsome eulogies. Bacon himself was the subject of numerous and varied tributes on his death. Other circumstantial evidence is provided by corrections to the plays corresponding with Bacon's revision of his own scientific knowledge and the existence of a notebook that was only published in 1883 and is now kept at the British Museum. It consists of entries in many languages along with words invented by Bacon himself, many of which are used directly in the Shakespeare plays. Indeed 'some of them appear in print uniquely in the Shakespeare plays, and many are used frequently therein.' (p. 210) In the space of a short review it is not possible to adduce the range of evidence that Peter brings to bear on his case. There are full biographical details of Bacon and his family, accounts of his overall cultural scheme of the Great Instauration, explanations of the Shakespeare monuments, descriptions of the - to us unfamiliar - use of ciphers and pseudonyms, a background on Rosicrucianism and other playwrights of the day (especially Ben Jonson), a review of the Northumberland manuscript, plus a wealth of pictorial illustrations. This leads Peter to the conclusion that 'the Shakespeare Folio is the careful production of a secret, cabalistic fraternity, associated with (or comprising) the Rosicrucians and Freemasons of the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries, whose 'Apollo' or 'Shakespeare' was Francis Bacon.' (p. 350) A further scholarly impediment against giving Peter's position a fair hearing is the pervasive rationalism of universities and their consequent bias against esoteric understandings. However, it is not good enough to dismiss evidence on a priori grounds without careful consideration. Another possible factor is that acceptance of Peter's conclusions would cause a seismic tremor in the English tourist industry. Moreover, Shakespeare is part of the English psyche, so replacing him with Bacon would require some very major recasting and would revolutionise the public perception of Bacon himself. Already he is recognised as one of the greatest men of his generation, a consummate writer and the founder of modern inductive science. If one adds the Shakespeare oeuvre then Bacon's stature reaches that of a universal genius. David Lorimer, in Scientific and Medical Network Review |