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"Colonel" George Fabyan (March 15, 1867 – May 17, 1936) was an American businessman who founded a private research laboratory. Fabyan's laboratory pioneered modern cryptography and was the forerunner of the NSA. The National Security Agency has recognized Riverbank Laboratories as the birthplace of U.S. cryptology.

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83-641: Fabyan may refer to: People [ edit ] George Fabyan (1867–1936), businessman and founder of a cryptology research laboratory Robert Fabyan (died c. 1512), English chronicler Locations [ edit ] Fabyan, Alberta , a hamlet in Canada Fabyan House , a former hotel in New Hampshire Fabyan Windmill , in Geneva, Illinois Fabyan, Connecticut ,

166-603: A $ 150 monthly stipend to his secretary, Belle Cumming. At George's request, his wife burned some of his papers after his death, despite pleas from William Friedman, but other papers survived and are now at the New York Public Library . Nelle died of cancer in 1939 and the estate was sold to the county for $ 70,500; it is now part of the Kane County Forest Preserve District. The acoustic laboratory Fabyan built still operates as

249-716: A Dutch-style windmill built c.  1870 from its original farm site in York Center, Illinois to his estate. Known as the Fabyan Windmill , this 5-story grist mill was restored to working order in 2004. Fabyan supported the Baconian theory , which was popular at the time, that Shakespeare's plays were written by Francis Bacon . He established a cryptologic research group to study alleged ciphers in Shakespeare's work. Known as Riverbank Laboratories , it

332-566: A Shakespearean scholar, was employed by Fabyan to work with Gallup. Later, a geneticist employed by Fabyan, William F. Friedman , joined the effort, initially as a photographer, and then later drawn into the cryptography effort, such that he eventually became the head of the Codes & Ciphers department in Friedman's lab. Both Elizebeth and William went on to have significant careers in cryptanalysis (a term coined by William), and their work became

415-399: A U.S. Congressman , science fiction author and Atlantis theorist, wrote The Great Cryptogram , in which he argued that Bacon revealed his authorship of the works by concealing secret ciphers in the text. This produced a plethora of late 19th-century Baconian theorising, which developed the theme that Bacon had hidden encoded messages in the plays. Baconian theory developed a new twist in

498-513: A box containing 17th-century documents proving that the plays of Shakespeare were in fact written by Bacon. In P. G. Wodehouse 's story The Reverent Wooing of Archibald , the dedicated "sock collector" Archibald Mulliner is told that Bacon wrote plays for Shakespeare. He remarks that it was "dashed decent of him", but suggests he may have only done it because he owed Shakespeare money. Archibald then listens to an elderly Baconian expounding an incomprehensible cipher theory. The narrator remarks that

581-615: A comic description of the Gray's Inn players. Gray's Inn actually had a company of players during the revels. The Gray's Inn Pension Book records on 11 February 1595 that "one hyndred marks [£66.67] [are] to be layd out & bestowyd upon the gentlemen for their sports and shewes this Shrovetyde at the court before the Queens Majestie ...." There is, most importantly to the Baconians' argument, evidence that Bacon had control over

664-428: A copy of this book had been bequeathed to Stratford Grammar School by John Bretchgirdle for "the common use of scholars". In addition, it is argued that Bacon's and Shakespeare's styles of writing are profoundly different, and that they use very different vocabulary. Scott McCrea writes, "there is no answer for Bacon's different renderings of the same word – 'politiques' instead of 'politicians', or 'submiss' instead of

747-419: A group of scholars who act as the judges. The jury comprises poets and playwrights, including "William Shakespeere". One of the convicted "criminals" challenges the court, attacking the credentials of the jury, including Shakespeare, who is called a mere "mimic". Despite the fact that Bacon and Shakespeare appear as different individuals, Baconians have argued that this is a coded assertion of Bacon's authorship of

830-432: A man with a grammar school education of the time. His Latin is derived from school books of the era. There is no record that any contemporary of Shakespeare referred to him as a learned writer or scholar. Ben Jonson and Francis Beaumont both refer to his lack of classical learning. If a university-trained playwright wrote the plays, it is hard to explain the many classical blunders in Shakespeare. Not only does he mistake

913-425: A poet, Sidney Lee asserted: "[...] such authentic examples of Bacon's efforts to write verse as survive prove beyond all possibility of contradiction that, great as he was as a prose writer and a philosopher, he was incapable of penning any of the poetry assigned to Shakespeare." At least one Stratfordian scholar claims Bacon privately disavowed the idea he was a poet, and, seen in the context of Bacon's philosophy,

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996-531: A sixteen-page pamphlet entitled Was Lord Bacon the Author of Shakespeare's Plays? Smith suggested that several letters to and from Francis Bacon hinted at his authorship. A year later, both Smith and Delia Bacon published books expounding the Baconian theory. In Delia Bacon's work, "Shakespeare" was represented as a group of writers, including Francis Bacon, Sir Walter Raleigh and Edmund Spenser , whose agenda

1079-661: A variety of decipherments between 1922 and 1930, concluding finally that, although he had failed to find them, there certainly were concealed messages. He established the Francis Bacon Foundation in California in 1937 and left it his collection of Baconiana. In 1957 the expert cryptographers William and Elizebeth Friedman published The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined , a study of all the proposed ciphers identified by Baconians (and others) up to that point. The Friedmans had worked with Gallup. They showed that

1162-442: A village Topics referred to by the same term [REDACTED] This disambiguation page lists articles associated with the title Fabyan . If an internal link led you here, you may wish to change the link to point directly to the intended article. Retrieved from " https://en.wikipedia.org/w/index.php?title=Fabyan&oldid=989020684 " Category : Disambiguation pages Hidden categories: Short description

1245-575: Is different from Wikidata All article disambiguation pages All disambiguation pages George Fabyan Fabyan was born on March 15, 1867, in Boston , to George and Isabella Fabyan, the second child and eldest son of five children. He left home at age 17. Eventually ending up in Chicago, he ran the Chicago office of his tycoon father's textile business Bliss, Fabyan & Co. from 1895 on. His inheritance from Bliss, Fabyan & Co. provided

1328-413: Is employed by both Shakespeare and Bacon. However, Shakespeare's play precedes Bacon's publication, allowing the possibility of the latter borrowing from the former. Mainstream academics reject the Baconian theory (along with other "alternative authorship" theories), citing a range of evidence – not least of all its reliance on a conspiracy theory. As far back as 1879, a New York Herald scribe bemoaned

1411-507: Is highly unlikely; furthermore, the Gray's Inn Pension Book, which recorded all payments made by the Gray's Inn committee, exhibits no payment either to a dramatist or to professional company for this play. Baconians interpret this as a suggestion that, following precedent, The Comedy of Errors was both written and performed by members of the Inns of Court as part of their participation in the Gray's Inn celebrations. One problem with this argument

1494-531: Is most commonly spelled "Shakspere". Baconians often use "Shakspere" or "Shakespeare" for the glover's son and actor from Stratford, and "Shake-speare" for the author to avoid the assumption that the Stratford man wrote the works attributed to him. A pamphlet entitled The Story of the Learned Pig (circa 1786) and alleged research by James Wilmot have been described by some as the earliest instances of

1577-521: Is that the Gesta Grayorum refers to the players as "a Company of base and common fellows", which would apply well to a professional theatre company, but not to law students. But, given the jovial tone of the Gesta , and that the description occurred during a skit in which a "Sorcerer or Conjuror" was accused of causing "disorders with a play of errors or confusions", Baconians interpret it as merely

1660-492: Is that the greater draws the less. So we see that when two lights do meet, the greater doth darken and drown the less. And when a small river runs into a greater, it loseth both the name and stream." A figure similar to "loseth both the name and stream" occurs in Hamlet (1600–01), 3.1.87–88: Bacon was usually careful to cite his sources but does not mention Shakespeare once in any of his work. Baconians claim, furthermore, that, if

1743-480: The Merchant of Venice (1594–97), 5.1.92–97: The Merchant of Venice uses both the same theme as the Gesta Grayorum (see Figure) and the same three examples to illustrate it – a subject obscured by royalty, a small light overpowered by that of a heavenly body and a river diluted on reaching the sea. In an essay from 1603, Bacon makes further use of two of these examples: "The second condition [of perfect mixture]

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1826-491: The Gesta Grayorum was circulated prior to its publication in 1688 – and no one seems to know if it was – it was probably only among members of the Inns of Court. In the 19th century, a waste book entitled the Promus of Formularies and Elegancies was discovered. It contained 1,655 hand written proverbs , metaphors , aphorisms , salutations and other miscellany. Although some entries appear original, many are drawn from

1909-507: The Latin and Greek writers Seneca , Horace , Virgil , Ovid ; John Heywood 's Proverbes (1562); Michel de Montaigne 's Essays (1575), and various other French, Italian and Spanish sources. A section at the end aside, the writing was, by Sir Edward Maunde-Thompson 's reckoning, in Bacon's hand; indeed, his signature appears on folio 115 verso. Only two folios of the notebook were dated,

1992-600: The Riverbank Laboratories , and his home is now the Fabyan Villa museum. The restored windmill is open to the public on summer weekends, as of 2019. The laboratory and windmill are listed on the National Register of Historic Places . Baconian theory The Baconian theory of Shakespearean authorship contends that Sir Francis Bacon , philosopher, essayist and scientist, wrote

2075-417: The circulation of the blood , a theory known to Bacon through his friendship with William Harvey , but not made public until after Shakespeare's death in 1616. They also argue that Bacon has been praised for his poetic style, even in his prose works. Opponents of this view argue that Shakespeare's erudition was greatly exaggerated by Victorian enthusiasts, and that the works display the typical knowledge of

2158-440: The plays that are publicly attributed to William Shakespeare . Various explanations are offered for this alleged subterfuge, most commonly that Bacon's rise to high office might have been hindered if it became known that he wrote plays for the public stage. The plays are credited to Shakespeare, who, supporters of the theory claim, was merely a front to shield the identity of Bacon. All but a few academic Shakespeare scholars reject

2241-460: The scansion of many classical names, in Troilus and Cressida he has Greeks and Trojans citing Plato and Aristotle a thousand years before their births. Willinsky suggests that most of Shakespeare's classical allusions were drawn from Thomas Cooper’s Thesaurus Linguae Romanae et Britannicae (1565), since a number of errors in that work are replicated in several of Shakespeare’s plays, and

2324-424: The "concealed poet" is something other than a dramatic or narrative poet. A mainstream historian of authorship doubt, Frank Wadsworth , asserted that the "essential pattern of the Baconian argument" consisted of "expressed dissatisfaction with the number of historical records of Shakespeare's career, followed by the substitution of a wealth of imaginative conjectures in their place." In his 1971 essay "Bill and I,"

2407-501: The Author's 'submissive', or 'militar' instead of the Poet's 'military'. These are two different writers." Baconians have claimed that some contemporaries of Bacon and Shakespeare were in on the secret of Bacon's authorship, and have left hints of this in their writings. "There can be no doubt," said Caldecott, "that Ben Jonson was in possession of the secret composition of Shakespeare's works." An intimate of both Bacon and Shakespeare – he

2490-553: The Baconian theory and profess to be adherents, infuriating their English master. J.C. Squire 's "If It Had Been Discovered in 1930 that Bacon Really Did Write Shakespeare," published in If It Had Happened Otherwise (1931), is a comic farce wherein cultural upheavals, acts of quick thinking in rebranding tourist attractions, and additions of new slang terms to the English language occur when someone finds

2573-406: The Baconian theory in his writings. The German mathematician Georg Cantor believed that Shakespeare was Bacon. He eventually published two pamphlets supporting the theory in 1896 and 1897. By 1900, leading Baconians were asserting that their cause would soon be won. In 1916 a judge in Chicago ruled in a civil trial that Bacon was the true author of the Shakespeare canon. However, this proved to be

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2656-500: The Gray's Inn players. In a letter either to Lord Burghley , dated before 1598, or to the Earl of Somerset in 1613, he writes, "I am sorry the joint masque from the four Inns of Court faileth [.... T]here are a dozen gentlemen of Gray's Inn that will be ready to furnish a masque". The dedication to a masque by Francis Beaumont performed at Whitehall in 1613 describes Bacon as the "chief contriver" of its performances at Gray's Inn and

2739-626: The Inner Temple. He also appears to have been their treasurer prior to the 1594–95 revels. The discrepancy surrounding the whereabouts of the Chamberlain's Men is normally explained by theatre historians as an error in the Chamber Accounts. W. W. Greg suggested the following explanation: The final paragraph of the Gesta Grayorum – see Figure – uses a "greater lessens the smaller" construction that occurs in an exchange from

2822-506: The MSS. To Donnelly's theory the pagination & the number of lines in a page are essential." Mainstream academics reject the anti-Stratfordian claim that Shakespeare had not the education to write the plays. Shakespeare grew up in a family of some importance in Stratford; his father John Shakespeare , one of the wealthiest men in Stratford, was an Alderman and later High Bailiff of the corporation. It would be surprising had he not attended

2905-536: The Shakespeare plays. Pott founded the Francis Bacon Society in 1885 and published her Bacon-centered theory in 1891. In this, Pott developed the view of W.F.C. Wigston, that Francis Bacon was the founding member of the Rosicrucians , a secret society of occult philosophers, and claimed that they secretly created art, literature and drama, including the entire Shakespeare canon, before adding

2988-501: The Shakespearean work was of such an incalculably higher calibre than that of contemporary playwrights that it could not possibly have been written by any of them. Even mainstream Shakespearean scholar Horace Howard Furness , wrote that "Had the plays come down to us anonymously – had the labour of discovering the author been imposed upon future generations – we could have found no one of that day but Francis Bacon to whom to assign

3071-449: The arguments for Bacon authorship, as well as those for all other alternative authors. The theory was first put forth in the mid-nineteenth century, based on perceived correspondences between the philosophical ideas found in Bacon’s writings and the works of Shakespeare. Legal and autobiographical allusions and cryptographic ciphers and codes were later found in the plays and poems to buttress

3154-410: The author and scientific historian Isaac Asimov made the case that Bacon did not write Shakespeare's plays because certain portions of the Shakespeare canon show a misunderstanding of the prevailing scientific beliefs of the time that Bacon, one of the most intensely educated people of his time, would not have possessed. Asimov cites an excerpt from the last act of The Merchant of Venice , as well as

3237-441: The author of the works. Damages of $ 5,000 were awarded to Fabyan for the interference with the publication of the book. In the ensuing uproar, Tuthill rescinded his decision on 2 May 1916, and another judge, Frederick A. Smith, dismissed the ruling on 21 July 1916. It was later suggested by the press that the case was concocted by both parties for publicity, since Selig and Fabyan were known to be old friends. Elizebeth Smith ,

3320-554: The bed of the River Wye , near Chepstow Castle , in the search of Bacon's original Shakespearean manuscripts. The project ended with his death in 1924. Nothing was found. The American art collector Walter Conrad Arensberg (1878–1954) believed that Bacon had concealed messages in a variety of ciphers, relating to a secret history of the time and the esoteric secrets of the Rosicrucians, in the Shakespearean works. He published

3403-565: The birthplace of U.S. cryptology, and honored Fabyan in 1992 with a plaque reading "To the Memory of George Fabyan From a Grateful Government: In recognition of the voluntary and confidential service rendered by Colonel Fabyan and his Riverbank Laboratories in the sensitive areas of cryptanalysis and cryptologic training during a critical time of national need on the eve of America's entry into World War I". Fabyan died in 1936 from complications of pleurisy . He left $ 175,000 to his wife Nelle, and

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3486-442: The boiling heat of their affections is not yet settled, nor tempered with time and experience?" What Aristotle actually said was slightly different: "Hence a young man is not a proper hearer of lectures on political science; [...] and further since he tends to follow his passions his study will be vain and unprofitable [...]." The added coincidence of heat and passion and the replacement of "political science" with "moral philosophy"

3569-440: The canon, or at least proof that he was recognised as a poet. Various images, especially in the frontispieces or title pages of books, have been said to contain symbolism pointing to Bacon's authorship. A book on codes and cyphers entitled Cryptomenytices et Cryptographiae , is said to depict Bacon writing a work and Shakespeare (signified by the spear he carries) receiving it. Other books with similar alleged coded imagery include

3652-512: The claim that Bacon wrote Shakespeare's works, but the Wilmot research has been exposed as a forgery, and the pamphlet makes no direct reference to Bacon. The idea was first proposed by Delia Bacon (no relation) in lectures and conversations with intellectuals in America and Britain. William Henry Smith was the first to publish the theory in a letter to Lord Ellesmere published in the form of

3735-593: The crown. In this case it would have been resting now upon his head by almost common consent." "He was," agreed Caldecott, "all the things that the plays of Shakespeare demand that the author should be – a man of vast and boundless ambition and attainments, a philosopher, a poet, a lawyer, a statesman." Baconians have also argued that Shakespeare's works show a detailed scientific knowledge that, they claim, only Bacon could have possessed. Certain passages in Coriolanus , first published in 1623, are alleged to refer to

3818-699: The financial foundation from which he and his wife, Nelle, established their legacy. Illinois Governor Richard Yates Jr. appointed Fabyan to his military guard in 1901, giving him the honorary title of Colonel, by which he was later known. In May, 1909 Fabyan was awarded the Order of the Rising Sun by the Japanese government for his service. Fabyan had spent some time in Japan before 1905, developing relations with Japanese government and business representatives. He

3901-456: The following excerpt from A Midsummer Night's Dream : In the above example, the reference to stars shooting madly from their spheres was not in accordance with the then-accepted Greek astronomical belief that the stars all occupied the same sphere that surrounded the Earth as opposed to separate ones. While it was believed that additional ambient spheres existed, they were thought to contain

3984-644: The foundation for what later became the NSA . Decades after working for Fabyan, William and Elizebeth collaborated on a study to discredit the ciphers that Gallup claimed to have discovered. This book won the Folger Shakespeare Library Literary Prize of $ 1000 in 1955 for its definitive study that is considered to have disproven the claims of all researchers that the works of Shakespeare contain hidden ciphers that disclose Bacon's — or any other candidate's — secret authorship. The study

4067-592: The grounds that the name derives from Rome's most famous legal scholar, Marcus Labeo , with Bacon holding an equivalent position in Elizabethan England . Hall denigrates several poems by Labeo and states that he passes off criticism to "shift it to another's name". This is taken to imply that he published under a pseudonym. In the following year Marston used Bacon's Latin motto in a poem and seems to quote from Venus and Adonis , which he attributes to Labeo. Theobald argued that this confirmed that Hall's Labeo

4150-415: The heyday of the theory. A number of new candidates were proposed in the early 20th century, notably Roger Manners, 5th Earl of Rutland , William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby and Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford , dethroning Bacon as the sole alternative to Shakespeare. Furthermore, these and other alternative authorship theories failed to make any headway among academics. In 1880 Ignatius L. Donnelly ,

4233-532: The land he loved on new lines, 'to be a Servant to Posterity'". In 1916 Gallup's financial backer George Fabyan was sued by film producer William Selig . He argued that Fabyan's advocacy of Bacon threatened the profits expected from a forthcoming film about Shakespeare. The judge determined that ciphers identified by Gallup proved that Francis Bacon was the author of the Shakespeare canon, awarding Fabyan $ 5,000 in damages. Orville Ward Owen had such conviction of his own cipher method that, in 1909, he began excavating

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4316-480: The latter ruthlessly executed by his own mother in 1601. Bacon was the true heir to the throne of England, but had been excluded from his rightful place. This tragic life-story was the secret hidden in the plays. Elizabeth Wells Gallup developed Owen's views, arguing that a bi-literal cipher , which she had identified in the First Folio of Shakespeare's works, revealed concealed messages confirming that Bacon

4399-464: The latter uses the name Labeo, so there is no link between Labeo and Bacon. In 1645 a satirical poem (often attributed to George Wither ) was published entitled The Great Assizes Holden in Parnassus by Apollo and his Assessours . This describes an imaginary trial of recent writers for crimes against literature. Apollo presides at a trial. Bacon ("The Lord Verulam, Chancellor of Parnassus") heads

4482-559: The local grammar school, as such institutions were founded to educate boys of Shakespeare's moderately well-to-do standing. Stratfordian scholars also cite Occam's razor , the principle that the simplest and best-evidenced explanation (in this case that the plays were written by Shakespeare of Stratford) is most likely to be the correct one. A critique of all alternative authorship theories may be found in Samuel Schoenbaum 's Shakespeare's Lives . Questioning Bacon's ability as

4565-559: The manners that are learned by nobility [...:] dancing, music, declamation, acting." James Spedding , the Victorian editor of Bacon's Works , thought that Sir Francis Bacon was involved in the writing of this account. The Gesta Grayorum is a pamphlet of 68 pages first published in 1688. It informs us that The Comedy of Errors received its first known performance at these revels at 21:00 on 28 December 1594 ( Innocents Day ) when "a Comedy of Errors (like to Plautus his Menechmus )

4648-582: The manuscript of Hamlet from Bacon. In Beerbohm's comic essay On Shakespeare's Birthday he declares himself to be unconvinced by Baconian theory, but wishes it were true because of the mischief it would cause – and because having one hero who was both an intellectual and a creative genius would be more exciting than two separate ones. In Rudyard Kipling 's 1926 short story "The Propagation of Knowledge" (later collected in Debits and Credits and The Complete Stalky & Co. ), some schoolboys discover

4731-422: The mark and acme of our language." Jonson's First-Folio tribute to "The Author Mr William Shakespeare",[...] contains the same words, stating that Shakespeare is as good as "all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome" produced. According to Caldecott, "If Ben Jonson knew that the name 'Shakespeare' was a mere cloak for Bacon, it is easy enough to reconcile the application of the same language indifferently to one and

4814-498: The method is unlikely to have been employed by the author of Shakespeare's works, concluding that none of the ciphers claimed to exist by Baconians were valid. Early Baconians were influenced by Victorian bardolatry , which portrayed Shakespeare as a profound intellectual, "the greatest intellect who, in our recorded world, has left record of himself in the way of Literature", as Thomas Carlyle stated. In conformity with these ideas, Baconian writer Harry Stratford Caldecott held that

4897-473: The nation. The argument is that Bacon intended to set up new institutes of experimentation to gather the data to which his inductive method could be applied. He needed high office to gain the requisite influence, and being known as a dramatist, an allegedly low-class profession, would have impeded his prospects (see stigma of print ). Realising that play-acting was used by the ancients "as a means of educating men's minds to virtue", and being "strongly addicted to

4980-456: The occurrence in the last two examples of two ideas from the same Promus folio in the same Shakespeare speech is unlikely. There is an example in Troilus and Cressida (2.2.163) which shows that Bacon and Shakespeare shared the same interpretation of an Aristotelian view : Bacon's similar take reads thus: "Is not the opinion of Aristotle very wise and worthy to be regarded, 'that young men are no fit auditors of moral philosophy', because

5063-738: The other bodies in the sky that move independently from the rest of the stars, i.e. the Sun , the Moon , and the planets that are visible to the naked eye (whose name makes its way into English from the Greek word planetes , meaning "wanderers," as in the wandering bodies that orbited the Earth independently from the fixed stars in their sphere). Satirist Max Beerbohm published a cartoon entitled "William Shakespeare, his method of work", in his 1904 collection The Poet's Corner . Beerbohm depicts Shakespeare receiving

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5146-477: The other end of the town." Horace Howard Furness wrote in a letter that, "Donnelly's theory about Bacon's authorship is too foolish to be seriously answered. I don't think he started it for any other purpose than notoriety. I believe he doesn't attempt to show that Bacon corrected the proof-sheets of the First Folio, and no human foresight could have told how the printed line would run, and have so regulated

5229-417: The other. Otherwise," declared Caldecott, "it is not easily explicable.". Baconians Walter Begley and Bertram G. Theobald claimed that Elizabethan satirists Joseph Hall and John Marston alluded to Francis Bacon as the true author of Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece by using the sobriquet "Labeo" in a series of poems published in 1597–98. They take this to be a coded reference to Bacon on

5312-404: The outer sheet was scrawled repeatedly the names of Bacon and Shakespeare along with the name of Thomas Nashe . There were several quotations from Shakespeare and a reference to the word Honorificabilitudinitatibus , which appears in Shakespeare's Love's Labour's Lost and Nashe's Lenten Stuff . The Earl of Northumberland sent the bundle to James Spedding , who subsequently penned a thesis on

5395-569: The subject, with which was published a facsimile of the aforementioned cover. Spedding hazarded a 1592 date, making it possibly the earliest extant mention of Shakespeare. After a diligent deciphering of the Elizabethan handwriting in Francis Bacon's notebook, known as the Promus of Formularies and Elegancies , Constance Mary Fearon Pott (1833–1915) argued that many of the ideas and figures of speech in Bacon's book could also be found in

5478-463: The subject. Selig was intending to capitalise on the celebrations organised for the upcoming 300th anniversary of Shakespeare's death, which occurred in April 1616. A Cook Country Circuit Court judge , Richard Tuthill, found against Shakespeare's authorship - he determined that Bacon's ciphers identified by Fabyan's analyst Elizabeth Wells Gallup were authentic and that Francis Bacon was therefore

5561-421: The symbols of the rose and cross rug to their work. William Comyns Beaumont also popularised the notion of Bacon's authorship. Other Baconians ignored the esoteric following that the theory was attracting. Bacon's reason for publishing under a pseudonym was said to be his need to secure his high office, possibly in order to complete his "Great Instauration" project to reform the moral and intellectual culture of

5644-566: The theatre" himself, he is claimed to have set out the otherwise-unpublished moral philosophical component of his Great Instauration project in the Shakespearean oeuvre. In this way, he could influence the nobility through dramatic performance with his observations on what constitutes "good" government. By the end of the 19th century, Baconian theory had received support from a number of high-profile individuals. Mark Twain showed an inclination for it in his essay Is Shakespeare Dead? . Friedrich Nietzsche expressed interest in and gave credence to

5727-429: The theory that Bacon wrote Shakespeare's works refer to themselves as "Baconians", while dubbing those who maintain the orthodox view that William Shakespeare of Stratford wrote his own works "Stratfordians". Baptised as "Gulielmus filius Johannes Shakspere" (William son of John Shakspere) on 26 April 1564, the traditionally accepted author's surname had several variant spellings during his lifetime, but his signature

5810-558: The theory. The Baconian theory gained popularity and attention in the late nineteenth and early twentieth century. The academic consensus is that Shakespeare wrote the works bearing his name. Supporters of Bacon continue to argue for his candidacy through organisations, books, newsletters, and websites. Sir Francis Bacon was an English scientist, philosopher, courtier , diplomat, essayist, historian and successful politician who served as Solicitor General in 1607, Attorney General in 1613 and Lord Chancellor in 1618. Those who subscribe to

5893-400: The third edition of John Florio 's translation of Montaigne, and various editions of works by Bacon himself. Gray's Inn law school traditionally held revels over Easter 94 and '95, all performed plays were amateur productions. In his commentary on the Gesta Grayorum , a contemporary account of the 1594–95 revels, Desmond Bland informs us that they were "intended as a training ground in all

5976-426: The third sheet 5 December 1594 and the 32nd 27 January 1595 (1596). Bacon supporters found similarities between a great number of specific phrases and aphorisms from the plays and those written by Bacon in the Promus . In 1883 Mrs. Henry Pott edited Bacon's Promus and found 4,400 parallels of thought or expression between Shakespeare and Bacon. The orthodox view is that these were commonplace phrases; Baconians claim

6059-491: The waste of "considerable blank ammunition [...] in this ridiculous war between the Baconians and the Shakespearians", while Richard Garnett made the common objection that Bacon was far too busy with his own work to have had time to create the entire canon of another writer too, declaring that "Baconians talk as if Bacon had nothing to do but to write his play at his chambers and send it to his factotum, Shakespeare, at

6142-580: The west bank of the Fox River. "Riverbank", as they named their estate, featured among other things, a Japanese Garden , a private zoo, a Roman-style swimming pool, a lighthouse, two windmills, gardens, grottoes, greenhouses, a farm and the research laboratory. They lived on their estate from 1908 to 1939 in a farmhouse remodeled by Frank Lloyd Wright , which they called the Fabyan Villa . This site also contained George's and Nelle's expansive private library and museum. In 1914 Fabyan purchased and had moved

6225-572: The writings of Orville Ward Owen and Elizabeth Wells Gallup . Owen's book Sir Francis Bacon's Cipher Story (1893–95) claimed to have discovered a secret history of the Elizabethan era hidden in cipher-form in Bacon/Shakespeare's works. The most remarkable revelation was that Bacon was the son of Queen Elizabeth . According to Owen, Bacon revealed that Elizabeth was secretly married to Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester , who fathered both Bacon himself and Robert Devereux, 2nd Earl of Essex ,

6308-590: Was appointed as a liaison to General Kuroki Tamemoto during the Russo-Japanese peace negotiations ( Treaty of Portsmouth ) held in Maine in 1905. Between 1907 and 1910, he served as a host for General Kuroki, Baron Komura, and Prince Fushimi during their visits to Chicago. He and his wife developed a 325-acre country estate in Geneva, Illinois , 40 miles west of Chicago, beginning with the purchase of 10 acres on

6391-572: Was condensed and published in 1957 as The Shakespearean Ciphers Examined. The Friedmans played a significant role in World War I. Nearly all American military World War I cryptography was done at Fabyan's laboratories. In particular they uncovered a plot against the British by Indian nationalists supported by the Germans. The National Security Agency has recognized Riverbank Laboratories as

6474-450: Was for a time the former's stenographer and Latin interpreter, and had his debut as a playwright produced by the latter – he was placed perfectly to be in the know. He did not name Shakespeare among the sixteen greatest cards of the epoch but wrote of Bacon that he "hath filled up all the numbers and performed that in our tongue which may be compared or preferred either to insolent Greece and haughty Rome so that he may be named, and stand as

6557-465: Was known to be Bacon and that he wrote Venus and Adonis . Critics of this view argue that the name Labeo derives from Attius Labeo , a notoriously bad poet, and that Hall's Labeo could refer to one of many poets of the time, or even be a composite figure, standing for the triumph of bad verse. Also, Marston's use of the Latin motto is a different poem from the one which alludes to Venus and Adonis . Only

6640-688: Was played by the Players [...]." Whoever the players were, there is evidence that Shakespeare and his company were not among them: according to the royal Chamber accounts, dated 15 March 1595 – see Figure – he and the Lord Chamberlain's Men were performing for the Queen at Greenwich on Innocents Day. E.K. Chambers informs us that "the Court performances were always at night, beginning about 10pm and ending at 1am", so their presence at both performances

6723-475: Was the first privately owned research facility in the United States. In 1916, William Selig , a film producer, sued Fabyan on the grounds that profits from forthcoming films of Shakespeare's works, along with a film on the life of Shakespeare, would be damaged by Fabyan's claims that Bacon was the author. On 9 March 1916, he obtained a temporary injunction stopping the publication of a book by Fabyan on

6806-541: Was the queen's son. This argument was taken up by several other writers, notably Alfred Dodd in Francis Bacon’s Personal Life Story (1910) and C.Y.C. Dawbarn in Uncrowned (1913). In Dodd's account Bacon was a national redeemer, who, deprived of his ordained public role as monarch, instead performed a spiritual transformation of the nation in private though his work: "He was born for England, to set

6889-473: Was to propagate an anti-monarchical system of philosophy by secreting it in the text. In 1867, in the library of Northumberland House , John Bruce happened upon a bundle of bound documents, some of whose sheets had been ripped away. It had comprised numerous of Bacon's oratories and disquisitions, and had also apparently held copies of the plays Richard II and Richard III , The Isle of Dogs and Leicester's Commonwealth , but these had been removed. On

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