Shakespeare Was the Tudor Princes Francis Bacon and Edward De Vere Timothy Spearman*
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Saudi Journal of Humanities and Social Sciences Abbreviated Key Title: Saudi J Humanities Soc Sci ISSN 2415-6256 (Print) | ISSN 2415-6248 (Online) Scholars Middle East Publishers, Dubai, United Arab Emirates Journal homepage: https://saudijournals.com/sjhss Review Article Shaking a Spear at Ignorance: Shakespeare was the Tudor Princes Francis Bacon and Edward de Vere Timothy Spearman* Toronto International College, 400-3550 Victoria Park Ave, North York ON M2H 2N5 DOI: 10.36348/sjhss.2020.v05i10.009 | Received: 24.09.2020 | Accepted: 08.10.2020 | Published: 16.10.2020 *Corresponding author: Timothy Spearman Abstract This paper is the first to link both Tudor princes, changeling children and illegitimate sons of Queen Elizabeth I, Edward de Vere and Francis Bacon, to the Shakespeare plays. The author is also the first to discover a dramatic likeness in the countenance featured in the portraits of Edward de Vere and Shakespeare, which he shares in this paper. In addition, he found a dramatic likeness in the handwriting of four pages of original manuscript material from The Book of Thomas More and that of Francis Bacon, the editor and co-author of the Shakespeare works. In addition, this paper shares the discovery that there are four different spellings of the name William Shakespeare appearing on the title pages of the complete works, which suggests that there is a total of four different hands at work in the authoring of the plays. In addition, the 1623 Folio lists the authors name in all block capitals suggesting that the brand name is being used in the case of the collected works because a team is involved and not just a single author. Keywords: Timothy Spearman is a former professor and presently a high school teacher at Toronto International School 400-3550 Victoria Park Ave., Toronto, Ontario, Canada. Copyright © 2020 The Author(s): This is an open-access article distributed under the terms of the Creative Commons Attribution 4.0 International License (CC BY-NC 4.0) which permits unrestricted use, distribution, and reproduction in any medium for non-commercial use provided the original author and source are credited. NTRODUCTION In addition, the essay connects Francis Bacon I with the Shakespeare works through a comparison of This essay was originally inspired by a the handwriting of four pages of original manuscript discovery the author made concerning a similarity in the material from The Book of Thomas More and that of likenesses of the subject featured in the portrait of Francis Bacon. There is also evidence of Francis William Shakespeare by John Taylor and that of Bacon‘s role in the Shakespeare works provided in the Edward de Vere by the Dutch painter Marcus form of embedded cipher messages found in plays and Gheeraerts the Younger. The conjecture is that the works written by or commissioned by Francis Bacon, subject featured in the Taylor portrait of Shakespeare is which confirm that he played a crucial role in editing, the same man shown in the Gheeraerts portrait, only and in some cases, writing some of the key passages in advanced in age by some 15 years and therefore with a the works as evidenced by the doubling of the sizes of receding hairline resulting from middle age. The some of the Shakespeare plays, which occurred long hypothesis is that, having lost caste in the Elizabethan after the death of Edward de Vere, implying that half- Court for acting in plays when it was expressly brother Francis Bacon was in charge of editing the final forbidden for aristocratic members of Court to do so— versions of plays such as Hamlet. in addition to causing other scandals, including having an affair with the Queen‘s handmaiden, Anne The author known by the pen name William Vavasor—Edward de Vere, the 17th Earl of Oxford, the Shake-speare was actually a Freemason initiated into concealed Tudor prince and illegitimate son of Queen the higher degrees of Freemasonry and a British Elizabeth I, became increasingly defiant of the intelligence operative acting under the cover of a establishment, adopting a bohemian lifestyle and dress, diplomat, who visited the courts of Europe on several growing what was left of his hair long, allowing his occasions. The life of privilege led by the Tudor courtier goatee and mustache to grow into a full but princes, and half-brothers, Edward de Vere and Sir scruffy beard, while sporting an earring and Francis Bacon, so dwarfed the life of the mediocrity commoner‘s dress. from Stratford-upon-Avon as to eliminate the latter altogether from the authorship candidacy. Why would © 2020 |Published by Scholars Middle East Publisher, Dubai, United Arab Emirates 577 Timothy Spearman., Saudi J. Humanities Soc Sci, October, 2020; 5(10): 577-656 the Stratford man so clearly support the ideology of Then, in two articles entitled ―Other William caste and privilege, as evidenced by the early plays in Shakespeares,‖ Charles William Wallace established particular, when such an ideology disqualified him from that one of the documents pertaining to malt sales upward social mobility? In addition, it does not make should be reassigned to a man other than the Stratford any sense whatsoever that he would have such a breadth man. So, the already scant record on the Stratford man, of knowledge gleaned from having participated in a record showing no evidence of any literary life, may aristocratic sports, while studying jurisprudence, be reduced still further when we consider that many of medicine, and several languages, in addition to the ―Shakespeares‖ referred to under different spellings traveling widely, when none of these privileges would in diverse documents may in fact be different men. The have been open to the commoner from Stratford. It question that immediately springs to mind is why is the seems necessary to shake the spear of Athena at the record so blank on William Shakspere of Stratford? ignorance of a naive world blinded by 400 years of Why is there such abject poverty in terms of incalculable oversight. The author hopes the findings documentation, including written records, letters, here presented will sufficiently shake a spear at the manuscript materials, etc.? Bear in mind that the serpent of ignorance that it might return to the hole it question is asked of the man deemed to be the greatest crawled out of. It is also hoped that the academic world, author of English letters. How can this be, when which has been so spitefully unkind to our person, will significantly more documentation has been found for offer a warmer reception to this, our ―spear-shaking.‖ contemporaries of lesser note such as Ben Jonson and Michael Drayton? Drayton, a much less revered What‘s in a name? In the name ―William contemporary and fellow poet from the same town, has Shakespeare‖ there is a great deal. One would assume exactly the kind of documentation associated with him then that, as a name of great import, the author would at one would expect to find in the great Bard‘s record, least endeavor to adopt a uniform spelling of his name including letters, direct references to works, a brief and a uniform signature to go with it. Yet, of the six description of his physical appearance, evidence of signatures found attached to documents ascribed to the revision and polishing of his works, evidence of man from Stratford, each displays a different spelling attending educational institutions, etc. Why the and style of handwriting. Why would this be when comparative destitution in the Stratford man‘s record? literate men of the 16th and 17th centuries developed And why is there no surviving evidence that these two personalized signatures just as people do today? As famous poets from the same town had known each evidenced by the signatures extant, the man from other or even met? [1]. Stratford, whose name was most commonly spelled ‗Shakspere‘ but pronounced Shaxspur, seems not to No Canonized Signature for a Writer? have developed a consistent signature. Baptized Gulielmus Shakespere, he would go on to be known in other documents by William Shaxpere, William Shackespere, Willelmus Shackspere, William Shackspere, William Shakespeare of orthodox spelling, William Shackspeare, Willelmus Shakespeare, Willelmum Shakespeare, Willielmi Shakespeare, Willelmus Shackspere, Willelmus Shakspeare, Wyllyam Shaxpere, Mr. Shakespere, etc. These names appear on records ascribed to the man known by the name most commonly rendered ―Will Shakspere‖ from Stratford-upon-Avon. It makes no sense whatsoever that a man of such purported literary fame and importance would not endeavor to standardize the spelling of his name as well as his own signature for simple purposes of identification if nothing else. Indeed, the fact that there seems to have been no effort Shakespeare’s signatures on the part of the Stratford man to do so is where a good part of the confusion rests and has contributed in There are no letters on record anywhere to any no small degree to the authorship problem itself. Some friends or relations to which William Shakespeare‘s of the scholars who examined these records initially signature is affixed. Nor are there any business partners decided that some of these documents belong in the to which his signature might appear in the course of biography of some other man of that name. Scholar correspondence. How could documentation of this kind Sydney Lee, for example, concluded Anne Whately related to one of history‘s most important men simply became engaged to another of the numerous vanish from the historical record? We need to bear in ―Shakespeares‖ who then abounded in the diocese of mind that more essays and books are written about Worcester. Shakespeare than any other historical personage.