Bacon is Shake-Speare | Page 8

life" as "doo out the life"
meaning "shut out the real face of the living man" we perceive that here
also we are told "that the real face is hidden."
The description, with the head line "To the Reader" and the signature
"B.I.," forms twelve lines, the words of which can be turned into
numerous significant anagrams, etc., to which, however, no allusion is
made in the present work. But our readers will find that if all the letters
are counted (the two v.v.'s in line nine being counted as four letters)
they will amount to the number 287. In subsequent chapters a good
deal is said about this number, but here we only desire to say that we
are "informed" that the "Great Author" intended to reveal himself 287
years after 1623, the date when the First Folio was published, that is in
the present year, 1910, when very numerous tongues will be loosened.

Examine once more the original Stratford Bust, Plate 5, Page 14, and
the present Stratford Bust, Plate 6, Page 15, _with the large pen in the
right hand_.
If the Stratford actor were indeed the author of the plays it was most
appropriate that he should have a pen in his hand. But in the original
monument as shewn in Plate 3, Page 8, the figure hugs a sack of wool
or a pocket of hops or may be a cushion. For about 120 years, this
continued to be the Stratford effigy and shewed nothing that could in
any way connect the man portrayed, with literary work. I believe that
this was not accidental. I think that everybody in Stratford must have
known that William "Shackspeare" could not write so much as his own
name, for I assert that we possess nothing which can by any reasonable
possibility be deemed to be his signature.
[Illustration: Decorative Chapter Heading]
CHAPTER III.
The so-called "Signatures."
In Plate 14, Page 36, are shewn the five so-called signatures. These five
being the only pieces of writing in the world that can, even by the most
ardent Stratfordians, be supposed to have been written by Shakspeare's
pen; let us consider them carefully. The Will commences "In the name
of God Amen I Willum Shackspeare." It is written upon three sheets of
paper and each sheet bears a supposed signature. The Will is dated in
Latin "Vicesimo quinto die [Januarij] Mtij Anno Regni Dni nri Jacobi,
nunc R Anglie, &c. decimo quarto & Scotie xlix° annoq Dni 1616", or
shortly in English 25th March 1616.
Shakspeare died 23rd April 1616 just four weeks after publishing his
will.
I say after "PUBLISHING his Will" advisedly, for such is the
attestation, viz., "Witnes to the publyshing hereof,"
"Fra: Collyns Julius Shawe John Robinson Hamnet Sadler Robert

Whattcott"
Nothing is said about the witnessing of the signing hereof. The Will
might therefore have been, and I myself am perfectly certain that it was,
marked with the name of William Shakspeare by the Solicitor, Fra (ncis)
Collyns, who wrote the body of the Will.
[Illustration: Plate XIV. The Five so-called "Shakespeare Signatures."
THE FIVE SO-CALLED "SHAKESPEARE SIGNATURES."]
He also wrote the names of the other witnesses, which are all in the
same hand-writing as the Will; shewing that Shakspeare's witnesses
were also unable to write their names.
This fact, that Shakspeare's name is written by the solicitor, is
conclusively proved by the recent article of Magdalene Thumm-Kintzel
in the Leipzig magazine, Der Menschenkenner, which was published in
January 1909.
In this publication, photo reproductions of certain letters in the body of
the Will, and in the so-called Shakspeare signatures are placed side by
side, and the evidence is irresistible that they are written by the same
hand. Moreover when we remember that the Will commences "I
Willim Shackspeare" with a "c" between the "a" and "k," the idea that
Shakspeare himself wrote his own Will cannot be deemed worthy of
serious consideration. The whole Will is in fact in the handwriting of
Francis Collyns, the Warwick solicitor, who added the attestation
clause.
I myself was sure that the solicitor had added the so-called signatures,
when, many years ago, I examined under the strongest magnifying
glasses the Will at Somerset House.
Look first at the upper writings and never again call them "signatures."
The top one is on the first page of the Will, the second on the second
page, the third on the last page of the Will.
The original of the top one has been very much damaged but the "W"

remains quite clear. Look first only at the "W's". If the writings were
signatures what could induce a man when signing his last Will to make
each "W" as different from the others as possible, and why is the
second Christian name written Willm?
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