Durning-Lawrence Library
The Bacon-Shakespeare authorship controversy
The Bacon-Shakespeare authorship controversy, also known as the Baconian theory, consists of the view that Francis Bacon (1561-1626) wrote the plays commonly attributed to Shakespeare. The earliest alternative claim for Shakespearean authorship, it was mooted in the 1850s. It flourished between approximately 1880 and 1930, not only in Great Britain but also in America, the land where it had originated with Delia Bacon (the surname is coincidental), and in Germany. (Prominent later claimants include Christopher Marlowe; Edward de Vere, 17th Earl of Oxford; and William Stanley, 6th Earl of Derby.) The Francis Bacon Society continues as one of its aims to promulgate the theory today.
In its modest form, the Baconian theory restricts its views of Baconian authorship to Shakespeare. A major argument is Bacon's wide range of knowledge, especially in the legal sphere: the knowledge displayed in Shakespeare's plays shows erudition that, Baconians argue, only Bacon had. Another claim is that two Elizabethan satirists, Hall and Marston, identified Bacon as having written Venus and Adonis and The Rape of Lucrece. Ignatius Donnelly (The Great Cryptogram, 2 vols, London, 1888) argued for concealed messages claiming the authorship of Shakespearean plays within the plays, a stance which subsequent Baconians took up enthusiastically. Some further used mystical iconography to support their claims. The Baconian theory in its wider form views Bacon as responsible for all good contemporary English literature, the essays of Montaigne, the Authorised Version of the Bible (as the hand which imposed unity upon the style of the team of translators) and sometimes even Cervantes' Don Quixote.
Sir Edwin Durning-Lawrence held the broad view, but argued most forcefully for Bacon's authorship of Shakespeare's works, in lectures, letters to the press, pamphlets and in a monograph, Bacon is Shakespeare (London, 1910). Inspired by Donnelly, Durning-Lawrence made much of cryptograms and especially of the word 'honorificabilitudinitatibus' in Love's Labour's Lost, which he turned into the anagram: 'Hi ludi F. Baconis nati tuiti orbis' ('These plays, F. Bacon's offspring, are preserved for the world'). Durning-Lawrence was also one of the mystical iconologists. He has been widely quoted, partly for the vehemence and certainty of his expressions. In the 1920s and 1930s, writers discussed the substance of his arguments for its own sake; more recent writings have shifted the emphasis and taken him as a representative for a strand within the history of Baconian criticism.
The Baconian theory has generated a plethora of literature. Good overviews, which include reference to Durning-Lawrence, are:
- H.N. Gibson, The Shakespeare Claimants: A Critical Survey of the Four Principal Theories Concerning the Authorship of the Shakespearean Plays (London, 1962)
- John Michell, Who Wrote Shakespeare? (London, 1996)
Websites concerning the issue include:
- Francis Carr, Shakespeare Authorship Information Centre, 'Summary of Baconian Evidence for Shakespearean Authorship'
- Shakespeare Resource Center, 'The Authorship Debate'
- Shakespeare: Authorship Bibliography
The Bacon society can be reached by email at: info@baconsociety.org
shl.specialcollections@london.ac.uk 
020 7862 8470
