Francis Bacon’s Unacknowledged Play The Misfortunes of Arthur and its Links to his Shakespeare Plays

Transcript

this video is dedicated to constance mary pott founding mother of the francis bacon society an untiring champion of francis bacon's authorship of the shakespeare works i am here to talk to you about the misfortunes of arthur a play that has been shrouded in obscurity for more than 400 years which is of the greatest importance to francis bacon's authorship of the shakespeare plays in normal circumstances any drama with any kind of proximity to the shakespeare plays however remote or tenuous would usually attract the attention of biographers editors and commentators in their battalions who would individually and collectively scrutinize it for all traces echoes parallels mutual links and any and all connections to the hallowed shakespeare canon one suspects the principal reason why this play is suppressed or passed over by the standard shakespeare source works is because the name of francis bacon is linked to its authorship and production a historically important play which predates and has undeniable links to a large number of shakespeare plays the untold importance of bacon's connection to the misfortunes of arthur makes it unique in the history of the authorship of the shakespeare canon and it is the reason why why the play has languished in the forgotten hinterlands of orthodox scholarship for the last four centuries the silence and systematic suppression is all the more telling when we consider after william shakespeare bacon is the most scrutinized writer in english history surely there is no need to state to any literary student that the first appearance of the name of an author in print is a biographical and bibliographical milestone in the canon of any great historical figure or man of letters first one may reasonably expect that bacon's biographers and editors would have devoted an enormous amount of energy and space to the minute scrutiny of the first work to which his name is attached in print yet in the words of his recent biographer and editor alan stewart writing in 2012 bacon's first appearance in print has received surprisingly little attention from scholars of his work there is no mention of the play by his first editor and biographer dr rawley who lived with bacon for the last 10 years of his recorded life from 1616 to 1626 in the first english biography of his rosy crucian master nor is there any mention of it in any of the other editions all collected editions by dr rawley of bacon's works on the death of dr rawley many of bacon's letters and manuscripts passed to his second editor thomas tennyson afterwards archbishop of canterbury who published some but certainly not all of them in bakoniana like his predecessor dr rawley our second bacon editor archbishop tennyson makes no reference to the work marking bacon's first appearance in print a new 197-page biography entitled the life of francis bacon by the scottish poet and dramatist david mallett appeared in 1740 at the end of this new life its author mallet provided a 30-page catalogue of all my lord bacon's writings as they are printed in the edition of 1740 by this he meant his own four volume edition of the works of francis bacon with several additional pieces never before printed in any edition of his works also published in 1740 the multi-volume edition contains more than 30 of bacon's major and minor works as well as many of his occasional writings letters and speeches but mallet does not once refer to bacon's first appearance in print in the misfortunes of arthur his life of bacon furnished the later 18th century editions of bacon's works and informed other 18th century biographical accounts of bacon none of which mentioned the misfortunes of arthur in contrast to the silence of his forebears in the 14 volume the letters and life and works of francis bacon his great standard editor and biographer james spedding adopted a method of delivery his subject would have greatly admired instead of the previous crude but effective method of silence and suppression by his earlier editors and biographers spedding in that masterful way of his actually refers to the invisible plane passing but definitely without even mentioning its title nor is there any trace of it in the index with such understatement and brevity that one can only stand back in quiet admiration and applaud parliament was dissolved on the 23rd of march 1586 to seven and from this time we have no more news of bacon unless it be worthwhile to mention that he assisted in getting up the mask which was presented to the queen by the gentleman of grey's inn on the 28th of february following till after the defeat of the armada the first 20th century single edition of the philosophical works of francis bacon edited by j.m robertson published in 1905 also makes no reference to the misfortunes of arthur nor so in his bloated and tedious the baconian heresy a work marred by selective suppression and gross misrepresentation of the facts and the evidence the first extensive one-volume anthology of bacon's writing since robertson by the modern bacon authority professor brian vickers is of much more interest under the title francis bacon a critical edition of the major works it was first issued by oxford university press in 1996 the addition includes several of bacon's major works the advancement of learning the essays the utopian rosicrucian new atlantis and reprints 16 other works which were not otherwise readily available one of the important and valuable features of this inexpensive and accessible work is it reprints a series of dramatic devices and entertainments written by bacon that professor vickers rightly points out are little known outside the pages of sped in seven volume edition of the letters and life of francis bacon the dramatic devices were written shortly after the misfortunes of arthur beginning from the early 1590s of tribute or given what is due six speeches for a device for the grazing rebels which saw the first performance of the comedy errors and of love and self-love all of which were originally part of bacon's collection of manuscripts known as the northumberland manuscript which originally held copies of his shakespeare plays richard ii and richard iii in addition to printing these texts professor vickers provides his readers with very extensive annotations explaining their background and context one would have thought considering the detailed attention he devotes to these bacon dramatic devices and entertainments he might have assigned a similar proportion proportionate amount of energy to the baconian drama immediately preceding them the one which witnessed bacon's first appearance in print however all that vickers had to say about the misfortunes of arthur is inappropriately relegated to a footnote in his introduction bacon's first appearance in print was as one of group of grazing students who devised dumb shows performed before each act of thomas uses the misfortunes of arthur 1588 a play which made a peculiar blend of arthurian legend jeffrey monmouth and senecan tragedy thystes the play was published in an edition entitled certain devices and shows presented to her majesty by the gentleman of grayson at her highness's court in greenwich a note at the end of the text records the dumb shows were partly devised by master christopher yelverton master francis bacon master francis flower whatever bacon's contribution scrutiny of these five extended stage directions discloses no individual hand and i have not thought them worth reprinting in the recent modern biography of lord bacon by professors alan stewart and lisa jardine a work described on its jacket as the definitive life of one of the great figures of english history its index lists more than 40 of bacon's writings referred to and discussed in their detailed text one work however is conspicuous by its absence the work to which bacon's name first appears in print the misfortunes of arthur the same can be said about the most recent full-length biography by professor robert p ellis entitled francis bacon the double-edged life of the philosopher and statesman published in 2015. he refers to and discusses a whole range of bacon's writings but can find no room for any notice of the misfortunes of arthur the first printed work with the name of francis bacon attached to it is also passed over in complete silence by marco paltonin in his long and detailed biographical entry for bacon in the oxford dictionary of national biography published by oxford university press 2004-2012 spread over some four centuries the circumstances surrounding the misfortunes of arthur has it seems come full circle just as his first editor and biographer dr rawley has failed to mention the first work to which the name of his master is attached the milestone work does not even warrant a single entry in the indexes of the most recent biographies by jardine and stewart and professor ellis or give an even passing mention by paltonin in what will most probably be the most widely read account of his life for many years and decades to come the virtual silence surrounding the misfortunes of arthur at the hands of bacon's biographers and editors for the last 400 years was however finally broken in the first volume of the oxford francis bacon co-edited by alan stewart with harry at night entitled early writings 1584-1596 published by oxford clarendon press in 2012 in which the misfortunes of arthur finally received some of the commensurate attention is historically important so clearly merits in the volume its editors devote a fair amount of space to examining the misfortunes of arthur the addition includes an 18-page discussion of the play with helpful footnotes and commentary and they also print the text of its five important dumb shows yet as welcome as his scholarly and formative work is in the usual orthodox tradition bacon's editors present the misfortunes of arthur as a work of multiple authorship and in their very careful use and non-use of sources stewart and knight very consciously do not once connect or link this baconian drama to any of the shakespeare poems and plays the original 1588 edition of the misfortunes of arthur names eight collaborate collaborators in connection with the play the drama is presented as having been chiefly written by thomas hughes of grey's inn the text is preceded by a verse introduction penned by nicholas trott running to five pages two of its speeches are headed a speech penned by william fulbeck gentleman and pronounced instead of gorlois his first speech penned by thomas hughes and secondly one other speech penned by the same gentleman and pronounced instead of gorlois his last speech penned by thomas hughes the addition is brought to a close as follows besides these speeches there was also penderchorus for the first act and another for the second act by master francis flower the dumb shows were partly devised by master christopher yelverton master francis bacon master john lancaster and others partly by the said master flower who with master penreduck and the said master lancaster directed these proceedings at court the presentation to the elizabethan world that the misfortunes of arthur was a joint enterprise of eight individuals mainly written by thomas hughes nearly all of whom still remain obscure figures to the recorded page of history with the name of francis bacon hidden away on its last page is merely a carefully constructed charade by its sole author aside from bacon none of these individuals are known to have written any kind of dramatic entertainment mask or mask or play during their entire lifetimes in 1908 alice chambers bunting discovered in a collection of letters and papers belonging to anthony bacon in the british library a poem referring to the misfortunes of arthur which she reproduced in baconiana which at a single stroke collapses this carefully crafted illusion of its multi-authorship o second arthur bred in british brain strange was thy birth indeed and giant like much pains thy mother bid with patience mild one noose thee another made thy cheek and yet no doubt that thou art but one man's child but whoso wash thy face with printer's ink speck on the rest i know well what i think this important and intriguing poem discovered by chamberlain chambers bunton printed in the 1908 edition of bakoniana did not disturb the pages of orthodox scholarship for nearly three quarters of a century until in 1983 janet cohen and joanna udall scholars from king's college london reproduced the poem in what they believed to be for the first time in notes and queries i'm not in a position to just to determine whether the bakoniana article was actually known to cohen and udall or whether it was known to the modern editor of the misfortunes of arthur brian j corrigan who says in reference to the poem that it was discovered as recently as 1983 thus in both cases it seems conveniently not pointedly chambers bunting riley comments that the poem pokes fun at the numerous parents the misfortunes of arthur possessed and wonders which of them so wash thy face in printer's ink which is a very happy expression the striking phrase also caught the attention of cohen and new dell whom thought it probably referred to the person who saw it through the press and someone obviously did as the british library copy contains a number of council slips three of which show substantive alterations of the kind likely to be made by the author as corrigan points out the anonymous author of the poem is very obviously intimately acquainted with the strange like birth of the play its printing history and witnessed its performance and was on familiar terms with anthony bacon to whom it was sent the first line of the poem appears to describe the author of the misfortunes of arthur as a second arthur breading british brain referred to in the next line as mine host who himself a prophet proved if by my host as corrigan suggest anthony's brother francis is meant then when he first sang suggests it was bacon who conceived the drama thus from the beginning it seems clear that the anonymous author of the poem places bacon at the center of the creation and production of the misfortunes of arthur which is described as this british bard's surpassing work the second verse continues this theme of revelation strange was the birth of the play and indeed giant like which properly refers to the eight collaborate collaborators named in the 1588 edition where three people in particular particular was said to have been involved in its composition one noost and another made thy cheek before the killer line and yet no doubt thou art but one man's child astonishingly both janet cohen and joanna udall of king's college london in the critical misfortunes of arthur and brian j carrigan editor of the most recent edition of the misfortunes of arthur pass over this line in absolute silence bacon soul authorship of the misfortunes of arthur is confirmed by a number of bacony and rosy crucian ciphers found on the title page of the play which does not carry the name of the play itself in his advancement of learning bacon presents a number of cipher systems which he used in his acknowledged works and his shakespeare poems and plays to convey hidden information about his secret life and writings on the title page of the 1588 edition of the misfortunes of arthur there are a number of bacony and rosicrucian ciphers below the printer's device there are eight block capital letters at london and four words printed in ordinary roman type printed by robert robinson the addition of the numbers in the date one plus five plus eight plus seven equals twenty one and then eight plus four plus twenty one equals thirty three which is bacon in simple cipher the whole title page contains two hundred 211 letters a split simple k cipher 100 equals francis bacon in simple cipher and 111 bacon in k cipher the 211 letters the addition of the date and the single printer's device 211 plus 21 plus one equals 233 which yields a triple cipher 100 133 francis bacon francis bacon bacon in simple cipher the whole title page has a total of 42 words the word and total letter count plus the four numbers in the date 42 plus 211 plus four equals two hundred and fifty seven one hundred one five seven francis bacon for our rosy cross in simple cipher several scholars have highlighted the political allegory hidden beneath the surface of the misfortunes of arthur it is a political allegory of the historical and contemporary affairs between england and scotland which had dominated anglo-scottish relations from the outset of the elizabethan reign predicated upon the question of succession and centered around the towering figures of queen elizabeth and mary queen of scots the year before the first and only performance of the misfortunes of arthur mary queen of scots had been executed on the 8th of february 1587 on the orders of queen elizabeth to the enormous relief of her senior advisors led by bacon's uncle sir william cecil and spy master sir francis walsingham head of the english secret service who at the time was working very closely with francis and anthony bacon a year to the month that mary queen of scots was executed on the orders of queen elizabeth the misfortunes of arthur was performed by members of grey's inn at greenwich on 28 february 1588 with its text printed only a few weeks later under the title certain devices and shows presented to her majesty there are only three copies of the original 1588 edition known to exist the only copy now held in the united kingdom is in the british library with the other two copies now in the henry e huntington library and the houghton library harvard university in the united states of america the arthurian play itself has more than 20 named characters as well as a number of soldiers for the battle scenes which centers on a plot in which king arthur represents queen elizabeth and the usurper mordred represents mary queen of scots in the misfortunes of arthur the major characters are provided with council khadar duke of cornwall and howell king of little britain are councillors to king arthur angorad and phronia provide counsel to guinevere but by far the most prominent and important councillor is conan the good and faithful councillor to mordred in a play which was partly written and performed for the purpose of providing queen elizabeth with grave counsel and advice in the almost amusing but pregnant words of stewart and knight in the recent edition of the oxford francis bacon early writings the misfortunes of arthur might therefore best be understood within bacon juvoir as one of the several pieces of council for the queen included in this volume the first of these pieces reprinted in their volume printed just prior to the misfortunes of arthur is simply entitled letter of advice to the queen written by bacon in circa 1584-5 three years before misfortunes which shares very similar themes and concerns with the play concerning the security of the kingdom and the person of queen elizabeth in the tract we have councillor bacon advising queen elizabeth and in the misfortunes addressed and presented to queen elizabeth we have the faithful counsellor conan aniranagram of bacon who makes an appearance in something approaching 20 pages representing between a fifth and nearly a quarter of the play itself intertwined with its preoccupation with civil war is the insidious theme of incest which poisons the family line and the body politic from the argument we discover that the lawless liaison between youth of penn dragon and igerna produced an illegitimate son arthur with the duplicitous cunning of merlin who transformed utah into the likeness of her husband gorlios the duke of cornwall whom he afterwards killed in battle her pregnancy also produced a twin sister anne and many years later when luther was killed by saxon poison arthur entered into an incestuous relationship with his twin a lawless union which produced mordred seventeen years after the mythical roman procurator lucius tiberius demanded a tribute one jew since the time of julius caesar which arthur refused to pay gathering the forces of 13 kings arthur cross the english channel to do battle leaving behind the kingdom and his wife guinevere in the care of mordred having landed his army in france after nine years of war arthur sent the slain body of tiberius to rome for the tribute during his absence moderate with the assistance of silla a british earl usurped the throne and entered into an outlawed sexual tryst with his now lover gwenevere learning of arthur's imminent return and enraged by his nine years neglect and her unbridled passion and sexual lust for mordred she oscillates between killing her husband or herself before finding religion and retiring to a nunnery or asandra billington puts it like a protestant monarch arthur returns to england after triumphant battles against rome only to find disorder at home guinevere had abandoned him in his absence for an incestuous marriage with his son mordred and lady macbeth like plots with mordred arthas death in the second scene while contemplating killing king arthur in the same vein as lady macbeth guinevere calls on all evil spirits to come to her aid come spiteful fiends come heaps of furies fell not one by one but all at once my breast raised not enough it likes me to be filled with greater monsters yet later in the play right sandra billington king arthur muses on the vice which begot mordred an incestuous relationship with his sister like gloucester in shakespeare's leah he realizes his sin has rebounded on himself and like leah he has caused not only his personal but also his kingdom's ruin this powerful theme of incest combined with internecine civil war is carried over into the early shakespeare plays written around the same time or shortly after misfortunes shakespeare's henry vi watches in dismay a civil war begets monsters much as incest was popularly supposed to do with professor mccabe adding that in rich iii all of richard's personal relationships are shown to be unnatural in his person the victorious house of york conducts a civil war within a civil war the conflated metaphor of sexual corruption and decayed politics representing the diseased kingdom in misfortunes of arthur portraying britain as sterile and worn from the ravages of civil strife functions as the culminating artistic effect of this association between sexual license and the body politic is similarly employed observes crosby in troilus and cressida the incest theme in hamlet and pericles has attracted a good deal of critical attention mordred's crimes remarks professor fuwa in his discussion of the incest theme in the misfortunes of arthur are consistently judged by other characters as strange unnatural monstrous foul in pious uncouth the sort of labels conventionally applied to incest itself shakespeare's works bear witness to similar expressions in similar context in in pericles he further adds that mordred's tainted birth is closely associated with confusion and moreover a similar association of incest with confusion may be found in hamlet where king claudius is accused of his unnatural murdering of his kin and incestuous marriage with gertrude the sorrow and total devastation wreaked on the kingdom of denmark originates from claudius's disorder of blood relationships and natural murder and incest professor fuwa also draws attention to the fact that the image of the serpent applied to the usurping claudius appears in the last dumb show of the misfortunes of arthur where in a somewhat similar situation to hamlet's dumb show a king lies sleeping a snake is drawing near to sting him and a lizard steps in to save the king in this dumb show the snake signifies mordred in his full-length study of incest and drama professor mccabe at some length details the incestuous overtones in king lear and some of the other later shakespeare plays do not escape his attention including the winter's tale of which he pointedly comments the taint of incest hangs over the drama from the outset before concluding with remarks that could also be approximated to bacon's distinctive use of the incest motive in the misfortunes of arthur the distinctive quality of shakespeare's use of the incest motif is its restraint and subtlety which on a wider scale equates natural order with all sorts of forbidden desire the sources and arthurian themes of the misfortunes of arthur have been traced in the rape of lucrece venus and adonis a midsummer night's dream richard ii parts one and two of henry iv henry v the merchant of venice and arthurian references illusions and resemblances in the first part of henry vi love labour's lost king lear and the winter's tale all masterfully blended with senecan themes ideas and language that form the very lifeblood of bacon's arthurian drama the misfortunes of arthur is the most cenic and influenced play in all of elizabethan and jacobean drama the misfortune of arthur's editor professor kunliff identified more than 300 lines translated and adapted from all 10 senecan tragedies the persons and influences that shape our lives and minds begins early and bacon was raised and surrounded by poets writers and translators from his early childhood right through into adulthood and beyond his love and extensive knowledge of the roman philosopher writer and playwright lucius anaya seneca was inevitable as seneca was sir nicholas bacon's favorite author in a poem written for his wife lady anne bacon in 1558 in a time of his great sickness he reveals how he took great comfort in and reading to him from her tully cicero and my seneca in reading pleasant things to me we're of profit we both did see as witnesses can if they could speak both your tully and my seneca so nicholas and lady anne bacon arranged for latin verses or sentences gathered up from 59 different sources chiefly from seneca and cicero to be depicted above the wainscoting and portals in the long gallery at goronbury they were grouped together under 22 subjects to prompt meditation and were assimilated by francis in his formative years in adulthood that established a love of seneca and in particular senecan drama which stayed with him for the rest of his life in his preparatory comments to the misfortunes of arthur its editor j.w cunniliff states that it seems impossible to carry the borrowing of senecan material further and for fl lucas in seneca and english tragedy it is the most slavishly senecan of all english plays but as the german critic wolfgang clemen pointed out this was no mere slavish imitation the misfortunes of arthur shows to a unique degree how far a playwright could carry the process of taking phrases straight out of seneca and fitting them together like a mosaic the object of scraping together exaggerated utterances of this kind from different plays by seneca and piling them on top of one another in a single speech seems to be to produce an impression of frenzy and conflicting passions and if possible to outdo seneca himself in the accumulation of purple passages the misfortunes of arthur was published in 1588 around the same time as the early shakespeare plays titus andronicus the three parts of henry vi and richard iii were being written the umbilical senecan connection linking the misfortunes of arthur the most senecan drama in the elizabethan canon and the early senecan shakespeare plays has been strangely neglected by both seneca and shakespeare scholars just as bacon had rewrote seneca in the misfortunes of arthur rewriting situations scenes and speeches the modern editor of seneca professor boyle states shakespeare plays rewrite senecan scenes and speeches constantly in his shakespeare and classical tragedy the influence of seneca professor maiola explores seneca's influence on shakespeare he mainly focuses upon seven plays titus andronicus richard iii a midsummer night's dream hamlet macbeth othello and king leah as well as discussing the senecan influence on pericles and cymbeline a winter's tale in the tempest and just as seneca provided bacon with numerous rhetorical and thematic ideas in misfortunes of arthur professor maiola points out seneca continually provides shakespeare with clusters of rhetorical and thematic ideas that shape his articulation of the tragic experience throughout shakespeare's career we shall see seneca provides an important paradigm of tragic style character and action his influence surpasses the narrow imitations of genre and inspires moments in comedy as well as tragic tragedy notably in a midsummer night's dream this early use looks ahead to much later practice as seneca becomes finally for shakespeare as for renaissance europe an important source of that new and fascinating hybrid tragedy comedy in his groundbreaking fated sky the firmino furions in shakespeare ml stapleton addresses the intertextuality of seneca his ten tragedies containing the english translation of the senecan tragedies with the shakespeare canon he explains how femina furan's angry women featuring all 10 of seneca's plays that provide models found throughout the early shakespeare plays from the toming of the shrew titus andronicus the three henry vi plays richard iii as well as the merchant of venice through to the later plays of allswell that ends well anthony and cleopatra and symboly in the years immediately following the misfortunes of arthur just as he drew heavily on seneca for his early shakespeare plays during the same period bacon made use of seneca's writings in many of his own works the political tracks of an advertisement touching the controversies of the church of england and observations upon a libel his dramatic device of tribute or giving that which is due and his legal tract argument in chudley's case his habit of reading and rereading seneca's tragedies and prose works is also evidenced in his private notebook notebook promise of formularies and elegances which produces a great many parallels with his shakespeare plays in the promise bacon jotted down words and phrases from several of seneca's prose writings and dramas all of which were heavily drawn upon by bacon in the misfortunes of arthur and throughout his shakespeare plays bacon also quotes and refers to a wide range of seneca's writings in the advancement of learning which he was preparing and writing for publication through 1603 and 1604 the years that saw the publication of the first and second quartos of hamlet the misfortunes of arthur is arguably the first elizabethan revenge drama with links to the greatest complex revenge drama in the whole of western literature the revenge of hamlet prince of denmark a genre ultimately derived mainly from seneca the revenge tragedy is largely characterized by horrible and bloody excesses murders and mutilations the appearance of ghosts demanding revenge the madness of the revenger insanity or feigned insanity which are evident in seneca's major tragedies some of these devices were adopted by bacon in his senior and saturated misfortunes of arthur with the theme of revenge in hamlet the subject of his aptly titled essay of revenge in her full-length study entitled hamlet and revenge eleanor prosser describes the revenge theme in the misfortunes of arthur in some impressive detail which i hear only quote a small part revenge is forced into the play solely to intensify the atmosphere of misery and doom gorloys a prologue ghost calls for revenge but the specific revenge he invokes is irrelevant to the play he merely establishes the atmosphere of wild hatred and the general theme throughout the play revenge the work of cursed imps is seen as the cause of all calamities typical is the treatment of guinevere hearing of arthur's return she rages for revenge calling on the fiends as does lady macbeth throughout the play motives of despair and revenge are capriciously attributed to all of the major characters whether relevantly or not merely to emphasize their misery even arthur's decision to defend his kingdom against madrid is attributed to a desire for private revenge as king arthur obviously has not only the right but the duty to crush rebellion he rejects every appeal to justice fame and honour by citing the conventional precepts and determines to leave the heavens revenges of my wrong but when mordred sends a challenge that taunts him with cowardice arthur at last decides to fight the result is disastrous for both principles and the country during the period from 1607 onwards lord bacon turned his attention to his later shakespeare plays or as others prefer to describe them shakespeare romances the name given to pericles cymbeline the winter's tale and the tempest we know from his advancement of learning and numerous essays written during this period that bacon was reading and re-reading seneca's prose and dramatic works and inevitably seneca the philosopher and dramatist formed part of his consciousness in his prose and dramatic works the shakespeare tragic comedies rights professor miola deploy senecan subtexts and draw upon his own tragedies deeply inscribed with senecan images of revenge tyranny and pharaoh hercule furen continues to be an important text but shakespeare's debt to senecan drama in the end as in the beginning is principally a matter of style a matter of rhetorical pose and gesture replete with a cluster of familiar images and motifs and these tragic comedies often feature a character who works through cena compassion to spiritual agnorisis to a change of heart that ultimately gives witness to a beneficent providence the pattern is incipient in pericles clearing symboline in the winter's tale and transformed in the tempest the transformative shakespeare play the tempest with its philosophical scientist prospero bacon orchestrating events has been described as a revenge comedy which sets up observes professor boyle the possibility for revenge and then substitutes forgiveness though with their high wrongs i am struck to the quick yet with noble reason against my fury do i take part the rarer action is in virtue than in vengeance at the end of seneca's medea the colchian's magic implements the most savage vengeance and she herself departs the world in apathetic flight in the tempest concluding display of its protagonists tender affections prospero the magician inverts seneca's ending of during his magic he replaces vengeance with virtue and compassion and returns to the social world from which he has been expelled in emphasizing his forgiveness of the brother who has wronged him i to do forgive thee and natural though thou art i do forgive thy rankest fault prospero inverts the ending of thyestes 2. the year after the tempest was composed and performed bacon saw through the press the second edition of his essays which went through a number of issues printed for william and john jaggard it is no coincidence that the tempest described by dr yates as a rosie crucian manifesto was placed first in the first folio of the shakespeare plays printed by william and isaac jaggard in november 1623 followed shortly after by a reprint of bacon's essays for william's wife elizabeth jaggard the same year the senecan-inspired shakespeare plays were first published to the world another work a little less known to posterity was also printed at london which if known to seneca bacon and shakespeare scholars has been studiously overlooked and ignored this work written by the lawyer poet and author thomas powell entitled the attorneys academy is dedicated to the king and several others including francis bacon the reason this revealing dedication to bacon is not reproduced by his editors biographers and commentators is very obvious as it very obviously alludes to bacon's secret authorship of the shakespeare poems and plays with its theatrical metaphor momentarily drawing the curtain back for us to have a little peek before promptly closing it again oh give me leave to pull the curtain by the clouds thy worth in such obscurity good seneca stay but a while thy bleeding to accept what i received at thy reading here i present it in a solemn strain and first i plucked the curtain back again a senecan scholar from virtually the day he was born into a household of a senecan statesman with senecan sentence adorning the gorenbury home he was raised in versed in all the latin and english senecan plays from his youth concealed author of the most cynical play in all the elizabethan drama the misfortunes of arthur and those senecan inspired shakespeare plays for 400 years the misfortunes of arthur has been surrounded by silence and suppression this relatively unknown historically important drama marks the first appearance of the name of the great poet philosopher and dramatist francis bacon in print and is by definition unique in the canon of his acknowledged writings and marks a unique biographical and bibliographical milestone in the literary career of this great historical figure and man of letters important landmark drama written performed and published in 1587-8 immediately predates the shakespearean era and is of untold importance in the history of his authorship of the shakespeare plays the misfortunes of arthur served serves as a source for at least half a dozen of his shakespeare plays and has moreover important and extensive links to more than half the shakespeare canon it is permeated with his baconian shakespearean dna whose salient themes repeatedly anticipates and echoes throughout the whole shakespearian canon from the first to the last the misfortunes of arthur bacon's first unacknowledged shakespeare play thank you for listening and if you'd like any further information please see the following slide you