Period+4+Francis+Bacon+2

This is where you will construct your presentation -- your persuasive argument for the debate to support Francis Bacon as the writer of the works currently attributed to William Shakespeare.

Positive 1 (981531) -Several hundred years after being published, the works of William Shakespeare still have the world asking who the true “William Shakespeare” really was. There are many different stories and theories surrounding the mystery, but it seems that only one person, Francis Bacon, has risen above the rest. Using evidence such as the relationships between the dates during which Shakespeare’s works were published and events that occurred in Bacon’s life, ciphering used in Shakespeare’s plays, and works from contemporaries of Bacon and Shakespeare, it can be proven that Francis Bacon was actually the true author of William Shakespeare’s works. To begin, it is no coincidence that the publishing of Shakespeare’s works directly correlated with the major events that occurred in Francis Bacon’s life. Many of Shakespeare’s works, including “Othello”, “Macbeth”, and “As you Like it”, appeared during a nine year span from 1598 to 1607. It was during the exact same years that Francis Bacon was out of work. A major argument against Bacon is that he would not have enough time to write his own and Shakespeare’s works, but Bacon would have had nine years of as much leisure time as needed to dedicate to his writing. Thus, time was not an issue for Francis. From 1607 to 1621, the works of Shakespeare practically stop appearing. It was during these years, 1607 to 1621, that Francis Bacon held the position of Solicitor General. This position would have consumed much of Bacon’s life, leaving him little time to write, let alone publish his works. In 1621, Francis Bacon fell from power after being accused of accepting a bribe. This would have left him two more years of free time to revise his works before Shakespeare’s “First Folio” appeared in 1623. To conclude, it is obvious that the years in which Shakespeare’s works were published directly connect to Francis Bacon’s life. To continue, the cipher’s found in Shakespeare’s works indicate that Francis Bacon is the true author. A cipher is a secret method of writing by transposing or substituting letters. In 1506 Abbot Trithemius published __Polygraphia,__ a book on a specific ciphering method called the Trithemuis theory. This theory uses a 22 letter alphabet in which the letters “j”, “i”, and “y”, and “u”, “v”, and “w” are all used interchangeably. The letter is transposed a certain number of times to the left or right using substitution. An example of this is “5L” equals “S.” Using this method it was concluded that the signature at the end of the famous work __Fama Fraternitas__ can easily translate into F. Baco, the Latin name for Francis Bacon. In Shakespeare’s works this pattern of letters is unnaturally common. Works including__, Cymebline__, __Julius Caesar__, __Henry the Sixth__, __Taming of the Shrew__, __The Tempest__, and many others all have letter patterns that can be translated into the likes of F. Bacon. Francis Bacon was known to be a master of ciphers and adding the ciphers into his works could have been his way of secretly telling the world who actually wrote Shakespeare without putting his name on the works. Francis Bacon would not have wanted to put his name on his works for many reasons. Some include the fact that by doing so, it would put him in danger. He wrote many strong opinions on the government that they would not be fond of. If they knew it was Bacon, he could have been executed. Also, writing plays would have been considered "belittling" to his social status. In conclusion, Bacon used ciphers in his works to indirectly tell the world that he was the true author of Shakespeare. Finally, using the works of Shakespeare’s and Bacon’s contemporaries, it is clear that Bacon was actually the author. There are four poets that suggest that Shakespeare was a real man, but that the actor Shakespeare was not the writer Shakespeare. One of these poets include Ben Johnson, who compares the writer Shakespeare to Venus and Apollo, and the actor Shakespeare to Eateries, a Roman orator who would get carried away with his words, thus, suggesting that the writer and the actor were two different people. The real author of Shakespeare is revealed in the satires that were exchanged between Joseph Hall and John Marston. In their exchange the author was called Labeo, a Roman lawyer who wrote poems anonymously. Throughout their works, Labeo is inferred to have used a name to cover up his authorship, is suggested as the author of __Venus and Adonis,__ and is identified with the motto “mediocra firma.” “Mediocra firma” was Francis Bacon’s Heraldic motto. Back in Francis Bacon’s day, it was a very common and exact method to identify someone by their heraldry, so identifying Bacon as the true author of Shakespeare by his heraldry is not uncommon at all.

To finish, through the works of other poets it can be concluded that Francis Bacon was the true author of Shakespeare’s works. The true authorship of William Shakespeare is a great mystery that is wrapped around some of literature’s greatest works, but the true author is actually very clear. Using evidence such as relationship of dates, ciphering in Shakespeare’s works, and the works of other poets, it can easily be concluded that Francis Bacon is the true author of William Shakespeare’s many works.

Negative #1 (981554) The works of Shakespeare are world-wide and timeless. They are read and praised by all different kinds of people from all different places. With all good things, someone has to bring up a problem, a discrepency. In this case, no one wants to believe someone like Shakespeare could've written the famous plays and sonnets. One of the most believed real author of Shakespeare is Sir Francis Bacon. Francis Bacon didn't and couldn't have written Shakespeare, because of the time issues, the misinterperted cyphers, and Ben Johnson. Francis Bacon was a writer. He wrote many works challenging and making theories on the modern science, and he wrote many philosphic and purely literature works. Besides his writing Bacon was also very politically involved. He was knighted in 1603, served as Solicitor General, as Attorney General, and Lord Chancellor. With all the politics Francis Bacon was involved in, like his oppositions of Queen Elizabeth, and with his great love for and writing about science, how would Bacon have the time to write all of Shakespeare's works? 37 plays and 154 sonnets. That is how many plays and sonnets Shakespeare is known for writing. How would Sir Francis Bacon have enough time to write his writings, be politically involved, and write that many different works under a different name. How would Bacon find the time to write and act in all the plays while living his own life? It is not at all realistic. Another questionable subject with Bacon's authorship is why would Bacon hide his authorship of these incredible works? This is easily answered by a Bacon supporter that Bacon's identity would've needed to be hidden so he wouldn't get prosecuted for treason. If this was the case, why wouldn't Ben Johnson have told society after Bacon's death? Ben Johnson was a man who knew Shakespeare and Bacon both very well. As well as knowing them, he out lived Bacon for 11 years. After Bacon died Ben Johnson wouldn't have had to hide the truth anymore, Bacon was already dead. He could have told the world who really wrote Shakepeare, that way Bacon would get the credit he would deserve and couldn't be punished for it. Finally one of the biggest reasons many people believe Francis Bacon wrote Shakespeare is because of the hidden disguised cyphers that are planted throughout Shakespeare's work stating Bacon wrote it. The cyphers are ridiculous and shouldn't even be reguarded as evidence for Bacon writing Shakespeare. They are based on a 21-letter alphabet with numerals 1-9 expressing the first nine letters. Each real letter corresponds to one of the cypher letters. In Bacon's time there was so many different ways of spelling, like how Shakespeare has many different spellings, in the cyphers Bacon could be spelled with any vowel in place for the a or the o. Also numbers are used for letters and "q's" and "k's" and many other consinants can be used for the cosinants in Bacon. With all of the hard to understand and nonsense rules it ends up that there is 3,727,584 strings of characters that will count as Bacon. Words like affirmation, diameter, and viewest are all anagrams for Bacon, and if believing these cyphers means everytime you see one its just Shakespeare really showing that he really is Bacon. (For complete explanation of Bacon's cypher check out this website http://shakespeareauthorship.com/bacpenl.html) Although many people will say there is no evidence that Shakespeare wrote the plays, there isn't any good evidence that Shakespeare didn't write the plays. And for the case of Sir Francis Bacon, there is no good, strong evidence for him writing the plays, in fact there is more explanations for why it couldn't have been him. Because of the time issues, misinterperted cyphers, and Ben Johnson, it is evident that Sir Francis Bacon did not write Shakespeare.

Positive #2: Rough draft Shakespeare Enigma

A controversy has risen over who the true author of Shakespeare is. They are many different theories however, using the plays written by Shakespeare, a book of Bacons coincidences, and facts pertaining to both Bacon and Shakespeare’s lives, it can be proven that Bacon wrote the play currently attributed to Shakespeare Firstly, Bacons ambitions were to be a man of letters. However he had reasons to remain anonymous. Bacons father had written an offensive book, so Bacon saw first hand what happens when you write your secrets, it can ruin your life. There was also the fact that he was a nobleman. It was beneath a noble man to allow such “entertainments” as poetry and plays to appear. Publishing plays was undignifying to the upper class and was considered unacceptable If the government found your work offensive, it could mean danger. Also any opinions that you expressed could endanger an author given the shifting favoritisms of government policy makers. It was not uncommon for an author to pay someone to write under their names. That’s just what Bacon did. He used the name William Shakespeare as a false name, only to later on meet a semiliterate actor of the same name. Bacon rewarded him for lending his identity as a cover. Second, Bacon has qualities that make him more likely to write the plays that Shakespeare wrote. Bacon was a linguist and a composer which was necessary to write sonnets. Bacon was a lawyer, so he possessed knowledge of parliamentary law and etiquette of the royal court often used in the plays. Where would Shakespeare gain his knowledge of modern French, Italian, Spanish, and Danish, classical Latin, and Greek, if he’s never left England? Bacon has visited many foreign countries forming the background for the plays. Similarities in style and terminology exist in Bacons writings and Shakespeare’s plays. Bacon possessed a range of general and philosophical knowledge necessary to write the plays. Shakespeare has illiterate parents and an illiterate daughter. If you were famous and wealthy for writing plays, how could you allow your daughter to be illiterate at age twenty-seven? Finally, there is much coincidence between Francis Bacon and the plays written by Shakespeare. In the play Hamlet it contains a line “Doubt that the stars do move.” In the second edition published a year later the line was altered to say “Doubt that the sun doth move.” In between the years 1543 and 1619, philosopher proved that the earth revolved around the sun and stars, however, the author of the play believed that the earth was stationary and that the stars and the sun revolved around it. Is it a coincidence that the author of Shakespeare and Francis Bacon both believed in the old theory? Also, in the play Henry VIII its principal character Cardinal Wolsey says a speech in which he’s fallen from greatness. The following lines: "O Cromwell, Cromwell! Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal I served my King, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies." Act 3, Scene 2 In 1621 Bacon fell from power, a few months afterward he wrote a letter to King James in which he says "Cardinal Wolsey said that if he had pleased God as he had pleased the King he had not been ruined." Is it a coincidence that Cardinal Wolsey’s fallen greatness exactly fits Francis Bacon’s? The controversy of who wrote Shakespeare is still alive today. There are few people who could have lived up to the legacy the plays left behind. However Francis Bacon is a good candidate. He was a smart, wealthy man, with many life events connecting him to the play. The plays currently attributed to William Shakespeare are written by no other than Francis Bacon.

Negative 2 (981677)

Many reference //Romeo and Juliet// to Shakespeare, so why should we question the fact that he wrote it? Shakespeare is known world-wide, by now do you not think we would know for sure if someone else was under him writing his literature? Just because he is famous and Shakespeare is known as one of the world’s best authors, why try to give that fame to some else, such as Francis Bacon? Francis Bacon was a philosopher and was very committed to it. His intellect was one of the most powerful ever possessed by a man and his developments of inductive philosophy revolutionized through time. Through Bacon’s life he never gave up on his research and beliefs. He was a famous man because of his philosophy and even published a book on them. Why would he need to write Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets when he was already a famous man on his own? People say Bacon was a well-educated man and that is another reason why he could have written Shakespeare’s plays and sonnets. That is a true fact, however, he was well educated when it came to law. He went to Trinity College to study law not to study grammar. He was an intelligent man but that does not make him a good writer. The smartest man in this world could be a terrible writer. In fact, Bacon’s writings were abrupt and short unlike Shakespeare’s. Finally, Francis Bacon’s name was said to be printed different ways throughout Shakespeare’s writings, but how can that be proved? Anyone could just make up things and say certain words mean Bacon in many different languages. There is really no way to prove that those actual words were supposed to be interpreted that way. In conclusion, there is no way Francis Bacon could be responsible for the works of Shakespeare and there is no way to actually prove that he is.