They looked like nothing of the sort; but Bacon may have remembered
Birnam Wood, either from Boece or Holinshed, or from the play
itself. One thing is certain: Shakespeare did not write Bacon's
Psalms or compare navies to 'walking woods'! Mr. Holmes adds:
'Many of the sonnets [of Shakespeare] show the strongest internal
evidence that they were addressed [by Bacon] to the Queen, as no
doubt they were.' That is, Bacon wrote sonnets to Queen Elizabeth,
and permitted them to pass from hand to hand, among Shakespeare's
'private friends,' as Shakespeare's (1598). That was an odd way of
paying court to Queen Elizabeth. Chalmers had already conjectured
that Shakespeare (not Bacon) in the sonnets was addressing the
Virgin Queen, whom he recommended to marry and leave offspring--
rather late in life. Shakespeare's apparent allusions to his
profession--

I have gone here and there,
And made myself a motley to the view,

and

The public means which public manners breeds,

refer, no doubt, to Bacon's versatile POLITICAL behaviour. It has
hitherto been supposed that sonnet lvii. was addressed to
Shakespeare's friend, a man, not to any woman. But Mr. Holmes shows
that the Queen is intended. Is it not obvious?

I, MY SOVEREIGN, watch the clock for you.