the dedication does not say in so many words. They had seen his
plays and had "favoured" both him and them, with so much favour, had
"used indulgence" to the author. That is not nearly explicit enough
for the precise Baconians. But the Earls knew whether what was said
were true or false. I am not sure whether the Baconians regard them
as having been duped as to the authorship, or as fellow-conspirators
with Ben in the great Baconian joke and mystery--that "William
Shakespeare" the author is not the actor whose Stratford friend,
Collyns, has his name written in legal documents as "William
Shakespeare."

Anyone, however, may prefer to believe that, while William Shakspere
was acting in a company (1592-3), Bacon, or who you please, wrote
Venus and Adonis, and, signing "W. Shakspeare," dedicated it to his
young friend, the Earl, promising to add "some graver labour," a
promise fulfilled in Lucrece. In 1593, Bacon was chiefly occupied,
we shall see, with the affairs of a young and beautiful Earl--the
Earl of Essex, not of Southampton: to Essex he did not dedicate his
two poems (if Venus and Lucrece were his). He "did nothing but
ruminate" (he tells the world) on Essex. How Mr. Greenwood's Unknown
was occupied in 1593-4, of course we cannot possibly be aware.

I have thus tried to show that Will Shakspere, if he had as much
schooling as I suggest; and if he had four or five years of life in
London, about the theatre, and, above all, had genius, might, by
1592, be the rising player-author alluded to as "Shakescene." There
remains a difficulty. By 1592 Will had not time to be guilty of
THIRTEEN plays, or even of six. But I have not credited him with the
authorship, between, say, 1587 and 1593, of eleven plays, namely,
Hamlet, Romeo and Juliet, Midsummer Night's Dream, Titus Andronicus,