THE AUTHORSHIP OF SHAKESPEARE BY NATHANIEL HOLMES Τὸ γὰρ αὐτὸ νοεῖν ἐστίν τε καὶ εἶναι. — Parmenides NEW AND ENLARGED EDITION WITH AN APPENDIX OF ADDITIONAL MATTERS, INCLUDING A NOTICE OF BOSTON AND NEW YORK HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY AFK S 1886 The Author' Copyright, 1866, BY HURD & HOUGHTON. Copyright, 1886, BY NATHANIEL HOLMES. All rights reserved. The Riverside Press, Cambridge: PREFACE TO THE NEW AND REVISED EDITION. THE additional matters which have come to my notice within the last ten years seemed to me to be of sufficient value to justify a supplement to a new edition of this work. It consists chiefly of considerations of the internal evidence arising out of a critical comparison of the writings in question, and it will further complete what I had to say upon the subject. The original book was largely occupied with the external evidences, and with such an exposition of Bacon's method and system of thought (and of the results to which they tended when interpreted by the light of modern science and philosophy) as seemed necessary for a proper elucidation of the whole inquiry; for all this was intimately involved in any adequate appreciation of the internal evidence. The order of the supplementary topics, with references back to the page where the same subject is mentioned, will give some unity to the whole and facilitate study; and the copious index added to this edition will much aid the investigator. The division into two volumes may be said to mark a formal separation of the more historical and literary from the more philosophical and critical portions of the work. Whatever may be the final conclusion of sound criti cism upon the main proposition that Francis Bacon was the real author, this voluminous effort to make the truth of it clear will not, I trust, in any event prove to have been altogether useless. NATHANIEL HOLMES. CAMBRIDGE, March 12, 1886. PREFACE TO THE THIRD EDITION. THE author takes this occasion to acknowledge the friendly consideration with which the former editions have been received by the public, so far as he is aware that the work has attracted attention. Those editions having been exhausted, another still seems to be called for. On its first appearance, the book was noticed by many of the public journals in this country, and by some in England, and in a manner for the most part highly complimentary to the writer, though by no means all were prepared to accede to his conclusions. Nor have all been ready to admit that he had added much to the considerations and proofs that had already been presented by others before him. The subject, however, has continued to be discussed in various ways, and, more recently, the candid and able summaries of the argument, which have appeared in "Fraser's Magazine," "Scribner's Monthly," and other periodicals of high literary character, would seem to indicate that the general interest in the question had rather increased than diminished. The author has not hitherto found reason to modify his views, or statements, in any material respects. Such additional matters as have been brought to his notice, and were deemed of sufficient importance, have been added in the Appendix; and he trusts they may furnish a further justification for this new |