Proof That Shakespeare Could Not Write

This version of Proof That Shakespeare Could Not Write is an 1896 edition that provides compelling evidence that William Shakespeare was illiterate and that his work was actually written by Francis Bacon. "The Baconian theory" of Shakespearean authorship holds that Sir Francis Bacon, philosopher, essayist and scientist, wrote the plays conventionally attributed to William Shakespeare, and that the historical Shakespeare was merely a front to shield the identity of Bacon, who could not take credit for the works because being known as a lowly playwright for the public stage would have impeded his ambition to hold high office.

Bacon was the first alternative candidate suggested as the true author of Shakespeare's plays. The theory was first put forth in the mid-nineteenth century, based on perceived correspondences between the philosophical ideas found in Bacon’s writings and the works of Shakespeare. Legal and autobiographical allusions and cryptographic ciphers and codes were later found in the plays and poems to buttress the theory.

William Henry Burr, 1819-1908, was a newspaper reporter, an artist whose paintings now hang in museums throughout the United States, and the official recorder of debates in the United States Senate.