How could it happen if the actor were the bookless, ignorant man whom Mr. Greenwood describes? It could not happen: Will must have been unmasked in a day. The fact that a strange plot existed was only too obvious. The Unknown’s secret must have been tracked by the hounds of keenest nose in the packs of rival and jealous authors and of actors. None gives tongue.
[27a] Francis Bacon Wrote Shakespeare, p. 37.
[30a] The Shakespeare Problem Restated, p. 333.
[31a] In the passage which I quoted, with notes of omission, from Mr. Greenwood (p. 333), he went on to say that the eulogies of the poet by “some cultured critics of that day,” “afford no proof that the author who published under the name of Shakespeare was in reality Shakspere the Stratford player.” That position I later contest.
[31b] See chap. XI, The First Folio.
[33a] The Shakespeare Problem Restated, pp. 305, 306.
[34a] Furness, Merchant of Venice, pp. 271, 272.
[34b] On this see Mr. Pollard’s Shakespeare Folios and Quartos, pp. 1–9.
[37a] The Shakespeare Problem Restated, pp. 202, 348, 349.
[38a] The Shakespeare Problem Restated, p. 349.