No. XLV.—A HIDDEN NAME
“Yes,” said the village wit, as a merry party sat round the tap-room fire at Stratford-on-Avon, “some wiseacres have tried to prove that Bacon wrote Shakespeare’s plays, because his name can be found hidden in some of the lines. Let me show you how easily this sort of thing can be arranged to suit our fancy.”
Taking a piece of chalk he wrote upon the door—
| “Titus An | d | ronicus” |
| “All’s Well th | a | t Ends Well” |
| “The Mercha | n | t of Venice” |
| “Corio | l | anus” |
| “Cymb | e | line” |
| “A Midsummer | N | ight’s Dream” |
| “Much Ado ab | o | ut Nothing” |
“Look down the letters under d of these titles of some of Shakespeare’s plays,” he said, “and you will find the well-known name of one who certainly did not write them.” What name did he mean? What but that of the prince of jokers, Dan Leno!
77. MISSING WORDS
Can you supply the missing words in these lines? Each is spelt with the same five letters:—
A man of ——— had caught a ———,
And it was windy weather;
“Give me my ———,” he cried, “to fix
My fish and ——— together.”