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PROOF

THAT

WILLIAM SHAKSPERE

Willin. Shaffy

COULD NOT WRITE.

The Sonnets

WRITTEN BY

FRANCIS BACON

TO THE

EARL OF ESSEX AND HIS BRIDE,

A. D. 1590.

BACON IDENTIFIED

AS THE CONCEALED POET IGNOTO.

A. D. 1589-1600.

BY

WM. HENRY BURR,

WASHINGTON, D. C.

JANUARY 22, 1886.

Copyright, 1885, by W. H. Burr.

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PROOF

THAT

SHAKSPERE COULD NOT WRITE.

No handwriting of Shakspere has ever been discovered except five autographs. In March 1613, when he was nearly 49 years old, he signed his name to a mortgage, and again to a deed relative to the same transaction. Three years later he subscribed his name to three briefs or sheets of his will. The five facsimiles are here reproduced:

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They are all such signatures as an illiterate person, unaccustomed to write, would be likely to scrawl; and

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