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