Who Rpinted Shakespeare's Fourth Folio?

Modern Language Quarterly, 2002

2024

Cahiers Elisabéthaines, 2017

Ever since the discovery of a copy of a first folio in the Saint-Omer library in October 2014, the academic world has been abuzz with speculation about Catholic interest in Shakespeare, and even Shakespeare's possible Catholic connections. It has been suggested in particular that this must be the folio used by Father Clark as source-text for the Jesuit historical tragedy written for the Jesuit College of St Omers in the 1650s, Innocentia Purpurata, which Martin Wiggins argued was influenced by the first folio. In a recent article however, Gisèle Venet and I showed that the book was probably part of a parcel of books given to the College Library in 1736, basing ourselves on other volumes bearing the Nevill signature in the library. We also described the curious marking of the book with the hand-stamped letters "PS". The aim of the present study is twofold: to offer a better overview of the material context of the Folio in its original milieu, the Jesuit College library, or what is left of it in today's library (which implied investigating the complex history of the library), and to offer a more satisfactory option for the identification of "Nevill". After a thorough investigation of the rare books collections in the Saint-Omer library, it is now possible to know more about two local contexts for the folio in its original library. I was first able to find more English books signed "Nevill", which confirmed the hypothesis of a parcel of books presented to the College library in the 1730s. What's more, other volumes with the "PS" stamp have emerged, which point to the inclusion of the Shakespeare Folio into a reserve. This article analyses the results of the new findings: what does the grouping with the other books signed "Nevill" suggest about how the folio was read by the donor of the parcel? The grouping and the date on some of the books of that sample helps us offer an alternative identification for "Nevill". Finally what does the folio's association with the other books marked PS suggest about the status of the Folio in the context of the College? What is clear is that the book, even in its poor condition, was kept separate from the main library of the College. The article suggests two alternative motives for the treatment of the book as exceptional, and explores in particular the notion of censorship.

The Papers of the Bibliographical Society of America, 2006

2024

In 1577 the first edition of The Chronicles of England, Scotland, and Ireland credited to one Raphael Holinshed was published at London, a seminal work whose secret association with Francis Bacon and the Bacon family is more than four centuries later revealed here for the first time. A much revised and greatly expanded multi-volume work was republished in 1587. This second edition was the one used by Shakespeare as one of the primary sources for his English History Plays covering the War of the Roses from Richard II to Richard III, and for Bacon’s prose history of Henry VII (the only reign not covered by him in the history plays) and his final English History Play Henry VIII. It is also a major source for one of his greatest tragedies Macbeth and further provided material for King Lear and Cymbeline. Just imagine for a single momentous moment if an intrinsically priceless copy of the 1587 edition of what is now known as the Shakespeare Holinshed owned by our supreme poet and annotated and underscored in his own hand all over his Shakespeare History Plays existed or was still extant. Obviously, you would have heard of it and know all about it. This unique work would be a priceless national and international treasure talked about in schools, colleges and universities all around the world. It would be housed in one of the great literary cathedrals where it would be regularly visited by royalty, heads of state, and important foreign dignitaries, all vying and competing to pay devout worship and homage to the greatest writer in the history of humankind. All self-respecting Shakespeare scholars would be falling over each other to scrutinise it to within an inch of its life. Every comma, semi-colon and full stop belonging to any notes and annotations from the hand of the semi-divine bard would be endlessly mulled and argued over, meanings and inferences drawn from his lines and observations, would fill the pages of large tomes and an interminable number of articles published in learned journals, all wanting their names and credentials associated with this holy grail of the Shakespeare world. Well, what would you think then, if I told you that a unique copy of the 1587 edition of the Shakespeare Holinshed existed, one copiously underscored and annotated in the divine hand of the bard in the marginalia alongside his English Shakespeare History Plays? I imagine that Shakespeare scholars, students and interested readers all around the world would be somewhat astonished. Well, if it does exist then you might reasonably ask, why does the world not know about it? Because it is the smoking gun of the Shakespeare Authorship Controversy. This unique copy of the Shakespeare Holinshed which has been hidden away for the last 85 years confirms the Truth about the greatest literary secret of all time; namely, the true identity of the author of the Shakespeare works. The unique copy of this four hundred and thirty year old book which was owned by the author of the Shakespeare works very briefly publicly raised its beautiful head in the mid-1930s as the world moved inexorably towards a Second World War. Understandably, at the time the world had more important things to concern itself with when notice of it was given in an otherwise unremarkable and unmeritable long forgotten and overlooked work published in 1938. Its value lay in the fact that it was the only time this unique copy of Shakespeare’s personal copy of the 1587 edition of the Holinshed Chronicles was given a fairly extensive examination and where its author Dr Longworth de Chambrun of Paris University produced two valuable facsimiles of its title page and a page covering the reign of Richard II with marginalia and inscriptions in the hand of the bard. She received this unique literary treasure from Capt. William Jaggard, founder of the Shakespeare Press in Stratford-upon-Avon, descendent of the printer of the Shakespeare First Folio, whose ancestors had printed and published several editions of Bacon’s Essays. Dr Longworth de Chambrun, together with the renowned Shakespeare scholar Dr G. B. Harrison, systematically examined the volume in London and for a further six months with the assistance of some of the best experts from the Ecole des Chartes, Bibliotheque Nationale, Archives and Affaires Etrangeres with the results of her endeavours published in Shakespeare Rediscovered by means of Public Records, Secret Reports & Private Correspondence Newly Set Forth as Evidence on His Life & Work. Since which time this unique copy of the Holinshed Chronicles annotated in the hand of the author of the Shakespeare works has disappeared from public view and its whereabouts remains unknown. The title page of the 1587 Shakespeare Holinshed sports five elaborate monograms composed with the initials W.S. formed in such a way that the pen never leaves the paper until completion in the flourish of a single stroke. Dr Longworth de Chambrun informs her readers that these personal monograms are found on the outer cover of the so-called Northumberland manuscript. In fact, in her own words, anyone familiar with Shakespeare’s personal copy of the Holinshed Chronicles extensively annotated in his own hand and the Northumberland Manuscript, with the names of Bacon and Shakespeare written all over its outer cover, would at a single glance know they originally belonged to the same man. Of which there can be no doubt whatsoever. This now left her in a seemingly insurmountable situation, simply because if the Shakespeare Holinshed and the so-called Northumberland Manuscript belonged to the same man (and they most definitely did) and the latter was a collection of Bacon’s own manuscripts (which it most definitely was) originally housing his two Shakespeare plays Richard II and Richard III, then Bacon was Shakespeare. To try and circumvent it she suggested that William Shakspere might have worked in the Bacon literary workshop, an absurd suggestion one completely without any foundation and one for which there exists not a single shred of evidence, not least of course, because it did not happen. The Bacon-Shakespeare Manuscript to give its appropriate title (known as the Northumberland Manuscript) originally held seventeen pieces of work comprising letters, religio-political tracts, compositions on national and international matters of intelligence, essays, and dramatic devices and plays. It was widely known at the time that many of these were Bacon’s writings and works and since then it has been shown that all seventeen pieces originated from his brain and hand. On the title page of the Shakespeare Holinshed and on the top right-hand side of the outer cover of the Bacon-Shakespeare Manuscript both from Bacon’s hand appear the three monograms common to these two documents. In the case of the latter the three monograms appear directly below the name of its owner and possessor ‘Mr. ffruancis Bacon’. Apparently, unbeknown to Dr Longworth de Chambrun these three monogram scrolls are found in other works owned by Bacon including a copy of Les Tenures de Monsieur Littleton (1591) annotated throughout, now held at the British Library, whose own experts confirm to be in the handwriting of Francis Bacon. The Bacon collection of manuscripts known as the Northumberland Manuscript shares the same provenance and ownership with the unique 1587 edition of the Shakespeare Holinshed with its copious marginal annotations and underscored passages made by Bacon for use in his Shakespeare English History plays from Richard II to Richard III, the two plays originally held in the Northumberland MSS, both further inextricably bound up with the other through their Baconian monograms and Bacon’s handwriting on their respective outer cover and title page. These two inextricably interrelated works taken together wholly reinforce each other providing incontrovertible proof that Francis Bacon is the secret author of the Shakespeare works. The unique copy of the 1587 edition of the Shakespeare Holinshed with its annotations and underscored portions in Bacon’s own hand alongside passages used for his Shakespeare plays is the smoking gun of the true authorship of the Shakespeare works. Finally, after more than two hundred years of authorship controversy we have proof positive that Francis Bacon wrote the Shakespeare works, which collapses the greatest literary fraud in the history of the world. Since its fleeting 1938 appearance in Dr Longworth de Chambrun’s book, Bacon’s unique copy of the 1587 Shakespeare Holinshed has not seen the light of day, and as far as the present writer is aware, its whereabouts remains unknown. Perhaps the reason for this is whichever individual or more likely institution owns this unique copy and has deliberately suppressed it and kept it from public view for the last 85 years is also acutely aware that it is the incontrovertible decisive smoking gun of the true authorship of the Shakespeare works.

Brief Chronicles: The 1623 First Folio, a Minority Report , 2016

What were Edward de Vere's children and in-laws doing while the Shakespeare first folio was being printed? Its an interesting story . . .

Who was Edward de Vere? He was the 17th Earl of Oxford, he was a courtier in Elizabeth's court; a poet, a playwright and a renowned trouble maker known as the "spear shaker" who some scholars believe wrote under the pseudonym William Shakespeare. Many Shakespeare scholars dismiss the claims that Edward de Vere could have been the author of the works attributed to William Shakespeare, but just how dubious are these claims? This paper dives into the connections between Edward de Vere and the most celebrated and damning piece of evidence against the orthodox story; The first folio of 1623.

ATLANTIS, 2009