The Great Cryptogram: Bacon's Cipher in Shakespeare, 1887

What it is

This is a book by Ignatius Donnelly, published in 1887 with the title The Great Cryptogram: Francis Bacon's Cipher in the So-Called Shakespeare Plays. The title page and opening show a quotation from Henry IV and a dedication. The author claims that a secret code by Bacon is hidden in the plays attributed to Shakespeare. Archive records list both Shakespeare and Bacon as subjects.

Why it matters

Donnelly's book is a fringe theory. Most historians reject the claim that Bacon wrote the Shakespeare plays, because the evidence for it is weak. The book matters because it shows how Bacon's name was used in later debates about literature and authorship. It says more about the author's beliefs and the arguments of his time than about Bacon's own writing.

Look closer

• What kind of proof does the author promise, and how convincing would it be to a skeptical reader?
• Why might a writer in 1887 want to connect Bacon with Shakespeare?
• What evidence from Bacon's own writings does this book leave out or ignore?