If Shakespeare's reputation was dear to these two fellow-actors, to whose reverence for the dead we are indebted for seventeen plays which probably would not otherwise have been preserved to us, so surely ought it to be to anyone who has experienced that delight in his works of which they speak above. That reputation has been assailed by a body of men and women who persistently assert that Bacon was the author of the plays. Their enthusiasm and energy have produced a whole literature: indeed there are now between sixty or seventy items under the heading Bacon Controversy in the Catalogue of the British Museum. Their main argument runs somewhat on these lines — The plays show wide learning. William Shakespeare the actor, with his education and opportunities, could never have acquired that learning. We find it in Bacon's works. There fore Bacon was the author.