INTRODUCTION.

"It had bene a thing, we confess, worthie to have bene wished, that the Author himself had liv'd to have set forth, and overseen his owne writings; But since it hath bin ordain'd otherwise, and he by death departed from that right, we pray you do not envie bis Friends, the office of their care, and paine, to have collected & publish'd them; and so to have publish'd them, as where (before) you were abus'd with diverse stolne, and surreptitious copies, maimed, and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious imposters, that expos'd them: even those, are now offer'd to your view cur'd, and perfect of their limbes; and all the rest, absolute in their numbers, as he conceived the. Who, as he was a happie imitator of Nature, was a most gentle expresser of it. His mind and hand went together: And what he thought, he uttered with that easiness, that wee have scarce received from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our province, who onely gather his works, and give them you, to praise him. It is yours that reade him. And there we hope, to your divers capacities, you will finde enough, both to draw, and hold you; for his wit can no more lie bid, then it could be lost. Reade him, therefore; and againe, and againe: And if then you doe not like him, surely you are in some manifest danger, not to understand him. And so we leave you to other of his Friends, whom if you need, can bee your guides: if you neede them not, you can leade yourselves, and others. And such readers we wish him.

(London, 1623.)

JOHN HEMINGE.
HENRIE CONDELL."

Mankind may now echo the words of this introduction to the 1623 Edition of the Shakespeare Plays, with a broader meaning. The contents of this book have been as much a surprise to those who have deciphered it as it will be to the world.

That FRANCIS BACON should write portions of the "history of his father, his mother, and the Queen of Scots, as a Play, and mask it in Plays" to prove his authorship of them all, is an accomplishment such as the greatest admirers of that great genius could have thought hardly possible; but that in doing so he should conceal in the Cipher a Play so sustained, so dramatic, so powerful, so historically concise, as is the "Tragedy of Mary Queen of Scots" here transcribed, marks a genius capable of unparalleled literary achievements.