nected with the stage. Seven years after Shakespeare's death John Heminge was permitted by the Lord Chamberlain, William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke, to publish the collected manuscripts of the great dramas, and he and Condell were allowed to dedicate them to this nobleman and his brother, Philip Herbert, Earl of Montgomery. In no other way could the manuscripts of these plays have been published, save by the courtesy of the Lord Chamberlain, who controlled them as well as the King's Players. A John Heminge was one of the trustees named in the deed of the Blackfriars' property, sold to Shakespeare in 1613. William Johnson was another of the trustees named in this deed. Could Henry Walker, "citizein and minstrell" of London, who sold the property to Shakespeare, have been the husband of Alice Burbage, sister of Richard, the first Hamlet? She married a Walker. See the Lord Treasurer Stanhope's "accompte," 1613, p. 103.1 Thirty years ago Dr. Appleton Morgan wrote the following to refute Donnelly's "The Great Cryptogram." WHY QUEEN ELIZABETH NEGLECTED UTLEGATUM Nor does it happen to appear that, although Bacon was badly in debt in and about the year 1598, any of his debts were allowed to outlaw. They had all been paid or compounded for in 1601. All we know of this threatened writ of capias utlegatum is contained in Bacon's letter to Cecil. And Bacon merely mentioned it, as appears by the context, to show his kinsman how Coke took every opportunity of insulting him. Had Bacon been amenable to a writ to issue from the attorney-general of England, the suggestion by the mouth of the attor ney-general himself would not have been an Shakespeare's Century of Praise, 2nd Edi. insult; but a threat, a word to tremble at, or to turn to stone before. Sir Edward Coke was not a man to threaten when he could perform. He performed: nor did he send threats in advance of his performance. It was, as we have said, an insulting reference to Bacon's early poverty, in the course of a little passage at arms between two men who perfectly understood their own and each other's rights, powers, and privileges. Bacon turned it, not with an "apothegm" (as he called his own ponderously witty speeches), but with a quiet, lawyer-like, and rather contemptuous admission, coupled with an allusion to Coke's utter impotence in the matter. And that was all there was of it! Had Bacon quitted England on account of his authorship of the Shakespeare plays, not only Elizabeth, Coke, the judges at Essex's trial who accepted Bacon's excuse for not taking a certain part in the prosecution, and the thirty or forty editors, publishers, printers, messengers, and gobetweens who printed that cipher-covering First Folio Shakespeare-not only all these, but all England-would have known, about three hundred years ago the truth. I am strongly inclined to think, therefore, that Mr. Spedding's incidental conjecture that Coke's mention of the capias utlegatum in the recontre with Bacon, was an allusion to Bacon's early poverty-is, undoubtedly, the fact of the matter. If otherwise, it would certainly be and remain a curiosity in the record that a future Lord Chancellor of England should have been at one time, in constructive breach of ban of the realm in whose affairs he was to sit in its highest judgment seat!-The Albany Law Journal, Vol. 42, 1890. V Dorothy Watts agamft 2 SJobulon against 171 Pon evidence that term at Guid-hal, London, In the cale of one c. 42: EL. Dalton. Where in debt upon an Obligation, where the Statute of Ufury was pleaded, It was laid by Poph. If a man lend 100 1. for a year, and to have 10 1. for the use of it. If the Dbligo? pays the tol. 20 days before it te due, That does not make the Obligation void, be- Jury. 1 Bul-17 cause it was not co2rupt. But if upon making the obligation, it had been agreed, that the ten pound should have been paid e itkia the time, that should have been ufury. Because he had not the 100 1. for the whole year. When the 10l, was to be paid within the year. And verdia was given accordingly. I was agreed, that if the Lozd maim his Uillais, he is infranchiled. Dorothy Watts against Brynes at Severfam, Halor 45 IP an appeal of the death of her husband. The Defendant there, upon Murther. the indiamement was found guilty of Man-daughter, And the illue Ivas if he kill'd the Husband or not, and the evidence was very strong against the Defendant. ( scil. ) The beginning of the quarrel was, On Monday there, the perfon that was kill'd beat the now Defendant. Dn Tuesday, Wats in the Defendants Chop being a Butcher, Alurted him on the Note. Da Wednesday, Watts, and one Biffei walking by the shop, made a way mouth at the Defendant: Upon which the Defendant comes out of the shop, with a shost (wo2d behind the back of Warts, and gives him a great ftroak upon the calf of the legg, whereof he died. Court directed the Jury to find it murther. Iohnson against Bacon. And the Ohnson of Grayes- Jnne recovered in debt against Bacon of Grays- Inne Time to assign upon a bond of 400 I. Where the conditionwas to fave harmlelle, being Errors. furety for Bacon. And Bacon was outlawed after Judgement: And a cap. utlagat. was delivered to the Sheriff in Court. And now Bacon bought errour. And would afsign erro2s without yielding himself in Execution, quod contra legem. By the Clerks, That a man outlawed may not take benefit of the Law, without a fubmifsion to it. 36 THE ORIGIN OF THE "CAPIAS UTLEGATUM" INSULT OFFERED TO BACON BY QUEEN ELIZABETH'S ATTORNEY GENERAL, SIR EDWARD COKE. Toulmin Smith said: "He who unfolds to his fellowmen one single truth that has heretofore laid hidden has not lived in vain." I may add especially if that truth is about Bacon. The fact I have discovered will at least establish what before was unknown to his biographers; and it is connected with William Johnson, the gentleman who personated the Lord Chancellor in the Gesta Grayorum. This William Johnson "of Staple Inn" was admitted to Grays Inn in 1578. (See Foster's Regis. of Grays Inn, p. 52.) The discovered fact will also take the strongest prop from under Donnelly's cipher story in his Great Cryptogram. To those unfamiliar with the Attorney General Cokes insult offered to Bacon in the Exchequer in 1601, and how Bacon smarted under it, the following letter found by Murden in the Hatfield Collection, and first published by Birch will explain: To Mr. Secretary CECIL It may please your Honour, Because we live in an age, where every man's imperfections is but another's fable; and that there fell, out an accident in the Exchequer, which I know not how, nor how soon, may be traduced, though I dare trust rumour in it, except it be malicious, or extreme partial; I am bold now to possess your Honour, as one, that ever I found careful of my advancement, and yet more jealous of my wrongs, with the truth of that, which passed; deferring my farther request, untill I may attend your honour and so I continue Your Honour's very humble Gray's-Inn, this 24th of April, 1601. FR. BACON. A true remembrance of the abuse I received of Mr. Attorney General publicly in the Exchequer the first day of term; for the truth whereof I refer myself to all that were present. I moved to have a reseizure of the lands of Geo. Moore, a relapsed recusant, a fugitive, and a practising traytor; and shewed better matter for the Queen against the discharge by plea, which is ever with a salvo jure. And this I did in as gentle and reasonable terms as might be. Mr. Attorney kindled at it, and said, "Mr. Bacon, if you have any tooth against me, pluck it out; for it will do you more hurt, than all the teeth in your head will do you good." I answered coldly in these very words: "Mr. Attorney, I respect you: I fear you not: and the less you speak of your own greatness, the more I will think of it." He replied, "I think scorn to stand upon terms of greatness towards you, who are less than little; less than the least;" and other such strange light terms he gave me, with that insulting, which cannot be expressed. Herewith stirred, yet I said no more but this: "Mr. Attorney, do not depress me so far; for I have been your better, and may be again, when it please the Queen." With this he spake, neither I nor himself could tell what, as if he had been born Attorney General; and |