In the play, "Love's Labour's Lost," the author puns twice in the French language--once when he use the word "capon" in the double sense of a fowl and a love letter, and again when he uses the word "paint" in the double sense of the tip of a sword and a strong French negative. If follows that the author must have had not only a knowledge of the French language, but was also a fluent French scholar. This play also contains many sentences in Latin, Spanish and Italian.
It must be remembered that Francis Bacon spent nearly three years in France in his youth after leaving Cambridge.
Label this fact all you like - can you explain how the ugly ducklin not only turned into swan but also was fluent enough to be witty with so many languages. Convinced you may not be of Bacon (yet) - are you still convinced of Shakespeare being this energetic learner of all without any resources?
In "Henry VI," Part 2, is a character, Lord Saye, a Justice, who is arrested by Cade and accused of various crimes and misdemeanours. In the Quarto Editions of 1594, 1600 and 1619 he answers his accusers in four lines, but in the First Folio of 1623 his speech is enlarged and contains the following lines:
"Justice with favour have I always done
Prayers and tears have mov'd me, gifts could never.
What have I aught exacted at your hands
But to maintain the King, the realm and you?
Large gifts have I bestow'd on learned clerks,
Because my book preferred me to the King."
-Act 4, Scene 7.
Is it a coincidence that three passages in this speech clearly apply to Francis Bacon?
1.- The judge denies that he has received gifts and been guilty of bribery. Why make this denial when he is not accused of bribery in the play? Francis Bacon, who fell from power in 1621 under charges of bribery, always strenuously denied these charges, declaring them to be false and of which subsequent history has proved him innocent.
2. -The judge states that he had sent a book of which he was author to the King and had been "preferred" on account of it.
Bacon sent a copy of his Novum Organon in 1620 to King James, who immediately afterwards created him Viscount St. Alban.
3.- The judge states that he has bestowed large gifts on persons of subordinate rank. Bacon was noted for his generosity to the same class of people, and gave large gratuities to messengers who came to him with gifts from various friends.
Note that the above additions to Lord Saye's speech were made after 1621 when Bacon was accused of bribery, and seven years after the death of Will Shaksper in 1616.
This is not coincedence - its correlation.
Your mentioning the Bible reminds me of this:
It is supposed to be a coincidence that in the 46th psalm the 46th word from the beginning is "shake," and the 46th word from the end is "speare."
In earlier editions of the Bible we find the position of these two words "shake" and "speare" to be as follows:
1535 or Coverdale Bible---56th word dwon is "shook," 47 word up "speare."
1539 or Great Bible---46th word down "shake," 48th word up "speare."
1560 or Geneva Bible--- 47th word down "shake," 44th word up "speare."
1568 or Bishop Bible--- 47th word down "shake," 48th word up "speare."
Is it a coincidence that in the 1611 Bible, the 46th word from the beginning of the 46th Psalm is "shake," and the 46th word from the end "speare?" We submit that Francis Bacon, who on an accumulation of evidence, is believed to have been responsible for the final editing of the 1611 Bible, took the opportunity, by making small verbal alterations in the 46th Psalm, of earmarking his associations as "Shakespeare" with this version of the Bible.
Even Macaulay admits that Bacon "in perceiving analogies between things which had nothing in common had no equal."
Francis Bacon expressed his intentions of reforming the English language, which, in Elizabethan times, was so uncouth that it was necessary for an educated man to express his thoughts in Latin.
Is it a coincidence that "Shakespeare" had exactly the same idea, and proceeded to carry it out by coining entirely new words derived from Latin sources and inserting them in the "Shakespeare" plays?"
The following are a few examples of brand new words coined by "Shakespeare" and used for the first time in the Shakespeare plays:
Abruption, from ab-rumpere, to break off, to terminate suddenly.
Absolute, from absolvere, to free, as from doubt
Admittance, from ad-mittere, to admit, as into Society
Affront, from ad-frontem, to meet face to face, to accost, without any feeling of hostility.
Antre, from antrum, cave.
Assubjugate, from as-subjugare, to debase.
Cadent, from cadere, to fall.
Capitulate, from capitulare, to make terms, not necessarily in surrender.
Captious, from capere, to receive.
Character, from Greek character, instrument for marking.
Circummure, from circummurare, to wall around.
Civil, from civis, citizen.
Conflux, from confluere, to flow together
Conspectuities, form conspicere, to behold
Continuate, from continuatus, enduring.
Constringed, from con-stringere, to draw together
Convent, from con-venire, to come together.
Convive, from conv-vivere, to live or feast together.
Credent, from credere, to believe.
Derogate, from derogare, to rule.
Directitude, from dirigere, to rule.
Expiate, from ex-pirari, to expire, come to an end.
Fluxive, from fluere, to flow.
Iterance, from iterare, to repeat.
Sanctuarize, from Sanctus, holy.
Francis Bacon was a profound and critical classical scholar and so was "Shakespeare," as the above examples of words coined by him clearly show.
In 1595 a book entitled Polimanteia was printed in Cambridge and signed W.C., which is considered to stand for William Clerke, who was a scholar there. The book contains a letter addressed to the Universities of Cambridge, Oxford, and the Inns of Court. In the margin of the text of this letter are found the names of many persons who in the author's opinion had done honour to those institutions by their presence as students in one or more of them.
We find the word "Lucrecia" preceding the words "Sweet Shake-speare." This implies that Sweet Shake-speare, the author of Lucrece, was a member of one of these universities. No person of the name of Shakespeare was ever enrolled at any of these institutions. Sir Sidney Lee's only comment on this fact is: "In 1595 William Clerke in his Polimanteia gave all praise to Sweet Shakespeare for his Lucretia." Sir Sidney Lee, who was entirely unscupulous when dealing with "Shakespere," purposely suppresses the fact that the author of Polimanteia tells us that "Shakespeare" was a member of one of those universities, because, had he done so, he would have been asked for some evidence that Will Shaksper had attended a university, of which of course there is no evidence whatsoever. In the same way, in every edition of Lee's Life of Shakespeare, we find the statement that the present monument at Stratford was erected shortly after Shaksper's death, although Lee knew perfectly well that the present statue was erected in 1748.
It must be remembered that Polimanteia was printed one year after "Shakespeare's " Lucrece was published, and before the publication of any of the "Shakespeare" plays.
Is it a coincidence that "Shakespeare" (the author of Lucrece) and Francis Bacon were both educated at a university?