Rowse on Shakespeare
Sir: Contrary to popular belief the first object of the Francis Bacon Society is to study -Trancis Bacon's works "as
philosopher, statesman and poet." The second object is to study "the evidence in favour of his authorship of the plays commonly acribed to Shakespeare. As Dr Rowse in his ankle (June 2)
specifically commends Francis Bacon for his qualities as " lawyer and scientist, politician and philosopher ", he may perhaps agree that to label Baconians as " crackpots " is being unfair. Nevertheless I have to tell him that as a result of long years of re search, most of our members now and in the past (the Society was founded in 1886) have been forced to the conclusion that Bacon was the genius who wrote or at least inspired the Shakespeare plays. Dr Rowse is hardly in a position to argue as he has not troubled to visit our office to acquaint himself with our views, or to study our literature. Nevertheless, if he or any other academic would care to come to see us even now, we should be delighted. One thing I will promise, there will be no dogmatism, only a wish to pool ideas, and to arrive at the truth. Surely this is not "sheer lunacy ", but sheer commonsense.
Noel Fermor Chairman, The Francis Bacon Society, Canonbury Tower, Canonbury' Place, London Ni.
Sir: In my challenging of Dr Rowse's assertion that his candidate for the Dark Lady was musical (Letters, June 9), your printers made me say that she might have been ' stone deaf ', which wouldn't prove anything either way (what about Beethoven?). What 1 wrote was' tone deaf', Mary Edmond 28 Westholm, London NWI 1
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