Page:1909. Is Shakespeare Dead? From My Autobiography.djvu/116

 IX

ID Francis Bacon write Shakespeare's Works?

Nobody knows.

We cannot say we know a thing when that thing has not been proved. Know is too strong a word to use when the evidence is not final and absolutely conclusive. We can infer, if we want to, like those slaves. &hellip; No, I will not write that word, it is not kind, it is not courteous. The upholders of the Stratford-Shakespeare superstition call us the hard est names they can think of, and they keep doing it all the time; very well, if they like to descend to that level, let them do it, but I will not so undignify myself as to follow them. I cannot call 102