Introducing Shakespeare: A Graphic Guide - Nick Groom, Piero 2013

Decoding Shakespeare

Ignatius Donnelly, “prince of crackpots”, was another driven Baconian who, like many of his fellow “Anti-Stratfordians”, had trained as a lawyer and consequently believed that “Shakespeare” must have done so as well.

Donnelly’s masterpiece was The Great Cryptogram, in which he decoded Shakespeare according to a cipher he had discovered in a children’s magazine.

I ASSIGN NOT ONLY THE WORKS OF SHAKESPEARE TO BACON, BUT ALSO THE SHAKESPEARE APOCRYPHA, MONTAIGNE’S ESSAY, BURTON’S ANATOMY OF MELANCHOLY, SOME OF GEORGE PEELE’S WORKS, AND ALL OF CHRISTOPHER MARLOWE …