AN INQUIRY TOUCHING PLAYERS, PLAYHOUSES, AND PLAY-WRITERS IN THE DAYS OF ELIZABETH. BY WILLIAM HENRY SMITH, ESQ. TO WHICH IS APPENDED AN ABSTRACT OF A MB. RESPECTING TOBIE MATTHEW. LONDON: 36, SOHO SQUARE. CONTENTS. CHAPTER I.-Introduction . . . . . . . . . . . 1 II.—A Brief History of Shakespeare . .... 2 III.-Bacon and Shakespeare. ....... 3 IV.-Wit and Poetic Faculty of Bacon and V.-Bacon's Powers of Mind, in Youth and VI.—Evidence in Favour of Shakespeare ... 25 VII.- Parallel Passages, and Peculiar Phrases, in X.—Play-Writers ........... 79 XI.- Atheneum and other Objectors answered . . 90 XII.-Popular Errors respecting Lord Southampton XIII.— Tate, Kemble, &c., their Knowledge of XIV.-An Epitome of what has gone before . . . 143 APPENDIX.—A Brief Description of a curious MS., entitled |