...Louis J. Budd Copyright © 1955 by Duke University Press 1955 THE BACONIANS: MADNESS THROUGH METHOD Louis J. Budd ALTHOUGH a corollary movement arose in Great Britain, wide agreement assigns to Americans the dubious honor of publicizing the belief that Francis Bacon really wrote the Shake­...

... and to establish his semantic links, he feels free to pick here an obsolete form, there a dialectal variant, a specialized or tech­ nical sense, a figurative extension, or even a crystallized misspelling. On this point his argument reads like that of the Baconians defending the cryptograms they find in Shakespeare...

... delineate an all-too-human tale of self-delusion and wasted talent. But despite the obsessive partisanship of the Baconians, the authors maintain sanity, leaving their professional objectivity only briefly to join in the gentle mirth at mule-headed pedantry. duke university S. K. HENINGER ...

... of rightness. Ockham s nominalist criticism, Reformation fideism, and, even more seriously, Baconian empiricism and Hobbesian materialism had eroded the ethical and religious implications of right reason, until, in the scientific thought of the eighteenth century and after, reason was left, naked and alone...

... contentions are examined here, as the anti-Stratfordian development is traced from the early statements to the present day. Pro­ fessor Wadsworth first reviews the various Baconian theories (including the sub-theory that Bacon was Queen Elizabeth s illegitimate son), the law suits, the opened and closed tombs...

... and carry conviction, without so many details as to bewilder. A chapter near the end is devoted to The Making of the Playhouse Manuscripts. This should be read by Baconians, though throughout the Life no notice is taken of the Baconian theory. The large number of excellent selected maps and illustra­ tions...

..., Reformation fideism, and, even more seriously, Baconian empiricism and Hobbesian materialism had eroded the ethical and religious implications of right reason, until, in the scientific thought of the eighteenth century and after, reason was left, naked and alone, bereft of its redeeming connection with moral...

... the world goes rotten. Among the contemporary clients of the firm, especially attractive was the widow of an ardent Baconian (as vs. Shakespeare) who was in com­ munication with the gentleman through spiritualists. He was discovered to be studying the ants of the other world, but unfortunately in collabora­...

... distorting Baconian idolatries Freudian and existential of the contemporary tribe and marketplace. Langbaum avoids these dangers by carefully documenting, among the six writers he discusses, a surprising diversity of approaches to the problem of identity the issue of our time, he believes, that most...

... first reviews the various Baconian theories (including the sub-theory that Bacon was Queen Elizabeth s illegitimate son), the law suits, the opened and closed tombs, and the gradual extension of Bacon s work to include the King James Version of the Bible and writings of Spenser, Marlow, Milton, Bunyan...

... the many scientific books he owned, his involvements with organizations like the Society for the Encouragement of the Arts, Manufactures, and Commerce, the heavy philosophic (i. e., scientific) content of his prose style (studied earlier by W. K. Wimsatt). In Chapter III, The Baconian Legacy, Mr...

... of philological acumen and higher criticism, if one is to demon­ strate the authenticity of a newly recovered parchment. The Baconians and those whose tireless energy have recov­ ered Cynewulf for us solved for me my problem. I must look for a rune! At last (if I may be permitted to indulge myself in what...

... the obsessive partisanship of the Baconians, the authors maintain sanity, leaving their professional objectivity only briefly to join in the gentle mirth at mule-headed pedantry. duke university S. K. HENINGER ...

...; but even Homer, the father of song, would be nonplussed by our vague singing. The American Pegasus 215 Heaven only grant that no Baconian-Shakespearean controver­ sy arise over the poetry of the present, for in that dire event disputants will be able to find or not to find all the knowledge of the past...

... philosophy represents a reaction to rationalism and to the impersonal and calculating men­ tality of industrial society. He is opposed to the transformation of society through Baconian science or through liberal and progressive thought. Kierkegaard also challenges Protestant and Catholic ortho­ doxy. His...

... us with exemplary Anomals. The Baconian Figure asserts the will to power of its own multiplicity. As a creator of such unique or extraordinary entities, the writer, like the philosopher or the painter, becomes a sorcerer: 584 Andre Pierre Colombat Sorcerers have always had an anomalous position...

...; Baconian Spedding; Apollo-like George Venables, destined to break Thackeray s nose, and to become George Warrington in Pendennis; Keatsian Milnes, too. Truly, we have broken Victorian privacy. The works of Sterling some have talked of, but few have read. Carlyle cannot persuade us to take him seriously...

... the point. De Tocqueville s method was not Baconian. He did not approach his material with unbiased curiosity, intent on reaching conclusions by inductive reasoning based on experimental evidence or statistical patterns. His equipment for his task included his heritage, volumi­ nous reading, and an intense...

... of the memorials of great men which Fuller has preserved in the Worthies is that sketch of Shakespeare, which, short as it is, yet seems to be one of the two or three straws which the Baconian cannot pass without fetch­ ing a smart tumble. He admired the great dramatist unfeignedly, but it is amusing to find him...

... in criminal projects. For, avers Mr. Babbitt, by his worship of man in his future material advances, the Baconian betrays no less surely than the Rousseauist his faith in man s natural goodness. A shameful betrayal indeed. Science it seems would be vile 404 The South Atlantic Quarterly enough if it were...