First posted 9/23/23. Revised June 27, 2024 (My comment on my Facebook author page, 9/21/23)
Objective truth does not depend on popular opinion or a consensus of experts. It has an independent existence. Francis Bacon taught the world a better, scientific way to tell fact from fallacy or fiction. The foundation upon which we build must be truth. Let’s not lose what we have gained, an appreciation of the simple truth. We cannot simply sidestep evidence which does not fit our pet theory and expect to arrive at sound conclusions.
Elizabeth Winkler is not neutral as she claims to be, in her recent book Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies. You can see it from her failure to interview a single working Baconian and failure to interview Alan Nelson, author of Monstrous Adversary (Liverpool U. Press 2003) in which he provides evidence countering the “case for Oxford as Shakespeare.” The reason she gave for failing to o interview Nelson in her YouTube Blue Boar Tavern talk sponsored by the Shakespeare Oxford Fellowship, her section on Oxford was already “too long.” (“A Drink with Elizabeth Winkler: Literary Taboos and Doubting Shakespeare.” Aired 8/16/23 (or 8/26/23), posted 9/11/23. Note: as of June 27, 2024, this particular video is apparently no longer available from the Blue Boar Tavern Youtube playlist.).
Is Shakespeare authorship a joke? Is history just a game? Not to Baconians. The most important thing is to safeguard the method we use for finding the truth. Winkler interviewed three Oxfordians. She ate with them and drank with them. The Oxfordians are actively promoting her book. Journalists as well as scholars should be held to standards of objectivity. I reviewed Elizabeth Winkler’s book, Shakespeare Was a Woman and Other Heresies, at my blog, https://christinagwaldman.com/…/why-did-elizabeth…/.
Many people do not really know the case for Francis Bacon. Go to SirBacon.org, the Francis Bacon Research Trust, FBRT.org, and the Francis Bacon Society (FBS) websites. You can read Baconiana, the journal publishing the research of FBS members, online at the FBS website or SirBacon.org. Why not check out the “Evidence” section and the “Bibliographies” at SirBacon.org?
There is no fact-based reason why Francis Bacon could not have been Shakespeare and many good reasons for believing that he was. Read his beautiful preface to his “Great Instauration” (Magna Instauratio in Latin). It was his great plan for bringing humanity into a “golden age” (auratus is Latin for “golden”–in the middle of the word instauration). Whether or not you want to believe he wrote Shakespeare, reading Francis Bacon will likely enrich your life. It has enriched mine.