The list of contents was written upon this outside page about 1597, and among those original contents which are now missing were Richard II. and Richard III. Mr. Spedding was satisfied that these were the so-called Skakespearean plays. There are also the tiles of various other works to which it is not now necessary to allude, but the reader's attention should be especially directed to the (so-called) scribblings. Mr. Spedding says: "I find nothing either in these later scribblings or in what remains of the book itself to indicate a date later than the reign of Elizabeth." The "scribblings" are therefore written by a contemporary hand. For the purpose of reference I have placed the letters _a, b, c, d, e_, outside of the facsimile.
(_a_) "honorificabilitudine." This curious long word when taken in conjunction with the words "your William Shakespeare." which are also found upon this page, appears to have some reference to the same curious long word which is found in the ablative plural in "Loves Labour's lost," which appeared I 1597, and was the play to which Shakespeare's name was for the first time attached, and, as I shew, in Chapter X., p. 84, it was placed there in order to give with absolute certainty a key to the real authorship.
(_b_) "By Mr ffrauncis William Shakespeare Baco"--with ffrauncis written upside down over it and your/yourself written upside down at the commencement of the line. Baco would require Baconis as its genitive.
(_c_) "revealing day through every crany peepes." We think that this is an accurate statement of the revelations here afforded.
[Illustration: Modern Script Facsimile of MS Folio 1 _Reduced to about one-third the size of the original_]
(_d_) your "William Shakespeare." Almost directly above this your appears also William Shakespeare.
[Illustration: Full-Size Facsimile of Written Ornament on Outside Page of Northumberland MSS.]
[Illustration: Full-Size Facsimile of Written Ornament in "Les Tenure de Monsieur Littleton." Annotate by Francic Bacon.]
(_e_) The three curious scrolles at the top right-hand corner are very similar to the scrolls which are found upon the title page of a law book entitled, "Les Tenures de Monsieur Littleton," printed in 1591, in the possession of the writer, which is throughout noted in what the authorities at the British Museum say is undoubtedly the handwriting of Francis Bacon.