Bacon appears to have foreseen that some future sceptic would question the justice of his claims; would ask, for instance, how the hand that wrote _Macbeth_ and _The Tempest_, came to produce such comparatively indifferent stuff as _A Quip for an Upstart Courtier_, and he meets the anticipated question with the following explanation:-- “It shall bee noted in truth that some greatly exceede their fellowes in worth, and it is easily explained. Th’ theame varied, yet was always a subject well selected to convey the secret message. Also the plays being given out as tho’gh written by the actor to whom each had been consigned, turne one’s genius suddainlie many times to suit th’ new man. “In this actour that wee now emploie, is a wittie vayne different from any formerly employed. In truth it suiteth well with a native spirrit, humorous and grave by turnes in ourselfe. Therefore when we create a part that hath him in minde th’ play is correspondingly better therefor. It must be evident ... that these later dramas (this cipher message is in the 1611 quarto of _Hamlet_) are superior in nearlie all those scenes where our genius hath swaie”.... Over and over again, with almost childish iteration, the cipher repeats the names of the authors whose works he claims as his own: “Spenser, Greene, Peele, Marlowe have sold me theirs (their names)--two or three others I have assumed upon certaine occasions such as this (Ben Jonson’s _Masques_), besides th’ one I beare among men.”... “My plaies are not yet finisht, but I intend to put forth severall soone. However, bi-literall work requiring so much time, it will readily be seene that there is much to doe aftee a booke doth seeme to be ready for the presse, and I could not say when other plays will come out. The next volume will be under W. Shakespeare’s name. As some which have now beene produced have borne upon the title page his name though all are my owne work, I have allow’d it to stand on manie others which I myselfe regard as equall in merite.” “My next work is not begun here: much of it shall bee found in th’ playes o’ Shakespeare which have not yet come out. We having put forth a numbe’ of plays i’ his theatre, shall continue soe doing since we doe make him th’ thrall to our will. Our name never accompanieth anie play, but it frequently appeareth plainly in cipher for witty minds to transla’e from Latine and Greeke....”