A few lines further on is a striking confirmation of this. _Macbeth_ says,-- "How say'st thou, that MACDUFF denies his person At our great bidding?" _Macduff_ here is cryptographic for SHAKSPEARE. When summoned by the Queen to answer CECIL'S charge, SHAKSPEARE _did_ deny his person at her bidding. Mr. DONNELLY'S is a great discovery. The world _does_ advance, in spite of Lord SALISBURY. Yours, RADICAL. DEAR SIR,--How long will the British public allow an impudent Yankee to lead it astray? Mr. DONNELLY has evidently never read my historical novel, _A Tale of the Invincible Armada_, which somehow failed to meet with the enthusiasm it deserved, or he would know that CECIL valued SHAKSPEARE most highly. In my book he never addresses the Bard without saying, "Marry, Gossip," or "I' faith, good coz." I am sure your readers will be glad of this information; also to hear that I am bringing out a cheap popular edition of the same book, price only three-and-sixpence. Order at once, Yours, M. AINCHANCE. SIR,--Perhaps, after all, the best solution of the SHAKSPEARE-BACON puzzle is one analogous to that suggested by a learned Don in the HOMER controversy--viz., that the person who wrote the plays was not SHAKSPEARE, but another man of the same name. Yours, COMMONSENSICUS ACADEMICUS. * * * * * LORD SALISBURY'S SHAKSPEARE. "'The policy of worry' shan't be strained; They'll drop it in my gentle reign next Session." * * * * * [Illustration: "AN OPPORTUNIST." _He._ "OH, EMIL----MISS CRUMPCHER--CAN--HAVE YOU EVER LOVED?" _She._ "N--NOT THIS SEASON!"] * * * * * A WOULD-BE "LITERARY GENT."--The following is from the _Daily Telegraph_:-- LITERARY.--A gentleman who erst wrote for recreation, is driven, through cruel misfortune, to resume his pen for a livelihood. Fugitive lines, reviews of English, French, and Italian literature, topics of the day. What a condescension! How good of him! He "first wrote for recreation"--whose?--his own probably, and that of his friends who were as easily amused as were those of Mr. PETER MAGNUS,--who signed himself P.M., or afternoon, for the entertainment of his correspondents,--and now he is "driven through cruel misfortune to resume his pen." Very cruel! Perhaps already his friends are beginning to suffer from this spiteful freak of Fortune. But as he can knock off with ease a variety of literary work, he is rather to be envied than pitied; and already he may be on the high road to literary fame which he will despise, and solid wealth which he will appreciate. * * * * * THE NEW SIXPENCE.--On the face is to be the QUEEN'S effigy with inscription, and on the reverse its value inscribed, surrounded by an olive-branch and an oak-branch. More appropriate for the face would have been the QUEEN'S effigy surrounded by olive-branches.