1. Emerson was sympathetic to Delia Bacon's theories that Shakespeare's works were written by a group led by Francis Bacon (see
introduction), and he had written TC, 12 May: “Miss Bacon of New Haven, Connecticut, goes to prosecute certain literary enquiries. … She is herself a lady of great worth.
… Her studies respect English history, & mainly Shakespeare, & his time. Have you not a friend—Mr Spedding, who writes, or
was writing Lord Bacon's Life? If he is near you, & accessible, can you not obtain for Miss Bacon an interview with him? If
to this you will add any instructions to Miss B., that will facilitate her access to the Library of the British Museum, you
will effectually serve her.” Emerson wrote Delia Bacon the same day: “I send a letter … for Carlyle, to find Spedding. I think
I will write myself again to Carlyle, as I shall need, perhaps, in a few days” (T. Bacon, Delia Bacon 58). Bacon sailed from New York, 14 May, and arrived in Liverpool, 24 May. James Spedding was the leading authority and had long been editing Bacon's Works (with R. L. Ellis and D. D. Heath), 14 vols. (1857–74).
2. Bacon wrote to her sister, Julia Woodruff, several weeks later: “My visit to Mr. Carlyle was very rich. I wish you could have
heard him laugh. Once or twice I thought he would have taken the roof of the house off. At first they were perfectly stunned—he
and the gentleman he had invited to meet me. They turned black in the face of my presumption. ‘Do you mean to say,’ so and
so, said Mr. Carlyle, with his strong emphasis; and I said that I did; and they both looked at me with staring eyes, speechless
for want of words in which to convey their sense of my audacity. At length Mr. Carlyle came down on me with such a volley.
I did not mind it the least. I told him he did not know what was in the Plays if he said that, and no one could know who believed that that booby wrote them. It was then that he began to shriek. You could have heard him a mile. I told
him too that I should not think of questioning his authority in such a case if it were not with me a matter of knowledge. I did not advance it as an opinion. They began to be a little moved with my coolness at length, and before the meeting was
over they agreed to hold themselves in a state of readiness to receive what I had to say on the subject. I left my introductory
statement with him” (T. Bacon, Delia Bacon 62–63).
