Other Signatures Which Don't Fit Any of the Above Categories

It is asserted that the numbers 33 and 287 are significant in the Baconian enterprise because they are the totals in code of the words "bacon" and "francis bacon" respectively. Given that we are interested here only in instances of the name which may be directly read off, a discussion of these codes is beyond the scope of this listing. Further information on Elizabethan number cipher as it relates to Bacon may be found here. For now, we simply take the numbers as given.

If we turn then to page 287 of the Histories, it falls on King Lear. At the bottom right hand corner of the page occurs the following dialogue, set out exactly as shown here, with spelling, punctuation as in the First Folio:.

Knight.     My lord, I know not what the matter is;
but, to my judgment, your highness is not entertain'd
with that ceremonious affection as you were wont;
there's a great abatement of kindness appears as well in
the general dependants as in the duke himself also and
your daughter.
Lear.      Ha! saiest thou so?
Knigh.      I beseech you, pardon me, my lord, if I bee
mistaken; for my duty cannot be silent when I thinke
your Highnesse wrong'd.
Lear.      Thou but rememberest me of mine own Con-
ception: I have perceived a most faint neglect of late,
which I have rather blamed as mine own jealous curio-
sitie than as a very pretence and purpose of unkindnesse;
I will look further into't. But where's my fool? I 
have not seen him this two daies.
Knight.   Since my young Ladies going into France
                                                                       Sir,

Reading the words at the end of the lines which begin with an italicised character name gives: Sir France is bee Con = Sir Francis Bacon.

Crazy? Sure, that's right, crazy like an Elizabethan: the number of letters before the red name component in each of the lines in which they occur is exactly 33 in each instance. Note that the character of the "Knight" is listed as "Knigh" in the middle line to make this work.

This layout, and spelling required to make the above work, is not to be found in the earlier Quarto versions of this play, but only on page 287 of the First Folio.