"What is a,b, spelt backward, with the horn on his head"

MOTH  ... What is a, b, spelt backward, with the horn on his head? 
HOLOFERNES      Ba, pueritia, with a horn added. 
MOTH  Ba, most silly sheep with a horn. You hear his learning. 

This seemingly nonsensical riddle occurs in Shakespeare's "French" play, Loves Labors Lost, on the same page of the First Folio as the famous long word. It occurs in the middle of a mock latin lesson with Holofernes the schoolmaster. Baconians have long had the riddle solved: but have overlooked until now that the same puzzle is posed in picture form as a rebus in a familiar emblem.

The first part is easy: obviously, the solution to "a,b spelt backwards" is: "ba".

Holofernes and Moth confirm this. So far so good.

Not quite so obvious is that the latin root word for "horn" is "corn-" (with various possible endings) and that this provides the clue for the second part of the solution. If we take a "horn" or "corn" and add it to "ba", we get: "ba-corn".

That this is the intended answer is confirmed by Holofernes response, which gives the "ba" and the "horn added".

So the answer to the riddle is "ba-corn". Phonetically, his is exactly how the surname Bacon sounds when pronounced in France. Ba-corn = Bacon.

While this answer sounds plausible enough (to a Baconian), a good puzzle maker at this point would provide some kind of independent verification that this is indeed intended to be the correct answer to the riddle. In this case, it would need to be a demonstration elsewhere in Shakespeare of an example or situation or circumstance where an "a,b backwards" and a "horn/corn" are brought together to signify a name.

Above and below are reproduced two examples of the so-called "double-A" printing mark. The appearnace of this device on an Elizabethan text, as Mather Walker has shown, is a reliable indicator of Francis Bacon's involvement. Variations on the device appear in both the First Folio and various Quartos of Shakespeare, and in many other works.

Actually, the term "double-A" is not strictly accurate: as can be seen, the elaborate stylised "letter" which appears in light and dark mirror image versions, is a letter 'A' modified so as to have two cross-bars rather than one. In this respect, it could be said that the hybrid letter combines a letter 'A' and a letter 'B' in a single letter. If this be allowed, then the depiction then may legitimately be described as consisting of an 'A,B', and an 'A,B' backwards, which is the mirror image combined letter.

Between them at the top may be seen the horn of plenty, or cornucopia. Here then in picture form is the AB backwards, with the horn at the head.

The "double-A" device may be seen to be an identifying mark hidden as a rebus, or picture puzzle, which is exactly what these printing marks where intended to be. The rebus is given verbally as a riddle in Loves Labors Lost: What is A, B backwards, with a horn on it's head?

The answer, BA-corn, is depicted in the "double-A" device, thus identifying both it and the "Shakespeare" plays which appeared under the device as the work of Francis Bacon.