 The Earl of Northumberland sent the bundle to James Spedding, who subsequently penned a thesis on the subject, with which was published a facsimile of the aforementioned cover.Spedding hazarded a 1592 date, making it possibly the earliest extant mention of Shakespeare.After a diligent deciphering of the Elizabethan handwriting in Francis Bacon's notebook, known as the "Promus of Formularies and Elegancies", Constance Mary Fearon Pott (1833–1915) argued that many of the ideas and figures of speech in Bacon's book could also be found in the Shakespeare plays.