James Spedding

{{Short description|English author and editor}} {{Use dmy dates|date=December 2023}} '''James Spedding''' (28 June 1808 – 9 March 1881) was an English author, chiefly known as the editor of the works of Francis Bacon. thumb|upright=1|James Spedding

==Life==

He was born in Cumberland, the younger son of a country squire, and was educated at Bury St Edmunds and Trinity College, Cambridge;<ref>{{acad|SPDN827J|James Spedding}}</ref> where he took a second class degree in the classical tripos, was a Cambridge Apostle, and was junior ''optime'' in mathematics in 1831. In 1835 he entered the Colonial Office, but he resigned this post in 1841. In 1842 he was secretary to Lord Ashburton on his American mission, and in 1855 he became secretary to the Civil Service Commission; but from 1841 onwards he was constantly occupied in his researches into Bacon's life and philosophy. On 1 March 1881 he was knocked down by a cab in London, and on the 9th he died of erysipelas.

Spedding's major edition of Bacon's works was begun in 1847 in collaboration with Robert Leslie Ellis and Douglas Denon Heath. In 1853 Ellis had to leave the work to Spedding, with the occasional assistance of Heath, who edited most of the legal writings. The ''Works'' were published in 1857–1859 in seven volumes, followed by the ''Life and Letters'' (1861–1874). Taken together these works contain practically all the material which exists in connection with the subject, collected and weighed with care and impartiality.{{citation needed|reason=collected and weighed with care and impartiality|date=June 2020}}

In 1853, Delia Bacon approached Spedding with her belief that Francis Bacon was instrumental in the authorship of Shakespeare's works (see Shakespearean authorship). Spedding's initial reaction was "speechless astonishment"; but on later occasions he clearly expressed his disfavour of the Baconian hypothesis, and explained some of the common-sense reasons against it.<ref>Samuel Schoenbaum, ''Shakespeare's Lives,'' Oxford, Clarendon Press, 1970; pp. 532, 560–1.</ref> Spedding was the first person to recognise the hand of John Fletcher in Shakespeare's ''Henry VIII''—his "Who Wrote ''Henry VIII?''" appeared in 1850;<ref>''Gentleman's Magazine,'' 178, August 1850, pp. 115–23.</ref> he was also one of the first people to perceive Shakespeare's hand in the additions to ''Sir Thomas More.''<ref>F. E. Halliday, ''A Shakespeare Companion 1564–1964,'' Baltimore, Penguin, 1964; pp. 219, 456.</ref>

Spedding humorously emphasised his devotion to Bacon in the title of one of his non-Baconian works, ''Reviews and Discussions, Literary, Political and Historical, not relating to Bacon'' (1879).

==Notes== {{Reflist}}

==Selected publications==

===Works of Francis Bacon=== *[https://archive.org/details/worksoffrancisba01bacouoft Volume 1 (1860)] *[https://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco02bacoiala Volume 2] *[https://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco03bacoiala Volume 3] *[https://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco04bacoiala Volume 4] *[https://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco05bacoiala Volume 5] *[https://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco06bacoiala Volume 6] *[https://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco07bacoiala Volume 7] *[https://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco08bacoiala Volume 8] *[https://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco09bacoiala Volume 9] *[https://archive.org/details/worksfrancisbaco10bacoiala Volume 10] *[https://archive.org/details/worksofbacon11bacoiala Volume 11] *[https://archive.org/details/worksofbacon12bacoiala Volume 12] *[https://archive.org/details/worksoffrancisba13bacouoft Volume 13] *[https://archive.org/details/faithfamineandfa14smytuoft Volume 14] *[https://archive.org/details/worksoffrancisb15bacoiala Volume 15]

==External links== {{wikisource|works=or}} * {{Internet Archive author |sname=James Spedding}} * {{Librivox author |id=6686}} * [https://timesmachine.nytimes.com/timesmachine/1878/12/29/81739881.pdf Review of Spedding's ''Francis Bacon: His Life and Times''] in ''The New York Times'', 29 December 1878 * {{cite DNB|wstitle=Spedding, James|volume=53}}

{{DEFAULTSORT:Spedding, James}} Category:1808 births Category:1881 deaths Category:Alumni of Trinity College, Cambridge Category:Shakespearean scholars Category:Francis Bacon scholars