The following is the playbill for the first performance of Richard II.


How many names of Elizabethan authors can you find in this announcement from the title page of Richard II?
Not many, right? Not even Shakespeare.
There is a great story behind Richard II. Keep in mind that Queen Elizabeth I was the daughter of Henry the 8th who killed a LOT of people who challenged his sovereign authority. The play Richard II was a challenge to the divine right of kings which angered her highness and wanted the authors hide to be tortured on the rack before execution for treason. The author was not generally known and she called Francis Bacon on the carpet for it because a man named Haywood had copied part of the play to distribute as an anti monarchy pamphlet. Since she didn't know the author she grabbed Haywood and threw him in the Tower to torture and execute depending on what Francis Bacon had to say. Francis talked her into a felony charge for Haywood which got him at least a year.
Francis Bacon was no dummy. The next year Richard II was played again but this time he made Shakespeare the author. Clever huh? Let ole' Shakespeare take the heat. Needless to say she couldn't find Shakespeare anywhere. Otherwise two feet would have been added to Shakespeare's height before he lost his head. So you see? Shakespeare not only didn't exist - he wouldn't have been allowed to exist.
OK then. Lets take another look at the Title page that doesn't seem to have an author.
If you restrict your search to the first letter or the first four letters per line as it was printed ...

It says Lord Bacon, doesn't it.
Is Shakespeare’s name in the first to the fourth letters? You tell me.