1 J THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA RIVERSIDE EDMUND SPENSER AND THE IMPERSONATIONS OF FRANCIS BACON EDMUND SPENSER AND THE IMPERSONATIONS OF FRANCIS BACON BY EDWARD GEORGE HARMAN, C.B. LONDON CONSTABLE AND COMPANY Ltd. 1914 1 ^.f , _w^ U Ii3p Since tiatures workes be good, and death doth serue As natures 'vorke : ivhy should we feare to dye ? Since feare is vaine, hut when it may preseriie. Why should we feare, that which we cannot flye ? Feare is tnore paitie, then is the paine itfeares. Disarming humane mindes of natitie might : While each conceate an ouglie figure beares. Which were not euill, well vew'd in reasons light. Our owly eyes, which dimmed with passions bee. And scarce discerne the dawne of comming day. Let them be clearde, and now begin to see. Our life is but a step, in dustie way. Then let vs holde the blisse of peaceful I miijde, Since this ive feele, great losse ive cannot finde.^ ^ The song of Musidorus in prison : an addition to the Arcadia, 2nd edition, 1593. See p. 504. ■VJ CONTENTS CHAPTER I THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER Spenser and " Immerito " "E. K." .... Sidney and Spenser The author's habit of self-appreciation And of writing under " impersonations ' William Webbe . Gabriel Harvey . The "Glosse" PAGE I 3 4 7 9 9 II 13 CHAPTER n SPENSER S LIFE Information from external sources Appointment under Lord Grey . Spenser's monument Lord Grey's administration Grant of land to Spenser in Munster Rising in Munster Spenser's petition to the Queen . Alleged intimacy with Essex Pension granted to Spenser Spenser's alleged visits to London from Munster Rivalry of Essex and Ralegh Bacon's practice of writing for Essex Spenser's funeral Motives for secrecy . Character of the English The " new poetry " The Court Illustrations from contemporary writings Censorship of the press . Social considerations Sensitiveness of genius . Absence of Spenser manuscripts Length of the Faerie Queeue . 30 32 34 35 36 38 39 40 40 41 44 45 46 46 46 47 47 48 51 52 53 53 53 Vll viii SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAPTER III "the faerie queene Imagination and experience . . . . General intention of the Faerie Queene Considered in relation to Spenser's circumstances The author as revealed in the work . His attitude towards the Queen His method ; the Queen, Prince Arthur The identity of the principal characters The Redcrosse Knight . Sir Guyon .... Arthegal .... Scudamore .... Anioret ..... Irish allusions .... The " Mutabilitie " cantos Marinell and Florimell . The " Rich strond " . The trial of Mary, Queen of Scots Blandamour and Paridell Some minor characters . PACE 54 55 55 57 58 59 60 60 61 62 73 74 76 79 82 89 90 92 95 CHAPTER IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND LACON Their attitude towards the "crowd" . Bacon's emotional side deficient . His passion for order and completeness And for distinction and magnificence His spiritual feelings primitive "Invention" in English poetry . Tolstoi's hatred of Shakespeare . Bacon's ideas as to the nature of the soul His purpose in writing . Aristotle's argument, De Anima Bacon's alleged materialism His attitude towards metaphysics And towards the Christian revelation Bacon's theory of " spirits " . His disparagement of philosophers Scheme for the "interpretation of Nature " The Tempest, explained in the light of this theory The term "spirits," as used hy all three writers And by the author of the Arte 0/ Euglish Poesie lOI 104 104 104 105 loS 106 107 108 109 1 1 1 1 12 1 1.3 114 119 120 121 133 137 CONTENTS IX CHAPTER V SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON (continued) Their use of the words " simple " and " simplicity " . Their " inaccuracy " . Shakespeare's anachronisms Bacon's "inaccuracy" .... The effect on character of "imitation," Plato's view The " impersonality " of Shakespeare Bacon's theory of the poetic art, illustrated from — Sidney's Apologie for Poetrie . The Advancement of Learning The De Augmentis . . . • An address to Lord Mountjoy . The Arte of English Poesie That work briefly noticed PAGE . 138 142 143 145 146 147 148 151 153 156 • 157 157 CHAPTER VI Spenser's minor poems The publication of the Comflaints The Rtiines of Time .... Attack on Burghley Leicester, the poet's early patron Loss of favour .... The Teares of the Muses " Our pleasant Willy," " that same gentle Spirit Bacon's dislike of practice at the Bar Tarlton ..... Virgils Gnat .... Offence given to Leicester Complaints of neglect and non-preferment Prothalamion .... Mother Huhherds Tale Attack on Burghley And on the Court Contrasted with the flattery in Colin Clout Mtiiopotmos, or the Fate of the B^ittetfiie 159 160 161 163 164 164 >) 166 167 168 172 172 173 173 174 174 177 178 179 CHAPTER Vn SIR PHILIP SIDNEY : " LEICESTER S COMMONWEALTH Authorship of writings attributed to Sidney Letter to the Queen on the French marriage Sidney's correspondence . 1S5 185 iSS SPENSEK AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS PAGE His character 1S9 Instructions for Travellers . 191 Leicester's Coi)uiio>nucalth . 192 Leicester's Ghost . 196 Squire's conspiracy . 198 The affair of Lopez • 199 Bacon's craving for power • 199 CHAPTER VIII Spenser's juvenile poems : bacon and gascoigne Visions of Bellay and Visions of Petrarch A ThecUre for Worldlings The precocity of genius . The juvenile poems of Chatterion And of Pope .... The "Visions "in Spenser's Works compared version .... Religious influence of Bacon's mother The Gascoigne " impersonation " Facts about Gascoigne's life . The publication of the Posies . " Certayne notes of Instruction " The Glasse of Goz'ei-nemettt with the earlier 201 202 204 204 206 207 209 21 1 21 1 212 224 229 CHAPTER IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE {coil/lliucd) The Steele Glas The Fruites of IVarre "Walter Rawely of the Middle Temple' The Princely Pleasures at Kenelworth Castle Robert Laneham The device which was not presented The "Farewell" 242 242 243 24S 249 255 258 CHAPTER X " Laneham's Letter " 161 CHAPTER XI BACON AND GASCOIGNE {continued) The Tale of Ilemetcs the Ilcreniytc " A Paradoxe of lialdnesse " The Queenes Maiesties entertainment at Woodstock 279 279 2S0 CONTENTS XI The Grief of Joye .... A delicate Diet for daitttiemouthde Droonkardes The Spoyle of Antwerpe . The Droomme of Doomsday . Prefatory epistle to Gilbert's "Discourse" PAGE 281 282 282 292 293 CHAPTER XII SIR HUMPHREY GILBERTS VOYAGE The " Discourse" of 1576 ..... Gilbert and the North-West Passage .... " How Her Majesty might annoy the King of Spain" Gilbert's expedition to Newfoundland His "Queene Elizabethes Achademy" The cause of sea currents and Bacon's theory of the tides The Report of Gilbert's Voyage to Newfoundland, attributed to Sir George Peckham ..... Ten appeals for recruits in verse .... The Report by Hayes ..... The account in both Reports of Gilbert's death at sea examined Summary of the " Peckham " Report . . 299 300 302 304 305 306 312 312 320 320 324 CHAPTER XIII Spenser's minor poems {continued') Gabriel Harvey's " Letter-book " .... 329 Daphndida ...... 330 The complaints of Hamlet .... 330 Bacon on the " universal frame of nature " 331 Colin Clouts Come Home Again .... 332 Eulogy of the Queen ..... 332 Meeting with Ralegh ..... 333 "Action" ...... 334 Samuel Daniel ...... 335 His " Delia" sonnets .... 336 Other works ..... 338 Funeral poem on the Earl of Devonshire 343 "Corydon" ...... 348 The ladies of the Court ..... 349 Sundry discrepancies ..... 349 Astrophel ....... 35° " Stella," indicated as Sidney's widow 350 The additional P21egies — " The Doleful Lay of Clorinda " 351 Two attributed to Lodowick Bryskett . 352 One by Matthew Roydon .... 352 One attributed to Ralegh .... 355 " Another of the same " .... 355 Xll SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS "Stella" of the Sidney ("Astrophel and Stella") sonnets Penelope Devereux, Lady Rich . Frances Walsingham .... The publication of the " Astrophel and Stella" sonnets The character of the author of these sonnets Spenser's " Rosalind " .... PAGE 357 358 362 364 CHAPTER XIV SPENSER AND RALEGH : THE " " EPITHALAMION AMORETTI I) AND Verses prefixed to the Faerie Qiieotc . How did Spenser become intimate with Ralegh ? Ralegh's early history Spenser's A/noretti .... His marriage ; Elizabeth Boyle . The "three Elizabeths" sonnet . John Hooker's account of Ralegh's ancestry Who is the subject of these sonnets ? The "Angel" allusion The last four sonnets The Epithalaniiott Its artificial tone Royal allusions . Theory for these poems suggested 367 37! 372 374 374 375 376 379 382 386 386 387 388 391 CHAPTER XV A PAGE IN bacon's LIFE, 1592-1595, AET. 31-34 Bacon, Essex, Ralegh and Cecil ..... 395 Bacon's feelings towards Ralegh ..... 396 He offends the Queen ...... 397 His suit, through Essex, for the posts of Attorney and Solicitor 397 Bacon and Essex . . . . . .412 Bacon and Cecil . . . . .413 His conduct considered . . . .413 CHAPTER XVI Ralegh's correspondence and poems Ralegh's exclusion from the Court His corresjxjndcnce examined Contemporary accounts of Ralegh 414 415 418 CONTENTS Xlll His relations with the Queen . Bacon on the Queen's "lighter qualities" Her relations with Essex The Madre de Dios .... Rumours of marriage The discovery of the intrigue with Elizabeth Throgmorton Ralegh's letter from the Tower about the Queen His relations with his wife Letters about his Irish estates On piracy .... With Cecil at Dartmouth Not naturally a writer Letter to the Queen about the succession Reference to Ricliard the Second Date of the poem "To Cynthia" The "Both well" letter A letter to King James The Poems examined The verse-petition to the Queen The Epitaph The History of the World, and assistance rendered by otliers The Report of the Guiana voyage, 1596 A paper written in support of it Ralegh and Shakespeare's "Othello" Ralegh and Spenser's " Scudamore " . PAGE 421 422 422 424 425 426 427 429 432 433 434 436 438 438 441 442 454 457 458 460 462 465 468 CHAPTER XVII THE " FAERIE QUEENE " RESUMED : The Redcrosse Knight and Sir Guyon Prince Arthur Lilly's Endimion Timias .... Sundry other characters Book L considered as a whole The last " Mutabilitie " canto Some parallels in Spenser and Shakespeare The nurse in Komeo and Jiiliet . Legal metaphors The writer's impartiality ; the Queen Descriptions of love in absence The identity of " Rosalind " and of " Stella ' Further as to Marinell The Fowre Hy nines . THE " FOWRE HYMNES " 470 473 477 483 486 488 492 494 494 499 501 SOI 502 505 507 CHAPTER XVIII SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF BACON Fondness for colour and display Verulam House 509 509 XIV SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS Gardens .... In his dealings with men of afiairs As a speaker in Parliament Ben Jonson's testimony . In conversation His relations with Ben Jonson His sanguine temperament Imprudence in action ; ill reports Accused of inordinate ambition and pride Self-idealisation His dislike of detail . His friend Bettenham His health .... Alleged fainting fits . Activity of his imagination Ideas for the prolongation of life Fondness for flowers and music " Irrigation in the spring showres" lAGE 510 511 513 513 516 516 518 519 520 520 521 523 524 525 525 526 526 527 CHAPTER XIX SPENSER S " VIEW OF THE PRESENT ST.\TE OF IRELAND '' Purpose of the treatise Bacon's views on the subject of Ireland Compared generally with Spenser's The treatise examined . The wisli that Ireland were a " sea-poole "' Men attributing their own errors to the stars The common law of England in Ireland Description of the north of Ireland The common law, further as to The uses of the Irish mantle . The Irish horse soldier " Galloglass and kearne " The Irish bards The slate of religion . Ofificial corruption The date of the treatise from internal evidence The allusions to Essex Bacon and the Irish appointment of Essex The description of famine in Munster . Water-cresses and shamrocks Lord Grey and .Smerwick Proposals for a military occupation Ralegh's views . Summary justice Establishment of towns A State paper in dialogue form, for which the names are used Spenser's jjctition to the (^ueen Spenser as secretary to the Bishop of kochesier of Spenser's sons 528 528 532 534 535 535 536 538 539 541 542 543 543 546 549 550 550 555 556 55S 559 563 563 565 565 566 569 572 CONTENTS XV CHAPTER XX A DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE, EY LODOWICK BRYSKETT Facts about Bryskett . The Discourse examined Eiyskett and Spenser Date of the treatise . The author an Englishman A student of physic . Criticises Aristotle The allusion to the Faerie Qiteenc Describes his early education . On the nature of the soul Denounces contemporary rhymers Views as to the myths Mentions Sir Philip Sidney . Men attributing their own errors to the stars The cause of blushing and pallor " Magnanimity " . On the nature and limits of the human understanding I'AGE 573 575 577 578 579 579 5S1 582 585 58S 5S9 590 590 590 591 591 592 TABLE OF DATES INDEX 593 597 CHAPTER I "THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER" The life of Spenser, like that of his younger contemporary, Shakespeare, is involved in much obscurity. " No poet ever kept a mask over his own features so long and so closely as Spenser." ^ The accounts of him are mainly derived from inferences from his works. Painstaking research, however, appears to have brought to light a few items of information from external sources, but, so far from throwing light on the subject, they only add to its obscurity, as they stand in no natural relation to any impression of the author and his circumstances which can be derived from his works. The accepted facts as to Spenser's life before he settled in Ireland may be briefly stated. Edmund Spenser is supposed to have been born in London in, or about, the year 1552. Nothing for certain is known about his parents, but it has been conjectured that his father was a journeyman clothmaker, residing in East Smithfield. In his poems he claims affinity with the family of the Spencers of Althorpe, and he dedicates several poems to the daughters of Sir John Spencer, the then head of that family. It is supposed that he was educated at Merchant Taylors' School, where he received assistance as a " poor scholler," and that he was admitted as a "sizar" to Pembroke Hall, Cambridge, in 1569, where he is again reported as in receipt of relief" It is * Courthope, cited by Grosart, Works of Edmund Spenser, i. 241. ^ This identification is an inference from a contemporar)- document entitled The Spetiding of the Money of Robert Notvell, which was privately printed by R. B. Knowles in 1877. Mr. Knowles "found three Spensers in the books I B 2 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. also supposed that he had begun authorship when he went up to Cambridge, as a work which appeared in 1569 (Vander Noodt's Theatre for Worldlings) contains the Visions of Petrarch and the original material of the Visions of Bellay which are included in Spenser's works. Poor as he was, he is said to have remained at Cambridge till 1576, and from the so-called "Letter- book " of Gabriel Harvey (in which the poet is referred to under the names of "Benevolo" and " Immerito") it would appear that he contracted an intimacy with Gabriel Harvey, who had become a fellow of Pembroke Hall in 1570, the year after Spenser went to that College, Harvey is believed to have introduced Spenser to Sir Philip Sidney, by whom it is conjectured that he was made acquainted with Sidney's uncle, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the favourite of the Queen. Under the signature of " Immerito " a letter (or what appears to be a letter) to Harvey is dated from Leicester House in the Strand in October 1579. In the interval between that time and the date of his leaving Cambridge Spenser is believed to have spent some time in Lancashire, the supposed scene of his love for " Rosalind." It is not related how he supported himself there. It has also been suggested that he may have been employed during that period in carrying despatches for the Earl of Leicester to correspondents in Ireland and abroad,^ The sudden promotion of Spenser from the humble position of a * sizar " ^ to the intimacy of Sir Philip Sidney and the Earl of Leicester, though accepted apparently as a matter of course by modern writers, is of the Merchant Taylors', and concluded that the poorest of them, ' a free journeyman ' in the ' art or mystery of clothmaking,' might be the poet's father, but he afterwards abandoned the theory. Dr. Grosart, however, adhered to it." — Ency. Brit., art. " Edmund Spenser." ' In some playful Latin verses in the letter which purports to have been addressed to Harvey from Leicester House, " Immerito" professes to bid him farewell on setting out for P' ranee and the Continent. Harvey in his reply ex- presses doubts about his going. I\vo other very cointncudable letters, etc. , 1 580. 2 "Sizars" or "serving clerks": certain poor scholars at Cambridge, annually elected, who in return for manual services in the college were given meals without charge and paid fees on a lower scale than the ordinary students. They corresponded to "battlers" or "servitors" at Oxford. THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER one of the most unintelligible things in the annals of letters. They were both " men of the sword," and by such men in those days a professional writer would be regarded in the same light as a player or clerk, to be accepted according as he was amusing or serviceable. The story of Spenser, in the language of modern literary biography, " mixing with the most brilliant intellectual society of his time," is, I believe, a fable. Whatever there may have been in that way since, I feel quite certain that in those days there was no such society, and the only authority for the picture are some letters which are sup- posed to have passed between Spenser and Gabriel Harvey, but which, as I believe, and shall endeavour to show, are fictitious. Moreover, Spenser, at the time he entered Leicester's household, was unknown as a writer, though he was then (on the accepted facts) about twenty-seven years old, a much more seasoned age for a man in those times than it is now. Shakespeare's " lago," for instance, is represented as twenty-eight.^ I am aware that it may be said Sidney discovered Spenser's promise, but there is no allusion to him in Sidney's correspondence, or anything in it, so far as has been discovered, to show that Sidney was interested in letters apart from the practical object (in the early stage of his life) of training himself for a public career.^ The Lancashire story has been built up on a " glosse " to the Shepheards Calender by one " E. K.," who has been identified, on the strength of the correspondence of the initials, with Edward Kirke, also a sizar of Pembroke Hall, and a contemporary of Spenser. It has, however, 1 "I have looked upon the world for four times seven years." — Othello, i. 3. 2 Compare the following remarks of Dr. Grosart on the subject of Spenser's friendship with Sidney, of which he finds strong evidence in the poems : " That Sir Philip Sidney has left behind him no slightest scrap evidential of all this is not peculiar to the ' friendship ' with Spenser. I have read — at Hatfield and elsewhere — sheafs of his letters, but have never come upon a single line on literary matters, or even on Stella. I am not aware that his Sonnets, or Arcadia, or Defence, are mentioned once in all the vast Sidneian correspond- ence." — Works of Edmund Spenser, i. 455. I do not profess to understand this reference to unpublished correspondence. Sir Philip Sidney's published correspondence, far from being " vast," is singularly meagre. Presumably Sir Henry Sidney's letters are also referred to. 4 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. been suggested that Spenser and " E. K." are one and the same person. I have no doubt that this is so, for reasons which I shall give, and I shall bring forward evidence to show that "Spenser" the poet, and Spenser the Irish official and settler, were different rnen. To begin with the problem of the " glosses " and " E. K." The Shepheards Calender was published in the winter of 1579-80. The letter which precedes it, addressed by " E. K." to Gabriel Harvey, is dated " from my lodging at London thys 10 of Aprill, i 579." It is surprising that the first published work of so facile and prolific a genius should not have appeared till Spenser was about twenty-eight years old, and still more surprising, in view of the evidence we have of his poverty, that it should have appeared anonymously. The work was, indeed, attributed by a contemporary poet (George Whetstone), as late as 1587, to Sidney,^ and the 1 On the subject of Whetstone's ignorance of the authorship, J, Payne Collier {^Life of Spenser, 1873) writes as follows : "One of Spenser's contemporaries, a poet of much and not unmerited celebrity, even as late as 1587, when the Shepheardes Calender had gone through three or four separate editions, was so ill-informed upon the subject that, when writing in lamentation of the untimely death of Sidney, he actually imputed to him the authorship of the Shepheardes Calender. We refer to George Whetstone, and to his poem, entitled Sir Philip Sidney, his honourable Life, his valiant Death, and true Virtues, which was published immediately after the funeral. Then, after noticing Sidney's ' Arcadia,' and describing it as ' a book most excellently written,' he proceeds as follows : " 'What else he wrote his will was to supprcsse, But yet the dark a dyamond cannot drowne : What be his workes the finest wittes doe gesse ; The Shepheard's notes that have so sweete a sound. With lawrell bowghes his heal me long since have crownd. And not alone in poesie he did passe, But every way a learned knight he was.' "The terms 'Shepheard's notes' if they stood alone might very fairly l)C deemed equivocal, because ' Shepherd ' was, at that date and long afterwards, the usual designation of a poet, so that 'Shepherd's notes' might only mean poet''s notes ; but, as if to make his want of knowledge on such a topic indis- putable, Whetstone added the subsequent marginal memorandum, just opposite the stanza we have cited : "'The last Sheppards Calender, the reputed work of S. Phil. Sydney — a work of decpe learning, judgment and witte, disguised in Shep. Rules.' "It is therefore evident that, in 1587, Whetstone not only did not know that the Shepheardes Calender was by Sjxrnser, but Ijelievcd that it was the work of Sidney, to whom, he adds, it was assigned by general reputation." THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " doubt there was about the authorship is shown by the following reference to it in 1586 by William Webbe in his Discourse of English Poetrie : " This place haue I purposely reserued for one who if not only, yet in my judgment principally deserueth the tytle of the rightest English Poet, that euer I read : that is the Author of the Sheepeheardes Kalender, intituled to the woorthy gentle- man Master Phillip Sydney^ whether it was Master Sp. or what rare Scholler in Pembrooke Hall soeuer, because himself and his freendes, for what respect I knowe not, would not reueale it, I force not greatly to sette downe." At the time when this was written no poem had appeared under the name of Spenser. The first poem which so appeared was the first portion of the Faerie Queene, published in 1590, for which the signature "Ed. Spenser" was used. The "Complaints," which followed in 1591, were designated as by " Ed. Sp." ^ It might be supposed that a writer who was a beginner, and who was so confident of his powers as to announce at the end of his first production that it would " continewe till the worlds dissolution," and was of a quality " that Steele in strength, and time in durance, shall outweare," "^ would not have left the " glosse " " for the exposition of old wordes and harder phrases " to another. The explanation given by " E. K.," the writer of these extraordinary notes, is as follows : * So far as I am aware, no mention is made of Spenser as a writer of poetry in any published work until shortly before the appearance of the first portion of the Faerie Queene, when Nashe, a new writer, referred to him in a preface for Greene's Menaphon in 1589 as " divine Master Spencer, the miracle of wit to bandie line for line, in the honor of England, gainst Spaine, France, Italic, and all the worlde." In the anonymous Arte of Evglish Poesie (attributed at a later epoch to one "George Puttenham "), published in the same year (though probably written a few years earlier), Spenser is alluded to, without name, as " that other Gentleman who wrote the late Shepheardes Callender." 2 To make this claim was, perhaps, more or less a convention among verse- writers of that age. Daniel, for instance, does it ; but not with such self- assurance. The notable feature in the case of Spenser is the unusual con- fidence of tone, which is also found in his two contemporaries, Shakespeare and Bacon. Speaking of his Essays, in the dedication to the Duke of Buckingham, Bacon says, " For I do conceive that the Latin volume of them (being in the universal language) may last as long as books last." 6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Hereunto have I added a certain Glosse, or scholion, for thexposition of old wordes, and harder phrases ; which maner of glosing and commenting, well I wote, wil seeme straunge and rare in our tongue : yet, for so much as I knew many excellent and proper devises, both in wordes and matter, would passe in the speedy course of reading, either as unknowen, or as not marked, and that in this kind, as in other, we might be equal to the learned of other nations, I thought good to take the paines upon me, the rather for that by meanes of some familiar acquaint- aunce I was made privie to his counsell and secret meaning in them, as also in sundry other works of his, which albeit I know he nothing so much hateth as to promulgate, yet thus much have I adventured upon his friendship, him selfe being for long time furre estraunged, hoping that this will the rather occasion him to put forth divers other excellent works of his, which slepe in silence ; as his Dreames, his Legendes, his Court of Cupide, and sondry others, whose commendations to set out were verye vaine, the thinges though worthy of many, yet being knowen to few, " Him selfe being for long time furre estraunged " must mean, if anything, that the author was abroad. But the pretence is too transparent, and it will be found that this is only a device, commonly adopted by this writer, for concealing his identity. We shall also find that he almost invariably takes the opportunity in such introduc- tions of advertising other works, so as to keep awake the expectations of his readers. Thus in his address "To His Booke," signed " Immerito," he says : And, when thou art past jeopardee. Come tell me what was sayd of mee, And I will send more after thee. The title-page of the book bears an inscription, " To the noble and vertuous Gentleman, most worthy of all titles both of learning and chevalrie, M. Philip Sidney." Then, after the lines " To His Booke," comes the letter signed " E. K.," headed " To the most excellent and learned both orator and poete, Mayster Gabriell Harvey, his verie special and singular good friend E. K. commendeth the good lyking of this his labour, and the patronage of the new Poete." This letter, to my mind, is indistinguishable, both in substance and in style, from the Harvey- Spenser THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " letters. The writer says that " our new Poete " is unknown to fame, but that he doubts not that " so soone as his name shall come into the knowledge of men and his worthines be sounded in the tromp of fame," he will be " beloved of all, embraced of the most, and wondred at of the best " ; and then follows an enthusiastic eulogy of his work. As we shall meet with more of this kind of thing in this writer's method, it may be well to say at once that it is his invariable habit to praise his own work, sometimes in such extravagant terms as to present a phenomenon which cannot be accounted for under any ordinary explanation. But without entering far into this matter here, it may be said that the writer, concealed under an assumed name, is unrestrained by ordinary considerations of modesty, and the eulogies of his own performance are partly dispassionate criticism, partly in a spirit of fantasy, sometimes of " megalomania," and partly because, being entirely convinced of his own extra- ordinary powers, he is intensely anxious to propagate his ideas and opinions, and so long as he does this he cares little how he does it. It is probable that later on he was not wholly indifferent to pecuniary profit, but at the foot of this early work he places the legend " Merce Non Mercede." Having praised the author's work as far beyond anything yet attempted in English, and defended his use of antique words as giving " great grace, and, as one would say, auctoritie to the verse," " E. K. " proceeds to denounce the performance of contemporary " rymers " who professed to be poets : Now, for the knitting of sentences, whych they call the joynts and members therof, and for al the compasse of the speach, it is round without roughnesse, and learned without hardnes, such indeede as may be perceived of the leaste, understoode of the moste, but judged onely of the learned. For what in most English wryters useth to be loose, and as it were ungyrt, in this Authour is well grounded, finely framed, and strongly trussed up together. In regard wherof, I scorne and spue out the rakehellye route of our ragged rymers (for so themselves use to hunt the letter) which without learning boste, without judgement jangle, SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. without reason rage and fonie, as if some instinct of Poeticall spirite had newly ravished them above the meanenesse of common capacitie. And being, in the middest of all theyr bravery, sodenly, eyther for want of matter, or of ryme, or having forgotten theyr former conceipt, they seeme to be so pained and traveiled in theyr remembrance, as it were a woman in childebirtli, or as that same Pythia, when the traunce came upon her : Os rabidum /era corda domans, &c. Nethelesse, let them a Gods name feede on theyr owne folly, so they seeke not to darken the beames of others glory. Much in this racy and uncomplimentary kind will be found in the Harvey and Nashe writings, but "Immerito" himself furnishes us with an example in a letter to Harvey included in the " Letter-book " and pub- lished in Two othervery conuneyidable Letters, etc., in i 580 : " And nowe they have proclaimed in their apeiwird'^w a generall surceasing and silence of balde Rymers." A similar passage also occurs in William Webbe's book, which I deal with below. The epistle concludes with personal touches and a profession of intimacy with the author's mind which could, in my opinion, only come from the author of the poems himself. Thus : Now, as touching the generall dryft and purpose of his Mg\ogvLQs, I mind not to say much, him selfe labouring to conceale it. Only this appeareth, that his unstayed yougth had long wandred in the common Labyrinth of Love, in which time to mitigate and allay the heate of his passion, or els to warne (as he sayth) the young shepheards, s. his ecjualls and companions, of his unfortunate folly, he compiled these xij jeglogues. . . . It is in this manner that the poet always speaks of the effects of love on himself.' There is a postscript appealing to Harvey to bring forth to " eternall light " " those so many excellent English poemes of yours which lye hid," which I regard as an afterthought, to make way for the publication of some of his own pieces under Harvey's name. We shall find, if I am right, that this is the habitual practice of this writer, and that he exercised his extraordinary faculty ' Cf. p. 18. THE SHEPHEAKDS CALENDER " through fictitious personalities, bearing the names of living people, and created, to some extent, out of their circumstances. This method was rendered possible by the absence of publicity and other conditions of the times. It had the advantage not only of effectively concealing the author's identity, but of dispersing his personality in such a way as to enable him to write in a great number of styles. It also enabled him to speak his mind comparatively freely, and from many points of view, on subjects which the author himself, owing to his social position and connections, his desire for an official career, and for other reasons connected with the circum- stances of that time, could not safely, or suitably, have handled in print. It enabled him also to publish poems and to produce plays, which in those days was not thought suitable for a man of position.^ I could not, of course, expect the reader to accept these views on such a statement of them at this stage, but I will ask him to do so provisionally, and so to admit for the purpose of the argument such a statement as that made above about Harvey, as the nature of this subject is such that it would not be possible, without interminable digressions, to make good every statement at the earlier stages. The argu- ment of this book is cumulative, and I hope, if the reader has the kindness to follow me through it, that he will find justification for the conclusions in the end. I have referred above to William Webbe. " William Webbe, Graduate" produced a treatise in 1586 called " A Discourse of English Poetrie," which in style closely resembles the epistle of " E. K." It is a document which shows originality, wide reading and facility, yet the supposed author is not known to have written anything else. " Webbe " is, in my opinion, one of the man}' " prosopopeias " (impersonations),^ the treatise being un- * Even a professional writer like Daniel pleads " necessity " for the latter ; see his Apology for Philotas, 1605. 2 " Prosopopoia " is the first title of Spenser's Mother Hiibberds Tale. The word is the Greek Trpoo-coTroToifa =" personification, a dramatic form of composition" (Liddell & Scott). Compare : " His notable Prosopopeias when he maketh you, as it were, see God lO SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. mistakably (as I think) by the same hand as that which penned the " E. K." epistle. The writer quotes from it, and, in a similar manner, raises expectation of more publications : Sorry I am that I can not find none other with whom I might couple him ^ in this Catalogue, in his rare gyft of Poetry : although one there is, though nowe long since, seriously occupied in grauer studies, (Master Gabriell Haruey), yet, as he was once his most special freende and fellow Poet, so because he hath taken such paynes, not only in his Latin Poetry (for which he enjoyed great commendations of the best both in judgment and dignity in thys Realme) but also to reforme our English verse, and to beautify the same with braue deuices, of which I thinke the cheefe lye hidde in hatefull obscurity : therefore wyll I adventure to set them together, as two of the rarest witts, and learnedst masters of Poetrie in England. Whose worthy and notable skyl in this faculty, I would wysh if their high dignities and serious businesses would permit, they would styll graunt to bee a furtheraunce to that reformed kinde of Poetry, which Master Haruey did once beginne to ratify : and surely in mine opinion, if hee had chosen some grauer matter, and handled but with halfe that skyll, which I knowe he could haue doone, and not powred it foorth at a venture, as a thinge betweene iest and earnest, it had taken greater effect then it did. As for the other Gentleman, if it would please him or hys freendes to let those excellent Foemes, whereof I know he hath plenty, come abroad, as his Dreames, his Legends, his Court of Cupid, his English Poet with other : he shoulde not onely stay the rude pens of my selfe and others, but also satisfye the thirsty desires of many which desire nothing more then to see more of hys rare inuentions. If I ioyne to Master Haruey hys two Brethren, I am assured, though they be both busied with great coming in his Majestic," used of David, as a poet, in Sidney's Apologie for Poclrie. " And if they raise a slaunder upon a man of a thing done at home when he is tliousand mile off, it is but Prosopopeya, pcrsoiiae Jictio, the supposing or faining of a person." — Naslie, Have with you to Saffron Walden, p. 178 (Grosarl's edition). " Let them make ^\\'aX prosopopoeias they will of her Majesty's nature." — bacon, Letter to the Earl of Essex. .Spedding, Life, ii. 41. In the anonymous Arte of Enj^lish Poesie (1589) it is defined as " a counterfait impersonation." — Arbor Reprints, p. 246. ' Meniii)ncd in a passage above as "the Author of the Sheepeheardes Kalender . . . whether it was Master Sp. or what rare Scholler in Pembrooke Hall socucr " (see p. 5). I " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER" il and waighty callinges (the one a godly and learned Diuine, the other a famous and skylfuU Phisition) yet if they lysted to sette to their helping handes to Poetry, they would as much beautify and adorne it as any others. There is a great deal of mystery attaching to these allusions to unpublished works, both in " E. K.'s " glosse and elsewhere. Gabriel Harvey began as a writer in Latin, and those pieces are of no real value, and full of much harm- less absurdity. They ceased (apparently with the death of his patron. Sir Thomas Smith) in 1578. He reappears, however, in 1580, and again in 1592, as an English writer of exceptional resource and power, but nothing came from his pen after 1597, though he is reputed to have lived until 1 63 I. A further reference by " E. K." to books by Harvey is given below (p. 23). I shall hope to say more on this subject later. In Webbe's treatise " E. K.'s " remarks as to the " rakehellye route of our ragged rymers " (quoted above, p. 7) are cited, and the writer prefaces them with some remarks of his own in a precisely similar vein : If I let passe the uncountable rabble of ryming Ballet makers and compylers of sencelesse sonets, who be most busy, to stuffe every stall full of grosse deuises and vnlearned Pamphlets : I trust I shall with the best sort be held excused. Nor though many such can frame an Alehouse song of five or sixe score verses, hobbling vppon some tune of a Northern lygge, or Robyn hoode, or La lubber etc. And perhappes obserue just number of sillables, eyght in one line, sixe in another, and there withall an A to make a ierke in the ende : yet if these might be accounted Poets (as it is sayde some of them make meanes to be promoted to ye Lawrell) surely we shall shortly have whole swarmes of Poets : and euery one that can frame a Booke in Ryme, though for want of matter, it be but in commendations of Copper noses or Botle Ale, wyll catch at the Garlande due to Poets ; whose potticall poeticall (I should say) heades, I would wyshe, at their worshipfuU commencements might in steede of Lawrell, be gorgiously garnished with fayre greene Barley, in token of their good affection to our Englishe Malt. One speaketh thus homely of them, with whose words I wyll content myselfe for thys time, because I woulde not bee too broade with them in myne owne speeche. 12 SPENSEK AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. He then proceeds to quote " E, K." : " I scorne . . . Os rabidum fera corda domans, &c." (see pp. 7, 8 above). Further on he refers to what he describes as " a fewe balde ditties made over the Beere potts." ^ Fairly arrogant certainly, but amusing enough. This vein, never wholly divorced from truth, even in its most fantastic forms, reaches its full period in ** Nashe." To return to the Shepheards Cale7ider : the " Epistle " is followed by a statement (unsigned, but apparently intended to be attributed to the expositor, " E. K.") entitled " The Generall Argument of the Whole Booke." It begins with some observations on the history of the Eclogue, and concludes with a learned discourse on the propriety of beginning the year (as the poem does) with January instead of March, the latter being the style in more general use at that time in England, though the new style had come into use abroad. I have not observed any comment on this, but of course it is noticeable. The same thing occurs in the Harvey " Letter-book," and the editor (Camden series) draws attention to it as a curious fact. Only a man of a reforming tendency would have adopted ' The following passage in the Arte of English Poesie (15S9) presents the same characteristics : " Note also that rime or concorde is not commendably vsed both in the end and middle of a verse, vnlesse it be in toyes and trifling Poesies, for it sheweth a certaine lightnesse either of the matter or of the makers head, albeit these common rimers vse it much, for as I sayd before, like as the Symphonic in a verse of great length is (as it were) lost by looking after him, and yet may the meetre be very graue and stately : so on the other side doth the ouer busie and too speedy returne of one maner of tune, too much annoy and as it were glut the eare, vnlesse it be in small and popular Musickes song by these Can/a/'anqui vpon benches and barrels heads where they haue none other audience then boys or countrcy fellowes that passe by them in the strcete, or else by blind harpers or such like tauerne minstrels that giue a fit of mirth for a groat, and their matters being for the most part stories of old time, as the tale of Sir Topas, the reportes of Beuts of Sotithamplon^ Guy of IVanvicke, Adam Bell, and Clymme of the Clough anil such other old Romances or historicall rimes, made purposely for recreation of the common people at Christmassc diners and bridcales, and in laucrnes and ale-houses and such other places of base resort, also they be vsed in Carols and rounds and such light or lasciuious Toemes, which are commonly more commodiously vttered by these buffons or vices in playes then by any other persoth short distaunces and short measures pleasing oncly the popular earc : in our courtly maker we banish them vtterly." I " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " 13 a change of this kind under the circumstances, and we may therefore expect the author to be a man of this quality. We come now to the poems under the several months. Each is preceded by an " Argument " and closed with an " Embleme," in various languages, English, French, Italian, Latin and Greek. Then follows the " Glosse " or com- mentary. The " Arguments," in my opinion, could only have been written by the author of the poems, though words are here and there inserted to give them the appearance of being written by some one else — the fabulous " E. K." I quote two, being characteristic examples of the author's thought and manner : APRIL iEGLOGA QUARTA. ARGUMENT This .^glogue is purposely intended to the honor and prayse of our most gracious sovereigne, Queene Elizabeth. The speakers herein be Hobbinoll and Thenott, two shepheardes : the which Hobbinoll, being before mentioned greatly to have loved Colin, is here set forth more largely, complayning him of that boyes great misadventure in Love ; whereby his mynd was alienate and withdrawen not onely from him, who moste loved him, but also from all former delightes and studies, as well in pleasaunt pyping, as conning ryming and singing, and other his laudable exercises. Whereby he taketh occasion, for proofe of his more excellencie and skill in poetrie, to recorde a songe, which the sayd Colin some- time made in honor of her Majestie, whom abruptely he termeth Elysa. OCTOBER .EGLOGA DECIMA. ARGUMENT In Cuddie is set out the perfecte paterne of a Poete, whiche, finding no maintenaunce of his state and studies, com- playneth of the contempte of Poetrie, and the causes thereof : Specially having bene in all ages, and even amongst the most barbarous, alwayes of singular accoumpt and honor, and being indede so worthy and commendable an arte ; or rather no arte, but a divine gift and heavenly instinct not to bee gotten by laboure and learning, but adorned with both ; and poured into the witte by a certain 'Ev^oi'criao-/Aos and celestiall inspiration, as the Author hereof els where at large 14 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. discourseth in his booke called The English Foete, which booke being lately come to my hands, I mynde also by Gods grace, upon further advisement, to publish. I believe the book here mentioned is that which appeared under Sir Philip Sidney's name, nine years after his death, as the Apologie for Poetrie. The style is the same as that of the writer of these notes. The " Glosses " are full of curious reading and reflec- tion, and show an intimacy with the author's meaning and sources of information which, in my opinion, renders the pretence of editorship by a friend absurd on the face of it. Even more absurd, if possible, is the pretence that this is done in his absence and without his knowledge and consent. So much has been written of the greatness of the Elizabethan age that we are apt to forget how rude and simple the England of that day really was. The author presumes on the simplicity of his audience, and on the entire absence of " publicity," which made literary deception a very easy matter. The " glosse " under " Januarie " is a good example of this, where the motives of the author of the poems in adopting certain feigned names are discussed with an intimacy and elaboration which are quite unexampled in the case of one man writing about another. The writer of the notes, as will be seen from the extracts which I shall give, shows exceptional reading and facility ; yet, so far as is known, he never wrote anything else, though " Edward Kirke," with whom, under the accepted theory, he is identified, lived to mature age.^ It is true that in the "glosse" under " November" he mentions " my Commentarye upon the Dreames of the same Authour," but that never appeared ; nor did the poem referred to appear under that title, but it was probably incorporated in another. The following are two of these notes from "Januarie," which I give as examples : Colin Cloute, is a name not greatly used, and yet have I sene a Poesie of M. Skeltons under that title. But indecde the word ' f'dward Kirkc, according to Dr. Grosart, became rector of Risby, Suffolk, and survived to 1613, act. 60, "as both his epitaph and will show." I " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " 15 Colin is Frenche, and used of the French Poete Marot (if he be worthy of the name of a Poete) in a certein yEglogue. Under which name this Poete secretly shadoweth himself, as sometimes did Virgil under the name of Tityrus, thinking it much fitter then such Latine names, for the great unlikelyhoode of the language. Rosalinde, is also a feigned name, which, being wel ordered, wil bewray the very name of hys love and mistresse, whom by that name he coloureth. So as Ovide shadoweth hys love under the name of Corynna, which of some is supposed to be Julia, themperor Augustus his daughter, and wyfe to Agryppa. So doth Aruntius Stella every where call his Lady Asteris and lanthis, albe it is wel knowen that her right name was Violantilla : as witnesseth Statius in his Epithalantium. And so the famous Paragone of Italy, Madonna Coelia, in her letters envelopeth her selfe under the name of Zima : and Petrona under the name of Bellochia. And this generally hath bene a common custome of counterfeicting the names of secret Personages. It seems to me that only a very young writer could have written this. He has not yet learned to use his reading without making a display of it. Under Hobbinol (by whom, in a later note, he says Gabriel Harvey is intended) the writer makes some observations about " Platonic " love, which are suggested rather by the relations of the author of the poems with his friend " Hobbinol " than by the passage in imitation of Virgil. These remarks would be inapplicable, on the ground of age, to relations between Harvey and Spenser, and it appears to me obvious that, read with them, the poem applies to a boy just verging on adolescence, who has fallen seriously in love with a girl for the first time. Up till then, like many young people of either sex, especially where the intellect or imagination is highly developed, he had conceived a strong attachment for some one older than himself of his own sex, by whom his affection was returned. Owing to the early age at which boys were sent to college in those days, school conditions existed at the Universities, and there is a reference to the bad side of them in the Harvey-Immerito correspondence. I conceive that the author of the poems, who, as a youth at college, had an intimacy with Gabriel Harvey, is here defending himself from the imputations, sometimes serious, i6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. sometimes in the nature of badinage, which arise under such circumstances.^ It may seem revolutionary to some readers to suggest that these poems were the work of a youth, but I shall expect to produce evidence later which will show that there is nothing improbable in this. Under " Februarie " the " glosse " states that Gride means " perced " : " an old word much used of Lidgate, but not found (that I know of) in Chaucer" ; that Threnot is the " name of a Shepheard in Marot his ^Eglogues " ; that TJie Sovereign of Seas " is Neptune the god of the seas. The saying is borowed of Mimus Publianus"; that Phyllis is " the name of some mayde unknowen, whom Cuddie, whose person is secrete, loved. The name is usuall in Theocritus, Virgile and Mantuane " ; that my liege is " a manner of supplication wherein is kindly coloured the affection and speache of ambitious men " ; and under There grew there is a note that " This tale of the Oake and the Brere he telleth as learned of Chaucer, but it is cleane in another kind, and rather like to yEsope's fables. It is very excellente for pleasaunt descriptions being altogether a certaine Icon or Hypo- typosis of disdainfull younkers." On " Threnots Embleme " — Iddio, perche h vecchio. Fa suoi al suo essempio, " E. K." imposes the following essay : This embleme is spoken of Thenot, as a moral of his former tale : nanielye, that God, which is himselfe most aged, being before al ages, and without beginninge, maketh those, whom he loveth, like to himselfe, in heaping yeares unto iheyre dayes, and blessing them wyth longe lyfe. For the blessing of age is not given to all, but unto those whome God will so blesse. And albeit that many evil men reache unto such fulnesse of yeares, and some also wcxe old in myserie and thraldome, yet therefore is not age ever the lesse blessing. For even to such evill men such number of yeares is added, that they may in their last dayes ' "William Wchlie " recurs to the subject, the allusion to which in the Shepheards Calender he liad " hearde some curious headcs call in question " as " skant allowable to linylish earcs," and he explains that " theyr nyce opinion ouer shooteth the Poets meaning.' I " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " 17 repent, and come to their first home : So the old man checketh the rash-headed boy for despysing his gray and frostye heares. Whom Cuddye doth counterbuff with abyting and bitter proverbe, spoken indeede at the first in contempt of old age generally : for it was an old opinion, and yet is continued in some mens conceipt, that men of yeares have no feare of God at al, or not so much as younger folke ; for that being rypened with long experience, and having passed many bitter brunts and blastes of vengeaunce, they dread no stormes of Fortune, nor wrathe of God, nor daunger of menne, as being eyther by longe and ripe wisedome armed against all mischaunces and adversitie, or with much trouble hardened against all troublesome tydes : lyke unto the Ape, of which is sayd in ^sops fables, that, oftentimes meeting the Lyon, he was at first sore aghast and dismayed at the grimnes and austeritie of hys countenance, but at last, being acquainted with his lookes, he was so furre from fearing him, that he would familiarly gybe and jest with him : Suche longe experience breedeth in some men securitie. Although it please Erasmus, a great clerke, and good old father, more fatherly and favourablye to construe it, in his Adages, for his own behoofe. That by the proverbe, " Nemo senex metuit Jovem," is not meant, that old men have no feare of God at al, but that they be furre from superstition and Idolatrous regard of false Gods, as is Jupiter. But his greate learning notwithstanding, it is to plaine to be gainsayd, that olde men are muche more enclined to such fond fooleries, then younger heades. It will be observed that this is in the manner of Bacon's Essays. The same thought about old age occurs in his essay " Of Youth and Age " : " But for the moral part, perhaps, youth will have the pre-eminence," etc. ; and more fully in the " Differences between Youth and Old Age " in his History of Life and Death. The treatise is in Latin, but I give the passage from Spedding's trans- lation ( Works, V. 319): Youth hath modesty and a sense of shame, old age is some- what hardened ; a young man has kindness and mercy, an old man has become pitiless and callous . . . youth is inclined to religion and devotion by reason of its fervency and inexperience of evil, in old age piety cools through the lukewarmness of charity and long intercourse with evil, together with the difificulty of believing \i.e. believing what people say]. The expression in " E. K.'s " note, " God, which is him- C 1 8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. selfe most aged," is, no doubt, partly suggested by the representations in the " mystery " plays and in Christian art. The idea is used with striking effect in Khig Lear, where Lear, seeing Goneril enter, exclaims — O heavens, If you do love old men, if your sweet sway Allow obedience, if yourselves are old, r.Iake it your cause ; send down, and take my part ! (ii. 4.) Under " March " a verse-translation by the author is announced in a note which is in the same manner as Bacon's Wisdom of the Ancients. It also (with the note on the " Embleme " which follows) belongs to the train of thought out of which the " Maske of Cupid " in Book III. of the Faerie Queene is constructed : Swaine, a boye : For so is he described of the Poetes to be a boye, s. always freshe and lustie : blindfolded, because he maketh no difference of personages : wyth divers coloured winges, s. ful of flying fancies : with bowe and arrow, that is, with glaunce of beautye, which prycketh as a forked arrowe. He is sayd also to have shafts, some leaden, some golden : that is, both pleasure for the gracious and loved, and sorow for the lover that is disdayned or forsaken. But who liste more at large to behold Cupids colours and furniture, let him reade ether Propertius, or Moschus his Idyllion of winged love, being now most excellently translated into Latine, by the singuler learned man Angelus Politianus : whych worke I have scene, amongst other of thys Poets doings, very wel translated also into Englishe Rymes. The " glosse " on the " Embleme " is in the poet's own vein whenever he comments on the effects of passing love. It is always a matter for regret, a waster of time and talent, a folly, a triumph of " will " (the natural appetites) over " wit " (the rational faculty) ; but when it comes through the sight of physical beauty and the fatal glance of the eye, there is no escape from it. Such is the fate of the soul imprisoned in this " clayey lodging," in " the dungeon of the body." ^ He praises faithful love in the highest language, but, in his own experience, the higher form of passion is rather a love of love or beauty, and the • These words occur in Sidney's Apolojiie, and in one of Nashc's writings, but ihc same thought occurs, in various terms, in Spenser's works. I " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " 19 feeling is always subordinate to the ideals of wisdom and power. It is also shadowed by the consciousness of " mutability," which is the burden of the poet's " Com- plaints." The " glosse " referred to is as follows : Hereby is meant, that all the delights of Love, wherein wanton youth walloweth, be but follye mixt with bitternesse, and sorow sawced with repentaunce. For besides that the very affection of Love it selfe tormenteth the mynde, and vexeth the body many wayes, with unrestfulnesse all night, and wearines all day, seeking for that we cannot have, and fynding that we would not have : even the selfe things which best before us lyked, in course of time, and chaung of ryper yeares, whiche also therewithall chaungeth our wonted lyking and former fantasies, will then seeme lothsome, and breede us annoyaunce, when yougthes flowre is withered, and we fynde our bodyes and wits aunswere not to suche vayne joUitie and lustfuU pleasaunce. Under " April " a hint is given as to the identity of " Colin " (the name under which the poet refers to himself) : Seemeth merely that Colin perteyneth to some Southern nobleman, and perhaps in Surrye or Kent, the rather bicause he so often nameth the Kentish downes, and before, As lythe as lasse of Kefit. The allusion is, no doubt, to Penshurst, the home of the Sidneys. There are also similar references to Kent in the Harvey " Letter-book." The much-quoted note about "Rosalind" follows. Written by any one but the author, it seems to me it would be both foolish and impertinent. The IVidowes, He calleth Rosalind the Widowes daughter of the glenne, that is, of a country Hamlet or borough, which I thinke is rather sayde to coloure and concele the person, then simply spoken. For it is well knowen, even in spighte of Colin and Hobbinoll, that shee is a Gentlewoman of no meane house, nor endowed with anye vulgare and common gifts, both of nature and manners : but suche indeede, as neede nether Colin be ashamed to have her made knowne by his verses, nor Hobbinol be greved, that so she should be commended to immortalitie for her rare and singular vertues : Specially deserving it no lesse, then eyther Myrto the most excellent Poete Theocritus his 20 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. dearling, or Lauretta the divine Petrarches Goddesse, or Himera the worthye Poete Stersichorus hys idol ; upon whom he is sayd so much to have doted, that, in regard of her excellencie, he scorned and wrote against the beauty of Helena. For which his pr?esumptuous and unheedie hardinesse, he is sayde by vengeaunce of the Gods, thereat being offended, to have lost both his eyes. There is also a note about the Queen in the extrava- gant style invariably adopted by Spenser when writing about Queen Elizabeth : In all this songe is not to be respected, what the worthinesse of her Majestic deserveth, nor what to the highnes of a Prince is agreeable, but what is moste comely for the meanesse of a shepheard witte, or to conceive, or to utter. And therefore he calleth her Elysa, as through rudenesse tripping in her name ; and a shepheards daughter, it being very unfit, that a shepheards boy, brought up in the shepefold, should know, or ever seme to have heard of, a Queenes roialty. Another in the same kind, of a more extraordinary character, follows, where the writer of the notes explains that by the god " Pan " in this poem is meant " the famous and victorious king, her highnesse Father, late of worthy of memorye, K. Henry the eyght, and by that name, oftymes (as hereafter appeareth) be noted kings and mighty Potentates : and in some place Christ himselfe, who is the verye Pan and god of Shepheardes " (see under " Maye"). I do not think such a note could possibly have occurred to any one but the author himself, and I also regard it (among much other evidence) as indicating that the writer was still very young. The style and cadence of the following is, or should be, unmistakable for readers of Bacon's prose works : By the mingling of the Redde rose and the White is meant the uniting of the two principall houses of Lancaster and Yorke : by whose longe discord and deadly debate this realm many yeares was sore travelled, and almost cleane decayed. Til the famous Henry the seventh, of the line of Lancaster, taking to wife the most vertuous Princesse Elisabeth, daughter to the fourth Edward of the house of Yorke, begat the most royal Henry the eyght aforesayde, in whom was the first union of the Whyte rose and the Redde. " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " 21 Compare Bacon's History of King Henry VH. ; also the fragment of his History of King Henry VHI. : " He was the first heir of the White and Red Rose." Under " Maye " occurs an interesting note, owing to the parallel passage in Shakespeare : For such, the gotes stombling is here noted as an evill signe. The like to be marked in all histories : and that not the leaste of the Lorde Hastingues in King Rycharde the third his dayes. For, beside his daungerous dreame (whiche was a shrewde prophecie of his mishap that folowed) it is sayd, that in the morning, ryding toward the tower of London, there to sitte uppon matters of counsell, his horse stombled twise or thrise by the way : which, of some, that ryding with him in his company were privie to his neere destenie, was secretly marked, and afterward noted for memorie of his great mishap that ensewed. For being then as merye as man might be, and least doubting any mortall daunger, he was, within two howres after, of the Tyranne put to a shamefull deathe. Compare Richard III., iii. 4 : Hastings. If they have done this thing, my gracious lord, — Gloucester. If! thou protector of this damned strumpet, Tellest thou me of " ifs " ? Thou art a traitor : Off with his head ! Now, by Saint Paul I swear, I will not dine until I see the same. Lovel and Ratcliflf, look that it be done : The rest, that love me, rise and follow me. \Exeuiit all but Hastings, Ratcliff, and Lovel. Hast. Woe, woe for England ! not a whit for me ; For I, too fond, might have prevented this. Stanley did dream the boar did raze his helm ; But I disdain'd it, and did scorn to fly : Three times to-day my foot-cloth horse did stumble, And startled, when he look'd upon the Tower, As loath to bear me to the slaughter-house. O, now I want the priest that spake to me : I now repent I told the pursuivant, As 'twere triumphing at mine enemies, How they at Pomfret bloodily were butcher'd. And I myself secure in grace and favour. O Margaret, Margaret, now thy heavy curse Is lighted on poor Hastings' wretched head ! Under the same month is a note in which the writer appears to give as his own some English hexameter 22 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. verses which are found in a letter of" Immerito " to Harvey in Three proper and zvittie familiar letters^ etc., pubh'shed in I 580 : Tho with them doth imitate the Epitaphe of the ryotous king Sardanapalus, which he caused to be written on his tombe in Greeke : which verses be thus translated by Tullie. Ha^c habui qute edi, quasque exaturata libido Hausit, at ilia manent multa ac pneclara relicta. Which may thus be turned into English. All that I eate did I joye, and all that I greedily gorged : As for those many goodly matters left I for others. The following is the passage in " Immerito's " letter : Loe, here I let you see my olde use of toying in Rymes turned into your artificial straightnesse of Verse by this Tetrasticoti. I beseech you tell me your fansie without parcialitie. See yea the blindfoulded pretie God, that feathered Archer, Of Lovers Miseries which maketh his bloodie game? Wote ye why, his Moother with a Veale hath coovered his Face .•* Trust me, least he my Loove happely chaunce to beholde. Seeme they comparable to those two, which I translated you ex ternpore in bed, the last time we lay togither in Westminster ? That which I eate did I joy, and that which I greedily gorged, As for those many goodly matters leaft I for others. The following note under "June," including the fanciful derivation.s, is very characteristic of Bacon : Friendly faeries. The opinion of Faeries and Elfes is very old, and yet sticketh very religiously in the myndes of some. But to roote that rancke opinion of Elfes oute of mens hearts, the truth is, that there be no such thinges, nor yet the shadowes of the things, but onely by a sort of bald Friers and knavish shavelings so feigned \ which, as in all other things, so in that, soughte to nousell the common people in ignoraunce, least, being once acquainted with the truth of things, they woulde in tyme smell out the untruth of theyr packed pelfe, and Massepenie religion. But the sooth is, that when all Italy was distraicte into the Factions of the Guelfes and the Gibelins, being two famous houses in Florence, the name began through their great mischiefes and many outrages, to be so odious, or rather dread- I " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " 23 full, in the peoples eares, that, if theyr children at any time were frowarde and wanton, they would say to them that the Guelfe or the Gibeline came. Which words nowe from them (as many things els) be come into our usage, and, for Guelfes and Gibelines, we say Elfes and Goblins. No otherwise then the Frenchmen used to say of that valiaunt captain, the very scourge of Fraunce, the Lorde Thalbot, afterward Erie of Shrewsbury, whose noblesse bred such a terrour in the hearts of the French, that oft times even great armies were defaicted and put to flyght at the onely hearing of hys name. In somuch that the French wemen, to affray theyr chyldren, would tell them that the Talbot commeth. I am not aware of any source for this notion, but there is an analogous passage in the Harvey " Letter-book " ( TJie Schollers Loove) : Not if I were very Rhetorick herselfe Could I sufficiently displaye sutch an Elfe ; Neither hard hearted Gibiline nor desperate Guelphe Made ever profession of so wicked pelfe. Compare the lines in the Faerie Queene, II. x. 73, in a fantastic passage as to the fairy lineage of Queen Elizabeth, under the name of "Glorian": His Sonne was Elfinell, who overcame The wicked Gobbelines in bloody field. Under " September " is a note mentioning more books by Gabriel Harvey, but, with the exception of the two Latin works first referred to, nothing is known about them.^ In my opinion this is a piece of intentional mystification, as I have already suggested, and the author of the note is probably also laughing in his sleeve at Harvey. Colin cloute : Now I thinke no man doubteth but by Colin is meant the Authour selfe, whose especiall good freend Hobbinoll 1 The " Anticosmopolita " is referred to by Harvey's younger brother, Richard, in an address dated 23rd January 1581 (=1582) to John Aylmer, Bishop of London, prefixed to his " Astrological Discourse " (published in 1583). He apologises for not being "practised in writing English," and hopes for acceptance on the strength of " that favourable acceptation which from time to time it hath pleased you to vouchsafe the like writings of diverse Universitie men, being little past my standing there, and namely my brothers Anticosmopolita, when he was not mucli aliove the same continuance." Richard Harvey evidently greatly admired his elder brother, who, it appears, was his tutor. Richard Harvey's writings suggest that he was a well- meaning man, but of small ability. 24 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. sayth hee is, or more rightly Mayster Gabriel Harvey : of whose speciall commendation, aswell in Poetrye as Rhetorike and other choyce learning, we have lately had a sufficient tryall in divers his workes, but specially in his Miisanim Lachrymce, and his late Graiulationutn Valdine7isiiim} which boke, in the progresse at Audley in Essex, he dedicated in writing to her Majestie, afterward presenting the same in print to her Highnesse at the worshipful! Maister Capells in Hertfordshire. Beside other his sundrye most rare and very notable writings, partely under unknown tytles, and partly under counterfayt names, as his Tyranfiomastix, his Ode Natalitia, his Jiameidos, and esspecially that parte of Fhtlomusus, his divine Anticosmopolita^ and divers other of lyke importance. As also, by the name of other shepheardes, he covereth the persons of divers other his familiar freendes and best acquayntaunce. The Eclogue for " October " is interesting as an expression of youthful disillusionment. " Cuddie," who in this Eclogue evidently is intended to represent the author of the poems, complains of the contempt in which poetry is held (see the "Argument" quoted at p. 13 above) : What I the bett for-thy ? They ban the pleasure, I a sclender prise ; I beate the bush, the byrds to them doe flye : What good thereof to Cuddie can arise ? • • • • ■ But ah ! Maecenas is yclad in claye, And great Augustus long ygoe is dead. And all the worthies liggen wrapt in leade. That matter made for Poets on to play. Piers encourages him to fresh efforts : Piers. Abandon, then, the base and viler clowrte ; Lyft up thy selfe out of the lowly dust. And sing of bloody Mars, of wars, of giusts ; Turne thee to those that weld the awful crowne. To doubted Knights, whose woundlcsse armour rusts, And helmes unbruzed wexen dayly browne. There may thy Muse display her fluttryng wing. And stretch her selfe at large from East to West ; Whitlier thou list in fayre Elisa rest, Or, if thee please in bigger notes to sing, Advaunce the worthy whome shee loveth best, That first the white beare to the stake did bring. ' I'lihlishcd in 1578. * See note on previous page, I " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER'' 25 And, when the stubborne stroke of stronger stounds Has somewhat slackt the tenor of thy string, Of love and lustihead tho mayst thou sing, And Carroll lowde, and leade the Myllers rownde, All were Elisa one of thilke same ring ; So mought our Cuddies name to heaven sownde. The " glosse " has the following characteristic note explaining the reference in the eleventh line of Piers's speech above. Leicester was probably the poet's patron at the time. The tvorthy, he meaneth (as I guesse) the most honorable and renowmed the Erie of Leycester, whom by his cognisance (although the same be also proper to other) rather then by his name he bewrayeth, being not likely that the names of worldly princes be known to country clowne. With the following discourse about poets, compare the observations in the same sense and style in Bacon's Advancement of Learning. " E. K." : J^or ever : He sheweth the cause why Poetes were wont to be had in such honor of noble men, that is, that by them their worthines and valor shold through theyr famous Poesies be commended to al posterities. Wherefore it is sayd, that Achilles had never bene so famous, as he is, but for Homeres immortal verses, which is the only advantage which he had of Hector. And also that Alexander the great, comming to his tombe in Sigeus, with naturall teares blessed him, that ever was his hap to be honoured with so excellent a Poets work, as so renowmed and ennobled onely by hys meanes. Which being declared in a most eloquent Oration of Tallies, is of Petrarch no lesse woorthely sette forth in a sonet. Giunto Alexandro a la famosa tomba Del fero Achilla, sospirando disse : O fortunato, che si chiara tromba. Trouasti, &c. And that such account hath bene alwayes made of Poetes, as well sheweth this, that the worthy Scipio, in all his warres against Carthage and Numantia, had evermore in his company, and that in a most familiar sort, the good olde poet Ennius ; as also that Alexander destroying Thebes, when he was enformed, that the famous Lyrick poet Pindarus was borne in that citie, not onely commaunded streightly, that no man should, upon payne of death, do any violence to that house, by fire or otherwise : but 26 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. also specially spared most, and some highly rewarded, that were of hys kinne. So favoured he the only name of a Poete, which prayse otherwise was in the same man no lesse famous, that when he came to ransacking of king Darius coffers, whom he lately had overthrowen, he founde in a little coffer of silver the two bookes of Homers works, as layd up there for speciall jewels and richesse, which he taking thence, put one of them dayly in his bosome, and thother every night layde under his pillowe. Such honor have Poetes alwayes found in the sight of princes and noble men, which this author here very well sheweth, as els where more notably. Bacon's Advancement of Learning (book i.) : What price and estimation he [Alexander] had learning in doth notably appear in these three particulars : first, in the envy he used to express that he bore towards Achilles, in this, that he had so good a trumpet of his praises in Homer's verses ; secondly in the judgment or solution he gave touching that precious cabinet of Darius, which was found amongst his jewels, whereof question was made as to what thing was worthy to be put into it, and he gave his opinion for Homer's works. And further on in the same treatise : For have not the verses of Homer continued twenty-five hundred years, or more, without the loss of a syllable or letter ; during which time infinite palaces, temples, castles, cities, have been decayed and demolished ? Under " November " a further allusion is made to unpublished work of the poet, and to another " com- mentarye " by " E. K." to which I referred above. The author of the poems himself refers to this commentary in a postscript of a letter of " Immerito " to Harvey, published in I 580 in " Three proper and wittie familiar letters lately passed between two Universitie men : touching the Earthquake in Aprill last, and our English refourmed Versifying." The two passages are as follow : — " E. K." : Nectar and Ambrosia, be feigned to be the drink and foode of the gods : Ambrosia they liken to Manna in scripture, and Nectar to be white like Creme, whereof is a proper tale of Hebe, that spilt a cup of it, and stayned the heavens, as yet appearcth. But I have already discoursed that at large in my Commentarye upon the Dreames of the same Authour. I " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " 27 " Immerito " : I take best my Dreames shoulde come forth alone, being growen by meanes of the Glosse (running continually in maner of a Paraphrase) full as great as my Calendar. Therin be some things excellently, and many things wittily discoursed of E. K. and the pictures so singularly set forth and purtrayed, as if Michael Angelo were there, he could (I think) nor amende the beste, nor reprehende the worst. I know you woulde lyke them passing wel. Youthful disillusionment is the burden of the last Eclogue, but the descriptions in detail must not be taken as autobiographical. It has been pointed out, for instance, that the three stanzas, beginning " Whilome in youth," are taken bodily from one of Marot's eclogues. It is evident, however, that under the imagery used the poet looks back with regret on his early boyhood, before fancy was disturbed by passion and the intrusions of personality, or (in the words of the " Argument," supposed to be provided by " E. K.") in " the spring time, when he was fresh and free from loves follye." Rosalind might be a real person, or a poetical type devised to represent a first love or the first attraction of feminine beauty. It is possible that the astrological line " For love then in the Lyons house did dwell " is intended as a clue, in which case she may have been a girl whom the writer met as a boy in the house of the Earl of Warwick or the Earl of Leicester. " Lyon " (with a " y " and a capital " L ") is frequently used by Spenser with a heraldic significance. In any case, the note in the " glosse " suggests that the possibility of such an interpretation was in the writer's mind, because he uses the words " he imagineth simply " as though to anticipate it. But this, as also the changed spelling of " Lion," may possibly be by design, in order to mislead.^ The hand of the author seems more than usually evident in the concluding " glosse," where a brief survey is taken of a period of life which has closed. The period in the writer's mind was, I believe, from boyhood to adolescence, and under the " keeping of sheepe " is figured the writer's " studies " and pursuits. ' See further on this subject in Chapters XIII, and XVII. 28 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Adiew delights, is a conclusion of all : where in sixe verses he comprehendeth briefly all that was touched in this booke. In the first verse his delights of youth .generally : In the second, the love of Rosalind : In the thyrd, the keeping of sheepe, which is the argument of all the ^glogues : In the fourth, his com- plaints : And in the last two, his professed friendship and good will to his good friend Hobbinoll. The verses referred to are the following : Adieu, delightes, that lulled me asleepe ; Adieu, my deare, whose love I bought so deare ; Adieu, my little Lambes and loved sheepe ; Adieu, ye Woodes, that oft my witnesse were : Adieu, good Hobbinoll, that was so true, Tell Rosalind, her Colin bids her adieu. In view of this farewell, and for other reasons which will appear later, I think the person alluded to in the last stanza but six, " One if I please, enough is me therefore," is Queen Elizabeth. I have alluded above to the extraordinary self-esteem displayed in the Epilogue. " E. K." justifies it on the precedent of the lines of Horace, " Exegi monumentum," etc., and refers to the odes of that poet as " a worke though ful indede of great wit and learning yet of no so great weight and importaunce." But Horace had, at least, done something, whereas the Shepheards Calender is a very slender and immature performance. The interest of it is mainly in the genius which is unmistakably stamped on the poems. The self-esteem shown by the author, not only in this epilogue, but throughout the notes (as I believe), is evidence of youth and inexperience, but it is on such a prodigious scale and so little justified by this single piece of work (apart from the genius of which it gives indications) that it cannot be attributed only to that. A strange and quite abnormal personality is behind these utterances, and in the chapters which follow .some further light will, I hope, be thrown on the problem which they present. A word may be said about the antique and irregular language adopted, or invented, by the author in this collection of poems. It is partly a deliberate affectation I " THE SHEPHEARDS CALENDER " 29 of a rude style of speech under which the writer might express his opinions on various topics with less risk than he could in current language, and partly due to the pleasure which he finds in the words themselves, as explained in " E. K.'s " introductory letter. This is characteristic of youth. The case of Chatterton (who did not live to complete eighteen years) is similar, and lends support to the view which I have expressed that the writer of the " Calender " was very young. CHAPTER II SPENSER'S LIFE The facts, or conjectures, relating to Spenser's life are very completely stated in the biographical memoir by Professor Hales in the "Globe" edition of Spenser's Works} It will be observed that the " life " has been constructed mainly out of inferences drawn from the poems, and that where the external sources of information present diffi- culties they are discarded in favour of what is taken for internal evidence.^ This is an arbitrary method, but without it no " biography " (on the accepted view of the poet's identity) would be possible. Let us look at the information from external sources (as given in the memoir above mentioned) which has been discarded as inadmissible. It consists of four instances where a " Spenser " is mentioned in con- temporary records : — 1. An "Edmund Spenser," of Kingsbury, Warwickshire, is " mentioned in the books of the Treasurer of the Queen's Chamber in 1569 as paid for bearing letters from Sir Henry Norris, her Majesty's ambassador in France, to the Queen " (p. xvii). 2. "In a work called Tragical Tales, published in 1587, there is a letter in verse, dated 1569, addressed to 'Spencer' by George Turberville, then resident in Russia as secretary to ' Sec also the article in the Dictionary of National Biography hy the same writer, jointly with the Editor. 2 "Our external sources of information are, then, extremely scanty. Fortunately our internal sources are somewhat less meagre. No poet ever more emphatically lived in his poetry than did Spenser. . . . His poems are his best l)ioprnphy. In the sketch of his life to be given here his poems sh.ill he our one great authority." Extract, " Olobc " edition of IVorks, p. xv. 30 CHAP. II SPENSER'S LIFE 31 the English ambassador, Sir Thomas Randolph. Anthony k Wood says this Spencer was the poet ; but it can scarcely have been so " (p. xx). 3. " On the strength of an entry found in the register of St. Clement Danes Church in the Strand — ' 26 Aug. (1587) Florenc Spenser, the daughter of Edmond Spenser ' — it has been con- jectured that the poet was married before 1587. This conjecture seems entirely unacceptable " ^ (p. xxiii). 4. "A ' Maister Spenser ' mentioned in a letter written by James VI. of Scotland from St. Andrews in 1583 to Queen Elizabeth," who was carrying despatches. " It may be presumed that this gentleman is the same " as the Spenser of Kingsbury mentioned above (p. xxxii). Now the first incontestable fact in Spenser's life is his appointment as Secretary to Lord Grey de Wilton in Ireland in August 1580. By this I mean that it is a fact not derived from an inference from the poems but from records of the time ; and here for the first time is a man who can be identified, with certainty, as the author, or pretended author, of the poems. According to the accepted view Spenser was at that time about twenty- eight,^ and he is supposed to have been identified (as explained in Chapter I., see p. i, note 2) as having been at Cambridge until he was twenty-four. What little is known of his doings in the interval comes from inferences from writings connected with " Immerito." From these it appears that he was for some time in the north of England, and by 1579, perhaps earlier, in the households of Sir Henry Sidney in Kent and the Earl of Leicester in London. He appears as a poet and engaged, during as much time as he could find from duties of attendance, etc., in literary pursuits. There was no regular " Civil Service " in those days, and only men who possessed wealth, or who obtained it by favour of the sovereign, could aspire to high ofifice. They employed their own " servants," who were retainers * Tlie Sonnets are held to indicate 1594 as the year of Spenser's marriage. 2 Inference from Sonnet 60 — . . . one yeare is spent : The which doth longer unto me appcare, Then al those fourty which my life out-went. 32 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAP. in the great households. The fact therefore that Lord Grey should have chosen a secretary outside the ranks of his own men is important, as it suggests that there were special circumstances. They are not difficult to see. Lord Grey was sent to Ireland by the Queen at a critical time to deal with the state of things arising out of the Desmond rebellion, which for the moment had been crushed by Pelham and Ormonde, but the Earl of Desmond was still at large with a considerable following, other parts of Ireland were in revolt, and a combined invasion by Spain and the Pope was expected.^ The Queen, however, was being pressed at that time in the affairs of the Netherlands, and as regards Ireland her main anxiety was to spend as little money as possible. She is charged with having all but ruined Sir Henry Sidney, and Lord Grey, who accepted the appointment of Lord Deputy with great reluctance, had every reason to expect similar treatment unless he could speedily find means to put an end to hostilities. It is reasonable to suppose that in those circumstances, knowing nothing of Ireland himself, he would have been glad to take a secretary who had experience of the country ; and there was no one to whom he would be so likely to go for such a man as to Sir Henry Sidney, the late Lord Deputy.^ Sir Henry Sidney then, it may be supposed, recommended Edmund Spenser, not, however, as a promising writer, but as the most experienced man he had for the post. ' Sir Henry Sidney was recalled in September 1578. There was an interregnum during which Sir William Pelham carried on the government as a Lord Justice, and Lord Grey arrived as Lord Deputy in Dublin on the 1 2th August 1580. * Early in 1580 Lord Grey was in frequent consultation with Sir Henry Sidney, who visited him at his home. Dictionary of National Biography. There is a letter in Collins's State Papers from Sir Henry Sidney at Denbigh to Lord Grey in Dublin, dated 17th September 1580, giving him advice how to proceed in Ireland. In the course of it he recommends various men in Ireland by name, mostly old servants of his, for secret intelligence and other services, and wishes to be remembered to them. He also says that "if Philip Sidney were in your Place, who most ernestlie and often hath spoken and writen to doe this louinge Office, he I sale shold haue no more of me than I moste willinglie will wright to you from Tyme to Tyme," and he signs himself "Your Lordships ancient AUie, lovinge Companion, and faithfull Frend, H. Sydney." II SPENSER'S LIFE 33 But if the author of the SJiepheards Calender was this man, when did he get his experience, and why should the loquacious " E. K.," who is so intimate with the poet, give no hint of this Irish service ? Similarly in the two letters of " Immerito " (reprinted at pp. 706-709 of the " Globe" edition) there is no suggestion of any experience of the kind. There is, however, a passage in the View of the State of Ireland where " Irenaeus" mentions some- thing which he himself saw at an execution at Limerick, from which it might reasonably be inferred that Spenser was with Sir Henry Sidney in Ireland, as the execution referred to took place in his time (July 1577). This is one of the inadmissible pieces of evidence — or at least one of the difficulties. But the passage evidently might apply to Spenser, the official, for the reasons above given ; also because it hardly seems likely that the real author of this work (with which I shall deal later) would have been so unguarded as to put the words into the mouth of " Irenaeus " — who is clearly intended to stand for the author of the piece — unless Spenser had been in Ireland at the time. Moreover it appears that there was a vague tradition in the time of Milton of Spenser having served in Ireland under Sir Henry Sidney ; see the passage from the Theatrum Poetaricm Anglicanorum by Milton's nephew, Edward Phillips, at p. xiv of Mr. Hales's Memoir. "Spenser" (or "Spencer") is, of course, not an un- common name, but it is curious that in the scanty records of the time there should be two " Edmund Spensers." Yet there is nothing incredible in this, and it is clear that the Spenser who carried dispatches in 1569 could not have been the Spenser who was at the Merchant Taylors' School during part of that year.^ Collier con- jectured that the former may have been the poet's father, but this is nothing but a guess, unsupported by any 1 Cf. p. I, note 2. The reader is reminded that the identification of this Spenser with the poet does not rest on any early tradition, which merely relates that the poet was an "alumnus" of Cambridge (Camden's Annals, published 1615-1625), and "brought up in Pembroke-hall in Cambridge" (Fuller's Worthies^ published 1662). D 34 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. authority. Of the two, the first is the most hkely man, from his age and previous connection with government business, to have been the Spenser whom Lord Grey took with him to Dubh'n. Or, if it was the second, then he must, on, or soon after, leaving Cambridge, have gone to Ireland in Sir Henry Sidney's service in order to acquire the special experience which, presumably, was the cause of his selection by Lord Grey. It is immaterial to the argument which of the two (if there were two, or if two were alive then) was the Spenser mentioned in extract No. 4 above. But neither the one nor the other, in my view of the case, could have been " Immerito." I have not yet dealt with No. 3. Those who interpret the poems in terms of the circumstances of the Irish official and settler are necessarily compelled to regard this entiy as applying to another man. For reasons which I shall give in their place, I am not concerned, in that connection, in its application, because I do not regard the Amoretti, or the Epithalaniion, as having any reference to the poet's own marriage. But apart from that question, it seems to me highly probable that the Edmond Spenser mentioned in the register was the Irish Spenser (then in London), as it seems likely, on the ground of age and the conditions of his life as a settler in Ireland, that he was a married man. There is moreover a piece of evidence (to be mentioned later) which suggests the probability that Spenser's sons were grown up at the time of his death. It remains to notice one further point in connection with the external evidence which presents difficulties. Spenser died in January i 599, and no monument was erected over his grave until 1620, when the present monument was erected by Anne, Countess of Dorset. The original inscription gave the year of his birth (presumably incorrectly) as 1510.^ It appears that the monument was "restored" in 1778, and the present date "1553," which was obtained by inference from Sonnet 60, was substituted."^ ■ The (late of his death was given, also incorrectly, as 1596. ^ The modern view is that 1552 is the more correct date, but that is im- material, as it is only a question of the exact year when the sonnet was written. II SPExYSER'S LIFE 35 Lord Grey remained in Ireland for two years, during which Spenser held the post of his Secretary, and obtained other rewards for his services. Thus in 1 5 8 1 he was given a post in the Irish Court of Chancery (which he held concurrently), and he secured property from Abbey lands at Enniscorthy in 1581, and Kildare in 1582. Lord Grey's administration was marked by extreme severity. He was, says Bagwell, " more a knight-errant than a general," ^ and his first act was an ill-advised attack on the rebel forces at Glenmalure in which the English arms suffered a severe defeat. There- after his policy was one of unsparing repression, and he is best known for the ruthless, though, in the circumstances of the times and of the military situation, possibly justifiable slaughter of the Spanish and Italian garrison at Smerwick (Nov. i 5 80). His recall, however, in August 1582 appears to have been really due to the Queen's annoyance at the continuance of military operations and expenditure. In view of preoccupations with Continental affairs, Elizabeth seems to have made up her mind at that time to leave Ireland to itself as much as possible, and she found a pretext for recalling the Deputy in accusations which were being brought against him — probably, so far as the Queen was concerned, by interested parties — of undue severity. Lord Grey lived thereafter in England in retirement, and he died in 1593. A sonnet is addressed to him among the " Verses addressed by the Author of the Faerie Queene to Various Noblemen, etc." at the beginning of the first three books, which appeared in 1590, where he is described as the " Patrone of my Muses pupillage " ; but there is evidently no allusion to him in the work itself until the second ^ Ireland under the Tudors, iii. 61. This description is founded on the impression that Arthegal in the Faerie Queene represents Lord Grey. I believe that to be a mistake, for reasons to be given later. Lord Grey appears to have had no very outstanding qualities, but to have been a dis- tinguished soldier, with strong Protestant convictions, who did his best under great difficulties. His father, William, 13th Lord Grey, under whom he served as a youth in France, was referred to at his death as " the greatest soldier of the nobility." See the account of his services, written by his son, and the introduction thereto, Camden Soc, No. 40. 36 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. portion, which appeared in 1596, when he is alluded to under the person of " Artegall " (but, as will be explained, in one passage only) in the " Legend of Artegall or of Justice," which is the subject of Book V. In June 1586, in connection with the colonisation of Munster, Spenser was granted 3028 acres of land in County Cork from the forfeited Desmond estates, with a house at Kilcolman.^ It is probable that he settled there in 1588, as in 1587 he is said to have resigned his clerkship in Dublin, and in June 1588 he purchased the clerkship of the Munster Council from Bryskett. It seems to me highly probable (even apart from the evidence of the church register) that, before going there, he came over to London to settle his affairs, confer with the " under- takers," of whom Ralegh was the principal, and make arrangements with other settlers. For such an enterprise careful preparations would, of course, be necessary. In Munster he lived, as probably did the other English settlers, in frequent conflict with his Irish neighbours, and he was charged with rapacity and with using his official position to oppress others and for his own gain. There seem to have been good grounds for these charges, whatever faults there were on the other side ; but the real answer to them appears to me to be that if he had not been a man of that kind he would never have been there. Every settler in Ireland at that time took his life in his hand, and nothing but the hope of acquiring wealth, or the pressure of starvation in England, could have induced any one to go there. A man must have been of a hard quality to have undertaken the venture. Mr. Bagwell states the case as follows : " Spenser had Kilcolman and 4000 acres allotted to him [by the English Commission], but he complained that the area was really much less. Less or more, he was not allowed to dwell in peace, and his chief enemy was Lord Roche, who accused him of intruding on his lands, and using ' Kilcolman appears to have been a small peel tower, of the form which such houses assumed in turbulent times. The ruin is said to indicate that the walls were about 8 feet thick. Church's ^tfWJenser and his Poetry, 1845) it contains npproximately 35,000 lines, being "nearly as long as the Iliad and Odyssey both, with the Acfteid io boot." CHAPTER III "THE FAERIE QUEENE " There seems nothing more certain about the human mind than that it depends on the senses for the material on which it works. No amount of imagination will supply the place of facts. Its function in art is to present them in new combinations, by the aid of which the reasoning faculty draws and illustrates its conclusions. This limita- tion is best seen in the work of the greater poets, the medium of whose art lies largely in phantasms, expressed in speech. Great art is a product of self-knowledge, and is a spiritual effort, which lays under contribution a man's whole spiritual experience and intellectual acquisition, and that experience comes to him primarily through contact with life, partly in the form of books, and, in its deeper effects, through persons and activity. There is no better example of the limitations imposed by nature on genius than the case of Chatterton. Great as his genius undoubtedly was, the medium in which he expresses himself is strictly confined within the limits of his reading and social experience. Burns, another notable example, is only great in what he knows ; as soon as he steps outside his experience his genius cannot save him from insipidity. Dante furnishes his Inferno with people of his own acquaintance. Milton takes the risk of incongruity in drawing Cromwell's portrait in the Parliament of Hell. Dickens, in places, is notoriously autobiographical, and even his invention fails to sustain his art outside certain clearly defined limits, which are largely determined by his social experience. And so on ; there is no exception 54 CHAP. Ill '' THE FAERIE QUEENE" 55 to the rule, except, apparently, in the case of Shakespeare. There we are asked to believe that his genius was all- sufficient, not only to supply him with the combinations, but, to a large extent, with the facts. Similarly, though it can be clearly demonstrated that all the great poets and artists have worked with a sense of purpose and with an interest in their fellow-creatures, Shakespeare alone, we are told, had no care for the fate of his productions, and his work was of an unconscious order and the " irresponsible play of poetic fancy." ^ I believe that it will be realised in time that these ideas are not only unscientific, but based on a misconception of the facts, arising out of the concealment by the real author of his identity. In the case of Spenser, at any rate, purpose and a standard of moral responsibility, towards which the author moves or from which he recedes, according to the mood, are notable characteristics of his work, and in presenting the Faerie Queene he himself states his purpose, which, though it may not be on the high spiritual plane which is sometimes claimed for his poetry, will be found consistent (as it must be) with his nature at that stage of his development : " The generall end therefore of all the booke is to fashion a gentleman or noble person in vertuous and gentle discipline." We may expect to find that in developing and illustrating this theme the author will give some indications of his circumstances and character. The fact that he desires to conceal his identity may render such indications more difficult to trace, but, in such a large and varied body of work, it cannot wholly obliterate them. It will be acknowledged, I suppose, that this is a very unusual claim — indeed an extraordinary one for a writer on his first public appearance under his own name. But what are we to think of it in the case of Spenser, having regard to the circumstances of his life to which I have alluded ? Could such a claim be made to-day, with all our equalisation of social conditions ? Suppose, for example, the case of a young man, whose parents were ' See A Life of William Shakespeare, by Sidney Lee, pp. 256, 257. 56 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. people of the working class. By public assistance and his own industry he passes from school to a university, where he develops literary powers. Having no means of his own, he enters for the examination for the Civil Service, at the age of, say, twenty-two, and obtains a post in a minor department in London, where he spends two or three years, supplementing his income by writing for the magazines, and thereby coming under the notice of a few influential people with literary tastes. In order to better himself, he then gets himself transferred to a Govern- ment office in Dublin, where the interest he has made in London assists him in obtaining a private secretaryship. A change of Government occurs, and the Minister, on quitting office, bestows on him an inspectorship, and he settles down in the south-west of Ireland to local duties and the founding of a family. In ten years' time he comes over to London with an important work of imagination, replete with allusions to life in the metropolis, which is published with an introductory letter in which he announces that the general object of his book is to show how people should best conduct themselves under the burden of newly acquired wealth. Such people might be quite ready to hear what he had to say, though they would wonder what experience he had of their circumstances. But it is unnecessary to pursue the analogy, as it is impossible to conceive such a situation in fact ; and yet, as it seems to me, it is a fair parallel to the case of Spenser which we are asked to accept. I write this in no spirit of burlesque ; but we are entitled in these matters to make some use of common-sense and the general experience of life. Such incongruities occur throughout Spenser's work, and I shall indicate in this chapter a few which present themselves in the Faerie Queene, asking the reader to keep in mind what has been said as to Spenser's circumstances and bringing up. The prodigious length of the poem probably prevents many people reading it through, and they take for granted the view which is commonly expressed, that it represents a sort of unreal dream-world. The late Bishop Creighton, Ill '' THE FAERIE QUEENE" 57 for instance, writes : " Away from the tumult of the world . . . the poet peopled his ideal world with the creatures of his own fancy." ^ But this I believe to be a delusion, or rather it is a view which arises from a failure to realise the meaning and point of view of the author. There is nothing " dreamy," in the sense of vagueness of thought, in Spenser. The figures are often those of dreams, but they are always in relation with reality. Until I realised this I found (as I suppose most people do) that the poem as a whole (apart from its many fine passages) was hard reading, and I could not conceive how any human being could have written it. As it is, I do not profess to have made out the meanings of all the characters and incidents, but I can offer the reader some interpretations (so far as I am aware not hitherto recognised) which will throw light on the times as well as on the author. If I do this at the present stage somewhat categorically, it is not from a desire to be dogmatic, but for the sake of brevity of statement. The reader will, in this way, have an opportunity of seeing what he may expect as the subject is further developed in this work ; and if the views expressed are not to his mind, he can close the book at this chapter. I am not writing for controversy, but in order to try to get at the truth on a subject (not bounded, by any means, by Spenser's works) which appears to me to be of the deepest spiritual significance and importance. First as to the author (solely as revealed in the work). His mind is stored with a vast amount of reading, especially classical and Italian, and his fancy is so exuberant that it constantly "takes control." His per- ceptions and ear for rhythm are exquisitely delicate, and when writing at his best he shows a marvellous artistic sense ; but he has little sense of the artistic " whole " of a composition, or, if he had, he was indifferent to it. More probably, however, the concentration required for its attainment was repugnant to him and interfered with the plasticity of his fancy. He is careless of accuracy, using his material as it happens to suit him. His work ' The Age of Elizabeth. S8 SPENSER AXD THE BACOX IMPERSOXATIOXS chap. is largely instinctive, and as unequal and variegated as that of nature herself. He writes, evidently, at a great speed, and pours out his thoughts as they come with the utmost naivete of self-expression. This often gives the effect of lack of humour, but when he is in the mood, and is not writing about himself, a strong sense of humour appears. There is a marked absence of personal feeling. Where he cannot readily get a rhyme he invents or alters words (under the pretext of antiquity) to make one. The effect is often singularly pleasing to the ear. His genius flags heavily towards the close of the poem, but there is one thing of which he never tires, the giving of instruction in morals and manners. His attitude is that of a superior being imparting information to people who are in great need of it. By a division of personality which is very marked he includes himself among his pupils, confessing and admonishing himself freely under the guise of character and dialogue. Similarly he treats his genius as something apart from himself, and refers to its per- formance in language of superlative eulogy. It is hard to say he was wrong, but it presents a very strange phenomenon, because, rightly understood (as I conceive), the self-praise is not due to immodesty of character. The impulse to express himself, and to refer to the people whom he knows and the occurrences in their lives which interest him, is so strong, that he adopts the most curious and ingenious devices for gratifying it without exposing himself or them to public view. After his own personality the great object of his thoughts is the Queen. Round her, as the source of favour and power, the whole poem centres. So dominant are these ideas in his mind that she is a sort of obsession, and he refers to her under various disguises, and addresses her in the language not only of love, but of religious worship. This is partly, no doubt, flattery, after the habit of the time, but it goes far beyond this, and can only rationally be accounted for by the peculiarities of the author's nature. The author's remarks about his representations of the Queen, in his explanatory letter to Ralegh at the lU beginning of the poem, give the doe to his method, though without them it wcu.f be quite easy to ?ee 'r.'.s meaning in her case. T r : . t :^ ?' :t .. : _- however, is difficult, ar. d inLeutiorL .n ^a^ character the wr::er strs, under :;:.:.- --"rs, an idealisation of h:rr:; : He sajrs, :r. : t l-^-^- letter, that his book ^ :3ntinued A! e^ory, or darke conce : th a : : A : : ^ H :~ e r , VirgH, Ariosto, " and lately Tais:. ht his ;l::_:v; to pofutra.:: ::: A::>.-:-r. before r.z ir -ir^ : ;t ;~l^± A^. iri.t l^night, Crrfr::ti in the : \r 7.-:vi:e rr.:rL.! v .:_e E.f ..ristotie hath devised ; ..e rich is the purpose oi .rtie "-st twehre bookes, - ir. :he ir-iA'e A.- ; ctr e y t:-~::'e' is "more c::d:i: ; ;^ i rri-:.:_- :d.t" i. :_ r .t -£.5 a::er ...s .:,::^ ti:.:=.\.i:: ly ..rr.:r :: •■.-:". bv Merlin delivered :: de ;::.;.: _i i: ;;:;\ wai borne cf the Lidy A-ray:.e :: di-.e :rt dream or viiion the Faery ^-tf:.. v,;:d v.-iie t beauty rav:A.ti, he :^ . a'-:::;^ :e: lived :: ieehe d He ::r.:-:-.aes: "I" :d.at Faery i__eer.e I r::ea: in rr.-.- re::erih inteiiti ::: z:.: '.r. ~y c^rhtjiL: \ the i^^t ex:e::ent a-- ri::;-, zt:.:?. ::' ;_r i considering she dearerd f.v: ::t:r:::r :i;e ;: e :f royall Oueene or Ent^reise, \:.-z I'.'r.t: :;' -. r::r. and beautiful: Ladv, this latter cart '■.:: -:r.z doe expre=se in iBelphodie. . . . S; i: :i.e ; Prince Arthure I s^tte forth majrid.e: :e ir. ;. .-. This, of course, is a turn sequ:::,.r. To be c with the method announced in the case of th: he should have written "in general," and the: Prince Arthur stood for * in particular " ; ** magiu ^ The author wntes as thoogh these veie oomplete, and asBoor : oo his title-page, but at this time (1590) he had only iiiueu three finally coiD|detiiig six. Bacon's philosophic cntciprise siaiilariy short at what, in oompansoa with the scheme floating m his Biad. mate than an exovdiBm. Spenser, in ths letter, umlr m pla tes s. poem dealing with the "poDiticke TCftnes in his [Aithor^] per;.: that hee came to be king." 6o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. being the Aristotelian virtue " magnanimity," which, he says, " is the perfection of all the rest." The practice, however, which he follows in the poem is this. He has no consistent method, but, writing as the impulse prompts him, he shows the Queen in a variety of characters, and conversely he uses a character to re- present more than one person. There are no characters among the principal actors in the poem representing only abstract qualities. The genius of the poet is too objective for this, and he drifts inevitably into the region of actual personality and incident. Even Una, who is the spirit of truth in simplicity, is made, in places, to take up the personality of Queen Elizabeth. And so of the other leading characters : in a general way they are supposed to represent an abstract quality, but the writer soon tires of this, and we find them concealing under a more or less thin disguise some contemporary person, and frequently the author himself It is with these significations (the " particular " of the Ralegh letter) that I am concerned in this chapter. From a purely literary standpoint the dissertations on the Faerie Queene of the eighteenth-century writers ^ are, to my mind, the best. Among them Prebendary John Upton, who published an important edition of the poem, with notes, in 1758, made an attempt to identify some of the leading allegorical characters, observing that " if the reader cannot see through these disguises, he will see nothing but the dead letter." It is remarkable that we have never got much beyond what he attempted in this way, but I think we are never likely to do so until some reasonable relation has been established between the author and his work ; in other words, until we find out who, and what manner of man, he was. The " Redcrosse Knight " (Book I.) is, in my opinion, the author himself, under one aspect. He is described ' The best of them are collected in Todd's edition of Spenser's Works, 1805. in " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 6i in the Ralegh letter as "a tall clownishe younge man," who coming to the Queen's Court at first " rested him on the floore, unfitte through his rusticity for a better place " (an allegory of his inexperience) ; but when clothed in the armour, " he seemed the goodliest man in al that company." He represents the author's confident outlook, and his aspirations on the religious and philo- sophical side, at the age of eighteen, on his return to England from the Continent, The Dragon represents intellectual as well as spiritual ignorance. The beauty and earnestness of this book are significant of the author's youth. " Guyon " (Book II.) also represents the author, but at a later stage : the man in the temptations of the world. The book is less visionary than the former one, and bears the stamp of more worldly experience. The characters of Guyon and the Redcrosse Knight are, in my belief, purposely confused in Books II. and III., the author's intention being to indicate that they represent different phases of the same personality. This will be explained more fully in a later chapter.^ Upton thought that " the Earl of Essex is imaged in Sir Guyon ; Dr. Whitgift, his sometime tutor, in the reverend Palmer." But Essex was only born in 1567, and, even apart from that, to represent Essex as the champion of continence and self-government, and the destroyer of the " Bowre of blis," would surely have been the height of absurdity. Another, and greater, pupil of Whitgift at Trinity was Francis Bacon. I think the *' blacke Palmer " is Grindal, whom evidently Bacon, as well as the author of the Shepheards Calender, admired. Grindal began to go blind and lost his health before his death, which occurred in July 1583 (aet. 64), and this tallies with the description in Canto i. 7 : Him als accompanyed upon the way A comely Palmer, clad in black attyre, Of rypest yeares, and heares all hoarie gray, > See Chapter XVII. 62 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. That with a staff his feeble steps did stire, Least his long way his aged liinbes should tire : And, if by lookes one may the mind aread, He seemed to be a sage and sober syre ; And ever with slow pace the Knight did lead, Who taught his trampling steed with equall steps to tread. In a paper submitted by Bacon to King James in 1603 '"'touching the better pacification and edification of the Church of England," it is to Archbishop Grindal that he refers when he says that " prophesying " (clerical meetings for the practice of preaching, as explained in a passage of great interest) was " put down . . . against the advice and opinion of one of the greatest and gravest prelates of this land."^ Grindal was suspended by the Queen, and it is, of course, to those proceedings that Spenser alludes in the Eclogue for "July": "But I am taught by Algrind's ill." The description of the Palmer does not suit Whitgift, nor was the poet, with his self-centred disposition and belief in his own mission, likely to think of himself in the relation of any man's pupil. The Palmer is a ghostly attendant on the knight. I think the stealing of Guyon's horse by Braggadochio ^ (which Guyon does not recover till V. iii. 29) is an allusion to Bacon's loss of position and prospects by the death of his father in January 1579, who also, it is said, had omitted to make the provision for him which he intended. The strange representation of the Angel, sent to minister to Guyon after his trial in Canto viii. 1-8, in the person of something like the pagan " Cupid," is evidently intended for the poet's genius. " Arthegall," as the lover of Britomart, stands, in the original conception, for Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, the Queen's favourite at that time. The question of her marriage with Alcn^on was, in 1579, a subject of acute national and political feeling. The poet, being at that time an adherent of Leicester, shows him in the magic mirror, under the person of Arthegal, as the Queen's future ' Spedding, I.ife^ iii. 119. 2 jj jj ,,^ ^-^^ \\ jji Ill " THE FAERIE QUEEN E'' 63 husband (III. ii. 22-25). His death, however, in September 1588, upset the story, so, by an ingenious device, Arthegal is transformed into Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, the new favourite. Perhaps I should give my reasons for this statement here. Merlin, consulted by Britomart (with the nurse Glauc^), says that the man she has seen in the mirror is " Arthegall " (iii. 26), who will help Britomart (the Queen) to withstand " the powre of forreine Paynims which invade thy land" (27). This evidently refers to Leicester as Earl Marshal of the Forces on the approach of the Spanish Armada in 1588. The next stanza (from Merlin's speech) points to the advantage of a marriage for the purpose of the succession, and indicates that the author may have believed in the story that Leicester was poisoned by his third wife, Lettice Knollys, the widow of the late Earl of Essex. Possibly, however, the lines were put in to please Elizabeth, who hated her. Great ayd thereto his mighty puissaunce And dreaded name shall give in that sad day ; Where also proofe of thy prow valiaunce Thou then shalt make, t' increase thy lover's pray. Long time ye both in amies shall beare great sway, Till thy wombes burden thee from them do call, And his last fate him from thee take away ; Too rathe cut off by practise criminall Of secrete foes, that him shall make in mischiefe fall. Now comes the ingenious transformation (29) : With thee yet shall he leave, for memory Of his late puissaunce, his ymage dead. That living him in all activity To thee shall represent. He, from the head Of his coosen Constantius, without dread Shall take the crowne that was his fathers right, And therewith crowne himselfe in th' others stead : Then shall he issew forth with dreadful! might Against his Saxon foes in bloody field to fight. " His ymage dead " means the image of himself dead, which is to live in his successor in the Queen's favour, and console her for her loss by being so like the de- parted favourite that she will not feel the difference. 64 srENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. There is an analogy as well from the relations of father and son, the young Earl of Essex being the stepson of the Earl of Leicester, who had also introduced him at Court. In what follows, the construction, after the manner of oracles, is ambiguous. " His coosen Con- stantius " might mean Sir Philip Sidney, whose mother was Dudley's sister, and therefore when Dudley married the mother of Essex, he and Philip Sidney became cousins by marriage. In that case " his fathers " would mean the father of Constantius, and " the crowne that was his fathers right " the governorship of Ireland, Sir Henry Sidney having been known as the " King of Ireland," and having looked forward to his son Philip succeeding him in the government of that country. Sir Philip Sidney's death in 1586 put an end to these hopes ; therefore the transfer of rule to Essex would be " without dread," that is, without offence. But political considera- tions, as well as the construction itself, point rather to " his fathers " meaning the father of the new favourite, namely Leicester, and, in that case, " his coosen Con- stantius " must mean James of Scotland (whose cousin Essex would become by marrying the Queen), and " the crowne that was his fathers right " would mean the Crown of England, which Leicester had narrowly missed secur- ing. Written, as this passage evidently was, in 1588-89, it indicates the far-reaching and ambitious thoughts in the author's mind. If Essex had had more judgment, he might possibly have succeeded Elizabeth, not only without much opposition, but with popular acclamation, so strong was the feeling among many against an alien sovereign.^ The heraldic allusion to Leicester as the "a Lyon" (of. p. 27, above) in stanza 30 is additional evidence that there has been an interpolation. A double allusion might possibly be intended in a later stanza in Merlin's prophecy : ' Compare, for example, Donne, Satire vii. 103 to end. For the popu- larity of Essex with the Londoners, Shakespeare, Henry V. and Richard 11, and two street ballads in the British Museum (Roxburghe Coll.), written after his execution, arc good evidence. Ill " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 65 Tho, when the terme is full accomplishid, There shall a sparke of fire, which hath longwhile Bene in his ashes raked up and hid, Bee freshly kindled in the fruitfull He Of Mona, where it lurked in exile ; Which shall breake forth into bright burning flame, And reach into the house that beares the stile Of roiall majesty and soveraine name : So shall the Briton blood their crowne agayn reclame. Upton explains this by the accession of Henry of Richmond (Henry VH.) : "Henry descended from the Tudors was born in Mona, now called Anglesey." This is the obvious meaning, but the words might also be made to apply to Ferdinando Stanley's right to the succession to the English Crown through his mother Margaret, granddaughter to Mary of France, the younger sister of Henry VHI., who married (secondly) Charles Brandon, Duke of Suffolk. The Earls of Derby were Lords of Man, having obtained it by grant from the Crown in 1406. The passage embodies the theory (very popular in England) of the Briton origin from Brute of Troy. Anglesey (" Mona Caesaris "), the home of the Druids, was the island where, according to Tacitus, the Britons made their last stand against the Romans, and " Mona " is said to be the ancient name of that island ; but Holinshed says it is the name for Man, and the author may have had the significance in mind.^ Ferdi- nando Stanley succeeded his father as 5th Earl of Derby i" 1593- He was apparently a man of splendid tastes, and maintained a company of players (known as " Lord Strange's company "). He is celebrated by Spenser as " Amyntas," and his wife, Alice, daughter of Sir John Spencer of Althorp, as " Amaryllis." " He is also eulogised by Nashe under the same name in a pas- sage on which this stanza of Spenser perhaps throws light. Nashe, in a book of a fantastic character called • On further consideration I do not think this probable, but I have let the paragraph stand as originally written, l)ecause I wish to draw attention to the passage in Nashe which follows. 2 This lady lived into Milton's time, and her name is connected with his "Arcades" and " Comus." 66 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Pierce Penilesse his Supplication to the Divell, published in 1592, affects to wonder how Spenser could have for- gotten to include a sonnet for him in the catalogue of sonnets to various noblemen, etc., annexed to " thy famous Fairie Queene," and proceeds to supply one of his own, which " long since I happened to frame." In this passage he refers to Stanley's " farre derived discent," and describes him as "the matchless Image of Honor, and magnificent rewarder of vertue, loues eagle-borne Ganimed, thrice noble Amintas " ; and adds, " None but Desert should sit in Fames grace, none but Hector be remembered in the chronicles of Prowesse, none but thou, most courteous Amyntas, be the seconde musicall argument of the knight of the Red-crosse." The first " musical argument " of the Faerie Queene (which, it will be noticed, seems to be here attributed to the Redcrosse Knight as the author of it) is, no doubt. Queen Elizabeth. Stanley could only appropriately be made the " second," if the poet had in mind the possibility of his succeeding to the Crown. But why should Nashe have "put in his oar" in such a delicate matter? There is a point to notice in connec- tion with this, that Spenser's poem {Colin Clouts Come Home Again), which refers to Stanley under the name of "Amyntas," did not appear till 1595, though it pur- ports to have been sent over from Ireland to Ralegh in a letter dated "From my house of Kilcolman, the 27 of December 1591." But the poem could not have contained the reference to " Amyntas " then, because it refers to him as dead, and Stanley's death occurred in 1594. Spenser is supposed to have returned to Ireland early in I 591, and not to have returned to England till the close of 1595- It is to be noted as a curious fact that Nashe, writing in London in 1592, should have used this name in the same connection. Further evidence of the identity of the Earl of Leicester with " Arthegall," before the transformation of the character, is to be found in the following passages in Canto ii. of Book III.— "the noble Arthegall" (9); his " prowesse paragone "(13); " portly his person was " (24) ; Ill " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 67 the whole description perfectly tallying with Dudley at that age.^ Upton suggested that " His crest was covered with a couchant Hownd " (25) meant the " GRAY-hound," and I think he was right, though it did not occur to him that the object was to divert the very obvious allusions to Leicester in the preceding stanzas from him to Lord Grey. The writer, who follows generally Geoffrey of Mon- mouth's pretended History, has invented " Arthegall " as a half-brother (by implication) of Arthur, with whom he is used interchangeably ; and I feel sure he got the sug- gestion, not by anagram, as is supposed, from Arthur Lord Grey, but from " Arthgallo," brother of Gorbonian, " a most just king," and himself (after afflictions) a ruler " who exercised strict justice towards all men." " But the name happened also to suit Lord Grey, and so serve for conceal- ment. Confirmation of this is found in the way in which " Arthgallo," in his proper place in the succession, has been altered (to avoid confusion) to " Archigald " (H. x. 44). Additional evidence of a decisive character of the identity of Essex with " Arthegall " at the time when the first three books were published appears in Book IL Canto ix. 6 : And in her favor high bee reckoned, As Arthegall and Sophy now beene honoured. Compare Bacon's " Discourse in Praise of the Queen," written, as is supposed, for a Court device in 1591 or 1592 : "What shall I say of the great storm of a mighty invasion, not of preparation, but in act, by the Turk upon the King of Poland, lately dissipated only by the beams of her reputation, which with the Grand Signor is greater than that of all the states of Europe put together." On 1 Cf. the following description of Leicester (as I believe, from personal knowledge— see Chapter VII.) in *' Leicester's Ghost " : " My brain had wit, my tongue was eloquent. Fit to discourse or tell a courtly tale ; My presence portly, brave, magnificent, My words imperious, stout, substantiall ; My gestures loving, kind, heroicall ; My thoughts ambitious, proud, and full of ire, My deeds were good and bad, as times require." ^ G. of M., Hist. Brit. iii. 16, 17. Holiiished calls him " Archigallus." 68 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. which Spedding quotes a letter from William Cecil, Burghley's grandson, to Lord Talbot, 23rd October 1590, in which it is stated that the Turk withdrew his forces " only for her Majesty's sake." And "the Turk himself hath written to her Majesty letters with most great titles, assuring her that if she would write her letters to him to require him, he will make the King of Spain humble himself to her." In the same paragraph in Bacon's " Discourse," dealing with the Queen's " merit of her neighbours and the states about her," reference is clearly made to the employment of Essex in assisting Henry IV. in F'rance in 1591, and he is de- scribed under the phrase " one that she favoureth most." ^ This expedition is one of the episodes in Book V. of the Faerie Queene, and in it further proof is found that Arthegal is intended to represent Essex. The author is dealing with Elizabeth's "justice," and, going back in history, he displays, under the figure of Prince Arthur (who represents here, generally, the pride and power of England, with an allusion in the " particular " perhaps to Sir John Norris ^ and, in the later history, to Leicester), her succour of the Netherlands in their struggle against Spain and the Inquisition (Cantos x. and xi.). At stanza 36 of Canto xi. he turns "to the noble Artegall," and begins the Irish episode. At stanza 43, however, he breaks off to celebrate the assistance rendered by Elizabeth to Henry of Navarre in his wars against the Catholic League. Essex was the leader of the ex- pedition (1591), and is therefore Arthegal. " Burbon " (49) is, of course, Henry, and the Lady " Flourdelis " is the French Crown. The shield which Burbon received from the Redcrosse Knight is the Protestant faith, and his changing it for another is an allusion to his formal acceptance of Catholicism by hearing mass at St. Denis in July 1593. A letter to him from Elizabeth survives showing (if it is a genuine expression of her feelings, as presumably it is) that she was much upset by the * Sf)edding, Life, i. 135. 2 In the sonnet to Norris, among those prefixed to the first three books, the writer says he has "eternized your name." I can find no other clear evidence of this, but he may be among the " three brethren" in IV. ii. 45 sq. Ill '' THE FAERIE QUEENE'' 69 news at the time, and in the poem expression of this is put into the mouth of Arthegal. The poet, however, characteristically recognises the plea of national unity, and the exceptional position of princes, and makes Burbon say in extenuation — When time doth ser\'e, My former shield I may resume again : To temporize is not from truth to swerve, Ne for advantage terme to entertain, When as necessitie doth it constraine. To which Arthegal replies, " Fie on such forgerie," etc. (56). It is worth noticing that the metrical summary which refers to this episode is misplaced (see Canto xii.), indi- cating rearrangement. The summary for Canto xi. only covers the material up to stanza 36. We come now to the Irish episode (Book V. Canto xi. stanzas 36-42, and Canto xii.). Lord Grey, who is always said to be Arthegal, could not, by any natural construction, be so intended, as he was never a favourite of the Queen. Moreover, he died in October 1593, at the age of 57, before the appearance of the last three books ; also between that time and his return from Ireland in 1582 he had lived in retirement at his home in Buckinghamshire. The mistake arises, in my opinion, from a misunderstanding of Canto xii. In that canto Arthegal is made, so to speak, to take up Grey's personality for the purpose of pointing out to the Queen and her advisers the futility of a weak policy in Ireland, and of showing Essex how he should act when his time came ; or, if not his, then some other commander's. For some years before this book appeared Bacon had been devoting himself to the career of the young Earl of Essex, through whom he endeavoured to give effect to his own political views, and whose fortune he at that period (1596) regarded as " comprehending " his own ; ^ and in the Viciv ^ Letter of advice to the Earl of Essex dated 4th October 1596 : "Con- sider, first, whether I have not reason to think that your fortune compre- hendeth mine." Cf. Bacon's Essay, Of FoUcnveis and Friends : "There is little friendship 70 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. of the Present State of Ireland, written the same year, Essex is plainly pointed to as the man for Irish business. At that time also Tyrone had been in open rebellion for a year, and affairs in Ireland were in a very grave condi- tion. Hence the poet revives the memory of Grey, whose policy, based on that of Sir Henry Sidney, was one of complete subjugation as a condition precedent to reforms. Spenser's view is that he was not allowed to finish his work, and that owing to the vacillation of the Queen and her advisers it was all rendered abortive. The vindication of Grey, " that most just and honorable person- age," from the charge of being a " bloody " man, which appears in the View} is, I think, intended mainly for the purpose of showing that the policy of " thorough " there recommended, though harsh in appearance, was not incon- sistent with a more far-seeing benevolence. The Irish episode is written entirely from the point of view of England, and from that situation locally. Arthegal's adventure was — to worke Irenaes franchisement And eke Grantortoes worthy punishment. So forth he fared, as his manner was, With onely Talus wayting dihgent. Through manye perils ; and much way did pas, Till nigh unto the place at length approcht he has. The lady "Irena" (in one place written "Irene") is evidently " Ireland," with the suggestion " peace " (from the Greek eirene), the word being formed out of the letters of " Ireland," or the ancient name " lerne." She is in thrall to Grantorto (Spain, or more probably the Pope). " Sir Sergis " is, I think, probably Ormonde, and it seems possible that the name has been formed out of " Fitz- gerald," the name of his mother, who was daughter and heiress of James, i ith Earl of Desmond. That title had in the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont to be mai^nificd [perhaps meaning "exaggerated"; a reference to philosophical treatises of antiquilyj. Tiiat that is is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other." • "Globe" ed., p. 656. See further in Chapter XIX. Ill '' THE FAERIE QUEENE" 71 become extinct through the attainder of the late Earl, and the Desmond estates had been turned into the Munster Settlement ; so there was some fitness in recognising Ormonde through his mother's descent. The Karl of Ormonde was born in 1532, and though he lived till 1614, he might be regarded as "an aged wight" (xi. 37), being at this time over 60. Irena's suit to the Queen would refer to Ormonde's visits to London, beginning with the one when he sought to reconcile Shan O'Neill to Elizabeth's rule (1561). The breaking of promise to Irena refers to Elizabeth's failure to support Grey, which led to his recall at his own request in 1582, and (in the view of the author) to all the subsequent troubles, culminating in the Tyrone rebellion, fostered by Spain and the Papacy, then in progress/ Sir Arthegal, though much " abashed," declares that the fault was partly due to Sir Sergis, which I take to be a reference to the fact that the Queen was induced by him to proclaim a pardon in April 1581 to the rebels, except Desmond and his brother, and to the charges made against Ormonde of disloyalty during Grey's administration. It will be observed that this is put ambiguously through the use of the plural "ye" (41). Arthegal promises to be Irena's champion, and, after aiding Burbon, proceeds under com- mission from " Great Gloriane " against " Grantorto " (Canto xii.). The delay in taking in hand the exploit is here attributed to Elizabeth's preoccupations with the Netherlands and France, but the time having now arrived, he takes ship with Talus, and — The winde and weather served them so well That in one day they with the coast did fall, ^ For she presuming on th' appointed tyde, For which ye promised, as ye were a knight, To meet her at the salvage Hands syde, And then and there for triall of her right With her unrighteous enemy to fight, Did thither come ; where she, afrayd of nought, By guileful treason and by subtill slight Surprized was, and to (irantorto brought, Who her imprizoned hath, and her life often sought. (xi. 39-) 72 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Their landing being opposed, Talus chases away the hosts on the shore, and Arthegal proclaims that his quarrel is only with Grantorto (the papal power) ; he slays Gran- torto, the people acknowledge Irena, and Arthegal sets to work to reform the commonweal (26), but is called away before he can complete the work (27). Here begins the Grey analogy, and under it the poet shows what will follow such half-measures if they are repeated. On his return " from his late quest," two hags, " Envie " and " Detraction," and with them " a monster which the Blatant Beast men call," ^ combine against Arthegal, and revile him — Saying that he had, with unmanly guile And foule abusion, both his honour blent, And that bright sword, the sword of Justice lent, Had stayned with reprochfull crueltie In guiltlesse blood of many an innocent : As for Grandtorto, him with treacherie And traynes having surpriz'd, he fouly did to die. The allusion in the last lines is, of course, to Grey's action at Smerwick,for which he incurred the charge of breach of faith. This gives the poet his opportunity of showing Lord Grey as a noble example in conduct, and at the same time of denouncing the attitude of certain people at home : Thereto the Blatant Beast, by them set on, At him began aloud to barke and bay With bitter rage and fell contention, That all the woods and rockes nigh to that way Began to quake and tremble with dismay ; And all the aire rebellowed againe, So dreadfully his hundred tongues did bray : And evennore those hags them selves did paine To sharpen him, and their owne cursed tongs did straine. ' Here mentioned for the first time. It represents, no doubt, the malcontent Puritans and sectaries on that side. Ben Jonson is reported by Urummond to have said "that in that paper S. W. Raughly had of the Allegories of the Fayrie Queen, by the Blating Beast the Puritans were understood, by the false Duessa the Q. of Scots." This construction of the Blatant Beast is obvious (see particularly VI. xii., stanzas 24, 25), and I only mention it because Grosart maintained that it meant I'opery (IVorks, i. 35). But Grosart, for all the admirable work he did, is a very unsafe guide. The "hideous monster" in Book V. x. 29, and xi. 20, is Popery. The " Idoll " there mentioned is presumably Alva's statue set up at Antwerp by himself. in " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 73 And still among most bitter wordes they spake, Most shamefull, most unrighteous, most untrew, That they the mildest man alive would make Forget his patience, and yeeld vengeaunce dew To her, that so false sclaunders at him threw : And more, to make them pierce and wound more deepe, She with the sting which in her vile tongue grew Did sharpen them, and in fresh poyson steepe : Yet he past on, and seem'd of them to take no keepe. But Talus, hearing her so lewdly raile. And speake so ill of him that well deserved. Would her have chastiz'd with his yron flaile, If her Sir Artegall had not preserved, And him forbidden, who his heast observed : So much the more at him still did she scold, And stones did cast ; yet he for nought would swerve From his right course, but still the way did hold To Faerie Court ; where what him fell shall else be told. (V. xii. 4I-43-) Among the complimentary sonnets prefixed to the first three books, there is one to Essex in which it is expressly stated that he is in the poem, and the writer promises, at a later stage, " to make more famous memory, Of thine Heroicke parts." This promise he fulfilled in Part II. " Scudamore " I believe to be Ralegh ; and though this interpretation involves difficulties, I feel convinced, after trying others, that it is sound. Timias is supposed to be Ralegh, but for reasons which will appear in a later chapter ^ I have come to think that, though the author intended that the incidents should bear a Ralegh con- struction, they are mainly vehicles for the expression of some of his own troubles and aspirations. It is impossible that Ralegh, who was the Queen's new favourite in the latter days of Leicester, and the rival later of the younger Essex, should have been represented in the poem by so mean a person, especially as the author, in my belief, was more attracted by Ralegh, and had more in common with him, than with any other man of ^ See below, p. 83, note, and Chapter XVII. 74 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the time. The rivalry of Essex and Ralegh is indicated in Book IV. vi., where Arthegal and Scudamore both prepare to fight with Britomart. Who then is " Amoret," whose enlevement by Scudamore forms one of the finest of the cantos (IV. x.)? She represents, in my opinion, the " woman " side of Queen Elizabeth, which the sovereignty compelled her to repress.^ There seems to be no doubt that Elizabeth had a genuine passion as a girl for Seymour, because on his execution she fell ill and was long in recovering, though normally her health was perfect. Her experience at that time was a terrible one (as books such as those of Miss Strickland and the late Bishop Creighton have related), and may account to some extent for the fact that thereafter she never let herself go, or treated love affairs as much more than a distraction. She seems, however, to have had a strong passion of a kind for Ralegh, and Scudamore's account of his victory may have been designed to please Elizabeth with the description of her irresistible charm, and the audacity of the knight in braving the dangers of such an intimacy. I express no opinion on what Ralegh's real relations with the Queen were, but considering his nearness to her, and that he was not a man of high family, such a glorious presentment of him as the knight Scudamore would presumably have been grateful to her. It will be noticed that Scudamore's adventure is related by himself, as having happened in the past. When this book was published Ralegh was under the Queen's heavy displeasure for his marriage with Elizabeth Throg- morton some time in 1592. This is apparently alluded to in the scene in Book IV. vii. between Timias and Amoret, which is interrupted by Belphoebe (" Is this the faith ? "). But Amoret, as the love of Scudamore, could not possibly, in my opinion, refer, except in this special allusion, to Ralegh's wife. There is more to be said on this subject, but I must leave it for the later chapter. The fact that the Queen is represented (as she obviously ' Amoret is repicsentcd as the twin sister, hy a miraculous birth, of Belphoebe (III. vi.). in " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 75 is) as " Venus " in the Scudamore-Amoret episode does not preclude the foregoing interpretation, as under this aspect she is shown as the sovereign. The suggestion is that, as the goddess of love, she should be more tolerant of love in her courtiers, as its power is irresistible. At the time this part of the poem appeared (1596) most of the Queen's favourite courtiers of the younger generation then living had offended her by marrying — Ralegh, Essex, Robert Carey ; Southampton was only twenty-three, but his turn was to come two years later ; Charles Blount,^ being in love with Lady Rich (Penelope Devereux), remained single. Canto x. must be considered as a whole, but the last three stanzas of Scudamore's story of his adventure more especially illustrate the foregoing remarks : " And evermore upon the Goddesse face Mine eye was fixt, for feare of her offence ; Whom when I saw with amiable grace To laugh at me, and favour my pretence, I was emboldned with more confidence ; And nought for nicenesse nor for envy sparing, In presence of them all forth led her thence, * Mountjoy. Elizabeth was evidently very fond of him, and had a high opinion of his capacity. See, for instance, her letter of encouragement to him when, as Lord Deputy, he was engaged against Tyrone, given at vol. iii. p. 386 of Bagwell's Ireland undei the Tudors (spelling modernised). It is stated to be in the Queen's own hand, in reply to complaints from Mountjoy about his position in which he had likened himself to a scullion. The following is an extract : " Mistress Kitchenmaid, I had not thought that precedency had been ever in question, but among the higher and greater sort ; but now I find by good proof that some of more dignity and greater calling may by good desert and faithful care give the upper hand to one of your faculty, that with your frying-pan and other kitchen stuff have brought to their last home more rebels, and passed greater break -neck places, than those that promised more and did less. Comfort yourself, therefore, in this, that neither your careful endeavour, nor dangerous travails, nor heedful regards to our service, without your own by-respects, could ever have been bestowed upon a prince that more esteems them, considers, and regards them than she for whom chiefly, I know, all this has been done, and who keeps this verdict ever in store for you ; that no vainglory nor popular fawning can ever advance you forward, but true vow of duty and reverence of prince, which two afore your life I see you do prefer. . . . And learn this of me that you must make a difference betwixt admonitions and charges, and like of fiithful advices as your most necessariest weapons to save you from blows of princes' mislike. And so I absolve you a poena et culpa, if this you observe. And so God bless and prosper you as if ourself was where you are. — Your Sovreign that dearly regards you." 76 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. All looking on, and like astonisht staring, Yet to lay hand on her not one of all them daring. " She often prayd, and often me besought, Sometime with tender teares to let her goe, Sometime with witching smyles ; but yet, for nought That ever she to me could say or doe. Could she her wished freedome fro me wooe ; But forth I led her through the Temple gate, By which I hardly past with much adoe : But that same Ladie, which me friended late In entrance, did me also friend in my retrate. " No lesse did Daunger threaten me with dread, Whenas he saw me, maugre all his powre. That glorious spoyle of beautie with me lead, Then Cerberus, when Orpheus did recoure His Leman from the Stygian Princes boure : But evermore my shield did me defend Against the storme of every dreadfull stoure : Thus safely with my love I thence did wend." So ended he his tale, where I this Canto end. I may now put the question whether, regard being had to the subject matter and point of view of the poem, a man living in Ireland could reasonably be supposed to have written it. The question derives further force from the fact (perhaps not generally known) that in all the six books (excluding the posthumous cantos) there are no local Irish allusions, except in the description of the Irish rivers in Canto xi. of Book IV. (and one by way of illustration — noticed below — in Book 11.);^ and it is significant that, whereas the description of the English rivers is full and detailed, when the poet comes to the Irish rivers he says : Though I them all according their degree Cannot recount, nor tell their hidden race, Nor read the salvage countries through which they pace. (St. 40.) This canto is a digression, and is evidently composed of an early work referred to in the following passage in a letter of" Immerito" to Harvey published anonymously ' See note at p. 78. Ill " THE FAERIE QUE EN E " 77 in I 580/ where the writer says he derived much assistance from " Ilolinshed " : Trust me, you will hardly beleeve what greate good liking and estimation Maister Dyer had of your Satyricall Verses, and I, since the viewe thereof, having before of my selfe had speciall liking of Englishe VersiJ}'i?}g, am even nowe aboute to give you some token, what, and howe well therein I am able to doe : for, to tell you trueth, I minde shortely at convenient leysure, to sette forth a Booke in this kinde, whiche I entitle Epithalamion Thamesis ; whyche Booke, I dare undertake wil be very profitable for the knowledge, and rare for the Invention and manner of handling. For in setting forth the marriage of the Thames : I shewe his first beginning, and offspring, and all the Countrey, that he passeth thorough, and also describe all the Rivers throughout Englande, whyche came to this Wedding, and their righte names, and right passage, &c. A worke, beleeve me, of much labour, wherein notwithstanding Master Holinshed hath muche furthered and advantaged me, who therein hath bestowed singular paines, in searching oute their firste heades and sources : and also in tracing and dogging oute all their Course, til they fall into the Sea. The Irish rivers were probably put in when Part 11. of the poem was being prepared,^ because the author enters a plea for unity : Sith no lesse famous than the rest they bee, And joyne in neighbourhood of kingdome nere. Why should they not likewise in love agree? (St. 40.) The reason for his perfunctory sketch of them (limited to four stanzas) seems to me evidently because Holinshed, who describes the English rivers in great detail, gives no detailed description of the Irish rivers, and the author therefore had to make them out as best he could.^ ' " Three proper and wittie familiar letters," etc. See "Globe" edition of Spenser's Works, p. 709. 2 Another instance occurs of this in the reference to " Oranochy, though but knowen late," which is not earlier than the latter part of 1595, when Ralegh returned from his voyage of discovery. The appeal to " Britons " not to lose the fruits of it (22) anticipates Ralegh's book (to be dealt with later) of 1596. ' I am inclined to think that the mistake in the description of the Cumberland Eden, "Eden though but small" (st. 36), is due to a mis- reading of Holinshed, and is evidence of the poet's habit of rapid and 78 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. There is nothing indicating any local knowledge in the description, except the well-known " Mulla mine, whose waves I whilom taught to weep," which is the conventional language of pastoral poetry. It is most important to note that there are no allu- sions to Irish affairs in the first three books, which appeared in 1590.^ Against this conclusion the character of Sir Satyrane might be cited, whom Upton regarded as a representation of Sir John Perrot." I agree that Satyrane is Perrot, but there is no distinctive reference to any Irish experience, and as Perrot was not appointed Lord Deputy until June 1584, Spenser's introduction of him in Book I. has no significance (as the references, of course, are to his earlier exploits in Ireland and else- where) ; nor have the later episodes. Perrot is said to have been a man of great physical strength and courage, with a violent and arbitrary disposition, which led him to many brawls. Though very gross in his language, he had a generous disposition, and he left a name among the Irish for fair dealing. He was reputed, and believed cursory reading. In the description of the Eden, HoHnshed does not get further than the tributary coming from Ullswater, which he says "runneth forth in a meane and indifferent bottome." 1 It is stated in the article on Spenser in tlie Diet. Nat. Biogr. that "the earliest references which he made to Ireland in the work appear in canto ix. of Book II. (see stanzas 13, 16 and 24)." It is true that the name of Ireland is mentioned in st. 24, but only descriptively, "jet or marble far from Ireland brought " : a line which, if it suggests anything, suggests that Ireland was a remote country to the writer's experience. The same inference is suggested by stanza 1 6 : " As when a swarme of Gnats at eventide Out of the fennes of Allan doe arise, Till the fierce Northerne wind with blustering blast Doth blow tliem quite away, and in the Ocean cast." The bog of Allen is about twenty miles from the coast at its nearest point, and lies due west of Dublin. The name of this bog must have been well known in England, like the "Great Wood." The other stanza forms part of the allegorical description of the various evil beings which invade the "house of Alma" (the body as the seat of the mind), and Ireland (though it may possibly have been in the writer's mind) is not mentioned. 2 "Sir Satyrane is Sir John Perrot: whose behaviour, though honest, yet was too coarse and rude for a Court. . . . 'Twas well known ihat he was a son of Henry the Eighth ; and this is plainly alluded to in F. Q. I. vi. 21, 22." — Upton. Ill '' THE FAERIE QUEENE'' 79 himself to be, a natural son of Henry VIII., whom he resembled in appearance and majesty of deportment. He was condemned to death, probably unjustly, owing to the animosity of men whom he had offended, but Elizabeth hesitated to sign the warrant, and in the meantime he died in the Tower, in September 1592 (aet. 65). His appointment as Lord Deputy terminated in June 1588.' There is, however, a direct allusion to the district in the neighbourhood of Spenser's house at Kilcolman in the first of the two posthumous cantos of " Mutabilitie," where " Arlo-hill " is made the scene of the appeal of " Mutabilitie " to " Nature." These two cantos were published by a bookseller in 1609, ten years after Spenser's death, at the end of a new edition of the Faerie Queene, with no explanation as to their origin, but merely with a title " Two Cantos of Mutabilitie : which, both for forme and matter appeare to be parcell of some following booke of The Faerie Queene, under the Legend of Constancie." To give an appearance of probability to this pretence (as I regard it) the two cantos were numbered vi. and vii. At the end are two reflective stanzas, evidently added to give a close to the poem, headed " The viii Canto, imperfite." The theory that these cantos were found among papers which Spenser had rescued in his flight from his house has never been seriously viewed, and may be dismissed as fabulous. They are obviously the work of the author of the previous six books, though, in my opinion, in a later manner. The references to Irish scenery include the mountain " Mole," and sundry Irish rivers in the locality, under the names of Molanna, Mulla, Bregog, Fanchin ; and " the faire Shure in which are thousand Salmons bred" (vi. 36-55). The principal description in which the names occur is in imitation of 1 Naunton, Fragmenla Regalia, has left us an entertaining portrait of Perrot, and further information about him is to be found in Bagwell, Ireland under Ike Tudors, vol. iii., and in the article in the Diet. Xat. Biog?: The principal references in the poem are I. vi, 20 sq. ; III. vii. 30-61, and viii. 45 ; IV. iv. 8o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the mythical stories of antiquity, designed with a view to making a niise en scene for the episode described in the cantos, which brings together the present and the past. The selection of " Arlo " for this purpose is very suitable, because it was ground hitherto unoccupied in poetical legend, and, while known in England,^ it was sufficiently remote for the purpose of fabulous narrative. There is, however, the strangest mixture of imagery and allusion. Cynthia, the Moon, contains, as usual, an allusion to Queen Elizabeth.^ Jupiter and the other pagan deities assemble on an Irish hill. Dame Nature, an entirely philosophical conception (vii. 5-7), takes up her station on an adjoining hill, and is compared, in the brightness of her raiment, to the scriptural vision on " mount Thabor," a comparison which is followed by an analogy from the bridals of Peleus and Thetis on " Haemus hill " ; and the appeal is conducted in the language of an English law-court (13-15, etc.). But so exuberant a fancy could not submit to straighter confinement. The plan of the Faerie Queene gave the poet the freedom in which he delighted, as thus he writes after completing five books : The waies, through which my weary steps I guide In this delightfull land of Faer)', Are so exceeding spacious and wyde, And sprinkled with such sweet variety Of all that pleasant is to eare or eye, That I, nigh ravisht with rare thoughts delight. My tedious travell doe forget thereby, And, when I gin to feele decay of might, It strength to me supplies, and chears my dulled spright. (Intr. to Book VI.) Having clothed Arlo-hill and the district with legend, the writer gives the necessary touch of reality by deploring the present condition of the district as the harbour of "wolves and thieves" (vi. 55). " Aharlo " and the " Great Wood " are mentioned in documents in Spenser's time as the " chief fastness of the rebels," and » "Who knows not Arlo-hill ?" (Afutab. vi. 36). ^ The Queen died in March 1603. Ill " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 8i at the time this canto was published (1609) the district must have been still largely waste. In the same year Bacon sent a memorandum to the King advocating " replantation," and the following passage which occurs in it bears a close analogy with the train of thought and imagery in the poem, with a similar confusion of pagan and scriptural allusion: For the excellency of the work, I will divide it into four noble and worthy consequences that will follow thereupon. The first of the four is Honour ; whereof I have spoken enough already, were it not that the Harp of Ireland puts me in mind of that glorious emblem or allegory wherein the wisdom of antiquity did figure and shadow out works of this nature. For the poets feigned that Orpheus, by the virtue and sweetness of his harp, did call and assemble the beasts and birds, of their nature wild and savage, to stand about him, as in a theatre ; forgetting their affections of fierceness, of lust, and of prey ; and listening to the tunes and harmonies of the harp ; and soon after called likewise the stones and the woods to remove, and stand in order about him : which fable was anciently interpreted of the reducing and plantation of kingdoms ; when people of barbarous manners are brought to give over and discontinue their customs of revenge and blood and of dissolute life and of theft and rapine, and to give ear to the wisdom of laws and governments ; whereupon immediately followeth the calling of stones for building and habitation, and of trees for the seats of houses, orchards, inclosures, and the like. This work therefore, of all other most memorable and honourable, your Majesty hath now in hand ; specially if your Majesty join the harp of David, in casting out the evil spirit of superstition, with the harp of Orpheus, in casting out desolation and barbarism. I cannot think that a settler in the west of Ireland could have had sufficient leisure or detachment of mind to write in the vein of these cantos, especially as there was no lack of incident in Ireland to engage the imagination ; such, for instance, as the rebellion of the Earl of Desmond (i 579-1 583), who became the subject of legend and romance soon after his death (November 1583); the exploits of Sir Richard Bingham, certainly G 82 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. one of the greatest soldiers and perhaps one of the greatest men of the time ; the personality and doings of Perrot as Lord Deputy ; and, most of all, the rebellion of Tyrone, openly declared in 1595, and thenceforward threatening the whole country. There is not a word or suggestion about any of these events, which must have occupied the mind of every English settler. Instead, we have a work written entirely from the point of view of the Court in London, which deals, in regard to external matters, principally with the struggle with Spain, and only incidentally with Ireland as one of the oversea preoccupations of the Queen's government, and, as regards domestic matters, with the love affairs and gossip of the Court. How could Spenser, living in Ireland, have known about such things ? Even in days of post-offices and newspapers it would be im- possible to have the intimate knowledge which Spenser's poem shows unless the writer lived in those circles. Among such allusions, after those relating to the principal characters, the story of Marinell and Florimell is the most interesting, but some of the minor ones are more purely topical, as, for instance, the episode of iEmylia and Amyas, and of Pseana and Placidas, in Book IV. Cantos viii. and ix. (see especially ix. 13-16), where the poet is evidently pointing his moral by reference to some incidents in the Court circle : otherwise these stories would have no interest whatever. As regards Marinell and Florimell, I have found great difficulty in arriving at a conclusion as to their identity. There can be no question, however, that the poet had some real persons and incidents in his mind, and I will therefore give the clues which I have followed, as they may prove of interest. The first appearance of Marinell is in Canto iv. of Book III.: Bold Marinel of Britomart Is throwne on the Rich strond. (Metrical summary.) Ill " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 83 The capital " R " is evidently intentional, because it is repeated in the canto : For never man he suflfred by that same Rich strond to travell. (20.) Soone as they bene arriv'd upon the brim Of the Rich Strond. (34.) Compare : So fell proud Marinell upon the pretious shore. (17.) that wealthy Strond. (29.) Marinell withstands Britomart's passage upon the shore, with a stroke — that made her downe Decline her head and touch her crouper with her crown. (15.) Recovering, she pierces him " through his three-square scuchin," and leaves him for dead (16). Passing on she wonders at the " pearles and pretious stones," etc., which she sees scattered on the shore, but would not stay for them, "for all was in her powre " (18). Marinell's mother is " Cymoent," daughter of Nereus, who bore "this warlike sonne into an earthly peare, the famous Dumarin " (19), and reared him up until he became "a mighty man at armes," who made travellers by the " Rich strond" to do battle with him (20). At her request Nereus made the wealth of the sea, and from wrecks, to flow to " his Nephew " (22), so that that shore was heaped with riches from all the world and with whatever — The sea unto him voluntary brings ; That shortly he a great Lord did appeare, As was in all the land of Faery, or elsewheare. Marinell's mother, on hearing of his downfall, " threw herselfe downe on the Continent"^ (30), and in lamenting ' The "Continent." This expression also occurs in the fight of Timias with the "three fosters" (foresters) in III. v. 25 : " With that he would have fled into the wood ; But Timias him lightly overhent, Right as he entring was into the flood, And strooke at him with force so violent, That headlesse him into the foord he sent : 84 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. him says that the heavens might have allowed her to close his eyes — and him bed farewell, Sith other offices for mother meet They would not graunt Yet, maulgre them, farewell, my sweetest sweet. There are probably no missing words in the third line, the sentence merely breaking off owing to the allusion being dangerous. If there were, the rhyme would be with " farewell." With this incident, which evidently relates to some legal dispute with the Crown, the story of Florimell is mixed up : The carcas with the streame was carried downe, But th' head fell backeward on the Continent ; So mischief fel upon the meaners crowne. They three be dead with shame, the Squire lives with renowne." The meaning is closely hidden ; but I think the episode probably refers to the unpopular French marriage, and points to the fact that Ralegh's appearance at Court may, by his engaging the Queen's affections, have done much to prevent it. In that construction the " three fosters " would be Charles IX., Anjou (afterwards Henry III.), and Alen^on (d. 1584). Proposals of marriage were made at different times by Catherine on behalf of all the three brothers. There is apparently an allusion to these proposals, as regards the two elder, in one of the Partheniades (addressed to the Queen), which the supposed " Puttenham " refers to as his own work : " A constante mynde, a courage chaste and colde, Where loue lodget not, nor loue bathe any powres ; Not Venus brandes nor Cupide can take holde Nor speeche prevayle, teares, plainte, purple, or golde ; Honoure n'empire, nor youfhe in all his flowers ; This wott ye all full well yf I do lye, Kinges, and kinges peeres, who have soughte farr and wye, But all in vayne, to bee her paramoures. Since two Capetts, three Cezaimes assayde. And bidd repulse of the great Britton mayde." I think "Cezaimes" is probably a word formed out of "Caesar" and "aimer," and the reference would be to the marriage proposals of Philip of .Spain, the Archduke, and the King of Sweden. (For .in account of these poems, see The Arte of English Poesie, 1589, Arber Reprints, 1906, p. 11.) This note, however, is subject to the remarks on the dual character of Timias in Clia|)ter XVII. The writer may, in this incident, be thinking rather of his own prowess in withstanding the French marriage through the letter presented to the Queen \>y Sir Philip Sidney in 1580, of which I believe Bacon to be the author (see Chapter VII.). See also the remarks about Mother HubberJs Tale in Chapter VI. Ill " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 85 The tydinges bad, Which now in Faery court all men doe tell, Which turned hath great mirth to mourning sad, Is the late ruine of proud Marinell, And sudden parture of faire Florimell To find him forth : and after her are gone All the brave knightes that doen in armes excell To saveguard her ywandred all alone. (III. viii. 46.) Florimell is a beautiful character. She is first heard of as being pursued by a " foule ill-favoured foster" (III. i. 17 and v. 6), who appears there to represent some one of brutal manners who wished to marry her. She is described as — a gentle Lady of great sway And high accompt throughout all Elfin land. (III. v. 4.) Also, Lives none this day that may with her compare In steadfast chastitie and vertue rare The goodly ornaments of beautie bright ; And is ycleped Florimell the fayre, Faire Florimell belov'd of many a knight, Yet she loves none but one, that Marinell is hight. {Ibid. 8.) Again, All her delight is set on Marinell, But he sets nought at all by Florimell. {Ibid. 9.) She has various sorrowful adventures (III. vii. and viii.), which, in viii. 20, are referred to as follows : But Florimell her selfe was far away, Driven to great distresse by fortune straunge. And taught the carefuU Mariner to play, Sith late mischaunce had her compeld to chaunge The land for sea, at randon there to raunge : Yett there that cruell Queene avengeresse, Not satisfyde so far her to estraunge From courtly blis and wonted happinesse, Did heape on her new waves of weary wretchednesse. She reappears in Part II., having been imprisoned in a sea-dungeon by Proteus, because she will not yield to his desire : And all this was for love of Marinell Who her despysed. (IV. xi. 5.) 86 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Marinell hears her in her sea -prison lamenting his hardness of heart, and, smitten with remorse, falls desper- ately in love with her. His mother thereupon arranges matters : To Proteus selfe to sew she thought it vaine, Who was the root and worker of her woe. Nor unto any meaner to complaine ; But unto great king Neptune selfe did goe, And, on her knee before him falHng lowe. Made humble suit unto his Majestic To graunt to her her sonnes life, which his foe, A cruell Tyrant, had presumpteouslie By wicked doome condemn'd a wretched death to die. To whom God Neptune, softly smyling, thus : " Daughter, me seemes of double wrong ye plaine, Gainst one that hath both wronged you and us ; For death t' adward I ween'd did appertaine To none but to the seas sole Soveraine. Read therefore who it is which this hath wrought. And for what cause ; the truth discover plaine, For never wight so evill did or thought. But would some rightfull cause pretend, though rightly nought." To whom she answer'd : " Then, it is by name Proteus, that hath ordayn'd my sonne to die ; For that a waift, the which by fortune came Upon your seas, he claym'd as propertie : And yet nor his, nor his in equitie. But yours the waift by high prerogative. Therefore I humbly crave your Majestie It to replevie, and my sonne reprive. So shall you by one gift save all us three alive." He graunted it : and streight his warrant made, Under the Sea-gods scale autenticall, Commaunding Proteus straight t' enlarge the mayd, Which wandring on his seas imperiall He lately tooke, and sithence kept as thrall. Which she receiving with meetc thankefulnesse, Departed straight to Proteus thcrewithall ; Who, reading it with inward loathfulncsse, Was grieved to restore the pledge he did possesse. (IV. xii. 29-32.) The appearance at his home of Florimell restores Marinell, and their wedding takes place, with a great Ill '' THE FAERIE QUEENE" 87 contest of knights, at the " Castle of the Strond " (V. ii. 4 and Canto iii.). The conclusion at which I have arrived with regard to this episode, though with much hesitation, is that in Marinell there is an allusion to George Clifford, 3rd Earl of Cumberland, and that in Florimell we have a portrait of his wife, Margaret, youngest daughter of Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford. A separate account of both is given in the Dictiofiary of Natw?ial Biography. The Earl of Cumberland and Ralegh were the principal representa- tives of the navigators at the Court, men on whom the Queen depended so largely both for supplies and in her struggle with Spain. Clifford seems to have been a man of valour and endurance in the highest degree. From 1586 to the time of his death in 1605 he was constantly engaged on more or less piratical expeditions, in which he risked his money in association with the Queen, Ralegh, and other "adventurers." He was born in 1558, was the eldest son of Henry, 2nd Earl of Cumberland (i6th Lord Clifford and i 2th Baron of Westmorland), by his second wife, Anne, daughter of William, 3rd Lord Dacre of Gillesland ; ^ he succeeded to the Earldom in i 570 on the death of his father, when he became a ward of the Earl of Bedford, whose youngest daughter, Lady Margaret Russell, he married in 1577. He was in residence at Trinity College, Cambridge, from 1571 to 1574, so that he must have met Francis Bacon, as a boy, at the same college. For the rest, Clifford (in the words of the writer of the article above mentioned) " is described as a man of great personal beauty, strong and active, accomplished in all knightly exercises, splendid in dress, and of romantic valour. On the other hand he was a gambler and a spendthrift, a faithless husband, and for several years before his death was separated (owing, apparently, to an intrigue with another lady of the Court) from his wife." " ' " Margaret," the mother of Ferdinand© Stanley (see p. 65 above), was Clifford's half-sister. ^ There are pictures of both in the National Portrait Gallery, that of the Earl a very striking one, in which he is seen wearing the Queen's glove in his hat. 88 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. The Countess, his wife, was a sister of Anne, wife of Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick,^ and was mother of one daughter, Anne, Countess of Dorset, Pembroke, and Montgomery, who married (1609) Richard Sackville, Lord Buckhurst, afterwards 2nd Earl of Dorset. The daughter was a great builder, and, among other things, erected the monument to Spenser in Westminster Abbey. The writer of the article above mentioned states that she describes her mother as a " woman of greate naturall wit and judgment, of a swete disposition, truly religious and virtuous, and endowed with a large share of those four moral virtues, prudence, justice, fortitude and temperance " ; and that a manuscript note in a Bodleian copy of Walpole's Noble Authors ascribes to her "some beautiful verses in the stile of Spenser," which are said to appear on a monument of Richard Candish of Suffolk, in Hornsey Church, Middlesex.^ Samuel Daniel was, for a time, the tutor of the daughter. Upton suggests that " perhaps ' Marinell,' who has his name from the sea, was intended to represent the Lord High Admiral, the Lord Howard " ; but " Marinell " is referred to as a youth (IV. xii. i 3), and Howard, being born in 1536, was too old for the story ; also nothing is known about the relations with his wife ^ (Catherine, daughter of Henry Carey, 1st Lord Hunsdon, first cousin to the Queen) which would justify any analogy. One of Howard's daughters married, in 1587, Sir Richard Leveson, who was apparently much employed in naval commands and became Vice - Admiral, but that con- nection gives no clue. Some connection with the Cinque Ports might possibly be alluded to, of which Lord Cobham was Lord Warden, but there again nothing emerges. I have failed also to make out anything which would apply * The " Fowre Hymnes " are dedicated to these two sisters. It may be mentioned that their brother, Lord John Russell (d. 1584), married Bacon's maternal aunt, Klizabelh, fourth daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke. 2 The verses are quoted in Walpole, continued by Park, 1806. I find nothing Spenserian about them. ^ This was the lady, as the Countess of Nottingham, who is said to have intercepted the "ring" sent to the Queen by the Earl of Essex before his execution. The story is discredited by some modern writers. Ill '' THE FAERIE QUEENE" 89 from " his three-square scuchin," ^ and probably this is intentionally misleading. In short, I can find nothing more probable than that the allusion is to the Earl and Countess of Cumberland. To the one the poet addresses a sonnet, to the other a dedication. They belonged to the Court circle round which the Faerie Queene centres, and where, in my opinion, identifications must be sought. It may be said that the words in III. iv. 23, " that shortly he a great Lord did appear," are inapplicable to Cumber- land, the Cliffords being an old and powerful family, but they may refer to his favoured position at Court and the opportunities which it gave him of new wealth. No doubt the story does not tally in all the particulars. It is a pretty tale, devised by the poet as an appeal to better feelings, which might come home to such a man as the Earl. This was in accordance with his conviction, re- peatedly expressed, that most people receive instruction better by example, pleasantly displayed, than by precept {Qmne tulit pujictum, qui viiscuit utile dulci)?' The " Rich strond," however, is obviously something which cannot be explained as part of a tale of fiction. It must have some definite meaning, but what it is I am quite unable to say. The name of Lord Rich, the husband of Penelope Devereux, occurs, but I do not find that anything is to be made out of that. The only other clue which I can suggest is " rich Spencer," the name under which (according to the writer of the article in the Diction- ary of National Biography) Sir John Spencer, city merchant and Lord Mayor of London, was known. He was a great trader, and is said to have had practically a monopoly, with two other merchants, of the whole trade of Tripoli. Such men owned and frequently sailed their own ships, and Cumberland, who was a great speculator, might well have had dealings with him. The law case alluded to • " Three fusils " (or " lozanges ") were the arms of Sir Anthony Browne, 1st Viscount Montague of Cowdray (i 526-1 592), taken from the ancient Montacutes, Earls of Salisbury. There is no apparent clue here, beyond the fact that Lady Montague was Cumberland's maternal aunt. 2 See, for instance, Works, *' Globe" edition, p. 708, where the line is adopted by " Immerito '' in some Latin verses. It was the writer's early motto. 90 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. in the poem may refer to one of those many disputes between the Queen and the " adventurers " as to the division of spoil taken on the high seas. Or it may refer to the port of London ; but these are suggestions which I can only offer for what they are worth. It is, of course, just possible that the capital R, suggesting a name, is a " blind." [But see further as to Marinell in Chapter XVII.] The boldest, and, historically, perhaps the most in- teresting, allusiori in the Faerie Queeue is the allegorical description of the trial of Mary, Queen of Scots, in Canto ix. of Book V. It is evidently intended as a vindication in the eyes of foreigners of Elizabeth's action, and it is managed with wonderful artistic skill. Nor, on the whole, does it seem to me unjustified, considering the international situation and the painful anxieties of the Queen's position in that affair. Prince Arthur and Arthegal, arriving at Mercilla's palace, find a case proceeding " which on both sides was then debating hard." In order that the knights may understand it, " and witnesse forth aright in forrain land," they are taken up by Mercilla to her throne. " Duessa " is brought in — A Ladie of great countenance and place, But that she it with foule abuse did marre ; and the trial proceeds, during which feeling sways to and fro. We recognise Burghley in the lines — First was a sage old Syre, that had to name The Kingdomes Care, with a white silver hed, and in " Zele " I think the writer sees himself, as he would conduct a case for the Crown if he were given the oppor- tunity, and as he did later, with tragic results, in the case of the unfortunate Earl of Essex. Duessa having been found guilty, in the language of the courts Zele " calls for judgment," and the dreadful moment has come when the Queen has to take the re- sponsibility. In a dexterous and gorgeous image, however, the poet finds means of escape : Jll " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 91 But she, whose Princely brest was touched nere With piteous ruth of her so wretched plight, Though plaine she saw, by all that she did heare, That she of death was guiltie found by right, Yet would not let just vengeance on her light ; But rather let, instead thereof, to fall Few perling drops from her faire lampes of light The which she covering with her purple pall Would have the passion hid, and up arose withall. I may remind the reader of what occurred. The re- collections of the previous reign, the threats of Spain and the Papacy, the Catholic plots against Elizabeth's life, in which Mary was held to be involved, and the anxiety of the country about the succession, had at last resulted in a strong agitation for the execution of Mary. The Queen appointed Commissioners to try the case, chosen Irom the Council and the leading families of England, and the sentence of death was passed on 25th October i 586. On the I 2th November, both Houses of Parliament petitioned for the carrying out of the sentence. It appears that the Queen ordered Burghley to prepare the warrant, and with characteristic prudence he sent it to her by Davison, who was joint Secretary with Walsingham.^ It is said that she ordered him to put it by, and, at last, on ist February 1587, Lord Howard of Effingham had an audience and strongly deprecated further delay, whereupon the Queen told Howard to send for Davison, and she signed the warrant, but told Davison to hint to Sir Amyas Paulet, who, with Drury, was in charge of Mary at Fotheringay, that he should manage the business himself without a public execution. Paulet indignantly refused, and in the meantime Davison had taken the warrant to the Chancellor, who at once affixed the seal. Burghley thereupon called a Council ; the warrant was sent down in their name, and Mary was executed on the 8th February. In the interval it is said that the Queen had several times sent for Davison * See the article under "William Davison" in the Did. Nat. Biogr., also that under " Francis Walsingham," where the writer says that Walsing- ham drafted the letter to Paulet and Drury. It seems probable that the harsh treatment which Walsingham received from the Queen before his death in 1590 was due to exasperation at his efficiency in bringing matters to an issue (whether fairly, or from motives of State policy, is a question in dispute). 92 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. and complained of the responsibility, and of the pressure which was being put on her ; and when the news arrived of the execution, she at once announced that in getting the warrant sealed he had gone beyond her instructions. He was heavily fined, imprisoned in the Tower till 1589, and ruined. One of the causes of the Queen's exaspera- tion was probably the scrupulosity, as she no doubt re- garded it, of Paulet, against whom, however, she could take no steps without revealing her instructions to Davison, which, it appears, he loyally kept to himself. Elizabeth had every reason at that time to shrink from an open breach with the Catholic powers, and, as a woman, she had much more sympathy with those who adhered to the Catholic faith than with the extreme Protestants. More- over, though in some respects callous, she was averse to bloodshed, especially within the range of her acquaintance ; Mary Stuart was her cousin, and she was strongly imbued with the idea of the sacredness of the person of the Prince. Her position therefore in relation to Mary was of unusual difficulty, and her distress and anger when she was at last compelled by her subjects to take action is quite intelli- gible. Spenser has made the best of the situation from the Queen's point of view, and in adopting the theory that she was not personally responsible for what occurred, he was, no doubt, administering balm to her feelings, and vindicating her on the lines which she had herself attempted in the oppressive proceedings against the Secretary. It would be a mistake, however, to regard this as mere flattery. Sentiment for the Queen and patriotism are at least as much in evidence in the de- scription, and in writing it the poet, no doubt, had his eye on posterity. With " Duessa " are connected sundry other figures, but of them I need only mention Blandamour and Paridell. Upton thought that they represent the Earls of Northumberland and Westmorland, and, as regards the former, he points to the phrase " the hot-spurre youth" (IV. i. 35), "which was the well-known name Ill " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 93 of the young Percy in the reign of King Henry IV." This explanation has been generally adopted, but besides being rather "ancient history," it does not cover the ground. Blandamour and Paridell are represented as young men, as paramours of Duessa, and generally as fickle, false, vain and dissolute. The two Earls were Catholics of the North, who took up arms unsuccessfully in Mary Stuart's favour in 1569. Westmorland had a bad reputation (and, to that extent, fits the character), but nothing is alleged against Northumberland (Thomas Percy, seventh Earl) except that he was " dangerously obstinate in religion " ; otherwise he had the character of being " simple." I think that Blandamour stands for the next Earl, Henry Percy, who was suspected of com- plicity with the Throckmorton conspiracy, and who killed himself, or (as some held) was murdered, in the Tower in 1585;^ and that Paridell represents Philip Howard, first Earl of Arundel of the Howard family (son of the Duke of Norfolk who was beheaded), who, in his early youth about the Court, as the Earl of Surrey, drew, for a time, the favour of the Queen. His life at that period was disorderly, and he was notorious for his extravagance ; afterwards, through the influence of his wife, and perhaps of Campion, he became a Romanist of devotion. He died in the Tower in 1595, having been condemned to death for treason in 1589 and reprieved by the Oueen,^ who however appears to have treated him in other respects with great harshness. In support of this conclusion it is worthy of remark that Philip Arundel supplies the letters ^ Camden describes him as "a man of a lively and active spirit and courage," Kennett (1719), ii. 504. ^ Camden's remarks on this event (1589) are interesting : " There were a great many that most heartily lamented the untimely fall of this young noble- man (fur he was not above 33 years of age at the most), and as many on the other side who were ready to cry up the Queen's wisdom and caution, who by this example had struck a kind of terror into the more powerful part of the Romish faction. The Queen after gave him his life and was well enough satisfied in having lessened the power of so considerable a man, and one who was so great a bulwark of the Catholic c.iuse." — /d/d. p. 553. Arundel's letter to the Queen (see Lz/e, ed. Duke of Norfolk, 1857) is noted in the "scribble" of the Northumberland MS. as by Bacon. Certainly it bears evidence of this origin. 94 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. for " Paridell," as Northumberland does those for " Bland- amour." In this view, the enigmatical line in IV. i. 36, "Her fayned Paramour, her forced guest," finds an explana- tion, Arundel, as is said, having tried, without success, in his youth, to become the Queen's favourite, and Northumberland (as may be inferred from this passage) meeting with no better success. The incidents in this and the following canto, though they must be accepted with reserve as history, refer to Elizabeth's distrust of their loyalty, and their alleged intrigues with the Guises and the Scottish Queen. The particular passage (i. 36, 37), in which the personality of Britomart and Amoret are confused (purposely, I think), is a further piece of evidence for the view already expressed that Amoret represents the " woman " side of Queen Elizabeth, and the hatred of Blandamour and Paridell for Scudamore (39 sq^ becomes one of the strongest points for the Ralegh interpretation in the case of the latter. A similar incident occurs earlier in the canto, where a certain " young knight " challenges Britomart for Amoret. As it is practically a repetition of the affair between Britomart and Paridell in III, ix. 16, 20-25, the allusion is probably to Arundel and the Queen's clemency towards him on more than one occasion. Being over- thrown, Britomart attaches him to her service, and the following scene, in which her sex is disclosed to Amoret as well as the young man, takes place : With that, her glistring helmet she unlaced ; Which doft, her golden lockes, that were upbound Still in a knot, unto her heeles downe traced. And like a silken veile in compasse round About her backe and all her bodie wound : Like as the shining skie in summers night, What time the dayes with scorching heat abound, Is creasted all with lines of firie light, That it prodigious seemes in common peoples sight. Such when those Knights and Ladies all about Beheld her, all were with amazement smit. And every one gan grow in secret dout Of this and that, according to each wit : Ill THE FAERIE QUEEN E " 9$ Some thought that some enchantment faygned it ; Some, that Bellona in that warHke wise To them appear'd, with shield and armour fit ; Some, that it was a maske of strange disguise : So diversely each one did sundrie doubts devise. But that young Knight, which through her gentle deed Was to that goodly fellowship restor'd, Ten thousand thankes did yeeld her for her meed, And, doubly overcommen, her ador'd. So did they all their former strife accord ; And eke fayre Amoret, now freed from feare, More franke affection did to her afford. {/did. 13, 14, I 5-) Upton's suggestion (in which he has been followed by others) that Sir Philip Sidney appears in Sir Calidore, the knight of Courtesie (Book VI.), and Walsingham and his daughter Frances, who was Sidney's wife, in " Old Meliboe " and Pastorella (Canto ix. sg.), has the appear- ance of being right, and I think it is so as regards the two last characters. Walsingham is promised a higher celebration of his praises in the sonnet which accompanies the first three books ; but he died, shortly after their appearance, in April 1590. An eclogue "upon the death of the Right Honorable Sir Francis Walsingham," called " Meliboeus," in Latin and English, by Thomas Watson, appeared in the same year. His death is also alluded to by Spenser under the same name (" good Melibce ") in T/ie Rtiines of Time, which appeared early in 1591. But there is nothing very characteristic in the figure of Sir Calidore, and it might contain an allusion, as well, to Essex, who is described as having " a certain innate courtesy," which was one of the qualities which endeared him to the people. Also he married Sidney's widow.^ * Presumably shortly before Walsingham's death in 1 590. Sidney's death occurred in 1586. If Goodman's relation is to be depended upon, this marriage was probably one of policy, with a view to enabling Essex to obtain possession of Walsingham's papers. Burghley, however, was too quick for him. This story would also account for the Earl marrying out of his rank, in doing which the Queen told him he had disgraced himself, and for the short time during which her displeasure lasted. Goodman says that his informant was Bishop Overall, who had the account from Essex himself on an occasion when he visited him in the lime of his latter troubles : " The 96 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. For reasons, however, which will be given in a later chapter, I think Sir Calidore, in the main, represents the author himself under another phase, and that Sir Calepine is probably intended for Sir Philip Sidney, or possibly Essex. The name " Serena " (the love of Sir Calepine) may have been suggested by the letters in the name " Frances." These points, however, involve diffi- culties, and must be reserved for further consideration. In stanza 24 of Canto ix. there is presumably an allusion to Walsingham's labours and his poverty, which the Queen neglected to relieve, at the close of his life. The characters of Calidore, Meliboe, and Pastorella in this episode reappear in the Winter's Tale as Florizel, the " Old Shepherd," and Perdita.' The " Castle of Belgard " (Canto xii. 3), where the discovery of Pastorella's parent- age takes place, is thought by Upton to be an allusion to Belvoir, in which case one of the Earls of Rutland is intended in " the good Sir Bellamoure " ; but I can express no opinion on this. By " the mightie Oberon," in II. X. 75, Henry VIII. is intended, and, when this is seen, the interpretation of the rest of that curious stanza follows.^ The " embatteld cart " of the " Souldan " Earl said further unto him, that when he was a suitor unto his lady, he came to Sir Francis Walsingham and told him that he came to be a suitor unto his daughter not for any wealth or portion, for it was thought he had little, but only that he might be so enabled by his good council as that he may be fit to do his prince and his country some service. Whereupon his father-in-law did assure him, that what directions he could give him would not be wanting. The match went on, and the Queen hearing thereof, was much offended : then did the Earl of Essex fall out of her favour, and it was thought fit that he should retire himself from the Court for a time until the Queen's anger were a little over ; during which time of his absence, Secretary Walsingham suddenly died ; and immediately the Lord Treasurer Burleigh informed the Queen, that he being Secretary, no doubt but he had many notes and papers which concerned the State ; that they should be seized upon : and the Queen gave orders accordingly. Whereupon all his notes and instructions came to the hands of the Cecils, and he could never after regain them." — The Court 0/ A'tHi^ James the First (ed. Brewer), i. 147. * Shakespearian critics, so far as I have observed, neglect to notice this, and refer only to Greene's tale Pandosto as the basis of the play. The .«ame characters occur there under the names of Dorastus, Borrus, and Fawnia. Greene's tale was published in London in 1588. 2 Warton seems to have been the first to notice this. It is fairly obvious when the poet's method is recognised. .See Todd, 2, xciv. Ill '' THE FAERIE QUEENE" 97 (V. viii. 34) represents, no doubt, the galleons of the Spanish Armada, and in the fight between him and Prince Arthur (28-44) the course of events in that contest, ending in the utter destruction of the Spanish fleet, is portrayed. It has been suggested that in Radigund, the Amazon Queen (Book V. iv. and v.), there is an allusion to Mary, Queen of Scots, and her power over men ; but, while this may be intended, I think the episode has a more extended application, and is intended to represent the results which follow from the reversal of the natural relation between the sexes, the opportunity being taken by the poet to express his disapprobation of that type of woman ; see particularly Canto v. 25 — "Such is the crueltie of womenkynd," etc. (In that stanza "base" is used of relativity, and is the French bas, soumis}') A local allusion, of much interest from my point of view, occurs in the episode of Pollante and Lady Munera, in Book V. ii. The poet leaves us in no doubt as to the meaning of the allegory of the " cursed cruell Sarazin " and " his Bridge," because he says that he lets no one pass without making him " his passage-penny pay " (6). He has a " groome," with a " skull all raw " who " pols and pils the poore," while he himself " uppon the rich doth tyrannize." In these proceedings he is helped by his daughter — Who all that comes doth take, and therewith fill The coffers of her wicked threasury. Arthegal kills the toll-collector, and after a desperate encounter with Pollant^, smites off his head in the water, and His corps was carried downe along the Lee. The castle is then forced, and Lady Munera meets with a dreadful end, " withouten pitty," at the hands of * Cf. II. ix. 22, the material of which probably comes from books; but, in any case, it is physiological, and does not refer to the soul, H 98 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Talus (25-27). This description may raise a smile now, but it was evidently written quite seriously by the author. In order to satisfy the conditions of the story the locality must have been a populous one, where money was in use among the common people, and where there was a bridge over a river or stream which could not otherwise be conveniently crossed. The author must also have been familiar with the circumstances in order that his indigna- tion should have been so aroused. None of these condi- tions prevailed in Ireland at that time, and the Irish Lee is moreover many miles from Kilcolman, and is only referred to in the list of Irish rivers in IV. xi. as it appears at Cork, " the spreading Lee." I conclude that the "Lee" referred to is the Hertfordshire and Middlesex Lea, which enters the Thames below the City through a district which was a fairly populous one in those days. A similar instance of the introduction of the Hertfordshire Lea occurs in the ProtJialamion, and it is done in the same unobtrusive way, so that it easily escapes notice. The " Meadow " in that poem appears, from stanzas i and 2, to be on the Thames, but the scene passes in- sensibly to the banks of the " Lee," and at some distance from London, which is only reached " at length " (stanza 8). I attach, however, no significance to this, as the poet required a more idyllic scene for the brides (in the shape of the swans) — who had also to be brought from the country — than the banks of the tidal river below Essex House. The device also gives movement to the poem. I mention it to show how elusive the poet's method is. He trusts to the invention and melody to beguile the reader into accepting the treatment, however arbitrary, without further explanation. The Hertfordshire Lea (spelt " Lee ") is also mentioned in the Ruines of Time. I have said little about Prince Arthur and Timias, because I propose to discuss those characters in a later chapter. I will close this chapter with a word about the " Maske of Cupid," which forms part of the conclu- sion of the first portion of the poem. The seriousness Ill " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 99 and intensity of this description arrest the attention perhaps even more than the marvellous power of in- vention which it displays. The cause of this, in my opinion, is that it is a piece of self-expression, and it is interesting to observe that at the head of the pro- cession of figures, all representing unhappiness and disaster in one form or another, the poet places " Fansy " : The first was Fansy, like a lovely Boy Of rare aspect, and beautie without peare, His garment nether was of silke nor say, But paynted plumes in goodly order dight, Like as the sunburnt Indians do aray Their tawney bodies in their proudest plight : As those same plumes so seemd he vaine and light, That by his gate might easily appeare ; For still he far'd as dauncing in delight. And in his hand a windy fan did beare. That in the ydle ayre he mov'd still here and theare. (III. xii. 7, 8.) The figure accompanies " Desyre," and is not in- cluded in the pageant as a mere poetical flourish, but, in my opinion, deliberately, in accordance with Bacon's ideas as to the nature of the soul, as will be hereafter explained. The " grave personage," who appears before the entry of the Masque, is evidently the poet's idea of himself, outside and in control of the shapes which stream from his imaginative faculty. The action is taken from what was known as the " dumb show." The name " Ease " seen on his robe is, I think, the poet's way of hinting that the labourer is worthy of his hire, and that the work of this nature which he had in view could not be properly done except under conditions of leisure and independence. The anonymous Arte of English Poesie, addressed to the Queen, to which allusion has been made, contains hints of this kind, and they occur elsewhere. The stanzas (3 and 4) are as follow : All suddeinly a stormy whirlwind blew Throughout the house, that clapped every dore. loo SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CH. in With which that yron wicket open flew, As it with mighty levers had bene tore ; And forth yssewd, as on the readie flora Of some Theatre, a grave personage That in his hand a braunch of laurell bore, With comely haveour and count'nance sage, Yclad in costly garments fit for tragicke Stage. Proceeding to the midst he stil did stand. As if in minde he somewhat had to say ; And to the vulgare beckning with his hand, In signe of silence, as to heare a play, By lively actions he gan bewray Some argument of matter passioned : Which doen, he backe retyred soft away, And, passing by, his name discovered. Ease, on his robe in golden letters cyphered. Among the various strange figures of the Masque there is one which is altogether human : With him went Hope in rancke, a handsome Mayd, Of chearefull looke and lovely to behold : In silken samite she was light arayd. And her fayre lockes were woven up in gold : She alway smyld, and in her hand did hold .An holy-water-sprinckle, dipt in deowe. With which she sprinckled favours manifold On whom she list, and did great liking sheowe. Great liking unto many, but true love to feowe. It is not difficult to see that in this beautiful picture a portrait of Queen Elizabeth, as a young woman, is intended. CHAPTER IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON In this chapter I shall say something on the attitude of Spenser, Shakespeare and Bacon towards the " crowd," and on their use of the word " spirits," which will involve an account of Bacon's ideas as to the nature of the soul. In the accepted theory of their identity both Spenser and Shakespeare were sprung from the people. Yet they both write of them in a tone which probably surpasses in contempt that of any other well-known writer. Of the two perhaps Spenser is the more uncompromising, and his expressions in this respect show a habit of mind, not the adoption of a theory. There is no lack of humanity in the abstract, or in matters indifferent, but where the social and political order are concerned the multitude are relegated by their nature to subordination, and there is practically no recognition of the possibility of their improvement as an element in the State. No doubt this was generally in accordance with the thought of the age, but even when due allowance for this has been made, the fact remains that the tone in this respect is harsher and morally lower than is usual in English writers, or than can be accounted for by imitation of Homer or Italian models. The expression " raskall many," which Spenser uses in describing the multitude, is a near approach to the French word canaille^ for which there is no English equivalent. It is given as an instance by the writer of the Arte of English Poesie (1589) of a word used when a " naturall and proper terme " is lacking, which, in that case, " is not then spoken by . . . lOI UNIVERSITY OF CALlFQRrM 102 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Metaphore . . . but by plain abuse, as he that bad his man go into his Hbrary and fet him his bowe and arrovves, for in deede there was neuer a booke there to be found, or as one should in reproch say to a poore man, thou raskall knaue, where raskall is properly the hunters terme giuen to young deere, leane and out of season, and not to people." The following are examples of Spenser's use of the term and of the attitude above referred to : But, when as overblowen was that brunt, Those knights began afresh them to assayle, And all about the fields like Squirrels hunt ; But chiefly Talus with his yron flayle. Gainst which no flight nor rescue mote avayle, Made cruell havocke of the baser crew. And chaced them both over hill and dale. The raskall manie soone they overthrew ; But the two knights themselves their captains did subdew. F. Q. V. xi. 59. Similarly, when the knight slays the dragon (I. xii. 9) : And after all the raskall many ran. Heaped together in rude rabblement, To see the face of that victorious man. . . . And again in the description of the house of Busyrane (III. xi. 46) : Kings, Queenes, Lords, Ladies, knights, and Damsels gent. Were heap'd together with the vulgar sort, And mingled with the raskall rablement. Without respect of person or of port, To shew Dan Cupids powre and great effort : And round about a border was entrayld Of broken bowes and arrowes shivered short ; And a long bloody river through them rayld, So lively and so like that living sence it fayld. After reading these passages it is amusing to find Gabriel Harvey expressing himself (in reference to Nashe's complaints) in similar terms about "sizars" : in these and such other most -base and shamefull complaints, scarcely beseeming the rascallest siscr in an Vniversity, or the beggarliest mendicant frier in a country. — Foure Letters^ 1592. IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 103 The fact is there is no important work in the English language written so exclusively and with such uncom- promising ardour from the aristocratic standpoint as the Faerie Quecne. Similar language is used in this connection throughout Bacon's works. For example : the natural depravity and malignant dispositions of the vulgar, which to kings is an envenomed serpent. — Wisdom of the Ancients, " Typhon, or a Rebel." the same vile and restless nature of the people. — Ibid. "Sister of the Giants, or Fame." the vulgar, to whom no moderate measures can be acceptable. — Ibid. " Diomed, or Zeal." the invidious and malignant nature of the vulgar. — Ibid. " Nemesis." but for rascal people, they were cut off every man. — History of Henry the Seventh^ P- 456 (Chandos edition). for high conceits do sometimes come streaming into the imaginations of base persons, especially when they are drunk with news and talk of the people. — Of the Lambert Simnel imposture, ibid. p. 397. As for the severity used upon those which were taken in Kent, it was but upon a scum of people. — Ibid. p. 503. On this the editor observes in a note : " Bacon's contempt for the people belonged to his age, but is certainly repulsive even with this excuse." Numerous passages, however, could be cited from Bacon's acknow- ledged writings to show that he was solicitous, in advance of his age, for the welfare of the people. The passages above quoted all have reference to the business of government. Where the questions of government or power were not at stake Bacon was humane and gentle in disposition. Undoubtedly it is the portrait of himself, as idealised in his own mind, which he gives us in the Neiv Atlantis in the person of " one of the fathers of Solomon's House " : The day being come he made his entry. He was a man of middle stature and age, comely of person, and had an aspect as if he pitied men. I04 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAP. Universal benevolence, however, is quite compatible with callousness in dealing with individuals, and it is here where Bacon's deficiencies become apparent. His habit of seeing things from the universal standpoint made him indifferent to individuals. " In profusion," he writes, " there is no room for desire." An enthusiast for truth he had little regard for the truth, and though in this he was perhaps no worse than others who were similarly engaged in affairs, and better than some, yet he had more pretensions than they had and more light. But I think it will be found, if once the view is accepted as to the phenomenal character of Bacon's imaginative faculty, that there was a corresponding deficiency on the emotional side, which accounts for the deficiency in moral sense which his character and writings suggest. In the quality of philosophic judgment Bacon is supreme, and as no man has really good judgment in matters beyond the everyday experience who is deficient in imagination, it seems reasonable to conclude that the one follows to some extent from the other. In any case the greater the genius the greater the necessity, in order to make it effective, for judicial control. In Bacon imagination and judgment worked together, but on the emotional side and in moral sense he was relatively weak. There is, however, another cause to which Bacon's attitude towards the people, which we are here considering, may partly be attributed, namely, his passion for order and completeness (or finality). This is essentially a passion of the soul, to which the complexity and shifting nature of phenomena are abhorrent. In Spenser's poetry, laments over " muta- bility " are constant, and the sense of it is stamped on Shakespeare's greatest work. In the region of politics it took the form with Bacon of a distrust of all changes in machinery, and of a desire to concentrate power in the fewest hands : " therefore care would be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad, which commonly is done when the people is the reformer " (" Of Superstition "). Bacon had also a passion for distinction and magnifi- IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 105 cence, with a strong instinct for worship, and the sovereign, in his mind, was the idealised object of these feelings. In short, his spiritual ideas are primitive and, if one may- use the phrase in so great an example, child-like. In this respect he is below the standard of his age, and seems to me to present the phenomenon of what is called by biologists a " throwback." Spiritually, he is nearer allied to Homer than Aeschylus was. French critics have said that the distinguishing feature of English poetry is the imagination displayed in it, which is an affair of " energy." ^ Apart from the question of experience and the trained judgment required in the process of selection, I think there is probably a good deal of truth in this. This " energy " has its roots in the past, and it seems certain that the special manifesta- tion of it in " invention " — the combined effect of imagination with great powers of memory — was more universal in remote antiquity than in historical times. Bacon certainly held this opinion. In " invention " Shakespeare and Spenser surpass all the poets, perhaps even not excluding Homer,^ and both of them give evidence of the same primitive spirituality which is one of the most noticeable features in Bacon's life and writings.^ Possibly, therefore, the presence of the power of " invention " in an abnormal degree is necessarily accompanied by a backward spiritual development. The idea that the quality of imagination found in Shakespeare's plays was a product of the times which was shared to a ' In contradistinction with "taste" (goilt), the sense of fitness and order, in which French art excels. 2 The ancients held that the essence of poetry was "invention." In Sidney's Apologie those poets only who display this quality are treated as "right poets." Bacon i^Adv. of Learning) expresses the same view; so did Dr. Johnson (see Life of Waller). Spenser, when he speaks of " the antique Poets historicall " (by which he means "feigned history"), has the same thought in mind (see letter to Ralegh introductory to the Faerie Queene, and cf. Adv. of Learning, Spedding, Works, iii. 343 sq., quoted below in Chapter V. p. 152). ^ The only difference (not an essential one) which I can perceive between Spenser and Shakespeare is that the former ransacks books more obviously for his examples, and writes in the trammels of an elaborately rhymed stanza, whereas the latter draws his material more directly from life, through a maturer self-knowledge, and is less hampered by difficulties of form. io6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. large extent by every one is, in my belief, a misconception. The scene between Hamlet and the players is enough, by itself, to throw doubt on this theory.^ It is unnecessary to quote examples from Shakespeare's plays of his attitude towards the crowd, as they are familiar to everybody. The habit of thought, and the language in which he expresses it, are similar in all respects to what is found in Spenser and Bacon. Perhaps the best summary of his attitude in his most dispassionate mood is to be found in the lines put into the mouth of the Duke in Measure for Measure : I love the people. But do not like to stage me to their eyes ; Though it do well, I do not relish well Their loud applause and Aves vehement ; Nor do I think the man of safe discretion That does affect it. Bacon's sense of order, and apprehension of social change, is reflected in the speech of Ulysses on "degree" (the Baconian style of which has frequently been noticed) in Troilus and Cressida (i. 3). I should like to say a word here (though it be a digression) about the late Count Tolstoi's hatred ot Shakespeare. An article by him appeared in one of the London Reviews some years ago, in which he maintained that Shakespeare had hypnotised the world, but that in reality he was inexpressibly tedious and trivial, and frequently repulsive. His method of showing this took the form of relating certain passages in King Lear in the feeblest possible language, and then pointing out their absurdity or other objections. For so great a man the performance seemed rather a barren one. On the other hand, the violent hostility of the writer required an explanation, and I came to the conclusion that it was mainly due to Shakespeare's attitude towards the crowd, and to his slender recognition of the spiritual * e.g. "the groundlings, who for the most part are capable of nothing but inexplicable dumb-shows and noise." IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 107 feelings and aspirations of man. It was also evidently partly due to the fact that Tolstoi did not understand the language, and that from concentration on spiritual problems he had lost the sense of proportion in other matters. At the same time it appeared to me interesting evidence of the antagonism which seems to exist between the spiritual and mundane order. Shakespeare, however, dealt with the world and with man in the world, and if he did not do more, and probably was incapable of doing more, he at least did this, that he showed man himself in a way and on a scale which had never been done before. In this region he did for the English-speaking and modern world what Homer did for antiquity. Whether Shakespeare is widely read or not is perhaps not very material, for his writings, through those who read him, must have profoundly affected the world, and to throw the searchlight of his vision over it and send back to us the results in a form which astonishes and delights the mind, and at the same time enables us to learn more to know ourselves and others, seems to have been his special work. Yet, in spite of its prejudice and exaggeration, I have always felt that Tolstoi's attitude was illuminating and a corrective of unreasoning idolatry. I come now to the use made by these three writers of the word " spirits." The meaning of the term will not be understood unless reference is made to Bacon's ideas as to the soul. I say " ideas " rather than theory, because on this subject it is difficult to disentangle from his writings what as a philosopher he regarded as probable from what he adhered to as determined by Christian doctrine, for which I think he had undoubtedly great reverence. It must also be remembered that men wrote on such subjects at that time at their peril, and therefore we can never be quite sure to what extent they are conciliating orthodoxy. But it may be safely io8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. said that the Italian writers (whom Bacon studied) were under greater compulsion in this matter than were the English, at any rate in the latter part of the sixteenth century. Moreover, Bacon's dexterity in the turn of a sentence was such that he was able to say anything he really wished without much risk of offence. Allow- ance must also be made for changes or modifications of view on such subjects which take place in the minds of thoughtful people, especially where the imagination is strong, during the course of a life of normal period. Such often pass through a period of rejection of received ideas, to return to them again on a different or more individual basis. In illustration I need only cite Bacon's famous saying, which points probably to some such experience in his own case : " It is true, that a little philosophy inclineth man's mind to atheism ; but depth in philosophy bringeth men's minds about to religion." ^ Lastly, Bacon's philosophic attitude must be considered with reference to the times and his purpose. His purpose was to promote scientific inquiry by true methods, and to show, in a popular way, which would appeal to men outside as well as inside the schools, that this was not inconsistent with adherence to Christian truth as received in the Church ; in other words, to separate philosophy from religion, the commixture of which, in his own words, produced " an heretical re- ligion and an imaginary and fabulous philosophy." His method of effecting this, on the religious side, is expressed in his favourite maxim : " Da fidei quae fidei sunt " ; though he did not seem to see (or, if he did, he ignored it) that the phrase begged some of the questions which to the world of that day seemed the most important. Now, as to Bacon's views on the soul : he is said probably to have taken them from Telesius, an Italian writer of the same century (i 509-1 588). This may be true to some extent, but, in their general aspect, they are 1 "Of Atheism." This essay did not appear until the second edition (1612). IV SPENSEH, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 109 as old as Plato and Aristotle, and probably very much older. It is considered doubtful whether Bacon was very familiar with Aristotle at first hand ; perhaps, like other men in those days, he had his knowledge of ^him mainly through Latin and Italian sources ; but it can never be correct to say that a great and original mind " takes " its views from any particular writer ; it takes them from anywhere and everywhere, and makes them its own. There are few things in any department of thought in which absolute originality is possible. In writing on this, as on other branches of philosophic in- quiry, I think Bacon had the views of Aristotle mainly in mind. These were developed from the speculations of Plato and earlier philosophers, and were formed upon the theory that there was more than one form of soul. Aristotle's argument on this subject is contained in the book De Aniina. It can be easily read in Grote, but unless read in extenso it cannot be fully understood. Very briefly, however, the theory is that there are three souls, the Nutritive, which is the lowest, and concerned with all the automatic processes of life ; the Sentient, which, broadly speaking, is consciousness, and includes the practical or working intelligence, imagination,^ memory, perception and sensation ; and the Noetic (the Noils), which is pure intelligence, a capacity with regard to truth by which the individual is enabled to apprehend and judge in terms of the abstract and universal. The first of these souls is common to plants, animals and man ; the first and second are in animals ; and all three are in man. The two first are communicated in the act of generation ; the third enters later " from without," and operates without any bodily organ. The Notts is alone immortal, and from this statement (which is found in summaries) it might be supposed that Aristotle maintained what is generally known as the immortality of the soul. But though the whole argument appears to be leading up to that conclusion, 1 "Phantasy belongs to the sentient soul . . . not identical with the movement of sense, but continued from and produced by that alone." So also Memory. Grote's Aristotle, " De Anima," chap. xii. no SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. he apparently feels compelled at the last moment to abandon it in deference to certain logical conceptions which at that point obtrude themselves, with the result that though the Noils (the celestial particle) cannot perish (as the sentient and nutritive souls do with the death of, the body), it nevertheless ceases to have any more relation to the individual experience after separation than it had before incorporation. It simply rejoins the celestial body from which it emanated. Therefore the intellectual man is no more immortal than the sentient man : the species alone continues. It seems hardly worth while that the whole machinery of the physical and metaphysical uni- verse should be invoked to produce such a result. The interest of Aristotle's argument, however, is now only relative, as it rests primarily on a fabulous conception of the nature of the universe. Bacon used these ideas, and while refusing (at first contemptuously and later with less confidence) to admit the validity of the new astronomical theory (of Copernicus), which by that time had been placed beyond reasonable doubt by Galileo, he endeavoured to bring them into relation with Christian revelation. He asserts the duality of the human soul. Man, according to his doctrine, has two souls, one peculiar to himself, the rational soul, " springing from the breath of God " {e Spiraailo Dei) ; the other, shared in common with the brutes, the irrational soul, which comes from the " wombs of the elements " (e Matricibus Elevientoriini). The latter (as it exists in man) is "only the instrument of the rational soul, and has its origin like that of the brutes in the dust of the earth." Accordingly the first part of the general doctrine concerning the human soul he terms " the doctrine concern- ing the Breath of Life ; the other the doctrine concerning the Sensible or Produced Soul." He continues: "The doctrine concerning the breath of life, as well as the doctrine concerning the substance of the rational soul, includes those inquiries touching its nature, — whether it be native or adventive, separable or inseparable, mortal or immortal, how far it is tied to the laws of matter, how IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON in far exempted from them ; and the Hke. Which questions though even in philosophy they admit an inquiry both more diligent and more profound than they have hitherto received, yet I hold that in the end such must be handed over to religion to be determined and defined. Otherwise they will be subject to many errors and illusions of the sense. For since the substance of the soul in its creation was not extracted or produced out of the mass of heaven and earth/ but was immediately inspired from God ; and since the laws of heaven and earth are the proper sub- jects of philosophy ; how can we expect to obtain from philosophy the knowledge of the substance of the rational soul ? It must be drawn from the same divine inspiration, from which that substance first proceeded." ^ Bacon has been frequently charged with materialism, and, in connec- tion with this extract, two grounds for the charge may be mentioned, that he appears to wish to confine philosophy to the business of scientific investigation, and that he does not give due weight to the idea of moral responsibility as the concern of the rational soul. I think both criticisms are justified, but to conclude that Bacon was therefore a materialist would, in my opinion, be unsound, because (as has been often pointed out) he is not a consistently logical thinker. For that he is too much under the influence of his imagination, and he trusts for his con- clusions more to a certain innate instinct for truth than to any chain of reasoning, sometimes with most convincing results, at others with results as disconcerting from their arbitrary and fanciful character. I think it can hardly be doubted that, as Macaulay said. Bacon was " a sincere believer in the divine authority of the Christian revelation." On the other hand, his philosophic habit and his tempera- ment militated against this belief fructifying in his mind as an active principle. His reverence for the order of nature (which, in my opinion, finds expression in the personification of it in the " Mutabilitie" cantos of Spenser to which I have alluded) made him feel that philosophy ^ This is a reference to the doctrine of Aristotle. '^ De Aiigtnentis, bk. iv. 3, trans. Ellis and Spedding ; Works, iv. 396 sq. 112 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. was ennobled rather than debased by being brought back from the pursuit of what he regarded as vain speculations and confined to the study of natural processes. This attitude is summarised in a sentence of a letter to Father Beranzano written in 1622: " De Metaphysica ne sis sollicitus. Nulla enim erit post veram Physicam inventam; ultraquam nihil praeter divinam." (" Be not troubled about the metaphysics. When true physics have been discovered, there will be no metaphysics. Beyond the true physics is divinity only.") ^ But grand as this con- ception is, if it be accepted as a complete statement of the order of the world, not only in relation to mechanical processes but also to human life, it does not necessarily imply any advance on the position reached long ago by philosophers of antiquity, of which the lines of Lucretius are, in effect, the final summary : Omnis enim per se divom natura necessest immortali aevo summa cum pace fruatur semota ab nostris rebus seiunctaque longe ; nam privata dolore omni, privata periclis, ipsa suis pollens opibus, nil indiga nostri, nee bene promeritis capitur neque tangitur ira.'^ In English the lines may perhaps be thus rendered : For what is God [he •' thought] must, under fate, And in its nature, keep a timeless state, Removed in utter distance where no sound From world of ours disturbs the peace profound, Needing us not, immune from fears or cares. Untouched by anger and unmoved by prayers. Bacon, however, appears to me, even on the philosophic > Spedding, Life, vii. 375. 2 Lucretius, De reniin natura, ii. 646-651. A distinguished modern writer has described these lines as " plangent," and to a present-day reader no doubt they are, especially if read apart from the context. But the context shows clearly that the poet is not animated (consciously at least) by any such feeling, for he is discussing the popular mythology, which, he says, however beautifully it may be set forth by the poets, is yet widely removed from true reason. " For the nature of gods," etc. And he continues that if any one thinks proper to call the sea Neptune and corn Ceres, etc., let him do so, provided he forbears in earnest to stain his mind turpi religione. •* i.e. Lucretius. The words in brackets were inserted by the translator, as this passage was being quoted in another connection. IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 113 side, to have accepted the Christian revelation, but rather as a means of satisfying his sense of order, and stopping the void of infinity in which philosophy has always lost itself, than as supplying a motive for devotion and conduct. On that side, like Machiavelli, whose writings he had studied in his youth, he was more appealed to by the Roman standards of " virtue," ^ " magnanimity," and " the few." I believe he had a strong sense of attach- ment for the institutions of the Church, and was quite without the hardness and smallness of self-satisfaction. But the idea of the Christian revelation as a means by which the individual may be brought, through personality and the emotional appeal, into close relations with the divine, is one of which I can find no trace in Bacon's writings, though Christian theology was a subject on which he thought and wrote well. Revelation, in relation to practical life, is regarded by him mainly as a means of securing order and finality, by providing, as it were, a permanent overlord, who is referred to by Bacon in terms which are indistinguishable, in feeling or form, from those which he applies to the earthly sovereign : " his majesty," " his divine majesty," " his excellent majesty." " Two of Bacon's sayings, which (if he had the dis- tinction in mind) refer to the rational soul, imply the recognition of it as the source of all that is noble and magnanimous in conduct, though they carry no inference as to his ideas on the persistence of the individual * "Virtus," the primary meaning of which was "courage," in action and habit. 2 The following passage from his speech in the House of Commons in favour of general naturalisation of the Scotch (probably revised as a literary document) is an illustration : " Do we not see (Mr. Speaker) that in the administration of the world under the great monarch, God himself, that his laws are divers," etc. Spedding, Life, iii. 314. Spenser's habit of thought on this subject is marked by a similar primitive spiritual feeling. Thus, in the Hymue of Heavenly Beautie, he apparently sees no incongruity in describing Sapience, whom he represents as enthroned in the bosom of the Almighty, under terms which are obviously intended to apply to Queen Elizabetli ; and when in imagination (in the same poem) he himself approaches the footstool of the Deity, the language suggests nothing so much as an audience with the Sovereign on the part of a minister who is apprehensive of embarrassing revelations. At the same time the writing is evidently natural. I 114 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. consciousness after death. First, in the Essay " Of Atheism " : They that deny a God destroy man's nobility ; for certainly man is of kin to the beasts by his body ; and if he be not of kin to God by his spirit, he is a base and ignoble creature. It destroys likewise magnanimity, and the raising of human nature.^ The second comes from the Advancement of Learning : So certainly, if a man meditate much upon the universal frame of nature, the earth with men upon it (the divineness of souls except) will not seem much other than an ant-hill, where some ants carry corn, and some carry their young, and some go empty, and all to and fro a litde heap of dust. We come now to Bacon's ideas about the sensible or produced soul." He held that this soul is wholly physical, resolved, like the body, at the death of the body, into the elements (the " quantum of nature "). It is " in brutes the principal soul, the body of the brute being its instrument ; whereas in man it is itself only the instru- ment of the rational soul, and may be more fitly termed not soul, but spirit." This " spirit " was, in his view, a " corporal and material substance," the nature and operations of which are fully discussed in the Historia Vitae et Mortisf the strangest of all Bacon's compositions. Its purpose is to suggest means for the prolongation of human life, which he regarded as the "noblest" of the functions of medicine. This is to be effected by physical methods, which are imagined as acting on the " spirits." "Spirits" are in "all tangible bodies," and in "animate bodies " there are two kinds, " lifeless spirits, such as are in bodies inanimate, and in addition to them a living spirit." " There are diffused in the substance of every part of the human body, as the flesh, bones, membranes, organs and the like, during lifetime, spirits of the same ' Compare also the Essay "Of Goodness and Goodness of Nature," where the writer says that without the ha1)it of Goodness (" Piiilanthropia ") " man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind of vermin." 2 De Augmentis (trans. E. and S.), bl<. iv. 3 (reference at p. III). 3 History of life and Death (trans. E. and S.), IVorks^ v. pp. 224, 268, 321 sq. IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 115 kind as those which exist in the same things, flesh, bones, membranes and the rest, when separated and dead ; such likewise as remain in the corpse. But the Hving spirit, though it governs them and has some agreement with them, is very different from them, being integral and self- subsisting." " The lifeless spirits are nearly of the same substance as the air ; the vital spirits more akin to the substance of flame." " The spirit has two desires ; one of multiplying itself, the other of going forth and con- gregating with its connaturals." " This rule is understood of the lifeless spirits. For with regard to the second desire, the vital spirit has a special abhorrence of leaving the body, seeing it has no connaturals near at hand. It may perhaps rush to extremities of the body, to meet something that it loves, but as I said before, it is loth to go forth. But the lifeless spirits, on the other hand, are possessed by both these desires. For as to the former, every spirit seated amongst the grosser parts dwells unhappily, and being in such solitude, where it finds nothing like itself, it the more strives to make and create something similar ; and to increase its quantity, it works hard to multiply itself, and prey upon the volatile part of the grosser bodies." " The living spirit perishes im- mediately when it is deprived either of motion, or of refrigeration or of aliment." " The fabric of the parts [of the body] is the organ of the spirit, as the spirit is the organ of the reasonable soul, which is incorporeal and divine." The theory is also stated in the Novum Organuin ' : " Every tangible that we are acquainted with contains an invisible and intangible spirit, which it wraps and clothes as with a garment. Hence that three-fold source, so potent and wonderful, of the process of the spirit in a tangible body. For the spirit in a tangible substance, if discharged, contracts bodies and dries them up ; if detained, softens and melts them " ; if neither wholly dis- charged nor wholly detained, gives them shape, produces ^ Bk. ii. Aph. 40 (trans. E. and S. ). IVorks, iv. 195. '^ As in iron heated. ii6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. limbs, assimilates, digests, ejects, organises and the like.^ And all these processes are made manifest to the sense by conspicuous effects." ^ In Rawley's Life of Bacon there is an interesting personal note bearing on the subject : " And for physic, he did indeed live physically, but not miserably ; for he took only a maceration of rhubarb, infused into a draught of white wine and beer mingled together for the space of half an hour, once in six or seven days, immediately before his meal (whether dinner or supper), that it might dry the body less ; which (as he said) did carry away frequently the grosser humours of the body, and not diminish or carry away any of the spirits, as sweating doth." Still more interesting is the following report noted by Aubrey {Brief Lives), which presumably, from the words underlined, completely puzzled him : " In April, and the spring time, his lordship would, when it rayned, take his coach (open) to receive the benefit of irrigation, which he was wont to say was very wholesome because of the nitre in the air and the universall spirit of the world." Compare with this the Essay on " Proserpine, or Spirit " ( Wisdom of the Ancients). In the Natural History (written in English) occurs a further statement on the subject, which is noteworthy as proving (if further proof were needed) that Bacon identified the " soul " (apart from the divine particle, which he excludes from the inquiry) with these " spirits." The opening words of the passage are also a good example of Bacon's insight when not misled by his fancy. " The knowledge of man (hitherto) hath been determined by the view or sight ; so that whatsoever is invisible, either in respect of the fineness of the body itself, or the smallness of the parts, or of the subtlety of the motion, is little inquired. And yet these be the things that ' The spirit is conceived as " making trials and experiments within its prison house," and when it " meets with tangilile parts tliat are obedient and ready to follow," " whithersoever the spirit leads they go along with it, and then ensues the forming of an organic body, and the development of organic parts, and all the other vital actions as well in vegetable as in animal substances." "^ e.g. diminution of weight. IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 117 govern nature principally ; and without which you cannot make any true analysis and indication of the proceedings of nature. The spirits or pneumaticals, that are in all tangible bodies, are scarce known. Sometimes they take them for vacuum, whereas they are the most active of bodies. Sometimes they take them for air . . . some- times they will have them to be the virtues and qualities of the tangible parts which they see ; whereas they are things by themselves. And then, when they come to plants and living creatures, they call them souls. And such superficial speculations they have. , . . Neither is this a question of words, but infinitely material in nature. For spirits are nothing else but a natural body, rarified to a proportion, and included in the tangible parts of bodies, as in an integument. And they be no less differing one from the other than the dense or tangible parts ; and they are in all tangible bodies whatsoever, more or less ; and they are never (almost) at rest ; and from them and their motions principally proceed arefaction, colliquation, con- coction, maturation, putrefaction, vivification, and most of the effects of nature ; for, as we have figured them in our Sapientia Veterum ^ in the fable of Proserpina, you shall in the infernal regiment hear little doings of Pluto, but most of Proserpina : for tangible parts in bodies are stupid things ; and the spirits do (in effect) all" (i. 98).^ The spiritus vitalis (" living spirit ") is regarded as " preying upon the body," " like a subtle flame," and when this process can no longer be arrested, by " alimenta- tion " and other means described, death ensues. With this idea, however, is inextricably mixed up the idea of the "desire" of "spirit" to escape from confinement in gross bodies. The distinction between " lifeless spirits " and " the living spirit " is, of course, an arbitrary one, and the expedient of the " living spirit " (which appears to be adopted to escape from logical difficulties) begs the question. The ideas are in some respects very primitive. While insisting on the one hand that the " spirits " are ' Wisdom of the Ancients : " Proserpine, or Spirit. Explained of the spirit included in natural bodies." '^ Spedding, M'orks, ii. 3 So. Ii8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. 3 nothing but material substances, the writer attributes to them desires and feelings.^ Professor Fowler" observes that in these ideas there are "curious survivals of a primitive fetichistic era, when men literally believed that every object around them was animated or possessed by a soul or agent." But since this was written science has been changing its views as to the nature of matter, and the primitive man does not now appear in so foolish a light as he did. Bacon's reasoning may often be faulty, and his ideas fantastic even in relation to the best thought of his age, but his imagination enabled him to make guesses which seem to come surprisingly near the truth as subsequently ascertained by experiment. Returning to the chapter " De anima " {De Augm. iv. 3), we find that all the qualities of the mind are attributed to the sensible soul, or " spirits." The wording might be regarded as ambiguous, but, for reasons already given, this is probably intentional, and, read with the passages given above, there can be no question that the passage is not confined in any particular to the " rational soul." " The faculties of the soul are well known : under- standing, reason, imagination,'' memory, appetite, will, in short all with which the logical and ethical sciences deal. But in the doctrine concerning the soul the origins of these faculties ought to be handled, and that physical ly,*"' as they are innate and inherent in the soul ; the uses only and objects of them being deputed to those other arts." What, then, under this scheme is the function in the individual of the rational soul {spiraciiluni)} On this 1 Another example of this occurs in the Natural History : " Putre- faction is the work of the spirits of bodies, which ever are unquiet to get forth and congregate with the air, and to enjoy the sunbeams." Works ^ ii. 451. 2 Introduction to the Noz'ion Organtitn (1888), to which the reader is referred. ^ isee page in for llic reference. * In this Bacon is following Aristotle ; see p. 109 above and footnote. 6 "VVill" in Baconian terminology means the natural passions or inclina- tions, and is frequently used, more particularly of sexual desire, in opposition to "wit," the intellectual and rational faculty, which is regarded as the source of self-control. " Higher up the writer says : " For of what service are such terms as ultimate act, form of the body, and such toys of logic, to the doctrine concern- ing the substance of the soul ? " 5 6 IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 119 point Bacon is silent, and it will be observed that he has nothing even to say about the moral sense. Two reasons (though I do not profess that they are exhaustive) may be given for this. In the first place it would not have escaped Bacon's acute mind that any prospect of a heavenly condition, or even of the realisation of the higher states of mind in this life, is confined, under the doctrine of the No/is, to philosophers or their hearers, and, apart from his quarrel with Aristotle, Bacon disliked philosophers, if only because he detected in them " vanity " and " ostentation." ^ The doctrine even excluded poets, whom Plato, to all intents and purposes, banished from his republic. Therefore Bacon would not, if he could avoid it, say anything which might have the appearance of countenancing their view. I know it is said that Bacon did not understand Aristotle ; no doubt he did him less than justice as the foremost among the Greeks who were the creators of the instruments of exact thought ; but I should be afraid to assert that he did not understand him, at least in essentials. The second reason is to be sought in Bacon's temperament and in his passion for scientific research. As in the consideration of the place of deity in relation to the universe and to human life, so in the inquiry concerning the nature and functions of the soul, his object would be to rescue all he could from the region of the unexplainable and forbidden, while at the same time leaving a causa causans which would preclude vain speculation, and give com- pletion and finality in the region of whatever the senses, aided by instruments, were found ultimately incapable of explaining by physical causes. On this subject the reader is referred to what has been already said in the 1 Cf. " Socrates, Aristotle, Galen, were men full of ostentation " (" Of Vain Glory") — and similarly passim. Bacon also regarded himself as protagonist in the battle against the schools, which were still dominated by Aristotle. Moreover, the scholars of the day were, as a class, poor and depressed, and for the most part narrow and quarrelsome, whereas Bacon had been brought up about the English and French courts, and had a larger human outlook. lie was more ambitious to shine as a man of the world than to pass for a man of learning, an ambition for which most of his countrymen are perhaps hardly in a position to throw stones at him. I20 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. section on the rational soul. My general conclusion is that in spite of what may appear, at first sight, to be the " gross " materialism of Bacon's theory, he did, in his own mind, regard the divine soul as participating in the higher forms of judgment, and probably, so far as he thought about it, as being the source, by virtue of its heavenly origin, of the highest feelings in man. It is evident also that he believed in its immortality, and that it was not resolved, like the " spirits," or sensible soul, into the physical elements ; but on the question of its relation to the individual experience after the death of the body he is silent, regarding that as a question which must be relegated to the province of revelation. These ideas belong to Bacon's scheme for the " inter- pretation of Nature," which he adumbrated in a paper (in Latin), the purpose of which was (in the words of Spedding) " to explain the method of arriving by degrees at axioms, or general principles in nature ; thence by the light of those axioms proceeding to new experiments ; and so finally to the discovery of all the secrets of nature's operation — which would include the command over her forces." ^ The interpretation of nature was referred to by Bacon as the " kingdom of man." The paper is entitled " De Interpretatione Naturae Prooemium," and it is attributed by Spedding to the year 1603. It was never published, but the general material of it was incorporated in the Novum Organum, which appeared in its final shape in 1620, that portion of it which is autobiographical being replaced, as Spedding observes, " by a simple De nobis ipsis silemus." In the course of it Bacon explains why he deferred philosophic inquiry, which had attracted him as a youth, and for which he found he had a natural aptitude (" a kind of familiarity and relationship with truth "), and applied himself to " the arts of civil life." " When I found however that my zeal was mistaken for ambition, and my life had already reached the turning- ' .See Spediling's account and translation of this paper in Life, iii. 82 sq., and cf. his preface to the latin original in Works, iii. 507 sq. IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 121 point, and my breaking health reminded me how ill I could afford to be so slow ... I put all those thoughts aside, and (in pursuance of my old determination) betook myself wholly to this work." ^ Bacon was born in January 1561, and was therefore over forty when this was probably written. His life, to all appearances, had been a desultory one, owing to lack of prefer- ment, and it was not till June 1607, when James I. made him his Solicitor-General, that he obtained any regular appointment under the Crown. His greatest literary activity was, in my belief, between the ages of sixteen and forty ; thereafter I think he devoted his leisure more, but not wholly, to his philosophic writings. At some time between the date of this paper and the publication of the Organum, The Tempest of Shakespeare (which, it has been suggested, was first acted at the Court in 161 i or 161 3) was probably composed. I do not myself agree that it was the last of Shakespeare's plays, and I consider that it was placed, with intention, by the author himself, at the beginning of the collected edition, known as the " First folio," which appeared in 1623. This play reflects, in my opinion, the philosophic ideas which I have endeavoured to summarise, and is only properly intelligible with reference to them. The Tempest is clearly, to some extent, an allegory, which invites inquiry as to its meaning. On the surface it is, no doubt, a beautiful entertainment, but read, not merely seen as a spectacle, the impression it produces on the mind is very different. Here, however, I wish to say that I am no advocate of far-fetched interpretations. Those who seek for them in Shakespeare are, in my belief, certain to go wrong, as he not only keeps in view the audience, the generality of mankind, for which he is writing, but his mind is naturally opposed to * Spedding's translation. This, of course, was not what actually occurred. It is necessary to read what Bacon writes with caution, owing to his tendency to represent himself in the part which dominated his mind, or as he would like to be, or as he washed posterity to think of him. 122 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAP. vagueness and subtlety. The reader, however, who has followed what has been said above as to Bacon's theory of " spirits," will, I think, see that there is nothing far-fetched or fanciful in the suggestion that in the relations between Prospero and Ariel there is an allusion to that theory. That, at any rate, is my view, as I will proceed to explain. It is a natural conclusion from the play that in *' Ariel " the poet is representing his own genius, and before I had read Bacon's philosophic works I took this for granted. After reading them I formed the opinion that Ariel was intended for the " sensible " or " produced " soul {spiritns vitalis)^ under the theory which we have been considering. As under that theory the imagination is regarded as a faculty of the " sensible " soul, I still thought that the conception in the play had reference mainly to the creative genius of the author, with some reference incidentally to his scientific speculations and to the relations of the human soul with unseen conditions. But the more I considered Bacon's attitude towards questions relating to the soul, the less likely it seemed to me to be that he would make them the subject of popular allegory. In the first place I think he would have regarded it as little short of profanity to bring such a subject on the stage. In the second place a writer would only choose for such a serious presentment of his views as is obviously intended in TJie Tempest the subject in which, above all others, he was actively interested. In the case of Bacon (as we have seen) this was certainly not the nature or destiny of the soul, a question which involved the inquirer in metaphysics, which he regarded as vain, or in religious doctrine, which was, in his opinion, not a matter for discussion at all. Similarly in the case of Shakespeare, regarded solely as the author of the plays : there is nothing in them to show that his attitude towards such questions was different from that of Bacon ; on the contrary, in my opinion the evidence from the plays all points to the conclusion that their habit of IV SFENSEE, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 123 thought was in all respects identical. Hence I came to the conclusion which I now hold, that in T/ie Tempest Bacon (whom I believe to be the author) has represented under the figures of " Prospero " and " Ariel " the cherished dream of his life, namely, the power which man is to obtain over the forces of nature through scientific experiment and discovery. In " Prospero " the author sees an idealised presentment of himself. In " Ariel " is represented " spirit," i.e. the " spirit in all tangible bodies," which, in Bacon's peculiar theory, has been " captured " by gross matter, and whose desire is to escape. The witch " Sycorax " represents gross matter. The liberation of this " spirit " and its temporary arrest and employment by Prospero is a poetical allegory of what we now term the " harnessing of the forces of nature." Once used, the force escapes, and, like Ariel, is rendered back, in a free state, to the elements. " Ariel and all his quality " are the " spirits " generally. I do not deny that there may be incidental allusions to the poet's genius ; it is of the nature of poetry to give rise, through the presentation of ideas by concrete images, to varied trains of thought. But the main purpose of the writer, in my opinion, was to leave behind him a parable (like the concealed knowledge of ancient times) of his scientific theory, and of the results to the human race which he expected from it when it had been applied in practice.^ ^ The following passage from the Preface to The Wisdom of the Ancients should be read with particular attention in this connection : "Men have proposed to answer two different and contrary ends by the use of parable ; for parables serve as well to instruct or illustrate as to wrap up and envelop, so that though, for the present, we drop the concealed use, and suppose the ancient fables to be vague, undeterminate things, formed for amusement, still the other use must remain, and can never be given up. And every man of any learning, must readily allow that this method of instructing is grave, sober, or exceedingly useful, and sometimes necessary in the sciences, as it opens an easy and familiar passage to the human understanding, in all new discoveries that are abstruse and out of the road of vulgar opinions. Hence, in the first ages, when such inventions and conclusions of the human reason as are now trite and common were new and little known, all things abounded with fables, parables, similes, comparisons, and allusions, which were not intended to conceal, but to inform and teach, whilst the minds of men continued rude 124 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. To turn to the relevant passages in the play : the reader will recollect that Prosper© summons Ariel in the words " Come away, servant, come " ; and Ariel enters with the reply : All hail, great master ! grave sir, hail ! I come To answer thy best pleasure ; be't to fly. To swim, to dive into the fire, to ride On the curl'd clouds, to thy strong bidding task Ariel and all his quality. To which Prospero answers : Hast thou, spirit, Perform'd to point the tempest that I bade thee ? " Impressions of the air and raising of tempests " is one among the discoveries of a difficult or extraordinary character which Bacon entitles " Magnalia Naturae " in a paper relating to scientific inquiries of the future appended to the unfinished Nezv Atlantis, which was published by Rawley in 1627, the year after Bacon's death (Spedding, Works, iii. 167, 168). In Ariel's complaints and longing for liberty is the idea of the natural desire of " spirits " to escape from the tangible bodies by which they have been captured and enclosed. Sycorax is, in my belief (as I have said), a poetical representation of gross matter. The following is the leading passage of the allegory : and unpractised in matters of subtilty and speculation, or even impatient, and in a manner uncapable of receiving such things as did not directly fall under and strike the senses. For as hieroglyphics were in use before writing, so were parables in use before arguments. And even to this day, if any man would let new light in upon the human understanding, and conquer prejudice, without raising contests, animosities, opposition, or disturbance, he must still go in the same path, and have recourse to the like method of allegory, metaphor, and allusion. "To conclude, the knowledge of the early ages was either great or happy ; great, if they by design made this use of trope and figure ; happy, if, whilst they had other views, they afforded matter and occasion to such noble contemplations. Let either be the case, our pains, perhaps, will not be misemployed, whether we illustrate antiquity or things themselves." Cf. Sidney's Apologie : " To beleeue with me, that there are m.iny misteries contained in Poetrie, which of purpose were written darkely, least, by prophane wits, it should bee abused," IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 125 Art. Is there more toil ? Since thou dost give me pains, Let me remember thee what thou hast promised, Which is not yet perform'd me. Pros. How now ? moody ? What is't thou canst demand ? Ari. My Hberty. Pros. Before the time be out ? no more ! Ari. I prithee, Remember I have done thee worthy service ; Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings, served Without or grudge or grumblings : thou didst promise To bate me a full year. Pros. Dost thou forget From what a torment I did free thee .? Ari. No. Pros. Thou dost, and think'st it much to tread the ooze Of the salt deep. To run upon the sharp wind of the north, To do me business in the veins o' the earth When it is baked with frost. Ari. I do not, sir. Pros. Thou liest, malignant thing ! Hast thou forgot The foul witch Sycorax, who with age and envy Was grown into a hoop ? hast thou forgot her ? Ari. No, sir. Pros. Thou hast. Where was she born ? speak ; tell me. Ari. Sir, in Argier. Pros. O, was she so .-' I must Once in a month recount what thou hast been. Which thou forget'st. This damn'd witch Sycorax, For mischiefs manifold and sorceries terrible To enter human hearing, from Argier, Thou know'st, was banish'd : for one thing she did They would not take her life. Is not this true ? Ari. Ay, sir. Pros. This blue-eyed hag was hither brought with child And here was left by the sailors. Thou, my slave, As thou report'st thyself, wast then her servant ; And, for thou wast a spirit too delicate To act her earthy and abhorr'd commands. Refusing her grand bests, she did confine thee, By help of her more potent ministers And in her most unmitigable rage, Into a cloven pine ; within which rift Imprison'd thou didst painfully remain A dozen years ; within which space she died And left thee there ; where thou didst vent thy groans As fast as mill-wheels strike. Then was this island — 126 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Save for the son that she did litter here, A freckled whelp hag-bom — not honour'd with A human shape. AH. Yes, Caliban her son. Pros. Dull thing, I say so ; he, that Caliban Whom now I keep in service. Thou best know'st What torment I did find thee in ; thy groans Did make wolves howl and penetrate the breasts Of ever angry bears : it was a torment To lay upon the damn'd, which Sycorax Could not again undo : it was mine art, When I arrived and heard thee, that made gape The pine and let thee out. Ari. I thank thee, master. Pros. If thou more murmur'st, I will rend an oak And peg thee in his knotty entrails till Thou hast howl'd away twelve winters. Ari. Pardon, master ; I will be correspondent to command And do my spiriting gently. Pros. Do so, and after two days I will discharge thee. Ari. That's my noble master ! What shall I do .'' say what ; what shall I do .-' The liberation of Ariel by Prospero at the end of the play in the words — then to the elements Be free, and fare thou well ! is, in my opinion, not a mere poetical fancy, but represents the physical idea of the resolution of " spirit," on its escape from " tangible bodies," into the general body of matter in a free state. The sexlessness and potency of Ariel correspond to Bacon's ideas as to the nature of " spirit " in the passages from his writings quoted above. There are other ex- pressions in the play having similar significance : My spirits, as in a dream, are all bound up. (i. 2.) their great guilt, Like poison given to work a great time after. Now 'gins to bite the spirits, (iv. i.) These our actors. As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air. {Ibid.) IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 127 It may be asked what part " Caliban " plays in this train of ideas. None, in my opinion ; the conjunction of this character with Ariel being only for the purposes of the plot, and possibly by way of contrast. But in Caliban's relations with Prospero I consider that there is a second allegory, and that under this representation the author is expressing his feelings about the lower and more primitive strata of humanity in relation to the higher developments of intellect and power. I have already given examples of Bacon's feelings towards the multitude, and will only quote here one passage from the Essays which bears on the ideas in the play : Praise is the reflection of virtue ; but it is as the glass or body which giveth the reflection. If it be from the common people, it is commonly false and naught, and rather foUoweth vain persons than virtuous : for the common people understand not many excellent virtues : the lowest virtues draw praise from them, the middle virtues work in them astonishment or admira- tion ; but of the highest virtues they have no sense or perceiving at all ; but shows and species virtutibus sitiiiles serve best with them.— (" Of Praise.") In other words the "people" are an impediment to progress, and must be controlled and amused in order to prevent them interfering in the higher branches of activity. In this Bacon's attitude represents philosophic conviction rather than class prejudice, and, in his view of the world, it is difficult to say that he was wrong, especially in an age when a man could not be seen reading a book of mathematics without risk of being charged with dealing in magic, and worse if he was known to make scientific experiments.^ The intensity, amount- ing at times to " animus," which Bacon imparts to his expressions on this subject is, to a great extent, the measure of his enthusiasm for material and social improve- ment. No doubt this habit of thought is pagan, and since the supersession of paganism as the orthodox view of the world, it has become more and more ihe practice ^ For example, Earl Percy, known as the "Wizard Earl," Harriot, and others. 128 SPENSER AND THE BACON IxMPERSONATIONS chap. to cloak these ideas under conciliatory phrases ; but they are nevertheless the logical outcome of the pagan view of life. Their only absolute corrective seems to lie in the Christian revelation, but in a different jurisdiction, for spiritually (as it appears to me) there is no such thing as the " world," still less classes, social or intellectual ; there are only individuals. But I am straying from my sub- ject, and will conclude by noting a few points in the play in illustration of the view above expressed as to the " Caliban " allegory. Caliban is represented as incurably malignant and ungrateful ; he changes his master and plots against his life, as he did before against his master's daughter ; suffers for his folly, and returns, sobered, to his allegiance. At his revolt he gets drunk and sees visions of " freedom " and of life without labour : Cal. \Sings drunkenly] Farewell, master ; farewell, farewell ! Trin. A howling monster ; a drunken monster ! Cal. No more dams I'll make for fish ; Nor fetch in firing At requiring ; Nor scrape trencher, nor wash dish : 'Ban, 'Ban, Cacaliban Has a new master : get a new man. Freedom, hey-day ! hey-day, freedom ! freedom, hey-day, freedom ! Ste. O brave monster ! Lead the way. In the following passage there is an evident reference to political theories about private ownership of the land and the use made of them by demagogues : Cal. As I told thee before, I am subject to a tyrant, a sorcerer, that by his cunning hath cheated me of the island. Ariel [invisible^ Thou liest. (iii. 2.) In the beautiful lines, when Ariel, invisible, plays the tabor and pipe, occurs, no doubt, the thought of the un- concerned enjoyment of the moment, when opportunity offers, which is the prerogative of the more primitive man : Cal. Art thou afeard ? Ste. No, monster, not I. Cal. Be not afeard ; the isle is full of noises, Sounds and sweet airs, that give delight and hurl not. IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 129 Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices, That, if I then had waked after long sleep, Will make me sleep again : and then, in dreaming, The clouds methought would open and show riches Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked, I cried to dream again. Ste. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall have my music for nothing. Cal. When Prospero is destroyed. In " Prospero " I conceive that Bacon represents not only his dream of the future, but, to some extent, the course of his life in the world. That no source has been traced for the story supports this view, and the story itself fits in with Bacon's history. His early ambition was undoubtedly to be the principal minister in the State. He was encouraged in this by the notice which the Queen took of him as a child and by his father's position. But he was thwarted (as he thought) by his cousin, Robert Cecil — who, however, it is impossible to doubt, was a fitter man, both by training and tempera- ment, for practical affairs. He sees himself {more sud) in his imagination in the grand position which he believed to be his by right, and attributes his exclusion from it, in part, to his being " transported and rapt in secret studies " — neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated To closeness and the bettering of my mind. (i. 2.) Compare with this Bacon's letter to Lord Burghley written at the age of thirty-one, begging for executive employment : I do not fear that action shall impair it [his health], because I account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be more painful than most parts of action are. — Spedding, Life, i. 108. Compare also his frequent references in later life to his abstraction in the midst of affairs : " I may truly say with the psalm, Midtum incola fiiit aniuia viea " (" my soul has been a stranger in her pilgrimage "J {ibid. iv. 146, 282, and elsewhere). The solemnity of tone which has been noticed in parts of this play, to an extent beyond the customary habit of K I30 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Shakespeare, is an indication in itself that the writer is deah'ng with subjects to which he attached exceptional importance. It has, in places, the tone, as it were, of a legacy to the world. Not that I believe (as I have said) that this was the author's last work, but it represents a state of mind when he was taking stock of his position in reference to futurity. He sees himself as the great projector, and contemplates the developments which will follow him when the intellectual powers in man have come into their kingdom. To this end two things must be brought, or kept, under control — the elusive forces of nature, and the lower strata of humanity, who are incapable of understanding the point of view, and function in society, of the higher order of mind, and are always ready to impede or destroy its achievements. Incidentally, in the same play, the writer places on record his opinions on two questions of the first import- ance in the life of an organised community, politics and love. The faithful old counsellor, Gonzalo, is doing his best to keep up the spirits of the shipwrecked party, and the occasion is used to show the absurdity of idealisation in a department which deals with practical issues under the limitations and defects imposed by human conditions. The lines are as follow (ii. i) : Gon. V the commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things ; for no kind of traffic Would I admit ; no name of magistrate ; Letters should not be known ; riches, poverty. And use of service, none ; contract, succession, Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none ; No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil ; No occupation ; all men idle, all ; And women too, but innocent and pure ; No sovereignty ; — Seh. Yet he would be king on 't. Ant. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning. Gon. All things in common nature should produce Without sweat or endeavour : treason, felony, Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine. Would I not have ; but nature should bring forth, Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance, To feed my innocent people. IV SPENSEK, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 131 Seb. No marrying 'mong his subjects ? Ant. None, man ; all idle ; whores and knaves. Gon. I would with such perfection govern, sir, To excel the golden age. Seb. God save his majesty 1 Ant. Long live Gonzalo ! Gon. And, — do you mark me, sir ? Alon. Prithee, no more : thou dost talk nothing to me. Gon. I do well believe your highness ; and did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such sensible and nimble lungs that they always use to laugh at nothing. The betrothal of Ferdinand and Miranda is similarly- used by the author for giving his verdict on the indulgence of the passions, and the necessity in this world, if the worst form of misery, the misery of the spirit, is to be avoided, of bringing them under the sanction of social law, in which the dependence of human life on the divine authority is recognised. Prospero addresses the young prince (iv. i) : Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition Worthily purchased, take my daughter : but If thou dost break her virgin-knot before All sanctimonious ceremonies may With full and holy rite be minister'd, No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall To make this contract grow ; but barren hate. Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew The union of your bed with weeds so loathly That you shall hate it both : therefore take heed, As Hymen's lamps shall light you. And in response to Ferdinand's protestations he leaves them together with the words : 'is^ Fairly spoke. Sit then and talk with her ; she is thine own. The emphasis which Prospero is made to lay on this injunction ^ seems to go somewhat beyond the exigencies of the situation, and it indicates that the author is speaking on a subject which he has at heart. 1 He returns to the subject a few lines lower, and it is again referred to in the masque. 132 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Noticeable also, and for a similar reason, is the sudden perturbation of mind which causes Prospero to disperse the masque : These our actors, As I foretold you, were all spirits and Are melted into air, into thin air : And, like the baseless fabric of this vision. The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces, The solemn temples, the great globe itself, Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve. And, like this insubstantial pageant faded, Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff As dreams are made on, and our little life Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd ; Bear with my weakness ; my old brain is troubled : Be not disturb'd with my infirmity : If you be pleased, retire into my cell And there repose : a turn or two I'll walk, To still my beating mind. The incident which gives rise to this emotion is felt to be inadequate, considering that Caliban, and the two Englishmen with Italian names to whom he had attached himself, were wholly in Prospero's power. The real motive of the speech seems to me to be the thought, which is never wholly out of the writer's mind, of the disappointing character of human affairs, when all is said and done, owing to the existence of decay and death. The shadow of " mutability " is over everything, and the thought of it makes even his cherished dream of the intellect, set forth with all the gorgeous imagery at his command, seem vanity. For the moment his balance is disturbed ; he feels his helplessness, and cries out, as it were, in a passion of regret. Only however for a moment, and the customary serenity of temper reasserts itself^ There are other instances of this in the later plays of Shakespeare,^ and the same trait is noticeable in the ' The words of Prospero lower down are typical of this habit of mind : Ijc cheerful, And think of each thing well. (v. i.) 2 Compare, for example, the sudden outburst of similar feeling in Macbeth, " Out, out, brief candle !" etc., where the imagery used is much more sug- gestive of the author's own feelings than those of the character. IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 133 poetry of Spenser.^ In the Epilogue, spoken by Prospero, the note of humility after the lofty tone of Prospero's speeches in the play is the striking feature. The author seems to be thinking of himself here, after his work is done, as a man among men, and subject to the common mortality. A slight, but significant, point may be noticed in Prospero's reference to the masque. He says to Ariel (iv, i ) : Go bring the rabble, O'er whom I give thee power, here to this place : Incite them to quick motion ; for I must Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple Some vanity of mine art : it is my promise, And they expect it from me. It will be observed that this is said in the grand manner which Bacon adopts in writing of " Masques and Triumphs" (an Essay published in 1625): "These things are but toys, to come amongst such serious observations. But yet, since princes will have such things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy than daubed with cost " ; and at the end of the Essay : " But enough of these toys." The tone in both cases is, in my opinion, partly to be attributed to disapproval of the fashion for the masque, which, on King James's accession, largely superseded the play at Court, owing to the fondness of the Queen for that form of entertainment, in which she used to take part herself.^ I will now note some passages from Shakespeare, Spenser, and Bacon's acknowledged works, where the ^ Compare the Daphndida, and the description of the ravages of Time in the Garden of Adonis {F.Q. III. vi. 39 sq.) ; and with that again compare the Ralegh epitaph. See pp. 457, 458 of this work. 2 Daniel, who was occasionally employed in providing the speeches and songs, writes of the masque in a similar strain: "But in these things wherein the onely life consists in shew ; the arte and invention of the Architect gives the greatest grace, and is of most importaunce, ours the least part and of least note" (Preface to Tethys Festival, 1610) ; and again: " And yet in these matters of shewes (though they be that which most entertaine the world) there needs no such exact sufficiency. . . . For, Ludit istis animus, non projicit " i^The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, 1 604). It must be said, however, that Daniel was quite out of his element in such writing. 134 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. term " spirits " is used in the peculiar sense attributed to it in Bacon's theory. Without reference to that theory these passages will not be understood. Shakespeare : the nimble spirits in the arteries. L.L.L. iv. 3. this kiss, if it durst speak, Would stretch thy spirits up into the air. Lcar^ iv. 2. Ulysses (speaking of Cressida). Fie, fie upon her ! There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, Nay, her foot speaks ; her wanton spirits look out At every joint and motive of her body. Troihts and Cressida, iv. 5. Jessica. I am never merry when I hear sweet music. Lorenzo. The reason is, your spirits are attentive. Merchant of Venice., v. i . Forth at your eyes your spirits wildly peep. Hamlet, iii. 4. Spenser : For through infusion of celestiall powre, The duller earth it quickneth with delight. And life-full spirits privily doth poure Through all the parts, that to the lookers sight They seem to please. But that faire lampe, from whose celestiall ray That light proceedes, which kindleth lovers fire, Shall never be extinguisht or decay ; But, when the vitall spirits doe expyre. Unto her native planet shall retyre. For it is heavenly borne and cannot die Being a parcell of the purest skie. An Hytnne in Honour of Beautie. And with his spirits proportion to agree. Ibid. Sith she that did my vitall powers supplie, And feeble spirits in their force maintaine, Is fetched from me. Daphnaida. His cheekes wext pale, and sprights began to faint. Ibid. IV SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 135 Bacon : Nay some have l)een so curious as to note that the times when the stroke or percussion of an envious eye doth most hurt, are when the party envied is beheld in glory and triumph. For that sets an edge upon envy ; and besides, at such time, the spirits of the person envied do come forth most into the outward parts, and so meet the blow. — Of Envy. Especially it is sport to see when a bold fellow is out of countenance, for that puts his face into a most shrunk and wooden posture ; as needs it must ; for in bashfulness the spirits do a little go and come, but with bold men, upon like occasion, they stand at a stay. — Of Boldness. Compare again with this the stanza in the Faerie Queene describing the agitation of Britomart on her first recognition of Arthegal : Soone as she heard the name of Artegall, Her hart did leape, and all her hart-strings tremble. For sudden joy and secret feare withall ; And all her vitall powres, with motion nimble To succour it, themselves gan there assemble ; That by the swift recourse of flushing blood Right plaine appeard. . . . (IV. vi. 29.) Again in Bacon, Natural History (" Syiva Sylvarum "), under experiments " touching Venus " : the expence of spirits. (No. 693, Works, ii. 556.) Compare Shakespeare's sonnet (i 29) : The expense of spirit ^ in a waste of shame Is lust in action. Again from the Natural History : No. 745. Some noises (whereof we spake in the hundred and twelfth experiment) help sleep ; as the blowing of the wind, the trickling of water, humming of bees, soft singing, reading, etc. The cause is that they move in the spirits a gentle * In poetry the singular number would naturally be used, as being less technical. 136 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. attention ; and whatsoever moveth attention, without too much labour, stilleth the natural and discursive motion of the spirits. Compare Spenser, Faerie Queene, I. i. 41 : And more to lulle him in his slumber soft, A trickling streame from high rock tumbling downe. And ever-drizling raine upon the loft, Mixt with a murmuring winde, much like the sowne Of swarming Bees, did cast him in a swowne. No other noyse, nor peoples troublous cryes, As still are wont t'annoy the walled towne. Might there be heard ; but carelesse Quiet lyes Wrapt in eternall silence farre from enimyes. In discussing the nature of soul. Bacon appends some remarks on " fascination," and leans to a physical explanation : Others, that draw nearer to probability, calling to their view the secret passages of things, and especially of the contagion that passeth from body to body, do conceive it should likewise be agreeable to nature that there should be some transmissions and operations from spirit to spirit without the mediation of the senses : whence the conceits have grown, now almost made civil, of the mastering spirit, and the force of confidence, and the like. — Adv. of Learning. In the Natural History occurs the following entry on the same subject, under the heading " Experiments in consort touching emission of immateriate virtues from the minds and spirits of men, either by affections, or by imaginations, or by other impressions " : No. 940. There was an Egyptian soothsayer, that made Antonius believe that his genius (which otherwise was brave and confident) was, in the presence of Octavianus Caesar, poor and cowardly : and therefore he advised him to absent himself as much as he could, and remove far from him. This soothsayer was thought to be suborned by Cleopatra, to make him live in Egypt, and other remote places from Rome. Howsoever the conceit of a predominant or mastering si)irit of one man over another is ancient, and received still, even in vulgar opinion. Compare Shakespeare, Antony and Cleopatra, ii. 3 : Antony. Say to me, whose fortunes shall rise higher, Caesar's or mine ? IV SPENSEH, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 137 Soothsayer. Caesar's. Therefore, O Antony, stay not by his side : Thy demon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable. Where Caesar's is not ; but, near him, thy angel Becomes a fear, as being o'erpower'd : therefore Make space enough between you. I will conclude this chapter with three examples from the anonymous Arte of EnglisJi Poesie, which I believe to be the work of Bacon, of the use of the term " spirits " in the Baconian sense : and Poesie an art not only of making, but also of imita- tion. And this science in his perfection can not grow but by some divine instinct, the Platonicks call it furor : or by excellencie of nature and complexion : or by great subtiltie of the spirits and wit, or by much experience and observation of the world and course of kinde \i.e. nature], or peradventure by all or most part of them. (i. i.) they came by instinct divine, and by deep meditation, and much abstinence (the same assubtiling and refining their spirits) to be made apt to receave visions. . . . (i. 3.) In another respect arte is not only an aide and coadjutor to nature in all her actions, but an alterer of them, and in some sort a surmounter of her skill, so as by meanes of it her owne effects shall appeare more beautifull or straunge and miraculous, as in both cases before remembred. The Phisition by the cordials hee will geue his patient, shall be able not onely to restore the decayed spirites of man, and render him health, but also to prolong the terme of his life many yeares ouer and aboue the stint of his first and naturall constitution, (iii. 25.) CHAPTER V SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON {continued) In this chapter I shall conclude such observations as I have to make of a more general character, and thereafter confine myself to the particular points bearing on the argument of this book which arise out of an examination of the remaining works of Spenser. There is a mannerism which runs through all Bacon's correspondence and occasional papers in the use of the words " simple " and " simplicity " in regard to his motives or intentions. Sometimes these expressions are genuine ; often not so, but politic ; sometimes they are a mere habit. I will give some examples from Bacon's acknowledged writings, which explain themselves, and will provide the reader with the means of seeing at a glance the striking identity of mental habit which the occurrence of these expressions in Spenser, and other works to which I shall direct attention, indicates. Defending an action of his : The considerations that moved me to stay the letters from re- ceipt ... in sum, such they are that they prevail with my simple discretion. — Letter to Mr. Doylie, nth July 1580^ (^et. 19^). Defending himself against a charge of pride: And for that your Lordship may otherwise have heard of me, it shall make me more wary and circumspect in carriage of myself. Indeed I find in my simple observation that they which live as it were in umbra and not in public or frequent action, how moderately and modestly soever they behave themselves, yet laborant invidia. — To Lord Burghley, 6th May 1586.2 ' .Spedding, Life, i. 10. ^ Ibid. i. 59. 138 CHAP. V SFENSEK, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 139 Other examples : These things have I in all sincerity and simplicity set down, touching the controversies which now trouble the Church of England. — Paper of 1589.^ These be some of the beams of noble and radiant magnanimity ... set forth in my simplicity of speech with much loss of lustre, but with near approach of truth, as the sun is seen in the water. — Discourse in praise of the Queen, 1590-92.- But not knowing how my travel may be accepted, being the unwarranted wishes of a private man, I leave ; humbly praying her Majesty's pardon if in the zeal of my simplicity I have roved at things above my aim. — Discourse touching the Queen's safety, 1594.3 [Written when Bacon was out of favour, and the phrase therefore is used (as very frequently) in order to obviate the impression of presumption and officiousness.] Belonging to the same class of ideas, and significant of the risks of public life at the time, are such phrases as Thus have I played the ignorant statesman,* and I will shoot my fool's bolt, since you will have it so,^ found in letters of advice to the Earl of Essex, which might be shown to the Queen or to members of the Council (1 598). Some further examples are as follow : Thus having in all humbleness made oblation to your Majesty of these simple fruits of my devotion and studies. — Discourse (for King James) on the Union of the Kingdoms, 1603.^ Thus have I expressed to your Majesty those simple and weak cogitations, which I have had in myself touching this cause. — Discourse on the Plantation in Ireland, 1608.^ in my simple opinion.^ — Spedding, Life, iv. 280, and cf 340, 371, 373. 387- I do foresee, in my simple judgment, much inconvenience to insue, if your Majesty proceed to this treaty with Spain, and ' Spedding, Life, i. 94. 2 /^/^, i, 127, 3 Ibid. i. 307. * Ibid. ii. 96. " Ibid. ii. 99. 6 Ibid. iii. 99. ^ Ibid. iv. 126. ^ This seems to have been, more or less, a formula of the lime. It is found, for instance, in Sir Henry Sidney's dispatches to the Queen, but not used as a habit. I40 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. that your Council draw not all one way. — To the King, about the Spanish match, 1617.^ But my meaning was plain and simple. — Letter to the King, in reply to a reprimand on the subject of alleged disloyalty to Buckingham, 161 7.- This claim which Bacon made to " simplicity " and integrity of motive is perhaps most fully developed in a letter to his cousin, Robert Cecil, written in i 594-95 when he was anxiously endeavouring to obtain the post of Solicitor : Sir — I forbear not to put in paper as much as I thought to have spoken to your Honour to-day, if I could have stayed : knowing that if your Honour should make other use of it than is due to good meaning, and than I am persuaded you will, yet to persons of judgment, and that know me otherwise, it will rather appear (as it is) a precise honesty, and this same suum cuique trihiere, than any hollowness to any. It is my luck still to be akin to such things as I neither like in nature nor would willingly meet with in my course, but yet cannot avoid with- out show of base timorousness or else of unkind or suspicious strangeness. . . . [Some hiatus in the copy.] And I am of one spirit still. I ever liked the Galenists, that deal with good compositions ; and not the Paracelsians, that deal with these fine separations : and in music, I ever loved easy airs, that go full all the parts together ; and not these strange points of accord and discord. This I write not, I assure your Honour, officiously \ except it be according to Tully's Offices ; that is, honestly and morally.^ With the above examples from Bacon's acknowledged works compare the following from Spenser : my simple lines testimonie. — Teares of the Muses: Dedication. this simple remembrance. — Ibid. a simple present to you of these my idle labours. . . . Simple is the device, and the composition meane, yet carrieth some delight, even the rather because of the simplicitie and meannesse thus personated. — Mother Hubberds Tale : Dedication. [These expressions are designed to cover up the real bearing of the piece.] • Spedding, Life, vi. 171. * Ibid. vi. 246. ^ /j,v/ i. 356. V SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 141 I make you a present of this simple pastorall. . . . The which I humbly beseech you to accept . . . and with your good countenance protect against the malice of evill mouthes, which are alwaies wide open to carpe at and misconstrue my simple meaning. — Colin Clout: Dedication to Sir Walter Ralegh. in simple eie. — Colin Clout. simple honestie. — Ibid. That hers I die . . . This simple trophe of her great conquest. — Ibid. See how the stubborne damzell doth deprave My simple meaning with disdainfull scorne. Sonnet xxix. one mans simple head. Sonnet xxxiii. in my simple wit. Sonnet xl. Till then, dread Lord, vouchsafe to take of me This simple song, thus fram'd in praise of thee. Hymne in Hotiour of Love. Next him Tenantius raignd ; then Kimbeline, What time th'eternall Lord in fleshly slime Enwombed was, from wretched Adam's line To purge away the guilt of sinfull crime. O joyous memorie of happy time, That heavenly grace so plenteously displayd ! (O too high ditty for my simple rime !) Faerie Queene, IL x. 50. Two examples may be quoted from Shakespeare. In the first the writer, in a humorous passage, is referring (as I think) to the working of his own genius, and makes light of it, as is the habit of men living in the world, to avoid offence, envy, or a reputation for peculiarity : Holofernes. This is a gift that I have, simple, simple ; a foolish extravagant spirit, full of forms, figures, shapes, objects, ideas, apprehensions, motions, revolutions : these are begot in the ventricle of memory, nourished in the womb of pia mater, and delivered upon the mellowing of occasion. But the gift is good in those in whom it is acute, and I am thankful for it. — L.L.L. iv. 2. In the second the author seems to me to be describing his own character, as he believed it to be, 142 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. and as, at its best, and in intention, it probably was. The speech has little reference to the situation as between Troilus and Cressida, and is an example, among many others, where the author, in my opinion, uses a character as a means of self-expression : Ores. My lord, will you be true ? Tro. Who, I ? alas, it is my vice, my fault : Whiles others fish with craft for great opinion, I with great truth catch mere simplicity ; Whilst some with cunning gild their copper crowns, With truth and plainness I do wear mine bare. Fear not my truth : the moral of my wit Is ' plain and true ' ; there 's all the reach of it. Troilus and Cressida^ iv. 4. The following instances of the same mannerism come from the anonymous Arte of Poesie : a feat of mine owne simple facultie. — Address purporting to be by the Printer (" R. F." — Richard Field), but obviously in the style of the author. the ancient guise in old times used at weddings (in my simple opinion) nothing reproveable. (i. 26.) but hereunto serveth a reason in my simple conceite. (iii. 5.) " William Webbe," referred to in Chapter I., opens his book with the same trick of style, and other examples of it occur in the course of the book, e.g: : Thus farre foorth haue I aduentured to sette downe parte of my simple judgement concerning those Poets. I will now offer some remarks on the " inaccuracy " of Shakespeare. This is always brought forward in controversy as a reason why the plays could not have been written by a man who had received a classical education. It is perhaps not realised by those who make use of the argument that both Spenser and Bacon betray the same habit. I will not ask the reader to accept this on my own statement, but refer V SPENSEK, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 143 him to two writers of autliority, who report on this subject, in each case, as follows : Spenser : His classical learning, whether acquired there [at Cambridge] or elsewhere, was copious, but curiously inaccurate. — Dean Church, Spenser, p. 17. Strong in the abundant but unsifted learning of his day, a style of learning which in his case was strangely inaccurate. — Ibid. p. 135. Bacon : Mr. S. H. Reynolds, in his Introduction to Bacons Essays, writes as follows : For accuracy in detail Bacon had no care whatever, and this again may be set down as probably a part of his craft. Carelessness of detail is certainly one of the characteristics of Bacon's Essays. Laboured and elaborate as they are in parts, and claiming to be written for all time as long as books shall last, they are none the less crowded with errors and misquota- tions, or are borne out in parts by manufactured evidence distorted from its original sense. The same writer notes that Spedding admits Bacon's inaccuracy, but thinks (quoting Rawley) it was deliberate for the sake of presenting the substance in a better form, or a form better suited to the particular occasion. He also observes that it seems certain that Bacon frequently quoted from memory. While revising the present work I noticed a review of the late Mr. Andrew Lang's book on the Shakespeare question, in the course of which the usual argument appeared. As it is typical of others of a similar character I append an extract : Is it likely that Bacon would have made the kind of mistakes in history, geography and mythology which occur in A Winter's Tale or Troilus and Cressida} Shakespeare accommodated prehistoric Athens with a duke. He gave Scotland cannon three hundred years too early, and made Cleopatra play at billiards. Look at his notion of the "very manners" of early post-Roman Britain in Cynibeline and King Lear ! A playwright with a good smattering of knowledge and a supreme genius might do these things, but surely not Bacon. — Spectator, Jan. 18, 19 13. 144 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. This is a class of thought by which I think we are somewhat oppressed at the present day. Does any one seriously suppose that at the time when Shakespeare wrote, and for long after, people had any regard for " early post-Roman " manners, or any other manners belonging to the past ? In point of fact the writer has made an error (no doubt inadvertently) in the instance of Lear, who was one of the mythical sovereigns of " Brutus' sacred progeny," who is said to have reigned in Britain before " Ferrex and Porrex," and within 700 years of the sack of Troy, whenever that may have been {F. Q., II. X., and Geoffrey of Monmouth). In selecting this character for the story of the play the author was following the example of the Greeks in using native legend as a vehicle for presenting great examples. He also follows them in mixing up the past with contemporary life and making the characters speak in contemporary language, though it is true that he was more indifferent in the way he did this ; but he was not writing under the strict and semi-religious conventions of the Attic theatre. If Shakespeare accommodates prehistoric Athens with a " duke," Spenser furnishes the more ancient infernal regions with a " prince " of mediaeval chivalry — "the Stygian Princes boure " (Faerie Queene, IV. x. 58) ; and as to Cleopatra and her " billiards," Shakespeare was representing her as a light, cruel and worthless woman, and Spenser, in his youth at any rate, disap- proved of billiards and other time-wasting games for people in such a position — " halliards farre unfit " {MotJier Hubberds Tale). But if we are to exercise our minds about anachronisms in Shakespeare's plays let us at least do so about the real ones — I mean the anachronisms in the thought — and find an explanation, if we can, for such a speech as the following in the mouth of a semi- barbarous chieftain : Lear. No, no, no, no ! Come, let's away to prison : We two alone will sing like birds i' the cage : When thou dost ask me blessing, I'll kneel down, And ask of thee forgiveness : so we'll live, V SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 145 And pray, and sing, and tell old tales, and laugh At gilded butterflies, and hear poor rogues Talk of court news ; and we'll talk with them too. Who loses and who wins ; who 's in, who 's out ; And take upon 's the mystery of things. As if we were God's spies : and we'll wear out, In a wall'd prison, packs and sects of great ones, That ebb and flow by the moon. (v. 3.) I will suggest an explanation : that the expression " God's spies " comes from Epictetus, who says that philosophers are the spies and messengers of God, and the " mystery of things " is rerum causas, the quest of philosophy. The same thought occurs in the draft for a pardon after Bacon's fall, written, no doubt, as Spedding says, by himself : Cum praedilecto consanguineo nostro Francisco Vicecomite St. Alban propositum sit deinceps vitam degere quietam et tranquillam in studiis et contemplatione rerum, atque hoc mode etiam posteritati inservire, cujus rei per scripta sua jampridem edita specimen de se praebuit non vulgare. . . . — Life, vii. 307. Again, in Antony and Cleopatra, what relevancy to Cleopatra's character or the situation is there in the words, My desolation does begin to make A better life. (v. 2.) and similarly of the lines in the same scene : Be it known, that we, the greatest, are misthought For things that others do ; and, when we fall, We answer others' merits in our name. Are therefore to be pitied. Similarly, also, the lines at the close of Scene 2 of the fourth Act of Cymbeline : Be cheerful ; wipe thine eyes ; Some falls are means the happier to arise. With these expressions may be compared Bacon's correspondence immediately after his fall and release from the Tower (Spedding, Life, vii. 280-97, etc.). Let us now consider the problem of Bacon's " in- accuracy," as described (quite justly) in the quotation L 146 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. from Mr. Reynolds's introductory essay given above. It is to be attributed in part to a system deliberately adopted, and in part to the peculiarities of his tempera- ment. It was Bacon's ambition to supersede the writings of antiquity, and to supply a body of literature and philosophy, freed from " terms of art," which would find access to the minds of people of average intelligence who could not, or would not, acquire learning in the difficult paths of scholarship. The students in his school, men, that is, and women in the active world, were not asked to know anything about the past or expected to pore over its documents. He had done that for them, and he claimed the right to use the material as he thought best for their instruction. It must be remembered also that ideas about " literature " as a body of thought, and as a calling entailing mutual obligations, hardly existed, that there was little or no means of obtaining exact informa- tion about the past, and that there was no historical sense, and no publicity. If, therefore, Bacon deliberately misquoted or handled material in ways which would now be considered dishonest, we must not, in judging such practices, lose sight of the standards and conditions of the age. Lastly (as I have said in other places). Bacon's quest of " universality " and habit of generalisation tended to make him indifferent to the particular, and the slender- ness of his emotions, owing to their dispersal in a general sensibility, was such that the sense of the individual tie and human obligation was not sufficiently active to prevent this indifference extending to persons as well as things and incidents. In short, to come to " plain English," he was unscrupulous, and to an extent which is not, in his case, to be wholly accounted for by the very unscrupulous character of the age. In saying this I am not passing judgment on him ; I am merely applying the standards of common humanity, which it is idle to pretend that his conduct on many occasions satisfies. At the same time we must not forget to make full allowance for the effect on character of the constant habit of " imitation " which dramatic work on a large scale involves. This V SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 147 question is discussed at length in the third and tenth books of the Republic of Plato, where it is concluded that the habit of imitating the bad as well as the good (in which the writers of tragedy and comedy are particularly referred to), and being concerned in every- thing rather than keeping to one thing, cannot but react unfavourably on a man's character. Plato's ideal of a State is not ours, being conceived under conditions of physical danger and violence from without which are no longer present from day to day. On the other hand, in the modern State, owing to the absence of a caste of slaves, and the greater pressure and complexity of life, the internal conditions are much more strenuous. Under the conditions present in the mind of Plato the individual is regarded as existing for the State instead of the State existing for the individual, and there is very little room for the idea of individual self-development. But though the considerations which lead Plato to banish the imitative poet (Sidney's " right poet ") from his ideal Republic are felt to rest upon a view of social life which is no longer applicable, psychologically his observations on this subject are weighty, and especially deserve attention from those who are interested in the nature of what is called the " artistic temperament." The pecul- iarities of Bacon's character, and the so-called " imperson- ality" of Shakespeare, are probably closely connected. My own view is that the writer of the plays had no strong personality, but was capable of assuming any in the pro- cesses of invention and imitation. It seems to me quite certain that a man of strong character, whose emotions run in a deep and consistent channel, is incapable of expressing the feelings of other people, and indeed has no desire to do so, being engrossed in his own. I should extend this explanation also to the absence of " passion " which has been noted in Spenser, and the still more marked " bloodlessness " of the semi-narrative work of the same writer, as, for instance, the Arcadia, which I attribute to him. The nearer he gets to speech in his own person the more the detachment of his nature from 148 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. human passions makes itself felt ; whereas, at the other extreme, where the author is entirely immersed in a " projected personality " he displays all its qualities in just proportion. It is noticeable that even the most intense plays of Shakespeare, such as Macbeth and Lear, appear to leave the author's serenity quite undisturbed. The play of Hamlet seems to me to present an exception, perhaps more apparent than real, to this ; but that play is, in the main, concerned, through the person of " Hamlet," with the author's own complaints. Spenser's work is full of similar complaints, and they appear to arise out of two causes — frustrated ambition, and want of harmony between the writer's spirit and the mundane conditions in which it finds itself. As regards Bacon's habit of quotation and reference, viewed as part of a system of art deliberately adopted, the explanation of it is to be found in his theory of poetic art, first announced by him, in my belief, in the Apologie for Poetrie published under the name of Sidney ^ i" 1595 (though written much earlier), and re -stated more summarily in the Advancement of Learning, published in 1605, ^"d later (with an important addition) in the De Augmentis, published in 1623. From the extracts from these works which I proceed to give, the reader can form his own opinion as to the identity of authorship, and in any case he will see the relevance of the theory to the features of inaccuracy which are found, in varying degrees (in my opinion depending largely on the nature of the audience addressed), in the works alike of Spenser, Shakespeare and Bacon. Extracts in illustration of the foregoing paragraph from An Apologie for Poetrie: There is no Arte deliuered to mankinde, that hath not the ' Some writers have suggested (I think with reason) that this work was based on the supposed lost work of Spenser referred to by " E. K." in the argument to the "October" Eclogue of the Shepheards Caletider as "The English Poete," which, he says, " being lately come into my hands, I mynde also ... to publish." See p. 14 above. V SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 149 workes of Nature for his principall obiect, without which they could not consist, and on which they so depend, as they become Actors and Players as it were, of what Nature will haue set foorth. The writer runs through various arts by way of example, and continues as follows : And the Metaphisick, though it be in the seconde and abstract notions, and therefore be counted supernaturall : yet doth hee indeede builde vpon the depth of Nature : onely the Poet, disdayning to be tied to any such subiection, lifted vp with the vigor of his owne inuention, dooth growe in effect, another nature, in making things either better then Nature bringeth forth, or quite a newe formes such as neuer were in Nature, as the Heroes, Demigods, Cyclops, Chimeras, Furies, and such like : so as hee goeth hand in hand with Nature, not inclosed within the narrow warrant of her guifts, but freely ranging onely within the Zodiack of his owne wit. Nature neuer set forth the earth in so rich tapistry, as diuers Poets haue done, neither with plesant riuers, fruitful trees, sweet smelling flowers : nor whatsoeuer els may make the too much loued earth more louely. Her world is brasen, the Poets only deliuer a golden : but let those things alone and goe to man, for whom as the other things are, so it seemeth in him her vttermost cunning is imployed, and knowe whether shee haue brought foorth so true a louer as Theagines, so constant a friende as Pilades, so valiant a man as Orlando, so right a Prince as Xerwphons Cyrus ^ : so excellent a man euery way, as Virgils Aeneas : neither let this be iestingly conceiued, because the works of the one be essensiall : the other, in imitation or fiction, for any vnderstanding knoweth the skil of the Artificer : standeth in that Idea or fore-conceite of the work, and not in the work it selfe. And that the Poet hath that Idea, is manifest, by deliuering them forth in such excellencie as hee hath imagined them. Which deliuering forth also, is not wholie imaginatiue, as we are wont to say by them that build Castles in the ayre : but so farre substantially it worketh, not onely to make a Cyms, which had been but a particuler excellencie, as Nature might haue done, but to bestow a Cyrus vpon the worlde, to make many Cyms's, if they wil learne aright, why, and how that Maker made him. Neyther let it be deemed too sawcie a comparison to ballance the highest poynt of mans wit with the efficacie of Nature : but • This example (Xenophon's Cyrus) is used by Spenser to illustrate the same doctrine in the introductory epistle to the Faerie Queene. Cf. p. 105 ;/. 2. I50 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. rather giue right honor to the heauenly Maker of that maker : who hauing made man to his owne likenes, set him beyond and ouer all the workes of that second nature, which in nothing hee sheweth so much as in Poetrie : when with the force of a diuine breath, he bringeth things forth far surpassing her dooings, with no small argument to the incredulous of that first accursed fall of Adam : sith our erected wit, maketh vs know what perfection is, and yet our infected will, keepeth vs from reaching vnto it. But these arguments wil by fewe be vnderstood, and by fewer granted. . . . Poesie therefore is an arte of imitation, for so Aristotle termeth it in his word Mimesis^ that is to say, a representing, counterfetting, or figuring foorth : to speake metaphorically, a speaking picture : with this end, to teach and delight ; of this haue beene three seuerall kindes. The chiefe both in antiquitie and excellencie, were they that did imitate the inconceiuable excellencies of GOD. Such were, Dauid in his Psalmes. . . . In this kinde, though in a full wrong diuinitie, were Orpheus, Amphion, Homer in his hymes, and many other, both Greekes and Romaines. . . . The second kinde, is of them that deale with matters Philosophicall ; eyther morrall, as Ttrteus, Phocilides and Cato, or naturall, as Lucretius and Virgils Georgicks : or Astronomical), as Manilius, and Pontanus : or historical, as Lucan : which who mislike, the faulte is in their iudgements quite out of taste, and not in the sweet foode of sweetly vttered knowledge. But because thys second sorte is wrapped within the folde of the proposed subiect, and takes not the course of his owne inuention, whether they properly be Poets or no, let Gramarians dispute : and goe to the thyrd, indeed right Poets, of whom chiefly this question ariseth ; betwixt whom, and these second is such a kinde of difference, as betwixt the meaner sort of Painters, (who counterfet onely such faces as are sette before them) and the more excellent : who hauing no law but wit, bestow that in cuUours vpon you which is fittest for the eye to see : as the constant, though lamenting looke of Lucrecia, when she punished in her selfe an others fault. Wherein he painteth not Lucrecia whom he neuer sawe, but painteth the outwarde beauty of such a vertue : for these third be they which most properly do imitate to teach and delight, and to imitate, borrow nothing of what is, hath been, or shall be : but range onely rayned with learned discretion, into the diuine consideration of what may be, and should be. . . . Nowe therefore it shall not bee amisse first to waigh this latter sort of Poetrie by his works, and then by his partes ; and V SFENSEK, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 151 if in neyther of these Anatomies hee be condemnable, I hope wee shall obtaine a more fauourable sentence. This purifing of wit, this enritching of memory, enabling of iudgment, and enlarging of conceyt, which commonly we call learning, vnder what name soeuer it com forth, or to what immediat end soeuer it be directed, the final end is, to lead and draw vs to as high a perfection, as our degenerate soules made worse by theyr clayey lodgings, can be capable of. . . . But now may it be alledged, that if this imagining of matters be so fitte for the imagination, then must the Historian needs surpasse, who bringeth you images of true matters, such as indeede were doone, and not such as fantastically or falsely may be suggested to haue been doone. Truely Aristotle himselfe in his discourse of Poesie, plainely determineth this question, saying, that Poetry is Philosophoteron and Spoudaioteron, that is to say, it is more Philosophicall, and more studiously serious, then history. His reason is, because Poesie dealeth with Katholou, that is to say, with the vniuersall consideration ; and the history with Kathekastofi, the perticuler ; nowe sayth he, the vniuersall wayes what is fit to bee sayd or done, eyther in likelihood or necessity, (which the Poesie considereth in his imposed names,) and the perticuler, onely mark's, whether Aldbiades did, or suffered, this or that. Thus farre Aristotle : which reason of his, (as all his) is most full of reason. For indeed, if the question were whether it were better to haue a perticular acte truly or falsly set down : there is no doubt which is to be chosen, no more then whether you had rather haue Vespasians picture right as hee was, or at the Painters pleasure nothing resembling. But if the question be for your owne vse and learning, whether it be better to haue it set downe as it should be, or as it was : then certainely is more doctrinable the fained Cirus of Xenophon then the true Cyrus in Justine : and the fayned Aeneas in Virgil^ then the right Aeneas in Dares Fhrigius. . . . So then the best of the Historian, is subiect to the Poet ; for whatsoeuer action, or faction, whatsoeuer counsell, pollicy, or warre stratagem, the Historian is bound to recite, that may the Poet (if he list) with his imitation make his own ; beautifying it both for further teaching, and more delighting, as it pleaseth him : hauing all, from Dante his heauen, to hys hell, vnder the authoritie of his penne. Which if I be asked what Poets haue done so, as I might well name some, yet say I, and say againe, I speak of the Arte, and not of the Artificer. Extract from the Advancement of Learning (written in English), 1605 : 152 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Poesy ^ is a part of learning in measure of words for the most part restrained, but in all other points extremely licensed, and doth truly refer to the Imagination ; which, being not tied to the laws of matter, may at pleasure join that which nature hath severed, and sever that which nature hath joined, and so make unlawful matches and divorces of things : Pictoribus atque poetis, &c. [Painters and Poets have always been allowed to take what liberties they would.] It is taken in two senses, in respect of words or matter. In the first sense it is but a character of style, and belongeth to arts of speech, and is not pertinent for the present. In the later, it is (as hath been said) one of the principal portions of learning, and is nothing else but Feigned History, which may be styled as well in prose as in verse.^ The use of this Feigned History hath been to give some shadow of satisfaction to the mind of man in those points wherein the nature of things doth deny it ; the world being in proportion inferior to the soul ; by reason whereof there is agreeable to the spirit of man a more ample greatness, a more exact goodness, and a more absolute variety, than can be found in the nature of things. Therefore, because the acts or events of true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind of mind, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical ; because true history propoundeth the successes and issues of actions not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, therefore poesy feigns them more just in retribution, and more according to revealed providence ; because true history representeth actions and events more ordinary and less inter- changed, therefore poesy endueth them with more rareness, and more unexpected and alternative variations. So as it appeareth that poesy serveth and conferreth to magnanimity, morality, and to delectation. And therefore it was ever thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth raise and erect the mind, by submitting the shews of things to the desires of the mind ; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the mind into the nature of things. And we see that by these insinuations and congruities with man's nature and pleasure, joined also with the agreement and consort it hath with music, it hath had access 1 " De Aug. ii. 13. The arrangement is partly altered in the transla- tion, and much new matter introduced : among the rest, a whole paragraph concerning the true use and dignity of dramatic poetry, as a vehicle of moral instruction ; which is connected in a striking manner with the remark that men in bodies are more open to impressions than when alone." (Note by Spedding. ) 2 The doctrine that poetry is not necessarily confined to verse is also enunciated in Sidney's Apologie. V SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 153 and estimation in rude times and barbarous regions, where other learning stood excluded. — JVoris, iii. 343-4. Extract from Spedding's translation of the Latin De AugmentiSy which itself is a translation, made under Bacon's supervision (with sundry additions and alterations), of the Advancement : Now Poesy (as I have already observed) is taken in two senses ; in respect of words or matter. In the first sense it is but a character of speech ; for verse is only a kind of style and a certain form of elocution, and has nothing to do with the matter ; for both true history may be written in verse and feigned history in prose. But in the latter sense, I have set it down from the first as one of the principal branches of learning, and placed it by the side of history ; being indeed nothing else but an imitation of history at pleasure. And therefore, endeavouring as I do in these divisions to trace out and pursue the true veins of learning, without (in many points) following custom and the divisions which are received, I dismiss from the present discourse Satires, Elegies, Epigrams, Odes, and the like ; and refer them to philosophy and arts of speech. And under the name of Poesy, I treat only of feigned history. The division of Poesy which is aptest and most according to the propriety thereof, besides those divisions which it has in common with History (for there are feigned Chronicles, feigned Lives, and feigned Relations), is into Poesy Narrative, Dramatic, and Parabolical. Narrative Poesy is a mere imitation of History, such as might pass for real, only that it commonly exaggerates things beyond probability. Dramatic Poesy is as History made visible ; for it represents actions as if they were present, whereas History represents them as past. Parabolical Poesy is typical History, by which ideas that are objects of the intellect are represented in forms that are objects of the sense. As for Narrative Poesy, — or Heroical, if you like so to call it (understanding it of the matter, not of the verse) — the founda- tion of it is truly noble, and has a special relation to the dignity of human nature. For as the sensible world is inferior in dig- nity to the rational soul. Poesy seems to bestow upon human nature those things which history denies to it ; and to satisfy the mind with the shadows of things when the substance cannot be obtained. For if the matter be attentively considered, a sound argument may be drawn from Poesy, to show that there is agreeable to the spirit of man a more ample greatness, a more perfect order, and a more beautiful variety than it can anywhere 154 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. (since the Fall) find in nature. And therefore, since the acts and events which are the subjects of real history are not of sufificient grandeur to satisfy the human mind, Poesy is at hand to feign acts more heroical ; since the successes and issues of actions as related in true history are far from being agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, Poesy corrects it, exhibiting events and fortunes as according to merit and the law of providence ; since true history wearies the mind with satiety of ordinary events, one like another, Poesy refreshes it, by reciting things unexpected and various and full of vicissitudes. So that this Poesy conduces not only to delight but also to magnanimity and morality. Whence it may be fairly thought to partake somewhat of a divine nature ; because it raises the mind and carries it aloft, accommodating the shows of things to the desires of the mind, not (like reason and history) buckling and bowing down the mind to the nature of things. And by these charms, and that agreeable congruity which it has with man's nature, accompanied also with music, to gain more sweet access, it has so won its way as to have been held in honour even in the rudest ages and among barbarous peoples, when other kinds of learning were utterly excluded. Dramatic Poesy, which has the theatre for its world, would be of excellent use if well directed. For the stage is capable of no small influence both of discipline and of corruption. Now of corruptions in this kind we have enough ; but the discipline has in our times been plainly neglected. And though in modern states play-acting is esteemed but as a toy, except when it is too satirical and biting ; yet among the ancients it was used as a means of educating men's minds to virtue. Nay, it has been regarded by learned men and great philosophers as a kind of musician's bow by which men's minds may be played upon. And certainly it is most true, and one of the great secrets of nature, that the minds of men are more open to impressions and affections when many are gathered together than when they are alone. — Works, iv. 315-16. The last paragraph is the new one to which Spedding refers in his note (given on p. 152 above), and under the Latin original of it (^De Augmentis, ii. 13) he has a further note beginning as follows : There is nothing in the Advancement of Learnin^^ corresponding to this paragraph. It is a curious fact that these remarks on the character of the modern drama were probably written, and were certainly first V SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 155 published, in the same year which saw the first collection of Shakespeare's plays ; of which, though they had been filling the theatre for the last thirty years, I very much doubt whether Bacon had ever heard. — Works, i. 519. This extraordinary conclusion is based on the paucity of contemporary notices as to the publication or acting of the plays, and the general indifference of the public as to the authorship of a successful drama. Another very significant allusion to the practical uses of poetry occurs in the Advancement, where the writer is discussing the diseases of the mind of man and the methods to be sought for curing them. For this purpose he says we must first distinguish the various dispositions of men, and he adds : For the distinctions are found (many of them), but we conclude no precepts upon them : wherein our fault is the greater, because both history, poesy, and daily experience, are as goodly fields where these observations grow ; whereof we make a few posies to hold in our hands, but no man bringeth them to the con- fectionary, that receits might be made of them for the use of life. — Works, iii, 435. This passage was dropped out of the De Augmentis, and in place of it there is a passage recommending the drawing up of a sort of analysis of the characters of historical personages found in " the wiser sort of historians." These are preferred for this purpose to the poets on the ground that the representations of character by the latter are generally " exaggerated and surpassing the truth." ^ What was the cause of the modification of the complaint made in 1605 and the emendation of 1623? It would be entirely in accordance with Bacon's character that he should consider no one capable of again taking up the ground occupied by the Shakespeare plays, and should wish the world to be content with them, and for further illustrations of character confine themselves to actuality. The last extract which I need give in illustration of Bacon's method of handling material is the address ' Works, V. 21-22 (Spedding's translation). 156 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. accompanying a fragment entitled Of the Colours of Good and Evil. The passage is not only interesting as showing Bacon's habit of mind in regard to the work of his pre- decessors, but is characteristic in other ways : To the Lord Mountjoye I send you the last part of the best book of Aristotle of Stagira, who, as your Lordship knoweth, goeth for the best author. But saving the civil respect which is due to a received estimation, the man, being a Grecian, and of a hasty wit, having hardly a dis- cerning patience, much less a teaching patience, hath so delivered the matter, as I am glad to do the part of a good house-hen, which without any strangeness will sit upon pheasant's eggs. And yet, perchance, some that shall compare my lines with Aristotle's lines will muse by what art, or rather by what revelation, I could draw these conceits out of that place. But I, that should know best, do freely acknowledge that I had my light from him ; for where he gave me not matter to perfect, at the least he gave me occasion to invent. Wherein as I do him right, being myself a man that am as free from envying the dead in contemplation as from envying the living in action or fortune : so yet nevertheless still I say, and I speak it more largely than before, that in perus- ing the writings of this person so much celebrated, whether it were the impediment of his wit, or that he did it upon glory and affectation to be subtile, as one that, if he had seen his own conceits clearly and perspicuously delivered, perhaps would have been out of love with them himself; or else upon policy, to keep himself close, as one that had been a challenger of all the world, and had raised infinite contradiction : to what cause soever it is to be ascribed, I do not find him to deliver and unwrap himself well of that he seemeth to conceive, nor to be a master of his own knowledge. Neither do I for my part also, though I have brought in a new manner of handling this argument, to make it pleasant and lightsome, pretend so to have overcome the nature of the subject, but that the full understanding and use of it will be somewhat dark, and best pleasing the taste of such wits as are patient to stay the digesting and soluting unto themselves of that which is sharp and subtile. Which was the cause, joined with the love and honour which I bear your lordship, as the person I know to have many virtues, and an excellent order of them, which moved me to dedicate this writing to your lordship after the ancient manner ; choosing both a friend, and one to whom I conceived the argument was agreeable. — Works, vii. 70. V SPENSER, SHAKESPEARE AND BACON 157 There were, however, other motives in Bacon's methods, which may, to some extent, be attributed to his social surroundings and public ambitions. The very remarkable passages in the Arte of English Poesie (1589), which I quote below, refer, in my belief, to such motives, and in general describe the nature of Bacon's genius and art : These and many such like disguisings do we find in mans behauiour, and specially in the Courtiers of forraine Countreyes, where in my youth I was brought vp, and very well obserued their maner of life and conuersation, for of mine owne Countrey I haue not made so great experience.^ Which parts, neuerthelesse, we allow not now in our English maker, because we haue geuen him the name of an honest man, and not of an hypocrite : and therefore leauing these manner of dissimulations to all base- minded men, and of vile nature or misterie, we doe allow our Courtly Poet to be a dissembler only in the subtilties of his arte : that is, when he is most artificiall, so to disguise and cloake it as it may not appeare, nor seeme to proceede from him by any studie or trade of rules, but to be his naturall : nor so euidently to be descried, as euery ladde that reades him shall say he is a good schoUer, but will rather haue him to know his arte well, and little to vse it. (iii. 25.) Also in that which the Poet speakes or reports of another mans tale or doings, as Homer of Priamus or Vlisses, he is as the painter or keruer that worke by imitation and representation in a forrein subiect, in that he speakes figuratiuely, or argues subtillie, or perswades copiously and vehemently, he doth as the cunning gardiner that vsing nature as a coadiutor, furders her conclusions and many times make her effectes more absolute and straunge. But for that in our maker or Poet, which restes onely in deuise and issues from an excellent sharpe and quick inuention, * It is impossible, reading this book, to believe that this statement is true. There are many others in the book of a similar character, which, in my belief, were inserted for purposes of concealment. It is possible that they were intended to apply to an assumed personality, which would be that of some person living at the time, and that the writer was prevented from using the name, and therefore published the book anonymously. The fact that the book begins and ends with a personal address to the Queen, and that the printer pretends that it came into his hands (long and elaborate as it is) without any author's name or address, supports this view. If this were so, who would pay the expenses of publication ? The book is a work full of wit and wisdom, but also of strangeness and extravagance, quite out of the common road. It might, indeed, be cited as an example of the eccentricity of genius. IS8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CH. v holpen by a cleare and bright phantasie and imagination, he is not as the painter to counterfaite the naturall by the like effects and not the same, nor as the gardiner aiding nature to worke both the same and the Hke, nor as the Carpenter to worke effectes vtterly vnUke, but even as nature her selfe working by her owne pecuHar vertue and proper instinct and not by example or medi- tation or exercise as all other artificers do, is then most admired when he is most naturall and least artificiall. And in the feates of his language and vtterance, because they hold aswell of nature to be suggested and vttered as by arte to be polished and reformed. Therefore shall our Poet receaue prayse for both, but more by knowing of his arte then by vnseasonable vsing it, and be more commended for his naturall eloquence then for his artificiall, and more for his artificiall well disembled, then for the same ouer- much affected and grossely or vndiscretly bewrayed, as many makers and Oratours do. — Ibid. Among the volumes which have been written on the genius and art of Shakespeare, I doubt if anything has been said which is so appropriate and illuminating as this. CHAPTER VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS Spenser, according to the story, came over from Ireland at the end of 1589 to publish his Faerie Queene, but had to return to look after his affairs in that country perhaps towards the close of 1590, or, as some suggest, after the award of his pension in February i 591. Works, however, from his pen continued to appear, and early in I 591 a volume entitled ^^ Complai?iis : containing sundrie small poems of the Worlds Vanitie " was published, as by " Ed. Sp.," with an address by the Printer, who speaks of "his departure over Sea": The Printer to the Gentle Reader Since my late setting foorth of the Faerie Queene, finding that it hath found a favourable passage amongst you, I have sithence endevoured by all good meanes (for the better encrease and accomplishment of your delights,) to get into my handes such smale Poemes of the same Authors, as I heard were disperst abroad in sundrie hands, and not easie to bee come by, by him- selfe ; some of them having bene diverslie imbeziled and purloyned from him since his departure over Sea. Of the which I have, by good meanes, gathered togeather these fewe parcels present, which I have caused to bee imprinted altogeather, for that they al seeme to containe like matter of argument in them ; being all complaints and meditations of the worlds vanitie, verie grave and profitable. To which effect I understand that he besides wrote sundrie others, n^ineWt Ecclcsiastes and Canticum cantkomm translated, A senights slumber. The hell of lovers, his Furgalorie, being all dedicated to Ladies ; so as it may seeme he ment them all to one volume. Besides some other Pamphlets looselie scattered abroad : as The dying Ffllicati, The howers of the Lord, 159 i6o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. The sacrifice of a sifiner, The seven Psahnes^ &c. which when I can, either by himselfe or otherwise, attaine too, I meane Hke- wise for your favour sake to set foorth. In the meane time, praying you genthe to accept of these, and graciousHe to entertaine the new Poet, / take leave. The fact that this book was licensed for publication under date 29th December 1590 led Grosart to the con- clusion that the " Printer " was " really Spenser himself speaking with that kind of blind or mystification found later in Pope or Swift." I agree, and I think also that the titles of some of the " sundry other " works were probably an invention with the object of conciliating the prejudice which existed against poetry. The pieces included were : 1. The Ruines of Time. 2. The Teares of the Muses. 3. Virgils Gnat. 4. Prosopopoia, or Mother Hjibberds Tale. 5. The Ruines of Rome : by Bellay. 6. Muiopotmos, or the Fate of the Butterflie. 7. Visions of the Worlds Vanitie. 8. Bellay es Visions. 9. Petr arc lies Visions. I, 2, 3, 4 have all carefully prepared dedications in a style indistinguishable from the Printer's address. The Ruines of Time is dedicated to Mary, Countess of Pembroke, Sir Philip Sidney's sister, who is referred to as " the Patron of my young Muses," and speaking of the death of her brother (1586) the author says that he had " conceived this small Poeme " " sithens my late cumming to England," which is difficult to reconcile with the Printer's alleged difficulties in collecting the poems, apparently at the identical time. In the dedication of Mother Hubberds Tale to Lady Compton, the author, in speaking of his " humble affection and faithfull duetie " to the house from which she sprang, says : " I have at length found occasion to remember the same, by making a simple present to you of these my idle labours ; which having long sithens composed in the raw conceipt of my VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS i6l youth, I lately amongst other papers lighted upon, and was by others, which liked the same, mooved to set them foorth." I am aware that it is held that these poems were first circulated in manuscript, but there would be no sense in the words quoted except in relation to publication in print, and the author has forgotten, or has not thought it worth while to trouble about, their incon- sistency with the version that the printer was responsible for the publication. Similarly also in the case of the dedication for the Teares of the Muses, where the writer uses the words " to make the same universallie knowen to the world." Internal evidence confirms the evidence of the dedi- cation that the Ruines of Time was composed, or com- pleted, in 1590. The poet is described as seeing an apparition of a woman representing the ancient city of Verulam, and lamenting its decay : It chaunced me on day beside the shore Of silver streaming Thamesis to bee, Nigh where the goodly Verlame stood of yore, Of which there now remaines no memorie ; and subsequently, as Old Verulam was not situated on the Thames, she is made to say that the river had left it : Seemes that the gentle River for great griefe ■ • • • • From my unhappie neighborhood farre fled, And his sweete waters away with him led. With such geographical difficulties to be overcome, why should Spenser have gone out of his way to place the scene of his lament over people who had flourished, as he had, in London — Leicester, Sidney, and others — at Old Verulam ? In the case of Francis Bacon it is intelligible, as it was his father's home, and by his will he directed that he should be buried in St. Michael's church near St. Albans, both because his mother was buried there, and because it was " the only Christian church within the walls of Old Verulam." In the same poem occurs the well-known reference to Lord Burghley : M 1 62 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Those two be those two great calamities, That long agoe did grieve the noble spright Of Salomon with great indignities, Who whilome was alive the wisest wight : But now his wisedome is disprooved quite ; For he, that now welds all things at his will. Scorns th' one and th' other in his deeper skill. O griefe of griefes ! O gall of all good heartes ! To see that vertue should dispised bee Of him, that first was raisde for vertuous parts, And now, broad spreading like an aged tree, Lets none shoot up that nigh him planted bee. O let the man, of whom the Muse is scorned, Nor alive nor dead be of the Muse adorned ! There is no known fact in Spenser's life to justify this complaint ; on the contrary, as I have said before, he had been singularly fortunate. Grosart mentions a very curious thing about these lines, that in the edition of 1 6 1 I two of them were changed to — For such as now have most the world at will and O let not those of whom the Muse is scorned. Robert Cecil was then in power and Bacon was Solicitor-General. Even more unintelligible in Spenser's case is the well-known complaint in Mother Hubberds Tale, in the same collection : Most miserable man, whom wicked fate Hath brought to Court, to sue for had ywist, That few have found, and manie one hath mist ! Full little knowest thou, that hast not tride, What hell it is in suing long to bide : To loose good dayes, that might be better spent ; To wast long nights in pensive discontent ; To speed to day, to be put back to morrow ; To feed on hope, to pine with feare and sorrow ; To have thy Princes grace, yet want her Peeres ; To have thy asking, yet waite manie yeeres ; To fret thy soule with crosses and with cares ; To eate thy heart through comfortlesse dispaires ; To fawne, to crowche, to waite, to ride, to ronne, To spend, to give, to want, to be undonne. Unhappie vvight, borne to desastrous end, That doth his life in so long tendance spend I VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 163 A similar complaint occurs in the Prothalamion, which was written and published during Spenser's supposed visit to London in 1596 : When I, (whom sullein care, Through discontent of my long fruitlesse stay In Princes Court, and expectation vayne Of idle hopes, which still doe fly away. Like empty shaddowes, did afflict my brayne,) Walkt forth to ease my payne Along the shoare of silver streaming Themmes. With these may be compared Hamlet's complaints of a precisely similar character, and the story of Bacon's early " suit," and long failure, in his correspondence, where he describes himself, in a letter to Lord Burghley written early in 1595, as "a tired sea-sick suitor."^ The 33rd and 34th stanzas indicate that the author's early patron was Leicester, " his Colin " being Leicester's Colin. At that point the author begins to find difficulty in saying what he has to say through the feigned character of the " woman," and, by one of those almost imperceptible transpositions to which I have already alluded, he appears to put the speech into his own mouth (st. 35). We are surprised, therefore, to find at the end (" Thus having ended all her piteous plaint ") that the " woman " is supposed to have been speaking all the time. But the confusion is evidently intentional, and it enables the author to speak his mind without appearing too clearly to be doing so. The burden of the poem is " mutability," and, in particular, the loss by death of a number of people who had been associated with the author's youth : his early patron, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester (d. 1588); Leicester's brother, Ambrose Dudley, Earl of Warwick (d. Feb. 1590); Sir Henry Sidney and his wife (sister of the Earls of Warwick and Leicester), who both died in 1586; Philip Sidney, who died from his wound received at Zutphen later in the same year; Francis Russell, second Earl of Bedford (father of the two sisters, Countess of Warwick • Spedding, Life, i. 12, 358-9, etc. i64 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. and Countess of Cumberland, to whom the Foivre Hyvins are addressed), who died in 1585. The lines in the stanza following those about Burghley quoted above — Let them behold the piteous fall of mee, And in my case their owne ensample see — are presumably self- regarding, and allude to some incident in the author's early career, when, from over- confidence and some offence given, he appears to have lost the favour of Leicester, and, not having won that of Burghley, he had found himself without place or prospects. This incident, whatever it was (evidently a critical one in the author's early career), is more specifically alluded to in Virgils Gnat and Muiopotinos, to which I shall come. The Teares of the Muses is written in the same pessimistic vein, and seems to belong to the same period, but perhaps about a year earlier. The dedication, which, from its terms, is evidently written with a view to the publication of the poem, refers to it as " this last slender meanes," etc., and the theme of the poem is the contrast, in the author's mind, between the present and the past. It is, in fact, the theme of disillusionment which comes with the passing of youth, especially for those whose imagination is strong. The picture of the age which the writer draws will hardly be recognised by those who have their ideas of it solely from biographical romances, but it was probably not so bad as he painted it by contrast with the ideal of his imagination. The general features described are perhaps most in evidence in periods of new material prosperity. The poem contains several notable instances of Spenser's aristocratic standpoint to which I have already alluded. The poem is best known for the lines about the theatre, containing the description which every one would like to think was intended for Shakespeare. It seems, however, to be generally agreed that he {i.e. Shakespeare VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 165 of Stratford) must be ruled out, as he is not supposed to have come to London till 1587 at the earliest, and would not therefore have had time to justify this eulogy before 1591, when the piece was published. The lines to which I refer are the lament of the Muse Thalia : Where be the sweete delights of learnings treasure That wont with Comick sock to beautefie The painted Theaters, and fill with pleasure The listners eyes and eares with melodie ; In which I late was wont to raine as Queene, And niaske in mirth with Graces well beseene ? O ! all is gone ; and all that goodly glee, Which wont to be the glorie of gay wits, Is layd abed, and no where now to see ; And in her roome unseemly Sorrow sits, With hollow browes and greisly countenaunce, Marring my joyous gentle dalliaunce. And him beside sits ugly Barbarisme, And brutish Ignorance, ycrept of late Out of dredd darknes of the deepe Abysme, Where being bredd, he light and heaven does hate : They in the mindes of men now tyrannize, And the faire Scene with rudenes foule disguize. All places they with follie have possest. And with vaine toyes the vulgare entertaine ; But me have banished, with all the rest That whilome wont to wait upon my traine, Fine Counterfesaunce, and unhurtfuU Sport, Delight, and Laughter, deckt in seemly sort. All these, and all that els the Comick Stage With seasoned wit and goodly pleasance graced. By which mans life in his likest image Was limned forth, are wholly now defaced ; And those sweete wits, which wont the like to frame. Are now despizd, and made a laughing game. And he, the man whom Nature selfe had made To mock her selfe, and Truth to imitate. With kindly counter under Mimick shade. Our pleasant Willy, ah ! is dead of late : With whom all joy and jolly meriment Is also deaded, and in dolour drent. i66 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. In stead thereof scoffing Scurrilitie, And scomfull Follie with Contempt is crept, RolHng in rymes of shameles ribaudrie Without regard, or due Decorum kept ; Each idle wit at will presumes to make, And doth the Learneds taske upon him take. But that same gentle Spirit, from whose pen Large streames of honnie and sweete Nectar flowe, Scorning the boldnes of such base-borne men, Which dare their follies forth so rashlie throwe. Doth rather choose to sit in idle Cell, Than so himselfe to mockerie to sell. So am I made the servant of the manie. And laughing stocke of all that list to scorne ; Not honored nor cared for of anie. But loath'd of losels as a thing forlorne : Therefore I mourne and sorrow with the rest, Untill my cause of sorrow be redrest. It seems to be supposed by some writers that these lines refer to one and the same person, and they explain that " dead of late " is metaphorical (a strained interpreta- tion at best), because in the following stanza but one retirement only from the world is indicated. But this is to read " that same " in the sense of " the aforesaid," which I feel sure is wrong. I consider that " same " is redundant, put in for the metre, and strengthening the demonstrative " that." The sense then is " the gentle spirit, from whose pen," etc., namely, a different personage to " our pleasant Willy," who " is dead of late." I agree with those who think that the first person alluded to, " our pleasant Willy," is Tarlton. The second, the " gentle spirit," who from the language used might well be " Shakespeare," is, in my opinion, the author himself. The self-praise which the lines involve under such an interpretation is one of the peculiar characteristics of this writer, as I have already said. In the line " So am I made the servant of the manie," the writer identifies the " Muse," as he does more or less throughout, with himself, and the description tallies exactly with the circumstances and state of mind of VI SPENSEH'S MINOR POEMS 167 Francis Bacon at the time. It refers, in my belief, to the necessity under which he found himself of following private practice at the Bar, and to the fact that owing to the general indifference to letters he was unable to find an audience except by sinking below what he regarded as the best.^ The poem seems to have been written in a mood of depression, possibly (as I shall show in a moment) in consequence of the death of Tarlton, which took place in September 1588. The state of the public stage is denounced, and other conditions, presumably those of Leicester House, when the great lord of it was alive, and the writer was still young, are looked back to with regret. The person referred to as " that same gentle spirit " (as a writer for the stage, if words mean anything) is represented as sitting " in idle Cell," namely, in the seclusion of his own habitation. That this is intended for the author himself is made still clearer by the similar expressions in the Rtdnes of Time, where Colin Clout (who is, admittedly, the author) is bidden to rouse himself, " at length awake for shame." ^ That poem bears evidence of being the later one of the two. ' Bacon had no taste for private practice at the Bar, the detail probably proving irksome to him ; also it was not work which was held in the same repute as it is now. Cf. Donne, Satire 2, where men who choose " law- practice for mere gain " are denounced. Donne himself read law in Lincoln's Inn, but gave it up for secretarial work. In a letter to Lord Keeper Egerton in 1597 Bacon writes: "I know very well . . . that in practising the law I play not my best game ; which maketh me accept it with a nisi quod potitis" \ to Essex he wrote in 1595, after his failure to obtain the Solicitorship, " For means, I value that most ; and the rather because I am purposed not to follow the practice of the law . . . and my reason is only because it drinketh too much time, which I have dedicated to better purposes " ; and to his uncle. Lord Burghley, in 1580. at the very outset of his career, he sent a letter "to commend unto your Lordship the remembrance of my suit," adding that " although it must be confessed that the request is rare and unaccustomed, yet if it be observed how few there be which fall in with the study of the common laws, either being well left or friended, or at their own free election, or forsaking likely success in other studies of more delight and no less pre- ferment, or setting hand thereunto early without waste of years ; upon such survey made, it may be my case may not seem ordinary, no more than my suit, and so more beseeming unto it." All this disposes of the statements which are sometimes made that Bacon was too much occupied with professional duties to have had time for literary work on a large scale. 2 Cf. the title of Greene's Menaphon, published in 1589, "Camilla's alarum to slumbering Euphues in his melancholia Cell at Silexedra." i68 SFENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. To come to Tarlton. Tarlton, as every one knows, enjoyed an extraordinary popularity as a comedian and jester, and was a great favourite of Queen Elizabeth. The writer of the article about him in the Dtctionaiy of National Biography states that, on the authority of an annotated copy of the 1 6 1 i edition of the Teares of the Aluses, Tarlton has been identified with the " pleasant Willy " of the poem, and that the name " Willy " was used at the time as an appellation implying affectionate familiarity. The writer further states that tradition asserts that Tarlton was dissipated, poor though regularly earning money, that he died at Shoreditch in the house of Emma Ball, a woman of bad reputation, and was buried in St. Leonard's Church on the same day [from which it has been inferred that he died of the plague], that his wife, Kate, was unfaithful to him, and that by her he left an only child, a boy of about six years. I mention these particulars as they seem to me to furnish the basis for Harvey's extraordinary account (in my opinion fictitious) of Robert Greene's death. After Tarlton's death, a book, without date, printed in or before 1590 and after September i 588, was published by one styling himself " an old companion of his, Robin Goodfellow," entitled " Tarletons Newes out of Purgatorie." It was followed, in 1590, by a book entitled "The Cobler of Canterburie, or An Invective against Tarltons Newes out of Purgatorie." The former and part of the latter were reprinted for the Shakespeare Society by J. H. Halliwell in 1 844. The authors are unknown, but it has, apparently, been suggested, though only as a con- jecture, that the author of the first may be Nashe. From " Greene's Vision," a work attributed to Greene, but of uncertain authorship, it appears that the Cobler of Canterburie had been attributed to him, which made him " passing melancholy." In the dialogue with Chaucer and Gowcr, whom he sees in a vision, the author gives the following description of the book : But now of late there came foorth a booke called the " Cobler of Canterburie," a merry work, and made by some madde fellow. VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 169 containing pleasant tales, a little tainted with scurrilitie, such, reverend Chawcer, as yourselfe set foorth in your journey to Canterbury. This is a correct description of the book (the title being deceptive), except that Chaucer's " scurrilitie " is less deliberate than that of this book, which was probably written with a view to making some money. Greene adds that it was incerti authoris, but from the way he discusses it (apart from other indications) it is evident, to my mind, that the author of the " Vision " was also the author of this book. Bacon was in great financial difficulties at this time. It appears that he was doing very little in the way of private practice at the Bar, though he may have earned something, so far as that was possible in those days, by his pen. The two books, Tarletons Newes and TJie Cobler of Canterbtirie, which are collections of tales, are, in my opinion, certainly by the same hand, and I am equally certain that the hand is Bacon's. The name of Tarlton is used to secure attention, and advantage is taken of the popularity of the first book to hang another on to it, under the pretext of getting up a controversy. There was no public press at that time, books were rigorously censored, and it is my belief that Bacon invented opponents in order to find scope for writing on both sides of a question, and for the pleasure of controversial satire.^ He also took such opportunities to " advertise " and " review " his own work, sometimes in the spirit of burlesque, sometimes of dispassionate criticism, often in strains of eloquent and even prodigious eulogy, which, for the most part, was probably seriously intended. My view as to the authorship of these two books is based mainly on the similarity of style, a style which is abso- lutely individual and unlike that of any other writer, except those (and there are many of them) who can be recognised as " Prosopopeias," or impersonations, under which Bacon came before the world. ^ Cf. the motto at the end of the first of the Harvey Foure Letters (1592) : " Miserrima Fortuna, quae caret inamico." 170 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. As regards The Cobler of Canterburie I may cite the following remarkable parallel : In Spenser's Sonnet 5 3 we read : The Panther, knowing that his spotted hyde Doth please all beasts, but that his looks them fray, Within a bush his dreadfull head doth hide. To let them gaze, whylest he on them may pray. In " The Old Wives Tale " in The Cobler of Canterburie occurs the following : In a farre country there dwelled sometime a Gentleman of good parentage, called Signer Mizaldo, who had to his wife a very faire and beautifuU Gentlewoman. And as the beasts most greedily gaze at the Panthers skin, and the birds at the Peacocks plumes : so every faire feminine face is an adamant to draw ye objects of mens eyes to behold the beauties of women. In Lilly's Euphues (^Anatomy of Wif) reference is made to the same curious notion : Howe frantick are those louers which are carried away with the gaye glistering of the fine face? ... of so little value with the wise, that they accompt it a delicate baite with a deadly hooke : a sweet Panther with a deuouring paunch, a sower poyson in a silver potle. — Arber Reprint, p. 54. [Of flatterers who prey on young gentlemen.] Wherefore if ther be any Fathers that would haue his children nurtured and brought vp in honestie, let him expell these Panthers which haue a sweete smel, but a deuouring mind. — Ibid. p. 49. Compare the following examples, among others, from Greene : The Panther with his painted skin and his sweet breath. — Mamillia, The Panther, which having made one astonished with his faire sight, seeketh to devoure him with bloudy pursute. — Arhasto. I come now to Tarletofis Ncwes out of Purgatorie. The book consists of amusing tales from Italian and, I suppose, other sources, in a setting which begins thus : VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 171 Sorrowing, as most men doo, for the death of Richard Tarlton . . . the woonted desire to see plaies left me, in that although I saw as rare showes, and heard as lofty verse, yet I injoyed not those wonted sports that flowed from him, as from a fountaine of pleasing and merry conceits. For although he was only super- ficially scene in learning, having no more but a bare insight into the Latin tung, yet he had such a prompt wit, that he seemed to have that sakm ingenij, which Tullie so highly commends in his Oratorie. Well, howsoever, either naturall or artificiall, or both, he was a mad merry companion, desired and loved of all, amongst the rest of whose wel wishers myselfe, being not the least, after his death I mourned in conceite, and absented myselfe from all plaies, as wanting that merrye Roscius of plaiers, that famosed all comedies so with his pleasant and extemporall invention. The author falls asleep in a field by the " Theatre " and sees Tarlton's ghost, who tells him tales. The last one, " The Tale of the Two Lovers of Pisa," is an accom- plished piece of writing, and, in some of the incidents, it resembles TJie Merry Wives of Wi7idsor. The book ends as follows : Faith, and because they knew I [Tarlton] was a boone com- panion, they appointed that I should sit and play jigs all day on my tabor to the ghosts without cesing, which hath brought me into such use, that I now play far better than when I was alive ; for proof thou shalt hear a hornpipe ; with that, putting his pipe to his mouth, the first stroke he struck I started, and with that I waked, and saw such a concourse of people through the fields, that I knew the play was doon ; whereupon, rising up, and smiling at my dream, after supper took my pen, and as neer as I could set it down, but not halfe so plesantly as he spoke it ; but, howsoever, take it in good part, and so farewell. This, I feel sure, is the " pleasant Willy " whom the poet in the Teares of tJie Muses laments as " dead of late," and for whom he " mourned in conceite," i.e. in the world of his imagination. He could not write for sorrow. Compare Hamlet's lament for Yorick : " Alas, poor Yorick ! I knew him, Horatio : a fellow of infinite jest, of most excellent fancy : he hath borne me on his back a thousand times " (v. i ). The next of the " Complaints " bears the title of 172 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Virgils Gnat, which is illusory, the poem being entirely self-regarding, and referring to the disaster, whatever it was, which had made shipwreck of the author's early prospects. In some way he had offended his patron, the Earl of Leicester, and under an allegory he defends his motives. So far as it is possible to understand it, he had warned the Earl against some proceedings of Lord Burghley, and had incurred the Earl's displeasure for his pains. Leicester is apparently the " Shepheard," Burghley the " Serpent," and the author is the " Gnat." The poem bears evidence of being a youthful production, and it is so described by the author, viz. " Virgils Gnat : long since dedicated to the most noble and excellent lord, the Earle of Leicester, late deceased." The words " late deceased " evidently refer, not to the time of writing, but to the time when the collection of " Complaints " was put together, viz. subsequently to 1588. The dedication is as follows: Wrong'd yet not daring to expresse my paine, To you (great Lord) the causer of my care. In clowdie teares my case I thus complaine Unto yourselfe, that onely privie are : But if that any Oedipus unware Shall chaunce, through power of some divining spright, To reade the secrete of this riddle rare, And know the purporte of my evill plight, Let him rest pleased with his owne insight, Ne further seeke to glose upon the text ; For griefe enough it is to grieved wight To feele his fault, and not be further vext. But what so by my selfe may not be shovven, May by this Gnatts complaint be easily knowen. It has been suggested that the offence given to Leicester was some officious advocacy on the part of the poet that he should marry the Queen, a match to which Burghley was strenuously opposed, to the extent even of favouring the unpopular French marriage as a means of preventing it (as well as for reasons connected with foreign diplomacy). There is some evidence, to which I shall come,^ which bears out this suggestion. Another 1 See Chapter LX. VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 173 suggestion is that the cause of offence was some advocacy on behalf of Grindal in a case in which he had opposed Leicester's wishes. My view of the situation is that Leicester took a liking to Francis Bacon as a boy/ and that some time in the year 1579, after Bacon's return from France in March of that year, the Earl invited him to form part of his establishment (not necessarily in residence). He would thus definitely become his " patron," and Bacon would gain the advantage of a position in London, which, owing to his father's death, was no longer available for him at York House. But his restless genius would never allow him to be content with a courtier's life, and I suppose he paid court to Burghley at the same time, and thus " fell between two stools." Leicester and Burghley belonged to different worlds, and were not on cordial terms, and the attractions of Leicester House would not be regarded by the minister as a good school for the service of the State. The petulant attacks on Burghley, and the regretful allusions to early days in or about Leicester House, bear out these suggestions. Thus in the Ruines of Time the author refers to Leicester's bounty : And who so els did goodnes by him gaine, And who so els his bounteous minde did trie, and again in the beautiful Prothalamionl" written in 1596, when Bacon was at the lowest ebb of his fortunes.^ The allusion occurs in the eighth stanza, which may be read with the first : Calme was the day, and through the trembling ayre Sweete-breathing Zephyrus did softly play A gentle spirit, that lightly did delay Hot Titans beames, which then did glyster fayre ; When I, (whom suUein care. Through discontent of my long fruitlesse stay In Princes Court, and expectation vayne Of idle hopes, which still doe fly away. Like empty shaddowes, did afflict my brayne,) * Cf. Chapter X. ^ For two daughters of the Earl of Worcester. ^ Bacon had at this time been for some years in great pecuniary difficulties, and he was arrested for debt in 1598. 174 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Walkt forth to ease my payne Along the shoare of silver streaming Themmes ; Whose rutty Bancke, the which his River hemmes, Was paynted all with variable flowers, And all the meades adornd with daintie gemmes, Fit to decke maydens bowres, And crowne their Paramours, Against the Brydale day, which is not long : Sweete Themmes runne softly, tell I end my Song. At length they all to mery London came, To mery London, my most kyndly Nurse, That to me gave this Lifes first native sourse. Though from another place I take my name, An house of auncient fame : There when they came, whereas those bricky towres, The which on Themmes brode aged backe doe ryde. Where now the studious Lawyers have their bowers. There whylome wont the Templer Knights to byde. Till they decayd through pride : Next whereunto there standes a stately place, Where oft I gayned giftes and goodly grace Of that great Lord, which therein wont to dwell, Whose want too well now feeles my freendles case ; But ah ! here fits not well Olde woes, but joyes, to tell Against the bridale daye, which is not long : Sweete Themmes runne softly, till I end my Song. These stanzas are utterly unintelligible in the case of Spenser, who is supposed at this time to have been enjoying a second brief visit to London from his exile in Ireland, and had only the year before published, in Colin Clouts Come Home Again, an effusive account of his previous visit in 1590. I have already alluded to the attack on Burghley in the Ruines of Tivie. The well-known passage in MotJier Htibberds Tale, though less open, is even more daring : But the false Foxe^ most kindly plaid his part ; For whatsoever mother-wit or arte * The false Foxe. That this was taken to be an allusion to Burghley is shown by a reference to it in a pamphlet entitled " A Declaration of the True Causes," etc. (1592), containing a violent attack on him from the Catholic standpoint. In the course of it the writer states that there is matter enough against Cecil "in plain proof," "which is not extracted out of VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 175 Could worke, he put in proofe : no practise slie, No counterpoint of cunning policie, No reach, no breach, that might him profit bring. But he the same did to his purpose wring. Nought suffered he the Ape to give or graunt. But through his hand must passe the Fiaunt. All offices, all leases by him lept. And of them all whatso he likte he kept. Justice he solde injustice for to buy. And for to purchase for his progeny. Ill might it prosper that ill gotten was ; But, so he got it, little did he pas. He fed his cubs with fat of all the soyle, And with the sweete of others sweating toyle ; He crammed them with crumbs of Benefices, And fild their mouthes with meeds of malefices : He cloathed them with all colours, save white. And loded them with lordships and with might, So much as they were able well to beare. That with the weight their backs nigh broken were : He chaffred Chayres in which Churchmen were set, And breach of lawes to privie ferme did let : No statute so established might bee, Nor ordinaunce so needful), but that bee Would violate, though not with violence. Yet under colour of the confidence The which the Ape repos'd in him alone, And reckned him the kingdomes corner stone. This poem, according to the author's statement in the dedication, was " long sithens composed in the raw conceipt of my youth," and the statement is borne out by the line, " But his late chayne his Liege unmeete esteemeth," which, Grosart observes, evidently points to the Earl of Leicester's marriage in 1578 with Lettice Knollys, widow of the Earl of Essex (Walter Devereux), which drew down upon him the wrath of Queen Elizabeth. The following is the passage in which it occurs : Mother Hubberds tale of the false fox and his crooked cubbes." In the margin is printed, " Prosopopoia or Mother Hubberds tale." The last words in the sentence quoted refer, of course, to Robert Cecil, whom the writer reviles as follows : " He is friendly to none but for his owne profit. He is not welcome to his peeres, nor of affection followed by his inferiors : but resembleth a storme in the aire, which all creatures do feare and shun, and none do love or desyre." For a further account of this pamphlet see Chapter Vni. p. 209. 176 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. But tell us (said the Ape) we doo you pray, Who now in Court doth beare the greatest sway, That, if such fortune doo to us befall. We make seeke favour of the best of all ? Marie, (said he) the highest now in grace Be the wilde beasts, that swiftest are in chase ; For in their speedie course and nimble flight The Lyon now doth take the most delight ; But chieflie joyes on foote them to beholde, Enchaste with chaine and circulet of golde : So wilde a beast so tame ytaught to bee. And buxome to his bands, is joy to see ; So well his golden Circlet him beseemeth. But his late chayne his Liege unmeete esteemeth ; For so brave beasts she loveth best to see In the wilde forrest raunging fresh and free. Therefore if fortune thee in Court to live. In case thou ever there wilt hope to thrive, To some of these thou must thy selfe apply ; Els as a thistle-downe in th' ayre doth flie, So vainly shalt thou too and fro be tost, And loose thy labour and thy fruitles cost. The poem therefore was presumably written (at any rate in its first state) sometime after the summer of 1579, when the Queen came to hear of Leicester's marriage through Simier.^ But Spenser was then a man of twenty- seven or twenty-eight, an age to which the phrase in the dedication is quite inappropriate. Bacon, however, was eighteen or nineteen, when the rawness of youth may, at least without absurdity, be pleaded in extenuation of indiscretions. It is significant that in a book published under the name of Gabriel Harvey in 1592 an admission occurs that the attack was overdone : Invectives by favour ^ have been too bolde : and satyres by usurpation too presumptuous : I overpasse Archilochus, Aristophanes, Lucian, Julian, Aretine, and that wholly venomous and viperous brood of old and new Raylers : even Tully and Horace otherwhiles over reched : and I must needs say, Mother * This is said to have occurred in August 1579, but Froude has a note which indicates that it was before July : " Leicester and Ilatton are married secretly, which hath so offended this Queen. . . ." — The Queen of Scots to the Archbishop of Glasgow, July 4, 1579. {History of England, xi. 154.) 2 The words " by favour " may refer to the lack of censorship. See Chapter II. p. 51 sq. VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 177 Hubberd, in heat of choller, forgetting the pure sanguine of her sweete Faery Queene, wilfilly ^ overshot her malcontented selfe.^ This was written in reference to the publication of the piece (1591). It is said that it was called in, and the lines at the end of Book VI. of the Faerie Queene (1596) may allude to this incident : Ne may this homely verse, of many meanest, Hope to escape his venemous despite, More then my former writs, all were they cleanest From blamefull blot, and free from all that wite With which some wicked tongues did it backebite, And bring into a mighty Peres displeasure, That never so deserved to endite. Therefore do you, my rimes, keep better measure, And seeke to please ; that now is counted wise mens threasure. Or the stanza may allude to the old trouble with Leicester. Further evidence of the early period of the poem lies in the fact that the hero of it, under the figure of the Lion, is Leicester, and that the author is advocating his cause against Burghley, who is evidently represented in the Fox. They were in opposition on the question of the Alen9on marriage, and I shall bring forward reasons in the next chapter for thinking that Bacon's pen was employed in drawing up the letter of protest about the marriage which Sir Philip Sidney presented in January I 580 (probably at the instance of his father and Leicester) to the Queen. In the poem the State is represented as pillaged by the Fox and the Ape (which may possibly be intended for Hatton, but which, in any case, represents some ally of Burghley), and the Lion is represented at the end as rousing himself from sleep and executing judgment on the usurpers of his authority. The piece is very brilliant, and draws a gloomy picture (if literally intended) of the conditions prevailing at Court and in the country, but the wit is so obviously sharpened by interested feelings that the poem fails to carry weight as a serious effort, and is, in fact, from that point of view, ' I.e. through passion. 2 Pourc Letters. N 178 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. unpleasant. The lines about the miseries of the suitor, quoted at p. 162 above, are supposed to have been added by Spenser on revision during his visit to London in 1590, but, at whatever period they were written, they are wholly inapplicable, as has already been said, to Spenser's case ; and, as regards the London visit, they are in direct conflict with the description of the good reception of the poet in Colin Clout, which is dated the same year as the Complaints, and with the story of the pension granted in that year. [In point of fact I have no belief in the date " from Kilcolman " for Colin Clout. The internal evidence indicates that the poem was written in 1595, the year when it was published. The theory is that it was " revised " and references to later events inserted ; but it purports to have been sent to Ralegh from Ireland in December 1591, and it was published in 1595 when Spenser was still in Ireland, and Ralegh (from February to August) was on the Guinea voyage. The inconsistency between its tone and that of the Complaints is naturally to be explained by lapse of time and change of mood, but perhaps more by its purpose, which, in my belief, was to prepare the way at the Court for the second instal- ment of the Faerie Queene, which appeared in the fol- lowing year. The compliments to distinguished people, principally ladies, which it contains can only be described as prodigious, and the flattery of the Queen reaches a point of extravagance which perhaps goes beyond every- thing else of that kind in Spenser's poems : Her thoughts are like the fume of Franckincence, Which from a golden Censer forth doth rise, And throwing forth sweet odours mounts fro thence In rolling globes up to the vaulted skies, etc.] There is apparently a reference in the opening lines of MotJier Hubbcrds Tale to a time when the plague was prevailing in London, and the period of the year alluded to is the hot weather. The poem is, as usual, written from the aristocratic standpoint. VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 179 The shipwreck of the author's early hopes through some offence given to Leicester, to which I have alluded, forms the subject of another of the " Complaints," Muio- potmos, or the Fate of the Butterfiie^ a poem of incompar- able delicacy and freshness of invention, and of unique interest autobiographically. To be appreciated it must be read as a whole, but as it is probably little known, and less understood, I will endeavour to give an account of it through extracts. It must be obvious, on the most careless reading, that this poem is an allegory ; in other words, that it is intended to convey a hidden meaning ; also that in the butterfly, " Clarion," the author is represent- ing himself Without such an intention the poem (for all its beauty) would be a fantastic and incoherent jumble. Personages and imagery having no natural consistency are mixed up with what appears at first sight to be the most negligent carelessness and lack of fitness, and it is only under the purpose of allegory that they are seen to assume a reasonable relativity. To any one who refuses to admit this contention, from a general survey of the poem, I would point to the use of the personal pronoun " us " in the last stanza but three ^ — one of those sudden and easily over- looked transformations in Spenser's method on which I have already commented. Like Virgils Gnat, the poem takes its origin from some error or fault committed by the author, owing, as he represents, to incaution or over-confidence, which has brought him into disfavour. Under the allegory of the Butterfly he describes how he set out with high hopes and innocent confidence, flying at will over the "champain " and taking his pleasure in " gay gardins," till he was entrapped by an envious and accursed spider, who, after watching his prey like "a wily Foxe," rushes upon him, when caught, " like a grimme Lyon," and — with fell spight, Under his left wing stroke his weapon slie ' " For loe ! the drerie stownd is now arrived, That of all happines hath us deprived." i8o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Into his heart, that his deepe-groning spiight In bloodie streames foorth fled into the aire, His bodie left the spectacle of care. To work up to this conclusion, " Arachne," who is a feminine personality, has to be changed into " AragnoU," a male creation. The " Lyon " is presumably an allusion to Leicester, and the " Foxe " is probably brought in in order to indicate that the trouble came from an enemy in the household of Cecil. This is rendered practically certain from the indication in the first stanza that Clarion's " sad decline " had its origin in the strife " betwixt two mightie ones of great estate," which I take to mean Leicester and Burghley.^ Though outwardly they appear, as a rule, to have kept on good terms, Leicester was a thorn in Burghley's side, a state of things which suited the peculiar methods of the Queen, who perhaps knew in- stinctively that the character of a man, even the best, is liable to deteriorate as soon as he finds no check on his power. Under the veil of allegory the poet describes his early promise : Of all the race of silver-winged Flies Which doo possesse the Empire of the aire. Betwixt the centred earth and azure skies, Was none more favourable, nor more faire, Whilst heaven did favour his felicities. Then Clarion, the eldest sonne and haire Of Muscaroll ; and in his fathers sight Of all alive did seeme the fairest wight. With fruitfuU hope his aged breast he fed Of future good, which his yong toward yeares, Full of brave courage and bold hardyhed. Above th' ensample of his equall peares. Did largely promise, and to him fore-red, (Whilst oft his heart did melt in tender teares) That he in time would sure prove such an one, As should be worthie of his fathers throne. ' Compare : *' Between the pass and fell incensed points Of mighty opposites." Hamlet, V. 2. VI SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS i8i The fresh yong flie, in whom the kindly fire Of lustfull yongth began to kindle fast, Did much disdaine to subject his desire To loathsome sloth, or houres in ease to wast, But joy'd to range abroad in fresh attire, Through the wide compas of the ayrie coast ; And, with unwearied wings, each part t' inquire Of the wide rule of his renowmed sire. For he so swift and nimble was of flight, That from this lower tract he dared to stie Up to the clowdes, and thence with pineons light To mount aloft unto the Cristall skie. To view the workmanship of heavens hight : Whence, down descending, he along would flie ! Upon the streaming rivers, sport to finde ; And oft would dare to tempt the troublous winde. So on a Summers day, when season milde With gentle calme the world had quieted. And high in heaven Hyperions fierie childe Ascending did his beanies abroad dispred. Whiles all the heavens on lower creatures smilde, Yong Clarion, with vauntfull lustie-head, After his guize did cast abroad to fare : And theretoo gan his furnitures prepare. This description corresponds in every particular to the circumstances and character of Francis Bacon in his early youth. " Muscaroll " ^ would stand for his father, Sir Nicolas Bacon, who was the Lord Keeper ; hence " his fathers throne," " the wide rule of his renowmed sire. " The son was the younger child of a second marriage, hence " his aged breast." The precocity, quickness of mind, and industry of Francis Bacon as a child are recorded, and further unsuspected evidence of this is, I believe, to be found in some writings to which I shall come in due course. The delicacy of his perceptions, his self-esteem, and insatiable ambition are matters of common knowledge, and they are all described in this passage ; also the working of the young mind, which gave his face in those days the look of gravity and absorption which is to be seen in the bust made when ' From jHnsca, a fly, and perhaps some of the letters in " Nicolas." 1 82 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. he was a boy of twelve : see the picture of it in Spedding, Works, vol, vi. The last two of the stanzas above quoted prepare the way for the butterfly's flight which follows, and fill the poem, as it were, with sunlight. The variety of the author's tastes and accomplishments are indicated under the figure of the fly's accoutrements, and in the description of the wings the poet's genius is evidently alluded to, of which the feminine element (which seems to be always more or less present in genius) is signified under the fable of the nymph " Astery." ^ This may have been more intuitive than deliberate, and on that account is all the more interesting. He speaks of the envy of the ladies of the Court, who — Beholding them, him secretly envide, And wisht that two such fannes, so silken soft And golden faire, her Love would her provide ; the envy being that of women for the grace and beauty of one of their own sex. The author's usual carelessness in writing, due probably to rapidity, is shown in the imperfect connection between the story of Astery and the origin of Clarion's wings ; but having provided the little episode, he hurries on without troubling about this, and in the lines of the butterfly's flight, which follow, the poet becomes entirely identified with the creature, so natural and vivid is the description : Thus the fresh Clarion, being readie dight. Unto his journey did himselfe addresse. And with good speed began to take his flight. Over the fields, in his franke lustinesse. And all the champain o're he soared light ; And all the countrey wide he did possesse, Feeding upon their pleasures bounteouslie. That none gainsaid, nor none did him envie. The woods, the rivers, and the medowes green, With his aire-cutting wings he measured wide, Ne did he leave the mountaines bare unseene, Nor the ranke grassie fennes delights untride. 1 "Star." Cf. "Astrophel and Stella" (Sidney and Spenser) and " Hermes Stella" (Bacon). VI SPEI^SER'S MINOR POEMS 183 But none of these, how ever sweete they beene, Mote please his fancie, nor him cause t' abide : His choicefull sense with every change doth flit : No common things may please a wavering wit. To the gay gardins his unstaid desire Him wholly caried, to refresh his sprights : There lavish Nature, in her best attire, Powres forth sweete odors and alluring sights ; And Arte, with her contending, doth aspire T' excell the naturall with made delights ; And all, that faire or pleasant may be found, In riotous excesse doth there abound. There he arriving round about doth flie. From bed to bed, from one to other border, And takes survey, with curious busie eye. Of every flowre and herbe there set in order : Now this, now that, he tasteth tenderly. Yet none of them he rudely doth disorder, Ne with his feete their silken leaves deface, But pastures on the pleasures of each place. And evermore, with most varietie And change of sweetnesse, (for all change is sweete) He casts his glutton sense to satisfie, Now sucking of the sap of herbe most meete. Or of the deaw which yet on them does lie, Now in the same bathing his tender feete ; And then he pearcheth on some braunch thereby. To weather him, and his moyst wings to dry. And then againe he tumeth to his play. To spoyle the pleasures of that Paradise ; The wholesome Saulge, and Lavender still gray, Ranke-smelling Rue, and Cummin good for eyes, The Roses raigning in the pride of May, Sharpe Isope, good for greene wounds remedies, Faire Marigoldes, and Bees-alluring Thime, Sweet Marjoram, and Daysies decking prime : Coole Violets, and Orpine growing still, Embathed Balme, and chearfuU Galingale, Fresh Costmarie, and breathfull Camomill, Dull Popple, and drink-quickning Setuale, Veyne-healing Verven, and hed-purging Dill, Sound Savorie, and Bazil hartie-hale. Fat Colworts, and comforting Perseline, Colde Lettuce, and refreshing Rosmarine l84 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS ch. vi This passage has been interpreted as an expression of the pleasure which Spenser found in the society of the ladies of the Court. But when he came to London he was past the age for such enthusiasm, and wholly un- qualified by his condition from indulging in the liberties of the courtier. Such an interpretation also is obviously too limited and material. The sensations described are those of a boy, or at any rate of a youth, at the opening out of his nature in its first contact with the world, and the allegory covers the varied range of a kindled imagina- tion over the whole field of knowledge and of nature and art. This is further indicated in the lines which follow : What more felicitie can fall to creature Then to enjoy delight with libertie. And to be Lord of all the workes of Nature, To raine in th'aire from th'earth to highest skie, To feed on flowres and weeds of glorious feature, To take what ever thing doth please the eie ? He then gives the other side of the picture, harping on the strain which runs through all these poems : But what on earth can long abide in state ? and so concludes with the account of the disaster which forms the burden of the Complaint. The poem is dedicated to Lady Carey, eldest of the three daughters of Sir John Spencer of Althorpe, and wife of Sir George Carey, then Governor of the Isle of Wight. His father, whom he succeeded in the title, was the first Lord Hunsdon, first cousin, on the mother's side, to the Queen. CHAPTER VII SIR PHILIP SIDNEY : " LEICESTER'S COMMONWEALTH " It will be convenient at this point to say something about Sir Philip Sidney, to whom Spenser is supposed to have owed his introduction to his uncle, the Earl of Leicester, and to the Court. And here, perhaps, I had better make my confession at once that I do not believe that Sidney wrote a line of the principal works which are attributed to him ^ ; but I can only touch for the present on some of the points which bear on this question, and I will begin with the well-known address presented to the Queen by Sidney in 1580 deprecating the French marriage. With two exceptions, to which I shall come, the published letters of Sidney are so little distinguished by any literary skill, that it is incredible that he could have written this address to the Queen himself Nor, if he did not, is there anything unusual or extraordinary about it, as the art of expression on paper was at that time very rare. It has been suggested that the " Apology " of the able Prince of Orange was composed by Languet, and Walsingham used the hand of Bacon to vindicate Elizabeth's proceedings towards the Catholics on the one hand and the Puritans on the other, in his letter to "Monsieur Critoy, secretary of France," circ. 1589. The greater part of that letter is reproduced in Bacon's Observa- tions 071 a Libel, and an unfinished copy of it was found in the "Northumberland Manuscript" in 1867. There is therefore no doubt about the authorship.- The copy in ^ The Arcadia, Asti-ophel and Stella, and the Apolo^e for Poetrie. 2 Spedding, Life, i. 97, and A Confereuce of Pleasure, 1S70. 185 1 86 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. that collection is headed " translated out of french into English by W. W.," a class of ruse frequently adopted by Bacon to conceal the authorship, in this case no doubt from motives of prudence or reasons of State. It is a masterly composition, and the style is quite unmistakable. The style of the letter presented by Sidney to the Queen in 1580 is the same, though, being earlier, it is cruder. Moreover a copy of it appears among the " Northumber- land " collection, with the entry on the outside sheet, " Philipp against Monsieur." In his little book on that collection ("A Conference of Pleasure," 1870) Spedding refers to the letter as " commonly attributed to Sir Philip Sidney," but hazards no opinion as to the authorship. From a Latin letter written by Languet to Sidney, dated 22nd October i 580, of which the following is a translation, it appears that Sidney informed Languet that he had written the letter by the order of others, who, from the words used and the known facts, were, without much doubt, Sir Henry Sidney, Leicester, and perhaps Pembroke. I am glad you have told me how your letter about the Duke of Anjou has come to the knowledge of so many persons ; for it was supposed before that you had made it known to show that you despised him, and cared nothing for his dislike, which appeared to me by no means a safe proceeding, and inconsistent besides with your natural modesty. . . . Since, however, you were ordered to write as you did by those whom you were bound to obey, no fair-judging man can blame you for putting forward freely what you thought good for your country, nor even for exaggerating some circumstances in order to convince them of what you judge expedient. The letter, in the opinion of Hume, is written " with an unusual elegance of expression and force of reading," and there is no doubt that this is so. In this respect it is in most marked contrast to Sidney's style as displayed in his letters, and in a longer piece, unquestionably written by him, and attested by his brother and nephew as in Sidney's " own hand," in reply to the anonymous writer of Leicester s Commonwealth} Nor could the letter have ' See Collins, Letters attd Memorials of State, 1746, and below, p. 193. VII SIR PHILIP SIDNEY 187 been written by Leicester, as the simple and direct style of his letters shows. The style is that of Francis Bacon, figurative, overloaded with ideas and reading, and, at that early date, somewhat involved. But the letter happens also to contain a striking and characteristic metaphor, which appears also (after the habit of Bacon, who makes use again and again of certain phrases and expressions) in his Observations on a Libel, 1592-93, and in his Discourse in Praise of his Sovereigti, which Spedding thinks was composed about 1592. The Sidney Letter to the Queen : But in so rare a government, where neighbours fyres gives us light to see our owne quietnes, where nothing wants, that trew adminestracion of justice brings forth. . . . Obse) vations on a Libel : considering that the fires of dissension and oppression in some parts of Christendom may serve us for lights to show us our happiness. — Spedding, Life and Letters, i. 163 (spelling modernised). Discourse in Praise of the Queen : and that the fyres of trebles abrode have bene ordayned to be as lights and tapers to make her vertew and magnanimitie more apparant. — Spedding, Life and Letters, i. 132, and "Northumber- land MS." subsequently discovered. The " Most feared and beloved, most sweete and gratious soveraigne " of the opening address of the Sidney " Letter " is, in my opinion, the " dearest dread " of Spenser : see address to the Queen at the beginning of the Faerie Queene and elsewhere in the poem. Philip Sidney was a man who thirsted for action and suffered from depression at the lack of opportunities for men of his class at that period in England. There is no evidence in his correspondence that he had any literary ambitions or desire to use such attainments forany other purpose than the service of the State. Moreover, there is no mention in his correspondence of any of the writings attributed to him, or of his supposed friend Spenser, and i88 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. even the dedication to him by Spenser of the Shepheards Calender claims no personal knowledge. Those writings, or some of them, were in private circulation when Sidney died, but his will is silent about them. He bequeaths " all my Books " to " my dear friends Mr. Edward Dyer and Mr. Fulke Grevile," and to the Countess of Pembroke " my best Jewell beset with Diamonds." On his death- bed, however, he expressed a wish that the Arcadia should be burned, which is a very curious fact. A modern writer (Mr. Percy Addieshaw) observes that it is " hard to read, and not very pleasant coming from the hand of so pious a man. In fact some of it is muddy enough." There are grounds for this criticism, and they may account for Sidney's action. But in that case his action would have been the same whether he had written the book himself or been persuaded (as I believe he was) to lend the pro- tection of his name to it in the cause of letters.^ That Sidney was not, either by inclination or practice, a writer seems to me evident from the style of his letters. I quote, for example, the following, being a translation from a Latin letter to Languet written in 1578 : And the use of the pen, as you may perceive, has plainly ^ The advantage in those days of a great name for a book is amusingly shown in Sir John Harington's remarks (1591) about the writer of the anonymous Arte of English Poesie, in the preface to his translation of Orlando Furioso : " nor to dispute how high and supernatural the name of a Maker [poet] is, so christned in English by that unknowne Godfather that this last yeare saue one [1589] set forth a book called the Art of English Poetrie " ; and he then proceeds to speak with admiration of Sidney's Apologie, where the same views, only at less length, are expressed about the poet as a " maker " in almost the same language. Another interesting example of this occurs in an essay of literaiy criticism entitled Hypercritica, jjublished in 1 61 8 (?), where the writer, Edmund Bolton, says that "the Tractate which goeth under the name of the Earl of Essex his Apology was thought by some to be Mr. Anthony Bacon's : but as it bears that E. name, so do I also think that it was the Earl's own, as also his Advices for Travel to Roger Earl of Rutland ; then which nothing almost can be more honourably uttered, nor more to the Writer's Praise, so far as belong to a noble English Oratour." The latter piece (at least the important Letter I.) is now generally admitted to be by Francis Bacon : see Spedding, Life, ii. 6, and p. 191 below. The same writer quotes Sir Henry Savile as saying, " our Historians being of the Dregs of the common People . . . have stained and defiled it with most fusty Foolerys." VII SIR PHILIP SIDNEY 189 fallen from me ; and my mind itself, if it was ever active in any- thing, is now beginning, by reason of my indolent ease, imper- ceptibly to lose its strength, and to relax without any reluctance. For to what purpose should our thoughts be directed to various kinds of knowledge, unless room be afforded for putting it into practice, which in a corrupt age we cannot hope for. The following letter to Lord Burghley is a fair example of Sidney's style, which, in his earlier days at . any rate, always shows evidence of the difficulty he found in expressing himself on paper : Right honorable, my singular good Lord — I have from my childhood been much bownd to your Lordship, which as the Meanes of my Fortune keeps me from Hability to requite, so gives it me daily Caws to make the Bond greater, by seeking and using your Favor towards me. The Queen, at my Lord of Warwicks Request, hath bene moved to joine me in his Office of Ordinance, and, as I learne, her Majesty yeeldes gratious heering unto it. My Suit is, yowr Lordship will favour and furdre it ; which I truly affirme unto your Lordship, I much more desyre, for the being busied in a Thing of some serviceable Experience, then for any other Commodity; which I think is but small that can arise of it. (27th January 1582.) The best examples, however, are in the extracts given by Mr. Fox Bourne from Sidney's dispatches as Governor of Flushing in 1585-86, when, like his father before him, he was proving the trials, under Elizabeth's government, of having to make bricks without straw. They reveal him in his true character as a man of action, but there is no more evidence in them of a formed literary style than there is in the dispatches of Sir Henry Sidney. In character and counsel Sidney was evidently a man who created a great impression. But I maintain that, except under the impulse of action, he wrote with difficulty and disinclination, and could not have written the works which appeared in his name (some years after his death), such as the Arcadia, of which it has been said by the writer mentioned above, quite truly, that " the author's pen must have travelled with miraculous rapidity." Sidney appears to have been a man of noble presence, I90 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. good address, and of a higher general culture than most Englishmen of his rank at that time. He was also a man of serious temperament, and regarded as a convinced and faithful champion of the reformed religion. In his position as probable heir to the powerful Earl of Leicester, and in high regard with the Queen, he was looked up to by a large portion of the nation as a coming leader, at a time when the future of England, both in Church and State, was most critical, in view of the uncertainty as to the succession. The sense of national loss at his untimely death was, in my opinion, due mainly to these considera- tions.^ Sidney was evidently more remarkable for good sense than for originality. His correspondence with Languct shows this. When it began he was a youth of about nineteen, and great genius (for the author of the Astrophel and Stella sonnets had no less) at that age is not disposed to sit at the feet of any one ; rather is it given to self-assertion. Yet Fulke Greville refers to this episode of Sidney's life as " this harmony of a humble hearer to an excellent teacher." The principal tribute to Sidney's character as a man of letters, namely, Spenser's Astrophel^ is suspect, for reasons to be explained later,^ among them being the fact that the poem is dedicated to his widow, Frances Walsingham, then the wife of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, and sister-in-law, therefore, of Penelope Rich, the supposed object of Sidney's devotion. There is one letter which, in part, presents an excep- tion, namely, the often-quoted one to his brother, Robert Sidney, written in October 1580 from Leicester House, advising him as to his studies on the Continent, which reflects a similar train of ideas to those expressed at greater length in the Apologie for Poetrie. The passage, however, which begins " For the method of writing ' Cf. the following tributes to Sidney's character : "He is so wise, virtuous and godly" (Walter Devereux, ist Earl of Essex). " His heart and tongue went one way." " Above all he made the religion he professed the firm basis of his life " (Fulke Greville). 2 See Chapter XHI. VII SIR THILIP SIDNEY 191 Historic," is quite unlike the opening portion of the letter, the writer passing suddenly from small personal detail, and breaking off as abruptly towards the end of the letter into the style of the beginning : " This I write to yow in greate Hast, of Method without Method . . . my Time exceedingly short, will suffer me to write no more leisurely ; Stephen can tell yow who stands with me while I am writing." Farther on there is an exhortation to practise music and horsemanship, and " have a care of your Dyet, and consequently of your Complexion " — with advice as to play at weapons. " Lord how I haue babied, once againe farewell deerest Brother." And among these directions he interpolates, *' I would by the way your Worship would learne a better Hand, you write worse then I, and I write evell enough." This part of the letter seems to me to be the real Sidney, and I think the reflections about the " historiographer " and the " poet " have been adopted by him, without a very clear idea of the point of them, from another source. They appear again, in similar language, in Spenser's introductory letter to the Faerie Queene. There is one more supposed letter by Sidney, which is to be found in a book published in 1633 entitled " Profitable Instructions for Travellers, by Robert Earl of Essex, Sir Philip Sidney and Secretary Davison." The letter attributed to Essex in that book is now ad- mitted to be by Bacon, and, from the style and the train of thought, I am certain that he was also the author of the Sidney (though not of the Davison) letter. The following is an extract : And for Italy — for the men you shall have there, although indeed some be excellently learned, yet are they all given to counterfeit learning, as a man shall learn among them more false grounds of things than in any place else that I know ; for from a tapster upwards they are all discoursers. In fine, certain matters and qualities, as horsemanship, weapons, painting and such, are better there than in other countries ; but for other matters, as well, if not better, you shall have them in nearer places. . . . But if you shall say, how shall I get excellent men to take 192 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. pains to speak with me ? truly in few words, either by much expense or much humblenesse. [The letter here breaks off.] ^ I must now leave the subject of "Sidney" to pursue the " Leicester " connection. And here I come to a very ungrateful part of my task. In 1584 a frightful attack on Leicester was printed in Antwerp anony- mously and circulated in England. The book is known as Leicester's Conwiomvealth, and was attributed to Father Parsons, but evidently without foundation, as is now generally agreed. The author, in my opinion, is Francis Bacon, and the poem known as " Leicester's Ghost," which appeared for the first time in the 1641 edition, is also clearly (or, as I think, clearly) by the same hand. In arriving at this conclusion I base myself primarily on the style, and were I not satisfied on this point, I should have no hesitation in rejecting the other evidences of Baconian authorship, strong as they are. But as I cannot expect others to accept a judgment founded on what is a matter of opinion, I will endeavour briefly to set out the other considerations which point to the same conclusion. The book appeared as " The Copie of a Leter, wrytten by a master of Arte of Cambridge to his friend in London concerning some talke past of late between two wor- shipful and grave men, about the present state, and some proceedings of the Erie of Leycester and his friendes in England." It was known, from the green -edged leaves of the original edition,^ as " Father Parson's Green Coat." The Dictionary of the Anonymous and Pseudonymous Litej-ature of Great Britain (Ilalkett and Laing) cites the following MS. note by Malone in the Bodleian copy : ' An original copy of this book is in tlie British Museum, but this extract is given in Pears, Correspoiidein-c of Sir Philip Sidney and Hubert Langtiet. '^ Two copies are in tlie British Museum, one with the green edges (much faded). VII '' LEICESTER'S COMMONWEALTH" 193 Leicester's Commonwealth was written by Parsons, the Jesuit, from materials with which he is said to have been furnished by Lord Burghley. It was first published abroad in 8vo in 1584, under the title of "A dialogue between a scholar, a gentleman and a lawyer " ; and was previously handed about in England under the name of Parsons' Black Book. It is stated, however, in the Dictionary of National Biography that "some letters in Cole's MSS. xxx. 129 show clearly that Father Parsons was not the author, but that it was the work of a courtier who endeavoured to foist responsibility on to Parsons," ^ The " Parsons " story was, no doubt, good enough for the uncritical and credulous public of that day, but it did not satisfy Sir Philip Sidney. In his reply to the attack on his uncle, which was written at the time when it first appeared (though only first printed in Collins's Letters and Memorials of State, 1746), he ends by a challenge to the anonymous author, concluding with the words : " and this which I wryte I woold send to thyne own Handes, if I knew thee ; but I trust it can not bee intended, that he should be ignorant of this printed in London, which knows the very Whispringes of the Prive- Chamber." And above he writes : " and which is more base (if any Thing can be more base then a diffamatori Libeller) he counterfaites him self, in all the Treatis, a Protestant ; when any Man, with Haulf an Ey, may easili see he is of the other Parti." In this statement Sidney was certainly at fault ; he was blinded partly by indignation at the frightful attack on a member of his family, and partly by his strong Protestant convictions, which would probably pre- vent him understanding the plea for greater toleration of the Catholics which is found in this book. The book is written from the point of view of " uniformity," based on a liberal Protestantism, as always in the case of ^ I find that this is a copy of a letter by Dr. Ashton (an eighteenth-century scholar), in which he expresses this opinion for reasons similar to those which I have given, i.e. from the internal evidence ; the concealment of the author being "to cover himself from the Bear's fury." In a note on the back his correspondent, Dr. Mosse, agrees with him. O 194 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Bacon's writings. Sidney's manuscript is endorsed by his brother Robert, and by his nephew, Robert's son, who writes : "In my uncles own Hand, worthy to be better known to the world." The book was suppressed, so far as it could be, and the Queen in Council wrote in 1585 to the Magistrates of Cheshire : "Her Highness not only knoweth to assured certainty the books and libels against the said Earl to be most malicious, false and scandalous, but such as none but an incarnate devil himself could dream to be true." At the time when this book was written Leicester was at the height of his power, and the possibility that the Queen might still marry him was always present to the mind of Burghley and other leading men.^ To this Burghley was always bitterly opposed, and he had spoken of Leicester on one occasion as " infamed by his wife's death," in spite of the fact that he had been cleared of complicity at the inquest. The writer of the book adopts the same view, that " Amy Robsart " (as she is best known) was murdered by Leicester's orders. He also charges him with many other murders and enormities, and, in doing so, he was, to some extent, only giving expression to popular opinion." As to the truth or ' Leicester was at this time married to Lettice Knollys, widow of Walter Devereux, ist Earl of Essex. But there probably would have been little difficulty in setting the marriage aside, as it was believed by many that he was already married to Lady Sheffield, by whom, he had a son. Leicester, however, was also entertaining a project for bringing the Crown of England into his family by the marriage of his infant son by his wife Lettice to Arabella Stuart. He had further suggested that one of his step-daughters would make a good wife for James VL of Scotland. The appointments about the Court were also largely in his hands. For these facts and other information the reader is referred to the excellent article in the Diet. Nat. Biogr, I think, however, there is good reason for some qualification of the view there ex- pressed that " the piety with which he has been credited in later life does not merit serious attention." Such contradictions were common in those days, when human life was held cheap by those who were in a position to take it with impunity. No one, for instance, has suggested that Hawkins was a deliberate hypocrite, yet he combined atrocious violence with strong expressions of religious feeling, after the manner of the age. 2 As, for instance, in the following passage in the I'raditiottal Memories of Erancis Osborne : " . . . the Queen's affection, from whence Leicester, that terrestrial Lucifer, was cast, for abusing his Sovereign's favour to pride and murder " ; and again : " Leicester was hated by the people for the death of many." VII " LEICESTER'S COMMONWEALTH" 195 falsehood of the main charges it is impossible at this date to be certain ; the presumption seems to be that there was justification for them, or for some of them ; but as regards many of the details, it is evident, from their extravagance and inherent improbability, and still more from the manner in which they are presented (often by insinuation or on reported conversations, many of which seem to be deliberate inventions), that they were false and that the writer did not believe them himself. These personal charges, however, which bulked so largely in the eyes of contemporaries, were evidently, in the purpose of the writer, only a means to an end. The real object of the book was to advocate the succession of James of Scotland, and, with this end in view, to break the dangerous power of Leicester. The author did his work with terrible effect, and with total disregard for human feeling or personal obligation. The book is a " philippic," in which every resource of rhetoric is employed (probably in emulation of ancient models in this style) with the object of rendering Leicester odious to the people and incensing the Queen against him. His execution even is advocated as the only means of saving the country from ruin and a renewal of the wars of succession. Among other things he is charged with having secured the rejection of proposals for the marriage with the Due d'Anjou ^ in the interests of himself and his own family. All this is in accord with the views of Burghley, and the tradition mentioned by Malone, in the note quoted above, may have been correct in attributing complicity to that minister. He would find in his nephew a ready instrument, who, in his anxiety for State employment, and with his peculiar temperament, would put out all his powers on such a task. Bacon was evidently frequently employed by Burghley in the under- ground business of Government ; see the references in his correspondence to " Tower work." - On the whole, ' Alen9on. 2 Cf. Spedding, Life, i. 316, ii. 106, and Bacon's vindication, in the Observations on a Libel, of Government methods in cases of treason, i. 204. 196 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAP. however, I think it more probable that Bacon acted independently in this matter. He had, as we have seen, incurred the displeasure of his early patron, and the pen which produced Mother Hubberds Tale some four years earlier is now turned against Leicester and employed on Burghley's side. It was, in short, a desperate bid for employment when other means had, so far, failed ; for a man who could wield such a pen would be worth securing, or at least disarming. And this would account for the intensity of effort which is a feature of the book. But the writer over-reached himself, as he probably had done in Leicester's cause, being carried away by excess of imagination and through deficiency in " common sense." One thing is quite certain, that no one could have written this book who was not a lawyer, and also, as Sidney said, intimate with the life of the Court. He must also have had an exceptional memory and imagination, and been a practised writer. There is no one, except Bacon, known to history in that time who combined these qualifications. One of the most significant features of the book is the absence of personal feeling. This is seen in the absurdity of many of the charges, and in the irony and a certain mischievous humour which plays over the surface, as though the author were amusing himself with his own performance. The tone entirely changes when he comes to the legal argument about the succession, and similarly in the early portion of the book, where he uses the dialogue (the book being in that form) to put forward, in very cautious language (an expression, evidently, of the writer's private opinion), a plea for the extension of greater toleration towards Catholics who were loyal to the Government. The same ironical humour is still more noticeable in " Leicester's Ghost," a long ballad-like poem, in rhymed seven-line metre, which first appeared in print in 1641, and was suppressed by order of the Privy Council. The style of the poem indicates that it was deliberately written for popular reading, and it was evidently intended to be a sort of palinode, or measure of justice, to the VII ''LEICESTER'S COMMONWEALTH'' 197 memory of the dead Earl (d. 1588). But the author, who, in my opinion, is, and could only be, the author of the pamphlet of 1584, lets himself go, just as he did before, when he comes to the description of Leicester's alleged enormities, and is unable to resist the temptation to indulge in irony and jest. He recovers himself, however, at the end, and with grave sententiousness sums up the case against Leicester as follows : Of whom it may be said and censured well, He both in vice and virtue did excell — probably a very just estimate, and true of many of the great men of the Renaissance, of whom Leicester may be regarded as one. Underneath these lines the author writes, as though with a sigh of relief — Jamq. opus exegi, Deus dedit his quoque finem. One other point in connection with this treatise may be mentioned, and I put it last because I should wish to make good my case without undue reliance on it. A manuscript of the book is among the collection discovered in Northumberland House in 1867, and against the entry " Leycesters Common Wealth " on the outside sheet (to which reference has been made above) are the words " incerto autore." It is my view that these words were inserted by the writer from motives of prudence, having regard to the dangerous character of the book, and the still greater danger of being in the possession of a MS. It is worth noticing that the same words are used in " Greene's Vision " in the remarks as to the authorship of the Cobler of Catiterburie} and they occur also in one of Bacon's speeches in Parliament.^ A similar use (in a smaller way) of Bacon's pen against individuals for political purposes is to be found in the anonymous pamphlet which appeared early in i 599 1 See Chapter VI. p. 169. '^ " Mr. Speaker, I am not of their mind that bring their Bills into this House obscurely, by delivery only unto yourself or to the clerks, delighting to have the Bill to be incerio authore, as though they were either ashamed of their own works, or afraid to father their own children." — Spedding, Life, iii. 18. 198 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. purporting to be written by an English gentleman to a friend in Padua as to a plot to poison the Queen (" Squire's Conspiracy"), reprinted by Spedding {Life, ii. 109-19), who says : " A copy of the original edition was sent to Dudley Carleton, the Bishop's brother, by Chamberlain on the 1st of March 1598-9: with the remark that it was ' well written,' but without any speculation as to the writer. In ascribing it to Bacon I rely entirely on the internal evidence — which in this case however is to me almost as conclusive as the discovery of a draft in his own handwriting would be. The external evidence goes no further than to show that Bacon was in a position to write it. He was certainly present at many of the examinations ; probably present at the trial ; and had a right to know everything that he tells." Whether, how- ever, it was true seems more than doubtful, both from the improbability of some of the incidents in the story, and from the fact that Camden says that " Walpoole [described in the title of the Letter as " a Jesuit " and the " deviser and suborner " in the plot], or some other for him, set forth a book in print, wherein he precisely denied with many detestations all which Squire had confessed." Spedding, who, as has been said by Mr. Reynolds, " holds a perpetual brief for Bacon," comments on this as follows : " For my own part I believe the story as here told to be substantially true. Those who think it a fiction (that is to say the report of a fiction, for the reporter was certainly not the inventor) will still find it interesting for the manner in which it is told. A better specimen of the art of narration it would be difficult to find." And I am afraid one might add, a greater abuse of the artistic gift it would be difficult to imagine. Goodman, who evidently supposed that the Earl of Essex was the author, has the following remark on the subject : " For Squire's treason, which was the poisoning of the pummel of the queen's saddle, it was a thing so incredible that I took no heed of it, nor made any search for it." ^ Goodman was evidently influenced in coming ' The Court of King James the First (ed. Brewer), i. 156. VII "LEICESTER'S COMMONWEALTH'' 199 to this conclusion by the affair of Lopez, the Queen's physician, who, he says, in effect, was destroyed by Essex for revenge (1594). Those who are interested in Bacon's part in this affair can read the particulars (with, however, Goodman's evidence omitted) in Spedding {Life, I. 271-87). It is not easy to escape from the conclusion that these charges were trumped up with a view to establishing the reputation of Essex as a competent guardian of the Queen's safety, and as a proof that his political resources were not inferior to those of the Cecils. It is with a sense of relief that I conclude this part of my subject, which has weighed on my mind. But the more I have thought about it the more inevitable have appeared the conclusions which I have just put before the reader. I say this in order that it should not be supposed that I have adopted them hastily or on any preconceived theory ; far from that, I long resisted them, as they seemed almost to suggest the presence of powers of evil underlying the fairest forms of appeal to the human spirit. But we know little about these things, and at least we have enough experience of truth to know that it often presents itself in unexpected and unpleasant forms. Also, with the advance in psychological knowledge, the weaknesses of what is called the artistic temperament are beginning to be better understood. The discussion of such a subject would take me too far from the matter of this book, but, as regards the particular instance, I may say this, that I do not believe Bacon was without conscience, or that he sinned against it without suffering. I think he was highly impressionable, and that when he came into contact with the controllers of power, and was given an opportunity, his ambition was raised to a pitch which is inconceivable to us whose powers of imagination are so much smaller.^ He saw himself, as it were in a vision, wielding the beneficent power for which he had 1 A striking instance of this appears in the imprudent postscript to Bacon's letter to Villiers of 19th February 1615 : "Sir, I humbly thank you for your inward letter ; I have burned it as you commanded : but the flame it hath kindled in me will never be extinguished." This was written on a small piece of paper by itself and enclosed. (Note in MS. ) Spedding, Life, v. 249. oo SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CH. vii thirsted from his childhood, and, at that moment, all other considerations went to the winds. As he got older, and found himself still without place or prospects, he undoubtedly grew more callous. He saw others succeed by unscrupulous methods, and he thought perhaps he might do the same. But he was not made of fighting material, he was lacking in " common sense " and in judgment of men, and in order to place himself in relation with the men in active life against whom he aspired to measure himself, he had to play a part, and be something different from what he really was. I think that, when his genius was at work, all this was reviewed and assumed its true proportions, and that out of it emerged such a character as " Macbeth." These lines were not written by accident : Yet do I fear thy nature ; It is too full o' the milk of human kindness To catch the nearest way : thou wouldst be great ; Art not without ambition, but without The illness should attend it : what thou wouldst highly, That wouldst thou holily ; wouldst not play false, And yet wouldst wrongly win. CHAPTER VIII SPENSER'S JUVENILE POEMS : BACON AND GASCOIGNE I COME now to the most interesting part of my inquiry, arising out of Spenser's early poems. The investigation here will necessarily entail a more minute critical examination, as youthful writing is more imitative and less individual in character than at a later stage, and, in consequence, identifications from style present greater difficulties. Among the poems ascribed to Spenser are some early pieces with a curious history, the Visions of Bellay and the Visions of Petrarch. The following is the account of them given by Mr. Hales in his Introduction to the " Globe " edition : It seems probable that he [Spenser] was already an author in some sort when he went up to Cambridge. In the same year in which he became an undergraduate [1569] there appeared a work entitled, " A Theatre wherein be represented as well the Miseries and Calamities that follow the Voluptuous Worldlings as also the greate Joyes and Plesures which the Faithful do enjoy. An Argument both Profitable and Delectable to all that sincerely loue the Word of God. Deuised by S. John Vander Noodt." Vander Noodt was a native of Brabant who had sought refuge in England, " as well for that I would not beholde the abomina- tions of the Romyshe Antechrist as to escape the handes of the bloudthirsty." "In the meane space," he continues, "for the avoyding of idlenesse (the very mother and nourice of all vices) I have among other my travayles bene occupied aboute thys little Treatyse, wherein is sette forth the vilenesse and basenesse of worldely things whiche commonly withdrawe us from heavenly and spirituall matters." This work opens with six pieces in the 201 202 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. form of sonnets styled epigrams, which are in fact identical with the first six of the Visions of Petrarch subsequently published amongst Spenser's works, in which publication they are said to have been " formerly translated." After these so-called epigrams come fifteen Sonnets^ eleven of which are easily recognisable amongst the Visions of Bellay, published along with the Visions of Petrarch. There is indeed as little difference between the two sets of poems as is compatible with the fact that the old series is written in blank verse, the latter in rhyme. The sonnets which appear for the first time in the Visions are those describing the Wolf, the River, the Vessel, the City. There are four pieces of the older series which are not reproduced in the later. It would seem probable that they too may have been written by Spenser in the days of his youth, though at a later period of his life he cancelled and superseded them. They are therefore reprinted in this volume. Vander Noodt, it must be said, makes no mention of Spenser in his volume. It would seem that he did not know EngHsh, and that he wrote his Declaration — a sort of commentary in prose on the Visions — in French. At least we are told that this Declaration is translated out of French into English by Theodore Roest. . . . The fact of the Visions being subsequently ascribed to Spenser would not by itself carry much weight. But, as Prof Craik pertinently asks, " if this English version was not the work of Spenser, where did Ponsonby [the printer who issued that subsequent publication which has been mentioned] procure the corrections which are not mere typographical errata, and the additions and other variations that are found in his edition?" In the Theatre for Worldlings the following account of these " Visions " appears under a general heading : " A briefe Declaration of the Authour upon his visions^ taken out of the holy scriptures, and dyvers Orators, Poetes, Philosophers and true histories. Translated out of French into Englishe by Theodore Roest." And to sette the vanitie and inconstancie of worldly and transitorie thyngs, the livelier before your eyes, I have broughte in here twentie sightes or vysions, and caused them to be grauen, to the ende al men may see that with their eyes, whiche I go aboute to expresse by writing, to the delight and plesure of the eye and eares, according unto the saying of Horace. Omne tulit punctum, qui miscuit utile dulci. That is to say, VIII SPENSER'S JUVENILE POEMS 203 He that teacheth pleasantly and well, Doth in eche poynt all others excell. Of which oure visions the learned Poete M. Francisce Petrarche Gentleman of Florence, did invent and write in Tuscan the six firste, after suche tyme as hee had loved honestly the space of .xxi. yeares a faire, gracious, and a noble Damosell, named Laurette, or (as it plesed him best) Laura, borne of Avinion, who afterward hapned to die, he being in Italy, for whose death (to shewe his great grief) he mourned ten yeares together, and amongest many of his songs and sorrowfull lamentations, devised and made a Ballade or song, containyng the sayd visions, which bicause they serve wel to our purpose, I have out of the Brabants speeche, turned them into the Englishe tongue. . . . The other ten visions next ensuing, ar described of one loachim du Bellay, Gentleman of France, the whiche also, bicause they serve to our purpose, I have translated them out of Dutch into English.! This is mere mystification, not to say deception. The Visions of Petrarch are translated from the French of Clement Marot's Des Visions de Petrargue, de tuscan en franqoys, and the Visions of Bellay, in their original unrhymed form, are literal, in places baldly literal, trans- lations of some sonnets of Du Bellay.^ The variations between the poems as they appeared in the Theatre for Worldlings in 1569 and in Spenser's Complaints in 1591 are highly significant, and there can be no doubt that they are the work of the original author. Perhaps it will be said at once that, in that case. Bacon could not have been the author of the Spenserian poems, as in 1569 he was only in his ninth year. To my mind it is equally difficult to suppose that the author was a well-read youth of sixteen or seventeen, so naive and childish is the style of the " Visions," especially in their original form. But I see nothing beyond the bounds of reason in the supposition that a boy of seven or eight, who was endowed with the genius which produced the Faerie Queene, should have been able to write passable verses, especially where the material was supplied and ' See " Globe " edition of Spenser's Works, App. I. 2 Similarly The Unities of Rome are translations (belonging evidently to a somewhat later date) from Du Bellay's Antiquitds de Rome. 204 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. only called for translation. Then, as now, French was no doubt an early subject in the education of children of the well-to-do, and, with good instruction, it involves no great effort to acquire a fair command of that language in childhood. Moreover, all experience shows that great genius is precocious, and begins production before, not after, other men. Pope, Congreve, Chatterton — in music, Handel and Mozart — and many other instances, can be cited in support of this.^ Take, for example, Chatterton, whose genius has sometimes been compared to that of Shakespeare's in embryo. All his work was done before he was eighteen, and his first published verses appeared when he was just over ten years of age. We read of him that between six and seven he first began to show an extraordinary precocity, and that at eight he read from morning till night. It is not known when he began to write the " Rowley " poems, but his earliest studies were con- nected with them. His first acknowledged efforts are intensely serious, and, like the sonnets appended to the early version of the Bellay poems, of a religious cast. I quote one of them (from the " Aldine " edition, edited, with notes, by Professor Skeat) : On the Last Epiphany, or, Christ coming to Judgment "- Behold ! just coming from above. The judge, with majesty and love ! The sky divides, and rolls away, T'admit him through the realms of day ! The sun, astonished, hides its face. The moon and stars with wonder gaze At Jesu's bright superior rays ! Dread lightnings flash, and thunders roar. And shake the earth and briny shore ; The trumpet sounds at heaven's command. And pierceth through the sea and land ; ' Compare Aubrey's note on the precocity of Milton : "Anno Domini 1619, he was ten yeares old, as by his picture ; and was then a poet." Aubrey was a contemporary of Milton, and took great pains in collecting information about hiiTi. I'ascal is another great example. ''■ Written by Chatterton when only just past ten years of age, and inserted in Kelix Farley's Bristol Journal, 8th January 1763. See Dix's Life of Chatterton, p. 209. VIII SPENSER'S JUVENILE POEMS 205 The dead in each now hear the voice, The sinners fear and saints rejoice ; For now the awful hour is come, When every tenant of the tomb Must rise, and take his everlasting doom. Chatterton's true vein, however, is in his famous Rowley " forgeries." The following is one of the best examples, from a specimen of his work which he sent to Horace Walpole in March 1 769, the year before his death (from the " Aldine " edition, as before; the notes by Professor Skeat) : HisTORiE OF Pevncters yn Englande BiE T. Rowley . . . Bott nowe wee bee upon Peyncteynge, sommewhatte maie bee saide of the Poemes of those daies, whyche bee toe the Mynde what Peyncteynge bee toe the Eyne, the Couloures of the fyrste beeynge mo dureynge. Ecca Byshoppe of Hereforde yn D.LVii. was a goode Poete, whome I thus englyshe : — Whan azure Skie ys veylde yn Robes of Nyghte, Whanne glemmrynge dewe-drops stounde ^ the Faytours 2 Eyne, Whanne flying Cloudes, betinged with roddie Lyghte, Doth on the Brindlynge Wolfe and W^oodbore shine, Whanne Even Star, fayre Herehaughte of nyghte, Spreds the darke douskie Sheene along the Mees,^ The wreethynge Naders'* sends a glumie^ Lyghte, And houlets wynge fro Levyn ^ blasted Trees. Arise mie Spryghte and seke the distant dell, And there to echoing Tonges thie raptured Joies ytell. Gif thys manne han no honde for a Peynter, he had a Head : a Pycture appearethe ynne cache Lyne, and I wys so fyne an Even sighte mote be drawn as ynne the above. In anoder of hys Vearses he saithe, Whanne Sprynge came dauncynge onne a flowrette bedde, Dighte ynne greene Raimente of a chaungynge kynde ; The leaves of Hawthorne boddeynge on hys hedde, Ande vvhyte Prymrosen coureynge to the Wynde : Thanne dydd the Shepster '^ hys longe Albanne ^ spredde Uponne the greenie Bancke and daunced arounde, 1 Stounde, astonish. ^ Fayiours, travellers. 3 Mees, meads. * Neders, adders, used here perhaps for glow-worms. * Glumie, dull, gloomy. ^ Levyn, lightning. "■ Shepster, shepherd. ^ Albanne, a large loose white robe. 2o6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Whilest the soft Flowretts nodded onne his hedde, And hys fayre Lambes besprenged ^ onne the Grounde, Anethe hys Fote the brookelette ranne alonge, Whyche strolled rounde the Vale to here his joyous songe. Methynckethe these bee thoughtes notte oft to be metten wyth, and ne to bee excellede yn theyre kynde. Elmar, Byshoppe of Selseie, was fetyve yn Workes of ghastlieness,^ for the whyche take yee thys Speeche : Nowe maie alle Helle open to golpe thee downe, Whylste azure merke ^ immenged "* wythe the daie, Shewe lyghte on darkned Peynes to be moe roune,^ O maiest thou die lyvinge Deathes for aie : Maie Floodes of Solfirre beare thie Sprighte anoune,'^ Synkeynge to Depths of Woe, maie Levynne brondes "^ Tremble upon thie Peyne devoted Crowne, And senge thie alle yn vayne emploreynge hondes ; Maie all the Woes that Godis Wrathe canne sende Uponne thie heade alyghte, & there theyre Furie spende. Gorweth of Wales bee sayde to be a wryter good, botte I understande not that Tonge. Thus moche for Poetes, whose Poesies do beere resemblance to Pyctures in mie unwordie Opynion. Perhaps an even more striking example of the pre- cocity of genius is Pope's " Ode on Solitude," an imitative poem which displays a mastery of form rare at all times, and was said by Pope to have been written " when I was not twelve years old " : Happy the man, whose wish and care A few paternal acres bound, Content to breathe his native air, In his own ground. Whose herds with milk, whose fields with bread, Whose flocks supply him with attire, Whose trees in summer yield him shade, In winter fire. Blest, who can unconcern'dly find Hours, days, and years, slide soft away, In health of body, peace of mind, Quiet by day. ' Besprenged, scattered. [Probably Chatterton meant " sprang."] 2 G/iastlteness, terror. ^ Merke, darkness. * Immenged, mingled. ^ Roune, terrific. * Anoune, ever and anon. ^ Levynnt brondes, thunderbolts [lightning brands]. vin SPENSER'S JUVENILE POEMS 207 Sound sleep by night ; study and ease, Together mixt ; sweet recreation : And innocence, which most does please. With meditation. Thus let me live, unseen, unknown, Thus unlamented let me die, Steal from the world, and not a stone Tell where I lie. Pope also is reported to have said, " I wrote things, I am ashamed to say how soon : part of my epic poem ' Alcander ' when about twelve." Congreve wrote " The Old Bachelor " when he was only nineteen. Other instances of such precocity could be cited, but I have perhaps said enough to place it within the region of possibility that the poems we are considering were the work of a young boy. The poems themselves contain strong internal evidence of such an origin. Take the following specimen from the 1569 collection: Then did appeare to me a sharped spire Of diamant, ten feete eche way in square. Justly proportionde up unto his height, So hie as mought an Archer reache with sight. Upon the top therof was set a pot Made of the mettall that we honour most. And in this golden vessell couched were The ashes of a mightie Emperour. Upon foure corners of the base there lay. To beare the frame, foure great Lions of golde. A worthie tombe for such a worthie corps. Alas, nought in this worlde but griefe endures. A sodaine tempest from the heaven, I saw. With flushe stroke downe this noble monument. This was revised as follows in the collection of 159 1 : Then did a sharped spyre of Diamond bright. Ten feete each way in square appeare to mee. Justly proportion'd up unto his hight, So far as Archer might his level see : The top thereof a pot did seeme to beare, Made of the mettall, which we most do honour ; And in this golden vessel couched weare The ashes of a mightie Emperour : 2o8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Upon foure corners of the base were pight, To beare the frame, foure great Lyons of gold ; A worthy tombe for such a worthy wight. Alas, this world doth nought but grievance hold ! I saw a tempest from the heaven descend, Which this brave monument with flash did rend. There are other interesting examples of what are evidently primitive attempts of the author in verse trans- lation, amended later by himself. Take, for example, the following rendering of Marot's verse in the Visions of Petrarch included in the Complaints of 1591 : After, at sea a tall ship did appeare, Made all of Heben and white Yvorie ; The sailes of golde, of silke the tackle were : Milde was the winde, calme seem'd the sea to bee. The skie eachwhere did show full bright and faire : With rich treasures this gay ship fiaighted was : But sudden storme did so turmoyle the aire, And tumbled up the sea, that she (alas) Strake on a rock, that under water lay, And perished past all recoverie. O, how great ruth, and sorrowfull assay, Doth vex my spirite with perplexitie, Thus in a moment to see lost and drown'd. So great riches as like cannot be found ! The last five lines have been extended from three lines in the Theatre for Worldlings, which are as follow: great misfortune, O great griefe, I say. Thus in one moment to see lost and drownde So great riches, as lyke can not be founde. In the I 59 1 edition the Visions of Petrarch end with the following stanza : When I behold this tickle trusties state Of vaine worlds glorie, flitting too and fro. And mortall men tossed by troublous fate In restles seas of wretchednes and woe ; 1 wish I might this wearie life forgoe. And shortly turne unto my happie rest, Where my free spirite might not anie moe Be vext with sights, that doo her peace molest. VIII SPENSER'S JUVENILE POEMS 209 And ye, faire Ladie, in whose bounteous brest All heavenly grace and vertue shrined is, When ye, these rythmes doo read, and vew the rest, Loath this base world, and thinke of heavens blis : And though ye be the fairest of Gods creatures, Yet thinke, that death shall spoyle your goodly features. It is not surprising to find that this is not in the Theatre for Worldlings. Instead of it are the following lines : My Song thus now in thy Conclusions, Say boldly that these same Six Visions Do yelde unto thy lorde a sweete request. Ere it be long within the earth to rest. These are a bald translation of Marot's French, as follows : O chanson mienne, en tes conclusions Dy hardiment : Ces six grans visions A mon seigneur donnent un doulx desir De briefvement soubz la terre gesir. The attraction of thoughts and subjects of a serious and religious cast for a precocious child is, I believe, very- common, and in Bacon's case the instruction of his mother, who was a woman of strong religious feeling, must have had an influence in this direction. She was a Protestant of the Geneva School, and an interesting light is thrown on her by the writer of an attack on Burghley's Govern- ment from the Catholic camp published anonymously in Cologne in 1592 under the title "A Declaration of the True Causes of the great troubles presupposed to be intended against the realme of England." From the style and matter I take it to have been written by a member, or advocate, of the English Catholic aristocracy, and it was considered by the Government of sufficient importance to be answered by a formal manifesto. This was written by Francis Bacon, and is perhaps one of the most brilliant of his shorter writings.^ In this book (" A Declaration," etc.) Cecil is described * Spedding, Life, i. 146 : Observations on a Libel. P 210 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. as a "sly sicophant," who induced Queen Elizabeth to change the old religion : He then promoted unto authoritie one Nicolas Bacon, with whom before he was lynked in bonds of affinitie, who being also of meane birth, but of an exceding craftie witt, was the more fitt to be joined with himself in the menaging of the new Governement. Aided by Nicholas Bacon, and their respective wives, the writer says that Cecil set up a church of his own invention : The apologie of this Church was written in Latin, and trans- lated into English by A. B. with the commendacio of M. C, which twain were sisters, and wives unto Cecill and Bacon, and gave their assistance and helping hands, in the plot and fortification of this new erected synagog.^ Naturally the influence of Bacon's mother would appear most strongly in his early writings, and would give direction to his ideas on subjects associated with religious thought. An example is to be found in the attempts to versify some of the passages in the Revelation of St. John, which are included in the Theatre for Worldlings, where the writer says " the Holy Ghost by S. John setteth him [Anti-christ] out in his colours." I select one out of four : I saw new Earth, new Heaven, sayde Saint John. And loe, the sea (quod he) is now no more. The holy Citie of the Lorde, from hye Descendeth garnisht as a loved spouse. A voice then sayde, beholde the bright abode Of God and men. For he shall be their God, And all their teares he shall wipe cleane away. Hir brightnesse greater was than can be founde. Square was this Citie, and twelve gates it had. Eche gate was of an orient perfect pearle, The houses golde, the pavement precious stone. A lively streame, more cleere than Christall is, Ranne through the mid, sprong from triumphant seat. There growes lifes fruite unto the Churches good. I think it was Bacon's habit from his earliest age to ' Ann 13acon and Mildred Cecil, daughters of Sir .Anthony Cooke. The book referred to is Bishop Jewel's Apologia pro EccUsia Anglicana, 1562. VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 211 turn his reading (which must have been incessant) into verse — that is to say, anything which specially appealed to his fancy and was within his powers — or to store it up in his capacious memory for future use. Reminiscent, I think, of these early experiments in Biblical paraphrase is the following passage in one of Harvey's letters to " Immerito " published in i 580 in Three proper and ivittie fainiliar Letters, etc. (the writer here on both sides being, in my opinion, either wholly or mainly, the same person) : I hearde once a Divine, pieferre Saint Johns Revelation before al the veriest Metaphysicall Visions, and jollyest conceited Dreames or Extasies, that ever were devised by one or other, howe admirable, or super excellent soever they seemed otherwise to the worlde. And truely I am so confirmed in this opinion, that when I bethinke me of the verie notablest, and moste wonderful Propheticall, or Poeticall Vision, that ever I read, or hearde, me seemeth the proportion is so unequall, that there hardly appeareth anye semblaunce of Comparison : no more in a maner (especially for Poets) then doth betweene the incompre- hensible Wisdome of God, and the sensible Wit of man. Such being this writer's early performance, it may be regarded as certain that other writings, even if none were extant, continued to flow from his pen. But such writings do, in fact, exist, as I shall hope to be able to show from internal evidence, though, as always in this case, they are concealed under the names of other men. The first of these " impersonations " is, in my belief, the poet Gascoigne, whose works, together with the relevant circumstances of his life, I will now proceed to examine. George Gascoigne is supposed to have been born about the year 1525; he was the son of Sir John Gascoigne of Bedfordshire ; was educated at Trinity College, Cambridge, and left without taking a degree ; is said to have entered the Middle Temple before 1548; was of an irregular disposition, and, according to Whetstone's Reiiiembrance, was disinherited by his father on account of his extravagance. In 1555 he became a student of Gray's Inn, and subsequently 212 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Arthur, Lord Grey of Wilton, became his patron. He was apparently a vigorous man of fine appearance, a frequenter of the Court, and very susceptible to the charm of women. In 1572 he presented himself for election to Parliament, but a petition was brought against him, apparently by his creditors, in which he was charged with insolvency, and also with manslaughter and atheism, and with being " a common rymer and a deviser of slanderous pasquils against divers persones of great calling." He thereupon went abroad (March 1572) and served as a soldier of fortune in the Low Countries for two to three years. Returning to England probably in 1574 Gascoigne henceforth confined himself to literary work, but he still suffered much from poverty.^ He died on 7th October 1577. In Gascoigne's absence abroad a collected volume of his verse was published (the first edition of the Posies). The publication is involved in an extraordinary piece of mystification, and my contention will be that the person behind it was the boy Francis Bacon. I am conscious that such a proposition involves a serious tax on the credulity of the reader, but I hope never- theless to make it good. The book appeared in 1573, probably early in the year. Bacon was twelve years old in January of that year (being born in January 1561 — old style 1560). The address "To the Reverende Divines" prefixed to the edition of 1575, dated "this last day of Januarie 1574" (=1575, new style), says: "It is verie neare two yeares past, since (I beeing in Hollande in service with the vcrtuous Prince of Orenge) the most part of these Posies were imprinted." The volume contained a prose piece, with verses interspersed, entitled " The Adventures of Master F. J.," ^ described in the edition of 1575 as "The pleasant Fable of Ferdinando Jeronimi and Leonora de Valasco, translated out of the Italian ' Diet. Nat. Piofir., from which the facts given above are taken. '^ " A pleasant discourse of the aduentures of master F. I. conteyning cxcellct idler?, sonets, Lays, Ballets, Rondlets, Verlayes and verses," 1573. VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 213 riding tales of Bartelio^' (intended for Bandelld). It is introduced, in the edition of 1573, by the device of two letters, which are as follow : A discourse of the adventures passed by Master F. I. H. W. to the Reader In August last passed my familiar friend Master G. T. bestowed uppon me ye reading of a written Booke, wherin he had collected divers discourses & verses, invented uppon sundrie occasions, by sundrie gentleme (in mine opinion) right commendable for their capacitie. And herewithal my said friend charged me, that I should use them onely for mine owne particuler commoditie, and eftsones safely deliver the originall copie to him againe, wherein I must confesse my selfe but halfe a marchant, for the copie unto him I have safely redelivered. But the worke (for I thought it worthy to be published) I have entreated my friend A. B. to emprint : as one that thought better to please a number by common commoditie then to feede the humor of any private parson by nedelesse singularitie. This I have adventured, for thy contentation (learned Reader). And further have presumed of my selfe to christen it by the name of A hundreth sundrie Flowers. In which poeticall posie are setforth manie trifling fantasies, humorall passions, and straunge affects of a Lover. And therin (although the wiser sort wold turne over the leafe as a thing altogether fruitlesse) yet I my selfe have reaped this commoditie, to sit and smile at the fond devises of such as have enchayned them selves in the golden fetters of fantasie, and having bewrayed them selves to the whole world, do yet conjecture y' they walke unseene in a net. Some other things you may also finde in this Booke, which are as voyde of vanitie, as the first are lame for governement. And I must confesse that (what to laugh at the one, & what to learne by the other) I have contrary to the chardge of my said friend G. T. procured for these trifles this day of publication. Wherat if the aucthors onely repyne, and the number of other learned mindes be thankfull : I may then boast to have gained a bushell of good will, in exchange for one pynt of peevish choler. But if it fal out contrary to expectatio that the readers judgements agree not with myne opinion in their commendacions, I may then (unlesse their curtesies supplie my want of discretion) with losse of some labour, accompt also the losse of my familier friendes, in doubt whereof, I cover all our names, and referre you to the well written letter of my 214 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. friende G. T. next following, whereby you may more at large consider of these occasions. And so I comend the praise of other mens travailes together with the pardon of mine owne rashnes, unto the well willing minds of discrete readers. From my lodging nere the Strande the xx. of January. 1572. H. W. The letter of G. T. to his very frie7id H. W. concerning this worke Remembring the late conference passed betwene us in my lodging, and how you seemed to esteeme some Pamphlets, which I did there shew unto you farre above their worth in skill, I did straightwaye conclude the same your judgment to procede of two especiall causes, one (and principall) the stedfast good will, which you have ever hitherto sithens our first familiaritie borne towardes mee. An other (of no lesse weight) the exceding zeale and favour that you beare to good letters. The wliich (I agree with you) do no lesse bloome and appeare in pleasaunt ditties or compendious Sonets, devised by green youthful capacities, than they do fruitefuUy florish unto perfection in the ryper workes of grave and grayheared writers. For as in the last, the yonger sort maye make a mirror of perfecte life : so in the first, the most frosty bearded Philosopher^ maye take just occasion of honest recreation, not altogether without holsome lessons, tending to the reformation of manners. For who doubteth but that Poets in their most feyned fables and imaginations, have meta- phorically set forth unto us the right rewardes of vertues, and the due punishments for vices ? Marie in deede I may not compare Pamphlets unto Poems, neither yet may justly advant for our native countrimen, that they have in their verses hitherto (translations excepted) delivered unto us any such notable volume, as have bene by Poets of antiquitie, left unto the posteritie. And the more pitie, that amongst so many toward wittes ne one hath bene hitherto encouraged to followe the trace of that worthy and famous knight Sir Geffrey Chaucer, and after many pretie devises spent in youth, for the obtayning a worthies victorie, might consume and consummate his age in discribing the right pathway to perfect felicitie, with the due preservation of the same. The which although some may judge over grave a subject to be handled in stile metrical, yet for that I have found in the verses of eloquent Latinists, learned Greeks, & pleasant Italians, sundrie directions, whereby a man may be guided toward thattayning of that unspeakeable treasure, I have > Cf. p. 235. VI 1 1 BA CON AND GASCOIGNE 2 1 5 thus farre lamented, that our countreymen, have chosen rather to winne a passover praise by the wanton penning of a few loving layes, than to gayne immortall fame, by the Clarkely handlinge of so profitable a Theame. For if quicknes of invencion, proper vocables, apt Epythetes, and store of monasillables may help a pleasant brayne to be crowned with Lawrell, I doubt not but both our countreymen & countrie language might be entronised amonge the olde foreleaders unto the mount Helicon. But nowe let mee returne to my first purpose, for I have wandred somwhat beside the path, and yet not cleane out of the way. I have thought good (I say) to present you with this writte booke, wherein you shall find a number of Sonets, layes, letters. Ballades, Rondlets, verlayes and verses, the workes of your friend and myne Master F. J. and divers others, the which when I had with long travayle confusedly gathered together, I thought it then Opere precium to reduce them into some good order. The which I have done according to my barreyne skill in this written Booke, commending it unto you to read and to peruse, and desiring you as I onely do adventure thus to participate the sight therof unto your former good will, even so that you will by no meanes make the same common : but after your owne recreation taken therin y' you wil safely redeliver unto me the originall copie. For otherwise I shall not onely provoke all the aucthors to be offended with mee, but further shall leese the opertunitie of a greater matter, halfe and more graunted unto mee alreadie, by the willing consent of one of them. And to be playne (with you my friend) he hath written (which as farre as I can learne) did never yet come to the reading or perusinge of any man but himselfe : two notable workes. The one called, the Sundry lots of love. The other of his owne invencion entituled. The clyming of an Eagles neast. These thinges (and especially the later) doth seeme by the name to be a work worthy the reading. And the rather 1 judge so because his fantasie is so occupied in the same, as that contrary to his wonted use, he hath hitherto withhelde it from sight of any his familiers, untill it be finished, you may gesse him by his Nature. And therfore I requier your secresie herein, least if he hear the contrary, we shall not be able by any meanes to procure these other at his handes. So fare you wel, from my Chamber this tenth of August. 1572. Youres or not his owne. G. T. When I had with no small entreatie obteyned of Master F. J. and sundry other toward young gentlemen, the sundry copies of these sundry matters, then aswell for that the number 2i6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. of them was great, as also for that I found none of them, so barreyne, but that (in my judgmet) had in it Aliquid Sa/i's, and especially being considered by the very proper occasion where- uppon it was written (as they them selves did alwayes with the verse reherse unto me the cause y' then moved them to write) I did with more labour gather them into some order, and so placed them in this register. Wherein as neare as I could gesse, I have set in the first places those which Master J'] J. did compyle. And to begin with this his history that ensueth, it was (as he declared unto me) written uppon this occasio. The said F. J. chaunced once in the north partes of this Realme to fall in company of a very fayre gentlewoman whose name was Mistresse Elinor^ unto whom bearinge a hotte affection, he first adventured to write this letter following. G. T. In the first place it may be observed that " G. T.'s " letter anticipates, both in manner and substance, the " E. K." and Immerito- Harvey letters. As in those writings, " G. T." is animated by a patriotic desire to do something for English letters, and deplores the fact that, since Chaucer, nothing of note has been done. He also, like " Immerito," mentions pieces which he is holding back, though in this case he attributes them to some one else. In the next place he affects to have procured from others and arranged in one collection (viz. " The Adventures of Master F, J.") "a number of Sonets, layes, letters, . . . the workes of your friend and myne Master F. J. and divers others," and he begs his friend " H. W." " that you will by no meanes make the same common : but . . . safely redeliver unto me the originall copie," In a postscript he hints at a love affair which bears a close resemblance to Spenser's supposed experience in the north of England on his leaving Cambridge. " H. W.," far from respecting his friend's express injunctions, proceeds to publish " G. T.'s " letter, with an address " to the Reader," in which he takes no shame to admit that he had betrayed his confidence ! On the top of this " the Printer " comes in, and in the course of a letter to the Reader, which appeared at the beginning of the 1573 edition, and was replaced by the three addresses below described in the edition of 1575, VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 217 declares that he " fears very much (all these words not- withstanding) that these two gentlemen were of one assent compact to have it imprinted," I give the full text of this further letter, and the reader can judge for himself whether they are not all three written by the same person. I have not the smallest doubt that they are. The Printer to the Reader It hath bin an old saying, that whiles two doggs do strive for a bone, the thirde may come and carie it away. And this proverbe may (as I feare) be wel verefied in me which take in hand the imprinting of this poeticall Poesie. For the case seemeth doubtful, and I will disclose my conjecture. Master .H. W. in the beginning of this worke, hath in his letter (written to the Readers) cunningly discharged himselfe of any such misliking, as the graver sort of greyheared judgers niighte (perhaps) conceive in the publicatio of these pleasant Pamphlets. And nexte unto that learned preamble, the letter of .G. T. (by whome as seemeth, the first coppie hereof was unto the same .H. W. delivered), doth with no lesse clerkly cuning seeke to perswade the readers, that he (also) woulde by no meanes have it published. Now I feare very muche (all these words notwith- stading) that these two gentlemen were of one assent compact to have it imprinted : And yet, finding by experiece that nothing is so wel hadled now adayes, but that some malicious minds may either take occasion to mislike it themselves, or else finde meanes to make it odious unto others : They have therefore (each of them) politiquely prevented the daunger of misreport, and suffered me the poore Printer to runne away with the palme of so perillous a victorie. Notwithstanding, having wel perused the worke, I find nothing therein amisse (to my judgemente) unlesse it be two or three wanton places passed over in the discourse of an amorous enterprise. The which for as much as the words are cleanly (although the thing ment be somewhat naturall) I have thought good also to let them passe as they came to me, and the rather bicause (as master .H.W. hath well alleadged in his letter to the Reader) the well minded ma may reape some commoditie out of the most frivolous works that are written. And as the venemous spider wil sucke poison out of the most holesome herbe, and the industrious Bee can gather hony out of the most stinking weede : Even so the discrete reader may take a happie exaple by the most lascivious histories, although the captious and harebrained heads can neither be 2i8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. encoraged by the good, nor forewarned by the bad. And thus muche I have thought good to say in excuse of some savours, which may perchance smell unpleasantly to some noses, in some part of this poeticall poesie. Now it hath with this fault a greater commoditie than common poesies have ben accustomed to present, and that is this, you shall not be constreined to smell of the floures therein coteined all at once, neither yet to take them up in such order as they are sorted : But you may take any one flowre by it selfe, and if that smell not so pleasantly as you wold wish, I doubt not yet but you may find some other which may supplie the defects thereof. As thus, he which wold have good morall lessons clerkly handled, let him smell to the Tragedie translated out of Euripides. He that wold laugh at a prety conceit closely conveyed, let him peruse the comedie translated out of Ariosto. He that would take example by the unlawfuU affections of a lover bestowed uppon an unconstant dame, let them reade the report in verse, made by Dan Bartholmew of Bathe, or the discourse in prose of the adventures passed by master F. J. whome the reader may name Freeman Jones, for the better understanding of the same : he that would see any particuler pang of love lively displayed, may here approve every Pamphlet by the title, and so remaine contented. As also divers godly himnes and Psalmes may in like manner be founde in this recorde. To conclude, the worke is so universall, as either in one place or other, any mans mind may therewith be satisfied. The which I adventure (under pretext of this promise) to present unto all indifferent eyes as foUoweth. The editor (Professor Cunliffe) of the edition of Gascoigne's Works in the " Cambridge English Classics " series — to which I am greatly indebted — thinks that " G. T." (by some supposed to stand for George Turberville) was probably a mythical person of Gascoigne's own invention. He adds that the explanatory headings to the various poems in the 1573 edition "were apparently written by Gascoigne himself, although he i.s always spoken of in the third person." But Gascoigne was at the wars, and these headings, I have little doubt, were the work of his editor. The " Adventures of Master F. J." are, in my belief, also by the same hand. The story closes in the 1575 version with a statement containing the following : " I knowe not howe my rude VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 219 translation thereof will delight the finest judgementes. But sure as Bartello writteth it in Italian, it is both pleasaunt and profitable." I should judge from a perusal of the story that the translator had added and altered to suit his own ideas, but to what extent this is so I have not thought it necessary to inquire. The style is quite beyond the capacity of Gascoigne, who also shows no evidence of having acquired any knowledge of foreign languages. The letters above quoted all drop out of the edition o^ ^575> which Gascoigne appears to have published himself after his return to England, and in their place are three addresses — (i) "To the reverende Divines," in which the writer apologises for "The Adventures of Master F J." ; (2) " To al yong Gentlemen, and generally to the youth of England " ; (3) " To the Readers generally." The last is undoubtedly the work of Gascoigne himself, and probably the original piece which was intended to go before the volume. The other two are in quite a different style, and are probably an after-thought. The first I believe to be entirely the work of the author of the " Adventures." The second I think is very probably also by him, and that in any case he had a share in its composition. The first address is dated " this last day of Januarie, 1574"; the second is dated "the second of Januarie, 1575." the first date being old style (= 1575) and the second new style. The third address is undated. The title-page is dated 1575. In the first address Gascoigne says, or is made to say, " that I never receyved of the Printer, or of anye other, one grote or pennie for the firste Copyes of these Posyes. True it is that I was not unwillinge the same shoulde bee imprinted. . . ." If this statement is Gascoigne's, or sanctioned by Gascoigne, it disposes of the elaborate pretences of the first edition ; though how it could have been arranged in his absence in Holland is not easy to see. One of the notes of the " Editor " of that edition runs : " I will now deliver unto 220 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. you SO many more of Master Gascoigne's Poems as have come into my hands, who hath never beene dayntie of his doings, and therfore I conceale not his name." There may or may not have been some understanding with regard to publication. On the whole I think it is quite possible that there was not (in regard at any rate to some of the pieces), and that " H. W." is speaking the truth when he says, " This I have adventured for thy contentation (learned Reader)." The disclaimer in the address (No. i) of 1575 as to receiving money would then be a sort of justification of himself But Gascoigne, who was evidently in very distressed circumstances, and who " hath never beene dayntie of his doings," would probably be glad enough to have such a collaborator, with influence and means at his disposal, for without them how could any man in those days get books printed ? It is difficult enough now. Milton received ten pounds for Paradise Lost. The " patron " was the only resource, and we find Gascoigne, on his return from the wars, appealing to Lord Grey in the dedication of a piece entitled The Fruites of Warre, written, as he states, " by peecemeale at sundrye tymes, as the Aucthour had vacaunt leysures from service, being begon at Delfe in Hollande . . ." The dedication begins : " My singular good Lorde : I am of opinion that long before this time your honour hath thoroughly perused the booke, which I prepared to bee sent unto you somewhat before my comming hyther, and therewithall I doe lykewise conjectour that you have founde therein just cause to laugh at my follies forepassed." This presumably refers to the first edition of the Posies^ and as "comming hyther" means coming to England, Gascoigne must have been in communication with some one at home about sending the book. This cannot refer to the publication, which occurred soon after Gascoigne went abroad. I do not say that this person was young Francis Bacon, or that he actually conducted the business of publishing the book ; in an Elizabethan household like that of York House there would be retainers from among VIII PACON AND GASCOIGNE 221 whom a discreet and trustworthy person for such business could be found. My contention is that in some way or other he intervened in order to get his own work included in the book, and that this was a practice to which he had recourse throughout his Hfe. That, as a lad, he was a friend of Gascoigne is highly probable, as he must have had many opportunities of meeting him among the people who hung about the Court and such houses as York House. There is indeed, in my opinion, evidence of such an intimacy in the Harvey " Letter- book," in which references to Gascoigne occur. To recur to the first address in the 1575 edition of the Posies (" To the reverende Divines "), — the writer says : " These considerations (right reverend) did first move me to consent that these Poemes should passe in print." He gives a further reason, that " being busied in martiall affayres (whereby also I sought some advance- ment) I thought good to notifie unto the w^orlde before my returne, that I could as well persuade with Penne, as pearce with launce or weapon." The style is full of affectations, utterly unlike the homely utterance of Gascoigne (compare it with his dedicatory epistles for T/ic Fruites of Warrc and The Steele Glas). Two examples will suffice, one of youthful conceit of learning, or more probably of mere sport ; the other an experiment in the construction of an elaborate literary style, which, derived from foreign models, came later to be known in England (through the genius, in my opinion, of the same writer waywardly employed) as " Euphuism." ^ For recapitulation whereof, and to answere unto the objections ' Professor Courthope {A History of English Poetry) notes this feature in Gascoigne in connection with the title of the first edition of the Posies, which, he says, " is very interesting as marking the approach of Euphuism." The title-page runs as follows : " A Hundreth sundrie Flowres bounde up in one small Poesie. Gathered partely (by translation) in the fyne outlandish Gardins of Euripides, Ouid, Petrarke, Ariosto, and others : and partly by inuention, out of our owne fruitefuU Orchardes in Englande : Velding sundrie sweete savours of Tragical, Comical, and Morall Discourses, bothe pleasaunt and profitable to the well smellyng noses of learned Readers." This is by the Editor or " Printer," and reflects his reading and tastes at that time. It also bears evidence of his keen sense of the ridiculous, repressed with difficulty, and emerging in all sorts of unexpected places. 222 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. that may be given : I say to the first that I neither take example of wanton Ovid, doting Nigidius, nor foolish Samocratius. But I delight to thinke that the reverend father Theodore Beza, whose life is worthily become a lanterne to the whole worlde, did not yet disdaine to suffer the continued publication of such Poemes as he wrote in youth. To the fourth and last considerations, I had alledged of late by a right reverende father, that although in deede out of everie floure the industrious Bee may gather honie, yet by proofe the Spider thereout also sucks mischeevous poyson. It will be noticed that practically the same sentence occurs in the address of the Printer to the Reader in the 1573 edition (see p. 217 above). It is repeated in the second address (" To al yong Gentlemen "). The second address Is in a more vivacious vein than the first, the author changing his tone with his audience. I consider it is mainly, if not wholly, the work of the author of the first address, written for Gascoigne. The best thing in it is the "chaff" about the matter-of- fact and unlettered simplicity of his age in England : Laugh not at this (lustie yonkers) since the pleasant dittie of the noble Erie of Surrey (beginning thus : Li winters just returne) was also construed to be made indeed by a Shepeherd. What shoulde I stande much in rehersall how the L. Vaux his dittie (beginning thus : / loth that I did love) was thought by some to be made upon his death bed ? and that the Soulknill of M. Edwards was also written in extremitie of sicknesse ? Of a truth (my good gallants) there are such as having only lerned to read English, do interpret Latin, Greke, French and Italian phrases or metaphors, even according to their owne motherly conception and childish skill, I pass over the " Commendatory Verses," with their various initials, one or more of which may well have been written by the author of the " H. W." and " G. T." epistles. This device occurs frequently in connection with subsequent publications which I believe are to be attributed to Francis Bacon, and was part of his method, in the absence of any organ of literary criticism, of advertising and "reviewing" his own work. In the 1575 edition of the Posies Bacon's work VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 223 begins, in my opinion, after " The greene Knights farewell to Fansie," with " The Adventures of Master F. J." It would weary the reader if I went into this story in detail and discussed the various evidence of my theory from points of style ; but I may note what appears to be a piece of self-revelation. The writer is describing the amours of the Dame and the Knight, and breaks off with the remark : " But why holde I so long discourse in descrybyng the joyes whiche (for lacke of like experience) I cannot set out to the full," If this is not taken from an original, it points to the juvenility of the writer. There is one very remarkable poem in the " Adventures," in which Queen Elizabeth is evidently referred to under the name of " Cynthia." One stanza begins as follows : Good reason yet, that to my simple skill, ^ I should the name of Cynthia adore : By whose high helpe, I might beholde the more, My Ladies lovely lookes at mine owne will. With deepe content, to gaze, and gaze my fill. Another stanza contains a beautiful fancy : Wherefore at better leasure thought I best, To trie the treason of his trecherie : And to exalt my Ladies dignitie When Phoebus fled and drewe him downe to rest. Amid the waves that waiter in the west, I gan behold this lovely Ladies face. " Dan Phoebus " may possibly contain a reference to Leicester, but the meaning is obscure. The same " conceit " of Cynthia regarding benevolently another love occurs in the Epit/ialaviion of Spenser. The " Adventures," which are in places somewhat loose, end, in the 1575 edition, with a homily : And to that ende I have recyted this Fable which maye serve as ensample to wariie the youthfull reader from attempting the lyke worthies enterprise. . . . Desiring the gentle reader, rather to make example of reformation therein, then to finde faulte at the homelye handling of the same. * "My simple skill." A favourite mannerism of Bacon, whether wriung in his own or under another name. See Chapter V. 224 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. This is characteristic of the writer, whose purpose is to interest the light-minded, and at the same time to disarm the hostility of the sterner sort. " A translation of Ariosto allegorized " with which the piece concludes in the 1573 edition, but which is omitted from the 1575 edition, is probably by the same hand. Nine poems follow which complete the " Weedes." Of these I think it is highly probable that Francis Bacon wrote the one about Cleopatra, partly from a certain enthusiasm and childishness of style, partly from the fact that he reappears (in my opinion) in the same subject in a poem published in 1599 under the name of Daniel (" A Letter from Octavia to Marcus Antonius "). The heading of this poem anticipates the tricks of the earlier Shakespearian humour : " In praise of a gentle- woman, who though she were not verye fayre, yet was she as harde favoured as might be." The volume closes with " Certayne notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English, written at the request of Master Edouardo Donati." This appears for the first time in the edition of 1575. The subject with which it deals is the last one in the world which could have occupied the attention of Gascoigne during the hardships of his campaign. The Fniites of Warre is in itself evidence of this. Moreover it is not stated that the piece is by Gascoigne ; it is not included in the tables of contents of" Flowers," " Hearbes" and " Weedes " ; no motto is placed at the end (as Gascoigne's practice was) ; the style is quite unlike any of his authentic work, and the matter, in my opinion, is whf>lly beyond his capacity. Following the method which I have adopted in order to assist the reader in judging for himself without the labour of research, I give a few extracts : Sipior Edouardo, since promise is debt, and you (by the lawe of friendship) do burden me with a promise that I shoulde lende VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 225 you instructions towards the making of English verse or ryme, I will assaye to discharge the same, though not so perfectly as I would, yet as readily as I may : and therwithall I pray you consider that Quot hofnines, tot Sente?itice, especially in Poetrie, wherein (neuerthelesse) I dare not challenge any degree, and yet will I at your request aduenture to set downe my simple skill in such simple manner as I haue vsed, referring the same hereafter to the correction of the Laureate, And you shall haue it in these few poynts foUowyng. The first and most necessarie poynt that euer I founde meete to be considered in making of a delectable poeme is this, to grounde it upon some fine inuention. For it is not inough to roll in pleasant woordes, nor yet to thunder in Jiym, Ram, Ruff, by letter (quoth my master Chaucer) nor yet to abounde in apt vocables, or epythetes, vnlesse the Inuention haue in it also aliquid sails. By this allquid sails, I meane some good and fine deuise, shewing the quicke capacitie of a writer : and where I say some good a7id fine Inuention, I meane that I would haue it both fine and good. For many inuentions are so superfine, that they are Vix good. And againe many Inuentions are good, and yet not finely handled. And for a general forwarning : what Theame soeuer you do take in hande, if you do handle it but tanqiiam In oratlone perpetua, and neuer studie for some depth of deuise in ye Inuention, and some figures also in the handlyng thereof; it will appeare to the skilfuU Reader but a tale of a tubbe. To deliuer vnto you generall examples it were almoste vnpossible, sithence the occasions of Inuentions are (as it were) infinite : neuerthelesse take in worth mine opinion, and perceyue my furder meanyng in these few poynts. If I should vndertake to wryte in prayse of a gentlewoman, I would neither praise hir christal eye, nor hir cherrie lippe, etc. For these things are trlta et obula. But I would either finde some supernaturall cause wherby my penne might walke in the superlatiue degree, or els I would vndertake to aunswere for any imperfection that shee hath, and therevpon rayse the prayse of hir commendation. Likewise if I should disclose my pretence in loue, I would eyther make a strange discourse of some intollerable passion, or finde occasion to pleade by the example of some historie, or discouer my dis- quiet in shadowes per Allegorlatn, or vse the couertest meane that I could toanoyde the vncomely customes of common writers. Thus much I aduenture to deliuer vnto you (my freend) vpon the rule of Inuention, which of all other rules is most to be marked, and hardest to be prescribed in certayne and infallible rules, neuerthelesse to conclude therein, I would haue you stand Q 226 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. most vpon the excellencie of your Inuention, and sticke not to studie deepely for some fine deuise. For that beyng founde, pleasant woordes will follow well inough and fast inough. . . . And surely I can lament that wee are fallen into suche a playne and simple manner of wryting, that there is none other foote vsed but one : wherby our Poemes may iustly be called Rithmes, and cannot by any right challenge the name of a Verse. But since it is so, let vs take the forde as we finde it, and lette me set downe vnto you suche rules and precepts that euen in this playne foote of two syllables you wreste no woorde from his natural and vsuall sounde, I do not meane hereby that you may vse none other wordes but of twoo sillables, for therein you may vse discretion according to occasion of matter : but my meaning is, that all the wordes in your verse be so placed as the first Billable may sound short or be depressed, the second long or eleuate, the third shorte, the fourth long, the fifth shorte, etc. For example of my meaning in this point marke these two verses : I vriderstand your meanying by your eye?- \ I \ I \ I \ I \ I Your meaning I vnderstand by your eye. In these two verses there seemeth no difference at all, since the one hath the very selfe same woordes that the other hath, and yet the latter verse is neyther true nor pleasant, and the first verse may passe the musters. The fault of the latter verse is that this worde vnderstand is therein so placed as the graue accent falleth upon der^ and thereby maketh der, in this word understand to be eleuated : which is contrarie to the naturall or vsual pronunciation : for we say \ \ / \ / \ vnderstand, and not vnderstand. 5. Here by the way I thinke it not amisse to forewarne you that you thrust as few wordes of many sillables into your verse as may be : and herevnto I might alledge many reasons : first the most auncient English wordes are of one sillable, so that the more monasyllables that you vse, the truer Englishman you shall seeme, and the lesse you shall smell of the Inkehorne. Also wordes of many syllables do cloye a verse and make it vnpleasant, whereas woordes of one syllable will more easily fall to be shorte or long as occasion rcquireth, or wilbe adapted to become cir- cumflexe or of an indifferent sounde. . . . 12. This poeticall licence is a shrewde fellow, and couereth ' A rough figure is printed over the line, indicating the accent. vm BACON AND GASCOIGNE 227 many faults in a verse, it maketh wordes longer, shorter, of mo Billables, of fewer, newer, older, truer, falser, and to conclude it turkeneth all things at pleasure, for example, ydone for done, adowne for dow?ie, orecome for ouercome, tane for taken, poiver for po7vre, heauen for /leavn, ihewes for good partes or good qualities, and a numbre of other whiche were but tedious and needelesse to rehearse, since your owne iudgement and readyng will soone make you espie such aduauntages. . . . 14. . . . And the commonest sort of verse which we use now adayes {viz. the long verse of twelve and fourtene sillables) I know not certainly how to name it, unlesse I should say that it doth consist of Poulters measure, which giveth xii for one dozen and xiiii for another. . . . 16. I had forgotten a notable kinde of ryme, called ryding rime, and that is suche as our Mayster and Father Chaucer vsed in his Canterburie tales, and in diuers other delectable and light enterprises : but though it come to my remembrance somewhat out of order, it shall not yet come altogether out of time, for I will nowe tell you a conceipt whiche I had before forgotten to wryte : you may see (by the way) that I holde a preposterous order in my traditions, but as I sayde before I wryte moued by good wil, and not to shewe my skill. Then to returne too my matter, as this riding rime serueth most aptly to wryte a merie tale, so Rythme royall is fittest for a graue discourse. Ballades are beste of matters of loue, and rondlettes moste apt for the beating or handlyng of an adage or common prouerbe : Sonets serue aswell in matters of loue as of discourse : Dizaymes and Sixames for shorte Fantazies : Verlayes for an effectual proposition, although by the name you might otherwise iudge of Verlayes, and the long verse of twelue and fouretene sillables, although it be now adayes vsed in all Theames, yet in my iudgement it would serue best for Psalmes and Himpnes. These extracts will suffice to show the spirit in which this little treatise is written. It is, in my belief, a juvenile effort, and the spirit which animates it is the same ambitious, zealous and patriotic spirit as inspires the letter of " G. T." and subsequently those of "Immerito" and other similar treatises. This little work is of exceptional interest as showing (if my view is right) at what an early age the author of it began the exercise of his art, and what an extraordinary grasp he had of the details as well as the principles of it. It is, in my opinion, the first of a series in which identity of authorship seems to me self- 228 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. evident, though the works appeared under different names, viz. — A Discourse of English Poetrie, by William Webbe, Graduate, 1586. The Arte of English Foesie, published anonymously, and reputed (though on most inadequate authority) to be by one George Puttenham, 1589. An Apologiefor Poetrie, by Sir Philip Sidney, 1595. A Defence of Pytne, by " Sa. D." (Samuel Daniel), 1603. In addition to the works which I have discussed (and the two plays translated from Ariosto and Euripides, Supposes diWd Jocasta, which belong to 1566) the works of Gascoigne comprise a series of pieces, in verse and prose, beginning with a play in prose entitled The Glasse of Governement, dated 26th April 1575, and ending with a series of four poems entitled The Grief of f aye, which were dedicated to Queen Elizabeth on ist January 1577. Gascoigne died in October of that year. To prove that these works are not all by Gascoigne is perhaps a long and difficult task, but the conclusion is of such crucial importance to my argument, and so much more flows from it, that I must ask the reader's indulgence while I attempt it. In brief, my contention will be that out of eleven pieces five only are by Gascoigne, and the other six are by Francis Bacon. The following is the list, in order of time, with the dates of the dedications, which should be specially noted. Date of Dedication. Title, 26th April 1575. (Sir Owen Hopton) . . . The Glasse of Governement. I St January 1576. (The Queen) .... The Tale of Hemetes the Here- myte. Pronounced before the Queen at Woodstock, 1575. 26th March 1576. (The Printer to the Reader) . The Princely Pleasures at Kenel- worth Castle. July 1575. *i6lh April 1575. Date of dedication. (Lord Grey of Wilton.) 3rd April 1576. Dale of completion . . The Complaynt of Phylomene. VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 229 1 2th April 1576, (To the Reader) .... Prefatory Epistle to A Dis- course of a Discoverie for a netu Passage to Cataia. Written by Sir Hu7nfrey Gilbert^ Kmght. *i5th April 1576. (Begun April 1575.) (Lord Grey of Wilton) . . .The Steele Glas. 2nd May 1576. (The Earl of Bedford) . . . The Droomme of Doomes day. loth August 1576. (Lewis Dyve of Broomham) . A delicate Diet for daintie- mouthde Doonkardes. *i576. (Short piece, undated) In com??ie?idatio?i of the 7iobk Arte of Venerie. *2 5th November 1576 . . The Spoyle of Antwerfe. *ist January 1577. (The Queen) .... The Grief of Joye. Only those marked * are, in my opinion, by Gascoigne, The Glasse of Governement. — This is a very immature production, and I regard it as Bacon's first effort, or first surviving effort, in the art of play-writing. In it are found, in embryo, the characteristic ideas of his manhood. It is referred to by Professor Courthope as " of mortal dulness," a fair description if it was the work of a man of fifty ; but if, as I believe, it was written by a boy of fourteen, or perhaps younger, it is a piece of extraordinary psycho- logical interest. The play deals with Bacon's favourite subject, education, and in nothing is the juvenility of it shown so much as in the perfect confidence with which the author promotes the studious young men and brings the idle ones to a disastrous end, the moral being pointed with an infallible sententiousness. The writer knows little of the world but what he has heard or has gleaned out of books. Of this knowledge he makes the very most, and the play is not altogether deficient in variety and interest. The most interesting feature of it, however, is the endeavour to graft the teachings of pagan philosophy and art on to the stock of Christian doctrine, as held by 23© SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the reformers, and to unite the two for the purposes of instruction through the medium of the stage. The play- is a " school play," on the model of the Terentian drama, which was then much in vogue in the new grammar schools founded in the Tudor period under the influence of such men as Ascham and Cheke, and at the universities. It is described as " A tragicall Comedie, so entituled by- cause therein are handled as well the rewardes for Vertues as also the punishment for Vices," and is stated (though I do not believe it) to be " Done by George Gascoigne Esquier." In the Latin names, and the Latin enumeration of the Acts and Scenes, the play follows the classical tradition. One English name, " Dicke Drumme," is used for a low character. There are two grave parents, PJiylopaes and Phylocalus, who each have two sons, of whom the elder, Phylautus and PhylosarcJms (Self-love and Love of power), come to grief, and the younger, Phylomusus and Phylotimus (Love of learning and Love of honour), win distinction. These, in my opinion, are originals of many other similar characters which are to be found in Bacon's didactic works, by which I mean such works as Euphues, the Arcadia^ and the Devices, where " character " is sacrificed to the purpose of direct instruction, and the persons introduced are made the vehicles for discourse on every variety of subject. I hold very strongly that all imaginative work has "self" for its basis, that the artist finds his art not so much in the world (which is ancillary) as in his own soul, and that his work therefore is necessarily " auto- biographical." The difference in this respect between Gascoigne and Shakespeare, or, to take a modern illustration, between Burns and Dickens, or Burns and Scott, is one of appearance only, and lies in the power of " feigning." That power largely depends on range of experience and reading, and on memory, " the mother of the muses." ^ The range of Gascoigne is extremely limited, and he is frankly autobiographical. The same ■ Aeschylus, Prom. Vtiut. 469. VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 231 is true of Burns, and is the condition of the directness of his appeal. But the wider the author's range, the greater are the resources of self-expression at his command, and imaginative writers like Scott and Dickens take advantage of this power to shield themselves from too curious identification. Yet it is well known and fully authenti- cated that, under various disguises, those two writers gave expression to their own feelings and experiences. This is surely a law of life, and must be true, in varying degrees, of every writer of fiction, of every poet, painter, musician, or artist in any medium whatsoever. Shake- speare is supposed to be an exception, a man whose writings had no relation to his circumstances, an artist, so to speak, bombinans in vacuo. In my belief there is here no exception ; Shakespeare is just as autobiographical as Gascoigne. The difference lies in the immensity of his range and the vastness of his resources. In a greater or less degree he is in all his characters, but he is identified with none. He had also every reason for concealing his identity, which was not the case with Gascoigne. In the little play which we are discussing the " auto- biographical " element is very evident. The work, like everything else which this author wrote, is the natural outcome of his experience, reading and reflection at the time. The characters, though lightly drawn, and largely used as vehicles for sermons, are nevertheless individualised to a considerable extent. The two fathers represent the patria potest as of the time. The four sons are an expression of the author's "self" under several aspects, a dispersal of personality which is a special characteristic of this writer, and the one by which he most eludes identification. One of them, however, Philomusus, rather than the others, expresses his more intimate self (as does Biron, for instance, in Loves Labours Lost). In the treatment of the two elder and the two younger brothers we see the germs of that conflict, which is so strongly in evidence in the later writings, between " will " and " wit," the flesh and the spirit, ambition and conscience ; and in the defence of ambition in the two younger brothers there 232 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. is the early consciousness of the problem of the antagonism between the active and the contemplative life. The play is religious in tone, but religion is regarded rather as an instrument of government than as a spiritual principle, and the confident dogmatism is what might be expected from a precocious child brought up in a high position under the influence of the Reformers. An abnormal, but not unpleasant, self-esteem pervades the whole work, and the writer evidently finds a keen satisfaction in his performance, both as an expression of himself and as a means of inculcating his views. This is a notable characteristic of all Bacon's productions. These few general remarks will be better understood by reference to particular passages, and I will proceed to mention some points in the play which support or illustrate my argument. The references are to the pages in Mr. Cunliffe's second volume. P. 9. One of the fathers discussing the future of his sons : Neither yet would I have you conceive hereby that I am ambicious. But if I be not deceyved, Al desire of prmnotion {by veriue) is godly and Lawful!, whereas ambition is commonly nestled in the brestes of the envious. Compare p. 45, where Philotimus and Philomusus praise the ready wit of their elder brothers but censure their faults : Phylomusus. It may be that his minde is much geven to other plesures and delights, which do so continuallie possesse his brayns, as they suffer not any other conception to be emprinted in his memorie : for my brother Phylautus doth in a manner meditat nothing els but setting forth of him selfe. . . . Phylotimus. To bee opinionate of him selfe is vitious, but surely I am of opinnion, that it is commendable for a young man in all his actions to regard his owne advauncement, and with all to have (resonably) a good opinion of him selfe, in exempting of such thinges as he undertaketh, for if he which coveteth in the latyne tung to be eloquent shoulde so farre embase his thoughts as to conceive that he spake or wrot like olde Duns or Scottis, surely (in my judgement) it would bee verie hard for him to excell or to become a perfect Rethoritian, or if VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 233 hee which employeth his time in the exercise of ryding, should imagine with himselfe that he sat not comely on his horse backe, it would be long before hee shoulde become a gallant horseman : for in all humaine actions we delight so much the more, and sooner attayne unto theyr perfections, wheneas we thinke in our minde that in deede the exercise thereof doth become us. P. 1 2. Though the scene is laid at Antwerp the author no doubt has London in mind when he alludes to " schooles in the City " : Phylocalus. You shall understand sir that my neighbour here and I have foure Sonnes, of equall age and stature, the eldest exceedeth not twenty yeares and the youngest is about nineteene yeares old, they have ben already entred in grammer at such schooles as we have heere in the City, and if we be not abused by reportes they have shewed themselves forward enough to take enstructions : so that we are partly perswaded to send them unto some university, P. 14. The pedagogue, Gnomaticus, leaves the question of his stipend to the parents, as he " would be lothe to make bargaines in this respect, as men do at the market or in other places, for grasing of Oxen or feeding of Cattle." In this remark the author betrays his simplicity as well as a zeal for reform which (as frequently with Bacon) ignores practical conditions. P. 16. An interesting passage as to the course of study in the grammar schools : Gnomaticus. . . . tell me therefore what you have redde. . . . Phylmitus. Sir, my Brother here, and I have bene taught first the rules of the grammer, after that wee had read unto us the familiar communications called the Colloquia of Erasmus^ and next to that the offices of Cicero, that was our last exercise. Gnomaticus. It hath bene well done, and have you not also ben taught to versify? Phylautus. Yes truly sir, we have therein bene (in maner) dayly enstructed. Gnomaticus. And you Phylosarchus : how have you passed your time? Phylosarchus. Sir : my Brother and I have also bene taught our grammer and to make a verse, we have redde certaine Comedies of Terence, certaine Epistles of Tulh\ and some parte of Virgin, we were also entred unto our greeke grammer. 234 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. P. 1 7. Gnomaticus thereupon unfolds his scheme of education, not illiberal, but more in consonance with the views of Protestant reformers : For although Tully in his booke of dewtyes doth teach sundry vertuouse preceptes, and out of Terence may also be gathered many morall enstructions amongst the rest of his wanton discourses, yet the true christian must direct his steppes by the infallible rule of Gods woord, from whence as from the hedde spring, he is to draw the whole course of his lyfe. I would not have you thinke hereby that I do holde in contempt the bookes which you have redde heretofore, but wee will (by Gods grace) take in assistance such and so many of them as may seeme consonant to the holy scriptures, and so joyning the one with the other, we shalbe the better able to bring our worke unto perfection. Gnomaticus opens his discourse by a reference to the nature of God, in which, it will be observed, special stress is laid on the attribute of power. The style of the discourse has an easily recognisable affinity with Bacon's mature writings on such subjects, and the opening sentence is peculiarly characteristic : You shall well understand, my well beloved schollers, that as God is the author of all goodnesse, so it is requisite that in all traditions and morall preceptes we begin firste to consider of him, to regard his majestic, and to search the soveraigne poyntes of his Godhead. The Heathen Philosophers (although they had not the light to understand perfect trueth) were yet all of them astonyed at the incomprehensible majesty and power of God, some of them thought the ayre to be God, some other the earth, some the infinitenesse of things, some one thing, some another, whose opinions I shall passe over as things unmeete to be much thought of. . . . I o p. I 8. After giving a i^w instances of pagan thought, he states his own conclusion, in language which corre- sponds entirely with Bacon's attitude in his acknowledged philosophical writings : 'J'ruly to leave y<= heathen opinions and to come unto the very touchestone I thinke it not amisse to content our selves to thinke that God is omnipotent, and yet his power unsearchable, and his goodncs unspeakable. VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 235 From God Gnomaticus descends to man and the various departments of conduct, just as Bacon does in the Advancement of Learning : And to be briefe, I wil deliver unto you the summe of your dutyes in four Chapters, the first chapiter shalbe of God and his ministers, the second of the King and his Officers, the third shall conteyne the duties that you owe unto your Countrey and the Elders thereof, and lastly you shal be put in remembraunce of your dutyes towardes your Parentes, and what you ought to be of your selves. In these foure chapters I trust (by Gods help) to enclude as much as shalbe necessary for the perfect government of a true Christian. The author then proceeds to deliver himself at great length in two discourses (through the mouth of Gnomaticus) on these topics, in the manner of one who was accustomed to excel and who looked forward con- fidently to being the chief adviser to the Sovereign. The advice is all given from that high standpoint. Similarly in Bacon's writings. P. 28. At the beginning of the second discourse Gnomaticus expresses a fear that he may have been " over longe in my first division," to which one of the studious youths replies : Sir, our desire is such, to beare away perfectly your enstruc- tion, that your prolixity seemeth to us very compendious. an instance of ambition in the use of language. On the same page occurs one of Bacon's favourite openings, " Salamon sayth." P. 25. Eccho. . . . If I be not much deceyved, I saw a frosty bearded scholemaster instructing of four lusty young men ere- whyle as we came in. The same picturesque phrase occurs in " G. T.'s " letter in the 1573 edition of the Posies — "frosty bearded philosopher " (see p. 2 1 4). P. 34. The young men discuss the teaching of Gnomaticus. The author already shows his dramatic versatility, for he has no difficulty in taking the other side against his own considered opinions : 236 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Phylautus. Ah sirha, I see wel the olde proverbe is true, which saith : so many men so many mindes, this order of teaching is farre contrary to all other y' ever I have heard, and shal I tell you ? it hath in it neither head nor foote. Phylomusus. Truly brother it hath in it great reason and vertue, and though it be at y*^ first unpleasant in comparison to Terences Commedies and such like, yet ought we to have good regarde therunto, since it teacheth in effect the summe of our duties. Phylotitnus. Yea, and that very compendiously. Phylosarchus. Surely I am of Phylautus opinion, for who is ignorant that God is to be feared above all things? or who knoweth not that the Kinge is appointed of God to rule here on earth ? Phylautus. Is there any man so dull of understanding, that he knoweth not that in all countreys elders must (or will) be reverenced? and see we not daily, that all parents challenge obedience and love ? Phylosarchus. Yes, and more to, for some parentes are never contented what dutie soever the childe performeth, they forget what they once were themselves : But to the purpose, I looked for some excellent matter at this newe Schoolemasters handes, if this be all that he can say to us, I would for my part that we were in some Universitie, for here we shall but loose our time, I have (in effect) all this geare without booke already. Phylautus. And I lacke not much of it. It must be admitted that this is good writing, and there is nothing like it in the works which can be attributed with certainty to Gascoigne. P. 37. And geve her the . . . Bezo las manos. This phrase occurs in the "Adventures of Master F. J." P. 47. Gnomaticus sets the young men the task of putting his instructions as to their duty into verse ; a most peculiar conception for a play, and evidence of inexperi- ence. Parallels for the reasons given, as well as for the performance, will be found in the Spenser-Harvey letters. Gnomaticus. Well, to the ende that you shall the better imprint them in your memorie, beholde, I have put them briefly in wryting as a mcmoriall, and here I deliver the same unto you, to be put in verse everie one by him self and in sundrie device, that you may therein take the greater delight, for of all other Artes Poetrie giveth greatest assistaunce unto memorie, since the verie I VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 237 terminations and ceasures doe (as it were) serve for places of memorie, and helpe the mynde with delight to carry burdens, which else would seeme more grievous : and though it might percase seem unto you, that I do in maner overlode you with lessons and enterprises, yet shall you herein find rather comforte and recreation, than any encomberance : let me nowe see who can shewe himselfe the pleasantest Poet, in handeling thereof, and yet you must also therein observe decorum, for tryfling allegories and pleasant fygures in serious causes are not most comely. God guide you nowe and ever. Philosarchus, who has now been ensnared by Lamia, wishes he had " the vayne which Virgill had in writing of a delectable verse," not, however, " as they thinke, God knoweth, to convert our tedious traditions there into : for a small grace in a verse wil serve for such unpleasant matter, but it was to furnish me with eloquence, for the better obteyning of this heavenly dame." P. 53. The two fathers, hearing of the goings on of the two elder sons, are for taking strong measures ; but Gnomaticus counsels moderation : . . . you are to consider, that the hartes of young men are oftentimes so stout, that they can not abid publiquely to heare of a faulte, the which (being privatlie and gentlely admonished) they woulde peradventure willingly amend. P. 54. In the meantime the excellent younger brothers get to work on the verses, and each produce a copy (Philotimus of forty lines, and Philomusus of seventy-four lines) which they read to each other. At the end of his recitation Philotimus uses one of Bacon's favourite phrases, " Thus have you now scene Phylomiisus, my simple skill in poetry " — in affectation of absence of premeditation or special skill.^ Philomusus, at the end of his more elaborate version, says, with a consciousness of superiority, which perhaps indicates the author's satisfaction, " Thus may you see Phylotimus, that one selfe same thing may be handled sundrie wayes." P. 60. Gnomaticus now discovers that, while Philomusus and Philotimus had done their task well, " Phylosarchus 1 See Chapter V. 238 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. had spent the time in wryting- of loving sonets, and Phylaiitus had also made verses in praise of marshiall feates and pollycies," and he urges their being sent off to the University. They are sent accordingly, and the parasites follow them. P. 68. Gnomaticus soliloquises on the education of youth. The following passage is strikingly similar in thought and manner to passages in the Advancement of Learning, and is marked by the wisdom and sanity which characterise Bacon's discourses : Even so y^ mindes of yong men being onely trained in knowledge of artes, and never persuaded in points of moral reformation, become often times so prowde and so headie, that they are caried rather away with a vaine imagination of their owne excellency, then setled in y^ resolutions which might promoote them unto dignitie : and wandring so in a vayne glorious opinion of their owne wit, they do (as it were) founder and cast them selves in their own halter. Such have sundrie philosophers bin in time past, who have so far gone on pilgrimage in their owne peevish conceits, y' they have not shamed, by a vaine shew of learning to defend such propositions, as seeme most rediculous and estranged from reason. . . . For the mind of man is so heavenlie a thing and of such rare excellencie,^ that it alwaies worketh and can not be idle.2 And if with the quicknes of conceyt it be tempred by a modest moderation, to have regard unto vertue, and moralitie, then proveth it both goodly and godly : wheras if it run on hedlong, only led by natural considerations of causes, it may prove admirable for some passing qualitie, but it seldome is scene commendable or allowed for perfection. The consideration whereof hath often moved me rather to enstruct youth by a prescribed order out of gods own word, then to nuzzle them over deepely in philosophicall opinions. And yet is the mind of young men so prone and prompt to vanitie and delight, that all proveth not as I would have it. . . . One of the reasons why Bacon's writings are so interesting is that he draws his observations of life largely from his own experience, and this probably accounts for the glaring inconsistency between many of his finest ' Compare Hamlet, ii. 2 : "What a piece of work is a man," etc. 2 Queen Elizabeth called Bacon her "watch candle,'' "because it pleased her to say I did continually burn.'' — Spedding, Life, iv. 280. VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 239 utterances and his conduct on certain occasions. In his grave and impartial attitude of demonstration, extenuation and censure, which produces the impression that the writer is criticising different types of men, he is undoubtedly frequently thinking of himself, his own ambitions, doubts, shortcomings, etc. This can easily be traced throughout the Essays. P. 75. Philautus and Philosarchus come to grief at the University, but the parents have comfort in the success of the younger sons : Phylocalus. ... Of himselfe [Phylotimus] I have good newes, for he wryteth unto me that the Palsgrave hath written unto the chauncellour of the university for a secretary, and that he standeth in election. Fhylopces. And my Sonne Phylomusus is entered into the ministrie, and hath preached in the University, and meaneth shortly to go unto Geneva, such comfort we have yet unto our calamity. P. 85. Only ten pages later a curious transposition takes place, where Fidus, the servant, returning from Doway, reports that " Phylomusus was sent by the whole consent of the university unto the Palsgrave to be his secretary . . . and Phylotimus was gone unto Geneva, moved with an earnest zeale and spirit, and there he is in singuler commendation and much followed." Mr. Cunliffe has a note on this : " Gascoigne has apparently forgotten, and reversed the names." The play is so carefully written, however, that I cannot help thinking that the transposition is not an accident. These two young men stand for the ambition of the author on two sides, statecraft and studies, the active and the contemplative. He is incapable of limiting himself to the sole pursuit of either, and it is in consonance with all Bacon's acknowledged writings that he should indicate by the transposition that contemplation and action should go together, and that the standard of excellence which he set before himself could never be reached by devotion to one to the exclusion of the other. His failure, or apparent failure, in life was largely due to 240 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the impossibility, even with his powers, of doing justice to both, as well as to the inevitable conflict between them as soon as a certain point is reached. At that age, however, it is easy to see that both Lambeth and Whitehall had attractions for him, and he amuses himself (as I understand the passage) by evading the choice between them. But by putting Philomusus (who most nearly expresses himselQ into the business of State service, he indicates his preference for that calling, with the desire to compass both. Of course it may be a slip of the pen, but the fact that the transposition is maintained to the end of the play renders this very improbable. P. 86. The judgments meted out to the two profligate brothers are exemplary and characteristic of the times. Philautus (Fidus reports) was executed, on a sentence of the Palsgrave's Court, " for a robbery with Dicke Droom, yea even in the sight of his Brother, and not- withstanding the favour that hee is in there, such severe execution of justice is there administred." As to Philosarchus, Fidus, having " crossed over the Countrey towards Geneva^' found that, for immorality, he had been " whipped openly three severall dayes in the market, and was banished the Towne with great infamie, not- withstanding that his Brother Phylotinms was an earnest suter unto the congregation for him " — an interesting reference to Calvin's government. The play concludes with the punishment of the seducers of youth : Severus [the Markgrave]. Well Master Gnomatici^s, since only this fellow \^Arnbtdexier\ is recovered, I think nieete to hold this course of justice, he together with Master Eccho shall bee whyped aboute the Towne three severall market dayes, with papers declaring their faults set upon their heds, and afterwards they shalbe banished the Citie, uppon payne of death never to returne, and Mistresse Lamia with her Aunt shall likewyse be set on the Cucking stoole in publique three market daies, and then to be banished the Towne also. This, with the Epilogue of sixty-three lines in verse VIII BACON AND GASCOIGNE 241 which follows, pointing the moral, was written, I have no doubt, with an eye to the denouncers of stage plays, and to show them what an instrument for reformation they could be made. Later on Bacon takes up his parable on this important question in ways to which I shall hope to refer in another connection. CHAPTER IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE {cofttinued) Let us now turn to The Steele Glas, the piece by which Gascoigne is best known. This piece bears the stamp of Gascoigne's individuality on every line, and its authenticity admits of no question. The dedication is dated 15th April 1576, and we learn from the dedication for The Complaint of Philometie, dated i6th April 157S. that the poem was begun in that month (April 1575). We are also told, in an unsigned tail-piece, that The Complaint of Philomene was finished on 3rd April 1576. As we have seen, the revised edition of the Posies was published in January 1575, evidently shortly after Gascoigne's return from the Low Countries, and the cast of his thoughts at that time is shown in The Fruit es of Warre, included in the volume. The Steele Glas, which was begun within three months after the publication of that piece, reflects the same tone of thought, one of regret for the past and serious resolutions, in spite of depressing circumstances, for the future. The writing is interesting from its sincerity and effort, but far from brilliant, and bears no resemblance, either in style, tone, or matter, to The Glasse of Governetnent, which was dedicated on 26th April 1575, the same month in which The Steele Glas was begun. How could Gascoigne have found time to produce such a piece as The Glasse of Governeifient by that date, and how is such a piece to be accounted for as the work of a man with so limited a range of ideas, and such experiences and preoccupations, as The Fniites of Warre and The Steele Glas disclose ? Gascoigne's point of view 242 CHAP. IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE 243 also is quite different, notably in church matters, from that of the author of The Glasse of Governevieni. He is, at heart, a devout believer in the ministrations of the ancient church, reformed as regards the grosser superstitions, but still the church of the sacramental mass — see his description of the vision of the priests in his Steele Glas (" my priests ") and his exhortation for their prayers for the various estates of the realm. There is no suggestion of sympathy with Calvinism or the preachers, or indeed of any concern in the problems involved in that movement. The poet's mind reflects (as Professor Courthope justly says) the confused, uncertain spirit of the times, but it belongs essentially to the old order. Another point remains to be noted in connection with The Steele Glas, which, in its bearing on this inquiry, is one of the most interesting. The poem is preceded by some sets of commendatory verses, one of which (as follows) is supposed to be by Sir Walter Ralegh : Walter Rawely of the Middle Temple, in Commendation OF THE Steele Glasse Svvete were the sauce, would please ech kind of last, The life hkewise, were pure that neuer swerued, For spyteful tongs, in cankred stomackes plaste, Deeme worst of things, which best (percase) deserued : But what for that ? this medcine may suffyse. To scorne the rest, and seke to please the wise. Though sundry mindes, in sundry sorte do deeme. Yet worthiest wights, yelde prayse for euery payne. But enuious braynes, do nought (or Hght) esteme. Such stately steppes, as they cannot attaine. For who so reapes, renowne aboue the rest. With heapes of hate, shal surely be opprest. Wherefore to write, my censure of this booke, This Glasse of Steele, vnpartially doth shewe. Abuses all, to such as in it looke, From prince to poore, from high estate to lowe. As for the verse, who lists like trade to trye, I feare me much, shal hardly reache so high. 244 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. This has always been a puzzle to the biographers, as there is no evidence that Ralegh ever studied the law. Edwards observes that "for the statement that Ralegh, on leaving Oxford, entered himself as a student of the Middle Temple, there is not an atom of evidence," and he notes the fact that we have Ralegh's own asseveration at his trial that he read " not a word " of law or statutes until the time of his imprisonment in the Tower.^ At the date of the publication of The Steele Glas (1576) he was leading the precarious life of a soldier of fortune, and nothing for certain is known of his movements, though the writers of the article in the Dictionary of National Biography, apparently on the strength of this copy of verses, assert that "in the spring of 1576 he was in London." This may have been so, but what little evidence has, by patient research, been collected of Ralegh's movements during this period indicates that his life was a roving and unsettled one till his return from service in Ireland under Lord Grey at the end of i 5 8 1 , when, shortly afterwards, at the age of about thirty, he attracted the notice of the Queen. I shall have more to say about Ralegh. In the meantime I will merely state here my conclusion (for which reasons will be given in due course) that Ralegh's name was used by the author of these verses, and that this either led to, or was the beginning of, an arrangement between Ralegh and Bacon which was carried on for many years in furtherance of their respective projects for winning or retaining the favour of the Queen. The Steele Glas was dedicated to Gascoigne's patron. Lord Grey of Wilton, and, in the course of the address, Gascoigne refers to his circumstances and state of mind. He had evidently got into some trouble in England, which had led to his leaving the country, and his experiences in the wars had wrought a change of mind, and he is full of regrets for past follies. He explains, however, that people will give him no credit for this, and, oppressed by poverty and in ill -health, he finds the ' Life of Ralegh, i. 25. IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE 245 Struggle to reinstate himself in good opinion almost more than he can face : I am derided, suspected, accused, and condemned : yea more than that, I am rygorously rejected when I proffer amendes for my harme. Should I therefore dispayre ? Shall I yeelde unto jellosie ? or drowne my dayes in idlenesse, because their beginning was bathed in wantonnesse ? Surely (my Lord) the Magnanimitie of a noble minde will not suffer me, and the delightfulnesse of dilygence doth utterly forbydde me. There is more in the same vein : For whiles I bewayle mine own unworthynesse, and there- withal do set before mine eyes the lost time of my youth mispent, I seem to see a farre of (for my comfort) the high and triumphant vertue called Magnanifnitie, accompanied with industrious diligence. The first doth encourage my faynting harte, the seconde doth beginne (already) to employ my understanding. ... I have misgoverned my youth, I confesse it : what shall I do then ? shall I yelde to mysery as a just plague apointed for my portion ? Magnanimitie saith no, and Industrye seemeth to be of the same opinion. Later he refers again to his troubles : But (alas my lorde) I am not onely enforced still to carie on my shoulders the crosse of my carelesnesse, but therewithall I am also put to the plonge, too provide newe weapons wherewith I may defende all heavy frownes, deepe suspects, and dangerous detractions. And I finde myselfe so feeble, and so unable to endure that combat, as (were not the cordialles before rehearsed) I should either cast downe mine armoure and hide myselfe like a recreant, or else (of a malicious stubbornesse) should busie my braines with some Stratagem for to execute an envious revenge on mine adversaries. . . . And when the vertuous shall perceive indeede how I am occupied, then shall detraction be no lesse ashamed to have falsely accused me, than light credence shall have cause to repent his rashe conceypt : and Gravitie the judge shal not be abashed to cancel the sentence unjustly pronounced in my condemnation. In meane while I remaine amongst my bookes here at my poore house in Walkamstowe, where I praye daylie for speedy advauncement, and continual prosperitie of your good Lordship. I quote from this dedication at some length because it gives a good idea of Gascoigne's temperament, and of his 246 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. State of mind and circumstances on his return to England from the Low Countries. Gascoigne was not a specially clever nor a well-educated man, and the range of his imagination is very limited ; but he had an individual and idiomatic vein, and his poetry is interesting for its native sincerity. The earnest spirit of this dedication, with its sense of weakness and struggle, and of the hard- ness and misery of the world, with faith, however, in fortitude and effort, is the note also of the poem which follows, and the spirit of it is, in my opinion, wholly in- compatible with some of the other pieces which appeared under Gascoigne's name during this period, i.e. from 1575 to 1577, in which year the poet died. I beg particular attention to the tone of this address, and will ask the reader, in considering certain other pieces to which I shall come, to remember that Gascoigne was at this time in ill- health and a man whose "joy of life " was a thing of the past. Thus in The Grief of foye, a piece certainly by Gascoigne, dedicated to the Queen on ist January 1577, he writes (in reference evidently to the same incident as that alluded to in the dedication to The Steele Glas) : I have bene stronge (I thanke my God therefore) And did therein rejoyce as most men dyd, I lept, I ranne, I toylde and travailde soore. My might and mayne didd covett to be kidd. But lo : beholde ; my mery daies amydd, One heady deede my haughty harte did breake, And since (full oft) I wisht I had bene vveake. There is little art in this ; but it has force through its simple sincerity, and gives expression to the sense of irreparable disaster which comes often from the slightest and most momentary causes. It is the typical, undis- guised, autobiographic note, which is always present in Gascoigne's work. I will now draw attention to some further incongruities. On the I 2th April i 576, three days before the dedication of The Steele Glas, Gascoigne wrote a prefatory epistle, apparently in the best of spirits, to A Discourse of a IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE 247 Discoverie for a neiu Passage to Cataia, which he pro- fesses was the work of Sir Humphrey Gilbert (Ralegh's half-brother). He subscribes the epistle " From my lodging where I march amongst the Muses for lacke of exercise in martiall exployts, this 12 of April 1576, A friend to all well willing Readers. George Gascoine." This from the author of The Fruites of Warre ! Three weeks later (2nd May i 576) he produced The Droomnie of Doomes day, a theological tract of enormous length, which is said to be a translation from a Latin work of Pope Innocent \\\} It is dedicated to the Earl of Bedford, and subscribed " From my lodging where I finished this travayle in weake plight for health as your good L : well knoweth this second daye of Maye 1576. Your Lord- shippes right humble and faithful servaunt, George Gascoigne." In " an advertisement of the Prynter to the Reader " it is stated that " whiles this work was in the presse, it pleased God to visit the translatour thereof with sicknesse. So that being unable himselfe to attend the dayly proofes, he appoynted a servaunt of his to over see the same." [Hence some faults, etc.] In the dedication we read that the work (which covers 240 pages of print) was begun after serious reflection, " not manye monethes since." But this is not the whole tale of the labours of this prolific period. On the 1st January 1576 The Tale of Hemetes the Hereniyte, pronounced before the Queen at Woodstock in August 1575, was dedicated to the Queen, in four languages, English, Latin, Italian and French. The original is attributed to Gascoigne, but he does not claim it, as will be seen from the following extraordinary passage in the dedication : I will saye then that I fynd in my self some suffycyency to serve yo"' highnes, w*='* causeth me thus presumpteowsly to present you vv'^ theis rude lynes, having turned the eloquent tale of Hemetes the Heremyte (wherw'^ I saw yo'' lamed judgment greatly pleased at Woodstock) into latyne, Italyan and frenche, nott that I thinke any of the same translations any waie comparable with ^ Arber, biographical notice. 248 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the first invencion, for if yo"" highnes compare myne ignorance w''^ thaucto" skyll, or have regard to my rude phrases compared with his well polished style, you shall fynde my sentences as much disordered as arrowes shott owt of ploughes, and my theames as inaptly prosecuted as hares hunted w"^ oxen, for my latyne is rustye, myne Itallyan mustye, and my frenche forgrowne. Lastly, on 26th March 1576, appeared The Princely Pleasures at Kenelworth Castle, being an account of the " devices " and poetical entertainments produced before the Queen on her visit to the Earl of Leicester in July 1575- These various productions are wholly incompatible as the work of one man, and, in the particular case of Gascoigne, to accept them indiscriminately as his work seems to me uncritical to the last degree. We come now to The Princely Pleasures, which in- vites consideration more fully than in the case of the other pieces, because this work describes an incident of which there are thought by some to be memories in Shakespeare's Midsummer Night's Dream, and it has been suggested that Shakespeare, then a boy of eleven, was present at the festivities with the people from Stratford in the Castle grounds. The boy who was there, however, and who, in my belief, edited and partly wrote this collection, together with a companion piece on the same subject known under the title of Lanehanis Letter, was Francis Bacon, then between fourteen and fifteen, either on vacation from Cambridge or having recently left it, and staying in the Castle on a visit to Kenilworth, as the son of the Lord Keeper, and perhaps temporarily attached to the household.^ I will endeavour in what follows to make good this opinion. In July 1575 Queen Elizabeth visited Kenilworth, and was entertained with great sumptuousness by the Earl of Leicester. An account of the entertainments was published, under date 26th March 1576, as The Princelye pleasures at the Court e at Kenehvoorth. The account ' See next page, and cf. p. 260, note. IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE 249 was published anonymously, but it bore Gascoigne's motto and passed under his name, and it was included in a complete edition of his works published after his death. Previous to this account another account had appeared, in the form of a letter " From the Court. At the City of Worcester, the twentieth August 1575," by one Robert Laneham, who subscribed himself jocosely as " Mercer, Merchaunt-adventurer, and Clerk of the Council-chamber door, and also Keeper of the same," to a brother "Mercer," addressed as " My good friend Master Humphrey Martin, Mercer," Nothing is known about this worthy, though a good deal has been written about him. He has been described as " conceited," " fantastic," " talkative," " enter- taining," and his letter as " a very diverting tract, written by as great a coxcomb as ever blotted paper." All this is true, but it does not account for the personality of Laneham, who, regarded as the man he represents himself, or as a man at all, is a freak of nature so astonishing as to defy classification. Regarded, however, as a boy, he becomes intelligible, and in my belief he is an " impersonation " by young Francis Bacon. The extracts which I shall give from Lajiehanis Letter in the next chapter, read with other arguments submitted in this book, will, I hope, suffice to demonstrate this. Let us now examine TJie Princely Pleasures^ called Gascoigne's. The sub-title is " A brief rehearsal, or rather a true copy of as much as was presented before her Majesty at Kenilworth, during her last abode there, as foUoweth." The account opens with the words, " Her Majesty came thither (as I remember) on Saturday being the ninth of July last past." Who was " I " ? We turn to the introductory notice to the " Reader " and find it is by the " Printer " — " The Printer to the Reader." He says that — being advertised that in this last Progress, her Majesty was (by the Right Noble Earl of Leicester) honourably and triumphantly received and entertained at the castle of Kenilworth : and that sundrie Pleasant and Poetical Inventions were there expressed, 2SO SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. as well in verse as in prose. All which have been sundry times demanded for, as well at my hands, as also of other printers. ... I thought it meet to try by all means possible if I might recover the true copies of the same, to gratify all such as had required them at my hands, or might hereafter be stirred with the like desire. And in fine, I have with much travail and pain obtained the very true and perfect copies of all that were there presented and executed ; over and besides, one moral and gallant Device, which never came to execution, although it were often in a readiness. And these (being thus collected) I have (for thy commodity, gentle reader) now published. . . . And further doth declare who was Author and Deviser of every Poem and Invention. . . . This 26th of March, 1576. If Gascoigne was the editor of this book, why should he not have written the introduction ? It was his habit to do so and to sign his name in full, as, for instance, in the *' Epistle Dedicatorie " to The Steele Glas, addressed to Lord Grey of Wilton, which he signs " By your honours most bownden and well assured George Gascoigne." It is true that Gascoigne's literary motto, Tarn Marti quam Mer curio, is placed at the end of the book, but this is only a repetition (with intent, in my opinion, to suggest Gascoigne's authorship) of the same motto placed after the " shew devised and penned by Master Gascoigne " in the body of the collection. I have no doubt that the anonymous compiler of this book is the same individual as the author of Laneham's Letter, and that the " moral and gallant Device " which never (as he professes) got a hearing was his own production. The writer informs us that the Queen was " met on her way, somewhat near the Castle," by Sibylla, who stepped out of an arbour and " pronounced as followeth " : All hail, all hail, thrice-happy Prince, I am Sibylla, she Of future chance, and after-haps, fore-shewing what shall be. And so on for sixteen similar lines. " This device," the writer says, " was invented, and the verses also written, by M. Hunnis, Master of her Majesty's Chapel." From the quality of the verses there is no reason to doubt this IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE 251 statement, nor as regards those which follow, except where I shall give reasons for coming to a different conclusion. The next set of verses were spoken in the person of Hercules as the Porter. " These verses were devised and pronounced by Master Badger of Oxford, Master of Arts, and Bedel in the same University." There are fourteen lines of a kind which Shakespeare may well have been parodying in the scene between " Pyramus " and " Thisbe " in the Midstimmer Nighfs Dream : A garboil this indeed, what, yea, fair Dames ? what yea, What dainty darling's here ? Oh God, a peerless pearl. No worldly wight no doubt, some sovereign Goddess sure. Then " when her Majesty had entered the gate, and come into the base court," a " Lady attended with two nymphs," who " named herself the Lady of the Lake," was conveyed across " the pool " and spoke a poem of seven stanzas, of which the two following are a specimen : I am the Lady of this pleasant lake. Who since the time of great King Arthur's reign, That here with royal court abode did make. Have led a low'ring life in restless pain. Till now that this your third arrival here Doth cause me come abroad, and boldly thus appear. For after him, such storms the Castle shook, By swarming Saxons first who scourg'd this land, As forth from this my pool I ne'er durst look. Though Kenelm, king of Merce, did take in hand (As sorrowing to see it in deface) To rear these ruins up and fortify this place. " These verses," says the writer, " were devised and penned by M. Ferrers, some time Lord of Misrule in the Court." Her Majesty then " proceeding towards the inner court passed on a bridge, the which was railed in on both sides." On the posts " were set sundry presents, and gifts of provision : as wine, corn, fruits, fishes, fowls, instruments of music, and weapons for martial defence." These were " expounded by an actor clad like a Poet," 252 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. who pronounced some verses in Latin ( 1 3 hexameters). " These verses," continues the writer, " were devised by Master Muncaster, and other verses [presumably those given in LanehaiiUs Letter] to the very self same effect were devised by M. Paten, and fixed over the gate in a frame. I am not very sure whether these or Master Paten's were pronounced by the Author, but they were all to one effect. This speech being ended, she was received into the inner court with sweet music. And, so alighting from her horse, the drums, fifes and trumpets sounded : wherewith she mounted the stairs and went to her lodging." " The next day (being Sunday) there was nothing done until the evening," when there were " fire- works shewed upon the water which were both strange and well executed." The writer continues : ** Now to make some plainer declaration and rehearsal of all these things before her Majesty, on the tenth of July, there met her in the forest, as she came from hunting, one clad like a savage man, all in ivy, who, seeming to wonder at such a presence, fell to quarrelling with Jupiter as foUoweth." The " savage man " proceeds to speak more than a hundred verses, which, the writer says, " were devised, penned and pronounced by Master Gascoyne : and that (as I have heard credibly reported) upon a very great sudden." This I take to be a pleasant compliment to his friend. The qualification in brackets is a typical device of this writer, with a view to avoiding an admission of personal knowledge. The savage man craves of Jupiter — to know what all these Peers might be : And what has moved these sundry shews, which I of late did see ? Inform me, some good man, Speak, speak, some courteous knight : They all cry mum ; what shall I do, what sun shall lend me light 1 "Echo" comes to his rescue, and a long encounter takes place, of which the following is a specimen : IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE 253 And who gave all these gifts ? I pray thee (^Echo) say. Was it not he, who (but of late) this building here did lay ? Echo. Dudley. O Dudley, so methought : he gave himself and all, A worthy gift to be receiv'd, and so 1 trust it shall. Echo. It shall.i The last thirty lines were spoken on his knees, concluding — Meanwhile (good Queen) farewell, the Gods your life prolong : And take in worth the Wild-man's words, for else you do him wrong. I see no reason to doubt that these verses were written by Gascoigne. They are in the favourite metre of the time, which the author of the Notes of Instruction (see above) refers to as " poulters measure." The next and last device which was presented was that of " the Lady of the Lake," on which the author of this book has a good deal to say. He tells us first how it was executed, and later he says : " The device of the Lady of the Lake was also by Master Hunnis : and surely if it had been executed according to the first invention, it had been a gallant shew : for it was first devised that . . . " ; and he proceeds to give a descrip- tion of a much more elaborate entertainment, involving a skirmish by night on the water (" upon heaps of bulrushes "), and the rescue of the Lady of the Lake by her Majesty personally " in her barge upon the water." He concludes : " The verses, as I think, were penned, some by Master Hunnis, some by Master Ferrers, and some by Master Goldingham." Read with the statement above as to " Mr. Hunnis," I take this to mean that while he composed the device, the verses were by different hands, not only in the original device but in the device as executed. There are three sets of verses, the first and • In advocacy of the Dudley marriage. 254 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. last of which are of the primitive character, but in the second we h'ght upon something quite different, written by an author who has an ear for rhythm and a capacity of handling language far beyond his fellow-writers. Who was this writer ? I judge from what the author of Laneham's Letter says about this scene, and from what follows, that he was the compiler of the book. The verses are the three stanzas spoken by the Lady of the Lake, who came to her Majesty " (attended with her two nymphs) upon heaps of bulrushes." It will suffice to quote one: For which great grace of liberty obtain'd, Not only I, but Nymphs, and sisters all, Of this large Lake, with humble heart unfeigned Render thee thanks, and honour thee withal. And for plain proof, how much we do rejoice, Express the same, with tongue, with sound and voice. Nothing very extraordinary, I admit, but such things must be judged by the occasion, and by other contemporary performances in verse. Of the two other pieces, one is stated to have been sung by Proteus^ " sitting on a dolphin's back " (the dolphin being " conveyed upon a boat, so that the oars seemed to be his fins "), " Within which dolphin a concert of music was secretly placed, which sounded, and Proteus, clearing his voice, sang this song of congratulation : O noble Queen, give ear to this my floating muse : And let the right of ready will my little skill excuse. • • • • We yield you humble thanks, in mighty Neptune's name. Both for ourselves and therewithal for yonder seemly Dame. Both which you set at large, most like a faithful friend ; Your noble name be praised therefore, and so my song I end." IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE 255 The other song is entitled the speech of Triton to the Queen's Majesty, beginning — Muse not at all, most mighty Prince, though on this lake you see Me, Triton, float, that in salt seas among the gods should be. And, assuring the Queen that she only can deliver the Lady of the Lake from the persecution of " Sir Bruce," it ends — Until such time this puissant Prince Sir Bruce hath put to flight : And that the maid released be by sovereign maiden's might. I cite these homely lines, and others like them, not for purposes of ridicule ; far from it, for they are full of patriotism and sincerity.^ My purpose is to show what the normal standard of literary composition was in England at that time, so that it may be more easily realised what the performance of the " new poet " (as he terms himself in connection with the "Spenser" publica- tions) really was. This brings to a close the account of " as much as I could recover hitherto of the devices executed there, the Coventry shew excepted, and the merry marriage [both described in Lancham^s Letter'] : the which were so plain as needeth no further explication." The author then proceeds to recount " a shew " which " was prepared to have been presented before her Majesty in the forest," but which " never came to execution," though it was, he says, " prepared and ready (every Actor in his garment) two or three days together. . . . The cause whereof I cannot attribute to any other thing than to lack of opportunity and seasonable weather." Though the writer states that " this shew was devised and penned by Master Gascoigne," I feel very certain that some of it ' Cf. Shakespeare: "The best in this kind are but shadows; and the worst are no worse, if imagination amend them." — Midsummer Nighfs Dream, v. i. 2S6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. at any rate is the work of another hand. I have three reasons for holding this opinion, the first being that portions of the device are in a different style from the rest ; the second that the flattery of Queen Elizabeth is more exaggerated and fantastic than Gascoigne, left to himself, would have been capable of, or than had ever been adopted before ; the third that the " Farewell," with which the piece and the book closes, though stated to have been spoken by Gascoigne ex tempore, is obviously a most careful and finished composition, utterly foreign to Gascoigne's style, and, judging from his undoubted works, I should say repugnant to his feelings. In justification of this opinion I invite reference to the dedication of The Steele Glas which I have discussed above. Even making all allowance for the artificial tone adopted by courtiers in addressing Queen Elizabeth, there is no possibility, in my judgment, of reconciling the two utterances, the one being that of a young, enthusiastic, untried aspirant, the other of a serious and saddened man who had run his course, and was only concerned in redeeming such time as was left to him. Gascoigne's health had apparently given way early in I 576, if not before, and it is not likely that a man in his condition would have had the spirit to put together such a book of toys and trifles ; but, being in want, he may well have lent his name to it in the hope of gaining the Royal favour. It must also not be forgotten that present ideas of literary honesty belong to a later epoch, when writing had become a business in which people engaged as an honourable means of livelihood. In the days of which we are speaking there was no general interest in letters, and Gascoigne's " hall-mark," Tmh Marti quam Merairio, is, in itself, evidence of the contempt in which a mere writer was held, and of the feeling that, except by way of occasional expression, his craft was not a suitable occupation for a gentleman who bore arms. The purpose of the " shew " which was prepared but not presented was to suggest to the Queen that she should leave her virgin condition and marry the Earl of IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE 257 Leicester. It takes the form of a contention for her, under the name of " Zabeta," by Diana and Juno. The verses, in my opinion, mark the beginning of that fantastic, allegoric style, which grew, in laudation of Queen Elizabeth, to such monstrous proportions in the verses of Spenser, the prose plays of Lilly, and other writings emanating, as I think, from the same source. The opening lines, in a flowing, melodious vein, quite unlike that of Gascoigne, furnish an interesting example of the figure often referred to as " hunting," " coursing," or " alTecting the letter " ; and in the fine line in the address to the maidens of the Court — The stately tower of your unspotted minds — we have, as I think, an early example of the author's unapproachable felicity in bringing together, for the purpose of enforcing an idea, things not obviously similar, Diana, Goddess of Chastity, loq. — Mine own dear nymphs, which 'knowledge me your Queen, And vow (like me) to live in chastity ; My lovely nymphs (which be as I have been), Delightful Dames, and gems of jollity: Rejoicing yet (much more) to drive your days In life at large, that yieldeth calm content. Than wilfully to tread the wayward ways Of wedded state, which is to thraldom bent. I need not now with curious speech persuade Your chaste consents in constant vow to stand ; But yet beware lest Cupid's knights invade, By slight, by force, by mouth, or mighty hand, The stately tower of your unspotted minds : Beware (I say) least while we walk these woods, In pleasant chase of swiftest harts and hinds. Some harmful heart entrap your harmless moods : You know these holts, these hills, these covert places, May close convey some hidden force unseen : You see likewise the sundry gladsome graces, Which in this soil we joyfully have seen, Are not unlike some Court to keep at hand : Where guileful tongues, with sweet enticing tales, Might (Circe like) set all your ships on sand : And turn your present bliss to after bales. S 2S8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. In sweetest flowers the subtle snake may lurk : The sugar'd bait oft hides the harmful hooks ; The smoothest words draw wills to wicked work, And deep deceits do follow fairest looks. There are other portions of the device which are equally remote from Gascoigne's manner, even in his earlier writings. For instance — Some courteous wind come blow me happy news ; Some sweet bird sing and shew me where she is ; Some forest god, or some of Faumis^ crew, Direct my feet if so they tread amiss. Similarly — O Muses, now come help me to rejoice, ^\nz& Jove hath changed my grief to sudden joy ; And since the chance whereof I craved choice, Is granted me to comfort mine annoy : O praise the name Gi Jove, who promised plain That I shall see Zabeta once again. O gods of woods, and goddess Flora eke. Now clear your breasts and bear a part with me : My jewel she, for whom I wont to seek. Is yet full safe, and soon I shall her see. O praise the name oi Jove, who promised plain That I shall see Zabeta once again. Finally we come to the " Farewell." " The Queen's Majesty hastening her departure from thence, the Earl commanded Master Gascoigne to devise some farewell worth the presenting ; whereupon he himself clad like unto Sylvamis, god of the woods, and meeting her as she went on hunting spake {ex tempore) as followeth " — an obviously impossible performance, seeing that the oration extends over some fifteen pages of print,^ twelve of which (in prose) are stated to have been spoken by Gascoigne running beside the Queen's horse, so as not to " presume to stay your hunting for the hearing of my needless, thriftless, and bootless discourse." Gascoigne, as I have said, fell into bad health in 1576. He had suffered great hardship in the wars in Holland, and his ' In an edition of 1825 (spelling modernised), which has been used for this piece. IX BACON AND GASCOIGNE 259 picture (of this period) shows it in his face. For this reason, as well as from his character as disclosed in his writings, it is incredible that he could have submitted himself to the arduous and somewhat abject performance described. The main purpose of the speech is to recommend the Queen to marry the Earl of Leicester. As they had been intimate for more than twenty-five years, it required a good deal of assurance to give advice on that subject, but the writer is apparently quite unconscious of this. After several pages of discourse he says : Her Majesty stayed her horse to favour Sylvanus^ fearing lest he should be driven out of breath by following her horse so fast. But Sylvanus humbly besought her Highness to go on, declaring that if his rude speech did not offend her, he could continue this tale to be twenty miles long. And therewithal protested that he had rather be her Majesty's footman on earth, than a god on horseback in heaven. These puerilities are entirely foreign to the manner of Gascoigne, and strike a new note in flattery. Moreover, they are incompatible with his circumstances at this time. The attentions of " Sylvanus " are, in my opinion, entirely imaginary, and represent the hopes of the youthful aspirant who conceived them ; as, for example, " To be short, O peerless Princess, you shall have all things that may possibly be gotten for the furtherance of your delights. And I shall be most glad and triumphant, if I may place my godhead in your service perpetually." This was Francis Bacon's earliest aspiration, and one which he never relinquished. Allegory follows, and the youth of the author seems to me apparent in the didactic sententiousness of the writing, combined with entire unconsciousness of simplicity. I refer to such sentences as these addressed to an experi- enced woman like Queen Elizabeth : " For believe me, most Excellent Princess, Vain Glory may well begin hastily, but seldom continueth long " ; " And by your leave, good Queen, such is the unthankful nature of cankered ambitious minds, that commonly they malign 26o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS ch. ix them by whom they have risen, and never cease until 1 they have brought them to confusion." At the same 1 time here is, in embryo, the author of the famous Essays. Ambition and hopefulness of youth appear in the following : " for your Majesty must understand that I have not long held this charge, neither do I mean long ^ to continue in it ; but rather most gladly to follow your Highness wheresoever you shall become " ; in other words, to pass from the service of the Earl of Leicester to that of the Queen. ^ Lastly, in the song of Deep-Desire, with which the " Farewell " concludes, there is a sense of rhythm and lyric feeling which are beyond anything compassed by Gascoigne or the writers of that time : Come, Muses, come and help me to lament, Come woods, come waves, come hills, come doleful dales. Since life and death are both against me bent, Come gods, come men, bear witness of my bales. O heavenly Nymphs, come help my heavy heart, With sighs to see Dame Pleasure thus depart. Then farewell sweet, for whom I taste such sour ; Farewell, delight, for whom I dwell in dole : Free will, farewell, farewell my fancy's flower. Farewell, content, whom cruel cares control. farewell life, delightful death, farewell, 1 die in heaven, yet live in darksome hell. ' Laneham describes himself as having been appointed to an office in the household. See pp. 263, 276, and cf. p. 248. CHAPTER X "laneham's letter" Let us now consider Lanehavi^s Letter, the companion piece to The Princely Pleasures. This curious document was edited by Mr, Furnivall, and from his edition ^ I have made some extracts which will give the reader an idea of the style and matter. It purports to be an account of the festivities at Kenihvorth written by a city merchant staying at the Castle to another merchant in London. I think a careful inspection will show the absurdity of this pretence. The writer^ is far too well educated and widely read for such a person, and his wit and power of writing are such that he must have written much more. Nothing else, however, is to be found from Laneham's pen, and beyond the record of this pamphlet nothing whatever is known of the writer. Moreover, the writing, clever as it is, is not the writing of a man. No adult man, let alone a man of business, could have por- trayed himself in such a ridiculous light, ridiculous, that is to say, for a man. If, however, it is regarded (as I regard it) as the work of a boy, the piece becomes intelligible. It reflects the impressions of a sensitive and delighted spirit ; in short, of the young poet on his entry, freed for the first time from academic pupillage, into the great world. " Laneham " is an impersonation ; the real author is, I have no doubt, Francis Bacon. Part of the disguise is in the spelling, which appears to be perverted ^ Captain Cox, his Ballads and Books; or, Robert Laneham^ s Letter (Ballad Society), 187 1. (A later edition is 1907). ^ Some account of the writer has already been given in the previous chapter (pp. 248-9), to which the reader is referred. 261 262 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. to suggest provincialism or the affectation of a " fantastic." In preparing this volume I have necessarily examined many books of this period in the original editions which are to be found in the British Museum, and I have never seen any spelling in the least like it. The immense resources and reading of the writer indicate that he was highly educated, and therefore would not, except with intention, spell otherwise than in accordance with the normal practice of the time, which, however unfixed, was regular compared with this. The difference between the account of these festivities in Laneham's Letter and the account in The Princely Pleasures (I refer to the greater freedom and vivacity of the former) is, in my opinion, due to the fact that, in the former, the author is writing under an imaginary person- ality, and is not trammelled by having to adapt his style to that of a living person. In any case I believe there was so little curiosity about literary matters in those times, and people were so uncritical, that, so long as no offence was given to great people and " seditious " matter was avoided, a book would be accepted at its " face value " if it was interesting or amusing. Among the host of retainers who followed the Court to Kenilworth there might be some who could write an entertaining letter, and if inquiry was made for the author it would excite no great surprise if, in those days of difficult communication, he could not be found. As " Robert Laneham," therefore, the ingenious young author (as I regard him) of this work is able to " let himself go " without much fear of being brought to book, and the strangely interesting medley of impressions and specula- tions, of which examples follow, is the result. The footnotes to these extracts are Mr. Furnivall's, except those in brackets initialled by me. Robert Laneham's Letter 1575 (F. J. Furnivall) VVhearin part of the entertainment untoo the Queenz X " LANEHAM'S LETTER " 263 Maiesty at Killingwoorth Castl, in Warwik Sheer in this Soomerz Progress 1575 iz signified : from a freend officer attendant in the Coourt, unto hiz freend a Citizen, and Merchaunt of London. De Regina Nostra Illustrissima. P. I. VNTOO MY GOOD FREEND, MA- ster Humfrey Martin, Mercer After my hartie commendacionz, I commende mee hartily too yoo. Vnderstande yee, that sins throogh God & good freends, I am placed at Coourt heer (as yee wot) in a woorship- full room : whearby I am not onhe acquainted with the most, and well knoen too the best, and euery officer glad of my company : but also haue poour, a dayz, (while the Councell sits not,) to go and too see things sight worthy, and too bee prezent at any sheaw or spectacl, only whear this Progresse reprezented vnto her highness : And of part of which sportez, hauing takin sum notez and obseruationz, (for I can not bee idl at ony hand in the world,) az well too put fro me suspition of sluggardy, az too pluk from yoo doout of ony my forgetfulnes of friendship : I haue thought it meet too impart them vntoo yoo, az frankly, az friendly, and az fully az I can. A description of the grounds : P. 2. And on the oother side. North and West, a goodlie Chase : wast, wyde, large, and full of red Deer and oother statelie gamez for hunting : beautified with manie delectabl, fresh & vmbragioous Boow[r]z, Arberz, Seatz, and walks, that with great art, cost, & diligens, wear very pleazauntly appointed : which also the naturall grace by the tall and fresh fragrant treez & soil did so far foorth commend, az Diana her selfe might haue deyned thear well enough too raunge for her pastime. The leaft arme of this pool Northward, had my Lords adoourned with a beautifuU bracelet of a fayr tymbred bridge. . . . Imaginary history (of which examples occur in Spenser's Faerie Queene) : P. 3. . . . auncienty of the Castl, that (az by the name & by storiez, well mey be gathered) waz first reared by Kenulph, and hiz young sun and successor Kenelm ^ : born both indeed ^ This is all gammon. "Sir William Dugdale says, that the land on which the Castle is situate was given by King Henry I. to a Norman, named Geoffry de Clinton, his Lord Chamberlain and Treasurer, by whom the building was first erected." Note in Gascoigne's Princ. Pleas., ed. 1 821, p. 81. 264 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. within the Ream heer, but yet of the race of Saxons : and reigned kings of Marchlond from the yeer of oour Lord .798. too .23. yeerz toogyther, aboue 770. yeer ago. P. 4. Noow touching the name, that of olid Recordes I vnderstand, and of auncient writers I finde, iz calld Kenelworth. Syns most of the Worths in England stand ny vntoo like lakez, and ar eyther small Ilandz, such one az the seat of this Castl hath been, & eazly may bee, or is londground by pool or riuer, whearon willoz, alderz, or such like doo gro : which Althamerus ^ writez precizely that the Germains cal Werd : loyning these too togither, with the nighness allso of the woords, and sybred - of the toongs, I am the bolder to pronoouns, that az our English Woorth, with the rest of our auncient langage, waz leaft vs from the Germains : eeuen so that their Werd and our Woorth is all one thing in sign[i]fiauns, common too vs both, een at this day. I take the case so cleer, that I say not az mooch as I moought. Thus preface ye with the Preface. And noow to the matter. Shows and Devices ; a Bride-ale ; the Coventry Men's Play and Captain Cox : P. 14. For aboout nien a clock, at the hither part of the Chase, whear torchlight attended : oout of the woods, in her Maiestiez return, rooughly came thear foorth Hombre Saluagio, with an Oken plant pluct vp by the roots in hiz hande, himself forgrone all in moss and luy : who, for parsonage, gesture, and vtterauns beside, coountenaunst the matter too very good liking, and had speech to effect : "That continuing so long in theez wilde wastes, whearin oft had he fared both far and near, yet hapt hee neuer to see so glorioous an assemble afore : and noow cast intoo great grief of mind, for that neyther by himself coold hee gess, nor knew whear else to bee taught, what they should be, or whoo bare estate. Reports sum had he hard of many straunge thinges, but brooyled thearby so mooch the more in desire of knoledge. Thus in great pangz bethought he & cald he vpon all his familiarz & companionz : the Fawnz, the Satyres, the Nymphs, the Dryades, and the Hamadryades ; but none making aunswear, whearby hiz care the more cncreasing, in vtter grief & extr^em refuge calld hee allowd at last after hiz olid freend Echo, that he wist would hyde nothing from him, but tel him all if she wear heer." * Andrew Althamer, a Lutheran minister of Nuremberg, who lived about 1560; he wrote several controversial works, and some valuable notes on Tacitus, from which the passage in the text is taken. See Dictiontiaire Universel. — V>\x\n, p. 95 ; Nichols, i. 429. '^ h..-'S)Z.x. sibraden, "consanguinity." X " LANEHAM'S LETTER " 265 P. 18. Noow within allso in the mean time waz thear sheawed before her highnes, by an ItaHan, such feats of agihtiee, in goinges, turninges, tumblinges, castinges, hops, iumps, leaps, skips, springs, gambaud, soomersauts, caprettiez and flights : forward backward, syde wize, a doownward, vpward, and with sundry windings, gyringe, and circumflexions : allso lightly, and with such easines, az by mee in feaw words it iz not expressibl by pen or speech, I tell yoo plain. I bleast me, by my faith, to behold him, and began to doout whither a waz a man or a spirite ; and I ween had doouted mee till this day, had it not been that anon I be- thought me of men that can reazon «Sc: talk with too toongs, and with too parsons at onez, sing like burds, curteiz of behauiour, of body strong, and in ioynts so nymbl withall, that their bonez seem az lythie and plyaunt az syneuz. They dvvel in a happy Hand (az the booke tearmz it) four moonths sayling Southward beyond Ethiop. Nay, Master Martin, I tell you no iest : for both Diadorus Siculus, an auncient Greeke historiographer, in his third book of the acts of the olid Egypcians : and also from him, Conrad Gesnerus a great learned man, and a very diligent writer in all good arguments of oour time (but deceased), in the first Chapter of hiz Mithridates reporteth the same. Az for thiz fellow, I cannot tell what too make of him, saue that I may gesse hiz bak be metalld like a Lamprey, that haz no bone, but a lyne like to a Lute string. P. 22. Well, syr, after theez horsmen, a liuely morisdauns, according too the auncient manner, six daunserz, Mawdmarion, and the fool. Then, three prety puzels az bright az a breast of bacon, of a thirtie yeere old a pees, that carried three speciall spise- cakes of a bushell of wheat, (they had it by meazure oout of my Lord's backhouse,) before the Bryde: Syzely, with set countenauns, and lips so demurely simpring, az it had been a Mare cropping of a thistl. After theez, a loouely loober woorts, freklfaced, red headed, cleen trust in his dooblet & hiz hoze, taken vp now in deed by commission, for that hee waz so loth to cum forward, for reuerens (belike) of hiz nu cut canuas dooblet : & woold by hiz good will haue been but a gazer, but found too bee a meet actor for hiz offis : that waz, to beare the bridecup, foormed of a sweet sucket barrell, a faire turnd foot set too it, all seemly besyluerd and parcell gilt, adourned with a bea[u]tiful braunch of broom, gayly begilded for rosemary : from which, too brode brydelaces of red and yelloo buckeram begilded, and galauntly streaming by such wind az thear waz (for hee carried it aloft :) This gentl cupbearer yet had hiz freckld fiznemy sumwhat 266 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. vnhappily infested, az hee went, by the byzy flyez, that floct about the bride cup for the sw^etnes of the sucket that it sauored on : but hde, Hke a tall fello, withstood their mallis stoutly (s^e what manhood may do !), bet them away, kild them by scores, stood to hiz charge, and marched on in good order. P. 27. The thing, said they, iz grounded on story, and for pas- time woont too bee plaid in oour Citee y^erely : without ill exampl of mannerz, papistry, or ony superstition : and elz did so occupy the heads of a number, that likely inoough woold haue had woorz meditationz : had an auncient beginning, and a long continuauns : tyll noow of late laid dooun, they knu no cauz why, onless it wear by the zeal of certain theyr Preacherz : men very commendabl for their behauiour and learning, & sw^et in their sermons, but somewhat too sour in preaching awey theyr pastime : wisht there- fore, that az they shoold continu their good doctrine in pulpet, so, for matters of pollicy & gouernauns of the Citie, they woold permit them to the Mair and Magistratez : and seyed, by my feyth, Master Martyn, they woold make theyr humbl peticion vntoo her highnes, that they might haue theyr playz vp agayn. But aware, keep bak, make room noow, heer they cum ! And fyrst, captin Cox, an od man I promiz yoo : by profession a Mason, and that right skilfull, very cunning in fens, and hardy az Gawin ; for hiz tonsword hangs at his tablz eend : great ouer- sight hath he in matters of storie : For, az for king Arthurz book, Huon of Burdeaus, The foour suns of Aymon, Beuys of Hampton, The squyre of lo degree, The knight of courtesy, and the Lady Faguell, Frederik of Gene, Syr Eglamoour, Sir Tryamoour, Sir Lam well, Syr Isenbras, Syr Gawyn, Olyuer of the Castl, Lucres and Eurialus, Virgil's life. The castle of Ladiez, The wido Edyth, The King & the Tanner, Frier Rous, Howleglas, Gargantua, Robinhood, Adambel,Clim of the clough,& William of Cloudesley, The Churl & the Burd, The seauen wise Masters, The wife lapt in a Morel's skin. The sak full of nuez, The seargeaunt that became a Fryar, Skogan, Collyn cloout, The Fryar & the boy, Elynor Rumming, and the Nutbrooun maid, with many moe then I rehearz heere : I beleeue hee haue them all at hiz fingers endz. Then, in Philosophy, both morall & naturall, I think he be az naturally ouerseen : beside poetrie and Astronomic, and oother hid sciencez, as I may gesse by the omberty of hiz books : whcarof part az I remember, the Sheperdz kalender. The Ship of Foolz, Danielz dreamz, the booke of Fortune, Stans puer ad mensam, the hy wey to the Spitlhouse, lulian of Brainford's testament, the castle of Louc, the booget of Demaunds, the hundred Mery talez, the book of Riddels, X " LANE HA APS LETTER " 267 the Seauen soroz of wemen, the prooud wiues Pater noster, the Chapman of a peniworth of Wit : Beside hiz auncient playz, Yooth & charitee, Hikskorner, Nugize, Impacient pouerty ; and h^erwith, doctor Boord's breuiary of health. What shoold I rehearz heer, what a bunch of ballets & songs, all auncient : Az Broom broom on hil. So wo iz me begon, troly lo. Ouer a whinny Meg. Hey ding a ding. Bony lass vpon a green. My bony on gaue me a bek. By a bank az I lay : and a hundred more, he hath, fair wrapt vp in Parchment, and bound with a whipcord. And az for Allmanaks of antiquitee, (a point for Ephemerides) I weene hee can sheaw from lasper Laet of Antwarp vnto Nostradam of Frauns, and thens vnto oour John Securiz of Salsbury. To stay ye no longer hderin, I dare say hee hath az fair a library for theez sciencez, & az many goodly monuments both in proze & poetry, & at afternoonz can talk az much without book, az ony Inholder betwixt Brainford and Bagshot, what degree soeuer he be. Beside thiz, in the field a good Marshall at musters : of very great credite & trust in the toun heer, for he haz been chozen Alecunner many a yeere, when hiz betterz haue stond by : & euer quited himself with such estimation, az yet too the tast of a cup of Nippitate, his iudgement will be taken aboue the best in the parish, be hiz noze near so read. Captain Cox cam marching on valiantly before, clden trust. & gartered aboue the knee, all fresh in a veluet cap (master Goldingham lent it him) floorishing with his tonswoord. . . .^ The following passage is evidence of the sensitiveness of the author's perceptions : P. 34. . . . which was Arion, that excellent & famouz Muzicien, in tyre & appointment straunge well seeming too hiz parson, ryding alofte vpon hiz olid freend the Dolphin, (that from hed to tayl waz a foour & twenty foot long) & swymd hard by theez Hands : ht^erwith Arion, for theez great benefitez, after a feaw well coouched words vntoo her Maiesty of thanksgyuing, in supplement of the same, beegan a delectabl * [Mr. Furnivall notes as a remarkable fact that "Guy of Warwick " is omitted from the list of this local worthy's books, and adds that " the fact lends colour to the supposition that the list is as much one of Laneham's own books as Captain Cox's." Captain Cox, in my opinion, is an imaginary person. How would the "Mercer" know all about his books and studies from seeing him on this occasion ? I take this to be an account of the author's own reading. — E. G. H.] 268 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. ditty of a song wel apted too a melodious noiz, compounded of six seuerall instruments al coouert, casting soound from the Dolphin's belly within ; Arion, the seauenth, sitting thus singing (az I say) withoout. Noow syr, the ditty in miter so aptly endighted to the matter, and after by voys so delicioously deliuerd : the song by a skilful artist intoo hiz parts so sweetly sorted : each part in hiz instrument so clean & sharpely toouched, euery instrument again in hiz kind so excellently tunabl : and this in the eeu[en]- ing of the day, resoounding from the callm waters : whear prezens of her Maiesty, «& longing too listen, had vtterly damped all noyz & dyn ; the hole armony conueyd in tyme, tune, & temper, thus incomparably melodious : with what pleazure (Master Martin), with what sharpnes of conceyt, with what lyuely delighte, this moought pears into the heerers harts, I pray ye imagin yoor self az ye may ; for, so God iudge me, by all the wit & cunning I haue, I cannot express, I promis yoo. Mais ieo bien vieii cela, Monseiir, que forte grande est la pouuoyr qu'auoit la tresnoble Sciefice de Musique sur les esprites humains : perceiue ye me ? I haue told ye a great matter noow. As for me, surely I was lulld in such liking, & so loth too leaue of, that mooch a doo, a good while after, had I, to fynde me whear I waz. Mr. Furnivall cites the following story which is told about " Arion " on this occasion : There was a spectacle presented to Q. Elizabeth upon the water, and amongst others Harry Goldingham was to represent Arion upon the Dolphin's backe; but finding his voice to be very hoarse and unpleasant when he came to performe it, he teares of his disguise and sweares he was none of Arion : not he ! but eene honest Harry Goldingham — which blunt discoverie pleased the Queene better then if he had gone thorough in the right way. Yet he could order his voice to an instrument exceeding well. (Para. 221 of Harl. MS. 6395 — a book of " Merry Passages and Jeasts," collected by Sir Nicholas L'Estrange of Hunstanton, Bart., who died in 1669.) Compare with this the speech of Bottom about the lion in Midsummer Night's Dream : Nay, you must name his name, and half his face must be seen through the lion's neck : and he himself must speak through, saying thus, or to the same defect, — 'Ladies,' — or X '' LANEHAiWS LETTER" 269 'Fair ladies ... If you think I come hither as a lion, it were pity of my life : no, I am no such thing ; I am a man as other men are ' ; and there indeed let him name his name, and tell them plainly he is Snug the joiner, (iii. i .) The account of the minstrel ^ which follows is eminently Shakespearian (of the early period) in the vivid powers of description and characterisation, and the exuberant sportiveness. The ballad at the end is especially remarkable, both as an imitation and parody. P. 36. Mary, syr, I must tell yoo : Az all endeuoour waz too mooue mirth »& pastime (az I tolld ye) : eeuen so a ridiculoous deuise of an auncient minstrell & hiz song waz prepared to haue been profferd, if meet time & place had b^en foound for it. 0ns in a woorshipfull company, whear, full appointed, he recoounted his matter in sort az it shoould haue been vttred, I chaunsed too be : what I noted, heer thus I tel yoo : A parson very m^et sdemed he for the purpoze, of a xlv."^ y(^ers olid, apparelled partly as he woold himself. Hiz cap of: his hed seemly roounded tonster wyze : fayr kemb, that with a spoonge deintly dipt in a littl capons greaz was finely smoothed too make it shine like a Mallard's wing. Hiz beard smugly shauen : and yet hiz shyrt after the nu trink, with ruffs fayr starched, slt^eked, and glistering like a payr of nu shooz : marshalld in good order : wyth a stetting stick, and stoout, that euery ruff stood vp like a wafer : a side gooun of kendall green, after the freshnes of the yder noow, gathered at the neck with a narro gorget, fastened afore with a white clasp and a keepar close vp to the chin : but easily for heat too vndoo when he list : S<^emly begyrt in a red caddiz gyrdl : from that a payr of capped Sheffeld kniuez hanging a to side : Out of hiz bozome drawne foorth a lappet of his napkin, edged with a blu lace, & marked with a trulooue, a hart, and A. D, for Damian : for he was but a bachelar yet. Hiz gooun had syde sleeuez, dooun to midlegge, slit from the shooulder too the hand, & lined with white cotten. Hiz doobled sleeuez of blak woorsted, vpon them a payr of poynets of towny Chamblet laced a long the wreast wyth blu threeden points, a wcalt toward the hand of fustian anapes : a payr of red neatherstocks : a pair of pumps on hiz feet, with a cross cut at the toze for cornz : not nu inddede, yet cleanly blakt with soot, & shining az a shoing horn. • [A piece of imaginary self-portraiture. — E. G. H.] 2 The Duchess of Portland's copy reads "xiv." Nichols, ed. 1788, vol. i. p. 30. 270 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAP. Aboout hiz nek a red rebond sutable too hiz girdl ; hiz harp in good grace dependaunt before him : hiz wreast tyed to a grden lace, and hanging by : vnder the gorget of hiz gooun a fair flagon cheyn, (pewter, for) siluer, az a squier minstrel of Middilsex, that trauaild the cuntree this soommer seazon vnto fairz & worshipful! mens hoousez : from hiz chein hoong a Schoochion, with mettall & cooller resplendant vpon hiz breast, of the auncient armez of Islington: vpon a question whearof: he, az one that waz wel schoold, & coold hiz lesson parfit withoout booke too aunswear at full, if question wear askt hym, declared : hoow the woorshipfuU village of Islington in Middelsex, well knooen too bee one of the most auncient and best toounz in England next London at thiz day : for the feythfull friendship of long time sheawed, az well at Cookez feast in Aldersgate streete yeerely vpon holly Rood day, az allso at all solem bridalez in the citie of London all the yeer after : in well seruing them of furmenty for porage, not ouersod till it be too weak ; of mylk for theyr flawnez, not pild nor chalked : of cream for their custardes, nor frothed nor thykned with floour : and of butter for theyr pastiez, and pyepast, not made of well curds, nor gathered of whey in soommer : nor mingled in winter with salt butter watered or washt, did obteyn long ago thez woorshipfuU armez in cooler & foorm az yee see : which are the armz, a field argent, as the field and groound indeed, whearin the milk- wiuez of thiz woorthy tooun, and euery man els in hys faculty doth trade for hiz liuing : on a Fess Tenny three platez betweene three milke tankerds proper. The three milk tankerds, az the proper vessell whearin the substauns and matter of their trade iz too and fro transported. The Fess Tenny, which iz a cooler betokening dout & suspition : so az suspition & good heed taking, az wel to their markets & seruants, az to their customers, that they trust not too farre : may bring vnto them platez, that iz, coynnd syluer : three, that iz, suflScient and plentie, for so that number in Armory may well signifie. . . . [Quoth the minstrel] " In the skro vndergrauen," (quoth hee) " thiz ear a proper woord, an hemistichi, well squaring with al the rest, taken out of Salerns chapter of things that most noorish man's body : LaCy Caseus infans. That iz, good milke and yoong ch^ez. And thus mooch, Gintlmen, and pleaz you (quoth he) for the armz of oour woorshipfuU tooun." And thearwithal made a manerly leg, and so held his peas. Az the cumpany pawzed, and the minstrell seemde to gape after a praiz for hiz Beauparlar : and bicauz he had renderd hiz lesson so well : Saiz a good fello of the cumpany, " I am sory to X " LANEHA.WS LETTER " 271 see hoow mooch the poore minstrell mistakez the matter : for indeed the armez are thus. " Three milk tankerds proper, in a fielde of cloouted cream ; three green cheesez vpon a shealf of cakebread. The fyrmenty boll and hornspoonz : cauz their profit corns all by horned beastz. Supported by a Mare with a gald back, & thearfore still couerd with a panniell, fisking with her tail for flyez, and her filly fole neying after the dam for suk. This woord Lac, Caseus infans. That is, a fresh cheez and cream, & the common cry that theez milk-wiuez make in London streetes yeerly, betwixt Easter and Whitsontide : and this iz the very matter ; I kno it well inough : " and so ended hiz tale, and sate him dooun again. Heerat euery man laught a good, saue the minstrell : that, thoough the fooU wear made priuy, all waz but for sport, yet to see himself thus crost with a contrary ku that hee lookt not for, woold straight haue geen ouer all, waxt very wayward, eager, and soour : hoow be it, last, by sum entreaty and many fayr woords, with sak & suger, we sweetned him againe, and after becam az mery az a py. Appeerez then a fresh, in hiz ful formalitee, with a louely loock : after three loly cooursiez, cleered his vois with a hem and a reach, and spat oout withal, wiped hiz lips with the hollo of his hand, for fyling hiz napkin, temperd a string or too with his wreast : and after a littl warbling on hiz harp for a prelude, came foorth with a sollem song, warraunted for story oout of King Arthurz acts, the first booke and 26 chapter, whearof I gate a copy, and that iz this. So it befell vpon a Penticost day. When King Arthur at Camelot kept coourt rial, With hiz cumly Queen, dame Gaynoour the gay And many bolld Barrons sitting in hall. Ladies apparaild in purpl and pall, When herauds in hukes berried full by, " Largess ! Largess I cheualiers treshardy ! " A doouty Dwarf too the vppermost deas Right peartly gan prik, and, kneeling on knee, With steeuen ^ full stoout amids all the preas, Said " hail, syr king ! God thee saue and see ! King Ryens of Northgalez greeteth well thee, And bids that thy beard anon thou him send, Or els from thy iawz he will it of rend. For his robe of state, a rich skarlet mantell. With a-leauen kings beards bordred aboout, 1 " Voice," A.-Sax. stefn. 272 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Hee hath made late, and yet in a cantell ^ Iz leaft a place, the twelth to make oout : Wear thin must stand, bee thou neuer so stoout : This must bee doon, I tell thee no fabl, Mawgre the poour of all thy roound tabl." When this mortall message from hiz moouth vvaz past, Great waz the brute in hall and in boour : The King fumed, the queen shriked, ladiez wear agast, Princes puft, Bar[o]nz blustered, Lordz began too loour, Knights stampt, squirez startld, az steedz in a stoour, Yeemen and pagez yeald oout in the hall : Thearwith cam in Syr Kay of Seneshall. " Sylens, my suffrainz," quoth the courteyz Knight, And in that stoound the chearm becam still, The Dwarfs dynner full deerly waz dight. For wine and wastell hee had at hiz will : And when hee had eaten and fed hiz fill. One hundred peeces of coyned gould Wear giuen the Dwarfe for hiz message bolld. " Say too Syr Ryens, thou Dwarf," quoth the King, " That for his proud message I him defy. And shortly with basinz and panz will him ring Oout of Northgalez, whearaz hee and I With sweards (and no razerz) shall vtterly try Which of vs both iz the better Barber : " And thearwith he shook hiz sword Excalaber. At this, the minstrell made a pauz & a- curtezy, for Primus passus? More of the song iz thear, but I gat it not. Having exhausted the account of entertainments the writer fills up the letter with fancies of his own : P. 43. If I dyd but ruminate the dayz I have spoken of, I shall bring oout yet sumwhat moore, meet for yoor appetite, (thoogh a deinty tooth have ye), which I beleve yoor tender stomak will brook wel inoogh. Whearof part iz : fyrst hoow according to her highnes name Elizaukth, which I heer say oout of the Hebru signifieth (amoong oother) the Seauetith of my God: diverz things heer did soo justly in number scjuare with the same. Az fyrst her highnes hither cumming in this seauenth moonth. . . . > A piece, or part. 2 Y\x%'i filt, ist canto. X " LANEHAAPS LETTER " 273 Then, too, consider how fully the Gods (az it seemed) had conspyred most magnificently in aboundauns too bestow theyr influeneez and gyfts vpon her coourt, thear too make her Maiesty merry. There follows a long catalogue of pagan divinities, with their respective bestowals. The following is a specimen : Venus. Vntoo the Ladyez & Gentl-wemen, beauty, good fauour, cumlinesse, galant attyre, dauncing with cumly grace, sweet vois in song, & pleazaunt tallk : with express commaund- ment & charge vntoo her sunn, on her blessing, that he shoote not a shaft in the Coourt all the while her highnes remayned at Killingwoorth. Mercuri. Learned men in Sciencez, Poets, Merchaunts, Painterz, Karuerz, Players, Engyners, Deuyserz, & dexteritee in handling of all pleazaunt attempts. Luna. Callm nights for quiet rest, and syluer moonshine, that nightly in-deede shone for most of her Maiestyez beeing thear.i P. 44. For all Quid's censure, that saiz : Si quoties peccant koinines, sua fulmina mittat Jupiter : exiguo tempore iftermis erit. If loue shoold shoot hiz thunderbollts az oft as men offend, Assure you hiz artillary wold soon be at an end.- The writer describes the grounds of the Castle, and, in the following passage, a fountain in the garden in which one day he found himself alone. The description is characteristic of Bacon, whose love of gardens, orna- mental work, etc., appears, with similar wealth of detail, in his Essay : P. 52. In the center (az it wear) of this goodly Gardein, was theer placed a very fayre Foountain, cast intoo an eight square, reared a four foot hy, from the midst whearof a Colum vp set in the shape of too Athlants ioined togeather a backhalf, the toon ' [The passage in Midsummer Nighfs Dream, "That very night I saw," etc., seems reminiscent of this. — E. G. H.] ^ [It was Bacon's habit generally to translate his Latin quotations, and into idiomatic English, alterations being made, if necessary, for that purpose. — E. G. H.] T 274 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAP. looking East, toother West, with theyr hands vphollding a fayr formed boll, of a three foot ouer : from wheans sundrye fine pipez did liuely distill continuall streamz intoo the receyt of the Foountayn, maynteyned styll too foot deep by the same fresh falling water : whearin pleazauntly playing too & fro, & round about, Carp, Tench, Bream, and for varietee, Pearch & Eel, fysh fayrliking all, and large; in the toppe, the ragged staflfe, which, with the boll, the pillar, and eyght sides beneath, wear all heawen oout of rich «S: hard white Marbl. A one syde, Neptune with his Tridental Fuskin triumphing in hiz Throne, trayled into the deep by his marine horsez. On another, Thetis in her chariot drawn by her Dollphins. Then, Triton by hiz fyshez. Hder, Protheus bearding hiz sea buls, Thear, Doris & her dooughterz solacyng a sea & sandz. The wauez soourging with froth & fome, entermengled in place with whalez, whirlpoolz, sturgeonz, Tunneyz, Conchs, & wealks : all engrauen by exquisit deuize and skill, so az I maye thinke this not much inferioour vnto Phoebus gatez, which (Ouid sayz), & peraduentur a pattern to thiz, that Vulcan himself dyd cut : whearof such was the excellency of art, that the woork in valu surmoounted the stuff; and yet wer the gatez all of clean massy syluer. The following passage is typically Baconian : P. 53. But, Master Martin, yet one wyndlesse must I featch, too make ye one more fayr coorz, and I can : and cauz I speak of one : let me tel yoo a littl of the dignitde of onehod, whearin alhveyz al hy Deitee, al Soueraintee, Preeminens, Principalitee, and Concord withoout possibilitde of disagreement, iz conteyned. Az one God, one Sauioour, one Feith, one Prins, one Sun, one Phenix ; and, az one of great wizdom sayz, one hart, one wey.^ Whear onehod reinz, ther quiet bears rule, & discord fliez a pase. Three again may signify cumpany, a meeting, a multitude, pluralit^e : so az all talez and numbrings from too vntoo thr^e, and so vpward, may well be counted numberz, till they moount vntoo infinit^e, or els too confusion, which thing the sum of Too can neuer admit : nor it self can well bee coounted a number, but rather a freendly coniunction of too ones, that, keeping in a * The motto of the great Lord Bacon was Cor unum, una via. — [Note from] Ken. III. p. 38. [This was the motto on the arms adopted by Burghley, but I am not aware that it was hcraldically used by Bacon, whose motto, adopted by his father, was Mediocria firma. It was latterly, however, one of his favourite expressions, e.g. "I have cor unum et via una." — Letter to Buckingham, 28th Oct. 1620; .Spedding, life, vii. 135; other examples, ibid. pp. 149, 169. — E. G. II.] X " LANE HAM'S LETTER " 275 synceritce of accord, may purport vnto vs, Charitde each too other, mutuall looue, agreement, & integritee of friendship withoout dissimulation. Az iz in thez : The too testamentes. The too tables of the Law. The too great lights, Duo huninaria magna. The Sun & Moon. . . . [And more in a similar figurative vein, the reference evidently being to the Queen and the Earl of Leicester. Cf. "Phoebus" and "Cynthia," p. 223 above.] A characteristic piece of laudatory writing, full of hope of future advancement : P. 56. As for vnto hiz Lordship, hauing with such greatnes of honorabl modestye & benignitee so passed foorth, as Laudem sine inuidia et arnicos pararif, By greatnesse of well dooing, woon with all sorts to bee in such reuerens, az : De quo nientiri fama veretur. In synceritce of freendship so great, az no man more deuooutly woorships. Illud amicitiae sanctum et venerabile nomen. So great in liberalitie, az hath no wey to heap vp the mass of hiz trezure, but only by liberall gyuing & boounteoous bestoing his trezure : foloing (az it sdemez) the saw of Martiall, that sayth. Extra fortunam est, quicquid donatur amicisj Quas dederis, solas semper habebis opes. Oout of all hazered doest thou set that to thy freends thoou gyuest : .\ surer trezure canst thoou not haue euer whyle thoou lyuest. What may theez greatnesses bode, but only az great honor, fame, & renooum, for theez parts hCer awey, az euer waz vntoo thoz too nobl Greatz : the Macedonian Alexander in Emathia or Grees, or to Romane Charles in Germanye or Italy ? which, wear it in me ony wey to set oout, no man of all men, by God (Master Martin), had euer more cauz, and that hCerby consider yoo. It pleazed his honor to beare me good wil at fyrst, & so too continu. To haue giuen me apparail, Ceuen from hiz bale, to get me allowauns in the stabl, too aduauns me vntoo this worshipfull office, so nCer the most honorabl Councell, to help me in my licens of Beanz (though indeed I do not so much vze it, for I thank God I nCed not), to permit my good Father to serue the stabl. Whearby I go noow in my sylks, that else might ruffl in my cut canues : I ryde now a hors bak, that els many timez mighte mannage it a foot : am knoen to their honors, & taken foorth with the best, that els might be bidden to stand 276 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. bale my self : My good Father a good releef, that hee farez mooch the better by; and none of theez for my dezert, eyther at fyrst or syns : God, hee knoez. What say ye, my good friend Humfrey ? shoold I not for euer honor, extol him, al the weyz I can ? Yes, by your leaue, while God lends me poour to vtter my minde ! And (hauing az good cauz of his honor, az Virgil had of Augustus Cezar,) wil I poet it a littl with Virgill, and say, Namque erit ille viihi semper Deus, illius aram Sepe tener nostris ab ouilibus imbuet agtms. For he shalbe a god to me, till death my life consumez : His auters will I sacrifice with incens and parfumez. A singular patron of humanitee may he be well vnto vs, towarde all degreez ; of Honor, toward hy Estates ; and cheeflye, whearby we may learne in what dignitee, worship, and reuerens, her highnes iz to be esteemed, honored, and receiued, that waz neuer indeed more condignly doon then beer, so as neither by the bylders at first, nor by the Edict of pacification after, was euer Kenelworth more nobled then by thiz, hiz Lordship's receiuing hir highnes beer now. The writer allows his egotism full play, exaggerating it for purposes of amusement and to fill in the character, which is a reflex of one side of himself : P. 59. And h^er doth my langagez now and then stond me in good sted, my French, my Spanish, my Dutch, and my Latten, sumtime amoong Ambassadours men, if their Master be within the Councel, sumtime with the Ambassadour himself, if hee bid call hiz lacky, or ask me whats a clok : and I warrant ye I aunswer him roundly, that they maruell to see such a fello thear : then laugh I, and say nothing. Dinner and supper I have twenty placez to go to, and hartly prayd to. . . . In afternoons & a nights, sumtime am I with the right worshipfuU Sir George Howard, az good a Gentlman as ony liuez : And sumtime at my good Lady Sidneis ^ chamber, a Noblewooman that I am az mooch boound vntoo, as ony poore man may bee vnto so gracyous a Lady : And sumtime in sum oother place; But alwayez among the Gentlwemen by ' Mary, the sister of Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, wife of Sir Henry .Sidney, K.G. [Their son, Sir Philip Sidney, was presumably at this entertainment, an bears no resemblance to the erased signature in the original document, which Mr. Gosling himself admits "is not in Gilbert's hand- writing" (p. 127). The reproduction, therefore, of a signature by Gilbert in that place is rather misleading. 304 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. and his church manifestly seen although God's merciful providence not yet fully felt." An appeal of this kind was much more likely to find favour with Elizabeth than the longer and more speculative " Discourse " which was published in 1576. It is also more in keeping with what can be gathered as to Gilbert's temperament and experience. I doubt, however, whether it is his, and it is impossible to say how far Gilbert's charter to discover and colonise in the North -West of America, which was granted in June 1578, was attributable to this writing. It appears that towards the end of i 578 the expedition started, Ralegh, Gilbert's half-brother, being one of the company, and that fears of the Spanish fleet, and other difficulties, led to its return without reaching the coast of America ; also that Gilbert and Ralegh reached home separately, some time in 1579. The renewal of the voyage was prohibited by the Council, no doubt owing to fears of trouble with Spain, and Gilbert and Ralegh proceeded to Ireland, where the former had served under Sir Henry Sidney from 1566 to 1570.^ In 1581 Gilbert was again in London, trying to raise money for a further expedition to Newfoundland, as his charter would have otherwise expired in 1584. He appears at that time to have been in great want. At last, after many diffi- culties, and, as appears from the relations, with inadequate supplies for effecting a settlement in America, he sailed to Newfoundland from Plymouth on iith June 1583, and after formally taking possession of the country on behalf of the English Crown, was compelled to return, and met his death on the homeward voyage in a storm at sea on 9th September i 583. His was the fate of many pioneers, whose work seems a failure to their own generation. Camden, in an allusion to the event, describes him as " vir acer et alacer," ^ a " keen and active," or " keen and enterprising," man ; also as "belli pacisque artibus clarus" (" renowned in the arts of war and peace ") ; but that these ' Ralegh may also have been there before, but this is uncertain, 2 The translations give "quick (or sharp) and lively-spirited." XII GILBERTS VOYAGE 305 attainments extended to the power of writing such a paper as the " Discourse " of 1576 seems to me very improb- able, and some letters of Gilbert's printed by Mr. Gosling have, from their style, still more confirmed my doubts on this point. There is one other piece which is without any doubt by Gilbert : a proposal for setting up a school in London for the better training of the sons of the nobility and gentry in arms and other public services, described as " Queene Elizabethes Achademy." It is written in a plain and practical style, and is based on the view that for such purposes a merely scholastic education was useless, and that " by erecting this Achademie there shalbe hereafter, in effecte, no gentleman within this Realme but good for somewhat, whereas now the most part of them are good for nothinge." It is thought that this was probably written when Gilbert was living in retirement (after a brief expedition, which proved unsuccessful, to the Netherlands) in Limehouse in 1573. To come now to the contents of the " Discourse " of I 576. It is a treatise in ten short chapters, from which the following extracts are given in illustration (as will be explained) of my view as to the authorship. Chapter I. — " To prooue by authoritie a passage to be on the Northside of America, to goe to Cataia, China, and to the East India." At the opening of the chapter, the writer reveals himself as a student of geography of unusual reading and speculative imagination : When I gaue my self to the studie of Geographie, after I had perused and diligently scanned the descriptions of Europe, Asia, and Afrike, and conferred them with the Mappes and Globes both Antique and Moderne : I came in fine to the fourth part of the worlde commonly called America^ which by all descriptions I founde to be an Ilande environed round about with the Sea. . , . He recalls the fact that " Plato in Timeo, and in the Dialogue called Critias, discourseth of an incomparable X 306 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. great Ilande, then called Atlantis. . . ." ; mentions, with many references to ancient and modern authorities, the tradition of its subsidence, and affirms that America was a part of it, and was therefore an island, and that there was great hope, in consequence, of navigability by a North-West passage ; mentions Ochter's northern voyage in the time of King Alfred,' and gives a passage from his account translated from the Anglo-Saxon " by Mr. Nowel, Servaunte to Maister Secretarie Cecill," In Chapter II., in suggesting reasons for believing that America was an island, the writer shows a desire to discuss the causes of the tides : Also it [America] appeareth to be an Hand, insomuche as the Sea runneth by nature circularly, from the East to the West, following the Diurnal motion of Primum Mobile, and carrieth with it all inferiour bodies moveable, as well celestial, as elemental : which motion of the waters is most evidently seene in the Sea, which lieth on the Southside of Afrik, where the currant that runneth from East to West is so strong (by reason of such motion) . . . Marginal note to the foregoing : The Sea hath three motions : 1. Motum ab oriente in occidentem. 2. Motum fluxus et refluxus. 3. Motum circularem. Ad caeli motum elementa omnia (excepta terra) moventur. The conclusion of the author is : So that it resteth not possible (so farre as my simple reason ^ can comprehend) that this perpetual currant can by any means be maintained, but only by continual re-accesse of the same water, which passeth thorow the fret, and is brought about thither againe, by suche Circular motion as aforesaid. Marginal note to the foregoing : The flowing is occasioned by reason that the heate of the moone boyleth, and maketh the water thinne by way of rarefac- tion. And the ebbing conieth for wante of that heate, which maketh the water to fal again by way of condensation. » See Ilakluyt. 2 See Chapter V. xii GILBERTS VOYAGE 307 Regard being had to the state of knowledge at the time, and to the fact that these conclusions are obviously tentative, they are not so fantastic as they may appear at first sight. They represent, in my belief, the early ideas (gathered probably from various sources) for the conclusions which appeared later in Bacon's Latin treatise on the " Ebb and Flow of the Sea." ^ The following abstract of the argument in that treatise (as translated by Spedding ") will enable the reader to see the bearing of it on my argument for the Baconian authorship of the "Discourse" of 1576. Discussing the possible causes of the " rising " of the water, " if the flow of the tide be set down as a rising," Bacon says : " For the swelling must be caused either by an increase in the quantity of water, or by an extension or rarefaction of the water in the same quantity, or by a simple lifting up in the same quantity and the same body." He rejects the last hypothesis "absolutely" on the fanciful ground that " if the water be lifted up as it is, there must of necessity be a vacuum between the ground and the bottom of the water, since there is no body to take its place." But he admits : " Certainly this, whether it be ebullition or rarefaction, or agreement of the waters with some one of the higher bodies, does not appear incredible, if it be in a moderate quantity, and a tolerable length of time likewise be allowed for the swelling or increase of the water to collect and rise." This, he thinks, miiiht account for " the excess of water observable between the ordinary tide and the half-monthly which is fuller, or even the half-yearly which is fullest of all " ; but that " so great a mass of water should burst forth, as to account for the difference between the ebb and flow ; and that this should be done so quickly, namely twice a day ; as if the earth, according to the foolish conceit of Apollonius, were taking respiration, and breathing out water every six hours and then taking it in again ; is a very great 1 Galileo also wrote on the subject, and Bacon was in touch with him and saw his work in MS. ; see Spedding, Life, vii. 35-37. See also Preface to Bacon's treatise by Ellis — Spedding, Works, iii. 39. '•* Spedding, Works, v. 443 sq. 3o8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. difficulty." He concludes, therefore, subject to further evidence being obtained as to the synchronism of tides in different parts of the world, that the ebb and flow of the sea is a " progressive motion " from east to west, and that " there is at any given hour an ebb in some parts of the globe equal to the flow in others." He then inquires into the cause of these motions, which, as regards " the half-monthly motion of increase and the monthly motion of restoration, appear to correspond with the motion of the moon " ; but, as regards the daily ebb and flow, he finds no correspondence with " any of the conditions of the moon." " Therefore," he says, " dis- missing the moon let us inquire of other correspondences." Taking into account the fact that " of all celestial motions the diurnal is plainly the shortest," and that the daily motion of the waters is " so distributed as to correspond to the divisions of the diurnal motion," he finds himself persuaded, and takes it "almost for an oracle that this motion is of the same kind as the diurnal motion." Taking this " as a foundation," he puts three questions, the first two of which are : " First, does this diurnal motion confine itself to the limits of the heaven, or does it descend and reach to lower bodies ? " " Secondly, do the seas move regularly from east to west as the heavens do ? " The answer he gives is interesting, as illustrating the processes of thought under the pre-Copernican hypothesis of the heavens revolving round the earth as a fixed point, which Bacon was never willing to abandon : " With regard to the first inquiry, I judge that the motion of rotation or conversion from east to west is not properly a celestial but quite a cosmical motion ; a motion primarily belonging to the great fluids and found from the summits of heaven to the depths of the water ; the inclination being always the same, though the degrees of velocity vary greatly ; varying, however, in regular order, so that the swiftness of the motion diminishes the nearer the bodies approach the earth." If this motion were not XII GILBERTS VOYAGE 309 continuous throughout space, two inconveniences would follow (a proof that it is continuous) : " For as it is manifest to the sense that the planets perform a diurnal motion, we must necessarily, unless this motion be set down as natural and proper to all planets, take refuge either in the violence of prmiuin mobile, which is directly contrary to nature, or in the rotation of the earth — a supposition arbitrary enough, as far as physical reasons are concerned." ^ As therefore this motion is found in the heavens, he concludes it is " not extinguished " on the earth's surface ; and in a subsequent passage he suggests " that this tendency or motion is truly cosmical, and penetrates everything from the heights of heaven to the depths of the earth." He then comes to the second question, whether the " waters move regularly and naturally from east to west ? meaning by waters those collections or masses of water, which form portions of nature large enough to have a correspondence with the fabric and structure of the universe." He concludes that they do, but that the motion is slower than that in the air. He gives what he regards three " demonstrations " in proof of this. The first only is relevant to my purpose, and I wish to direct special attention to it : The first is that there is found a manifest motion and flow of waters from the Indian Ocean to the Atlantic, and that swifter and stronger towards the Straits of Magellan, where there is an outlet to the west ; and also a great motion in the opposite part of the world from the German Ocean into the British Channel. And these courses of water manifestly revolve from east to west. Wherein it is to be especially observed, that in these two places only the seas are open and can perform a complete circle ; ' Here, as I take it. Bacon rejects the crude expedient of the primum mobile, mentioned as the catisa causans in the early treatise, and substitutes a "cosmical motion." His dislike of the Copernican theory, then gaining ground, was, I think, mainly due to a feeling that it impaired the dignity of man. Cf. Advancement of Learning: " So we may see that the opinion of Copernicus touching the rotation of the earth, which astronomy itself cannot correct, because it is not repugnant to any of the phenomena, yet natural philosophy may correct." 310 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. whereas on the contrary in the middle regions of the world they are cut off by the two obstacles of the Old and New World, and driven (as into the mouths of rivers) into the two channels of the Atlantic and Southern Ocean, which stretch from north to south, and therefore do not interfere with the order of motion from east to west. The true motion therefore of the waters is most properly taken from these extremities of the world which I have mentioned, where they are not obstructed, but pass through. I take it that by the time this was u^ritten Bacon had lost faith in the practicability of the North-West passage, and that he substitutes for " the fret " in that part of the globe, which was useful for the early theory of a circular motion, the British Channel. The other extracts which I shall give from the " Discourse " may be placed together, and call for little comment. In the first we have, as I think, an early instance of Bacon's philosophic observation ; in the second, a real or supposed traveller's tale, with the author's " simple judgement " on the conclusion based upon it ; in the next, a characteristic passage as to the condition of some of the people in England ; and the three last are examples of the idiomatic and picturesque style in which Bacon excelled. The last, about Columbus, is a good instance of the heightening power of imagination, and expresses, with a felicity only given to a born writer, the intrepid spirit of the great navigator. The following are the extracts to which these remarks relate : — Chapter IV. — " The diuersity betwene bruite beastes and men, or betwene the wise and the simple, is that the one judgeth by the sense only, and gathereth no suertie of anye thing that he hath not sene, fealt, heard, tasted or smclled : And the other not so onely, but also findeth the certaintie of things by reason, before they happen to be tryed." Chapter VIII. gives "the reasons of a worthy Gentleman, and a great traveller " who advocated a North-East passage, " whom I haue not named in this place, because I seeke to impugn his opinions." XII GILBERTS VOYAGE 311 His second reason is that there was a Unicornes home founde upon the coaste of Tartaria, which could not come (saide he) thither by any other meanes then with the Tides, through some fret in the North east of Mare Glaciale, there being no Uriicortie in any parte of Asia, saving in India and Cataia : which reason (in my simple judgement) forceth as little. Chapter X. — Advantages of the North-West passage. Proximity ; no offence to others ; " the onely way for our princes to preserve ye welth of all the East partes (as they tearme them) of the worlde, which is infinite." Also we might inhabite some parte of those Countreys, and settle there suche needie people of our Countrie, which now trouble the common welth, and through want here at home, are inforced to commit outragious offences, whereby they are dayly consumed with the Gallowes. . . . the king of Portugal would not have given to the Emperour such summes of money for egges in mooneshine. . . . and thereby the Spaniards and Portingals, with their great charges, should but beate the bushe and other men catche the birds. [Marginal note. "Why the king of Spaine and Portingal would not perseuer in this discouerie."] [Example of Columbus.] . . . had neither seene America or any other of the Hands about it . . . but onely comforted himself with this hope, that the land had a beginninge where the sea had an ending. The " Discourse " is again referred to as a " simple " one, and the writer promises another on Navigation, in which new inventions are to be described. This, as I have said before, was the author's method of " advertising " his work, and the inventive mind is another indication of his personality. From other similar examples, how- ever, it is more than probable that these announcements only related to ideas and projects germinating in the author's mind, and not destined to be completed. Desiring you to accept in good part this briefe and simple discourse, written in hast ... I will at more leasure make you partaker of another simple discourse of Nauigation, wherein I have not a little trauelled. . . . 312 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chaP. And therein I haue deuised to amende the errours of usuall sea cardes, whose comon fault is to make the degrees of longitude, in euerie latitude, of one like bignes. . . . And haue also devised therein a Spherical instrument, with a compass of variation, for the perfect knowing of the longitude. . . . And a precise order to prick the sea carde, together with certaine infallible rules for the shortening of any discoverie. The writer concludes in the " grand style " in which it was Bacon's habit to bring to a close his treatises. The passage is well known to all the admirers of Gilbert, who will probably resent the suggestion that he did not write it. It is not, however, usually given to men of action to describe what they do in an attractive form in writing, and Gilbert's performance is not made less by the fact that he was not an exception in this respect to the general rule. The evident purpose of the writer of the treatise was to awaken interest in oversea enterprise, and it is in accordance with experience that this should be done more efifectively by a practised writer than by a man whose business it was to conduct the work. The passage is as follows : And therefore to glue me leaue without offence alwayes to liue and die in this minde. That he is not worthie to live at all, that for feare, or daunger of death, shunneth his countrey service, and his owne honour : seeing death is inevitable, and the fame of vertue immortall. Wherefore in this behalfe, Mutare vel timere sperno. We come now to a book of a most extraordinary character, for in it some of the most famous sea-rovers and military captains of the Elizabethan age appear as poets, or at least as writers of verse. The following is the list, as the names appear in a copy of the book in the British Museum ^ : Sir William Pelham. Sir Francis Drake. John Hawkins. Captain Bingham. ' C. 32, c. 12. XII GILBERTS VOYAGE 313 Captain Frobisher. Captain Cliester. Matthew Roydon. Anthony Parkhurst. Arthur Hawkins. John Achelley, Cyttyzen and Marchantailour of London. The book is described on the title-page as — ' A true Reporte of the late Discoueries and possession, taken in the right of the Crowne of Englande of the New-found Landes : by that valiaunt and worthye Gentlemen, Sir Humfrey Gilbert, Knight. Wherein is also breefely sette downe her highnesse lawful! Tytle thereunto, and the great and manifolde Commodities that is likely to grow thereby, to the whole Realme in generall, and to the Aduenturers in particular. Together with the easines and shortnes of the Voyage. . . . 1583. The " Report," without the preliminary matter, is included in Hakluyt's Voyages, and is well known as one of the two accounts (the other being by Hayes) of Sir Humphrey Gilbert's last voyage, when he was lost at sea in returning from Newfoundland in 1583.^ It is preceded in the book by a letter addressed to Sir Francis Walsingham, in which the writer apologises for his incapacity and solicits favour : " From my lodging in Oxforde, the tweluth of Nouember. Your Honours poore Scholler, in all service to use. G. P." Obviously the initials were intended to be taken for those of Sir George Peckham, who was one of the " adventurers " in the expedition, but they are no more proof that they were really his initials, and that he was the author of the book, than the " E. S.," " Ed. Sp.," and many other initials used at this time in a similar way, are conclusive evidence that they belong, in that connection, to the person whom they appear to represent. All that can be said is that the reading public is intended to suppose that they are an indication of authorship, and that the author wishes to keep his name out of print. ' It is headed in Hakluyt (1589), "Written by Sir George Peckham, knight, the chiefe aduenturer and furtherer of Sir Humfrey Gilbertes voyage to Newfoundland." 314 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. There can be no doubt, in my opinion, that the real author is the author of the " Discourse of a Discoverie for a new passage to Cataia," with which we have been dealing. In the following remarks (accompanied, in accordance with the method which I have followed, by illustrative extracts) I shall endeavour to justify this opinion. Following the introductory epistle come a series of ten poems, purporting to be written by the persons in the list given above, proclaiming the benefits to be expected for the country in general and the individual in particular by the colonisation of Newfoundland, and calling upon the youth of the country to put aside fear and sloth and join the " adventurers." Each poem is supposed to be in character, but they are all not only in precisely the same vein, but unmistakably — at least in my judgment — in the same style, the differences of metre, etc., being only superficial, and artfully devised to keep up the pretence. The metres adopted are, by design, those in vogue with the ordinary versifiers of the period. The first poem is headed " Sir William Pelham Knight, in commendation of the discourse following." It contains four stanzas, of which I quote two as a specimen : \st stanza : Like as the Fishes, breeding in the deepe, Through all the Ocean are allowed to raung : Nor forst in any certaine boundes to keepe. But as their motions carry them to chaung. To men like libertie, dooth reason giue : In choice of soile, through all the world to hue. Last stanza : Then Em^land thrust among them for a share Since title just, and right is wholie thine : And as I trust the sequell shall declare, Our lucke no worse, than theirs before hath beene. For where the attempt on vertue dooth depend : No doubt but God, will bless it in the ende. William Pelham. XII GILBERTS VOYAGE 315 Sir William Pelham was presumably in England at that time, having retired from service in Ireland, where he was acting as Governor, on the arrival of Lord Grey in I 580. He is best known in connection with the Desmond rebellion of 1579-80. The second poem is headed " Sir Fraunces Drake in commendation of this Treatise." It consists of 14 lines, contrived to appeal to adventure and hope of gain, and is in the popular metre described in the " Notes of Instruction " as " poulters measure." The following will suffice as a specimen : Who seekes by worthie deedes, to gaine renowme for hire : Whose hart, whose hand, whose purse is prest, to purchase his desire, If anie such there bee, that thirsteth after Fame : Lo, heere a meane, to winne himselfe an everlasting name. Who seekes, by gaine and wealth, t'advaunce his house and blood : Whose care is great, whose toile no lesse, whose hope is all for good. • •■•••• So that, for each degree, this Treatise dooth unfolde : The path to Fame, the proofe of Zeale, and way to purchase golde. Fraunces Drake. The third poem is headed " M. John Hawkins, his opinion of this intended Voyage." It consists of 28 lines, of which the following are specimens : If zeale to God, or countries care, with private gaines accesse. Might serve for spurs unto th'attempt this pamphlet doth expresse. So England that is pestered nowe and choakt through want of ground Shall finde a soile where roome enough, and perfect doth abound. [Examples of colonisation from Greece and Rome follow.] But Rome and Athens nor the rest were never pestered so, As England where no roome remaines, her dwellers to bestow, The yssue of your good intent, undoubted will appeare. Both gratious in the sight of God, and full of honour heere. John Hawkins. 3i6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. The fourth poem, " Maister Captaine Bingham, his commendation uppon this Treatise"; four stanzas, the last being : Then launch ye noble youthes into the maine, No lurking perils lye amidde the way : Your trauell shal retourne you treble gaine, And make your names renoumed another day. For valiaunt mindes, through twentie Seas will roome : And fish for lucke, while sluggardes lye at home. Richard Bingham. This is, no doubt, intended for Captain Richard Bingham (afterwards Sir Richard Bingham), a soldier and adminis- trator of great ability and energy. He came with a detachment of the fleet to Smerwick in 1580, and is referred to by Camden, after his death in 1599, as a man who, of all others, had been most successful against the rebels in Ireland. At the end of 1583 he appears to have been under orders to operate against pirates in the narrow seas, with a commission to seize ships of the Dutch for debts due to the Queen. He was thereafter for many years in Ireland as Governor of Connaught. An account of his doings will be found in Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudors. Frobisher, the famous navigator, comes next. Accord- ing to the writer of the article about him in the Dictionary of National Biography he " was no scholar, as his letters prove." His poem, written apparently at the age of about fifty, is limited to six lines and may be given in full : Maister Captaine Frobisher, in commendation of the voyage A Pleasunt ayre, a sweete and firtell soile, A certaine gaine, a never dying praise : An easie passage, voide of lothsome toile, Found out by some, and knowen to mee the waies. All this is there, then who will refraine to trie : That loues to Hue abroade, or dreades to die. Martin Frobisher. I place together examples from the sixth, seventh, eighth and ninth poems. I do not know who Captain Chester was ; Matthew Roydon was the author of an elegy on Sir XII GILBERTS VOYAGE 317 Philip Sidney, which is included among Spenser's Works ; Anthony Parkhurst was one of the " adventurers "; ^ Arthur Hawkins (perhaps a relative of the famous seaman) appears, from what he has to say, to have been a City merchant. Sixth — " Maister Captaine Chester, his commendation of this Treatise " (14 lines). Example : Pinche not for pence to set this action out, Poundes will returne, thereof be not in doubt. John Chester. Seventh — " Matthew Roydon maister of Arte to his fellowe Student " (supposed to be addressed to the author — 7 lines) : To prayse thy booke because I am thy freende, Though it be common and thy due indeede : Perhaps it may some daintie eare ofTende, Reproofe repines that vertue hath her meede. Yet neuerthelesse how euer thinges succeede, Sith to no other ende thy booke was made : All that I wish, is that thou mayest perswade. Mathew Roydon. Eighth — " Maister Anthony Parkhurst in commenda- tion of this Treatise " (4 stanzas). Example : \st stanza : Beholde a worke that dooth reueale, The ready way to welth and fame : Commodious to the common weale, And just without impeache of blame. Which followed as the course doth lie, May make all Englande thriue thereby. ■i^rd stanza : Howe happy were our England then, (Since neither men nor shipping want) Some good and well disposed men. Another England there would plant : And so employ a number there, Whose persons may be spared heere. Anthonie Parkhurst. 1 See a letter of his given by Hakluyt dated «« from Bristow the 13 November 1578," containing a glowing account of the resources of New- foundland. 3i8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Ninth — " Arthur Hawkins in commendation of this Treatise" (22 lines). Example: My freendes, if at Th^exckaunge a man shoulde goe and tell, That such, and such commodities he had to sell Whereof we stoode in neede and scarcelie to be founde, Whereby a quicke returne with profit would redounde. I doubt not ere I past, but you would craue the sight, Of these commended wares, and buy them if you might. • •>••• A bargaine may you haue, 'tis put into your handes. Of all commodities you haue from other landes. And at so easie price you can not choose but gaine : A trifle is the most, together with your paine. But what is that some sayes ? our Englishmen giues eare, Onelie to gaine, God shielde it shoulde be true I heare. If we religious be, lets rigge our shippes with speede, And carry Christ to these poore souls, that stande in neede. Why pause yee therevpon ? the fraight will quite the charge, For what is doone for God, dooth finde rewarde full large. A. H. The last poem is headed " lohn Achelley Cyttyzen and Marchantailour for conclusion " ^ (22 lines). Example : So shall you harbour in your hartes, the seedes of magnanimitie : A vertue wherewith all, the Romaines did enlarge their Empery. lOHN Achelley. The virtue of " magnanimity " was one on which Bacon had much to say, both in his acknowledged works and elsewhere. Compare, for instance, with these lines the sentence in his Essay, " Of Atheism " : " Never was there such a State for Magnanimity as Rome." The imperial and colonising effort which is advocated in a somewhat crude and popular, or would-be popular, form in these verses was preached by Bacon all his life, and it is the same argument, under another form, which appears in his speech in Parliament on Scottish naturalisation in 1607 • For greatness (Mr. Speaker) I think a man may speak it soberly and without bravery, that this Kingdom of England, ^ I can find nothing more about this person, but it is worth noting that a sonnet purporting to be by " T. Acheicy " appears (with some others) in front of T. Watson's Passionate Centiirie of Loz a • • [Of his Irish command] For without thy great valour we had lost The dearest purchase ever England made : And made with such profuse exceeding cost Of bloud and charge, to keepe and to invade : As commutation paid a deerer price For such a peece of earth, and yet well paid And well adventur'd for, with great advice. 346 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. And happily to our dominions laid ; Without which out-let, England thou hadst bin From all the rest of th'earth shut out, and pent Unto thyselfe, and forst to keepe within, Inviron'd round with others government ; Where now by this, thy large imperiall Crowne Stands boundlesse in the West, and hath a way For noble times, left to make all thine owne That lyes beyond it, and force all t'obay. And this important peece, like t' have beene rent From off thy state, did then so tickle stand, As that no joynture of the government But shooke, no ligament, no band Of order and obedience, but were then Loose and in tottering, when the charge Thereof was laid on Montioy, and that other men Checkt by example sought to put it off. And he out of his native modesty (As being no undertaker) labours too To have avoided that which his ability And Englands Genius would have him do, Alleadging how it was a charge unfit For him to undergo, seeing such a one As had more power and meanes t'accomplish it Then he could have, had there so little done.^ Whose ill successe (considering his great worth, Was such as, could that mischiefe be withstood. It had beene wrought) did in it selfe bring forth Discouragement that he should do lesse good. The state replide, it was not lookt he should Restore it wholy to it selfe againe. But only now if possible he could In any fashion but the same retaine, So that it did not fall a sunder quite, Being thus dishivered in a desperate plight. With courage on he goes . . . • ■ • ■ • The poem alludes (in reference to " detraction "), in general terms, to Mountjoy's relations with Lady Rich (the " Stella " supposed of the Sidney sonnets), and urges, in his defence, that his vertues and his vvorthinesse. Being seene so farre above his weaknesse, Must ever shine. * The allusion is to Essex. XI 11 SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 347 who never more was knowne To use immodest act, or speech obscene, Or any levity that might have showne The tone but of a thought that was uncleane, and concludes with a relation of his cheerfulness and Christian fortitude in his last sickness. It may be said that the " Delia " sonnets provide an answer to my contention that Daniel was deficient in the power of invention. I do not think so ; on the contrary, they seem to me to bear it out. The emotion of love finds its expression in certain imagery all the world over, and many men who never become poets may write passably well under its influence. It is not surprising, therefore, that the " Delia " sonnets should be more imaginative than Daniel's other works, and as the work of a man whose ambition was to succeed as a writer they are naturally carefully wrought. But they are marked by poverty of ideas ; in fact there is practically only one idea, which is worn threadbare long before the close. There is no form of poetry, except perhaps blank verse, which is so intolerant of poverty of thought as the sonnet. These sonnets can, in my opinion, be only pronounced interesting as an experiment. In them Daniel seems to me to have been trying his hand at the new art which came from Italy and France. But his mind was too purely English for it, and he is only really himself in the simple directness of his native thought and speech. A clue to the connection between Daniel and Bacon is perhaps visible in the " M. P." sonnet quoted above. Grosart says that it appeared only in one edition of the "Delia" sonnets, the 2nd of 1592. It has been supposed that the initials are intended for Mary, Countess of Pembroke, but, as Grosart says, the form is very familiar for a dependant to make use of, and he draws attention to the occurrence of the same initials, in allusion to some one who is a man, in the letter of " N. W." addressed to Daniel which precedes Paulas Jovius (1585). The passage is as follows : A frend of mine, whom you know, M. P. climing for an Egies 348 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. nest, but defeated by the inallaknt of fortune, limned in his studie a Pine tree striken with Ughtning, carrying this mot, // mio sperar, which is borrowed also from Petrarch. Allor che fulminato e morto giaacque il mio sperar che tropp'' alto viintana. (A/y hopes.) Yet in despight of fortune he devised also a Pinnace or small Barke, tossed with tempestious stormes, and in the saile was written expectanda dies, hoping as I think for one Sunne shine day to recompence so many gloomy and winter monethes. The expression " a frend of mine, whom you know," appears to me to be a form of the Latin est qui, and, read with the context, it seems evidently intended as a description of the writer himself, and it is a description which applies exactly to the case of Francis Bacon, as he thought of himself and his prospects at the age of twenty-four. Compare with this the reference to The clyniing of an Eagles neast by " G. T.," p. 2 i 5 above. There is in the same letter an allusion to " conceled philosophers " (" neither must wee depend upon the verdite of some conceled Philosophers "), which Grosart also notices in connection with the well-known remark about " concealed poets " in one of Bacon's letters.^ Grosart is careful to repudiate any taint of " heresy " on that subject, but he says " it seemed worth making a note of" (v. 305). To return to Spenser's Colin Clout, conjectures as to the identity of the other poets referred to in the poem will be found in Todd. I have nothing to add to what is said there except to say that I think " Corydon " probably stands for Donne. The last syllable suggests the name,^ and the description tallies with the facts : And there is Corydon though meanly waged. Yet hablest wit of most I know this day. As a poet Donne's range is not extensive, but he was probably the strongest intellect of his time, and is described ' "So desiring you to be good to concealed poets." — Letter to "Mr. Davys [Sir John Davies, poet] then going to the King," aSth March 1603. Spedciing, Life, iii. 65. ^ Cf. the pun on the name of " Somerset " in the Prothalamion (st. 4). XIII SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 349 by Dryden as " the greatest wit, though not the greatest poet, of our nation." I am not aware that anything is known of his movements at the time when this poem was published, but he is said to have taken service in the expedition of Essex against Cadiz in 1596, so it is quite possible that he was previously employed (after quitting Lincoln's Inn, where he read law) in some capacity in the Earl's establishment. On his return to England he became Secretary to Lord Keeper Egerton, whose niece he subsequently married. His name appears in Aubrey's notes on Bacon among his " admirers and acquaintances." Among the ladies of the Court occur, under various names, those to whom the poems are dedicated : the Queen (" Cynthia ") ; Mary, Countess of Pembroke ("Urania"); Anne,^ Countess of Warwick (" Theana ") ; Margaret, Countess of Cumberland (" Marian ") ; ^ Helena, Marquess of Northampton (" Mansilia ") ; the three sisters, the Ladies Hunsdon, Dorset and Derby, daughters of Sir John Spencer (" Phyllis," " Charyllis " and " Amaryllis "). " Stella " is, of course, supposed to be Penelope, Lady Rich, sister of Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, an interpreta- tion which is incompatible with Spenser's " Astrophel " poem of the same year, to be dealt with presently. In connection with the question of the place and date of the dedication, " From my house of Kilcolman, the 27 of December, 1591," four points may be noted : 1. The death of Ferdinando, 5th Earl of Derby, who is evidently referred to under " Amyntas," ^ did not occur until April 1594. 2. Spenser was hardly likely to hear of the publication of Daniel's sonnets in Ireland. 3. The statement that — There learned arts do florish in great honor. And Poets wits are had in peerlesse price, is inconsistent with the " complaints " on this subject in 1 Called "Marie" in the dedication to the Fowre Hymms, but "Anne" is the recognised name, and so appears in the Beauchamp mortuary chapel at Warwick. But " Marie" may be intentional ; see p. 504 below. 2 Todd. 3 Cf. p. 65 above. 350 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the Teares of the Muses published the same year (see Chapter VI.). '-: 4. Ralegh disclaims, in one of his letters, any loss of favour at Court in 1589,^ though there is evidence that he took the opportunity of going to Ireland in that year owing to some temporary quarrel arising out of the rivalry of Essex. But no serious breach with the Queen occurred until 1592, when he was imprisoned in the Tower, and refused access for several years, owing to his marriage with Elizabeth Throgmorton. During the greater part of 1595, when this poem was published, Ralegh was exploring the Orinoco. The explanation usually given is that the poem was revised by the author before it was published in 1595 ; but he was in Ireland, and even if he was able, and had the necessary information, to revise the poem in com- munication with Ralegh in London, why should he have left the date of the dedication ? My own belief is that the poem was written in London in 1594 or 1595, and was intended to prepare the way for the second portion of the Faerie Queene, which appeared in 1596, and incidentally to plead with the Queen in Ralegh's favour. I think also that the purpose of the dedication, as well as of the very general Irish allusions, was to give colour to the pretence that the poem was written by Spenser in Ireland after his return from his first visit. The poem Astrophel, which belongs to 1595, though comparatively a poor and artificial piece, is interesting from its bearing on the problem of the identity of " Stella." The poem is an elegy on the death of Sir Philip Sidney (which occurred in 1586), and is dedicated to his widow, Frances VValsingham, who was then, and since the year 1590, the wife of the Earl of Essex. The words used are : " Dedicated to the most beautifuU and vertuous ladie, the Countesse of Essex." In language of " pastoral " 1 See p. 418, notCy and letter given at p. 445 below. XIII SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 351 verse the devotion of Sidney, under the name of " Astrophel," to " Stella " is described : For one alone he cared, for one he sigh't, His life's desire, and his deare loves delight. Stella the faire, the fairest star in skie, Her he did love, her he alone did honor. His thoughts, his rimes, his songs were all upon her. Of onely her he sung, he thought, he writ. Lady Sidney nursed her husband, and was with him at his death, at Arnhem, and this is alluded to in the poem : They stopt his wound, (too late to stop it was !) And in their armes then softly did him reare : Tho (as he wild) unto his loved lasse, His dearest love, him dolefully did beare. At his death her grief is represented as so great that she could not bear to live without him, and they are transformed by the gods — pittying this paire of lovers trew, . . . into one flowre. Nothing could be more explicit than these statements, and they clearly point, if words mean anything, to Sidney's widow. Moreover, it is inconceivable that such a poem should have been dedicated to the widow if the " Stella " of it was any one but herself. Further, she was actually at the time not only Sidney's widow, but, by her marriage with the Earl of Essex, sister-in-law of Penelope Rich, the lady of whom Sidney is supposed to have been enam.oured. With this poem was published a collection of similar tributes to Sidney. The first, "The Doleful Lay of Clorinda," purports to be by Sidney's sister, the Countess of Pembroke ; but the internal evidence shows, in my opinion, that it is written for her, or in her person, by Spenser himself. It evades the subject of " Stella," 352 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. merely referring generally to Sidney's pleasant vein in " love-layes " and " riddles," and ends by introducing other elegies, the first being by " Thestylis." A note, presumably by the editor of the "Globe" edition, states that " this and the succeeding Poem [which is initialled * L. B.'] are supposed to have been written by Lodowick Bryskett." They are very feeble compositions, and I only allude to them in connection with the question of the identity of "Stella." In the first she is again (as in Spenser's elegy) clearly alluded to as Sidney's widow : Ah ! that thou hadst but heard his lovely Stella plaine Her greevous losse, 'As here with thee on earth I liv'd.' ' Alas, if thou my trustie guide Were wont to be, how canst thou leave me thus alone In darknesse and astray ; weake, wearie, desolate, Plung'd in a world of woe, refusing for to take Me with thee to the place of rest where thou art gone ! ' The second elegy is in " pastoral " form, and in the course of it the writer refers to himself (in the person of " Lycon ") as having accompanied Sidney (" Phillisides ") over the " Alps and Appenine " — Still with the Muses sporting. There is no evidence in the Languet correspondence that Sidney at this time took any interest in poetry, or in literary pursuits, apart from their use in his training for public affairs. This, and the manifest incapacity of the writer in the art of versifying, suggest that the allusion is a general one in which "the Muses" represent (as frequently in Spenser, and elsewhere) general studies. Lower down occur, in the conventional language of the pastoral, " his sweet caroling," " his pipe," and the lines — Loe where engraved by his hands yet lives The name of Stella \n yonder bay tree. The next elegy is said to be written by Matthew Roydon, and, though not a very good poem, is attractive. XIII SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 353 from its quaintness and individuality of style. Among Sidney's various accomplishments, his interest in learning generally is alluded to : Within these woods of Arcadie He chiefe delight and pleasure tooke, And on the mountaine Parthenie, Upon the chrystall liquid brooke, The Muses met him ev'ry day That taught him sing, to write, and say. His grave habit, so much admired by the English of the day, is alluded to : A sweete attractive kinde of grace, A full assurance given by lookes, Continuall comfort in his face. The lineaments of Gospell bookes ; I trowe that countenance cannot lie Whose thoughts are legible in the eie. A reference then evidently follows to the " Astrophel and Stella " sonnets, and as the writer apparently does not regard Sidney's wife as " Stella," he takes the line that Sidney's intentions were honourable. The passage is of studied vagueness, and is worth close attention in connec- tion with the references to this subject in the preceding poems : Then being fild with learned dew. The Muses willed him to love ; That instrument can aptly shew, How finely our conceits will move : As Bacchus opes dissembled harts. So Love sets out our better parts. Stella, a Nymph within this wood, Most rare and rich of heavenly blis. The highest in his fancie stood, And she could well demerite this : Tis likely they acquainted soone ; He was a Sun, and she a Moone. Our Astrophill did Stella love ; O Stella, vaunt of Astrophill, Albeit thy graces gods may move, Where wilt thou finde an Astrophill I The rose and lillie have their prime. And so hath beautie but a time. 2 A 354 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Although thy beautie do exceed, In common sight of ev'ry eie, Yet in his Poesies when we reede, It is apparant more thereby, He that hath love and judgement too Sees more than any other doo. Then Astrophill hath honord thee ; For when thy bodie is extinct, Thy graces shall eternall be And live by vertue of his inke ; For by his verses he doth give To short-livde beautie aye to live. Above all others this is hee, Which erst approoved in his song, That love and honor might agree, And that pure love will do no wrong. Sweet saints ! it is no sinne nor blame. To love a man cf vertuous name. Did never love so sweetly breath In any mortall brest before, Did never Muse inspire beneath A Poets braine with finer store : He wrote of love with high conceit. And beautie reard above her height. The collection closes with two short poems, the author- ship of which is stated in a note to be unknown. The first is entitled " An Epitaph," etc. ; the second is described as " Another of the Same." From the style of these two poems, respectively, it can hardly be doubted that they are by different hands. The first is a really fine poem, the best in the collection. The metre is an example — I suppose one of the earliest ^ — of that used by Tennyson for his In Memoriam, the tone is noble and dignified, and the mastery of form is such as only a practised writer could attain. The poem deals with Sidney's lineage, his gifts, his achievements as a representative Englishman, and his untimely death, and the onl}' reference to him as a ' One in Sidney's Psalms is mentioned in the Pnct. Nat. Biogr. (art. P. .Sidney), but it is not a true example, the 2nd and 3rd lines having " weak " endings, which are incongruous with the strong endings in lines i and 4. XIII SPENSEK\S MINOR POEMS 355 poet is contained in the splendid but vague allusion in the last stanza. The eighth, ninth, and last stanzas may be quoted : Whence to sharpe wars sweet honor did thee call, Thy countries love, rehgion, and thy friends : Of worthy men the marks, the lives, and ends, And her defence, for whom we labor all. There didst thou vanquish shame and tedious age, Griefe, sorrow, sicknes, and base fortunes might : Thy rising day saw never wofull night, But past with praise from off this worldly stage. • • • • • That day their Hanniball died, our Scipio fell ; Scipio, Cicero, and Petrarch of our time ! Whose vertues, wounded by my worthlesse rime. Let Angels speake, and heaven thy praises tell. In his Life of Spenser, J. Payne Collier pointed out that it is " established by the evidence of a contemporary " that this poem is by Sir Walter Ralegh : And our English Petrarke, Sir Philip Sidney, or (as Sir Walter Raleigh, in his epitaph, worthily calleth him) the Scipio and the Petrarke of our time, often comforting himselfe in the Sonets of Stella. — Sir John Harington : note in his translation of the Orlando Furioso, Canto xvi., published 1591. Drummond of Hawthornden also says : " S. W, R., in an epitaph on Sidney, calleth him our English Petrarch." It is evident from this that the poem was in circulation in Ralegh's name, but the features and occupations of his life up to this time, and the quality of his correspondence, preclude, in my opinion, the possibility of his having been the author of such a poem. This will be further ex- plained when I come to deal with what I believe to be the Ralegh " impersonation." ^ The second epitaph, entitled " Another of the Same," is a very inferior production, in the old-fashioned six and seven metre.^ It appears to be written by some one who was an intimate friend of Sidney on equal terms, * See Chapter XVI. - See p. 227 above. 356 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. possibly Sir Fulke Greville. It contains no allusion to " Stella," but praises Sidney's qualities in general terms, e.g. — He was (wo worth that word !) to ech well thinking minde A spotlesse friend, a matchles man, whose vertue ever shinde. Declaring in his thoughts, his life, and that he writ, Highest conceits, longest foresights, and deepest works of wit. From the foregoing extracts the reader who is familiar with the " Astrophel and Stella " sonnet sequel will perceive that a difficult problem presents itself, because it is held to be beyond question that the " Stella " of these sonnets was Penelope Devereux, the wife of Lord Rich. Philip Sidney was born in November 1554. Penelope Devereux was the eldest daughter of Walter Devereux, first Earl of Essex, by his wife Lettice Knollys. It is considered that she was born probably about i562ori563. In July 1575 the Queen was entertained by the Earl of Leicester at Kenilworth, where the Countess of Essex was among the guests. From there the Court moved to Chartley (August 1575), the seat of the Earl of Essex, where Sidney is supposed to have first met Penelope, then a girl of twelve or thirteen. Subsequently they became betrothed, and the Earl, who died in September of the following year, expressed the earnest hope that the marriage, which apparently met with the approval of Sir Henry Sidney, should take place. For reasons, however, which are not known (but which I suspect were connected with money) the match was broken off, and Penelope was married, apparently against her own inclinations, to Lord Rich. It is not known for certain when this marriage took place, but it was after March i 5 8 i and probably in that year. By him she is said to have had seven children. At some time before 1595 — perhaps about 1590 — Charles Blount (Lord Mountjoy) became her lover, and after the execution of her brother Robert, Earl of Essex, in 1 60 1, her husband left her by some arrangement, and she lived with Mountjoy. By him she had several children. Later she was legally divorced from her husband. Though living with Mountjoy as his wife she was recognised and XIII SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 357 honourably received at Court by King James and the Queen, until Mountjoy (then Earl of Devonshire) married her in 1605, when, owing apparently to scruples of the King and the Archbishop as to the validity of the marriage, and the displeasure at the scandal aroused, they both fell into disfavour. Mountjoy died shortly afterwards (1606), and his widow is said to have died in the following year.^ A letter from Penelope Rich to the Earl of Nottingham (Admiral Lord Howard of Effingham), written after the execution of her brother (in a postscript of which she mentions Mountjoy, then engaged on the Irish campaign), is given in Goodman's Court of King James, vol. ii. (ed. Brewer). It seems to indicate in the writer a woman of good feeling and sense. Frances Walsingham was the daughter of Sir Francis VValsingham, diplomatist and secretary, by his second wife, whom he married about 1567. She was married to Sir Philip Sidney in 1583, when she was perhaps about fifteen years old. The theory of the sonnets is that though Sidney had every opportunity of marrying Penelope Devereux, and was writing love sonnets about her from the date of his first acquaintance in i57 5. it was not until she became married to another that he realised his passion for her, and that then it became over- whelming and was not interrupted by his marriage in 1583. The theory takes insufficient account of the fact that marriages in the upper classes in those days were formal alliances which depended less on individual choice than the interests of the respective families. It fails also entirely to account for the emphatic contradiction of any infidelity by Sidney, even in thought, in the poem of Spenser, who is supposed to have been an intimate friend ; and to account also for the fact that there is no suggestion of any such intrigue in Sidney's correspondence, or in his will, where his wife is mentioned with affection — " my most dear and loving Wife, Dame Frances Sidney, whom I make my sole Executrix " — or in the relations of his death- bed experiences. Nor has the belated tribute of Spenser 1 Diet. Nat. Biogr., " Penelope Rich." 358 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. (nine years after Sidney's death), with the peculiar collection attached to it, been explained. My idea is that just as the Arcadia was fastened on to Sidney, in that case with his consent, so his name was used for the " Astrophel and Stella " sonnets, the bearing of which he would not appreciate, partly because he took little interest in literature of that kind, partly because, being produced separately and from time to time, the purport of the sonnets, as a sequence, would not be recognised. A few of them, for instance, seem clearly to be written for him, or, at any rate, in his name ; others, by themselves, might apply to him, or indeed to any one ; but, taken as a whole, they are utterly foreign to Sidney's character, as preserved to us by contemporary opinion, and as reflected in his surviving letters. So soon, how- ever, as they appeared in a collected sequence, that is in I 591, when, five years after Sidney's death, a printer, as is supposed, brought them out (together with the " Delia " sonnets above referred to), the effect of them, as I take it, was apparent ; and for reasons which are not known, but which have been conjectured to be the protest of Sidney's friends, the unauthorised edition was suppressed.^ I have alluded above to the circumstances attending the first publication of these sonnets, and I must now dis- cuss them somewhat more fully. They appeared anony- mously under the following description : " Sir P. S. His Astrophel and Stella. Wherein the excellence of sweete Poesie is concluded. To the end of which are added sundry other rare Sonnets of divers Noblemen and Gentlemen, Printed for Thomas Newman, 1591." In an address to " the worshipfull and his very good ' In the article on Sir Philip Sidney in the Diet. Nat. Biogr., the writer (Sir Sidney Lee) states that " Sidney's friends in September 1 591 appealed to Lord Burghley to procure the suppression of this unauthorised venture (cf. Arber, Stationers' Registers, i. 555)." This may have been so, but it is only an inference, and it might equally well have been the friends of Lady Rich. The entry in the Register (under items dispensed by the Wardens between July 1 591 and July 1592) is undated, as follows : " Item paid to John Wolf when he ryd with an answere to my Lord Treasurer beinge with her maiestie in progress for the takinge in of bookes intituled Sir V : S: A strophell and Stella, xv^" XIII SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 359 Freende, Ma. Frauncis Flower, Esquire," Newman gives the following account of his venture : It was my fortune (right worshipful!) not many daies since, to light upon the famous deuice of Astrophel and Stella, which carrying the generall commendation of all men of judgement, and being reported to be one of the rarest things that euer any Englishman set abroach, I haue thought good to publish it under your name. . . . and he adds that- — being spred abroade in written coppies, it had gathered much corruption by ill Writers : I have used their helpe and advice in correcting and restoring it to his first dignitie, that I knowe were of skill and experience in those matters. Who could have done this office for such exceptional work ? Certainly not Sidney's relatives or friends, if, as is suggested, they objected to the publication. Are we then to suppose that Thomas Nashe, who writes an Address to the Reader, was the " editor " ? But Nashe was a youth at Cambridge when Sidney died in 1586, nothing under his name appeared until 1589, he could have had no experience of Sidney's entourage, and from his own accounts of himself and his circumstances he was the last person in the world to be in a position to undertake such a delicate task. The addresses by Newman and Nashe are, in my opinion, only the machinery by which the real author effected the launching of the " impersonation " under which he lies concealed. The style of Nashe's address is one of brilliant effrontery, as may be seen from the following extracts : Somewhat to reade for Them that list Tempus adest plausus, aiirea pompa venil, so endes the Sceane of Idiots, and enter Astrophel in pompe. Gentlemen that have scene a thousand lines of folly, drawn forth ex uno puticto impu- denticB, ... let not your surfeted sight, new come from such puppet play, think scorne to turn aside into this Theatre of pleasure, for here you shall find a paper stage streud with pearle, an artificial heau'n to ouershadow the faire frame, and christal wals to encounter your curious eyes, whiles the tragicommody of loue is 36o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. performed by starlight. The chiefe Actor here is Melpomene, whose dusky robes dipt in the ynke of teares, as yet seeme to drop when I view them neere. The Argument cruell chastitie, the Prologue hope, the Epilogue dispaire, videte quceso ei Unguis animisque fauete. He continues : Long hath Astrophel (Englands Sunne) withheld the beames of his spirite, from the common view of our darke sence, and night hath houered over the gardens of the nine Sisters, while Ignis fat jws, and grosse fatty flames (such as commonly arise out of Dunghilles) haue tooke occasion in the middest eclipse of his shining perfections, to wander a broade with a whispe of paper at their tailes like Hobgoblins, and leade men up and downe in a circle of absurditie a whole weeke, and neuer know where they are. There is some extravagant and, in the circumstances, rather familiar eulogy of the Countess of Pembroke, in which she is referred to as " the fayre sister of Phcebus, and eloquent secretary to the Muses, most rare Countesse of Pembroke . . . whom Artes doe adore as a second Minerua, and our Poets extoll as the Patronesse of their inuention . . ." ; and the address is signed, " Yours in all desire to please, Tho: Nashe." The volume contains, in addition to the " Astrophel and Stella" sonnets, twenty-seven sonnets by Daniel, and sundry short pieces by " Content," " E. O." (Edward Vere, Earl of Oxford), and one unsigned piece, with which the volume ends, "If flouds of teares could dense my follies past," which would appear to be by Nashe himself. After the suppression of this book Daniel brought out an " authorised " edition of the " Delia " sonnets in the ensuing year (1592), with an address, of which the following is the material portion : To the Right Honourable the Ladie Mary Countesse of Pembroke Right Honorable, although I rather desired to keep in the private passions of my youth, from the multitude, as things utterd to myselfe, and consecrated to silence : yet seeing I was betraide by the indiscretion of a greedie Printer, and had some of my secrets bewraide to the world, uncorrected : doubting the like of the rest, I am forced to publish that which I never ment. XIII SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 361 But this wrong was not onely doone to mee, but to him whose unmatchable lines have endured the hke misfortune ; Ignorance sparing not to commit sacriledge upon so holy reliques. Yet Asirophel flying with the wings of his own fame, a higher pitch then the gross-sighted can discerne, hath registered his owne name in the Annals of eternitie, and cannot be disgraced, howso- ever disguised. And for myselfe, seeing I am thrust out into the worlde, and that my unboldned Muse is forced to appeare so rawly in publique ; I desire onely to be graced by the counten- ance of your protection : whome the fortune of our time hath made the happie and judiciall Patronesse of the Muses (a glory hereditary to your house) to preserve them from those hidious Beestes, Oblivion and Barbarisme. . . . Now this is not in Daniel's manner or style. The style, to my mind, is clearly that of the writer of the address of 1591, namely Nashe, It was superseded in 1594, in a later edition of the "Delia" sonnets, by an address to the Countess of Pembroke in verse, in the respectful style which Daniel always adopts on such occasions.^ Moreover the sonnets do not bear out the allegation that he was " forced to publish " that which he " never ment " ; there are expressions in them which show that they were written for publication, and that Daniel was anxious to come before the world. Daniel, being dependent on the Countess of Pembroke, and others in a similar position, for a livelihood, was probably very much disturbed by the proceedings in con- nection with the volume of 1591, and it seems likely that the address of 1592 was written for him by " Nashe," with the object of clearing him from suspicion (under ' Wonder of these, glory of other times, O thou whom Envy ev'n is forst t'admyre : Great Patronesse of these my humble Rymes, Which thou from out thy greatnes doost inspire : Sith only thou hast deign'd to rayse them higher, Vouchsafe now to accept them as thine owne, Begotten by thy hand, and my desire, W'herein my Zeale, and thy great might is shovvne. And seeing this unto the world is knowne, O leave not still to grace thy worke in mee : Let not the quickning seede be over-throwne Of that which may be borne to honour thee. Whereof, the travaile I may challenge mine. But yet the glory (Madam) must be thine. 362 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. which he would naturally fall) of some responsibility for the offending publication. It is relevant to observe that the " Astrophel and Stella " sequence was not published until after the Arcadia^ the first edition of which appeared in 1590 as "The Countesse of Pembroke's Arcadia," with the Sidney arms on the title-page.^ This cleared the way for the sonnet sequence in Sidney's name. I think that the " Astrophel " collection in Spenser of 1595, which we have been con- sidering, represents an attempt on the part of the author to undo the damage to Sidney's reputation caused by the publication of the sonnets, by representing " Stella " as Sidney's wife. This may have been done at the request of the Countess of Pembroke, who was perhaps ignorant of the history of the 159 1 publication, but this need not necessarily have been so. It would account for Spenser's tardy and artificial tribute, and for the inclusion with it of inferior poems by other writers bearing similar testimony. The author of the " Astrophel and Stella " sonnets, when he began them, was evidently very young. The passion represented is, to my mind, genuine (at least up to a point), not fictitious. But it is " cerebral " rather than normal, and is marked all through by the irresolution which proceeds from excessive sensibility and conscious- ness of motive. In the portrait which the writer draws of the woman — or girl — appears tenderness combined with a sense of duty, which takes the form of an appeal to his higher nature, as much on his account as on hers. For himself there is a conflict between passion and duty, not so much on moral grounds as from the point of view of the distraction of mind occasioned, and loss of time which is devoted to purposes beyond the satisfaction of individual feeling. The same thought is developed in Spenser and in Shakespeare, and an interesting illustration of it may be seen in the letters of Keats. It is probably present, more or less, in the mind of every man who is conscious ' After the first edition these arms disappear, and in their place a fancy design is substituted of a boar sniffing a rosemary (?) bush, on which is the motto " Non tibi spiro." The porcupine of the crest is also transformed into a boar. (See editions of 1593, etc.) XIII SFENSER'S MINOR POEMS 363 of a mission, whether in the field of reh'gion, art, or practical ambition. To illustrate these points from the sonnets would take me too far, but I will quote three in which the author more particularly takes stock of his own nature. It is important to bear in mind that the last lines in each case belong, more or less, to the conventions of the sonnet-sequence form, and are not therefore neces- sarily of the same interest as those which precede them. XXIII The curious wits, seeing dull Pensiveness Bewray itself in my long-settled eyes, Whence those same fumes of melancholy rise, With idle pains and missing aim, do guess. Some, that know how my spring I did address. Deem that my Muse some fruit of knowledge plies ; Others, because the prince my service tries. Think that I think State errors to redress : But harder judges judge ambition's rage — Scourge of itself, still climbing slippery place — Holds my young brain captiv'd in golden cage. O fools, or overwise : alas, the race Of all my thoughts hath neither stop nor start But only Stella's eyes and Stella's heart. XXVII Because I oft in dark abstracted guise Seem most alone in greatest company, With dearth of words, or answers quite awry, To them that would make speech of speech arise ; They deem, and of their doom the rumour flies, That poison foul of bubbling pride doth lie So in my swelling breast, that only I Fawn on myself, and others do despise. Yet pride I think doth not my soul possess (Which looks too oft in this unflattering glass) : But one worse fault, ambition, I confess. That makes me oft my best friends overpass. Unseen, unheard, while thought to highest place Bends all his powers, even unto Stella's grace. LXIV No more, my dear, no more these counsels try ; O give my passions leave to run their race ; Let Fortune lay on me her worst disgrace ; Let folk o'ercharged with brain against me cry ; 364 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Let clouds bedim my face, break in mine eye ; Let me no steps but of lost labour trace ; Let all the earth with scorn recount my case, — But do not will me from my love to fly. I do not envy Aristotle's wit,^ Nor do aspire to Caesar's bleeding fame ; ^ Nor ought do care though some above me sit ; Nor hope nor wish another course to frame, But that which once may win thy cruel heart : Thou art my wit, and thou my virtue art. These sonnets appear to me to belong to one period,'^ and to be concerned, probably from the beginning, with a woman who was married. If she was Lady Rich, they would have been begun in 1581, perhaps in 1580. Whether they more fitly describe the staid and sober son of Sir Henry Sidney, then a man of twenty-six or twenty- seven, firm in his friendships and in high favour with the Queen, or the young genius of nineteen or twenty who, without any assured prospects, had taken the highest sphere of action, as well as all knowledge, to be his portion, I leave the reader to weigh and consider.^ For my own part I believe them to be the work of the latter. It might be suggested that, in that case, " Rosalind," described in the " April " eclogue of the SJiepheards Calender as " the Widdowes daughter of the glenne," was also Penelope Devereux, as in September 1576 the Countess of Essex was a widow, until, in September 1578, she married the Earl of Leicester. " E. K." also is careful to explain that she was " a Gentlewoman of no meane house, nor endewed with anye vulgare and common gifts, both of nature and manners." But it is unlike the poet's method to give a clue which might lead so readily to identification ; rather it is his habit in such cases to mislead, while at the same time leaving an indica- ' These are examples to which Bacon perpetually refers in his writings. See, for example (as regards Aristotle), the extract given at p. 156. His criticisms of Aristotle do, in fact, suggest envy of his influence, and his admira- tion of Caesar is, in part, that of the man of thought for the man of action. 2 Arber suggests 158 1 to 1584. Sidney left England in November 1584. 3 Compare the letter of Bacon (act. 31) to Burghley, where, from obvious motives, he disclaims political ambition and discusses his projects in the field of intellect (.Spedding, Life, i. 108). XIII SPENSER'S MINOR POEMS 365 tion in some other direction of his real meaning. Yet it seems probable that there was some woman, poetically described as " Rosalind," who, during the whole period of time covered by the Spenser poems, appealed to the imagination of the writer, and if that was so, she could not naturally (on my theory of the authorship) have been any one but the love addressed, at some time in the same period, as " Stella." The following passages from the Spenser poems will enable the reader to see the grounds for this statement. In the Hymne in Honour of Beautie (an early work) is the phrase — . . . she, whose conquering beautie doth captive My trembling heart in her eternall chaine. At the close of Colin Clouts where " Rosalind " is blamed for using him so hardly, Colin defends her in a speech containing the following lines : Not then to her that scorned thing so base, But to my selfe the blame that lookt so hie : And long affliction which I have endured ; That hers I die, nought to the world denying This simple trophe of her great conquest. In that poem also he alludes, as I think, to the same love in the lines — For that my selfe 1 do professe to be Vassall to one, whom all my dayes I serve, To her my thoughts I daily dedicate, My thought, my heart, my love, my life is shee, And I hers ever onely, ever one ; One ever I all vowed hers to bee, One ever I, and others never none.^ In Book VI. Canto x. of the Faerie Queene, where — Calidore sees the Graces daunce To Colins melody, 1 As this poem was published the year after Spenser's supposed marriage, these allusions present a great difficulty. See Chapter XIV. 366 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CH. xin the same love apparently is referred to as " another Damzell," and is seen with the three Graces : That with her goodly presence all the rest much graced. (12.) She was, to weete, that jolly Shepheards lasse, Pype, jolly shepheard, pype thou now apace Unto thy love that made thee low to lout ; Thy love is present there with thee in place ; Thy love is there advaunst to be another Grace. ^ (16.) Yet was she certes but a countrey lasse ; Yet she all other countrey lasses farre did passe. (25.) With these tributes there are sometimes mixed up appeals to the Queen couched in the language of love, as, for example, in the last stanza of the Hymne in Honour of Beautie : And you, faire Venus dearling, my deare dread ! Fresh flowre of grace, great Goddesse of my life. When your faire eyes these fearefuU lines shal read, Deigne to let fall one drop of dew reliefe, That may recure my harts long pyning griefe. And shew that wondrous powre your beauty hath. That can restore a damned wight from death. The episode in Book VI. Canto x. of the Faerie Qneene, above referred to, closes with a stanza in which the two strains of feeling are similarly interwoven : Sunne of the world, great glory of the sky That all the earth doest lighten with thy rayes. Great Gloriana, greatest Majesty ! Pardon thy shepheard, mongst so many layes As he hath sung of thee in all his dayes. To make one minime of thy poore handmayd. And underneath thy feete to place her prayse ; That when thy glory shall be farre displayd To future age, of her this mention may be made ! It is hard to believe that these expressions of feeling had no basis in actual experience. What that may have been lies evidently in the identification of " Rosalind " ; but I must leave the remarks which I may have to offer on that subject for a later chapter. ' Cf. Eclogue for "April." CHAPTER XIV SPENSER AND RALEGH : THE " AMORETTI " AND " EPITHALAMION " Among the " Verses addressed to the Author " which are prefixed to the Faerie Queene, some, in my opinion, are by the same hand. The identity of style seems to me unmis- takable, and the style is that of the author of the poem. The first two pieces, including the famous — Me thought I saw the grave where Laura lay, are attributed to Sir Walter Ralegh, the second, entitled " Another of the Same," being initialled " W. R." ; the third is signed " Hobynoll," which is supposed to stand for Gabriel Harvey ; the fourth, fifth and sixth bear the initials, respectively, R. S., H. B., and W. L. ; and the last is signed " Ignoto," a signature which belongs to a number of poems which have been attributed on the strength of it (though without authority) to Ralegh. It also appears in early editions as an alternative to Ralegh's signature. Thus the " Reply " to the song attributed to Marlowe, " Come live with me," was printed in 1 600 with the signature Ignoto, but in Walton's Conipleat Angler, 1653, as " made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days." ^ To " The Shepherd's Praise of his sacred Diana " in England's Helicon, 1600, Ralegh's initials were first affixed, but were obliterated by pasting over them a slip of paper with the word " Ignoto.""'^ Hannah also states that Lord Bacon's poem " The world's a bubble " is signed " Fra. ' Hannah's Courtly Poets, p. 1 1 . 2 /did. p. 77. 367 368 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Lord Bacon " in all editions after the first, where it is marked " Ignoto." ^ An even more remarkable instance of the ambiguity which attaches to these two signatures occurs in the two following poems (taken from pp. 29 and 120 of Hannah's volume) : What is our life ? The play of passion. Our mirth ? The music of division : Our mothers' wombs the tiring-houses be, Where we are dressed for life's short comedy. The earth the stage ; Heaven the spectator is,2 Who sits and views whosoe'er doth act amiss. The graves which hide us from the scorching sun Are like drawn curtains when the play is done. Thus playing post we to our latest rest, And then we die in earnest, not in jest. S^ W. R,3 Man's life's a tragedy : his mother's womb. From which he enters, is the tiring room ; This spacious earth the theatre ; and the stage That country which he lives in : passions, rage, Folly, and vice are actors ; the first cry. The prologue to the ensuing tragedy ; The former act consisteth of dumb shows ; The second, he to more perfection grows ; I' the third he is a man, and doth begin To nurture vice, and act the deeds of sin ; r the fourth, declines ; I' the fifth, diseases clog And trouble him ; then death's his epilogue. iGNOTO.* I conclude that the claim for the Ralegh authorship of these two poems is based on the identity of thought and style, but that constitutes an equally good ground • Hannah's Courtly Poets, p. 117. 2 Compare Bacon, Adv. of Learning : "But men must know, that in this theatre of man's life, it is reserved only for God and angels to be lookers on." Also Spenser, Sonnet liv. : *' Of this world's Theatre in which we stay. My love, lyke the Spectator, ydly sits." ' " From a MS. formerly belonging to the late Mr. Pickering. It was printed anonymously in a music-book of 1612 : see ' Censura Lit.,' vol. ii. p. 103, 2nd edition ; and is found also in MS. Ashm. 36, p. 35, and MS. Ashm. 38, fol. 154." (Editor's note.) * " ' Rel. Wotton. ' Claimed without authority for Ralegh by Brydges and the Oxford editors." (Editor's note.) XIV SPENSEK AND RALEGH 369 for claiming them both for " Ignoto," and I suppose even the greatest Ralegh enthusiasts do not claim all the poems signed " Ignoto " for Ralegh. 1 regard them as indis- putably the work of the same hand, and the hand as that of " Immerito" of the Shepheards Calender. I believe the two signatures were adopted by the writer at an early age, when he was not making use of the name of a real person, to express the idea that he was as yet undeserving and unknown. That a writer should address a succession of commendatory verses to himself may seem extraordinary, and no doubt it is ; but I have already drawn attention to the extraordinary self-praise which appears in the body of Spenser's poems, and I have no doubt that this was one of the peculiarities of the genius of which we are writing ; also, apart from this, that it was deliberate as a means of " advertisement " in an age when there were no press reviews. Another example of this is to be found, in my belief, in the two sonnets signed " G. W. Senior " and " G. W. I." (? junior) prefixed to Spenser's Avioretti. The second, at least, seems to me to be the work of the author. It is interesting in this connection to note that Thomas Nashe accuses Gabriel Harvey of himself writing the well-known sonnet addressed to him by Spenser : ^ Onely I will looke upon the last sonnet of M. Spencers to the right worshipful! Maister G. H., Doctour of the lawes : or it may so fall out that I will not looke upon it too, because (Gabriell) though I vehemently suspect it to bee of thy owne doing, it is popt foorth under M. Spencers name, and his name is able to sanctifie anything, though falsely ascribed to it. — Foure Letters Confuted, i593- In both the explanatory letter and the sonnet addressed to Ralegh and prefixed to the Faerie Queene the writer alludes to a poem by Ralegh about the Queen, which he is supposed to be keeping back. 1 "Harvey, the happy above happiest men I read ; that, silting like a Looker-on Of this worldes Stage," etc. (Dated from "Dublin, this xviij. of July, 1586." Published by Harvey, 1592, Faun: Letters.) 2 B 370 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. In the letter he says : For considering she beareth two persons, the one of a most royall Queene or Empresse, the other of a most vertuous and beautiful! Lady, this latter part in some places I doe expresse in Belphoebe, fashioning her name according to your more excellent conceipt of Cynthia (Phoebe and Cynthia being both names of Diana). In the sonnet he addresses Ralegh as — the sommers Nightingale, Thy soveraine Goddesses most deare delight. My rimes I know unsavory and sowre. To taste the streams that, Hke a golden showre, Flow from thy fruitful! head, of thy love's praise ; Fitter, perhaps, to thonder Martial! stowre, When so thee list thy lofty Muse to raise : Yet, till that thou thy Poeme wilt make knowne, Let thy fair Cynthias praises be thus rudely showne. It will be observed that by this allusion the author of the Faerie Queene disclaims any competition with Ralegh, even in the field of poetry, in doing honour to Queen Elizabeth, though in the poem itself he makes use of the language of love, on his own behalf, in addressing her. The same attitude is taken up in the introduction to Book III. of the Faerie Queene, where Ralegh's poem is referred to as beyond anything he can do : that sweete verse, with Nectar sprinckeled, In which a gracious servaunt pictured His Cynthia, his heavens fayrest light, etc. A further reference to Ralegh's mysterious poem occurs in Colin Clouts Come Home Again. "Harvey" refers to it in 1590 as "a fine and sweet invention," and the anonymous author of the Arte of English Poesie, published in 1589, commends Ralegh as a poet in the following passage : For ditty and amorous ode I find Sir Walter Raleigh's vein most lofty, insolent and passionate. In a fantastic piece of writing called " Palladis Tamia," ^ ' This is another piece by a writer of genius (of the character of the supposed •' Puttcnham ") who is never heard of in such sul)jccts again, XIV SPENSER AND RALEGH 371 1598, by one Francis Meres, Sir Walter Ralegh is also mentioned as one of " the most passionate among us to bewail and bemoan the perplexities of love." The question naturally occurs, how did Spenser become so intimate with Sir Walter Ralegh ? For ten years at least (from 1580 to 1590) Spenser, on the accepted facts of his life, was in Ireland. It is assumed by some writers that he made Ralegh's acquaintance there at the time of his first going over with Lord Grey. Such speculations, however, seem superfluous in view of the description in Colin Clouts Co7ne Home Again of what purports to be their first meeting. If we may accept the story of that poem (and it is on such evidence that the whole of Spenser's " biography " as a poet has been constructed), Spenser first made Ralegh's acquaintance in Ireland in 1589, just before the publication of the first three books of the Faerie Queene. Now the Squire " Timias " of the poem apparently contains an allusion, under certain aspects, to Ralegh. Presumably the three books were completed when Ralegh visited Kilcolman, as described in Colin Clout. In these circumstances how comes it that a man in Spenser's position, unacquainted with either Ralegh or the Queen, could have had the temerity to write about them in the terms used in Canto V. of Book III. of the Faerie Queene} Still more, why should such a man have gone out of his way to risk the handling of such a delicate subject as the Queen's attach- ment for Ralegh and the reports which were current about it ? ^ (See particularly stanzas 44, 47 and 54.) On the other hand, in the View of the Present State of Ireland, there is a reference to " Smerwick " by " Irenaeus " (who evidently stands for the author), from which it is inferred that Spenser was present at that action where Ralegh was in command of one of the bands which was put in by Lord Grey's orders to execute the garrison. although Meres, the reputed author, is said to have lived another fifty years. The treatise, which is largely of the nature of a jeu cTesprit, is, in my judgment, by Bacon. ' On this subject see further in Chapter XVII. 372 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. This was in the autumn of 1580. But the phrase used is so vague, " my selfe being as neere them as any," ^ that we are no more justified in building on it a theory of previous acquaintance with Ralegh (in the face of the story in Colin Clout) than we are entitled to take it for a fact that Spenser was in Ireland under Sir Henry Sidney because, in the same treatise, Irenaeus speaks of what he saw " at the execution of a notable traytour at Limmericke called Murrogh O-Brein," ^ which is said to have occurred in July 1577. Moreover, there is nothing in the defence of Lord Grey's action on that occasion ^ which could not have been derived from subsequent conversation in London. Let us now take the Ralegh dates so far as they are known. Ralegh is believed to have been born in 1552, the same year, it will be observed, as the date inferred from Sonnet Ix. of the Ainoretti for Spenser's birth. What little is known of Ralegh's origin and career before he attracted the notice of the Queen in 1581 may be stated in a few sentences. Of his parents and his early life hardly any particulars are known. He is stated by Anthony Wood to have gone to Oxford " in or about the year 1568." But, as regards Wood's further statement that he stayed there three years, Edwards ^ says that it is an established fact that he was in France in September 1569. It is stated that he went there to serve in the Huguenot army as one of a body of volunteers raised by his relative Henry Champernoune, and that he remained there five or six years. Naunton,^ however, states that his first service was in Ireland. Some verses bearing the name of Walter Ralegh in commendation of Gascoigne's Steele Gins, published in the spring of 1576, have led to the supposition that he was then in London.^ All that is subsequently known of him from that time to his becoming the favourite of the Queen (1581) has been collected in ' See the passage quoted in Chapter XIX. 2 "Globe" edition, p. 636. 3 Ibid. p. 656. * Life of Ralegh.' ° Fragmentia Regalia. * On this see Chapter IX. p. 243. XIV SPENSEK AND RALEGH 373 the article in the Dictionary of National Biography, from which I take the following: "In December 1577 he appears to have had a residence at Islington, and been known as a hanger-on of the Court (Gosse, p. 6). It is possible that in 1577 or 1578 he was in the Low Countries under Sir John Norris. ... In April 1578 he was in England {Trans, of the Devonshire Assocn. xv. 174) and in September he was at Dartmouth, where he joined his half brother Sir Humphrey Gilbert in fitting out a fleet of eleven ships for a so-called voyage of dis- covery. . . . After an indecisive engagement with some Spaniards, the expedition was back at Dartmouth in the spring of 1579." Thereafter Ralegh appears to have been about the Court as a retainer of the Earl of Leicester, until, in June 1580, he took service in Ireland as captain of a company of soldiers employed in Munster against the Earl of Desmond. The Deputy was Lord Grey of Wilton, who made Spenser his Secretary on his appointment in 1580. Ralegh did not get on with Lord Grey, who suspected him of intriguing for his own ends. In December i 5 8 i Ralegh was sent to England with dispatches, and on coming to the Court at Greenwich he appears then to have taken the fancy of the Queen, and he thenceforward rose into a position of power as the Queen's favourite. Comparing these dates and incidents I can see no point of contact between Spenser and Ralegh which could, under the accepted facts of Spenser's life, reasonably be held to account for a literary intimacy between them anterior to the supposed visit by Ralegh to Kilcolman in I 5 89, and Spenser's visit to England of i 590. Their several occupations in Ireland, and the arduous nature of them, during the short time they were there together at the earlier period, and the fact that Lord Grey, whose servant Spenser was, disliked Ralegh, would not naturally give them many opportunities of meeting, still less of leisure for the discussion of literary projects. On the other hand, the fact that Spenser continued to obtain grants from the Crown in Munster after Lord Grey's recall in 374 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. 1582 suggests that he was in some way one of Ralegh's " men," Ralegh being, by gift of the Crown, the greatest landowner in Munster, and the Queen's adviser in Irish matters.^ What, then, is the real connection between Ralegh and the author of these poems ? I think the answer to this question will emerge from the Amoretti and the Epi- thalaniion, which we may now proceed to consider. The accepted view is that these sonnets are a chronicle of Spenser's courtship, and that in the Epithalaniion the poet celebrates his own marriage. The poems were published in 1595, and it is inferred from this that they were begun at the end of 1592, and completed before June 1594, when the marriage is held to have taken place (" Barnaby the bright," Epithal.). The lady is supposed to have been one Elizabeth Boyle, of the neighbourhood of Cork (Sonnet Ixxiv. and Dr. Grosart's researches). My own belief, however, is that the motive of these compositions is something quite different, as I shall proceed to explain. In the first place, Grosart's identification of Elizabeth Boyle as Spenser's wife, though now generally accepted, clearly cannot be regarded as proved. It rests on an indenture discovered among the records of the town of Youghal, dated 3rd May 1606, between "Sir Richard Boyle, ffermore [stated to be " farmer "] . . . and Elizabeth Boyle als Seckerstone of Kilcoran, in the countie of Corcke, widow." ^ It is found also that Spenser's widow married in 1603 a Roger Seckerstone. This comes from a petition of that year from Sylvanus Spenser (Edmund Spenser's eldest son) to the Chancellor of Ireland, praying for remedy as follows : Whereas your Petitioner's father Edmund Spenser was seized in his demesne in fee of Kyllcollman and divers other lands and tenements in the county of Corke, which descended to your petitioner by the death of his said father, so it is right honorable, the evidences of the sayd inheritance did after the decease of the petitioner's father cum to the hands of Roger Seckerstone and 1 Cf. p. 36 above. ' Grosart, Works of Spenser, i. 198. XIV THE ''AMORETTI" AND '' EPITHALAMION" 375 petitioner's mother whicii they uniustly detayneth {sic) ; . . . and avoweth that the said Roger Seckerstone, his mouther's now husband, uniustly detayneth. . . . ^ The conclusion drawn from this is that the heroine of the Ajuoretti (who is supposed to be Spenser's wife) was Elizabeth Boyle, and that she married again in 1603, and was again a widow in 1 606. But it is necessary to assume for this conclusion that there was only one Elizabeth Seckerstone in that district at the time, whereas both those names may have been common ones there. Moreover, as I shall endeavour to show, the conclusion that the " three Elizabeths " sonnet applies to the poet's wife, though a natural one, is based on a misinterpretation. Finally, it is necessary to suppose that the widow deserted her young children, or at any rate her eldest boy, within a few years of her first husband's death, and that (as Grosart supposes) Sylvanus, who in 1603 could not have been more than eight years old," was represented in the legal proceedings by others. But this is most improbable ; there is nothing in the documents to suggest it, and they furnish, to my mind, an additional argument for an earlier marriage.^ The "three Elizabeths" sonnet (No. Ixxiv.) is as follows : Most happy letters ! fram'd by skilfull trade, With which that happy name was first desynd, The which three times thrise happy hath me made, With guifts of body, fortune, and of mind. The first my being to me gave by kind. From mothers womb deriv'd by dew descent : The second is my sovereigne Oueene most kind, That honour and large richesse to me lent : The third, my love, my lifes last ornament. By whom my spirit out of dust was raysed : To speake her prayse and glory excellent, Of all alive most worthy to be praysed. Ye three Elizabeths ! for ever live. That three such graces did unto me give. ' Grosart, Works of Spenser, i. 556. * The inference from the Sonnets and the Epithalamion is that Spenser's marriage took place on iith June 1594. 3 Cf. Chapters II. and XIX. 376 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. The Sonnet Series appears to relate to the years i 592— I 594, and Sonnet Ix,, with the line " Then al those fourty which my life out-went," is regarded as fixing the year of Spenser's birth at, or about, 1552. Now Ralegh was also born in or about the year 1552, and about forty years later, in 1592 or early in 1593, he married Elizabeth Throgmorton. These two facts therefore perfectly coincide with the circumstances mentioned in the two sonnets. The name of Ralegh's mother, however, was Katherine (Katherine Champernoune), third wife of Walter Ralegh of Hayes, in the County of Devon. But what ground is there for the assumption that the sonnet refers to the poet's mother ? Evidently none, if words are to be taken in their ordinary acceptance, for how can a man reasonably be said to be " derived by due descent " from his mother ? " Descent " and " derivation " connote time and ancestry, and the " first " Elizabeth may be presumed therefore to be a female ancestor. Spenser himself uses the phrase again, and in that sense, in the second of the " Mutabilitie " cantos : My heritage . . . From my great Grandsire Titan unto mee Deriv'd by dew descent. ... (16.) Now let the reader attentively consider the following passage from the address of the antiquary John Hooker (alias Vowell) of Exeter to Ralegh (then Lord Warden of the Stanneries), prefixed to his translation of the Irish History of Giraldus Cambrensis, in his continuation of Holinshed's Chronicles, 1587: I trust it shall not be offensive unto you that I doo a little digresse and speak somewhat of your selfe and your ancestors ; who the more honourable they were in their times, the greater cause have you to look into the same. . . . There were sundrie of your ancestors by the name of Raleigh, who were of great account and nobilitie, and allied as well to the Courtneis earls of Devon, as to other houses of great honour and nobilitie, and in sundrie succeding descents were honoured with the degree of knighthood. One of them, being your ancestor in the directest line, was named Sir John de Raleigh, who then XIV THE "AMORETTI" AND " EPITHALAMION" 377 dwelled in the house of Furdell in Devon, an ancient house of your ancestors, and of their ancient inheritance : and which at these presents is in possession of your eldest brother. This knight married the daughter and heire to Sir Roger D'amerei, or de Amerei, whom our English chronicles doo name lord de Amereie, who was a noble man and of great linage, and descended of the earls de Amereie in Britaine, and allied to the Earls of Montfort in the same duchie and province. This man being come over into England, did serve in the court, and by the good pleasure of God and the good liking of the king he married the ladie Elizabeth, the third sister and coheire to the noble Gilbert earle of Clare and of Glocester, who was slaine in the battell of Banokesborough in Scotland, in the time of king Edward the second. This Earle died sans issue, he being the Sonne and the said ladie Elizabeth the daughter to Gilbert de Clare, earle of Glocester, by his wife the ladie Jane de Acres or Acou, daughter to king Edward the first. This Gilbert descended of Robert earle of Glocester, sonne to king Henrie the first, and of his wife the ladie Mawd, daughter and heire to Robert Fitzhamon, lord of Astrouill in Normandie, coosen to the Conqueror, knight of the privie chamber to king William, and lord of the lordship of Glamorgan in Wales. So that your ancestor sir John de Raleigh married the daughter of de Amerei, Damereie of Clare, Clare of Edward the first, and which Clare by his father descended of king Henrie the first. And in like maner by your mother you male be derived out of the same house. Sir William Pole, another Devonshire antiquary, and a contemporary of Ralegh and Hooker, comments on this as follows : Mr. Hooker, in his written booke to bee printed, hath so sophisticated this pedegree to give more attributes than belong to this famyly, and deducing them from the match of Damarell with ye house of Clare, and kinge Edw. I, daughter, where hee attempteth to enoble it, in my opinyon hee doth much deface it. It is noe dowbt a very ancient famyly of itself . . . and needes no other father then such as begate them, and not other mother then such as bare them. I do not denye y' Ralegh matched w''> Dammorye's daughter by Elizabeth de Clare . . . But I affirme that this [is] another howse of Ralegh. In the light of this passage, which I beh'eve the author of the sonnet to have had in his mind, I can have no doubt that the " first " Elizabeth is " Elizabeth de Clare," 378 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. and that the poet was lending his support to the genealogists, who were endeavouring, after their manner, to provide Ralegh, the novus homo, with a pedigree of distinction/ Naturally Ralegh's rapid rise caused much jealousy. Essex, for instance, regarded Ralegh as an upstart ; and there is a story among Bacon's Apotheg^ns which shows the prevalence of this feeling at the Court.^ In such circumstances the implied endorsement of Hooker's version of Ralegh's origin would not be unwelcome to the Queen, and might help to maintain Ralegh in her favour. Like Othello, he could say — I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege, and my demerits May speak unbonneted to as proud a fortune As this that I have reached. Another point to notice is that Spenser makes no mention of his own father and mother, or (with the exception of a general allusion to Cambridge) of his bringing up, but he professes to connect himself with an aristocratic family of the same name, the Spencers of Althorpe : " of which I meanest boast myself to be." Is it likely that a writer of this temperament should for the first and only time introduce the name of his mother, a person of humble birth and situation, together with that of his wife, who belonged to a then obscure and unknown family, in familiar conjunction with the name of the ^ " Sir Walter Ralegh had scarcely emerged from obscurity into the Court of Elizabeth, when we find him in busy communion both with Devon- shire antiquaries and with the College of Heralds. He desires not only that his own pedigree may be fully established, but that his collateral and even his remote relationships may be put safely on record in the books of Garter and Clarencieux. Doubtless, part of the secret of a more than usual anxiety of this kind lay in his own quick observation of men, and his shrewd estimate of the new world into which he had entered. He soon saw that, in Queen Elizabeth's eyes, to be a well-descended gentleman was an additional grace, even for a very comely man. "^Edwards, Life, i. 2. - " When Queen Elizabeth had advanced Raleigh, she was one day playing on the virginals, and my lord of Oxford and another nobleman stood by. It fell out so, that the ledge before the jacks was taken away, so as the jacks were seen : my lord of Oxford and the other nobleman smiled, and a little whispered. The queen marked it, and would needs know what the matter was ? My lord of Oxford answered ; ' That they smiled to see that when jacks went up, heads went down.' " XIV THE '" AMORETTV AND '' EFITHALAMION" 379 sovereign ? In a piece of enigmatical writing the case is different, and there is no sense of unfitness in con- structing a literary conundrum out of " three Elizabeths," who were, respectively, the granddaughter of Edward the First, Queen Elizabeth, and the Queen's maid of honour. Lastly, though Spenser had done well for himself in Ireland, he owed this not to the Queen but to the powerful influence of such men as Lord Grey and Ralegh. The lines therefore — The second is my sovereigne Queene most kind, That honour and large richesse to me lent, are not true of him, even with the pension which he is said to have received as the reputed author of the Faerie Queene. But they are true of Ralegh, who had been raised by the Queen from slender means and comparative obscurity to a dazzling position of wealth and eminence. Moreover the lines, as applied to the poet, are in direct conflict with the complaint about his " long fruitlesse stay in Princes Court " in the Prothalamion, which was published in the following year. Who, then, is the subject of these sonnets? In my opinion. Queen Elizabeth. Some of them are meaningless as applied to a woman of private station, and there are other indications which point directly to this conclusion, as will be seen from the following passages which I select as illustrations : — Sonnet i. : . . . those lilly hands, Which hold my life in their dead-doing might. Queen Elizabeth is said to have been proud of her hands, which were very white and well shaped.^ ^ The Venetian ambassador in 1557 sent home a description of Queen Elizabeth in which he says : " Her eyes, and still more her hands — which she takes care not to hide — are of special beauty." He also describes her as •'of a stately and majestic comportment." There are other similar reports. (Edwards, Life of Ralegh^ i. 53, and elsewhere.) 38o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Leaves, lines and rymes, seek her to please alone, Whom if ye please, I care for other none. Compare Shepheards Calender, eclogue for " December," where (as I said in Chapter I.) I think the writer is speaking of the Queen : The loser Lasse I cast to please no more ; One if I please, enough is me therefore. Spenser elsewhere always subordinates his love to his admiration of the Queen {Faerie Queene, VI. x., etc.). These lines, therefore, unless applicable to the Queen, are not in his manner. Sonnet iii. : The soverayne beauty which I doo admyre with her huge brightnesse dazed • • • • • I stand amazed At wondrous sight of so celestiall hew. Sonnet v, : And her faire countenance, like a goodly banner. Spreads in defiaunce of all enemies. Sonnet ix. : Long-while I sought to what I might compare Those powrefull eies, which lighten my dark spright ; Yet find I nought on earth, to which I dare Resemble th'ymage of their goodly light. Not to the Sun, etc. • • • • • Then to the Maker selfe they likest be. Whose light doth lighten all that here we see. The Queen's eyes were said to be clear and lively. (See remarks and footnote under extract from Sonnet i. ; and compare Sonnets xxi. and xlix., below.) The deification here is in Spenser's habitual manner when writing of the sovereign. Sonnet xiii. : In that proud port, which her so goodly graceth. Whiles her faire face she reares up lo the skie, XIV THE "AMORETTI" AND '' EPITHALAMION" 381 And to the ground her eie-Hds low embaseth, Most goodly temperature ye may descry ; Myld humblesse, mixt with awful majesty. (See footnote under extract from Sonnet i.) Sonnet xxi. : With such strange termes her eyes she doth inure, That with one looke, she doth my life dismay ; And with another doth it streight recure ; Her smile me drawes ; her frowne me drives away. Thus does she traine and teach me with her lookes ; Such art of eyes I never read in bookes. See remarks under Sonnet ix., and compare with it Bacon's description in his " Discourse in Praise of the Queen," which Spedding thinks was written about 1592 : What life, what edge is there in those words and glances, wherewith at pleasure she can give a man long to think, be it that she mean to daunt him, to encourage him, or to amaze him.^ Sonnet xxvii. : That goodly Idoll, now so gay beseene, • . • • " That many now much worship and admire. (Compare remarks on this in Chapter XV! I. p. 501.) Sonnet xlix. : Fayre cruell ! why are ye so fierce and cruell ? Is it because your eyes have powre to kill } Then know that mercy is the Mighties jewel! : And greater glory thinke to save then spill. But if it be your pleasure and proud will, To shew the powre of your imperious eyes ; Then not on him that never thought you ill, But bend your force against your enemyes : But him that at your foot stoole humbled lies, With mercifull regard, give mercy too. Sonnet Iv. : For to the heaven her haughty lookes aspire. » Spedding, Life, i. 138. 382 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Sonnet Ixi. : The glorious image of the Makers beautie, The soverayne saynt, the Idoll of my thought, For being, as she is, divinely wrought. And of the brood of Angels hevenly borne ; Such heavenly formes ought rather worshipt be, Then dare be lov'd by men of meane degree. Spenser was in a good position in Ireland, and had no reason to adopt this attitude of social humih'ty towards the lady whom he is supposed to have married. But compare with this the lines in the Faerie Queene (III. v.), referred to at p. 371 above, as to Timias and Belphoebe. Still more remarkable in this connection is Sonnet Ixvi. : To all those happy blessings, which ye have With plenteous hand by heaven upon you thrown ; This one disparagement they to you gave. That ye your love lent to so meane a one. Yee, whose high worths surpassing paragon Could not on earth have found one fit for mate, Ne but in heaven matchable to none, Why did ye stoup unto so lowly state ? But ye thereby much greater glory gate, Then had ye sorted with a princes pere. And again in Sonnet Ixxxii. : your owne mishap I rew. That are so much by so meane love embased. Everybody who reads these sonnets must also notice the recurrence of the word " Angel," with a capital " A." Grosart, who observed it, says " it is not to be gainsaid that the Poet's use of ' Angel ' is peculiar, and in a way enigmatical." ^ The explanation, however, is provided by Spenser himself, who throughout the Faerie Queene uses it whenever he introduces the various impersonations of Queen Elizabeth, and he connects it with the ancient name for the English, " Angles." It was also evidently ' Works of Spenser, i. 197. XIV THE "AMORETTI" AND '' EPITHALAMION" 383 current at the Court, in the form of " AngeHca," as a name for the Queen. I have made a note of the passages where I have come across it, and it will be sufficient for the purpose to transcribe it. " Angel " = Queen Elizabeth. F.Q. III. iii. 56-58. The Nurse to Britomart : "I saw a Saxon Virgin," etc. : "Ah ! read" (quoth Britomart), "how is she hight ? " " Fayre Angela " (quoth she) " men do her call," and Britomart dons the armour, " which long'd to Angela, the Saxon Queene." This is the locus classicus. II. iii. 22 : Her face so faire as flesh it seemed not, But hevenly pourtraict of bright Angels hew. (First appearance of Belphoebe.) II. X. 71 : Angell. (Fairy origin of Glorian.) III. V. 35 : To send thine Angell from her bowre of blisse To comfort me. (Timias and Belphoebe.) IV. iii. 39 : Of Angels brood. (Of Cambina — obviously Q. Elizabeth.) IV. V. 13: The heavenly pourtraict of bright Angels hew. (Of Amoret — said also of Belphoebe. See above.) IV. vi. 19 : Her angels face. (Of Britomart.) V. ix. 29 : She, Angel-like, the heyre of ancient kings And mightie Conquerors, in royal! state, Whylest kings and kesars at her feet did them prostrate. (Of Mercilla.) 384 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Coliti Clout: That Angels blessed eie. Much like an Angell. (Of the Queen.) To Cy}ithia : Such force her angelic appearance had. (Poem attributed to Ralegh : Hannah, p. 36.) Sir W. Ralegh, letter from the Tower : Singing like an angell.^ (Of the Queen.) Sir A. Gorges, letter about Ralegh in the Tower : If the bright Angelica.^ (Of the Queen.) Sir R. Cecil, letter : Whose angelical quality.' (Of the Queen.) The following examples occur in the Sonnets : When ye beholde that Angels blessed looke. Sonnet i. Thrugh your bright beams doth not the blinded guest Shoot out his dart to base affections wound ; But Angels come to lead fraile minds to rest In chaste desires. Sonnet viii. The glorious pourtraict of that Angels face. Sonnet xvii. For being, as she is, divinely wrought, And of the brood of Angels hevenly borne. Sonnet Ixi. Sonnet xxxiv. deals apparently with some temporary loss of favour. " Helice " is a play on Elizabeth (cf " Helicon," Sonnet i.) : So I, whose star, that wont with her bright ray Me to direct, with cloudes is over-cast, Uoe wander now, in darknesse and dismay. Through hidden perils round about me plast : ' See letter at p. 426 below. ^ See p. 446, note. "* Edwards, Life of Ralegh, i. 155. XIV THE " A MO RETT I" AND " EPITHALAMION" 385 Yet hope I well that, when this storme is past, My Helice, the lodestar of my lyfe, Will shine again, and looke on me at last. The allusions in the Sonnets to the Faerie Queene present a difficulty under the accepted interpretation of the sequence. In Sonnet xxxiii. (to " Lodwick ") the writer reproaches himself for the wrong he is doing — To that most sacred Empresse, my dear dred, Not finishing her Queene of faery, and in Sonnet Ixxx. he announces apparently that he has completed six books : After so long a race as I have run Through Faery land, which those six books compile. Give leave to rest me . . . The six books (with the second instalment of three) were not published till 1596, and I think it most improbable that they were finished in the early part of 1594 (which is the necessary inference from this under the accepted chronology) and held over, especially as other poems were being published in 1595. Sonnet Ixxx. closes with a reference apparently to the love celebrated in F.Q. VI. x. (see above, p. 2)^6) : But let her prayses yet be low and meane, Fit for the handmayd of the Faery Queene. Such a description is not rationally applicable to the wife of Spenser in Ireland. Moreover, in the canto in ques- tion of the Faerie Queene, and in Colin Clout, the love referred to appears to be a vision of the past rather than an actuality of the present.^ But, as I said at the end of the last chapter, I shall endeavour to offer some further remarks on this subject." * It is necessary, under the accepted interpretation of these poems, to regard the love celebrated in them as Spenser's wife, or to believe that Spenser published a poem within less than a year of his marriage in which he declares that he is devoted till death to the memory of another woman. . 2 See Chapter XVII. 2 C 386 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Sonnets Ixii. and Ixv. are love sonnets in a sincere vein, without admixture of flattery, and are applicable to the case of any mutual affection. From there onwards the sequence becomes less marked, and the artificial note, which is so pronounced in these poems, is less felt. Sonnet Ixvii. may or may not have been suggested by the circumstances of Ralegh's wooing of Elizabeth Throgmorton, but it certainly describes the subjugation of a woman to the will of a man. The last four sonnets, beginning " Venemous tongue," etc., are clearly a sequence, and deal with a serious breach between the lovers, and with that the sonnets end ; surely an extraordinary ending for a published collection if a marriage followed. It has been suggested by Grosart that these four pieces belong to a different and earlier episode. But this is a very arbitrary method of inter- pretation. My own view of them is that they deal in appearance, under a poetical figure, with Ralegh's breach with the Queen in 1592 on her discovery of his relations with Elizabeth Throgmorton, but in reality more with the author's own troubles. The " Culver on the bared bough " of the last sonnet is the same image as that used for the disconsolate " Timias " in the Faerie Qiieene, Book IV., and it would appear that the design in that episode was to work on the Queen's feelings. This question, how- ever, will be more fully discussed in another chapter.^ Even more difficult than the problem of the Amoretti is that presented by the Epithalamion^ which was published at the same time. It is supposed to be the culmination of the Sonnets, written in celebration of the poet's own m.arriage in June 1594. The poem has received the highest praise from critics, and is accepted as a spon- taneous expression of personal feeling. It is customary to describe it as a poem of sustained rapture ; but I ' See Chapter WII. XIV THE ''AMORETTP' AND '' EPITHALAMION" 387 really cannot see it. The poem seems to me extremely artificial, and the tone, in places, unpleasant. No doubt it is highly imaginative, and contains some very beautiful workmanship, but that is a different matter. Is it natural that a man should sit down on the eve of his marriage and pen an elaborate poem describing his nuptial anticipa- tions ? And is it really true (as is alleged in justification of this poem) that Englishmen of that day were such children of nature as to see no unfitness in public ex- pressions of feeling of this character .? The ancients, where the women of their family life were concerned, were always reticent, and what evidence is there that Englishmen were otherwise ? An even greater difficulty presents itself in the age and circumstances of the supposed writer. Spenser was about forty-three when this poem appeared, and " rapture," in relation to the sense of love, does not belong to that age, at any rate where sensibility has developed early. The rapture of the thinker, still more of the saint, may persist and increase, but not the rapture of love. It can no more be recaptured after a certain age than the rapture, in the poet, of the imagination. Both the one and the other come under the domination, for necessary ends, of reason and experience, or, if they do not, the life of the spirit is arrested. At the age when Spenser is supposed to have written this poem, love, though it may be deeper and more disinterested than in earlier years, does not express itself in rapturous imagery of physical idealisation, and therefore, on psychological grounds, the accepted theory of this poem is, to my mind, unacceptable. The same remarks apply in the case of Francis Bacon, who in 1595 was thirty-four. In a very interesting passage (interesting because, I believe, personal ^) with which the essay on ^ The Essays, which are written in such a way as to produce the imi)res- sion of detached observation of the world, are, in my opinion, much more self-regarding than appears to be generally supposed. In one instance at any rate this was recognised even by contemporaries — I refer to the essay on " Deformity" which appeared in the 1612 edition after the death of the Earl of Salisbury in that year. It concludes with the words, "and Socrates may go likewise amongst them, with others " ; and Chamberlain writes with regard 388 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. " Youth and Age " ^ opens, he refers to the brief period of imaginative spontaneity : A man that is young in years may be old in hours, if he have lost no time ; but that happeneth rarely. Generally, youth is like the first cogitations, not so wise as the second : for there is a youth in thoughts as well as in ages ; and yet the invention of young men is more lively than that of old, and imaginations stream into their minds better, and as it were more divinely. When the Epitlialaviion was written Bacon was no longer young in the sense described. Indeed he speaks of himself as old, that is, old in feeling, at thirty-one.^ A young man could not have written this poem (which is artificial, not spontaneous), and I do not think any man of mature age would have written it as an expression of his own experience. The conclusion, therefore, at which I arrive is that it was written for some one else. To provide a poem for special occasions has always been the business of Court poets, and there is, therefore, nothing extraordinary about this. An examination, however, of the poem in detail will throw further light on the problem. As in the Amoretti, so in the Epithalajnion, there are a number of expressions which are only really appropriate in speech about a sovereign, and there are others which seem to contain barely disguised allusions to Queen Elizabeth. In stanza 9 we read : Loe ! where she comes along with portly pace, Lyke Phoebe, from her chamber of the East. Queen Elizabeth is referred to by Spenser under the names of the moon. In the same stanza : that ye would vveene Some Angell she had beene. to it to Carleton : "Sir Francis Bacon hath set out new Essays, where, in a chapter of Deformity, the world takes notice thai he paints out his hltlc cousin to llie life." ' First published in 1612. - Sj)eid. ii. 162. •• /did. i. 237. ® Ii>id. i. 240. « " Will not let me sleep." XV A PAGE IN BACON'S LIFE 399 mind." ^ Lady Ann Bacon's reply and her letter which follows are of great interest to the student of Bacon's life and character. Partial biographers have affected to make light of them, but no fair-minded person can read her letters without perceiving the justice of Rawley's remark that she was " a choice lady, and eminent for piety, virtue and learning." No doubt she belonged to the " precise " school and her temper was difficult and irritable. Such things set up barriers in human intercourse, and perhaps they account in her case, to some extent, for the extreme formality and coldness of Francis Bacon's letters to her. There seems to be no doubt, however, that in his heart he had a real regard for her. She was evidently rather afraid of him, for she writes by preference, even when he is the subject of the letter, to his brother. On this occasion Anthony had asked her to help his brother out of debt by the sale of an estate for which her consent was required. She replies in great exasperation, and denounces in vivid and impetuous language the retainers by whom Francis had surrounded himself The following is an extract from her letter : . . . surely I am utterly discouraged and make a conscience further to undo myself to maintain such wretches. ... It is most certain till first Enney (?), a filthy wasteful knave, and his Welshmen one after another — for take [one] and they will still swarm ill-favouredly — did so lead him as in a train, he was a towardly young gentleman and a son of much good hope in godliness. But seeing he hath nourished most sinful proud villains wilfully I know not what other answer to make. God bless you both with his grace and good health to serve him with truth of heart.- To this Francis appears to have replied (or he had written to her in the meantime), for she writes a letter on the next day to Anthony, from which the following is an extract : I send herein your brother's letter. Construe the interpre- tation. I do not understand his enigmatical folded writing.^ ' Spedding, Life, i. 243. * Ibid. i. 244. 3 i.e. involuted sentences. 40O SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Oh that by not hearkening to wholesome and careful good counsel, and by continuuig still the means of his own great hindrance, he had not procured his own early discredit ; but had joined with God that hath bestowed on him good gifts of natural wit and understanding. But the same good God that hath given them to him will I trust and heartily pray to sanctify his heart by the right use of them to glorify the Giver of them to his own inward comfort. The scope of my so called by him circumstance, which I am sure he must understand, was not to use him as a ward, — a remote phrase to my plain motherly meaning — and yet, I thank the Lord and the hearing of his word preached, not void of judgment and conceiving. My plain proposition was and is to do him good. After further protest about his " riotous men " she closes the letter in a gentler spirit : He perceives my good meaning by this, and before too. But Percie had winded him. God bless my son. What he would have me do and when for his own good, as I now write, let him return plain answer by Fynch. He was his father's first choice (?) ^ and God will supply if he will trust in him and call upon [him] in truth of heart ; which God grant to mother and sons. I send the first flight of my doves to you both, and God bless you in Christ. A. B.'^ The noble and true nature underlying these letters is apparent, though the point of view at the time might preclude forbearance and understanding. I quote these extracts for the light they throw on Bacon's existence at this time. Both then and for a long time after he was in great straits for money, and it has always been difficult to account for this. A word may be added as to Lady Bacon's letters. She writes not only as a religious woman but as a woman of the world, and though she is very plain with her sons, she takes their part loyally in dealing with others. Her account of an interview with her nephew, Sir Robert Cecil, about the delay in the advancement of Francis, written to Anthony in January i 595, is evidence of this — ' " The word is written so close to the edge of the paper that I cannot make it out. It looks like chis." (Note by Spedding. ) 2 Spedding, I.i/c, i. 245. XV A PAGE IN BACON'S LIFE 401 a shrewd and (in spite of its pathos) most entertaining letter. I can only quote some of it : Well (inquam) the eldest of my but two in all sons is visited by God,^ and the other methinks is but strangely used by man's dealing : God knows who and why. I think he is the very first young gentleman of some account made so long such a common speech of: this time placed, and then out of doubt, and yet nothing done. Enough to overthrow a young and studious man, as he is given indeed, and as fit by judgment of wiser both for years and understanding to occupy a place as the Attorney. The world marvels in respect of his friends and his own towardness. — Experience teacheth that her Majesty's nature is not to resolve, but to delay. — -But with none so seen, quod I. — Why (inquit) she is yet without officers of three white staffs together : seldom seen : But, saith he, I dare say my Lord would gladly have had my cousin placed ere this. — I hope so myself, inquam : but some think if my Lord had been earnest it had been done.^ Lady Bacon's latter years were sad. She lived on till 1 6 10, and Spedding notes that nothing is heard of her since 1600, when "her health was worn," ^ and she is alluded to in Goodman's Court of King James the First in these words : " But for Bacon's mother, she was but little better than frantic in her age." '^ Indeed she appeared to one of Anthony's servants to be approaching this condition in 1594.^ Her son Anthony died in 1601 : "Anthony Bacon died not long since, but so far in debt that I think his brother is little the better by him." " It appears, how- ever, that he allowed his brother to draw on him freely in his lifetime. In August 1593 Essex writes to Francis Bacon that he had been pressing the Queen to restore him to favour — " an absolute afMvrjaTia, and an access as in former times" — but so far without success. He reports her as saying that " if it had been in the King her father's time, a less offence than that would have made a man be banished his presence for ever," and that "she should ' Anthony Bacon's health was completely broken at this time. - Speckling, Lr/e, i. 346. ^ Petition of Francis Bacon to the Queen, tiid. iv. 217. * Goodman (ed. Brewer), i. 285. ^ Spedding, Life, i. 310-312. ^ Chamberlain to Carleton, 27th May 1601, t'dtci. iii. 5. 2 D 402 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. precipitate too much from being highly displeased with you to give you near access. . . . Her humour is yet to delay." ^ In the same month Lady Bacon received a discour- aging letter from her brother-in-law (Lord Burghley) professing his goodwill towards her two sons, " though I am of less power to do my friends good than the world thinketh,"'- and he refers to them as " being so qualified in learning and virtue as if they had a supply of more health they wanted nothing." ^ In September 1593 Robert Cecil advises Bacon to keep in evidence, " for, as I ever told you, it is not likely to find the Queen apt to give you an office, when the scruple is not removed of her forbearance to speak with you. This being not yet perfected . . ." ^ By March 1594, in spite of all the efforts of Essex, it was understood that Coke was to be Attorney, and Essex now begins to sue for Bacon's appointment as Solicitor. He writes to Bacon : " I find the Queen very reserved, staying herself from giving any kind of hope, yet not passionate against you till I grew passionate for you. Then she said that none thought you fit for the place but my lord Treasurer and myself . . . and therefore in passion bade me go to bed if I would talk of nothing else. Wherefore in passion I went away. . . ." ^ In reply to a further letter to the same effect. Bacon writes to Essex : " And I must confess this very delay hath gone so near me, as it hath almost overthrown my health." He then bitterly complains (after calling his father to memory, etc.) that when he considers that he was "voiced with great expectation, and (though I say it myself) with the wishes of most men, to the higher place ; that I am a man that the Queen hath already done for ; and princes, especially her Majesty, loveth to make an end where they begin. ... I cannot but conclude with myself that no man ever received a more exquisite disgrace." " And therefore truly, my Lord," he continues, " I was ' .Speckling, Lijc, i. 254. 2 q^ Froude, History^ xii. 133, note. ' Spedding, Life, i. 255. ' Ibid. i. 257. ^ Ibid. i. 289. XV A PAGE IN BACON'S LIFE 403 determined, and am determined, if her Majesty reject me, this to do. My nature can take no evil ply ; but I will by God's assistance with this disgrace of my fortune . . . retire myself with a couple of men to Cambridge, and there spend my life in my studies and contemplations, without looking back." ^ It is characteristic that when the final rejection came in 1595 Bacon did nothing of the kind. This letter was, presumably, intended to be shown to the Queen, and was an effort to bring her round by threat of spoiling or losing a good servant. In May 1594 Robert Cecil writes to his cousin: "I protest I suffer with you in mind that you are thus yet gravelled." "^ In the same month Essex reports two interviews with the Queen. The account of the first is very attractive, and told with the simplicity which characterises Essex. The Queen, he says, came to him, and when he began to speak for Bacon for " that place which all the world had named you to," " her answer in playing jest was that she came not to me for that ; I should talk of those things when I came to her, not when she came to me ; the term was coming and she would advise. I would have replied, but she stopped my mouth " ^^ — which, in Elizabethan language, no doubt means that she gave him a kiss (cf. Benedick to Beatrice at the end of Much Ado About Nothing: "Peace! I will stop your mouth"). Of the next interview the Earl says : " I had long speech with her of you ; wherein I urged both the point of your extraordinary sufficiency . , . and the point of mine own satisfaction, which I protested to her should be exceeding great, if for all her unkindnesses and dis- comforts past she would do this one thing for my sake.^ " To the first she answered, that the greatness of your friends, as of my Lord Treasurer and myself, did make men give a more favourable testimony than else they would do, thinking thereby they pleased us. And that she did acknowledge you had a great wit, and an 1 Spedding, Life, i. 290. - Ibid. i. 296. ^ ji)i^^ ;. 297. * Cf. Chapter XIV". on the Ainorctti. 404 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. excellent gift of speech, and much other good learning. But in law she rather thought you could make show to the uttermost of your knowledge, than that you were deep. To the second, she said she had showed her mislike of the suit as well as I had done my affection in it ; and that if there were a yielding, it was fitter to be of my side." " She did in this," he adds, " as she useth in all ; went from a denial to a delay, and said when the Council were all here she would think of it ; and there was no haste in determining of the place. To which I answered, that my sad heart had need of hasty comfort, and therefore her Majesty must pardon me if I were hasty and importunate in it." ^ Essex made the fatal mistake of mixing up business and sentiment, which the Queen knew well how to keep apart. But this was his nature, which was unsophisticated and wilful. In June 1594 Bacon is found in "Tower" employ- ment, assisting in the examination of prisoners charged with plots against the life of the Queen. Spedding finds evidence in this that " though the Queen still refused to speak with him she had at last relented so far as to employ him," ^ But I have no doubt this was under the instructions of Burghley or the Secretaries, a gloomy business enough, but one from which Bacon could hardly shrink in connection with a career as a Crown lawyer. Nor do I think he would, as Crown service was held by him to supersede all personal considerations. He appears to have been frequently employed in such work about this time. In the same month Foulke Greville writes to him about an interview he had had with the Queen, at which he took occasion to tell her " how you lamented your misfortune to me, that remained as a withered branch of her roots, which she had cherished and made to flourish in her service." ^ For reasons which will appear in the next chapter I draw particular attention to these words, which were evidently those used by Bacon himself In August he writes to his brother, " I hear nothing ' Spedding, Life^ i. 297. ^ jfjifj \ ^p•^ 3 ji^i^^ \ ^02. XV A PAGE IN BACON'S LIFE 405 from the Court in mine own business," and he speaks of going down for the day to Twickenham, where he spent much of his time at this period.^ Writing from there to his brother in October he says, " One day drawcth another and I am well pleased in my being here ; for methinks solitariness collecteth the mind, as shutting the eyes doth the sight. I pray therefore advertise me what you find by my Lord of Essex. . . ." - It has been argued (I think with every probability) that Bacon was employing himself at this time in imagina- tive writing, for not long afterwards (Spedding suggests January 1595) in a letter to Essex, putting him in mind of his suit, he writes, " desiring your good Lordship never- theless not to conceive out of this my diligence in soliciting this matter that I am either much in appetite or much in hope. For as for appetite, the waters of Parnassus are not like the waters of the Spaw, that give a stomach ; but rather they quench appetite and desires." ^ It was at this time (December 1594) that he com- menced his " Promus of Formularies and Elegancies," ^ a commonplace book for literary purposes, and he drew up the speeches for the Christmas device at Gray's Inn, which will be found printed in Spedding's volume. Lady Bacon's alarm is characteristic : " I trust," she wrote to her son Anthony on 5th December, "they will not mum nor mask nor sinfully revel at Gray's Inn. Who were sometime counted first, God grant they wane not daily, and deserve to be named last." ^ The last sentence refers especially to Francis, as the letters from her to Anthony referred to above indicate. In January 1595 Bacon writes from Twickenham to his brother : " The Queen seemeth to apprehend my travel [a threat of retiring abroad, communicated by Essex] ; whereupon I was sent for by Sir Robert Cecil in sort as from her Majesty." He then gives the following amusing account of what the Queen had said, as he understood from Cecil : » Spedding, Life, i. 315. ^ Ibid. i. 321. 3 /(i/,/. i. 345. * Ibid. i. 325. ^ Ibid. i. 326. 4o6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. " The Queen's speech is after this sort. Why ? I have made no Solicitor. Hath anybody carried a Soh'citor with him in his pocket ? But he must have it in his own time (as if it were but yesterday's nomination) or else I must be thought to cast him away. Then her Majesty sweareth that if I continue this manner, she will seek all England for a Solicitor rather than take me. Yea she will send for Houghton and Coventry tomorrow next (as if she would swear them both). Again she entereth into it, that she never dealt so with any as with me {in hoc errattim non est) ; she hath pulled me over the bar (note the words, for they cannot be her own), she hath used me in her greatest causes. But this is Essex ; and she is more angry with him than with me ; and such-like speeches, so strange, that I should leese myself in it, but that I have cast off the care of it. My conceit is, that I am the least part of mine own matter. But her Majesty would have a delay, and yet would not bear it herself. . . ." At the end of the letter he recurs to the project of going abroad, with an allusion to some writings : " And to be plain with you, I mean even to make the best of those small things I have with as much expedition as may be without loss ; and so sing a mass of requiem I hope abroad ; for I know her Majesty's nature, that she neither careth though the whole surname of the Bacons travelled, nor of the Cecils neither." ^ He goes, however, to Twickenham, his favourite retreat at this time, and on the 7th March his brother reports to Lady Bacon that he "has not seen him looking better." " Probably he was engaged in writing, and had abstracted his mind for the time being from the anxieties of the suitor. I think this accounts for the unwonted want of caution which he shows in a letter written about this time to his cousin Robert Cecil. He takes off the gloves and lets him know that he thinks he is intriguing against him ; adding " but I think my fortune will set mc at liberty, who am weary of asserviling myself to every man's charity." ^ He repents, however, soon afterwards, and ' Spedding, Life, i. 347 sq. * Ibid. i. 353. ^ /^/^_ \ ^56. XV A PAGE IN BACON'S LIFE 407 expresses regret to Lord Burghley in a letter renewing his suit for the SoHcitor's place : "... if I did show myself too credulous to idle hearsays in regard of my right honourable kinsman and good friend Sir Robert Cecil (whose good nature did well answer my honest liberty), your Lordship will impute it to the complexion of a suitor, and of a tired sea-sick suitor, and not to mine own inclination." ^ To Sir Foulke Greville he expresses his discontent in stronger terms : "My matter is an endless question. I assure you I had said Requiesce anivia men : but I now am otherwise put to my psalter ; Nolite confidere . . . And now whether invidus homo hoc fecit ; or whether my matter must be an appendix to my Lord of Essex suit ; or whether her Majesty, pretending to prove my ability, meaneth but to take advantage of some errors which, like enough, at one time or other I may commit ; or what it is ; but her Majesty is not ready to dispatch it. . . . This is a course to quench all good spirits, and to corrupt every man's nature ; which will, I fear, much hurt her Majesty's service in the end. I have been like a piece of stuff bespoken in the shop ; and if her Majesty will not take me, it may be the selling by parcels will be more gainful. For to be, as I told you, like a child following a bird, which when he is nearest flieth away and lighteth a little before, and then the child after it again, and so in infinitum^ I am weary of it ; ^ as also of wearying my good friends. . . . And so, not forgetting your business, I leave to trouble you with this idle letter, being but justa et moderata querimonia ; for indeed I do confess, primus amor will not easily be cast off. And thus again I commend me to you." ^ Note the sudden change of mood at the end. His pen has carried him away and he recalls himself. It is all ^ Spedding, Life, i. 358. ■■^ Compare the account of the child following the butterfly in Coriolanus, i. 3 : "and when he caught it, he let it go again ; and after it again ; and over and over he comes, and up again," etc. 3 Spedding, Life, i. 359. 4o8 SPENSEJi AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. wonderful writing, but reveals how little adapted Bacon really was to the conditions of the everyday world. His faith in the written word was amazing, and it remained with him to the last. It is however, in my opinion, always doubtful to what extent these expressions of feeling may be seriously regarded in Bacon's case. Like all men in whom the artistic temperament is strong, he was a man of moods, and in spite of his apparent reserve and highly disciplined mind, his temperament was, I believe, very mercurial. At the end of May 1595 Bacon, who had again retired to Twickenham Park, seems to have reconciled himself (unless the words quoted below were a piece of strategy, which, in this case, is more probable) to the idea of not obtaining the post of Solicitor. He begs Lord Keeper Puckering " to deliver to her Majesty from me — that I would have been glad to have done her Majesty service now in the best of my years, and the same mind remains in me still ; and that it may be, when her Majesty hath tried others, she will think of him that she hath cast aside. For I will take it (upon that which her Majesty hath often said) that she doth reserve me and not reject me." ^ A fortnight later he writes, apparently with renewed hope, to Burghley, going over the whole ground in a carefully studied letter (probably intended for the eyes of the Queen), and prays for his good offices.^ In July the clouds were down again, and Bacon repeats, in regard to Lord Keeper Puckering, the very unusual proceeding in his case of writing an angry letter, as he did early in the year to his cousin. He charges the Lord Keeper with having failed him and crossed him, and asks " that you will not disable me furdcr than is cause." ^ The letter was written from Gray's Inn, and Spedding says it is indorsed in the Lord Keeper's hand " Mr. Bacon wronging me." Three weeks later he writes a letter of apology from Twickenham, and the Earl of P^ssex supports it with another which was probably drafted by Bacon. The apology was evidently very much against * Spedding, IJ/e, i. 360. '^ Ibid. i. 361. 3 /^/,/ ; ^g^^ XV A PAGE IN BACON'S LIFE 409 the grain, and shows the anxiety and irritability from which he was then suffering. The following extracts given by Spedding from Lady Bacon's correspondence suggest that his health may have been affected, though the last lines suggest that he was able to enjoy life in other ways : Lady Bacon to Anthony Bacon T,ot/i June 1595. — Crosby told me he looked very ill, he thought. He taketh still inward grief, I fear. . . . 5//; August. — I am sorry your brother with inward secret grief hindereth his health. Everybody saith he looketh thin and pale. Let him look to God, and confer with him in godly exercises of hearing^ and reading, and contemn to be noted to take care. I had rather ye both, with God his blessed favour, had very good health and well out of debt than any office. Yet though the EapA ^ showed great affection, he marred all with violent courses. . . . Let your brother be of good cheer. Alas, what excess of bucks at Gray's Lm ; and to feast it so on the Sabbath ! God forgive and have mercy upon England.^ In October 1595 the Queen at last made up her mind and appointed Serjeant Fleming to be her Solicitor. Though used later on by the Queen in various ways Bacon obtained no office in her lifetime, and it was not until 1607, when he was forty-six, that he was made Solicitor-General by King James. It is interesting to see how Bacon's mood changes as soon as he realises that the Queen's decision is against him. He at once makes up his mind that writing is to be his career and resolves to devote himself to it. Thereupon he enjoys the satisfaction of asserting his independence in a somewhat cavalier letter to Puckering. Three days later, when the Queen's decision was known, he sends him another, by which, in a few sententious and dignified phrases, he seems to throw a cloak of oblivion over the whole episode. His attitude was similar at his fall from power in later years. As soon as he had recovered from the first shock, he seemed to welcome it as a relief, and as an opportunity, in the dispensations of Providence, for ' i.e. going to sermons, a practice very much followed in those times by all classes ; see, for instance, Manningham's Diary. 2 Essex. 2 Spedding, Life, i. 364, note. 4IO SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. pursuing the work for which by his genius he was in- tended. But except under the compulsion of circum- stances he never could have brought himself to relinquish active life. At most he might have done it in the mood and for a few months if public affairs were quiescent. At this point, however, he is in the mood, and seems to shake himself free from the world, including, in particular, the young Earl, who had now become an embarrassment. I srive both the letters : £> To the Lord Keeper It may please your good Lordship, My not acquainting your Lordship hath proceeded of my not knowing anything, and my not knowing of my absence at Byssam with my Lady Russel upon some important cause of her son's. And as I have heard nothing, so I look for nothing, though my Lord of Essex sent me word he would not write till his Lordship had good news. But his Lordship may go on in his affection, which nevertheless myself liave desired him to limit. But I assure your Lordship, I can take no furder care for the matter. I am now at Twicknam Park, where I think to stay : for her Majesty placing a Solicitor, my travel shall not need in her causes ; though whensoever her Majesty shall like to employ me in any particular, I shall be ready to do her willing service. This I write lest your Lordship mought think my silence came of any conceit towards your Lordship, which I do assure you 1 have not. And this needed I not to do if I thought not so. For my course will not give me any ordinary occasion to use your favour, whereof nevertheless I shall ever be glad. So I commend your good Lordship to God's holy preservation. This i ith of October, 1595. — Your Lordship's humbly at your hon. coin., Fr. Bacon.^ To the Lord Keeper It may please your good Lordship, I conceive the end already made, which will I trust be to me a beginning of good fortune, or at least of content. Her Maje^>ty by God's grace shall live and reign long. She is not running away, I may trust her. Or whether she look towards me or no, I remain the same, not altered in my intention. If I had been an ambitious man, it would have overthrown me. But ' Spedding, Life, i. 368. XV A PAGE IN BACON'S LIFE 411 minded as I am, revertet benedidio mea iti sinum meum. If I had made any reckoning of anything to be stirred, I would have waited on your Lordship, and will be at any time ready to wait on you to do you service. So I commend your good Lordship to God's holy preservation. From Twicknam Park, this 14th of October. — Your Lordship's most humble at your hon. com- mandments, Fr. Bacon. ^ Indorsed : 14M October '95. It would be beyond the scope of this book to discuss in any detail the relations of Francis Bacon and Essex. But as regards the remarkable words on that subject in the first of these letters, I will only say that it is a mistake to suppose that they can be appraised by any summary judgment. They are supplemented by similar words used by Bacon at the end of a letter written at the same time to Essex himself: To my Lord of Essex It may please your good Lordship, I pray God her Majesty's weighing be not like the weight of a balance ; gravia deorsum, kvia sitrsiim. But I am as far from being altered in devotion towards her, as I am from distrust that she will be altered in opinion towards me, when she knoweth me better. For myself, I have lost some opinion, some time, and some means ; this is my account : but then for opinion, it is a blast that goeth and cometh ; for time, it is true it goeth and cometh not ; but yet I have learned that it may be redeemed. For means, I value that most ; and the rather, because I am purposed not to follow the practice of the law : (If her Majesty command me in any particular, I shall be ready to do her willing service :) and my reason is only, because it drinketh too much time, which I have dedicated to better purposes. But even for that point of estate and means, I partly lean to Thales' opinion, That a philosopher may be rich if he will. Thus your Lordship seeth how I comfort myself; to the increase whereof I would fain please myself to believe that to be true which my Lord Treasurer writeth ; which is, that it is more than a philosopher morally can disgest. But without any such high conceit, I esteem it like the pulling out of an aching tooth, which, I remember, when I was a child and had little philosophy, I was glad of when it was done. For your Lordship, I do think myself more beholding to you than 1 Spedding, Life, i. 369. 412 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. to any man. And I say, I reckon myself as a common (not popular, but commofi) ; and as much as is lawful to be enclosed of a common, so much your Lordship shall be sure to have. — Your Lordship's, to obey your honourable commands, more settled than ever.^ The fact is that, with the exception of his brother, Bacon had no friends,'"' and (though it may seem a harsh thing to say) he did not require them. He was self- contained ; the resources within him were sufficient ; and all the companionship of a permanent kind which he needed he found in himself. The young Earl of Essex evidently had the power of attracting to himself much popular sympathy and even enthusiasm ; he was affec- tionate, frank and munificent — qualities much appreciated by the English people. But such qualities afford no guarantee of the qualities for leadership, and as a leader Essex proved himself incapable. To the Queen, who loved him, he vvas " a rash and temerarious youth " ; others observed that he was irresolute and flexible ; and the whole course of his conduct showed him, in the higher spheres, impulsive, passionate, and unfit for power.^ Such a man could never have been a friend of Bacon, and there can be no doubt that, in "applying himself" to his affairs, ^ Spedding, Life, i. 372. 2 I refer to friends in the active world, Bettenham was a friend of a more intimate character ; see Chapter XVIII. 3 I do not suggest that the passionate nature of Essex was pecuHar to him ; in those times men's feelings were stronger and less disciplined than they have since become. No doubt, however, among the men in high position Essex was more than ordinarily ungovernable, and Sir John Harington, a great favourite of Queen Elizabeth, has left some notes about him which are interesting evidence of this. Writing after an interview with Essex in the time of his trouble, he says : " It restethe withe me in opynion that ambition thwarted in its career, dothe speedilie leade on to madnesse. . . . The man's soule seemeth tossede to and fro, hke the waves of a troubled sea." — Nu/;ae Antiqnae. Also inhis " Tract on the Succession to the Crown " (1602) Haring- ton refers to the extinction for the time being of " the Earle of Huntingdon's title by the house of Clarence." "This faction," he adds, "dyed with my Lo. of Leicester, although that Earle of Huntingdon dyed after, and yet when the newes of his death came to the Earle of Essex I was told by one that knewe it that he took it so passionately that he tore his hear and all liis buttons break with the swelling of his stomach, as if some great designe of his had bene frustrated thereby." I think this is written seriously, and I cite it therefore as an interesting light on the character of a man who was so closely connected with Bacon's life. XV A PAGE IN BACON'S LIFE 413 Bacon saw, or thought he saw, an opportunity, and the only one open to him, of obtaining a position in the State. It is easy to say that this is evidence of baseness. But such things are done (though perhaps seldom put in writing) in the competition for power, in all its forms. I think our judgment of them largely depends on the quality of the man. The world, for instance, did not, and does not now, think badly of Sir Robert Cecil, though his practice in regard to competitors who passed for friends was probably based entirely on calculation. But Cecil had no pretensions to be more than a man of his day and generation, engaged in the precarious business of govern- ment under a monarch with largely absolute powers. In all that appertained to this, in the handling of business, in method, judgment and knowledge of men, he was a much more capable man than Bacon, and probably than any one else of his time. But he had none of Bacon's imagination and speculative outlook, or that power of generalisation which marks the original mind. In such things Bacon was supreme. But they command little contemporary market ; hence Bacon was out of touch with the men among whom he aspired to compete, and was exposed, as friendless men are, to the worst constructions. From the fact, too, that he claimed to see farther than his con- temporaries, and aspired to put before them higher social standards, he is amenable to a stricter account than the men who made no claims beyond the conduct of affairs in the manner of the times without any gross betrayal of the interests of the country. This, I suppose, may be said in palliation of certain acts in Bacon's career. Even so, however, they are difficult to account for ; they present evidence of an abnormal personality ; and on the whole it seems useless, and perhaps undesirable, to attempt to pronounce judgment upon them. CHAPTER XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS The reader will now be in a position to realise to some extent the circumstances and state of mind of Francis Bacon during the period under review. It was clearly one of suspense, often of depression, mitigated by inter- mittent resolutions to abandon an active career for a life of study and literary production. During the same period Ralegh was also under a cloud, being denied access to Court owing to the Queen's displeasure at his marriage. His exile lasted for five years, from the middle of 1592 to the middle of 1597, when he was again restored to a considerable degree of favour. During this period he retired with his wife to Sherborne, then made his first voyage of discovery to Trinidad and explored the Orinoco (1595),^ and in 1596 he took a leading part, with Essex, in the assault and capture of Cadiz. At intervals he appears to have been at Durham House in London, and to this period (i 592-1 594) belong the charges of atheism which were brought against him and others (the set being referred to as " Sir Walter Rawley's School of Atheism "), which were inquired into by order of the Council, with what result is not known. The poems which pass under his name represent him during this time as melancholy to distraction and deeply enamoured of the Queen. His correspondence, on the other hand, which has been preserved shows that he was ^ This is alluded to in F.Q. IV. xi. 21, 22 : " Rich Oranochy, though but knowen late." Ralegh returned to England in tlie autumn of 1595. 414 CH. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESrONDENCE AND POEMS 415 much attached to his wife, and, though fretting at the loss of power and position, full of schemes of an active character. I propose in this chapter to examine the Ralegh poems in the light of this correspondence and the known circumstances of Ralegh's life. It is reasonable, indeed only rational, to expect that the character and intellectual equipment of a writer will be found the same in all essential features in his corre- spondence as in his works. If, for example, there were in existence any letters of Shakespeare, we should expect, if only from the prose writings in his plays, to find them as conspicuous for clarity of thought, philosophic outlook, wit, and wealth of illustration, as his prose and poetry. Some examples of Shakespeare's prose are quoted in this work,^ and another may be given as showing what he was able to do in the way of a State dispatch, of its kind a model document, and revealing (as presumably would be allowed in the case of any other writer than Shakespeare) the practised hand : MachetKs letter to Lady Macbeth They met me in the day of success ; and 1 have learned by the perfectest report, they have more in them than mortal knowledge. When I burned in desire to question them further, they made themselves air, into which they vanished. Whiles I stood rapt in the wonder of it, came missives from the king, who all-hailed me " Thane of Cawdor " ; by which title, before, these weird sisters saluted me, and referred me to the coming on of time, with " Hail, king that shalt be ! " This have I thought good to deliver thee, my dearest partner of greatness, that thou mightst not lose the dues of rejoicing, by being ignorant of what greatness is promised thee. Lay it to thy heart, and farewell. 0- 5-) So also in the case of Spenser, though no letters of his exist, we may judge from the Viezv of the Present State of Ireland by what facility and wealth of matter they would have been characterised. Such a correspondency between ' See, for instance, pp. 291, 292, 331. 4i6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the works and the letters we find, in fact, in the case of Milton, and of every poet of importance where docu- ments have been preserved ; this is so well known that it is unnecessary to particularise. In the case of Ralegh, however, there is no such correspondency ; on the contrary, the character of the writer, his style and his mental equipment, are one in the letters and quite another in the poems. It is impossible within the limits of a work of this kind to illustrate this in great detail, but I shall endeavour, by some extracts from the correspond- ence and a brief commentary, to bring out certain points which justify this view, and which otherwise bear on the inquiry as to the authorship of these poems. The correspondence (which is to be found in the second volume of the Life by Edwards) begins with five letters from Ireland of the year 1581, before Ralegh had been taken up by the Queen. They are interesting as evidence of Ralegh's energy and independence of character. In passing, it is worth noting that they are all signed " W. Rauley." Sent over with dispatches in December 1581, Ralegh won the Queen's favour shortly afterwards. The next letter is from the Court at Richmond, dated March 1583, and the signature is " W. Ralegh." From 1584 onwards the signature is always " Ralegh," and the change may have been made by Ralegh on his elevation by the Queen, and as a result of the researches of the antiquaries referred to in Chapter XIV. It is worth noting that Essex, in a dispatch written during the "Island" expedition of 1597 (after a quarrel with Ralegh), refers to him as " Sir Walter Rauley." This may have been done with intention, disparagingly. He is also referred to as " Sir Walter Rawley " in a letter of the Privy Council in 161 7 (Edwards, i. 613). The following letter (which I give in full) written to the Earl of Leicester, then in the Netherlands, in 1586, when Ralegh was at the height of his power, is a good example of his usual style. Mr. Edwards says that it is evident from the autographs that " he wrote habitually in a very hurried manner" (i. 138), and he describes the XVI R A LEGITS CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 417 earlier MSS. as "scrawls" (ii. 258). The style in itself indicates this feature. The letters are few and for the most part rather brief, and they are, to my mind, clearly not those of a man accustomed to much writing. (There are, however, a few exceptions to this, to be noted in their place.) To Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester [From the original] My very good Lorde — You wrate unto me in your laste letters for pioners to be sent over^ ; wher uppon I moved her Majestye, and found her very willing, in so mich as order was geven for a cummission ; but since, the matter is stayd. I know not for what cause. Also, according to your Lordshipe desired, I spake for one Jukes for the office of the back-house, and the matter well liked. In ought else your Lordshipe shall finde me most assured to my pouere to performe all offices of love, honor and service toward you. But I have byn of late very pestilent reported in this place to be rather a drawer bake, than a fartherer of the action wher you govern. Your lordshipe doth well understand my affection towards Spayn, and how I have consumed the best part of my fortune, hating the tirrannus sprosperety of that estate, and it were now Strang and monnsterous that I should becum an enemy to my countrey and conscience. But all that I have desired att your Lordship's hands is, that you will evermore deal directly with mee in all matters of suspect dublenes, and so ever esteme me as you shall finde my deserving, good or bad. In the mean tyme, I humblie beseich you, lett no poeticall scribe work your Lordshipe by any device to doubt that I am a hollo or could sarvant to the action, or a mean well-wilier and follower of your own. And yeven so, I humblie take my leve, wishing you all honor and prosperety. From the Court, the xxix of March, 1586. — Your Lordships, to do you service, W. Ralegh. \Postscript?^ The Queen is on very good tearms with you, and, thank be to God, well pacified ; and you are agayne her "Sweet Robyn."2 The expression " poeticall scribe " evidently means an untruthful romancer. » To the Netherlands. - Edwards, Life, ii. 33. 2 E 4i8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. To Lord Biirghley, 1587 I am bold to write my simple oppinion playnly unto your Lordshipe.^ Compare Life, p. 115, Letter to the Council, "in my simple judgement." These are the only instances which I have noticed of the use of this phrase in Ralegh's corre- spondence. As I have pointed out, it is so frequent with Bacon as to have been a mannerism. To his cousin. Sir George Carew, 27M Dec. 1589 For my retrait from the Court it was uppon good cause to take order for my prize.^ [Evidently in contradiction of the rumour that he had been driven from the Court through the rivalry of Essex.^] The Queen thincks that George Carew longes to see her ; and therfore see her."* [Evidence of Ralegh's attitude as a courtier.] We come now to the period of Ralegh's marriage and the loss of the Queen's favour, which appears to form the main theme of the poems. And at this point it will be convenient to give some account from contemporary writers of Ralegh's personality and his extraordinary rise to fortune.^ Aubrey *^ gives the following account of his first rise : * Edwards, Life, ii. 37. 2 /^^a'. p. 41. 3 " My Lord of Essex hath chased Mr. Ralegh from the Court and hath confined him into Ireland." — Letter of Sir F. Allen to Anthony Bacon, 1589. * Edwards, life, ii. 42. * For information about Ralegh's early life see pp. 372, 373. " Aubrey's authority has, in my opinion, been undervalued. It is customary to allude to him as "gossiping," or "old gossiping" Aubrey. But it is evident that he took the greatest pains in making some of his collections, notably in the cases of Ilobbes, Bacon, Ralegh and Milton. He was a contemporary of the latter, and, being born in 1626, the year of Bacon's death, he had opportunities of hearing facts in the cases of Bacon and Ralegh from those who remembered them or were told about them at first hand. Such evidence, in days when documents were rarer and not accessible as they are now, and when oral testimony was more habitually preserved, is obviously of importance. Moreover Aubrey was not "old " when he began his Brief liiJes, being forty-three. As he continued to write them to within a year of his d^-ath at the age of seventy-one, they cannot all be regarded as unsifted compilations. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 419 He went to Ireland, where he served in the warres, and shewed much courage and conduct, but he would be perpetually differing with ... (I thinke. Gray) then Lord Deputy ; so that at last the hearing was to be at the councell table before the queen, which was that he desired ; where he told his tale so well and with so good a grace and presence that the queen took especiall notice of him and presently preferred him. Aubrey has two interesting notes about Ralegh's character and personal appearance : He was a tall, handsome, and bold man : but his neave was that he was damnable proud. He had a most remarkeable aspect, an exceeding high forehead, long-faced, and sour eie-liddid, a kind of pigge-eie. This can be seen in the full-length portrait reproduced in Edwards's Life giving him a somewhat forbidding appear- ance. See also the portrait at the beginning of Hannah's volume. Other accounts confirm the statement about his pride, and the correspondence shows evidence of it. For this and other reasons Ralegh was a very unpopular man, except among the west country men, especially the seamen, who were devoted to him as a leader, and it was not until after his death, and owing to the way in which he met it, that his real greatness of mind was generally appreciated. Aubrey quotes an epitaph of eight lines made on him, two of which run : Hee living was belov'd of none. Yet in his death all did him moane. And in the margin: " Horat. ep. i, lib. 2: — Extinctus amabitur idem." The following account of him from Naunton's portrait- gallery of Queen Elizabeth's favourites^ is also interesting : Sir Walter Raivleigh was one, that (it seems) Fortune had picked out of purpose, of whom to make an example, or to use as her Tennis-Bail, thereby to shew what she could doe ; for she tost him up of nothing, and too and fro to greatnesse, and from thence down to a little more than to that wherein she found him, 1 Fragtnenta Regalia. 420 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. (a bare Gentleman). Not that he was lesse, for he was well descended, and of good alliance, but poor in his beginnings. • •■•••■ He had in the outward man a good presence, in a handsome and well compacted person, a strong naturall wit, and a better judgement, with a bold and plausible tongue, whereby he could set out his parts to the best advantage ; and to these he had the adjuncts of some generall Learning, which by diligence he en- forced to a great augmentation, and perfection ; for he was an indefatigable Reader, whether by Sea or Land, and none of the least observers both of men and the times ; and I am confident, that among the second causes of his growth, that variance between him and my Lord Grey^ in his descent into Ireland, was a principall ; for it drew them both over the Councell Table, there to plead their cause, where (what advantage he had in the cause, I know not) but he had much better in the telling of his tale ; and so much that the Queen and the Lords took no slight mark of the man, and his parts ; for from thence he came to be known, and to have access to the Queen and the Lords. . . . But true it is, he had gotten the Queens ear in a trice, and she began to be taken with his elocution, and loved to hear his reasons to her demands : and the truth is, she took him for a kind of Oracle which netled them all. . . . Evidence of Ralegh's power with the Queen in Irish business, of his reputation for arrogance and selfish ambition, and of the intrigues and jealousies of the Court, appears in a letter from Mountjoy to the Queen written from Ireland in 1600, after he had been sent there against Tyrone on the failure of Essex.^ Lord Mountjoy to Queen Elizabeth [Extract.] And lastly for the interpretation of my proceedings, which may turn both good and ill success to my ruin ; what shall I look for when I know this employment of me is by a private man that never knew what it was to divide public and honorable ends from his own, propounded and labored to you (without any respect to your public service), the more eagerly, by my ruins to rise to his long expected fortune? Wherein by reason of the experience I have heard your Majesty holds him to have in that country, he is like to become my judge, and is already so proud of this plot > Printed in Goodman's Court of Kitti; James (cd. Brewer), ii. 27. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 421 that he cannot keep himself from bragging of it. But since I dare not presume to trouble you with all my reasons, these being only but lights of them, I humbly desire your Majesty, before you resolve herein, that as it only belongs unto you to be the supreme, you will make yourself only my judge herein. . . . The following is the Queen's reply : The Queen to Lord ^fountjoy O what malincholy humour hath exhaled up to your brayne, from a fuU-fraughted hart, that should breede such doubt bred upon no cause geven by us at all, never having pronounced any syllable whereon such a work should be framed. There is no louder tromp that may sound out your praise, your hazard, your care, your luck, then we haue blasted in all our court and else- where in deed. Well, I will attribute it to God's good Provi- dence for you, that (leste all these glories might elevate you to much) he hath suffred (though not made) such a scruple, to keepe you under his rod, who best knowes that wee all have more neede of bittes than spurres. Thus, Valeant ista amara I ad Tartaros eat nulancholia ! — your Souveraine, E. R, Endorsed — "^ copy of her Majesty s iettre, lest you can not reade it.^' ^ Then, in Lord Mountjoy's own hand, " Receaved at Acbrahen [Ardbraken] the — off Jaunar}', in a packet from Mr. Secretary " [Cecil]. On Ralegh's relations with the Oueen, or indeed with her other most intimate favourites, Seymour, Leicester, Hatton and Essex, it is impossible to pronounce. Men in great position, especially those who have risen to it, are usually subject, more or less, to scandal, and some writers are naturally malicious. In the case of Ralegh it is difficult to account for the lavish grants which were made to him on a favourable interpretation of the Queen's affection, and there are not wanting statements incrimi- nating Elizabeth from the time of Seymour onwards. On the other hand, Sir John Harington (the younger), her godson and evidently one of her most privileged courtiers, declares emphatically that there was no ground for these rumours.' Bacon's evidence appears to be to 1 " The words in italics are cautious Mr. Secretary's." — Ed. - Nu^ae Antiquae. 422 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the same effect, but being couched, as always with him when speaking of Queen EHzabeth, in the language of romance, it is unsafe to draw inferences of fact from his testimony. What he says on the subject is in Latin, of which the following is a translation : Some of the graver sort may perhaps exaggerate Queen Elizabeth's lighter qualities because she suffered herself to be honoured and caressed and celebrated and extolled with the name of Love ; and wished it and continued it beyond the suitability of her age. If, however, you take these things in a more indulgent spirit, they may not even be without some admiration, because such things are commonly found in our fabulous narratives, of a Queen in the Islands of Bliss, with her hall and her institutes, who receives the administrations of Love, but prohibits its licentiousness. If you judge them more severely, still they have this admirable circumstance, that gratifications of this sort did not much hurt her reputation, and not at all her majesty ; nor ever relaxed her government ; nor were any notable impediment in her State affairs. ... In short this Princess was certainly good and moral, and she also wished to appear so ; she hated vice, and it was her ambition to shine by good arts. The coarse familiarities of speech and behaviour in which Elizabeth at times indulged might be sufficient to account for these rumours, and, in the case of the young Earl of Essex, the age and loneliness of the Queen may have found solace in his company. Her feelings towards him seem to have been of more than usual tenderness, which ended, if contemporary accounts may be believed, in regrets which accompanied her to her grave. " After the blow given," writes Osborne, " the Queen fell into a deep melancholy whereof she died not long after." ^ The strange poem. The Phoenix and Tuj'tle, published as Shakespeare's, but more resembling Roydon's elegy, seems to refer to this affection. The Queen's love, however, for Ralegh was of a less tragic order. As we have seen, he came over from Ireland at the close of 1581, where he was serving as a captain in the operations against the ' Traditional Memories. Tliis account is discredilcd by some modern writers, but, tlioiit^h it evidently contains some exaggeration, there is other contemporary evidence in a similar sense. xvr RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS a,zi Earl of Desmond, and was taken into the Queen's confidence, to some extent supplanting his former patron, the Earl of Leicester. Thereafter he seems to have become her most trusted adviser on Irish affairs. The writer, however, of the article on Ralegh in the Dictionary of National Biography observes that '' such service does not account for the numerous appointments and grants which, within a few years, raised him from the position of a poor gentleman -adventurer to one of the most wealthy of the courtiers." In 1583 he was granted the monopoly of wine licences; in 1584 he was knighted; in 1585 he was made Warden of the Stanneries ; in 1586 an enormous tract of country in Cork, Waterford and Tipperary was made over to him, and he was made captain of the Queen's Guard; in 1587 he was granted estates in Lincolnshire, Derbyshire and Nottinghamshire, forfeited by Babington and his fellow-conspirators. Elizabeth Throgmorton was the daughter of Sir Nicholas Throgmorton, some time the Queen's ambassador in France. When Ralegh's courtship began (which Edwards puts as either late in 1591 or early in 1592 — the same period, it will be observed, as that inferred from the poems for the supposed courtship of his wife by Spenser) he was engaged, with Lord Thomas Howard on the preparations for the expedition against Spain which resulted in the capture of the great carrack, the Madre de Dios, in the summer of 1592. Ralegh appears to have adventured a very large sum of money in this enterprise, and the Queen (who provided two ships out of thirteen), the Earl of Cumberland, and others were joint-adventurers. Ralegh was to have had the principal command, but so great was the Queen's attachment and her dislike of allowing her favourites to absent themselves from her Court and expose themselves to risk, that she made him promise that he would only take the fleet out to sea "some fifty or three score leagues," and then " persuade the companies to follow Sir Martin Frobisher " and himself return home. The following letter from Ralegh to Robert Cecil, 424 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. dated lOth March 1592, contains the account of this, and the first allusion to reports about his marriage : To Sir Robert Cecil, 10th March 1592 [As printed by Murdin, from the original] Sir — I receved your letters this present day at Chattame, concerninge the wages of the mariners and others. For myne own part, I am very willing to enter bonde, as yow perswaded me, so as the Privey Scale be first sent for my injoyinge the third ; but I pray consider that I have layd all that I am worth, and must do, ere I depart on this voyage. If it fall not out well, I can but loose all ; and if nothinge be remayning, wherewith shall I pay the wages ? Besides, her Majestie told mee hersealf that shee was contented to paye her part, and my Lord Admirall his, and I should but discharge for myne own shipps. And farther, I have promised her Majestie, that if I can perswade the Cumpanies to follow sir Marten Furbresher, I will without fail returne ; and bringe them but into the sea but sume fifty or thriscore leagues, for which purpose my Lord Admirall hath lent me the Disdayne ; which to do her Majestie many tymes, with great grace, bedd mee remember, and sent mee the same message by Will. Killegrewe, which, God willinge, if I can perswade the Cumpanies, I meane to performe ; though I dare not be acknown thereof to any creature. But, Sir, for mee then to be bounde for so great a sume, uppon the hope of another man's fortune, I will be loth ; and besids, if I weare able, I see no privy scale for my thirds. I mean not to cume away, as they say I will, for feare of a marriage, and I know not what. If any such thing weare, I would have imparted it unto yoursealf before any man livinge ; and, therefore, I pray believe it not, and I beseich yow to suppress, what you can, any such mallicious report. For I protest before God, ther is none on the face of the yearth, that I would be fastned unto. And so in hast I take my leve of your Honor. From Chattame, the loth of March. — Your's ever to be cummanded, W. Ralegh.^ Edwards relates that the departure of the fleet was delayed for three months at least, during which Ralegh was continually running to and fro between his ships and the Court, and that when a change of wind at length ' Edwards, Life, ii. 44. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 425 allowed him fairly to set sail, and get out to sea, he was followed by Sir Martin Frobisher with peremptory orders that the Admiral should resign his post to Frobisher, jointly with Sir John Borough, and return forthwith to the Court/ Edwards says that Ralegh's "crime" was now {i.e. late in May or early in June) fully known to the Queen, and seems to suppose that the recall was on that ground.^ It is possible, however, that the Queen did not find out about Ralegh's relations with Elizabeth Throgmorton until he returned, and the reference to the incident in the poem " Cynthia " supports, for what it may be worth, this view : To seek new worlds for gold, for praise, for glory, To try desire, to try love severed far. When I was gone, she sent her memory, More strong than were ten thousand ships of war ; To call me back, to leave great honour's thought, To leave my friends, my fortune, my attempt ; To leave the purpose I so long had sought. To hold both cares and comforts in contempt.^ Be that as it may, when Elizabeth discovered the state of affairs between Ralegh and her maid of honour, which, in any case, was not later than June 1592, she committed them both to the Tower. During the early period of his imprisonment Ralegh affected an almost frenzied distress at the separation from his royal mistress. He had, of course, many enemies at Court and much to apprehend from the loss of the Queen's favour, and it seems clear that the extravagance of his behaviour was mainly an artifice to win back the Queen. He had recourse to a somewhat similar piece of play-acting when under arrest on his return from Guiana in 16 17. The crude and fantastic letter of flattery addressed to Cecil from the Tower in July 1592, which was, of course, intended to be shown to the Queen, was evidently also part of this scheme. So too, in my opinion, were certain of the very beautiful poems — in marked contrast, ' Cf. Hakluyt, vol. vii. 105-10S ; and Purchas, vol. xvi. 13-17 (Hakl. Soc). '^ Edwards, Life, i. 147. ^ Hannah, Courtly /'oets, p. 34. 426 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. in this respect, with the letter — of which I regard Bacon as the author. In these Ralegh is represented as deeply in love with the Queen, as pining in utter desolation at the loss of her affection, his youth wasted in the pursuit of a hopeless passion and his life ruined. The facts were quite different. Ralegh in 1592 was in the fulness of his manhood, and in love with his wife, whom he married probably on his release from the Tower at the end of that year, or possibly secretly before his imprisonment. We shall come presently to the poems, and in the meantime I give Ralegh's letter from the Tower : To Sir Robert Cecily from the Tower, July 1592 [As printed by Murdin, from the original.] Sir — I pray be a mean to her Majesty for the signing of the bills for the Gards' coats, which are to be made now for the Prograsse, and which the Cleark of the Cheeck hath importunde me to write for. My heart was never broken till this day, that I hear the Queen goes away so far of, whom I have followed so many years with so great love and desire, in so many journeys, and am now left behind her, in a dark prison all alone. While she was yet nire at hand, that I might hear of her once in two or three dayes, my sorrows were the less : but even now my heart is cast into the depth of all misery. I, that was wont to behold her riding like Alexander, hunting like Diana, walking like Venus, the gentle wind blowing her fair hair about her pure cheeks, like a nymph ; sometime siting in the shade like a Goddess ; sometime singing like an angell ; sometime playing like Orpheus. Behold the sorrow of this world ! Once amiss, hath bereaved me of all. O Glory, that only shineth in misfortune, what is becum of thy assurance ? All wounds have skares, but that of fantasie ; all affections their relenting, but that of womankind. Who is the judge of friendship, but adversity? or when is grace witnessed, but in offences ? There were no divinety, but by reason of compassion ; for revenges are brutish and mortall. All those times past, — the loves, the sythes, the sorrows, the desires, can they not way down one frail misfortune ? Cannot one dropp of gall be hidden in so great heaps of sweetness ? I may then con- clude, Spes et fortu7ia, valete. She is gone, in whom I trusted, and of me hath not one thought of mercy, nor any respect of that that was. Do with me now, therefore, what you list. I am more XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 427 weary of life then they are desirous 1 should perish ; which if it had been for her, as it is by her, I had been too happily born. — Yours, not worthy any name or title, W. R.^ Addressed : To my honorable friend. Sir Robert Cecill, Knight, of Her Majesty's most honorable Privy Councell. Ralegh was not precluded from communicating with his friends during his detention at this time (see, for instance, p. 446, 7iote), and the suggestion which I have to make at this point is that this letter has been con- structed out of some draft framed by Bacon for the purpose of winning back the Queen. The letter employs the language of some of the poems ; it has the cadences of some of the fanciful writings such as the Arcadia and the Court Devices ; and the letters, admittedly written by Bacon for Essex when he was in disfavour, furnish a parallel, the style being adapted in each case to the circumstances and character of the man. It is important in connection with this inquiry to note the relations of Ralegh and his wife. If Ralegh was attached to his wife the poem to " Cynthia " is insincere from beginning to end. The same is true of the exquisite poem, " As you came from the holy land Of Walsinghame," ^ which has the appearance of being a sort of conversion into verse of the ridiculous and (rightly considered) abominable letter to Cecil above quoted. It can hardly be doubted that Ralegh was devoted to the Queen as a subject, but it is impossible to suppose that he can have composed these beautiful love poems unless he was either a consummate literary artist (of which there is no trace in his letters or character), or at least was not insincere in the passion which they express. For there evidently is some sincerity of motive, from whatever source derived, running through these poems. But in my belief it is wrapped up in the story of another man, who is making use of the theme handled as a means of self- expression, dramatically. If, on the other hand, the 1 Edwards, Life, ii. 51. 2 Hannah, Courtly Poets, p. 80 ; quoted at p. 455 below. 428 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. poems really mean what they appear to mean on the surface, then it is impossible that Ralegh can have been in love with his wife. But unless he had been, how could he have written to her on the eve of his expected execution in 1603, " Remember your poore childe for his father's sake \i.e. in case of re-marriage, which he considers would be best for her] that chose you and loved you in his happiest tymes " ? The days were unscrupulous, and Ralegh was, no doubt, as unscrupulous as any in carving his career, but it seems clear that he had great private virtues, and that he was a man of sincere and genuine feelings where his affections were placed. The passion and melancholy which find expression in the poems are inconsistent with this feature in Ralegh's character and with his love for his wife, and I find it impossible, on this ground alone, to believe that he wrote them. I feel equally sure that he was incapable of writing them, being in all respects a man of action and only a man of letters by accident and as a means of relief from the tragedy of his long imprisonment. There is no room for doubt that Ralegh loved his wife, and she him, with a real and constant affection. He frequently refers to her in his letters to Cecil as " my Bess," and addresses her in his troubles from Guiana in 16 17 (the year before his execu- tion) as " Sweet Heart." In a letter of the following year from St. Christopher's, in which he breaks to her the news of the death of their son, he writes, " Comfort your hart (dearest Besse), I shall sorrow for us bothc." But the letter of 1603 seems conclusive on the point, and, as it is worth careful perusal, I give extracts from it as follows : To his Wife, the night before he expected to be put to death at Winchester, Dec. 1603 [From a contemporaneous transcript, collated with two others.] You shall receave, deare wief, my last words in these my last lynes. My love I send you, that you may keepe it when I am dead ; and my councell, that you may remember it when I am noe more. I would not, with my last Will, present you with XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 429 sorrowes, deare Besse, Lett them goe to the grave with me, and be buried in the dust. And, seeing it is not the will of God that ever I shall see you in this lief, beare my destruccion gentlie and with a hart like yourself. First I send you all the thanks my heart cann conceive, or my penn expresse, for your many troubles and cares taken for me, which — though they have not taken effect as you wished — yet my debt is to you never the lesse ; but pay it I never shall in this world. • •••••• Remember your poore childe for his father's sake \i.e. in case of re-marriage, which he considers would be best for her] that comforted ^ you and loved you in his happiest tymes. Gett those letters (if it bee possible) which I writt to the Lords, wherein I sued for my h'ef, but God knoweth that itt was for you and yours that I desired it, but itt is true that I disdaine myself for begging itt. And know itt (deare wief) that your sonne is the childe of a true man, and who, in his own respect, despiseth Death, and all his misshapen and ouglie formes. I cannot wright much. God knowes howe hardlie I stole this tyme, when all sleep ; and it is tyme to separate my thoughts from the world. Begg my dead body, which living was denyed you ; and either lay itt att Sherborne, if the land continue, or in Exiter church, by my father and mother. I can wright noe more. Tyme and Death call me awaye. The everlasting, infinite powerfull, and inscrutable God, that Almightie God that is goodnes itself, mercy itself, the true lief and light, keep you and yours, and have mercy on me, and teach me to forgeve my persecutors and false accusers ; and send us to meete in His glorious kingdome. My true wief, farewell. Blesse my poore boye ; pray for me. My true God hold you both in His armes. Written with the dyeing hand of sometyme thy husband, but now (alasse !) overthrowne. — Yours that was ; but nowe not my owne, W. Ralegh.2 During Ralegh's temporary detention in the Tower in 1592 he was evidently much exercised about his large interests in Ireland, as the two following letters show. They are good examples of the directness of Ralegh's style, and of his energy of character. * The alternative (and better-known) reading is "that chose you and loved you," etc. * Edwards, Life, ii. 284. 430 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. To Sir Robert Cecil, from the Touier, July 1592 [From the original.] Sir — I wrat unto your father how I am dealt withall by the Deputye,^ to whom my disgraces have bynn highly cummended. Hee supposed a debt of four hundred pounds to the Queen, for rent, and sent order to the Shiriff to take away all the cattell my tenants had, and sell them the next day, unless the money weare payd the same day. All Munster had scarce so mich mony in it ; and the debt was indeed but fifty marks, which was payde, and it was the first and only rent that hath yet bynn payd by any undertaker. But the Shirife did as he was cummanded, and tooke away five hundred milch kine from the poor people ; sume had but two, and sume three, to releve their poor wives and children, and in a Strang country newly sett downe to builde and plant. Hee hath forcible thrust mee out of possession of a Castell, because it is in law between mee and his cousin VVinck- feld, and will not here my atornes speake. Hee hath admitted a ward, and geven it his man, of a Castell which is the Queen's, and hath bynn by mee new built and planted with Inglishe, this five years ; and to profitt his man with a wardship, looseth her Majesties inheritance, and would plant the cussen of a rebell in the place of Inglishe men, the Castell stanetinge in the most dangerous place of all Munster. Besids ther is a band of soldiers, which a base phello, O'Dodall, hath in YohoU, which duth cost the Queen twelve hundred pound a yeare, and hath not ten good men in it ; but our porest people muster and serve hyme for threepence a day, and the rest of his soldiers do nothing but spoyle the country, and drive away our best tenants. If the Queen be over rich, it may be mayntayned ; but I will, att three days' warninge, rayse her a better bande, and arme it better tenfold, and better men, whensoever shee shall need it. And, in the mean tyme, it may either be imploycd in the North, or discharged ; for ther is in Munster, besids, a band of horse, and another of foot, which is more than needeth. In this, if yow pleas to move it, yow may save her Majestye so mich in her coffers. For the rest I will send my man to attend yow, although I care not ether for life or lands ; but it will be no small weakninge to the Queen in thos parts, and no small cumfort to the ill-affected Irishe, to have the Inglishe inhabitants driven out * Sir William Fitzwilliam. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 431 of the country, which are yet stronge enough to master the rest, without her charge. — Yours, to do yow service, W. Ralegh.i Addressed : To my honorable frinde, Sir R. Cicill, Knt., of Her Majesty's most honorable Privy Councell. To Sir Robert Cecil, from the Toiver, fuly 1592 [As printed by Murdin, from the original] Sir — I pray send me the news of Ireland. I hear that there are three thousand of the Burgks in arms, and young Odonell and the sons of Shane Oneale. I wrote in a letter of Mr. KiLLEGREEw's, ten days past, a prophesye of this rebellion, which when the Queen read, she made a scorn at my conceat ; but yow shall find it but a shoure of a farther tempest. If yow please to sent me word of what yow hear, I will be laught at again in my opinion touching the same, and be bold to write yow my farther suspicion. Your cousen, the dotinge Deputy,- hath dispeopled me, of which I have written to your father already. It is a sign how my disgraces have past the seas, and have been highly commended to that wise Governour, who hath used me accordingly. So I leve to trouble yow at this time, being become like a fish cast on dry land, gasping for breath, with lame leggs and lamer loonges. — Yours, for the little while I shall desire to do yow service, W. Ralegh.^ During the same period of imprisonment the capture of the Madre de Dies was effected, and Ralegh was taken down to Dartmouth under the guard of his keeper, Sir George Carew, to assist the authorities, who apparently could not do without him, in dividing the spoil. There is an interesting report of an alleged conversation between Ralegh and Bacon, just before Ralegh started on the ill- fated expedition to Guiana by means of which he obtained his release from the Tower in 16 17, which concisely sums up his attitude in such affairs, and is typical of the Elizabethan sea-rovers. As I have said, there was probably much sympathy in ideas between the two men, notably in the policy, advocated by Bacon and Ralegh alike, of the destruction of the sea-power of Spain to ' Edwards, Life, ii. 48. ^ Sir William Fitzwilliam. 3 Edwards, Life, ii. 50. 432 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. make way for the development (not without profit to the " adventurers ") of a greater Britain in the New World. Bacon, however, was then Lord Chancellor and was acting for the king, whose ideas were less expansive. B. What will you do if, after all this expenditure, you miss the gold mine ? R. We will look after the Plate Fleet, to be sure, B. But then you will be pirates ! R. Ah, who ever heard of men being pirates for millions ? ^ The capture of the great carrack in 1592, though not effected by Ralegh in person, was probably due to his organisation and dispositions. " My Lord," writes Robert Cecil to Burghley, " there never was such spoil ! " And of Ralegh's reception when he came down to Dart- mouth in charge of his keeper — describing himself as " still the Queen of England's poor captive " — Cecil writes to the Vice-Chamberlain : I assure you, Sir, his poor servants, to the number of a hundred and forty goodly men, and all the mariners, came to him with such shouts and joy, as I never saw a man more troubled to quiet them in my life.^ The testimony is the more striking from the fact that Ralegh was not a popular man. Ralegh always deferred to Cecil, partly, no doubt, owing to his position, but the deference is also that of the less educated to the more trained, though not the greater, mind. Ralegh's power, however, as a man of action seems to have fairly astonished the great official, for in the same letter Cecil continues : But his heart is broken ; for he is very extreme pensive longer than he is busied, in which he can toil terribly.^ Writing of Ralegh in i 597, Cecil, in a letter to Essex, says : For good Mr. Ralegh, who wonders at his own diligence (because diligence and he are not familiars), it is true, etc.* ' Edwards, Life, i. 591. "^ Ibid. i. 153, 154. 3 Ibid. * Ibid. ii. 170. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 433 The two statements seem inconsistent, and Edwards thought that the latter is ironical (meaning, that is, that he wrote too much, not too little). This seems to me very far-fetched. In the letter of 1592 Cecil, who was a man of the desk, is expressing the surprise at what he saw at Dartmouth. In such business Ralegh could " toil terribly." In the letter of 1597 Cecil is replying to a letter from Essex from Plymouth in which he says : We wonder we have not a word from you. Sir Walter Ralegh wrote on Monday and Tuesday^ and I sent Sir Thomas Gates on Wednesday. Cecil's reply shows irritation at being stirred up, and he vents it in sarcasm on Ralegh ; the point, no doubt, being that Ralegh thought he had done a great deal when he had written a couple of letters : how would he like to have to deal with Cecil's daily correspondence ? The two men, in fact, were great in different spheres, and the evidence here is that Ralegh was not fond of writing. I must not go further into the life of this remarkable man, attractive as the subject is, and I only wish to draw attention to these points of character in order to illustrate my proposition that Ralegh was not the kind of man to labour in the difficult art of poetry. And for that matter I do not believe that any man ever wrote good poetry (except perhaps by accident, in an occasional piece dealing with a simple idea, or prompted by a gust of feeling) who did not, in his early life, devote himself seriously to studies with that particular object. Ralegh had no such opportunities, even if he had the inclination, of which there is no evidence. He was altogether of the active type ; and my belief is that he only took up writing after 1603 (and then not poetry) as a relief from the tedium of his imprisonment. A few more extracts from Ralegh's correspondence must be given for purposes of comparison with the poems. Among them the following letter to the Queen is important. With regard to it Edwards remarks : The scription of this letter, like its style, bears the charac- 2 F 434 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. teristic marks and stamp of Ralegh ; but its extreme precision and neatness of hand — so entirely unusual with the writer at this period of his life — are such as might excite at least a momentary misgiving as to its genuineness. . . . On the whole, however, there seems to be no ground for questioning its authenticity as an original letter in Sir Walter's autograph.^ Edwards suggests 1602 for the date, but we have no knowledge of Ralegh being in disfavour at that time, and I think it is much more probable that it was written in the period of his deprivation of access, say about 1594, when the Queen was being strongly urged by Parliament to name a successor. To Queen Elizabeth [From the original.] I presumed to present your Majestye with a paper, contayninge the dangers which might groe by the Spanish faction in Skotland. How it pleased your majesty to accept thereof I know not. I have since harde that divers ill-disposed have a purpose to speak of Succession. If the same be suppresst, I am gladd of it ; yet, fearinge the worst, I sett down sume reasons to prove the motive meerly vayne, dangerus, and unnecessarye. And because I durst not mysealf speak in any matter without warrant, I have sent your Majestye thes arguments, which may perchance put others in minde of somewhat not impertinent ; and who, beinge graced by your Majesties favour, may, if need require, use them amonge others more worthy. Without glory I speake it, that I durst ether by writinge or speach satisfye the worlde in that poynct, and in every part of their foolish consaytes, which, for shortnes of time, I could not so amplely insert. This beinge, after one hour's warninge, but one houre's work, I humblie beseich your Majestye not to acquaynt any withall, unles occasion be offred to use them. Your Majestye may perchance speake hereof to thos seeminge my great frinds, but 1 find poore effects of that or any other supposed ametye, for your Majesty havinge left mee, I am left all alone in the worlde, and am sorry that ever I was att all. What I have donn is out of zeale and love, and not by any incoragement ; for I am only forgotten in all rights, and in all affaires ; and myne enemis have their wills and desires over mee. Ther ar many other things concerninge your Majesty's present service, which meethincks are not, as the ^ Edwards, Life, ii. 258. XVI RALEGFTS CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 435 ought, remembred ; and the tymes pass away unmesured, of which more profitt might be taken. But I feare I have alreddy presumed to mich, which Love stronger then Reason hath in- coraged ; for my errors ar eternal, and those of other mortall, and my labors thanckless, I mean unacceptable, for thancks belongeth not to vassalls. If your Majestye pardon it, it is more then to great a rewarde. And so most humblie imbracing and admiringe the memory of thos celestial bewtyes, which with the people is denied mee to revevv, I pray God your Majestic may be eternall in joyes and happines. — Your Majesty's most humble slave, W. R.1 Addressed : For the Queen's most Excelent Majestye, This is another of the letters which I think may arise out of some prompting by Bacon (see the remark on this subject at p. 427). Of the "paper" to which this letter refers Edwards says (i. 296) that there is no certain evidence, but that there is an anonymous paper among the State Papers at Hatfield entitled " In Defence of the Queen's not nominat- ing a Succession." It may be observed that this was, in effect, the line taken by the writer (anonymous) of the book published by Doleman (from Amsterdam), with a dedica- tion to the Earl of Essex, in 1594, and it was probably desired by those who disliked the prospect of a Scottish succession, and by those who hoped to gain by fishing in troubled waters. To Sir Robert Cecil, \oth May 1593 ' I am my sealf here at Sherburne, in my fortun's folde.^ A somewhat bitter and contemptuous letter, owing to his reverse of fortune and the weakness of the Government in Ireland. The phrase quoted is found in the poem beginning " Like truthless dreams," ^ which was first published anonymously in the "Phoenix Nest," 1593. The poem was printed in " Le Prince d'Amour," 1660, over the initials W. R., with the title " Farewell to the Court." On that authority, which Hannah thinks in- sufficient (as evidently it is), the poem has been claimed > Edwards, Life, ii. 259. - Ibid. ii. 80. ^ See p. 445, tiote. 436 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. for Ralegh. But Hannah regards the occurrence of the above phrase in the poem as conclusive evidence of Ralegh's authorship {Courtly Poets, p. 13 and note). I do not agree with this. To Sir Robert Cecil, from Sherborne, 13//? Nov. 1595 [Begging for the Queen's support for the colonisation of Guiana. An example of Ralegh's imperialism and views of the problem of home defence.] Wee must not looke to mayntayne warr upon the revenews of Ingland. If wee be once driven to the defencive, farr well myght.^ But as God will so it shalbe — who governs the harts of kings. ^ In a passage written towards the close of his life Ralegh says : If the late Queen would have believed her men of war as she did her scribes, we had, in her time, beaten that great Empire in pieces and made their kings kings of figs and oranges, as in old times. But Her Majesty did all by halves, . . .^ To Secretary Sir Robert Cecil, dth July 1597 [From Weymouth. Preparations for the " Island Voyage " — Richard the Second. From the original.] I acquaynted the Lord Generall <* with your letter to mee, and your kynd acceptance of your enterteynemente ; hee was also wonderfull merry att your consait of Richard the Second. I hope it shall never alter, and whereof I shall be most gladd of, as the trew way to all our good, quiett, and advancement, and most of all for Her sake whose affaires shall thereby fynd better pro- gression. Sir, I will ever be yours ; it is all I can saye, and I will performe it with my life, and with my fortune. W. Ralegh.^ " The Earl of Essex. A passage of great interest, from the reference (as I think there can be no doubt) to Shakespeare's play. Edwards notes that the play was not published till later ' "This reading is doubtful, the last word of the sentence being partly defaced." (Note by Edwards.) 2 Edwards, Life, ii. iii. ^ Ibid. i. 245. * Ibid. ii. 169. XVI RALECrrs CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 437 in this year, and then anonymously; that early in 1598 a new edition was published bearing Shakespeare's name ; that neither of these editions contains the " Deposition Scene," though there is ample reason to believe that the scene was performed, though not printed, in Queen Elizabeth's lifetime. It appeared first in print in the edition of 1608. This was presumably the play (referred to as " The Play of the Deposition of Richard the Second ") which was performed by the Globe players at the request of Sir Gilly Meyrick, one of the principal followers of the Earl of Essex, the night before the Essex rising in February 1601. It is recorded that in August of that year the Queen exclaimed in conversation, " I am Richard the Second, know you not that ? " adding that " That tragedy was played forty times in open streets and houses." Edwards justly observes that in the passage in which the Duke of Hereford is described as " wooing poor craftesmen with the craft of smiles," Shakespeare might well have been painting the portrait from life and have had the Earl of Essex as his sitter. The reference in Henry V. (v. Chor.) to the general of our gracious empress, . . . from Ireland coming, Bringing rebellion broached on his sword, shows clearly that Shakespeare had the analogy in mind. What exactly Ralegh had in mind in writing the passage quoted above is a puzzle for which no solution can be expected. But it appears to indicate that Essex, Cecil and Ralegh were at that time on good terms, and that the subject in question was the anxious one of the succession, the future safety of the country, and their own prospects. All Ralegh's letters show a belief in Cecil, so the last words may be taken as sincerely meant.^ An excellent example of Ralegh's familiar style, and showing the rougher side of his character, is a letter to his nephew. Sir John Gilbert, but it is too long to quote. 1 See remarks by Edwards on this letter, Life, ii. 164-169. 438 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. To Secretary Lord Cecil, from the Tower, 1604 In my darck and dead winter.^ No expression of this kind appears in Ralegh's letters before this date. This is possibly one of the reasons which led Hannah to assign the poem " To Cynthia," in which similar expressions occur, to this date. But, in my opinion, it clearly belongs to the period of the breach with Queen Elizabeth, ten years earlier. Yet the expres- sion, though true in 1604, was quite inapplicable to the Ralegh, newly married, of 1593. Similar expressions occur in the " Epistle dedicatory to the Discovery of Guiana," 1596. That introductory epistle, however, is not in Ralegh's style, and, in my opinion (as I shall explain later), was written for him by Bacon. The last letter to which I have to direct attention is a most inscrutable document, and one which has proved a stumbling-block for biographers, at least for those who recognise no middle course between the extremes of eulogy and condemnation. The letter is evidence of the intensity of the struggle for power at that time, and, read with Mountjoy's letter to the Queen quoted at p. 420, seems to furnish evidence that Ralegh, after the manner of the public men at the Court, had been anxious to bring down his rival by encouraging him to go to Ireland. When he had failed there (as he was very likely to do), there would be an end of his influence with the Oueen in matters of State, and of his formidable military popularity in the country. This is rendered the more probable by the fact that the Queen wanted to send Mountjoy, but gave way to the importunities of Essex. It is also important to note that Essex received encouragement at the last moment from Bacon in undertaking the enterprise, and it is significant that Bacon seeks to exculpate himself from what was evidently a matter of odium by a denial of this in his " Apology " written after the accession of James.^ At this period, for reasons already given, I think it • Edwards, Life, ii. 301. ^ See Spedding, Life, ii. 127, 129. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 439 probable that Bacon and Ralegh were working together, and I must, in candour, make the suggestion, though reluctant to do so, that Bacon assisted Ralegh in the composition of this letter.^ The philosophic detachment and power of generalisation and illustration of which it gives evidence are foreign to the manner of Ralegh, as may be seen from the other letters which I have quoted. Instances of similar practices, as I regard them, are given in Chapter VII., and I need not add to what I have said there on this subject. In the present case, the issues at stake were, of course, great, perhaps even (on the death of the Queen) a coup d'etat which might have placed Essex, or some one else, on the throne ; for there were men (and Ralegh was one of them) who would have risked much to keep out the Scottish King," and such things had happened before. Cecil, however, was equal to the occasion, and overcame, by some means, the pre- judices of the King and his resentment at the execution of " my martyr Essex," Ralegh was shut up for the rest of his life,^ and Bacon put his services, with a good grace, however reluctantly, at his cousin's disposal. The following is the letter in question. Edwards conjectures 1600 as the date of it, during the detention of Essex after his unauthorised return from his Irish command ; but it might have been written, as endorsed, in 1 60 1 after the Earl's imprisonment, which followed the rising of February, To Secretary Sir Robert Cecil [From the original, Cecil Papers (Hatfield). Holograph, undated.] Sir — I am not wize enough to geve yow advise ; butt if you take it for a good councell to relent towards this tirant, yow will repent it when it shalbe too late. His mallice is fixt, and will not evaporate by any your mild courses. For he will ascribe the alteration to her Majesties pusillanimitye and not to your good nature ; knowing that yow worke but uppon her humor, and not 1 Cf. pp. 427. 435- * Cf. Donne, Satire vii., last lines, and Aubrey's notes on Ralegh. 3 Except for the expedition of 161 7, which ended in his execution. 440 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. out of any love towards hyme. The less yow make hyme, the less he shalbe able to harme yow and your's. And if her Majesties favor faile hyme, hee will agayne decline to a common parson. For after-revenges, feare them not ; for your own father was estemed to be the contriver of Norfolk's ^ ruin, yet his son ^ foUoweth your father's son, and loveth him. Humors of men succeed not ; ^ butt grow by occasions, and accidents of tyme and poure. Summersett* made no revendge on the Duke of Northumberland's heares. Northumberland,^ that now is, thincks not of Hatton'si issew. Kelloway lives, that murderd the brother of Horsey ; and Horsey lett hyme go by, all his lifetime. 1 could name yow a thowsand of thos ; and therefore after- fears are but profesies — or rather conjectures — from cawses remote. Looke to the present, and yow do wisely. His soonne shalbe the youngest Earle of Ingland butt on, and, if his father be now keipt down, Will Cecill shalbe abell to keip as many men att his heeles as hee, and more to. Hee may also mache in a better howse then his ; and so that feare is not worth the fearinge. Butt if the father continew, he wilbe able to break the branches, and pull up the tree ; root and all. Lose not your advantage \ if you do, I rede your destiney. — Your's to the end, W. R. [Written across the margin.] Lett the Q, hold Bothwell*' while she hath hyme. Hee will ever be the canker of her estate ^ Thomas, Duke of Norfolk, beheaded in 1572 in connection with the affairs of the Queen of Scots. 2 Lord Thomas Howard, afterwards Earl of Suffolk, half-brother of Philip Arundel (see p. 93 above). ^ i.e. "are not inherited." * Edward Seymour, son of the Protector Somerset, who was beheaded. The Act of 5 and 6 Edward VI., passed by the influence of John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, deprived him of his titles and lands. Queen Elizabeth, in the first year of her reign, created him Earl of Hertford. " The terms on which he lived with the Earls of Leicester and Warwick led Ralegh to take this case as an illustration of the doctrine that in the rivalry of political strife hereditary feuds are little to be feared." — Edwards. ^ Henry Percy, ninth Earl, son of the Earl who was imprisoned in the Tower on a charge of conspiring with the Guises for invading F^ngland and setting free the Queen of Scots, and who was found dead in his bed, shot with bullets, in 1585. Suspicion was cast upon a servant of Sir Christopher Hatton, who had been charged with the custody of the Earl just before his death. (See " IJlandamour," p. 93 above.) ^ By this name the Earl of Essex is intended, and the suggestion presum- ably is that he would, if set free from restraint, prove as troublesome to the Queen as Francis Stuart, Earl of Bothwell, had then recently proved to the Scottish King. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 441 and sauftye. Princes ar lost by securetye ; and preserved by prevention. I have seen the last of her good dayes,^ and all ours, after his libertye.^ Addressed : " To the right honorabell Sir Roberte Cecyll, Knight, Principall Secritory to her Alajestye." Endorsed, in Sir Robert Cecil's hand, " Sir Walter Ralegh " ; and, in a later hand, "1601." Edwards prints a letter undated of 161 8 "alleged (by T. Mathew or by J. Donne) to have been written by Sir W. Ralegh to King James." ^ It is thus headed by Tobie Mathew : Sir Walter Rauleigh to King James ; which seemes rather to acknowledge favours, than to desire them. The letter ends as follows : I must neverthelesse, in this little time in which I am to live, acknowledge and admire your goodnesse, and in all my thoughts and even with my last breath confesse that you have beheld my affliction with compassion. And I am yet in nothing so miserable, as in that I could never meet an occasion wherein to be torn in pieces for Your Majestie's service ; I, who am still Your, etc. Edwards "wholly declines to belive that Ralegh wrote thus to King James in October 16 18." I agree with him ; moreover, though Ralegh had been accustomed to the use of flattery, the style is not Ralegh's. The letter is also suspect as coming from the collections of Sir Tobie Matthew. He was Bacon's literary friend, and this fact renders it probable, to my mind, that the letter was penned by Bacon and sent by him to the King as though from Ralegh. Moreover, the attitude adopted coincides with that which Bacon recommended to Essex when he was in trouble with Queen Elizabeth. In the same way I believe that Bacon sent the " Ralegh " poem, referred to at p. 454 below, to the Queen, Anne of Denmark. They would thus, together, represent his secret effort to secure a pardon for Ralegh, while in his official ' Cf. " the continuance of her Majesty, in whom our good days do consist." — Letter attributed to Bacon r^ .Squire's conspiracy, Spedding, Life, ii. 119. * Edwards, Life, ii. 222. ' Lbid. ii. Ixvii. 442 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAP. capacity he was giving effect to the wishes of the King. This is discussed more fully on p. 458 below. I come now to the poems, and first to the poem to "Cynthia," an unfinished piece which from the title pur- ports to be the last of twenty-one books. It is entitled "The 2 1 St and last book of the Ocean, to Cynthia," the " Ocean " being Ralegh, Spenser's " shepheard of the Ocean," and "Cynthia" the Queen. It is regarded as a continuation of Ralegh's lost poem, " Cynthia." ^ I do not, however, believe that there was any lost poem, or that Ralegh was the author of the pretended fragment. These devices are, to my mind, only part of the real author's usual method of mystification. The MS. of this poem is in Ralegh's handwriting, but as it is evidently a fair copy, that does not necessarily prove that he was the author. So far as I recollect there is only one erasure, and the writing is of that " extreme precision and neatness of hand " which Edwards notes in the case of the MS. of Ralegh's letter to the Queen about the succession quoted above (p. 434), and which he says is " so entirely unusual with the writer at this period of his life " {i.e. during Elizabeth's reign). The fair copy was presumably made for the Queen, but it is the original draft with which we are concerned, not the copy, and this has not been preserved. The use of poetry for practical purposes has probably always been a feature of Court life at a certain point in a country's civilisation, and this has created a demand for the services of men who, like the scribes of the East, could adapt their thoughts and feelings to the case of others less gifted than themselves with the power of expression. Under such conditions no sense of dishonesty attaches to the use of the document as though it were the composition of the person in whose name it appears. Similarly, and having regard in particular to Ralegh's nature, I think he would have thought very little of the morality of such an » See Chapter XIV. XVI RALEGirs CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 443 impersonation, and the Queen perhaps less, so long as she was entertained by it. And in any case it lent distinction to her attachment for the man whom she had raised, and was a tribute to her charms, that he should be thought the author of love poems in her honour, and that some one, in a treatise addressed to herself, should write about them that " for ditty and amorous ode, I find Sir Walter Raleigh's vein most lofty, insolent and passionate." ^ Ralegh depended for his position entirely on the Queen's favour, and to make a fair copy of the poem, even one of 100 stanzas (the length of " Cynthia"), was not a very extraordinary thing to do, if, by showing it to the Queen as his own, or at any rate as representing his feelings, he could have mitigated her resentment at his marriage. Bacon (who in my opinion is the author of the poem) makes use of the opportunity, in taking up the personality of Ralegh, to express his own feelings. He was un- doubtedly most unhappy at his exclusion from access and the waning of all his hopes of advancement. This is what is reflected, under the disguise of Ralegh's loss of favour, in the poem. The poem, though diffuse and ill connected as a whole, contains some wonderful pieces of writing. It opens by an address to his " joys interred " : You that then died when first my fancy erred. His complaint will be couched " in simple words." Ralegh's condition is described : The blossoms fallen, the sap gone from the tree, The broken monuments of my great desires, — From these so lost what may affections be ? What heat in cinders of extinguished fires ? He describes the Queen and her power over him : Oh, princely form, my fancy's adamant, Divine conceit, my pains' acceptance, Oh, all in one ! oh, heaven on earth transparent ! The seat of joys and love's abundance ! 1 The Arie of English Poesie, 1589. 444 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAP. Out of that mass of miracles, my muse Gathered those flowers, to her pure senses pleasing ; Out of her eyes, the store of joys, did choose Equal delights, my sorrow's counterpoising. Her regal looks my vigorous sighs suppressed ; Small drops of joys sweetened great worlds of woes ; One gladsome day a thousand cares redressed ; — Whom love defends, what fortune overthrows ? When she did well, what did there else amiss ? When she did ill, what empires would have pleased ? No other power effecting woe or bliss, She gave, she took, she wounded, she appeased. The honour of her love love still devising. Wounding my mind with contrary conceit. Transferred itself sometime to her aspiring, Sometime the trumpet of her thought's retreat. To seek new worlds for gold, for praise, for glory, To try desire, to try love severed far, When I was gone, she sent her memory. More strong than were ten thousand ships of war ; To call me back, to leave great honour's thought, To leave my friends, my fortune, my attempt ; To leave the purpose I so long had sought. And hold both cares and comforts in contempt. His changed fortunes : So my forsaken heart, my withered mind, — Widow of all the joys it once possessed. My hopes clean out of sight with forced wind. To kingdoms strange, to lands far-off addressed, Alone, forsaken, friendless, on the shore. With many wounds, with death's cold pangs embraced, Writes in the dust, as one that could no more. Whom love, and time, and fortune had defaced. The " angel " allusion ^ : Such force her angelic appearance had To master distance, time or cruelty ; Such art to grieve, and after to make glad. Such fear in love, such lo\e in majesty. and lower down, " angelical in voice." ' See Chapter XIV. and p. 455 below. XVI RALEGFTS CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 445 Then follows a passage which it is impossible to explain in terms of Ralegh's life : Twelve years entire I wasted in this war ; Twelve years of my most happy younger days ; But I in them, and they now wasted are : " Of all which past the sorrow only stays." So wrote I once,^ and my mishap foretold, My mind still feeling sorrowful success ; Even as before a storm the marble cold Doth by moist tears tempestuous times express. Ralegh was thirty years old when he was taken up by the Queen, and, with the possible exception of some passing eclipse which he appears to have suffered in i 589,^ he was never really out of favour until the affair of his marriage in 1592. He was loaded with benefits by the Queen, and he himself, writing to his cousin Sir George Carew, then Master of the Ordnance in Ireland, on the 27th December 1589, gives a denial (possibly in part from motives of policy) to the rumours of disfavour at that time in words of the greatest arrogance : Cussen George — For my retrait from the Court it was uppon good cause to take order for my prize. If in Irlande they thincke that I am not worth the respectinge they shall mich deceave themsealvs. I am in place to be beleved not inferrior to any man, to plesure or displesure the greatest : and my oppinion is so receved and beleved as I can anger the best of them. And, therefore, if the Deputy be not reddy to steed mee as I have bynn to defend hyme, — be it att is may.*^ When Sir William Fitzwilliams ^ shalbe in Ingland, I take my- sealfe farr his better by the honorable offices I hold, as also by that nireness to her Majestye which still I injoy, and never more. * A reference to the short poem mentioned at p. 435, of which the following is the first stanza : " Like truthless dreams, so are my joys expired. And past return are all my dandled days. My love misled, and fancy quite retired ; Of all which past, the sorrow only stays." This poem was written before 1593, but the title "Farewell to the Court" was added later, apparently without authority (see p. 435). Possibly it hangs on incidents of 1589. 2 See Colin Clout, and letter quoted above, p. 418, note. 446 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. I am willinge to continew towards hyme all frindly offices, and I doubt not of the like frome hyme, as well towards mee as my frinds. . . } " Evidently, in haste, for "as it may." ^ The Lord Deputy. Ralegh's halcyon days lasted from 1582 to 1592, ten, not twelve, years ; there was neither " war " nor waste of time ; on the contrary, nothing but wealth, position and favour. They were also days of manhood, not of youth ; Ralegh's younger days were passed in hardship and obscurity. On the other hand, the lines fit Francis Bacon's case in all respects. By 1592 he may be said to have spent " twelve years entire," after his return from France and settlement in London, in a fruitless attempt at obtaining a place in the Queen's service. As we have seen, in i 593 he offended the Queen, and though that seems to have been made the ground for her refusal to do anything for him, it is clear from the correspondence that Bacon did not believe this was the real, or at any rate the sole, ground for her decision against him. But the poem under review throws more light on this. The passage which follows bears a double construction, and would refer alike to Ralegh's extravagant behaviour in the Tower,^ and describe (in very highly coloured language) the writer's state of mind under the strain of prolonged disappointment : Then floods of sorrow and whole seas of woe The banks of all my hope did overbear, And drowned my mind in depths of misery : Sometime I died ; sometime I was distract, My soul the stage of fancy's tragedy ; Then furious madness, where true reason lacked, ' Edwards, IJ/e, ii. 41. ^ See the account of this in Edwards, li/e, 1. 140, 141. Sir Arthur Gorges, who was present at the scene, described it in a letter to Cecil, which he con- cludes by saying he fears " Sir Walter Ralegh will shortly grow to be ' Orlando Furioso,' if the bright Angelica persevere against him a little longer." See also Ralegh's letter to Cecil quoted at p. 426 above. XVI RALEGirS CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 447 Wrote what it would, and scourged mine own conceit. Oh, heavy heart ! who can thee witness bear ? What tongue, what pen, could thy tormenting treat, But thine own mournmg thoughts which present were ? I hated life and cursed destiny ; The thoughts of passed times, like flames of hell, Kindled afresh within my memory The many dear achievements that befell In those prime years and infancy of love. Which to describe were but to die in writing ; Ah, those I sought, but vainly, to remove, And vainly shall, by which I perish living. After further reference to " those marvellous perfec- tions " and the callousness of the Queen, we come upon regretful allusions to " Belphoebe " — of course of the Faerie Queene : All droops, all dies, all trodden under dust. The person, place, and passages forgotten ; The hardest steel eaten with softest rust. The firm and solid tree both rent and rotten. • • • • • Belphoebe's course is now observed no more ; That fair resemblance weareth out of date ; Our ocean seas are but tempestuous waves, And all things base, that blessed were of late . . . The stanza breaks off without a fourth h*ne, perhaps for lack of a suitable rhyme, and the sensitive ear of the author is apparently struck by the effect, for he makes use of this form later as a new metre.^ Some lines of perfect artistry follow, but quite irrelevant to the case of Ralegh, except in so far as they were written deliberately for the purpose of winning back the Queen : With youth is dead the hope of love's return. Who looks not back to hear our after-cries : Where he is not, he laughs at those that mourn ; Whence he is gone, he scorns the mind that dies. * See p. 454, below. 448 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. When he is absent, he believes no words ; When reason speaks, he, careless, stops his ears ; Whom he hath left, he never grace affords, But bathes his wings in our lamenting tears. An allusion to the Timias and Belphoebe episode in the Faerie Queene recurs. After " love was gone " — A queen she was to me, — no more Belphoebe ; A lion then, — no more a milk-white dove ; A prisoner in her breast I could not be ; — She did untie the gentle chains of love. He then asserts that his " error " never proceeded from " sense of loving," by which, presumably, is intended (though the meaning is obscure) being in love with some one else than the Queen : But thou my weary soul and heavy thought, Made by her love a burthen to my being, Dost know my error never was forethought, Or ever could proceed from sense of loving. Of other cause if then it had proceeding, I leave the excuse, sith judgment hath been given ; The limbs divided, sundered and ableeding. Cannot complain the sentence was uneven. Then follows an extraordinary passage in which I believe Bacon to be describing the dream of his youth, and his efforts to realise it, which are reflected in those gorgeous eulogies of the Queen which began to appear from the time when he began to write. It must be remembered that the Queen was a beautiful woman when she first took notice of Bacon as a child, and that she was a woman of splendid appearance to the last. With his temperament it is not surprising that her image should have become the shrine of a poetical worship, and the embodiment of his ambitions. That he should have been, to all appearance, quite indifferent about the moral effect of his adulation is a part of the problem of his character. His practice was similar in dealing with King James, but the feminine inspiration has gone, and with it all the romantic imagery. We pass into a region of XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 449 grandiose and melodious sententiousness, and of theo- logical analogies which in the hands of any other writer would be so blasphemous as to be revolting ; why it should not be so in the case of Bacon's writings I do not know. I do not, however, find it so. It seems to produce only a sense of wonder or of mild amusement. I think the explanation probably is that Bacon has in view not the person, but the idealised image of the person, which he has set up in his mind, and that this suggests to him a specialised language, which is used by him for the most part — and much more than might be supposed from the nature of it — without conscious insincerity. The following sentence is a good example of this habit of mind, which, though apparently suggested by a passage in a Roman author, is an expression of the writer's own thought and practice : Some praises come of good wishes and respects, which is a form due in civility to kings and great persons, laudando praecipere ; when by telling men what they are, they represent to them what they should be. — Essays, " Of Praise." The stanzas to which these remarks refer are as follow : This did that nature's wonder, virtue's choice. The only paragon of times' begetting, Divine in words, angelical in voice. That spring of joys, that flower of love's own setting. The idea remaining of those golden ages, That beauty, braving heavens and earth embalming. Which after worthless worlds but play on stages, Such didst thou her long since describe, yet sighing That thy unable spirit could not find aught. In heaven's beauties or in earth's delight, For likeness fit to satisfy thy thought : But what hath it availed thee so to write ? She cares not for thy praise, who knows not theirs ; It's now an idle labour, and a tale Told out of time, that dulls the hearer's ears ; A merchandize whereof there is no sale. 2 G 450 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAr. Leave them, or lay them up with thy despairs ! She hath resolved, and judged thee long ago. Thy lines are now a murmuring to her ears. Like to a falling stream, which, passing slow, Is wont to nourish sleep and quietness ; So shall thy painful labours be perused. And draw on rest, which sometime had regard ; But those her cares thy errors have excused. Thy days fordone have had their day's reward ; So her hard heart, so her estranged mind, In which above the heavens I once reposed ; So to thy error have her ears inclined, And have forgotten all thy past deserving, Holding in mind but only thine offence ; And only now affecteth thy depraving, And thinks all vain that pleadeth thy defence. Yet greater fancy beauty never bred ; A more desire the heart-blood never nourished ; Her sweetness an affection never fed, Which more in any age hath ever flourished. The mind and virtue never have begotten A firmer love, since love on earth had power ; A love obscured, but cannot be forgotten ; Too great and strong for time's jaws to devour ; Containing such a faith as ages wound not, Care, wakeful ever of her good estate. Fear, dreading loss, which sighs and joys not, A memory of the joys her grace begat ; A lasting gratefulness for those comforts past. Of which the cordial sweetness cannot die ; These thoughts, knit up by faith, shall ever last ; These time assays, but never can untie. Whose life once lived in her pearl-like breast, Whose joys were drawn but from her happiness, Whose heart's high pleasure, and whose mind's true rest. Proceeded from her fortune's blessedness ; Who was intentive, wakeful, and dismayed In fears, in dreams, in feverous jealousy, Who long in silence served, and obeyed With secret heart and hidden loyalty. XVI RALEGirS CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 451 Which never change to sad adversity, Which never age, or nature's overthrow, Which never sickness or deformity, Which never wasting care or wearing woe, If subject unto these she could have been, — Which never words or wits mahcious. Which never honour's bait, or world's fame, Achieved by attempts adventurous Or aught beneath the sun or heaven's frame Can so dissolve, dissever, or destroy The essential love of no frail parts compounded, Though of the same now buried be the joy. The hope, the comfort, and the sweetness ended, But that the thoughts and memories of these Work a relapse of passion, and remain Of my sad heart the sorrow sucking bees ; The wrongs received, the frowns persuade in vain. Every line of this passage seems to me to apply to Bacon's case. In spite of all his " painful " efforts Queen Elizabeth had formed the opinion that he was not suitable for high office. It seems probable from the correspond- ence given in Chapter XV. that she made his speech in Parliament partly the pretext for her attitude towards him, owing to reluctance (for she had a certain sweetness of nature) to appear to reject him on his merits. More- over, she continued to use him in unofficial ways. The writer describes his service and loyalty as " silent," " secret " and " hidden " ; mentions his care wakeful ever of her good estate, and that he was " intentive, wakeful and dismayed." In a letter to King James, offering his services in regard to the King's business in Parliament on the death of the Lord Treasurer (Robert Cecil, Earl of Salisbury) in 1612, Bacon writes : Your Majesty may truly perceive that though I cannot challenge to myself either invention, or judgment, or elocution, or method, or any of those powers, yet my offering is care and observance : and as my good old mistress was wont to call me 452 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. her watch-candle, because it pleased her to say I did continually burn (and yet she suffered me to waste almost to nothing), so I must much more owe the like duty to your Majesty, by whom my fortunes have been settled and raised.^ Bacon always took credit for "care" and watchfulness in forestalling events in the King's service. It may be said that the reference to "attempts adventurous " in the passage above quoted is inapplicable to Bacon. I do not think so, if my view as to his early writings in advocacy of Western enterprise is correct. It is also quite possible, and may account to some extent for his pecuniary embarrassments, that he was an adventurer in the sense in which the word was used of those who put money into expeditions. Ralegh, for instance, did not go to Virginia himself, though, of course, he did much more than merely find money. Lastly, the author of the poem refers to the enduring element in his love, which he describes as " essential love of no frail parts compounded," ^ and he proceeds to develop this thought in a philosophic passage of great beauty : But in my mind so is her love inclosed. And is thereof not only the best part. But into it the essense is disposed : Oh love ! (the more my woe) to it thou art Even as the moisture to each plant that grows ; Even as the sun unto the frozen ground ; Even as the sweetness to the incarnate rose ; Even as the centre in each perfect round ; As water to the fish, to men as air, As heat to fire, as light unto the sun ; Oh love ! it is but vain to say thou were ; Ages and times cannot thy power outrun . . . 1 Spedding, Life, iv. 280. Compare with lliis tlie note in the Comentarius Solutiis (1608) : " Regularly to know the Ks pleasure before every Term and agayn before every Vacation, The one for service to be executed, yu other for service to be p''pared, Tarn otii ratio quam negotii .Q. Kliz. watch candell." (Spedding, Life, iv. 93.) Compare also the opening words of his youthful Letter of Advice to Queen Elizabeth, probably written in 1584: "Care, one of the natural and true- bred children of unfeigned affection. . . ." (Ibid. '\. 47.) ^ Cf. Spenser's Amoretti, Sonnet Ixxxiii. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 453 Thou art the soul of that unhappy mind Which, being by nature made an idle thought, Began even then to take immortal kind, When first her virtues in thy spirits wrought. It seems to me that only a very great poet could have written these lines. The writer closes the poem with a passage of great interest and poetical power, though (like Spenser's Com- plaints) hard to understand in relation to the ostensible theme and authorship : Thou lookest for light in vain, and storms arise ; She sleeps thy death, that erst thy danger sighed ; ^ Strive then no more ; bow down thy weary eyes — Eyes which to all these woes thy heart have guided. She is gone, she is lost, she is found, she is ever fair : Sorrow draws weakly, where love draws not too : Woe's cries sound nothing, but only in love's ear. Do then by dying what life cannot do. Unfold thy flocks and leave them to the fields. To feed on hills, or dales, where likes them best, Of what the summer or the spring-time yields. For love and time hath given thee leave to rest. Thy heart which was their fold, now in decay By often storms and winter's many blasts, All torn and rent becomes misfortune's prey ; False hope my shepherd's staff, now age hath brast My pipe, which love's own hand gave my desire To sing her praises and my woe upon, — Despair hath often threatened to the fire, As vain to keep now all the rest are gone. Thus home I draw, as death's long night draws on ; Yet every foot, old thoughts turn back mine eyes : Constraint me guides, as old age draws a stone Against the hill, which over-weighty lies For feeble arms or wasted strength to move : My steps are backward, gazing on my loss, My mind's affection and my soul's sole love, Not mixed with fancy's chaff or fortune's dross. 1 A condensation of thought only possible to one practised in the use of language. The line evidently means that she is indiflferent to his present outcast condition who formerly sighed when ho ran risks. 454 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. To God I leave it, who first gave it me, And I her gave, and she returned again, As it was hers ; so let His mercies be Of my lost comforts the essential mean. But be it so or not, the effects are past ; Her love hath end ; my woe must ever last. With these lines the poem ends and is followed by an entry, " The end of the books of the * Ocean's Love to Cynthia,' and the beginning of the 22nd book, entreating of Sorrow." In this the writer uses the broken stanza of three lines to which I have referred above (p. 447), and the MS. abruptly ends in the middle of a phrase after the seventh stanza. The first two only need be noticed : My days' delights my spring-time joy's foredone, Which in the dawn and rising sun of youth Had their creation and were first begun, Do in the evening and the winter sad Present my mind, which takes my time's account. The grief remaining of the joy it had. A similar thought occurs in the former poem : Witness those withered leaves left on the tree, The sorrow-vv^orn face, the pensive mind. Such lines, if written sincerely, are inapplicable to the case of Ralegh in 1592 or 1593, but they do represent the mood in which Francis Bacon thought of himself at that time as "old." Compare Shakespeare, sonnet 73. The metrical experiment in this poem is an interesting one. The effect might be described as that of a broken speech or sob, and the form is used with great effect in Ralegh's supposed petition to the Queen (Anne of Denmark) in 16 18, as to which see further at pp. 441 and 458. It is of twelve stanzas, the first four of which arc as follow : O had truth power, the guiltless could not fall. Malice win glory, or revenge triumph ; But truth alone cannot encounter all. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 455 Mercy is fled to God, which mercy made ; Compassion dead ; faith turned to policy ; Friends know not those who sit in sorrow's shade. For what we sometime were, we are no more : Fortune hath changed our shape, and destiny Defaced the very form we had before. All love, and all desert of former times, Malice hath covered from my sovereign's eyes, And largely laid abroad supposed crimes. Cold walls, to you I speak . . . ^ Another instance of the invention of a new metre for a poem attributed to Ralegh is referred to in Chapter XIII. P- 354. The beautiful poem which follows appears to be a reproduction in verse of the train of ideas which are found in Ralegh's fantastic letter about the Queen written during his imprisonment in 1592; as to which see the remarks at pp. 425-427 above. It will be noticed that the image of the " withered tree " recurs, and that the love is described as of " all my youth " (cf remarks at p. 438 above) ; also that it contains the "angel" con- vention (cf. Chapter XIV. and pp. 444, 446, and 449 above). As You CAME FROM THE HOLY LAND ^ As you came from the holy land Of Walsinghame, Met you not with my true love By the way as you came .'' How shall I know your true love. That have met many one, As I went to the holy land, That have come, that have gone ? * Hannah, Courtly Poets, p. 52. "^ "MS. Rawl. 85, fol. 124; signed as infra, and hence claimed for Raleigh by Dr. Bliss, Wood's 'A. O.' vol. ii. p. 248, and inserted in the Oxford edition of Raleigh's ' Works,' vol. viii. p. 733, with the title ' False Love and True Love.' There is an anonymous copy in Percy's MS., vol. iii. p. 465, ed. Furnivall ; and it is also in Deloney's 'Garland of Goodwill,' p. Ill, Percy Society reprint." (Note by Hannah.) 456 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. She is neither white nor brown, But as the heavens fair ; There is none hath a form so divine In the earth or the air. Such a one did I meet, good sir. Such an angeHc face. Who Hke a queen, hke a nymph, did appear. By her gate, by her grace. She hath left me here all alone, All alone, as unknown, Who sometimes did me lead with herself, And me loved as her own. What's the cause that she leaves you alone, And a new way doth take, Who loved you once as her own. And her joy did you make ? I have loved her all my youth. But now old, as you see : Love likes not the falling fruit From the withered tree. Know that Love is a careless child. And forgets promise past ; He is blind, he is deaf when he list. And in faith never fast. His desire is a dureless content, And a trustless joy ; He is won with a world of despair, And is lost with a toy. Of womenkind such indeed is the love, Or the word love abused. Under which many childish desires And conceits are excused. But true love is a durable fire, In the mind ever burning, Never sick, never old, never dead. From itself never turning. Sr. W. R. A perusal of Prebendary Hannah's discrinninating volume shows how much mystery attaches to the author- ship of these poems. A more recent discovery, however, XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 457 has greatly added to it. It appears that Ralegh's famous eight-line poem, alleged to have been " found in his Bible in the Gate-house at Westminster " ' after his execution in 161 8, is really the last stanza (with two lines added) of an indecent (though at the same time philosophical and well-written) poem in MS. entitled " A Poem of Sir Walter Rawleigh's." The addition of the two last lines transfers the stanza into a different sphere of thought, and adapts it to the origin alleged for the poem. The following are the lines, with some alternative readings : Even such is Time, which " takes in trust Our youth, our joys, our all we have, And pays us but with age * and dust, Who in the dark and silent grave, When we have wandered all our ways, Shuts up the story of our days : But from this earth, this grave, this dust, My God ^ shall raise me up, I trust ! " that. * earth (the reading adopted by Hannah). "= The Lord. The poem from which it has now been discovered that this was taken has six stanzas of six lines each, and is a lament on the destruction of beauty by time and decay. The above, without the last two lines, and beginning " Oh cruell Time," etc., is the last stanza of the poem. It is in any case incredible that Ralegh could have found time or detachment of mind for verse composition on the night before his execution, as may be seen by reading the account of his trial and last hours in Edwards' Life. Nor is it conceivable that he would have troubled himself, even if he was the author of the original poem, with literary jugglery at such a time. It * "Printed with Raleigh's ' Prerogative of Parliaments,' 1628, and probably still earlier ; also with ' To-day a Man, To-morrow none,' 1 643-4 ; in Raleigh's 'Remains,' 1661, &c., with the title given above; and in ' Rel. Wotton,' 1651, &c., with the title, 'Sir Walter Raleigh the night before his death.' Also found with several variations in many old MS. copies." (Note by Hannah.) The description of the version at the end of I'he Prerogative 0/ Par/iamenis, 1628, is "The Authours Epitaph, made by himselfe." 458 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. is most improbable, however, that he wrote the original poem, as he appears to have been a man of remarkably clean mind (see Edwards, i. 541 ; comments on the History of the World). Perhaps the explanation of the transformation of the last stanza of the original poem is to be sought in the impression produced on men's minds by Ralegh's demeanour on the scaffold. Under the influence of this impression the mood of materialism which finds expres- sion in the unpublished poem may have given place in the author's mind to different feelings, and in adding the last two lines to the last stanza he would have been at once expressing the change of mood in himself, and enshrining Ralegh in an epitaph which has become immortal. In so doing he may have regarded it (like the verse petition to the Queen) as a set-off against his official action, in which side of his life he was entirely obsequious to the King. He depended, in fact, for his position on Buckingham, and he had been imprudent enough to acknowledge it, and Buckingham, who was a much stronger character and quite untroubled by scruples, took care by the tone he adopted towards him not to let him forget it. Weakness in the face of power, and a temperament which saw every situation in a sort of vision of its own creation rather than in the sober colours of actual life, accounted for much of Bacon's conduct in this and similar crises of his career. It may be said that if Ralegh had sufficient versatility to write the History of the World during his imprison- ment, he could have written the occasional poems which pass under his name. But the metrical translations included in that work and collected in Hannah's volume are not of a nature or quality to give any indications as to the author's ability to write original poetry. It is not certain, however, that Ralegh wrote these, or to what extent he was the author of the History. Ralegh had a commanding personality, and had for years held a great position. Such a man would find little difficulty in getting other men to help him in any work which XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 459 he undertook. There is a memorandum in Bacon's Comentarhis Solutus (1608) as follows: The setting on wo. [work] my L of North, and Ralegh, and therefore Haryott, themselves being already inclined to experim'".^ From this two things may be inferred, that Bacon was in touch with Ralegh in the Tower, and that Harriot assisted Ralegh. The evidence bearing on this subject interspersed among Aubrey's notes is important, and is as follows : " Verses W. R. before Spencer's F. Queen." " He was sometimes a poet, not often. Before Spencer's Faery Q. is a good copie of verses, which begins thus : — Methinkes I see the grave wher Laura lay ; at the bottome W. R. : which, 36 yeares since, I was told were his." " He was prisoner in the Tower. . . ." "He there (besides compiling his History of the World) studyed chymistry. The Earle of Northumberland was prisoner at the same time, who was the patrone to Mr. . . . Harriot and Mr. Warner, two of the best mathematicians in the world, as also Mr. Hues (who wrote de Globis).'" " Serjeant Hoskins (the poet) was a prisoner there too." " When Serjeant Hoskyns was a prisoner in the Tower, he was Sir Walter's Aristarchus." "An attorney's father (that did my businesse in Herefordshire, before I sold it) maryed Dr. Robert Burhill's widdowe. She sayd that he (Burhill) was a great favourite of Sir Walter Ralegh's (and, I thinke, had been his chaplayne) : but all or the greatest part of the drudgery of his booke, for critcismes, chronology, and reading of Greeke and Hebrew authors, was performed by him for Sir Walter Ralegh, whose picture my friend haz as part of the Doctor's goods." "A person so much immerst in action all along and in fabrication of his own fortunes, (till his confinement in tlie Tower) could have but little time to study, but what he could spare in * Spedding, Life, iv. 63. 46o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the morning. He was no slug : without doubt, had a wonderful waking spirit and great judgment to guide it." Some observations bearing on the same subject occur in the " Notes of Ben Jonson's Conversations with Wilh'am Drummond of Hawthornden," January 1619 : "That in that paper S. W. Raughly had of the Allegories of the Fayrie Queen, by the Elating Beast the Puritans were under- stood, by the false Duessa the Q. of Scots." " That Sir W. Raughley esteemed more of fame than conscience. The best wits of England were employed for making his Historic. Ben himself had written a piece to him of the Punick warre, which he altered and set in his booke." " S. W. hath written the life of Queen Elizabeth, of which there is copies extant." References to the discussions on this question will be found in Hannah's notes, pp. 229, 231. The theory of a Ralegh " impersonation " which I have submitted as regards these poems derives further support from evidence of literary assistance given by Bacon to Ralegh in his advocacy of the colonisation of Guiana in i 596. Having lost the Queen's favour through his marriage, and becoming restless in retirement, Ralegh turned his thoughts again to Western discovery, and in 1595 he took out an expedition to Trinidad and explored part of the Orinoco. On his return to England he published, in I 596, an account of his voyage under the following title : The Discoverie of the large rich and beautiful Empire of Guiana, with a relation of the Great and Golden City of Manoa (which the Spaniards call El Dorado) And the provinces of Emeria, Arromaia, Amapaia and other Countries, with their rivers adjoining. Performed in the yeare 1595 by Sir W. Ralegh Knight, Captaine of her Majesties Guard, Lo-Warden of the Stanneries XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 461 and her Highnesse Lieutenant generall of the Countie of Cornewall. London, 1596. The Introductory Epistle, addressed to Lord Charles Howard and Sir Robert Cecil, is, I believe, largely the work of Bacon. The object is to win the support of the Queen for the undertaking and to soften her heart at the same time towards the disgraced favourite. The style is quite unlike Ralegh's at any period of his life, and the images used — the " dead stock," the " winter of my life " — are those of the poems which I have dealt with above. The following extracts will sufficiently enable the reader to judge of the style and contents of the epistle : The trial that I had of both your loves, when I was left of all but of malice and revenge. ... In my more happie times as I did especially honour you both, so I found that your loves sought me out in the darkest shadow of adversity. ... It is true that my errors were great, for they have yeelded verie greevous effects, and if ought might have been deserved in former times to have counterpoysed any part of offences, the frute thereof (as it seemeth) was long before fallen from the tree, and the dead stocke only remained. I did therefore, even in the winter of my life, undertake these travels, fitter for boies less blasted with misfortunes. ... If I had known another way to win, if I had imagined how greater adventures might have regained, if I could conceive what further meanes I might yet use, but even to appease so powerfull displeasure, I would not doubt but for one yeare more to hold fast my soule in my teeth, til it were performed. ... I have been accompanyed with many sorrows, with labour, hunger, heat, sicknes and peril : It appeareth notwithstand that I made no other bravado of going to sea, then was ment, and that I was neither hidden in cornwell or elsewhere, as was supposed. They have grosly belied me, that forejudged that I wolde rather become a servant to the Spanish king then return. . . . From myselfe I have deserved no thankes, for I am returned a begger and withered . . . [and he proceeds to declare the riches of the countries visited]. ^\^ R. Ralegh's book appears to have failed to excite the interest in his projects which he hoped for. Also he had many enemies, and he was attacked for publishing gross 462 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. fabrications as to the wealth and natural features of the countries about which he had written. It was even said that he had not been there at all. At this stage another pamphlet appears to have been written, which was first printed in 1848 by Sir Robert Schomburgk in his edition of Ralegh's Discovery of Guiana of 1596. Of this pamphlet Schomburgk writes as follows : Ralegh continued for some time after his return from Guiana in an apparent state of banishment from court ; but we learn from a letter of Rowland Whyte to Sir Robert Sidney that he lived in great splendour about London. . . . To this period seems to belong a document, which, though extremely curious, has hitherto been known only in manuscript. It bears the simple title " Of the voyage for Guiana," and is preserved among the MSS. of Sir Hans Sloane in the library of the British Museum. Although anonymous, it bears so many internal evidences that we cannot doubt as to its being the production of Sir Walter Ralegh. . . . From the statement in the last sentence I dissent. The style is quite unlike that of Ralegh, being involuted, copious and allusive, whereas Ralegh's is brief, simple and direct. It contains an argument to meet scruples which evidently prevailed in England at that time, similar to that in the anonymous account of Sir H. Gilbert's Newfoundland voyage of 1583 (see Chapter XII.), as to the lawfulness for a Christian people to take possession of the country of native infidels. Among other reasons given (illustrated by Biblical analogies) for the occupation of Guiana occurs the following : " beside that presently it will stopp the mouthes of the Romish Catholickes, who vaunt of theyr great adventures for the propogacion of the gospcll," and the writer adds that it will add gieate increase of honor, to the memory of her Majesties name upon earth to all posterity and in the end bee rewarded with an excellent starlike splendency in the heavens, which is reserved for them that turne many to righteousnes, as the Prophet speaketh. Instances occur of that overwhelming accumulation of ideas which is so noticeable a feature in the writings of XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 463 Bacon and Shakespeare alike. Thus in a passage on the cruelties of the Spaniards perpetrated on the natives we find the following : . . . who would not bee persuaded that now at length the great judge of the world, hath heard the sighes, grones, lamenta- cions, teares, and bloud of so many millions of innocent men, women and children afiicted, robbed, reviled, branded with hot irons, roasted, dismembred, mangled, stabbed, whipped, racked, scalded with hott oyle, suet, and hogs-grease, put to the strapado, ripped alive, beheaded in sport, drowned, dashed against the rocks, famished, devoured by mastifes, burned and by infinite crueltyes consumed. . . . There is nothing remotely resembling this, either in style or substance, in the Discovery, which seems evidently a narrative by Ralegh himself; nor, so far as I am able to discover, in any of Ralegh's other prose works. It may be noted also that in this piece the significant phrase occurs, "in my simple judgment." Schomburgk remarks that " it is evident from the dedication and the address to the reader, prefixed to the publication of his voyage, that the intelligence which Ralegh brought of his discovery did not raise the interest which he expected. Many of the statements contained in this remarkable production were treated as fabulous, and his recommendation to secure the possession of these fertile regions to England as chimerical." In these circumstances what could be more natural than that Ralegh, being a man of action, and distrusting the advocacy of his own pen, which at that period he had had little occasion to exercise, should have had recourse to the services of Bacon, and that the latter should have written this short treatise in support of Ralegh's enterprise .'' Owing to an insincerity of tone, and the use made of the religious motive, the document is not altogether pleasant reading. I have drawn attention to the same feature in the discourse about the Gilbert enterprise of 1583. Ralegh's exaggerations probably proceeded, to some extent, from the sanguine nature of his temperament. 464 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. He was also credulous after the manner of the age, and I think Schomburgk is right when he says : " In a general sense we have little doubt he fully believed the existence of these riches at a period when the most learned were still given to credulity ; and that Ralegh possessed a great share of it is proved by his History of the World, where we find sober discussions whether paradise was in the moon, and whether the ark was lighted by a carbuncle." Bacon himself was not emancipated from such fantastic beliefs, as may be seen from sundry passages in his works. Perhaps as good an instance as any is the following, from a draft of a speech on a rumour as to the existence of a party of " undertakers " for the King in Parliament in 16 1 4. He informs the House of Commons, apparently in good faith, that " it is like the birds of Paradise that they have in the Indies that have no feet ; and therefore they never light upon any place, but the wind carries them away : and such a thing do I take this rumour to be." ^ As to the fabulous stories in the Discovery, which Shakespeare glances at in the experiences of Othello : the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi, and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders, it is to be observed that, though Ralegh professes to believe them, he does not report them as of his own knowledge, but bases them on the testimony of the natives : Next unto Arui there are two rivers Atoica and Caora, and on that braunch which is called Caora are a nation of people, whose heads appeare not above their shoulders, which though it may be thought a meere fable, yet for mine owne parte I am resolucd it is true, because every child in the j^rouinces of Arro/naia and Caniiri affirme the same : they are called Ewaipanoma : they are reported to have their eyes in their shoulders, and their mouths in the middle of their breasts, and that a long train of haire groweth backward bctwcn their shoulders. J Spedding, Life, v. 43. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND ROE MS 465 The " cannibals " are also mentioned in the narrative. I should like now to point out, by some parallels, how closely Shakespeare seems to follow the circumstances of Ralegh's courtship and marriage in the play of Othello. It appears to me probable that we have in that character a presentment, to some extent, of Ralegh's personality and temperament, and the villainy of lago may, in that case, have suggested to the author an analogy with that shown by Northampton (abetted, as it seems, by Cecil, though, in his case, perhaps on some conviction of public interest) in his intrigues against Ralegh, by which, and his own unguarded speeches (see Aubrey), the mind of James seems to have been poisoned against him. I refer, of course, to the treatment. The plot, it appears, was drawn, more or less, from an Italian tale. It is noteworthy that the play was produced at the Court in 1604, the year after Ralegh's sentence. Ralegh's early life, like Othello's, was passed in war and hardships, and his story may well have appealed to Elizabeth Throgmorton. In reading the following passage in Edwards' Life, the analogy of Othello and Desdemona at once presents itself: Her charms subdued Sir Walter Ralegh. The noble presence, the warlike fame, the ready tongue, the various accomplishments of such a lover, subdued in turn — and subdued entirely — the Queen's fair maid of honour. — i. 137. Compare with this the defence of Othello : Her father loved me ; oft invited me ; Still question'd me the story of my life, From year to year, the battles, sieges, fortunes, That I have pass'd. I ran it through, even from my boyish days, To the very moment that he bade me tell it ; Wherein I spake of most disastrous chances, Of moving accidents by flood and field. Of hair-breadth scapes i' the imminent deadly breach, Of being taken by the insolent foe And sold to slavery, of my redemption thence And portance in my travels' history : 2 H 466 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Wherein of antres vast and deserts idle, Rough quarries, rocks and hills whose heads touch heaven, It was my hint to speak, — such was the process ; And of the Cannibals that each other eat, The Anthropophagi and men whose heads Do grow beneath their shoulders. This to hear Would Desdemona seriously incline : But still the house-affairs would draw her thence : Which ever as she could with haste dispatch, She'ld come again, and with a greedy ear Devour up my discourse : which I observing. Took once a pliant hour, and found good means To draw from her a prayer of earnest heart That I would all my pilgrimage dilate. Whereof by parcels she had something heard, But not intentively : I did consent. And often did beguile her of her tears. When I did speak of some distressful stroke That my youth suffer'd. My stor>' being done, She gave me for my pains a world of sighs : She swore, in faith, 'twas strange, 'twas passing strange, 'Twas pitiful, 'twas wondrous pitiful : She wish'd she had not heard it, yet she wish'd That heaven had made her such a man : she thank'd me, And bade me, if I had a friend that loved her, I should but teach him how to tell my story. And that would woo her. Upon this hint I spake : She loved me for the dangers I had pass'd. And I loved her that she did pity them. (i. 3.) Allu.sion to the hardships which Ralegh had gone through seems also to be intended in the account of Belphoebe bringing restoratives to the Squire Timias in the Faerie Queene, Bk. III. v. The following are the other noticeable passages in this connection in the play : — Act i. So. 2 : I fetch my life and being From men of royal siege, etc. (As to this, see pp. 376-378 above.) Act i. Sc. 3 : Des. my heart's subdued Even to the very quality of my lord. XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 467 The sea-image in the following (ii. i) : 0th. It gives me wonder great as my content To see you here before me. O my soul's joy ! If after eveiy tempest come such calms, May the winds blow till they have waken'd death ; And let the labouring bark climb hills of seas Olympus-high and duck again as low As hell's from heaven ! Othello is represented as in middle life when he married. Ralegh was the same, being about forty. But Othello is a vigorous man (as Ralegh was), and dismisses the thought that that can account for Desdemona's sup- posed infidelity (iii. 3) : Haply, for I am black And have not those soft parts of conversation That chamberers have, or for I am declined Into the vale of years, — yet that's not much. Ralegh, like Othello, was a man of commanding presence, and at the same time of unusual appearance ; see Aubrey's account quoted on p. 419. lago's speech (ii. i) contains a reference to this : there should be . . . loveliness in favour, sympathy in years, manners and beauties ; all of which the Moor is defective in. The following lines put into the mouth of lago (ii. 1) also perfectly apply to Ralegh on his best side : The Moor, hovvbeit that I endure him not, Is of a constant, loving, noble nature. And I dare think he'll prove to Desdemona A most dear husband. Lastly the Moor, like Ralisgh (see letter quoted at p. 424), had not contemplated marriage. 0th. But that I love the gentle Desdemona, I would not my unhoused free condition Put into circumscription and confine For the sea's worth. I do not, of course, suggest that an artist in drawing a character is tied to a particular model, but I do maintain 468 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. that all creative artists draw on their experience, and these parallels are therefore striking enough to deserve attention. I have given some reasons in Chapter III. for thinking that the knight " Scudamore " in the Faerie Queene re- presents Ralegh, I will supplement them here by some passages from the poem. In Book IV. i. Paridell attacks Scudamore, and the shock of their meeting is described as follows : As when two billowes in the Irish sowndes, Forcibly driven with contrarie tydes, Do meete together, each abacke rebowndes With roaring rage ; and dashing on all sides. That filleth all the sea with fome, divydes The doubtfuU current into divers wayes. So fell those two in spight of both their prydes ; But Scudamore himselfe did soone uprayse. And, mounting light, his foe for lying long uprayes. (42.) Blandamour, who had been wounded in an encounter with Britomart, being unable to fight, rails at Scudamore, who restrains his anger : He little answer'd, but in manly heart His mightie indignation did forbeare ; Which was not yet so secret, but some part Thereof did in his frouning face appeare : Like as a gloomie cloud, the which doth beare An hideous storme, is by the Northerne blast Quite overblowne, yet doth not passe so cleare, But that it all the skie doth overcast With darknes dred, and threatens all the world to wast. (45.) Strength and self-reliance, dark colouring, and a formidable appearance when roused, are the features of this description, and they accord with the information as to Ralegh which has been placed before the reader in this chapter. The Irish allusion is also appropriate in view of his large interests there. The same strength of nature is shown in the description XVI RALEGH'S CORRESPONDENCE AND POEMS 469 in Book III. xi., where Scudamore is found by Britomart in despair at the loss of Amoret : His face upon the grovvnd did groveling ly, As if he had beene slombring in the shade ; That the brave Mayd would not for courtesy Out of his quiet slomber him abrade, Nor seeme too suddeinly him to invade. Still as she stood, she heard with grievous throb Him grone, as if his hart were peeces made, And with most painefull pangs to sigh and sob, That pitty did the Virgins hart of patience rob. (8.) In some noble lines, most applicable to the vicissitudes of Ralegh's life, Britomart comforts him : Ah gentle knight ! whose deepe conceived griefe Well seemes t' exceede the powre of patience, Yet, if that hevenly grace some goode reliefe You send, submit you to high providence ; And ever in your noble hart prepense. That all the sorrow in the world is lesse Then vertues might and values confidence : For who nill bide the burden of distresse. Must not here thinke to live ; for life is wretchednesse. (14.) CHAPTER XVII THE " FAERIE QUEENE " RESUMED : THE FOWRE HYMNES I PROPOSE in this chapter to take up the threads of the Faerie Queene, which I left incomplete in Chapter III., and, in the light of the intervening chapters, to endeavour to make good certain views there expressed as to the personal element in the poem. I said that the Redcrosse Knight and Sir Guyon were, in my opinion, both intended to represent the author at successive stages of his development. This view rests largely on the impression left on my mind by the whole trend of the poem and other studies with which this book deals. But there is also an indication of the truth of it given in the poem by the author himself, in a device by which the one character is (purposely, as I think) confused with the other. I have drawn attention to other examples of such devices in Spenser's works, adopted for purposes of mystification or duplication of the characters ; a very striking one occurs in the Glasse of Govemenient (see Chapter VIII.). The Faerie Queene is, on the author's own statement, an allegory,^ and an allegory is a writing which is intended to convey a meaning which, for purposes of secrecy, instruction, and so forth, the author has reasons for not ' " Being a continued Allegory, or darke conceit'' — Introductory Epistle to Sir Walter Ralegh. It seems probable that there was another paper in existence of a more explicit character, for the following entries occur in Drummond's "Notes of Hen Jonson's Conversations" : "Spenser's stanzaes pleased him not, nor his matter; the meaning of which Allegoric he had delivered in papers to Sir Walter Raughlie." "That in that paper S. W. Raughly had of the Allegories of the Fayrie Queen, by the Hlaling Beast the Puritans were understood, by the false Duessa the Q. of Scots." 470 CHAP. XVII ''THE FAERIE QUEENE" 471 expressing en clair. At the same time, in reading this poem, it is necessary to exercise discrimination in apply- ing the allegory to contemporary facts and persons, owing to the author's practice — partly intentional, with a view to concealment, partly perhaps unintentional, owing to his discursive habit — of using the same character to represent more than one person, and also of using several characters to represent the same person under different aspects. The device by which Sir Guyon is identified with the Redcrosse knight is not easily recognised unless the poem is read with close attention, but it becomes apparent when the several incidents are brought together. At the end of Book I. the Redcrosse knight, having slain the Dragon and been wedded to Una, remembers that he is pledged to return to " CleopoHs " and the service of the " Faery Queene " : " the which he shortly did, and Una left to mourn." At the opening of Book II. (the legend of Sir Guyon) Archimago is found lying in wait for the Redcrosse knight. In the meantime Sir Guyon passes, and Archimago persuades him to go to the rescue of Duessa, whom, he says, the Redcrosse knight has out- raged. Guyon complies, encounters the Redcrosse knight, and, recognising the cross, shakes hands : " So beene they both at one," etc. (Canto i. 29). Guyon salutes the knight on his achievement, and the latter wishes success to Guyon, " whose pageant next ensewes " Book II. iii. — Braggadochio (with Trompart) on Guyon's horse, which he has stolen, meets Archimago, who supposes him — a person meet Of his revenge to make the instrument ; For since the Redcrosse knight he erst did weet To been with Guyon knitt in one consent, The ill, which earst to him, he now to Guyon ment. (II.) Book III. i. — Guyon, riding with Prince Arthur, encounters, and is overthrown by, Britomart. They are reconciled and ride on together. They are then separated 472 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. by an adventure. Britomart goes on alone (19) and comes to Castle Joyous, where she finds a knight, whose name is not given, beset by six others (intended to represent adherents of Mary, Queen of Scots ^). He turns out apparently (though it is not directly stated) to be the Redcrosse knight (42). A disturbance takes place during the night, and the Redcrosse knight (63) comes to the rescue of Britomart, and the two leave the castle together before dawn i^^^y Canto ii. — The metrical summary begins : The Redcrosse knight to Britomart describeth Artegall. But in stanza 4 Britomart is " travelling with Guyon." She asks him about Arthegal, whose face she has seen in the magic mirror, and the conversation ends as follows : All which the Redcrosse knight to point aredd. (16.) Canto iii. describes the previous interview of Britomart and the nurse Glauce with Merlin, and the last stanza, which refers to their quest for Arthegal, is as follows : Ne rested they, till to that Faery lond They came, as Merlin them directed late: Where, meeting with this Redcrosse knight she fond Of diverse thinges discourses to dilate, l5ut most of Arthegall and his estate. At last their wayes so fell, that they mote part : Then each to other, well affectionate, Friendship professed with unfained hart. The Redcrosse knight diverst, but forth rode Britomart. In Canto iv. occurs the last allusion to the Redcrosse knight, where Britomart, having " through speaches with the Redcrosse knight " learned about Arthegal — A friendly league of love perpetual She with him bound, and Congd tooke withall : ' The " Lady of Delight" is evidently intended for Mary, Queen of Scots. XVII " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 473 Then he forth on his journey did proceede, To seeke adventures which mote him befall, And win him worship through his warlike deed, Which ahvaies of his paines he made the chiefest meed. (4.) Guyon reappears once again in V. iii. 29 sq. for the purpose of recovering his stolen horse from Braggadochio. Of course it is an easy way out of it to attribute the confusion in III. ii. to carelessness, as in the similar transposition in the Glasse of Governement, but having regard to the previous incidents quoted, to the careful writing in the earlier portions of the poem, and to other instances of similar practice by the writer to which I have alluded, I think such an explanation as unsatisfactory in the one case as in the other. My belief is that there is a considerable interval between Books I. and II., that Book I. belongs to 1579,^ and represents the author as he was at that period, at the age of eighteen, and that Book II., which is different in tone, was probably com- posed two or three years later, and is similarly a piece of self-expression in maturer manhood and consequently under a different form. But the two characters belong to the same individuality, and this is indicated accordingly. The character of Prince Arthur, which will now be considered, points also to this solution. No satisfactory explanation of this character in the allegory has, so far, been suggested. It has been supposed that, in places, he represents the Earl of Leicester, and that, otherwise, he is a sort of deus ex machina. But this does not do justice, as regards the "particular,""" to the elaboration of description which is bestowed on him, and is otherwise incompatible, in certain aspects, with the facts. It will be observed that this personality is more remote and more idealised than any of the others, and that legendary colour is used to the full to enhance the conception, which 1 The Faerie Queeue is alluded to in the Harvey-Inimerito correspondence published in 1580, which is described as belonging to "April last." See Spenser's Worksy "Globe" edition, p. 708. 2 See remarks on this subject in Chapter III. 474 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. is thus incompletely satisfied by Leicester, who, as the Queen's favourite, is represented, in more mundane features, under the person of " Arthegal " in its original intention. I think there is also no doubt that an allusion to Leicester, in his relations with the Queen, is contained in the description of the " Lyon " (which here has a heraldic significance) and Una in the metrical summary for Book I. iii., where — Forsaken Truth long seekes her love, and makes the Lyon mylde. The allusion, in the " particular," is to the violence and rapacity of Dudley's nature, and the power of the Queen over him. Thus, in the canto (st. 5) — It fortuned, out of the thickest wood A ramping Lyon rushed suddeinly, Hunting full greedy after salvage blood. Soone as the royall virgin he did spy. With gaping mouth at her ran greedily, but his nature is subdued when he approaches her. Compare with this the sarcastic reference to Leicester (as to which there can be no question) in Mother Hubberds Tale : Marie, (said he) the highest now in grace Be the wilde beasts, that swiftest are in chace ; For in their speedie course and nimble flight The Lyon now doth take the most delight ; But chieflie joyes on foote them to beholde, Enchaste with chaine and circulet of golde : So wilde a beast so tame ytaught to bee, And buxome to his bands, is joy to see ; So well his golden Circlet him beseemeth. There is, however, an unmistakable allusion to Leicester under the person of Prince Arthur in the scene in Book I. ix., where he relates to Una and the Redcrosse knight his vision of the Fairy Queen. The passage is one of such interest that I quote it in full : " Dear Dame," (quoth he) " you sleeping sparkes awake. Which, troubled once, into huge flames will grow ; Ne ever will their fervent fury slake. Till living moysture into smoke do flow. XVII " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 475 And wasted life doe lye in ashes low : Yet sithens silence lesseneth not my fire, But, told, it flames ; and, hidden, it does glow, I will revele what ye so much desire. Ah. Love ! lay down thy bow, the whiles I may respyrc. " It was in freshest flowre of youthly yeares, When corage first does creepe in manly chest, Then first the cole of kindly heat appeares To kindle love in every living brest : But me had warnd old Timons wise behest, Those creeping flames by reason to subdevv. Before their rage grew to so great unrest, As miserable lovers use to rew, Which still wex old in woe, whiles wo stil wexeth new. " That ydle name of love, and lovers life. As losse of time, and vertues enimy, I ever scornd, and joyd to stirre up strife, In middest of their mournfull Tragedy ; Ay wont to laugh when them I heard to cry. And blow the fire which them to ashes brent : Their God himselfe, grievd at my libertie, Shott many a dart at me with fiers intent ; But I them warded all with wary government. " But all in vaine : no fort can be so strong, Ne fleshly brest can armed be so sownd, But will at last be wonne with battrie long. Or unawares at disavantage fownd. Nothing is sure that growes on earthly grownd ; And who most trustes in arme of fleshly might. And boastes in beauties chaine not to be bownd. Doth soonest fall in disaventrous fight. And yeeldes his caytive neck to victours most despight. " Ensample make of him your haplesse joy. And of my selfe now mated, as ye see ; Whose prouder vaunt that proud avenging boy Did soone pluck downe, and curbd my libertee. For on a day, prickt forth with jollitee Of looser life and heat of hardiment, Raunging the forest wide on courser free. The fields, the floods, the heavens, with one consent, Did seeme to laugh on me, and favour mine intent. " Forwearied with my sportes, I did alight From loftie steed, and downe to sleepe me layd, The verdant gras my couch did goodly dight. And pillow was my helmett fayre displayd ; 476 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Whiles every sence the humour sweet embayd, And slombring soft my hart did steale away, Me seemed, by my side a royall Mayd Her daintie limbes full softly down did lay : So fayre a creature yet saw never sunny day. " Most goodly glee and lovely blandishment She to me made, and badd me love her deare ; For dearely sure her love was to me bent. As, when just time expired, should appeare. But whether dreames delude, or true it were, Was never hart so ravisht with delight, Ne living man like wordes did ever heare, As she to me delivered all that night ; And at her parting said. She Queene of Faeries hight. " When I awoke, and found her place devoyd, And nought but pressed gras where she had lyen, I sorrowed all so much as earst I joyd. And washed all her place with watry eyen. From that day forth I lov'd that face divyne ; From that day forth I cast in carefull mynd, To seek her out with labor and long tyne. And never vowd to rest till her I fynd : Nyne monethes I seek in vain, yet ni'll that vow unbynd." Thus as he spake, his visage wexed pale. And chaunge of hew great passion did bewray ; Yett still he strove to cloke his inward bale, And hide the smoke that did his fire display, Till gentle Una thus to him gan say : " O happy Queene of Faeries ! that hast fownd, Mongst many, one that with his prowesse may Defend thine honour, and thy foes confownd. True loves are often sown, but seldom grow on grownd." " Thine, O ! then," said the gentle Redcrosse knight, " Next to that Ladies love, shalbe the place, O fayrest virgin ! full of heavenly light. Whose wondrous faith, e.Kceeding earthly race, Was firmest fixt in myne extremes! case. And you, my Lord, the Patrone of my life. Of that great Queene may well gaine worthie grace. For onely worthie you through prowes priefc, Yf living man mote worthie be to be her liefe." (Stanzas 8-17.) Now this description is inappropriate to Leicester's character, even as a young man, and at the time when XVII ''THE FAERIE QUEENE" i,Ti it was written Leicester and the Queen had been on intimate terms for a period of some thirty years. On the other hand, the words addressed to Prince Arthur by the Redcrosse knight, " And you, my Lord, the Patrone of my life," read in conjunction with the words following, and with similar expressions in the Minor Poems (see Chapter VL), can only rationally be interpreted as a tribute by the poet to his early patron, who was Leicester. The stanza is difficult to follow, and is an example of one of those ambiguous utterances by which the writer, on certain occasions, partially throws off his disguise. The first lines of it are not addressed to the Prince (as would be natural after the Prince's speech), or to Una (as might be supposed, and as is probably intended to be supposed), but to the Queen, " O fayrest virgin," whose faith, " next to that Ladies love," namely the love of Una, or Truth, the Redcrosse knight seems himself to claim, as having been " firmest fixt in myne extremest case." Having in this ingenious way expressed his own feelings, the writer closes the stanza with an address to his " patron," with the hope that the latter may gain " worthye grace " of the Sovereign, of whose love he is the worthiest. This stanza appears to me in itself to justify the view which I have expressed that the Redcrosse knight is intended to represent the author. The passage as a whole, however, indicates that in Prince Arthur also the author sees himself, under another aspect, and this is the view of the character, in its special application, which I wish to advocate. First as to the expressions of love in this passage. I have in several places drawn attention to the use by Spenser of the language of love in addressing Queen Elizabeth, and there is a passage in one of Lilly's plays, Endiinion, which is analogous and illuminating on this subject. It is as follows : Cynth. Was there such a time when as for my love thou didst vow thy selfe to death, and in respect of it loth'd thy life ? speake Efidimion, I will not revenge it with hate. End. The time was madame, and is, and ever shall be, that 478 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap 1 honoured your highnesse above all the world ; but to stretch it so farre as to call it love, I never durst. There hath none pleased mine eye but Cynthia, none delighted mine eares but Cynthia, none possessed my heart but Cynthia. I have forsaken all other fortunes to follow Cynthia, and heere I stand readie to die if it please Cynthia. Such a difference hath the gods set betweene our states, that all must be dutie, loyaltie, and reverence, nothing (without it vouchsafe your highnesse) be termed love. My un- spotted thoughts, my languishing bodie, my discontented life, let them obtaine by princely favour, that which to challenge they must not presume, onely wishing of impossibilities : with imagin- ation of which, I will spend my spirits, and to my selfe that no creature may heare, softly call it love. And if any urge to utter what I whisper, then will I name it honour. From this sweet contemplation if I be not driven, I shall live of all men the most content, taking more pleasure in mine aged thoughts, then ever I did in my youthfull actions. Cynth. Endimion, this honorable respect of thine, shall be christned love in thee, and my reward for it, favour. Persever Endimion in loving mee, and I account more strength in a true heart, then in a walled citie. I have laboured to win all, and studie to keep such as I have wonne ; but those that neither my favour can move to continue constant, nor my offered benefits get to be faithfull, the gods shall either reduce to truth, or revenge their trecheries with justice. Endimion continue as thou hast begun, and thou shalt find that Cynthia sliineth not on thee in vaine. End. Your highnesse hath blessed me, and your words have againe restored my youth : me thinks I feele my joynts strong, and these mouldy haires to molt, and all by your vertue Cynthia^ into whose hands the ballance that weighteth time and fortune are committed, (v. 3.) The language used here is in all respects similar to that of the " Farewell " in the Princely Pleasures attributed to Gascoigne (see Chapter IX.). There is the same unsophisticated enthusiasm and sententiousness, and I find it impossible to doubt that the two pieces are by the same hand, and that they are the writing of a youth. No adult person could write in such a strain.^ ' Lilly (or Lyiy) is very different as a writer from what niighl be supposed from the accounts of him in some books. He shows a mind as philosophical as that of IJacon, though immature ; he wrote some lyrics of the same ([uality as those of Shakespeare ; and for " wit " and literary equipment he is un- approached among the writers of his time. Also he introduced into England xvii " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 479 Next as to the description of Prince Arthur, which, on his first appearance with his squire, Timias (I. vii.), is very significant. His accoutrements suggest splendour and power in the highest degree. Thus, of his helmet : His haughtie Helmet, horrid all with gold, Both glorious brightnesse and great terrour bredd : For all the crest a Dragon did enfold With greedie pawes, and over all did spredd His golden winges : his dreadfull hideous hedd, Close couched on the bever, seemd to throw From flaming mouth bright sparckles fiery redd, That suddeine horrour to faint hartes did show ; And scaly tayle was stretcht adowne his back full low. Upon the top of all his loftie crest, A bounch of heares discolourd diversly, With sprincled pearle and gold full richly drest, Did shake, and seemd to daunce for jollity, Like to an almond tree ymounted hye On top of greene Selinis all alone, With blossoms brave bedecked daintily ; Whose tender locks do tremble every one At everie little breath that under heaven is blowne. (Stanzas 31 and 32.) Still more remarkable is the account of his shield : His warlike shield all closely coveHd was, Ne might of mortall eye be ever seene ; Not made of Steele, nor of enduring bras, Such earthly mettals soon consumed bcene, But all of Diamond perfect pure and cleene It framed was, one massy entire mould, Hewen out of Adamant rocke with engines keene, That point of speare it never percen could, Ne dint of direfull sword divide the substance would. The same to wight he never wont disclose, liut whenas monsters huge he would dismay, Or daunt unequall armies of his foes, Or when the flying heavens he would affray ; For so exceeding shone his glistring ray, a new style of speech wliich was known by tlic name of his first book ; yet he never wrote a line after about 1 590, when he is supposed to have been thirty-six, though he is said to have lived for sixteen years after that date. I have had occasion to note the same extraordinary phenomenon in tlie cases of Gabriel Harvey, Kirke, Webbe, Laneham, and Meres. 48o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. That Phoebus golden face it did attaint, As when a cloud his beames doth over-lay ; And silver Cynthia wexed pale and faynt, As when her face is staynd with magicke ai'ts constraint. No magicke arts hereof had any might, Nor bloody wordes of bold Enchaunters call ; But all that was not such as seemd in sight Before that shield did fade, and suddeine fall : And when him list the raskall routes appall, Men into stones therewith he could transmew, And stones to dust, and dust to nought at all ; And, when him list the prouder lookes subdew, He would them gazing blind, or turne to other hew. Ne let it seeme that credence this exceedes ; For he that made the same was knowne right well To have done much more admirable deedes. It Merlin was, which whylome did excell All living wightes in might of magicke spell : Both shield and sword, and armour all he wrought For this young Prince, when first to armes he fell ; But, when he dyde, the Faery Queene it brought To Faerie lond, where yet it may be seene, if sought. (Stanzas 33-36.) The idea of the shield is, no doubt, reminiscent of the " shield of faith " of St. Paul's Epistle to the Ephesians,^ and under that aspect it would be representative of the reformed religion, potent against Orgoglio and Duessa (Spain in the person of Philip, and Rome in that of Mary, Queen of Scots) — see Book I. vii. and, at a later date, V. viii. (the fight with the Souldan) ; but that interpreta- tion does not account for the description, or for the very definite, but obscure, allusion in Stanza 36. I think the poet is here giving expression to his consciousness of the power of his own genius," and that the character of Prince * It is to be noticed that this is referred to in the introductory letter to Ralegh, but in connection with the Redcrosse knight, not Prince Arthur. 2 St. 34, " the flying heavens." There is a passage in Greene's writings in which I believe the same writer (under colour of an impersonation) is similarly alluding to the power of his own genius, only in an intentionally bombastic vein : " I keep my own course still, to palter up something in prose, using mine old posy still, oinnc tiilit ptinctum : although lately two gentlemen poets made two madmen of Rome beat it out of their paper bucklers, and had it in derision, for that I could not make my verses jet upon the stage in tragical xvn " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 481 Arthur throughout is intended to represent that side of it which was concerned with Government and the national life. Bacon, as his acknowledged writings show, was intensely patriotic, and considering the range, repre- sentative character, and aspiring nature of his genius, and the thought which he devoted to the affairs and destiny of his country in Church and State, there is nothing very extravagant (though it may seem strange — but we are dealing with a strange personality) in the identification of himself with the legendary national hero. Generally, I think. Prince Arthur is intended to represent the pride and power of England, and the character, intended in the " particular " originally for Leicester, is made to serve for individuals in charge of national enterprises. But it also has a more intimate significance. It will be observed from the relation in I. ix., quoted above, that Prince Arthur says he has been seeking out the Fairy Queen for " nyne monethes in vain" (15). In Book II. ix. (Alma's house, viz. the body controlled by the mind) occurs the following stanza : " Certes," (then said the Prince) " I God avow, That sith I armes and knighthood first did plight. My whole desire hath beene, and yet is now, To serve that Queene with al my powre and might. Seven times the Sunne, with his lamp-burning hght, Hath walkte about the world, and I no lesse, Sith of that Goddesse I have sought the sight, Yet no where can her find : such happinesse Heven doth to me envy, and fortune favouriesse." (7.) Lower down, the Prince and Guyon choose each a damsel, who represents, under the allegory, their own several dispositions. In the Prince's case the description is as follows : " Fayre Sir," said she, halfe in disdaineful wise, " How is it that this mood in me ye blame, And in your selfe doe not the same advise ? Him ill beseemes anothers fault to name, buskins, every word filling the mouth with the fa-burden of Bowbell, daring God out of heaven with that atheist Tamburlain, or blaspheming with the mad priest of the Sun." — Introduction to Perinifdes, 1588. 2 I 482 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. That may unwares bee blotted with the same : Pensive I yeeld I am, and sad in mind, Through great desire of glory and of fame ; Ne ought, I weene, are ye therein behynd, That have three years sought one, yet no where can her find." The Prince was inly moved at her speach, Well weeting trew what she had rashly told ; Yet with faire semblaunt sought to hyde the breach, Which chaunge of colour did perforce unfold. Now seeming flaming whott, now stony cold : Tho, turning soft aside, he did inquyre What wight she was that Poplar braunch did hold ? It answered was, her name was Prays-desire, That by well doing sought to honour to aspyre. (38, 39.) In Guyon's case his disposition is indicated in the beautiful lines : She answerd nought, but more abasht for shame Held downe her head, the whiles her lovely face The flashing blood with blushing did inflame. And the strong passion mard her modest grace, That Guyon mervayld at her uncouth cace ; Till Alma him bespake : " Why wonder yee, Faire Sir, at that which ye so much embrace ? She is the fountaine of your modestee : You shamefast are, but Shamefastnes it selfe is shee." (43-) This I believe to be the author under two aspects, the one eager for public employment and honour, the other in his private relations, as he thought of himself.^ I think it is also possible, having regard to the extreme candour and " simplicity " of Bacon's self-expression when writing under disguise (as I believe), that in the periods mentioned — I refer to the " nine months " and the " three years " — he is stating what he had actually experienced since his return from France in March 1579, and, in that case, we have the dates of composition of these two books respectively. 1 Compare with this Bacon's defence of his conduct (aet. 25) to his uncle, Lord Burghley, who had taken him to task for pride or presumption: "I find also that such persons as are of nature bashful (as myself is) . . . are often mistaken for proud." (Spedding, Life, i. 59.) Compare also the Sidney sonnet quoted at p. 363. XVII ''THE FAERIE QUEENE" 483 Prince Arthur is accompanied by the squire, Timias, who is supposed to represent Ralegh. There seems Httle doubt that a reference to Ralegh is intended under this character in the scene with Belphoebe in Book III. v., if only from the suggestion that the herb by which she heals his wounds may have been "divine Tobacco" (32). The episode in IV. vii., where Belphoebe finds him with Amoret, and turns from him with the words " Is this the faith?" (36), may relate, as is generally supposed, to Ralegh's marriage with Elizabeth Throgmorton in 1592.^ But how under this construction is the appearance of Timias to be accounted for in Book I., which, if the Irish official were the author, was probably completed before he went to Ireland, and in any case before he knew Ralegh, and (what is still more important, whoever be the author) before Ralegh was known to fame? It may be said that the description (see especially the account of the virtues of the Squire's bugle in Canto viii. 3-5) is only the traditional language of romance, but this, as I have already said, is not in this writer's manner, his genius being too objective and practical to be content with writing in the air. The conclusion to which I have come is this : that just as under Prince Arthur the writer sees himself idealised as the representative of his nation, so under Timias he sees the aspirant of reality, himself, that is, as he was, waiting for his opportunity and in ready attendance on the State. This accounts for the stress laid on the " mean estate" of Timias in III. v. 44, and for such lines as these, which are quite inappropriate to the personality of Ralegh, or to his circumstances after he had won the favour of the Queen : But, foolish boy, what bootes thy service bace To her to whom the hevens doe serve and sew ? Thou, a meane Squyre of meeke and lowly place ; She hevenly borne and of celestiall hew. (47.) The explanation which I have suggested for the * As to Amoret see Chapter III. The character in this scene seems to be utilised for the special allusion. 484 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Ralegh poems applies, in my belief, equally to the pre- sentment of the character of Timias in the Faerie Queene, namely that it is a vehicle for the expression of the author's own aspirations, and, in the second portion, of his distress at his exclusion from access (as seen in the correspondence summarised in Chapter XV.). Into this he has woven allusions to Ralegh, whose loss of favour synchronised with his own, thereby appearing to plead Ralegh's cause, and at the same time disguising from the general world the appeals on his own behalf to the Queen's feelings. Elizabeth had a great regard for Bacon's father and visited him at Gorhambury. She had been attracted by his son Francis as a child,^ and probably therefore knew more about him than appears on the surface. It is not impossible that these appeals, and their origin, would have been understood by her ; but, in any case, on such a question she would naturally preserve silence, and she was certainly not the kind of woman to be much affected by them, especially where matters of State were concerned. The passages which I have especially in mind in these remarks are in Book IV. Cantos vii. and viii. In the first the Squire incurs Belphoebe's wrath for apparent inconstancy, and falls into a state of despair in which he neglects all knightly service, even regarding " his own deare Lord Prince Arthure " as a stranger^ (43). In Canto viii. " The gentle Squire recovers grace " through the help of the dove, and the interview with Belphoebe, which begins " He her beholding at her feet downe fell " (13), ends with his restoration to favour: In which he long time afterwards did lead An happie life with grace and good accord, Fearlesse of fortunes chaunge or envies dread, And eke all mindlesse of his own deare Lord The noble Prince ... (18.) Later he is represented as renewing his service with the Prince. Under this episode the author is evidently ' Life by Rawley ; Spedding, Works, i. 2 The idea presumably is that he had lost interest even in public affairs. XVII " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 485 imagining himself in tiie state of intimate acceptance, independent of any intermediary, which he desired. Similarly in the earlier episode (III. v.), where Timias is found wounded by Belphoebe, and carried by her to an earthly paradise to be nursed into recovery, there is the same imagined relief from the outcast state in which Bacon regarded himself It will be noticed that these episodes are capable, more or less, of a dual interpretation : in the Ralegh aspect, his hard fortunes before the Queen took him up and her subsequent affection for him ; in the Bacon aspect, his disappointments, his ambition for service and the Queen's favour expressed under the language of love, and his imagined happiness if things were once as he wished them to be. To obtain this result no language seemed to him too extravagant — even to the point of being abject, as some of this writing is — and the language used is altogether characteristic of Bacon in such circumstances, for whom deprivation of access, and the opportunities which alone in those days of autocratic power it gave, was regarded with feelings almost of anguish. His life and correspondence are evidence of this, and the following stanza, with which Canto viii. of Book IV. opens, is an expression of the same disposition and habit : Well said the Wiseman, now prov'd true by this Which to this gentle Squire did happen late, That the displeasure of the mighty is Then death itself more dread and desperate ; For naught the same may calme ne mitigate, Till time the tempest doe thereof delay With sufferaunce soft, which rigour can abate. And have the sterne remembrance wypt away Of bitter thoughts, which deepe therein infixed lay. Like as it fell to this unhappy boy, Whose tender heart the faire Belphoebe had With one sterne looke so daunted, . . . (Cf. p. 381.) Timias reappears in Book VI., and though the allusions are obviously to some contemporary experience, similar difficulties in the way of identification with Ralegh arc 486 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. present. This book was presumably written in 1595, during the greater part of which Ralegh was abroad. Timias is ideally represented as still secure in the Queen's favour, but subject to many enemies, envy, detraction, and, most of all, to — Three mightie ones, and cruell minded eeke. That him not onely sought by open might To overthrow, but to supplant by slight : The first of them by name was called Despetto, Exceeding all the rest in powre and hight ; The second not so strong but wise, Decetto ; The third, nor strong nor wise, but spighfuUest, Defetto. (VI. V. 13.) These impersonations seem intended to represent, respectively, the contempt of the risen man by rank (perhaps of the man who, having risen, does not conduct himself wisely), fraud (in others), and want of money. We read in stanza 1 6 that " most of all Defetto him annoyde." In a later episode Timias is overthrown by the giant "Disdaine" (under which the same idea as in " Despetto " is represented) and the fool " Scorne," in a zealous attempt to rescue Mirabella ^ (vii. 49) ; and he is rescued by Prince Arthur, who " him did oft embrace, and oft admire" (viii. 27).^ By the agency of Despetto, Decetto and Defetto, who could not prevail against Timias by themselves, the " Blatant Beast " is set on as the fittest means " to worke his utter shame," and Timias is bitten by him owing to heedlessness (16). The same cause of disaster is alleged in Muiopotmos (see Chapter VI.). The wounds made by the monster are described as like those of " infamy," which grow worse " for want of taking heede unto the same" (vi. i and 2). Serena, the love of Sir * It has been suggested that in the Mirabella episode the poet is taking a revenge on "Rosalind" for her treatment of him — a suggestion not very complimentary to Spenser. But as Mirabella is described as "of meane parentage and kindred base " (vii. 28), and " E. K." says Rosalind was "A Gentlewoman of no meane house" ("April" eclogue), the suggestion does not seem to hold water. See also p. 365 above. ^ These characters disappear at this point, in the lines " lUil Arthure with ihe rest went onward still," etc. (30.) xvii " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 487 Calepine, has also been bitten by the Beast (iii. 23, 24), and she and Timias are left by Prince Arthur to be cured by a Hermit (v. 41), The remedies prescribed are discipline and ghostly counsel (vi. 5 j-^.), and they are advised " to avoide the occasion of the ill," to " abstaine from pleasure and rcstraine your will," ' etc., and to " shun secresie, and talke in open sight." All this points to some scandal or scandalous reports in each case. There is no evidence of Ralegh being affected by scandal during the period subsequent to his marriage, except as regards alleged unorthodox opinions ; but the suggestions are not of that character. While, however, only some of the circumstances described are applicable to Ralegh, all of them fit in with what is known, or can reasonably be inferred, about Bacon's life. Confirmation of this view may possibly lie in the identification of "Serena," a name which, as I said in Chapter III., is perhaps formed out of the letters of " Frances," i.e. Frances Walsingham. This idea occurred to me in connection with a difficulty which I found in reconciling the character of Sir Calidore with Sir Philip Sidney, the usually accepted identification (see Chapter III.). Sir Calidore is represented as the knight of " Courtesie," but his main business is the pursuit of the " Blatant Beast," through town and country," and in the last canto he muzzles and chains him (34), though in a later age he gets loose again, nor spares even " the gentle Poets rime " (40). There is nothing analogous to this, so far as is known, in Sidney's life ; on the contrary, Sidney had strong Protestant sympathies, and was looked up to by their party as a leader. I think the allusion is to the author's social and political writings, private and public, and to his efforts in the " Martin Marprelate " controversy to which I referred in Chapter II., and that here again we have a representation of his own personality and activities in another aspect. Sidney had been dead ten years when this book was published, and his widow 1 i.e. the natural passions; see p. 491. 2 Cf. Canto i. 7 ; iii. 23 sq. ; ix. 3. 488 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. (who was three times married) was then the wife of Essex. Bacon therefore must have met her frequently. If she was as attractive as she is represented in " Pastorella," he may well have admired her. The tale of Sir Calidore and Pastorella, however, is entirely ideal, and suggests no corresponding reality out of which scandal could have arisen. The crudities of reality are dealt with under different characters (the same persons, in my opinion, being represented), namely, Timias and Serena, who are each, for different reasons, suffering from the same malady. Essex neglected his wife for the interests and pleasures of the Court, and under pain of the Queen's displeasure ; she may therefore have gone her own way, and laid herself open to scandal. Bacon, as is well known to all who have studied the writings of the time, was the subject — possibly the victim — of scandalous rumour, especially in the days of his power. This episode is partly in the nature of a defence, and it may be compared with the i I2th sonnet of Shakespeare. This theory, of course, points to the conclusion that Sir Calepine is Sidney ; or perhaps more probably Essex, because Serena is represented as bitten by the " Blatant Beast " when wandering from Sir Calepine and Sir Calidore while they were talking together (iii. 23, 24). At the same time, in view of the author's method of confusing his characters, and his habit of diverging from his original intention as his fancy led him, it is probable that he had Sidney, and also Essex, in mind, for some purposes, in that portion of the book which relates to the courtship of Pastorella by Sir Calidore. I will now turn back for a moment to Book I. and offer a few remarks about it as a whole. It is from this book that the majority of readers probably derive their impression of the Faerie Qiieene, and perhaps from the first canto of the book, in which the author seems to enter on his task with a freshness of imagination and grave simplicity and earnestness not found to the same XVII " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 489 extent as the work proceeds. Of the many wonderful descriptions in the poem perhaps none is so famih'ar, or as impressive, as that of the Redcrosse knight, in the second stanza of the poem : And on his brest a bloodie Crosse he bore, The deare remembrance of his dying Lord, For whose sweete sake that glorious badge he wore, And dead, as Hving, ever him ador'd : Upon his shield the like was also scor'd, For soveraine hope which in his helpe he had. Right faithfuU true he was in deede and word, But of his cheere did seeme too solemne sad ; Yet nothing did he dread, but ever was ydrad. These lines, coming at the opening of the book, have perhaps done much to give the impression that the poem is, in its primary intention, one of a religious character. But the description is sentimental and pictorial ^ rather than inspired by spiritual feeling, and if Book I., without going further, be read through with attention, it will be seen that the religious motive, though recognised with reverence, is not the predominant one. The doctrine and discipline of the reformed Church are illustrated and applied to the training of the knight, who is thereby brought to a distant vision of the holy city ; but the author's genius does not really lie in that direction, and having paid his tribute to the call of the saintly life, he puts it aside for the present with something approaching to a sense of relief. The renunciation involved at that age is candidly felt to be too great. The choice is described with all that richness of illustration which the writer has at his command in dealing with any subject, ' For this quality perhaps the following description (in the same book) of the world under the power of evil is as striking as any : " And, after all, upon the wagon beame, Rode Sathan with a smarting whip in hand, With which he forward lasht the Jaesy teme, So oft as Slowth still in the mire did stand. Huge routs of people did about them band, Showting for joy ; and still before their way A foggy mist had covered all the land ; And, underneath their feet, all scattered lay Dead sculls and bones of men whose life had gone astray." (iv. 36. 490 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. but the passion, which is the soul of such descriptions (as in Bunyan, who presumably borrowed from it), is lacking. The device by which the writer allays his doubts and satisfies his conscience is very characteristic. He makes the Hermit decide the question for him, and puts into his mouth the advice which accords with the promptings of his own inclinations. These remarks refer mainly to Canto x., where the knight is brought to the " House of Holinesse," Here he is taught repentance, and being instructed by Charity (" Charissa ") " of love and righteousnes and well to donne," he is brought by an ancient matron, " Mercy," to a hill, on the top of which was a little hermitage inhabited by " an aged holy man " whose name was " hevenly Contemplation " (46). He leads the knight to a high mountain from which he shows him far off the heavenly city, "the new Hierusalem " (57). Upon which the knight declares that till then he had supposed — That great Cleopolis, where I have beeiie. In which that fairest Faery Queene doth dwell, The fairest citty was that might be seene ; but he now thinks the other far surpassed it. The hermit, however, bids him return : ne maist thou yitt Forgoe that royal maides bequeathed care. (63.) Cleopolis is, of course, London, e.g. — Of Gloriane, great Queene of glory bright, Whose kingdomes seat Cleopolis is red. (I. vii. 46.) and compare H. x. 72, where London is again referred to under that name. In the same way the choice between the contemplative and the active life is figured in the final canto of Book L, where after marrying Una and long enjoying her company, the knight remembers his proinise — Unto his Faery Queene backe to retourne ; The which he shortly did, and Una left to mourne. (41.) XVII " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 491 All this is, to my mind, plain enough. It describes a young man of great parts and great aspirations, who has a strong sense of an intellectual mission, but who is also ambitious for an active career in the service of the State. He is represented, in effect, as postponing the prosecu- tion of the one until he has achieved success in the other. This is precisely what occurred, or what he thought had occurred, when he took stock of himself, in Bacon's case, and it becomes in his writings the subject alike of self- reproach and self-justification, according as he was looking inwards or towards the world. The legendary story which is interwoven in these episodes has not, in my view, the importance in the writer's mind which is some- times attached to it. I think it is wholly subordinate to the purposes of self-expression, being the machinery by which this is attained under forms which appeal to the imagination. A similar conflict of choice is shown in the " Astrophel and Stella " sonnets, between reason and sense (" wit " and "will"), which is substantially the theme of Book II. of the Faerie Queene, and in the loth sonnet the state of feeling in which the writer finds himself is contrasted with his early intentions : Reason, in faith thou art well serv'd, that still Wouldst brabbling be with Sense and Love in me ; I rather wish'd thee climb the Muses' hill ; Or reach the fruit of Nature's choicest tree ; Or seek heav'n's course or heav'n's inside to see : Why shouldst thou toil our thorny soil to till ? Leave Sense, and those which Sense's objects be ; Deal thou with powers of thoughts, leave Love to Will. As the vocabulary of the writer in dealing with this subject is specialised, and his meaning expressed with great economy of language, I make no apology for giving a paraphrase. The writer is addressing his " Reason " as something within, but apart from, himself as a man in the world : Surely, Reason, you have only yourself to blame that you should be wasting time over problems of love and passion in me, 492 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. seeing that I wished you rather to devote yourself to the pursuit of the Arts, or Natural Philosophy, or Divinity. Why should you labour in the thorny soil in which bodily sense is placed ? Leave alone sense and the objects to which it is directed : deal rather with the functions of thought, and leave Desire to the natural appetites. It will be noticed that the fifth line is, in epitome, the substance of the vision — the narrow path and the heavenly city to which it leads — of the Redcrosse knight, referred to above : From thence, far off he unto him did shew A little path that was both steepe and long, Which to a goodly Citty led his vew, . . . (I. X. 55.) I referred in Chapter III. to the three posthumous " Mutabilitie " cantos. The last is, or purports to be, a fragment : The VIII. Canto, Unperfite When I bethinke me on that speech whyleare Of Mutabilitie, and well it way ! Me seemes, that though she all unworthy were Of the Heav'ns Rule ; yet, very sooth to say, In all things else she beares the greatest sway : Which makes me loath this state of life so tickle. And love of things so vaine to cast away ; Whose flowring pride, so fading and so fickle, Short Time shall soon cut down with his consuming sickle. II Then gin I thinke on that which Nature sayd, Of that same time when no more Change shall be, But stedfast rest of all things, firmely stayd Upon the pillours of Eternity, That is contrayr to Mutabilitie ; For all that moveth doth in Change delight : But thence-forth all shall rest eternally With Him that is the God of Sabaoth hight : O ! that great Sabaoth God, grant me that Sabaoths sight. This canto, with the other two, was published, as previ- ously noted, in 1609, at a time when Bacon was working XVII " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 493 at the Novum Ofgamim, and in the closing sentences (couched in the form of a prayer) of the " Plan of the Work " {Distribtctio Operis) the following passage occurs : Tu postquam conversus es ad spectandum opera quae fecerunt manus tuae, vidisti quod omnia essent bona valde ; et requievisti. At homo conversus ad opera quae fecerunt manus suae, vidit quod omnia essent vanitas et vexatio spiritus ; nee ullo modo requievit. Quare si in operibus tuis sudabimus, facies nos visionis tuae et sabbati tui participes. [Thou when thou turnedst to look upon the works which thy hands had made, sawest that all was very good, and didst rest from thy labours. But man, when he turned to look upon his work which his hands had made, saw that all was vanity and vexation of spirit, and could find no rest therein. Wherefore if we labour in thy works with the sweat of our brows, thou wilt make us partakers of thy vision and thy sabbath.] In a footnote Spedding compares this with St Augustine's prayer at the close of the Confessions^ and adds " Compare also the line with which the Faerie Queene breaks off." The sentence (" Wherefore if we labour," etc.) with which this passage concludes occurs also, in English, in the prayer composed by Bacon which he called " The Writer's Prayer." The same thought occurs in the very self- regarding Essay " Of Great Place " : But power to do good is the true and lawful end of aspiring. For good thoughts, though God accept them, yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act ; and that cannot be without power and place, as the vantage and commanding ground. Merit and good works is the end of man's motion, and conscience of the same is the ac- complishment of man's rest. For if a man can be a partaker of God's theatre, he shall likewise be partaker of God's rest. Et conversus Deus^ ut aspiceret opera, quae fecerunt manus suae, vidit quod ofnnia essent bona ?iimis ; and then the Sabbath. The " Writer's Prayer " furnishes us also with further evidence of a most striking character in the similarity of thought and expression between its opening words and the second stanza of Spenser's " Hymne of Heavenly Beautie." The Prayer begins : 494 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Thou, O Father ! who gavest the Visible Light as the first- born of thy Creatures, and didst pour into man the Intellectual Light as the top and consummation of thy workmanship, be pleased to protect and govern this work, which coming from thy Goodness returneth to thy Glory. The lines in Spenser's '* Hymne " are as follow : Vouchsafe then, O thou most Almightie Spright ! From whom all guifts of wit and knowledge flow To shed into my breast some sparkling light Of thine eternall Truth, that I may show Some litle beames to mortall eyes below Of that immortall beautie, there with thee, Which in my weake distraughted mynd I see. A few parallels (in treatment as well as subject) of an interesting character between Spenser and Shakespeare, which occur in the Faerie Queeue, may be noted : Book n. iv. — Phaon in the hands of "Furor" and "Occasion." His story presents a close parallel with that of Othello ; see stanzas 18-31. Book n. X. — In the relation of the Briton kings, taken from Geoffrey's " History," the story of Lear is told (27-32), with certain similar deviations. Book HL i. — Venus and Adonis on the tapestry (34-38). Book HL ii. — Britomart discovers her passion for the knight, whom she has seen in the magic mirror, to her nurse, Glauce. The character of the nurse here and in Romeo and Juliet is identical, and her talk gives the grave Muse of Spenser one of the few occasions which it takes for the revelation of a sense of humour. I have no doubt in my own mind that the character is drawn from the old " Gentlewoman " mentioned by the supposed " Puttenham " [" My mother had an old woman in her nurserie. . . . The good Gentlewoman," etc.]. The remarks of Haslewood on this point are worthy of attention.^ This parallel is so striking that I quote some of the stanzas, ' Ancient Critical Essays (edited by Joseph Haslewood, l8ll), which includes a reprint of Puttenham's treatise. In the course of his preface the editor writes : " One passage in his work introduces him in the nursery, XVII " THE FAERIE QUEENE " 495 XXX One night, when she was tost with such unrest, Her aged Nourse, whose name was Glauce hight, Feeling her leape out of her loathed nest. Betwixt her feeble amies her quickly keight, And downe againe her in her warme bed dight : " Ah ! my deare daughter, ah ! my dearest dread, What uncouth fit," (sayd she) " what evill plight Hath thee opprest, and with sad drearyhead Chaunged thy lively cheare, and living made thee dead ? XXXI " For not of nought these suddein ghastly feares All night afflict thy naturall repose ; And all the day, when as thine equall peares Their fit disports with faire delight doe chose, Thou in dull corners doest thy selfe inclose ; Ne tastest Princes pleasures, ne doest spred Abroad thy fresh youths fayrest flowre, but lose Both leafe and fruite, both too untimely shed. As one in wilfuU bale for ever buried. XXXII " The time that mortall men their weary cares Do lay away, and all wilde beastes do rest, And every river eke his course forbeares, Then doth this wicked evill thee infest, And rive with thousand throbs thy thrilled brest : Like an huge Aetn' of deepe engulfed gryefe, Sorrow is heaped in thy hollow chest. Whence foorth it breakes in sighes and anguish ryfe, As smoke and sulphure mingled with confused stryfe. XXXIII " Ay me ! how much I feare least love it bee I But if that love it be, as sure I read By knowen signes and passions which I see, Be it worthy of thy race and royall sead, Then I avow, by this most sacred head Of my deare foster childe, to ease thy griefe And win thy will : Therefore away doe dread ; where the acuteness of the child is improperly exercised by an old woman, to discover a riddle, which, in matter and manner, betrays the ignorance and want of decency that characterises Juliet's loquacious nurse, and the words * My mother had an old woman in her nurserie ' gives no faint idea that the family establishment was not unlike that of the wealthy Capulets.'' 496 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. For death nor daunger from thy dew reliefe Shall me debarre : tell me therefore, my liefest liefe ! " XXXIV So having sayd, her twixt her armes twaine Shee streightly straynd, and colled tenderly ; And every trembling joynt and every vaine Shee softly felt, and rubbed busily. To doe the frosen cold away to fly ; And her faire deawy eies with kisses deare Shee ofte did bathe, and ofte againe did dry ; And ever her importund not to feare To let the secret of her hart to her appeare. XXXV The Damzell pauzd ; and then thus fearfully : "Ah! Nurse, what needeth thee to eke my payne ? Is not enough that I alone doe dye, But it must doubled bee with death of twaine ? For nought for me but death there doth remaine." " O daughter deare ! " (said she) " despeire no whit ; For never sore but might a salve obtaine : That blinded God, which hath ye blindly smit, Another arrow hath your lovers hart to hit." XXXVI " But mine is not" (quoth she) "like other wownd ; For which no reason can finde remedy." " Was never such, but mote the like be fownd," (Said she) "and though no reason may apply Salve to your sore, yet love can higher stye Then reasons reach, and oft hath wonders donne.'' " But neither God of love nor God of skye Can doe" (said she) " that which cannot be donne.' " Things ofte impossible " (quoth she) " seeme, ere begonne." XXXVII " These idle wordes " (said she) " doe nought aswage My stubborne smart, but more annoiaunce breed : For no, no usuall fire, no usuall rage Yt is, O Nourse I which on my life doth feed, And sucks the blood which from my hart doth bleed : But since thy faithful zele lets me not hyde My crime, (if crime it be) I will it reed. Nor Prince nor pere it is, whose love hath gryde My feeble brest of late, and launched this wound wyde. xvji ''THE FAERIE QUEENE'' 497 XXXVIII " Nor man it is, nor other living wight, For then some hope I might unto me draw ; But th' only shade and semblant of a knight, Whose shape or person yet I never saw. Hath me subjected to loves cruell law : The same one day, as me misfortune led, I in my fathers wondrous mirrhour saw. And, pleased with that seeming goodly-hed, Unwares the hidden hooke with baite I swallowed." XLII " But thine, my Deare, (welfare thy heart, my deare !) Though straunge beginning had, yet fixed is On one that worthy may perhaps appeare ; And cartes seemes bestowed not amis : Joy thereof have thou and eternall blis ! " With that, upleaning on her elbow weake. Her alablaster brest she soft did kis. Which all that while shee felt to pant and quake. As it an Earth-quake were : at last she thus bespake. XLIV " But wicked fortune mine, though minde be good. Can have no ende nor hope of my desire, But feed on shadowes whiles I die for food. And like a shadowe wexe, whiles with entire Affection I doe languish and expire. I, fonder then Cephisus foolish chyld. Who, having vewed in a fountaine shere His face, was with the love thereof beguyld ; I, fonder, love a shade, the body far exyld." XLV " Nought like," (quoth shee) " for that same wretched boy Was of him selfe the )-dle Paramoure, Both love and lover, without hope of joy, For which he faded to a watry flowre : But better fortune thine, and better howre, Which lov'st the shadow of a warlike knight ; No shadow but a body hath in powre : That body, wheresoever that it light. May learned be by cyphers, or by Magicke might. 2 K 498 SPENSEH AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. XLVI " But if thou may with reason yet represse The growing evill, ere it strength have gott, And thee abandond wholy do possesse, Against it strongly strive, and yield thee nott Til thou in open fielde adowne be smott : But if the passion mayster thy fraile might, So that needs love or death must bee thy lott, Then, I avow to thee, by wrong or right To compas thy desire, and find that loved knight." XLVI I Her chearefull words much cheard the feeble spright Of the sicke virgin, that her downe she layd In her warme bed to sleepe, if that she might ; And the old-woman carefully displayd The clothes about her round with busy ayd ; So that at last a litle creeping sleepe Surprisd her sence : Shee, therewith well apayd, The dronken lamp down in the oyl did steepe. And sett her by to watch, and sett her by to weepe. XLVIII Earely, the morrow next, before that day His joyous face did to the world revele, They both uprose and tooke their ready way Unto the Church, their praiers to appele With great devotion, and with little zele : For the faire Damzel from the holy herse Her love-sicke hart to other thoughts did steale ; And that old Dame said many an idle verse, Out of her daughters hart fond fancies to reverse. XLIX Retourned home, the royall Infant fell Into her former fitt ; for-why no powre Nor guidaunce of herselfe in her did dwell : But ih' aged Nourse, her calling to her bowre. Had gathered Rew, and Savine, and the flowre Of Camphora, and Calamint, and Dill ; All which she in a earthen Pot did poure. And to the brim with Coltwood did it fill. And many drops of milk and blood through it did spill. <( XVII ''THE FAERIE QUEENE" 499 Then, taking thrise three heares from off" her head, Them trebly breaded in a threefold lace, And round about the Pots mouth bound the thread ; And, after having whispered a space Certein sad words with hollow voice and bace, Shee to the virgin sayd, thrise sayd she itt ; " Come daughter, come ; come, spit upon my face; Spitt thrise upon me, thrise upon me spitt ; Th' uneven nomber for this busines is most fitt." LI That sayd, her rownd about she from her turnd, She turned her contrary to the Sunne ; Thrise she her turnd contrary, and returnd All contrary ; for she the right did shunne ; And ever what she did was streight undonne. So thought she to undoe her daughters love ; But love, that is in gentle brest begonne, No ydle charmes so lightly may remove : That well can witnesse who by tryall it does prove. LIT Ne ought it mote the noble Mayd avayle, Ne slake the fury of her cruell flame, But that shee still did waste, and still did wayle, That, through long languour and hart-burning brame. She shortly like a pyned ghost became Which long hath waited by the Stygian strond. That when old Glauce saw, for feaie least blame Of her miscaiTiage should in her be fond. She wist not how t'amend, nor how it to withstond. Equally characteristic of the Nurse in Romeo and Juliet is the scene in the next canto (iii.) where they seek counsel from Merlin, particularly where Glauce interrupts his prophecies about the appearance in the glass by the practical question : How shall she know, how shall she finde the man ? (25.) Shakespeare has, no doubt, borrowed from many sources, but I find it hard to believe that he was not original in this character. The author of the Faerie Queene shows a similar familiarity with English legal procedure and law terms as 500 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the author of the Shakespeare play, and handles them in metaphor with the same ease and certainty.^ The notable examples of this occur in the second part and the posthumous cantos : — Book IV. xii. 31. — The legal case in the Marinell and Florimell episode ; see Chapter III., and p. 505 below. Book VI. vii. — The punishment of Mirabella : Fayre Mirabella was her name, whereby Of all those crymes she there indited was : All which when Cupid heard, he by and by In great displeasure wild a Capias Should issue forth t' attach that scomefull lasse. The warrant straight was made, and therewithal! A Baylieffe-errant forth in post did passe, Whom they by name there Portamore did call ; He which doth summon lovers to loves judgement hall. The damzell was attacht, and shortly brought Unto the barre whereas she was arrayned ; But she thereto nould plead, nor answere ought. Even for stubborne pride which her restrayned. So judgement past, as is by law ordayned In cases like ; which when at last she saw, Her stubborne hart, which love before disdayned, Gan stoupe ; and, falling downe with humble awe, Cryde mercie, to abate the extremitie of law. (35, 36.) In the same book, Canto iv., the lady, to whom Sir Calepine delivers the babe he has rescued from a bear, accepts it — as of her owne by liverey and seisin. {2,7-) The trial scene in the second of the " Mutabilitie " cantos, stanzas 13-17. The use, in several places, of the word " tortious." ' Compare, for instance, such a use of legal metaphor by Shakespeare as that in Romeo's death-speech : " . . . and lips, O you The doors of breath, seal with a righteous kiss A dateless bargain to engrossing death ! " and in Lovers Labour's Lost, where a girl, refusing a kiss, is made to say, " My lips are no common, though several they be" (ii. i). With the first of these compare the use of the same metaphor in the " Astrophel and Stella " sonnets (85) : "Let . . . lips Love's indentures make." XVII ''THE FAERIE QUEENE" 501 The writer's impartiality and habit of writing on both sides of a question, to which I have alluded in other places, is well illustrated in his practice of introducing the figure of the Queen, or a touch suggestive of her, in passages of censure as well as praise. Thus in the " House of Pride" (I. iv.) the false pomp and vices of the Court, or of Court life generally, are clearly alluded to, the Queen of it being described as " a mayden Queene " (8). Compare the description of Philotim^ in the " House of Mammon " (H. vii. 48), and the bold expression " that goodly Idoll " in Sonnet 27. The bad side of the Court (though not of the Queen) is similarly described in Colin Clout in a passage following the eulogies. Perhaps no better example could be found of the similarity of the treatment of love by Spenser and Shakespeare than the description of the effect of it in absence. Compare the account of Britomart's restlessness in the absence of Arthegal, and the way in which she assails Talus on his return with a string of questions : And where is he thy Lord, and how far hence ? Declare at once : and hath he lost or wun ? {F.Q. V. vi. 9) with Rosalind's speech about Orlando, of course in a lighter vein, in As you like it (iii. 2) : What did he when thou sawest him ? What said he ? How looked he ? Wherein went he ? What makes he here ? Did he ask for me ? Where remains he ? How parted he with thee ? and when shalt thou see him again ? Answer me in one word. and with Cleopatra's speech about Antony : O Charmian, Where think'st thou he is now ? Stands he, or sits he ? Or does he walk, or is he on a horse ? (i- 5-) And compare again with these the " Astrophel and Stella " sonnet (92) : I would know whether she did sit or walk ; How cloth'd ; how waited on ; sigh'd she, or smil'd ; Whereof, with whom, how often did she talk . . . 502 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. We have here reached a point when the necessary facts have been stated for the consideration of the identity of " Rosalind," which I endeavoured to show, at the end of Chapter XIII., must carry with it the identity of " Stella" of the Sidney sonnets. The solution which I have to offer, or, rather, which offers itself, when once the identity of the author of these works is recognised, lies in the indications given by " E. K," in the " Glosse " to the SJiepheards Calender. From him we learn that she was " a Gentlewoman of no meane house, nor endewed with anye vulgare and common giftes, both of nature and manners " (April), and that " Rosalinde is also a feigned name, which, being well ordered, will bewray the very name of his loue and mistresse, whom by that name he coloureth " (January). The obvious solution of this anagram is " Mary Sidney," which gives all the essential letters (R sa inde). This must have occurred to many people, but the circumstances of Edmund Spenser have seemed to render it inadmissible. But it is most natural in the circumstances of Francis Bacon. The date of Mary Sidney's birth is not known ; 1561 has been given, but the date suggested in the Dictionary of National Biography is 1555. She was therefore some years older than Bacon, and it would be in consonance with experience in cases of precocious mental development that he should have been attracted in youth by a woman older than himself, especially if she had superior gifts of mind. The hints given by " Laneham " in 1575, under the disguise of absurdity, support this conclusion (see p. 277 above). Under it, also, the allusion in the third sonnet of Shakespeare (on the supposition that those sonnets were addressed to William Herbert, the Countess of Pembroke's eldest son) falls into its natural place : Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime. The player could hardly have even seen the Countess until she was between thirty and forty, and the sense of tender recollection which these lines convey is unaccount- xvji " THE FAERIE QUEENE" 503 able in his case. The writer seems to see the image of his early love in the son, and this would largely account for the abnormal warmth of address, the note of regret, and the sense of frustrated parental instinct which render these sonnets so enigmatical. The curious allusion to "Immerito" and a certain lady under the name of "Rosalinde "in one of the Harvey letters published in i 5 80 ^ also finds a perfectly natural meaning, and one which is in consonance with Bacon's circumstances in 1578-79, and his habit of self-idealisation : Imagin me to come into a goodly Kentishe Garden of your old Lords, or some other Nobleman, and spying a florishing Bay Tree there, to demaunde ex tempore, as foUoweth : Arbor vittoriosa, triomfale, Onor d'Imperadori, e di Poete : and perhappes it will advaunce the winges of your Imagination a degree higher : at the least if any thing can be added to the loftinesse of his conceite, whom gentle Mtstresse Rosalmde once reported to haue all the Intelligences at commaundement, and an other time, Christened her Segnior Fegaso. Mary Sidney was married to the Earl of Pembroke in 1577, when Francis Bacon was abroad. The marriage was arranged by her uncle, the Earl of Leicester, with the willing approval of her father. The Earl was a widower and some twenty years her senior. There is evidence of disagreement in later years, and by his will Pembroke left his wife " as bare as he could." "' There was, therefore, a parallelism in the circumstances of Mary Sidney and Penelope Devereux, and I conceive that the writer of the " Astrophel and Stella" sonnets took advantage of this to express his own feelings under a disguise which was sufficiently applicable for the purpose to another case. When these sonnets appeared there was no one left to represent Sir Philip Sidney except his brother Robert, who was abroad, and the Countess of ' " A Gallant familiar Letter containing an Answere to that of M. I.Timerto," in Three proper and ivittie familiar letters, etc. 2 Chamberlain, Letters, temp. Eliz., p. lOO ; cited in DiU. Nat. Biogr. 504 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. Pembroke, whose feelings of resentment on her brother's account would, so far as she entertained them, be mitigated by a tribute so flattering to her as a woman, especially if it was associated with tender or happier memories. The only serious risk, therefore, lay in the resentment of Lord Rich ; but he was estranged from his wife, and the author therefore had little to fear. The existence of such an understanding would also account for the large additions made in the name of the Countess of Pembroke to the volume of the Arcadia after 1590, of which the fine sonnet placed in the front of this work is an example. It might also account, to some extent, for the fact that Bacon did not marry until he was forty-five, and then, apparently, for money. It points also to the authorship of the famous epitaph, written by an unknown hand, after the death of the Countess in 1621.^ It may explain, too, certain lines in the sonnet addressed to her, among those before the Faerie Queene, which I am quite unable to construe, except in terms of Spenser's intentional ambiguity : Who \i.e. Sidney] first my Muse did lift out of the flore, To sing his sweet delights in lowlie laies ; For his, and for your owne especial sake, Vouchsafe from him this token in good worth to take. It is noteworthy, in this connection, that among the ladies praised in Colin Clout the Countess of Pembroke, under the name of " Urania," is given the first place after the Queen ; and in Astrophel she is described as " The gentlest shepherdesse that lives this day." ' " Underneath this sable hearse Lies the subject of all verse, Sidney's sister, Pembroke's mother," etc. I do not agree with those who reject the second stanza on the ground of inferiority. It seems to me necessary for the balance of the rhythm, which rises again on the first line of the second stanza, " Marble piles let no man raise To her name . . ." and then falls quietly (in artificial language common in inscriptions) to a close. XVII '^ THE FAERIE QUEENE" 505 I must add a further note, in conclusion, about " Marinell," who I suggested in Chapter III. was intended for the Earl of Cumberland. I have since found some evidence (too late to insert there) which has removed from my mind any doubts I may have felt as to the soundness of that interpretation. In Lodge's Pen-traits it is stated that " his father dying in i 569 left him an infant of eleven years, and his wardship was granted by the Crown to Francis Russell, 2nd Earl of Bedford ; but his education seems to have been superintended by the Viscount Montague, who had married his mother's sister [daughter of Lord Dacre of Gillesland], and at whose house in Sussex [Cowdray] he passed some years of his youth." The " three-square scuchin," the arms of Montague, may thus be accounted for. (See p. 89 above.) With regard to the legal case, Lodge quotes Purchas, from which it becomes clear that the dispute with the Queen in F.Q. IV. xii. was about Cumberland's share in the great prize of the Madre de Dios, referred to in Chapter XVI. This expedition, which was the fifth out of ten which he fitted out in twelve consecutive years (i 586-1 598), fell in with the expedition fitted out by Ralegh, including the ships of the Queen, and the carrack was taken as a result of a concerted attack. The booty was so great that the commanders fell to quarrelling among themselves, but priority was finally yielded " to Sir John Burroughes [commander of one of Ralegh's ships] pretending the Queenes name," by whom the prize was brought home. Purchas adds that Cumberland's share " would have amounted according to his employment of ships and men to two or three millions, but because his Commission, large though otherwise, had not provided for the case of his returne, and substituting another in his place, some adjudged it to depend on the Queenes mercie and bountie [the high prerogative argument in the poem]. Neither yet by reason of some mens imbezelling had her Majestic the account of the fifth part of her value ; and the Earle was faine to accept of sixe and thirtie thousand pounds for him and his, at 506 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. out of gift." Purchas refers in the margin to Hakluyt, and adds : " My copie also argueth my Lords case, which I have omitted." This must have either been in MS. or suppressed, as there is nothing of the kind in Hakluyt's account, the unctuous character of which is rather unpleasant reading.^ The writer of it disparages the performance of Cumberland's ships as against those of Ralegh ; and, as regards the division of the spoil, he says that it "amounted to no less than 150,000 li. sterling [after the pillaging, which he does not mention], which being divided among the adventurers (whereof her Majesty was the chiefe) was sufficient to yield con- tentment to all parties " — obviously a perversion of the truth. Purchas states that on his previous expedition (the fourth) Cumberland had obtained from the Queen a new ship, the Garland, but that, on this (the fifth) expedition, " His Lordship considering the inconvenience of her Majesties command, not to lay any Spanish ship aboard with her ships, lest both might together be destroyed by fire, rather chose to seeke out amongst the Merchants, then to make further use of the ships Royall." ^ I should have saved the reader a rather lengthy dis- course, and myself some trouble, had it occurred to me to look into these authorities, under this head, before. As it is I may perhaps venture to claim that what is written on this subject in Chapter III. shows that the method of inquiry for the author's meaning through the internal evidence is justified in the case of Spenser's works. 1 The account is stated to have been "prepared by Sir Walter Ralegh," not " written by," and I suspect that it was written by Hakluyt under his directions. In any case, if Ralegh wrote it, he did not write the account of the last fight of the Revenge, which is described as " Penned by Sir Walter Ralegh," the style of the two accounts being entirely different. The latter, however, seems evidently to be the work of Bacon ; compare the introductory remarks about the defeat of the Spanish Armada with Ijacon's, which will be found in Spedding, IJ/e, i. 142 and vii. 489. See Hakluyt (Hakluyt Society), vii. 38 and 105. ^ '6t.t Purchas his Pilip-imes, xvi. 13-17; Hakluyt, vii. 105-1 18 (Hakluyt Society). Ralegh complained that Cumberland had a profit of ^^i 7,000, while he, who had adventured for the Queen, was a loser. Edwards, i. 157. xvn THE '" FOWRE HYMNES" 507 The Fowre Hynines present some points of interest in connection with this inquiry, but as I have already alluded to them incidentally I will confine myself here to a brief note. The two first might from their style readily be identified as the work of a very young writer, and there is no reason therefore to doubt that they were composed, as the author states, " in the greener times of my youth." The Shepheards Calender appeared when Spenser was about twenty-seven or twenty-eight, and it is evident that these poems were not written before it. The expression above quoted is therefore quite inapplicable to the supposed author at that time. It is, moreover, unnatural that a man of Spenser's origin and early experiences should, in one of his first poetical efforts, have written the following couplet : For all that faire is, is by nature good ; That is a signe to know the gentle blood.^ At the time when the second pair of hymns were presumably composed (1596) Spenser was (according to the accepted dates) forty-four years old. The reader is invited to refer to the early pages of this book for his story, and then to consider the phenomenon of the following lines from the pen of such a man at that, or indeed at any other, time of his life : Many lewd layes (ah, woe is n\e the more ! ) In praise of that mad fit which fooles call love, I have in th' heat of youth made heretofore, That in light wits did loose affection move ; But all those follies now I do reprove. And turned have the tenor of my string. The heavenly prayses of true love to sing. • An Hyiiuie in Honour of Beautie. Compare with this the sentiment of the following stanza from the Faerie Qiieene (II. iv. i) : " In brave poursuitt of honorable deed, There is I know not (what) great difference Betweene the vulgar and the noble seed, Which unto things of valorous pretence Scemes to be borne by native influence ; As feates of armes, and love to entertaine : But chiefly skill to ride seemes a science Proper to gentle blood : some others faine To menage steeds, as did this vauntcr, but in vaine." 5o8 SPE.VSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CH. xvii And ye that wont with greedie vaine desire To reade my fault, and, wondring at my flame. To warme your selves at my wide sparckling fire, Sith now that heat is quenched, quench my blame, And in her ashes shrowd my dying shame ; For who my passed follies now pursewes, Beginnes his owne, and my old fault renewes. An Hymtte of Heavenly Love. There is nothing answering to this description in Spenser's poems, even after due allowance has been made for exaggeration under the mood of reaction, real or assumed, from worldly preoccupations ; and though it might be suggested that the passage is a literary artifice for the introduction of the alternative hymns, this does not satisfactorily account for the lines. They refer, in my belief, to pieces which appeared from time to time under other names. CHAPTER XVIII SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF BACON 1 HAVE now completed my survey, for the purpose of this work, of Spenser's poems, and I will supplement it with a few notes relating to Bacon's habits and personal characteristics. Bacon had a fondness for colour and display, which, considering the greatness of his intellectual powers, must be regarded as abnormal. It is reported, for instance, that when he married, at the mature age of forty-five, " he was clad from top to toe in purple, and hath made himself and his wife such store of fine raiments of cloth of silver and gold that it draws deep into her portion." ^ Aubrey's description also of the house, a summer fancy, which he built himself in the grounds of Gorhambury (known as " Verulam house"), and of his fish ponds, gardens, etc., is evidence of similar peculiarities of taste. This house must have been a very curious structure, with its pictorial representations on the outside walls of Jupiter and other "gods of the Gentiles" glittering in the sun.^ Aubrey says that Sir Harbottle Grimston sold it about 1665 "to two carpenters for fower hundred poundes ; of which they made eight hundred poundes," and that it cost " nine or ten thousand the building." According to Aubrey also, "this Oct. 1681, it rang over 1 Carleton to Chamberlain, nth April l6o6, cited by Spedding, Life, iii. 291. 2 " On the dores of the upper stone on the outside (which were painted darke umber) were the figures of the gods of the Gentiles . . . bigger than the life . . . the heightnings were of hatchings of gold, which when the sun shone on them made a most glorious shew." — Aubrey, Brief Lives, ed. Andrew Clark, 1898. 509 5IO SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. all St, Albans " that the same Sir Harbottle, then Master of the Rolls, " had removed the coffin of this most renowned Lord Chancellour to make roome for his owne to lye-in in the vault there at St. Michael's church " ; and later, according to Camden's Britannia, brought up to date by Richard Gough in 1789, a further annihilation of this strange man's earthly habitat took place through the action of a successor of the same name. I quote the paragraph in full as it is interesting, though I cannot vouch for its accuracy : Gorhambury was granted by Henry VIII. to Sir Nicholas Bacon, who was lord keeper to Elizabeth, and here his second son sir Francis built, lived and studied. On his disgrace he conveyed it to sir Thomas Meautys, who had been his secretary, and whose kinsman and heir sold it to sir Harbottle Grimston, master of the Rolls, whose grandson left it to William Luckyn, his sister's son, who took the name of Grimston. His second son William was created viscount Grimston 17 19, and dying 1756, was succeeded by his son James, and he 1773 by his son Harbottle, third and present lord. The house taken down by its present owner, though his grandfather preserved it in its original state, with lord Bacon's study, a venerable long gallery over a cloister, out of reverence for the founder, contained a good collection of portraits and busts of the Bacon family and their contemporaries, and of the Grimstons. A new house is just finished not far from the old site. We read also in Aubrey's account about the many attractions of the gardens and grounds, and of variegated pebbles and figured work with which the floors of the fish ponds, " which I guesse doe containe four acres," were paved. The account finds confirmation in Bacon's essay on " Gardens," which, with the companion piece on " Building," reflects perhaps more than any of his acknowledged writings the vision of earthly beauty into which reality was sublimated in the processes of his imagination. From this point of view there is one item in Aubrey's notes of peculiar interest : In the middle of the middlemost pond, in the island, is a curious banquetting-house of Roman architecture, paved with xviii SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF BACON 511 black and white marble ; covered with Cornish slate and neatly wainscotted. Among Bacon's private memoranda on all sorts of subjects, which were collected by him in 1608 under the title Coinentaruis Solutiis, appear the following notes, which apparently represent the dream of which the fore- going was the reality : In y*" Middle of the laque where the howse now stands to make an Hand of 100 broad ; and in the Middle thereof to build a howse for freshnes with an upper galery open upon the water, a tarace above that, and a supping roome open under that ; a dynyng roome, a bedd chamber, a Cabanett, and a Roome for Musike, a garden ; In this Grownd to make one waulk between trees ; The galeries to cost Northwards ; Nothing to be planted hear but of choyse. To sett in fitt places Hands more. An Hand where the fayre hornbeam standes with a stand in it and seats under Neath. An Hand with Rock. An Hand with a Grott. An Hand Mounted w'*^ flowres in ascents. An Hand paved and with picture. Every of the Hands to have a fayre Image to keepe it, Tryten or Nymph etc. An Hand \s^^ an arbor of Musk roses sett all w''' double violetts for sent in Autumn, some gilovers w'^'^ likewise dispers sent. A fayre bridg to y^ AHddle great Hand onelv, y^ rest by bote.^ As a man dealing with men I believe that Bacon was ineffective.^ Several causes might be suggested for this, — a certain timidity and softness of disposition, lack of individuality, dispersal of the sympathies, sensitiveness to impressions, and so forth. But there was another cause which was probably more than usually operative in Bacon's case. The mind of man is constituted to deal ' Spedding, Life, iv. 76. ■^ Tobie Matthew's well-known estimate of Bacon's powers suggests, by the limiting words at the end, that his practical qualities were not equal to his intellectual ones : " He was a creature of incomparable abilities of mind . . . large and sprouting invention . . . deep and solid judgment, for as much as might concern the understanding part,'' etc. 512 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. with the particular and immediate. Were it otherwise, the work of the world, which consists mainly in coping with necessities, would not be done. The number of those who are capable of grasping a general conception, let alone of constructing one from the facts of observation, is relatively very small. Such people are at a certain disadvantage in the ordinary fields of activity, and the supereminence of Bacon in this faculty isolated him in mind from his fellow-creatures. To influence, and to please in order to influence, he was perpetually trying to adjust himself to their point of vievv^, and what they said and did instinctively and by natural adaptability to their circumstances he attempted by art and elabora- tion. This, coupled with a phenomenal exuberance of imagination and passion for distinction, resulted in unfamiliar modes of expression, which, no doubt, failed to carry conviction. There is a good illustration of this in a letter to Anthony Bacon from a young lawyer of Gray's Inn on the impression produced by Francis Bacon when, at the age of thirty-three, he made his first pleading in the King's Bench. The letter is somewhat in the affected style which Hamlet ridicules. Henry Gosnold, however, the writer of the letter, after enthusi- astic praise of Bacon's performance, enters a shrewd caveat in the following remark : Certain sentences of his, somewhat obscure, and as it were presuming upon their capacities, will I fear make some of them rather admire than commend him.^ Bacon himself evidently realised, or at least came to realise, that he was not on sure ground in the ordinary intercourse of business, for there is a note by him in the Conientarius Solutus for the correction of his style at the " Counsell table " : To free my self at once from payt of formality and complem' though w'^ some shew of carelessness pride and rudeness. With this there are others in a similar train of thought : • Spedding, Life, i. 268. XVIII SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF BACON 513 To suppress at once my speaking w'*' panting and labor of breath and voyce. Not to fall upon the mayne to soudayne but to induce and intermingle speach of good fashon. To use at once upon entrance gyven of Speach though abrupt to compose and drawe in my self. — Life^ iv, 94. These seem to me to be the notes of a man who is setting himself deliberately to adopt the style of others, distrusting his own. They also indicate a nervousness which arises from excess of sensibility, and perhaps a tend- ency, as soon as it is overcome, to be carried by excess of confidence beyond the measure which is acceptable to others who value their own opinions. It will be observed that the foregoing notes are for the Council, not for parliamentary speaking. In Parliament it is generally supposed that Bacon carried great weight as a speaker, an impression which has been derived mainly from Ben Jonson's remarks on the subject in his collection of notes called " Timber ; or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter," which he left behind him in manuscript at his death in 1637. Jonson's note (which is given below ^) had for long been a great puzzle to me, in view of Bacon's own memoranda quoted in the previous paragraph, and of the impressions which I had derived from a study of his life and writings. There is, for instance, no evidence in the records of the time that Bacon " commanded where he spoke." No man who had such a power would have had such frequent recourse to his pen. He relies on it on all occasions, even on critical ones, when the event would be influenced far * " Dominus Venilamitis. One, though he be excellent and the chief, is not to be imitated alone ; for never no imitator ever grew uji to his author ; likeness is always on this side truth. Vet there happened in my time one noble speaker, who was full of gravity in his speaking. His language, where he could spare or pass by a jest, was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of his speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough, or look aside from him, without loss. He commanded where he spoke, and had his judges angrj- and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heanl him was lest he should make an end." 2 L 514 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. more by personal impression through the force of speech than by any written exposition. Bacon, however, in- variably prefers the latter method, and he seems to place a reliance on it which, for a man accustomed to affairs, is extraordinary. The reason evidently is that it was here that he felt his strength lay. The specimens of his parliamentary oratory which have been collected by Spedding are impressive, as all Bacon's writings are, for their resource and power of handling and illustrating a subject, but a speech in writing is a literary production, a different thing from a speech in utterance. As a speaker in Parliament Bacon appears to have shown eloquence and grace far beyond the standard of con- temporary oratory ; but apart from the pleasure given at the moment, there is no evidence that he possessed any influence corresponding to his abilities, which were universally recognised, or indeed any exceptional influence over Parliament as a body. His real success lay in a different direction, namely in Committee and Conference, where his ready pen, great memory and sense of order, coupled with the power of putting himself in the place of other men, made his services as the " Reporter " of the speeches in constant, and at times oppressive, demand, and where his wisdom and conciliatory disposition found full scope in reconciling conflicting elements.^ I had concluded therefore that there was something which had yet to be explained about Ben Jonson's note, and I was not surprised, though greatly interested, to find in an annotated edition of Ben Jonson's Timber by Professor F. E. Schelling, published in the United States in 1892,^ that this passage is practically a translation from Seneca. " The original," writes the editor, " will be found almost entire in the elder Seneca's description of the eloquence of Severus Cassius, an orator and satirical writer under Augustus and Tiberius," and he quotes the passage. Equally important is the fact mentioned in the same ' For an example of Bacon's power in this department see Spedding, Life, iii. 347 sq. 2 Ginn and Co., Boston, U.S.A. XVIII SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF BACON 515 writer's notes that the passage in which Jonson pays the identical tribute to Bacon which he pays to Shake- speare in his poetical address prefixed to the first folio of 1623 is also imitated from Seneca, as follows : quidquid Romana facundia habet quod insolenti Graeciae aut opponat aut praeferat circa Ciceronem effloruit ; omnia ingenia quae lucem studiis nostris adtulerunt tunc nata sunt. In deterius deinde quotidie data res est. . . } Similarly, though apparently to a less extent, Jonson has adapted Seneca in his description of Shakespeare : " Tanta erat illi velocitas orationis, ut vitium fieret. Itaque divus Augustus optime dixit : ' Haterius noster sufFlami- nandus est.' " ^ Mr. Schelling refers to the passage about Bacon's eloquence as " really little more than an applica- tion of classical lore to contemporary men and conditions," but this hardly seems an adequate description. In that particular instance at any rate there are good reasons, as I have explained, for doubting the accuracy of Jonson's statement, and, as regards any notes constructed on such lines, it is obvious that they cannot be relied upon as biography. Jonson, however, does not say that they are biography. My conclusion is that these notes on Bacon ' The passage in Jonson's Timber is as follows : " Scriptorum catalogus. Cicero is said to be the only wit that the people of Rome had equalled to their empire. Ingenium par imperio. We have had many, and in their several ages (to take but the former seculuiit) sir Thomas More, . . . Lord Egerton, the Chancellor, a grave and great orator, and best when he was provoked. But his learned and able (though unfortunate) successor, is he who hath filled up all numbers, and performed that in our tongue, which may be compared or preferred either to insolent Greece or haughty Rome. In short, within his view, and about his times, were all the wits born, that could honour a language or help study. Now things daily fall, wits grow downward, and eloquence grows backward ; so that he may be named and stand as the mark and okactj of our language." The lines in the first folio of Shakespeare are : Leave thee alone, for the comparison Of all that insolent Greece or haughty Rome Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. * The corresponding passage in Jonson is as follows : " Z>tf Shakespeare tiostrat. — Augustus in Hat. — . . He . . . had an excellent phantasy, brave notions, and gentle expressions, wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped. Sufflatninandus erat, as Augustus said of Haterius." 5i6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. represent an effort to place him, as a man for whom (latterly at any rate) Jonson entertained great admiration and reverence, in a better light with posterity than that in which he stood towards his own generation ; that, in short, they are material for works of art, founded on, but not strictly adhering to, fact, and constructed with all the care which Jonson knew how to bestow on his writings/ Of the admiration evoked by Bacon's conversational powers there is plenty of evidence. Perhaps the account, from which I give an extract, in A. Wilson's Life and Reign of King fames I. (Kennett's History) is as interesting as any, from the fact that he was the friend and companion of the third Earl of Essex, the son of Elizabeth's favourite. The passage also contains an account of Bacon's appearance, which corresponds with that given in the New Atlantis^ and a reference to his defects and fall : He was of a middling Stature ; his Countenance was indented with Age before he was old ; his Presence grave and comely ; of a high-flying and lively Wit, striving in some things to be rather admir'd than understood ; yet so quick and easy where he would express himself, and his Memory so strong and active, that he appear'd the Master of a large and plenteous Store-house of knowledge, being (as it were) Natures Midwife, stripping her Callow Brood, and cloathing them in new Attire. His Wit was quick to the last. ... In fine he was a fit Jewel to have beauti- fied and adorned a flourishing Kingdom, if his Flaws had not disgraced the Lustre that should have set him off. It has been suggested that, during the latter period of Bacon's life, Jonson was employed by him in a literary capacity. The poem addressed by Jonson to Bacon on his sixtieth birthday contains evidence of this, for the scene is placed in York House, and the relationship of master and servant is indicated in the lines : This is the sixtieth yeare Since Bacon, and my lord, was borne. The expression " his lord " is used in a similar way by Aubrey in a note relating to the early days of Thomas ' There was probably also a patriotic motive. " See p. 103 above. XVIII SOME CHARACTERISTICS OF BACON 517 Hobbes/ when he was in the service of one of the Earls of Devonshire : In his youth he was unhealthy. . . . His lord, who was a waster, sent him up and down to borrow money, and to gett gentlemen to be bound for him, being ashamed to speake him selfe : he tooke colds, being wett in his feet (then were no hackney coaches to stand in the streetes), and trod both his shoes aside the same way. Notwithstanding he was well be- loved. Tliey lov'd his company for his pleasant facetiousnes and good-nature. This is instructive as showing what the relations were, though in a general way a scholar's life in a great house- hold in those days was probably favourable for study and observation. Aubrey apparently did not contemplate the publication of this, for he has a marginal note in the MS., " This only inter nos." - A pleasanter, though possibly more idealised portrait occurs, in the same " Life," of Hobbes, when employed as a servant to Bacon ^ : The Lord Chancellour Bacon loved to converse with him. He assisted his lordship in translating severall of his Essayes into Latin, one, I well remember, is that Of the Greatties of Cities : the rest I have forgott. His lordship was a very contemplative person, and was wont to contemplate in his delicious walkes at Gorhambery, and dictate to Mr. Thomas Bushell, or some other of his gentlemen, that attended him with inke and paper ready to sett downe presently his thoughts. His lordship would often say that he better liked Mr. Hobbes taking his thoughts then any of the other, because he understood what he wrote, which the others not understanding, my Lord would many times have a hard taske to make sense of what they writt. The relations between Bacon and Ben Jonson would, if he was in Bacon's household, be on similar lines, and Bacon's rank and affluence at that time, and his position in the State, would naturally command great respect. But apart from this, Bacon's personal qualities compelled admiration, and the well-known testimony of Jonson as to Bacon's attitude in adversity suggests that he may have been 1 Author of the Z«'/a///(Jw, etc., 1588- 1679. 2 Brie/ lives, cd. Andrew Clark, 1S98. 3 "■ This, I beleeve, was after his first lord's death." — Note by Aubrey. 5i8 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. among the " good pens which forsake me not,"^ that is after Bacon's fall. The note (from Jonson's Timber') is as follows: My conceit of his person was never increased toward him by his place or honors. But I have and do reverence him for the greatness that was only proper to himself, in that he seemed to me ever, by his work, one of the greatest men, and most worthy of admiration that had been in many ages. In his adversity I ever prayed that God would give him strength ; for greatness he could not want. Neither could I condole in a word or syllable for him, as knowing no accident could do harm to virtue, but rather help to make it manifest. This testimony receives confirmation from such accounts as that of Bacon's apothecary, Peter Boener : " he was always the same both in sorrow and in joy." ^ Further evidence that Ben Jonson was one of Bacon's " pens " is found in a passage in Archbishop Tenison's Baconiana (1679): "The Latine translation [of the Essays] was a work performed by divers hands ; by those of . . . Mr. Benjamin Jonson (the learned and judicious poet) and some others whose names I cannot now recall." The introduction of Bacon and Jonson in the ephemeral piece, " The Great Assises holden in Parnassus by Apollo and his Assessours," 1 644, which has been cited as evidence of a literary connection between the two men, carries, in my opinion, no such meaning.^ Posthumous tributes, no doubt, cannot be taken absolutely literally ; they represent a general estimate. Bacon's correspondence shows evidence of keen distress, exasperation, etc., from time to time. But it seems quite clear that he had a wonderfully sanguine disposition, and that his mind quickly reverted to its normal condition of serenity and hopefulness. The calmness with which, after the first shock, he bore his disgrace and punishment seems to have offended some. Thus when he left London for Gorhambury under his sentence of banishment, within a month of his release from the Tower, Chamberlain • Letter to Tobie Matthew of June 1623 {Life^ vii. 429). ^ .Spedding, Life, vii. 525. ' Jonson's expression, however, " my l Did. Nat. Piogr., art. " Sir Thomas Wilson." XIX " VIEW OF THE STATE OF IRELAND" 569 been made by them that it should be dressed up, so as to appear to come from the same source, by the adoption of the names of Spenser's sons (Spenser himself being dead). The paper, on being presented by Essex to the Queen, would take the same course as the previous one, and tend to strengthen it and reinforce the policy therein advocated. I find no trace, however, of Bacon's hand in any part of the composition. Grosart states, as the result of his researches, that Spenser's widow was married again to one Roger Seckerstone between 1601 and 1603, and that a petition of Sylvanus Spenser, the eldest son, was addressed to the Chancellor of Ireland in 1603 against the seizure by his mother and her new husband of Kilcolman and other lands belonging to his father, Edmund Spenser.^ He observes that " Sylvanus Spenser could not have been born sooner than 1595 (the marriage iith June 1594), and thus in 1603 was only in his ninth year, and hence others, not himself, acting herein." He also gives, from the Exchequer Records, another instance of litigation by him, "of course through his advisers," in 1605. But there is nothing in the cases quoted to show that he was not acting in person ; quite the contrary ; and the situation suggested, if the children were infants, is improbable and unnatural. If, however, the eldest son had been left in England, and had grown up there, the action of the widow becomes intelligible.'"^ I must say a word, in conclusion, as to Spenser's petition to the Queen, which Dr. Grosart produced from the Record Oi^ce ( Works of Spenser, i. App. V.). The most remarkable feature of this document, in contradis- tinction with the " advocacy " of the Vieiv, is the fairness of statement, even in the terrible situation in which the writer finds himself. He writes not from the point of view of the central Government, but from that of the ' Works 0/ Spenser, i. 554 sq. 2 See further on this question in Chapter XIV. 570 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. colonists, by whom, he says, all its mistakes were expiated.^ He recounts the invasion of Munster by Tyrone's troops, and the consequent rising, by which they had lost everything, and their wives and children, who had escaped, were begging in the streets of the port towns, reviled by the common people, and he says that " the first cause and Roote thereof was the indirect desire of one psons privat gaine to whom yo"^ Ma"^ comitted this unfortunat goum'." It was " wrought by most inuste and dishonorable meanes. For after that he had receaved A. B. into y"" faith and pteccon pmssing him to make him M'Mahon for lOO beefes, afterwards whereas an other of his kinsmen offerred 300 he uniustly tooke and honge him and in stede invested the other." Whereat the other Irish chiefs being terrified, they applied to Tyrone, who " begann to finde greuance at the gounm* (as in deede under correction meseemes some cause he had)." " He then expresses the opinion that Tyrone should have been allowed to come to England to state his case ; but that even as it was matters might have been so arranged as that he might have been contained in reasonable terms. Also when he broke forth openly he was faintly prosecuted owing to divisions between Russell and Norris ; the latter of whom, as some thought, acted in this way " to obtaine the absolute gounm' to him selfe." The death of Burrows, who succeeded Russell, and divisions in the Council had brought things to the present pass, the object of the Irish now being entirely to shake off the English yoke. " And even now the vennyme is crept upp hither into this Prouince of Mounster which hath hitherto continued in reasonable good quietnes. The w^*^ nowe so much as it was lately [less] euill then the rest so much is it nowe worse then all the rest." He proceeds to say that people would hardly believe such a thing could have come about without their having had a ' The opening words of the Petition are quoted at p. 42 above. "^ This occurred in 1589, and the person referred to is Sir William Fitzwilliam, who succeeded Perrot. He utterly denied the charge of corruption, and the other side of the case can be read in Bagwell's Ireland under the Tudor s, iii. 201-203. XIX " VIEW OF THE STATE OF IRELAND" 571 chance of striking a blow in self-defence/ and " therefore it is nott a misse to consider by what meanes and euill occasions all this mischeefe is happened ; the rather for the better redressing thereof and avoyding the like hereafter." He lays it down that the Irish will not take example for civilisation from the English settlers among them ; firstly, because " to be brought into anie better order they accompte it to be restrained of theire libertie and extreame wretchednes " ; secondly, "because they naturallie hate the English," because they have been conquered by them, " so that theire fashons they also hate." He concludes that it would not have been right to root them out (" that were to bloudie a course "), but that they should have been disarmed, and strong garrisons set over them, to be maintained by themselves. It would have cost no more than the existing adminis- tration of Munster, which he implies was wasteful and extortionate, and people would have been content, as knowing what they had to pay. " But in the meane season wee poore wreches w*^^ now beare the burden of all oversight, power out o"^ moste humble and pittiouse plainte unto yo"" moste excellent Ma"^ that it may please you to caste yo"^ graciouse minde unto the cairfull regarde of o"" miseries ; w^^' being quite banished out of o"^ inhabi- tace and the lands vpon w*^*" wee haue spent all the small porcon of o"" abilities in building and erecting such traides of husbandries as wee haue betaken, haue nowe nothing left but to crye unto you for tymelie aide before wee be brought to vtter distruction and o' wreched Hues (w*^*^ onelie now remaine vnto us) be made the pray of doggs and sauage wilde beastes." He then calls upon the Queen to adopt a firm policy, so as to redeem her and their honour, and put an end once for all to the continual drain of men and treasure ; or, failing that, to call the surviving settlers away, " that at least we may die in o"' * " Truly to think that a Countrie so rich, so well peopled, so firmlie fenced and fortified, with so manie stronge Castles, with manie faire walled townes . . . should be suddeinlie wunne . . . it is . . . hardlie to be beleeved of man," 572 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CH.Xix Countrie and not see the horrable calamities which will thereby come vpon all this land." It will be observed that the attitude towards the Irish authorities of the writer of this Petition is not the same as that of the writer of the View, and the style of the two documents is entirely different. They agree as to the natural hatred of the Irish for any form of control, and the impossibility, at that stage, of retaining them under the government of England except by the strong hand. But that was the universal opinion, and in this feature the Irish were probably not different from other races, who however, in the western world, owing to a less sheltered geographical situation, had been consolidated by external forces at an earlier period. Spenser's petition concludes with a document setting out, in official form, " Certaine points to be considered of in the recouery of the Realme of Ireland." It is interest- ing as evidence of his official training, and of the care which was evidently bestowed on such papers in those days, with a view to setting out a question requiring an immediate decision in a form in which it could be readily apprehended with the arguments. That, at least, was the idea of the form used. The best-known examples of it are in Burghley's memoranda, which were probably models for others ; and there is another in Secretary Davison's letter on travel, referred to at p. 191 above. While these pages were in the press there was published a very interesting book entitled Gabriel Hai-vey's Marginalia, collected and edited by Professor G. C. Moore Smith. From a note in one of Harvey's books it appears that in 1578 Spenser was secretary to the Bishop of Rochester. The note is as follows : " Ex done Edmundi Spenserij, Episcopi Roffensis Secretarij. 1578." CHAPTER XX "A DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE," BY LODOWICK BRYSKETT I PROPOSE, in conclusion, to give an account of a work which is closely connected with the Spenser tradition, Lodowick Bryskett's Discourse of Civill Life. The book is usually known from the quotation which appears in all the accounts of Spenser, purporting to be a dialogue between Bryskett and Spenser, in the course of which the Faerie Queene is mentioned as in a state of preparation. Bryskett is described in the Dictionary of National Biography as " poet, translator and Irish official," and the writer of the article says that Bryskett " is stated to have been the son of ' a natural Italian,' but of his early life nothing definite is known." This may be true of the Irish official, but it is not true of the author of the " Discourse," because he speaks of himself, in several passages, as an Englishman. As to Bryskett's claims to be a " poet," since they are derived from the two pieces upon the death of Sir Philip Sidney published with Spenser's " Astrophel," he can only be so described in a formal sense. They are very inferior productions, and it is incredible that they can have come from the pen of the author of the " Discourse." The same article gives certain further information, viz. that Bryskett had correspondents in Florence ; that he was a pensioner of Trinity Hall, Cambridge, 1559, but took no degree; in I 57 I was acting as Clerk of the Council in Ireland under Sir Henry Sidney ; was Philip Sidney's companion on his continental tour through Germany, Italy and Poland, 157 2- 1575; in 1577 became Clerk of the Chancery 573 574 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. for the faculties in Ireland, an office in which he was succeeded by Spenser ; afterwards (1582) received from Lord Grey de Wilton the appointment of Clerk to the Munster Council. The article continues : About the same time he made the acquaintance of the poet Spenser, Lord Grey's Secretary, and Spenser relieved the tedium of official life by teaching his new friend Greek. Bryskett remained in Munster for many years. In 1594 he sought to be re-appointed clerk of the Irish Council, but failing to obtain that post he was granted the " clerkship of the casualties " in the following year. ... In 1606 he was reputed to hold large estates in Dublin, Cavan, and Cork. He is stated to have been alive in 1 6 1 1 . This account overlooks certain statements in the " Discourse." The author, for instance, states that he resigned his post owing to the severity of the work. In any case the picture of the " tedium of official life," and of the two government clerks filling up the time by reading Greek (an inference from the Discourse), is surely a very conventional one, hardly suited to those troublous times. Spenser and Bryskett were pushing their fortunes in most corrupt surroundings, and judging by the fore- going account Bryskett did as well for himself as Spenser. Moreover, in the dedicatory letter to the Discourse, which was first published in 1606, Bryskett, or the author of the treatise in his behalf, writes to Robert Cecil, then Earl of Salisbury, expressing his " private obligations for your manifold favours (among which the great benefite of my libertie, and redeeming from a miserable captivitie ever fresh in my remembrance)." The explanation, so far as one can be given, must be sought in the notice of Bryskett in the Letters from Sir Robert Cecil to Sir George Carew, edited by John Maclean, Camden Society, No. 88. Among the " abstracts of letters not of sufficient interest to be printed in extenso " occurs the following: Lamb. MSS. 604, 59. Original. Sir Rob' Cecyll to the Lord President. In behalf of Mr. Bryskett, an ancient servitor of the realm of Ireland, and now employed by her Majesty beyond the seas. He hath an interest in the abbey of Bridge- XX "A DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE " 575 town from her Majesty for many years yet to come. He had bargained with the Lord Roche, and received part of the pay- ment for the same, but his lordship had Aiiled to make good the subsequent payment and had gone into rebeUion ; whereby Bryskett's interest in the abbey had again reverted to him, and he requests that he may be put into possession. From the Court at Whitehall 19 Nov. 1600. Note by the Editor. — Lodowick Bryskett is mentioned in the Irish State Papers as early as 1590. On ist Sept. 1594 the Lord Chancellor of Ireland wrote to Lord Burghley for the stay of the letters procured in favour of Lodowick Bryskett to be Clerk of the Council, Avhich office is already passed to William Uscher. He says " Lodowick Bryskett's father was a natural Italian ; he keeps a continual correspondence with Florence." From this it is evident that the Irish Chancellor regarded him as undesirable on the ground of being an Italian. It may be inferred also that the captivity to which Bryskett alludes in his letter to Cecil of 1606 occurred abroad, and that he was probably made a prisoner of war, or arrested as a spy. The " Discourse " itself throws further light on the author, so clearly indeed that it becomes manifest that he is not the same person as the " ancient servitor of the realm of Ireland," of Italian birth, above described. The work is entitled "A Discourse of Civill Life : containing the Ethike part of Morall Philosophie. Fit for the instructing of a Gentleman in the course of a virtuous life. By Lod: Br. Virtute Suinina : Caetera Fortund} London, 1606." It opens with a short address to Cecil, the style of which has nothing very distinctive about it, and it is immaterial whether it is the work of Bryskett himself or of the author of the treatise, with whom it seems probable he had an understanding. An Address to the Reader follows, in a more distinctive style, in which the following account of the work is given : The booke written first for my private exercise, and meant to be imparted to that honorable personage,^ gui Jiobis haec ofia ' The same motto is placed at the end of the " Pastorall .Kglogue " attributed to Bryskett, which is included in Spenser's works. 2 Lord Grey de Wilton, Lord Deputy, August 1580 to August 15S2 ; died 1593. 576 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. y^«/, hath long layne by me, as not meaning (he being gone), to communicate the same to others. But partly through the per- suasion of friends, and partly by a regard not to burie that which might profit many, I have been drawne to consent to the publishing thereof. We have seen this device before, and it is characteristic ; so also is the following promise to the reader of more to come : As my meaning herein is thy good chiefly : so let thy favour- able censure thankfully acknowledge my labor and goodwil, which may move me to impart after unto thee another treating of the Politike part of Morall Philosophic, which I have likewise prepared to follow this. . . . The question naturally occurs why should Bryskett, who explains that he retired from active work in order to follow literary pursuits, have thought it necessary to keep back his writings, and why, as he " is stated to have been alive in 1611," did he publish nothing more? There is no trace of the further work promised, but I have little doubt that the ideas for it have been absorbed in some of the other works of the real author. It will be remembered that Spenser, at the end of his View of the State of Ireland, similarly announces a further work, and this, in my opinion, as I have already had occasion to notice, was part of this writer's method, in the absence of any other channel of announcement, of advertising his work. The " Discourse " follows, headed " Written to the right Honorable Arthur, late Lord Grey of Wilton : By Lod : Bryskett," with an explanatory introduction. The author recalls to his lordship that " it pleased you upon the decease of maister John Chaloner, her Majesties Secretarie of this State, which you then governed as Lord Deputie of this Realmc, to make choice of me to supply that place " ; that his intention did not take effect, and that he then conferred on Bryskett a still greater favour in granting him " libertie without offence to resigne the office which I had then held seven yeares, as Gierke of this Gouncell, and to withdraw my selfe from that thanklesse toyle to the quietnes of my intermitted studies. . . . And XX "j DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE " 577 therefore being now freed by your Lordships meane from that trouble and disquiet of mind, and enjoying from your speciall favour the swectnesse and contentment of my Muses ; I have thought it the fittest meanes I could devise, to shew my thankfulnes, to offer to you the first fruites that they have yeelded me . . . my translation of these choice grafts and flowers, taken from the Greeke and Latine Philosophic, and ingrafted upon the stocke of our mother English tongue ... so unlocked for a present out of this barbarous countrie of Ireland ... to furnish this our English soile and clime withal." The connection between Bryskett and Spenser comes in here. Spenser was Lord Grey's secretary, and was holding that post when Lord Grey was recalled in August 1582. In March 1581 he obtained from Bryskett by purchase (under a prevailing custom of those times) a clerkship in the Irish Court of Chancery held by the latter. In 1582 it appears that Bryskett obtained from Lord Grey the clerkship of the Munster Council, and sold this post again to Spenser in June 1588, who was by that time, no doubt, in Munster, having resigned his clerkship in Dublin. These facts seem irreconcilable with the above- quoted account of Bryskett's retirement. There are further difficulties of chronology in connection with the suggestion which has been made that the colloquy at Bryskett's house took place at some time either just before or just after Lord Grey's recall. The suggestion overlooks the fact that Long, Primate of Armagh, who is represented as one of the party, was not made Primate until July 1584. As he died in 1589, the date of the colloquy must, if it is genuine, lie between these limits, when, as would appear, Bryskett was engaged in Munster. The determining passage, however, is in the " third day " of the Discourse, where allusion is made to " our late Lord Deputie" and " our present Lord Deputie," and it proceeds: " My Lord Grey hath plowed and harrowed the rough ground to his hand : but you know that he that soweth the seede, whereby we hope for harvest according to the goodnesse of that which is cast into the earth, and the 2 P 578 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. seasonablenesse of times, deserveth no lesse praise then he that manureth the land. God of his goodnesse graunt that when he also hath finished his worke, he may be pleased to send us such another Bayly to oversee and preserve their labours " ; and then follows an allusion to " the quiet of the countrey since the forreine enemie had so bin vanquished, and the domesticall conspiracies dis- covered and met withall, and the rebels cleane rooted out." This passage suggests that by " our present Lord Deputie " Sir John Perrot, who succeeded Lord Grey after two years' government by Lords Justices, is intended. His term of office lasted from June 1584 to June 1588, and on a comparison of the tentative allusion to his government here with the disapproval of it expressed later by the author of the Vieiv} the conclusion seems to follow that the treatise was written in the early part of it (1585 or 1586), before the quarrels, which led to his recall, had reached a head in England. On the other hand, the latter words are much more appropriate as a description of the events in England leading up to the destruction of the Spanish Armada in 1588 than to the events in Ireland in Lord Grey's time, and I think it probable that the allusion is really to them, in which case the date of the treatise is 1588-89. Of the origin of the machinery of the dialogue we are given a clue at p. 31, where Bryskett, in beginning to read his translation, says, " I will omit the introduction of the author to his dialogue ... by which the persons introduced by him are fitted for his purpose ... he hath divided his whole work into three dialogues [the " three days " of the Discourse]. ... I must now presuppose that ye, whom I esteeme to be as those gentle- men introduced by this author, have likewise moved the same questions which they did, to wit, what maner of life a gentleman is to undertake and propose to himself, to attaine to that end in this world, which among wise men hath bene, and is accounted the best." My belief is ' " After whom [the two Lords Justices] Sir John Perrot succeeding (as it were) into another mans harvest, founde an open way to what course he list . . . did trcade downe and disgrace all the English, and sett up and countcnaunce the Irish all that he could." — View, Globe ed. p. 656. XX "A DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE'' 579 that this " colloquy " is fictitious, and that the author's idea in devising it was to give a touch of lightness and human interest to a treatise which otherwise would have appeared too formidable (on his favourite principle, Oinne tulit pjinctuni qui miscuit utile dulci), and that he used the opportunity to bring in Spenser in order to prepare the way for the publication of the Faerie Qucene, being a work with a similar purpose. The first instalment, it will be remembered, appeared in 1590. The intention, however, was for some reason not carried out at the time. Similarly no opportunity seems to have been found until 1592 for publishing the " Harvey " Sonnet, which purports to be dated by Spenser from Dublin on i8th July 1586. A Sonnet addressed to " Lodwick," as to the non-completion of the second portion of the Faerie Queene, appeared among the Amoretti in 1595 (No. 33), which I believe to have had a similar purpose, the second portion following in i 596.^ The phrase in the foregoing extract, " our Mother English tongue," indicates that the author was English, not Italian. The occasion of the " Discourse " is then described : The occasion of the discourse grew by the visitation of certaine gentlemen comming to me to my little cottage which I had newly built neare unto Dublin . . . Among which, Doctor Long, Primate of Ardmagh . . . Captain Thomas Norreis, Captain Warham St. Leger . . . and M. Edmond Spenser, late your Lordships Secretary [and others]. The colloquy follows, and they ask Bryskett why he resigned so good an appointment and withdrew from the service of the State ? He replies, ill-health, desire for study, and the toil was " farre too high a price for the profit " — " so free am I from ambition or covetise." He continues : all the time he spent by his father's direction in study he was employed in the knowledge and principles of " Physicke " (though he never practised it), and had since continued the study of its principles " as well for the use thereof to mine owne behoofe, as for the • Cf. p. 385 above. 58o SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. delightfulnes which the discovery of the secret operations and effects of nature worketh." He defends himself from the charge of selfish inactivity by saying he accepts occasional employment by the State, taking pains " in the increasing of her Majesties revenue by the care I have of her impost . . . travelling in such commissions as the Lord Deputy and Council oft-times direct unto me for the examining of sundrie causes . . . neither doth my endeavour in that behalf any way oppose itself to my desire of retiring from a painefull employment to a more quiet life, which now (I thank God) I enjoy." His aim, he says, is " humane felicitie " ; at which the Lord Primate intervenes with a warning that that " is without, not your reach only, but all mens, whiles they are here in this low and muddie world . . . man's felicity is placed only in heaven, where God of his mercie hath appointed it for him to be found, and not here on earth." Bryskett admits this and excuses himself, alleging that he had used the general word instead of the particular, and his aim was by the " study of Morall Philosophie to compass, so farre forth as my endeavours could prevaile, that humane practicke felicitie which of all men in all ages hath bene so highly esteemed." He " durst not presume to the studie of Divinitie, which (I well under- stood) required a particular calling." This is evidently the author's device for protecting himself in what follows from a charge of unorthodoxy. Bacon was greatly addicted to taking medicine, and his writings show that he made a study of it. " The secret operations and effects of nature " is a typically Baconian phrase. The writer continues that he earnestly desires the shortest way to compass the study of moral philosophy, and would think himself happy if he could find any man whose knowledge and learning might help me to direct my study to that end ; because I know right well how hard it is for a man by his owne labour to search out the ready way to understand those precepts, which have bin set downe in the learned writings of Philosophers that have treated of that matter, XX "^ DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE" 581 especially in the Greeke and Latine tongues, in which it hath been substantially handled. For although I cannot truly pretend ignorance in Latine, in which the workes of Plato and Aristotle are to be read : yet I confesse that I do not find that facilitie in the conceiving of their writings as I could wish, or as the greedi- nesse of my desire to apprehend might overtake. For Plato hath couched his sense thereof so dispersedly in his dialogues, as I think he must be a man of great learning and exact judgement that shall picke them out, and sever them from the other parts of Philosophic, which he indeed most divinely discourseth upon. And Aristotle is not to me so cleare nor so easily understood without deepe study, as my meane capacitie would require ; especially without the interpretation of some better scholer than myselfe. And herein do I greatly envie the happinesse of the Itahans, who have in their mother-tongue late writers that have with a singular easie method taught all that which Plato or Aristotle have confusedly or obscurely left written. Of which, some I have begun to reade with no small delight, as Alexatider Piccolomini, Gio. Baptista Giraldi, and Guazzo, all three having written upon the Ethick part of Morall Philosopie both exactly and perspicuously. And would to God that some of our countrimen ^ would shew themselves so wel affected to the good of their countrie (whereof one principall and most important part consisteth in the instructing of men to vertue) as to set downe in English the precepts of those parts of Morall Philosophy, whereby our youth might without spending of so much time, as the learning of those other languages require, speedily enter into the right course of vertuous life. In the meane while I must struggle with those bookes which I understand. . . . It is quite clear, to my mind, from this remarkable passage, and from the general substance of the book, that the profession of inability is a pretence, made in order to sustain the character under which the author is writing. Only a man who had some acquaintance with the originals, and was of exceptional independence of mind, could have presumed to pass a judgment of this sort on writers of such authority as Plato and Aristotle. A similar confidence of judgment in dealing with the philosophic thought of antiquity is found throughout the book. Many passages occur in Bacon's acknowledged works ' Note ayain that the writer expresses himself as an Englishman. 582 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. in which this quarrel with the ancients, and especially with Aristotle, finds expression ; but there is one passage in the Advancement of Learning -which, contains the same charge of obscurity and confusion as in the foregoing extract, and follows in other respects the lines of Bryskett's " Discourse." Bacon is dealing with the question of the " nature of good," and mentions the " infinite disputations which were touching the supreme degree thereof, which they term felicity, beatitude, or the highest good." These, he says, are " by the Christian faith discharged," and he proceeds : Freed therefore and delivered from this doctrine of the philo- sophers heaven, whereby they feigned an higher elevation of man's nature than was ... we may with more sobriety and truth receive the rest of their inquiries and labours : wherein for the nature of good, positive or simple, they have set it down excellently, in describing the forms of virtue and duty, with their situations and postures, in distributing them into their kinds, parts, provinces, actions, and administrations, and the like ; nay farther, they have commended them to man's nature and spirit with great quickness of argument and beauty of persuasions ; yea, and fortified and entrenched them (as much as discourse can do) against corrupt and popular opinions. Again, for the degrees and comparative nature of good, they have also excellently handled it in their triplicity of good ; in the comparisons between a contemplative and an active life ; in the distinction between virtue with reluctation, and virtue secured ; in their encounters between honesty and profit ; in their balancing of virtue with virtue, and the like ; so as this part deserveth to be reported for excellently laboured. Notwithstanding if before they had come to the popular and received notions of virtue and vice, pleasure and pain, and the rest, they had stayed a little longer upon the inquiry concerning the roots of good and evil, and the strings of those roots, they had given, in my opinion, a great light to that which followed ; and specially if they had consulted with nature, they had made their doctrines less prolix and more profound : which being by them in part omitted and in part handled with much confusion, we will endeavour to resume and open in a more clear manner. There follows the passage about Spenser and the Faerie Qi/eene, to which I have alluded above : Yet is there a gentleman in this company, whom I have had XX "^ DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE'' 583 often a purpose to intreate, that as his leisure might serue him, he would vouchsafe to spend some time with me to instruct me in some hard points which I cannot of myselfe understand ; knowing him to be not onely perfect in the Greek tongue, but also very well read in Philosophic, both morall and natural). Neuertheless such is my bashfulnes, as I neuer yet durst open my mouth to disclose this my desire unto him, though I have not wanted some hartning thereunto from himselfe. For of his loue and kindnes to me, he encouraged me long sithens to follow the reading of the Greeke tongue, and offered me his helpe to make me vnderstand it. But now that so good an oportunitie is offered vnto me, to satisfie in some sort my desire ; I thinke I should commit a great fault, not to myselfe alone, but to all this company, if I should not enter my request thus farre, as to moue him to spend this time which we have now destined to familiar discourse and conuersation, in declaring unto us the great benefits which men obtaine by the knowledge of Morall Philosophic, and in making us to know what the same is, what be the parts thereof, whereby vertues are to be distinguished from vices ; and finally that he will be pleased to run ouer in such order as he shall thinke good, such and so many principles and rules thereof, as shall serue not only for my better instruction, but also for the contentment and satisfaction of you al. For I nothing doubt, but that euery one of you will be glad to heare so profitable a discourse, and thinke the time very wel spent wherin so excellent a knowledge shal be reuealed unto you, from which euery one may be assured to gather some fruit as wel as myselfe. Therefore (said I) turning myselfe to J/. Spe?iser, It is you sir, to whom it pertaineth to shew yourselfe courteous now unto us all, and to make vs all beholding unto you for the pleasure and profit which we shall gather from your speeches, if you shall vouchsafe to open unto vs the goodly cabinet, in which this excellent treasure of vertues lieth locked up from the vulgar sort. And thereof in the behalfe of all as for myselfe, I do most earnestly intreate you not to say vs nay. Vnto which wordes of mine euery man applauding most with like words of request, and the rest with gesture and countenances expressing as much, M. Spenser answered in this maner. Though it may seeme hard for me, to refuse the request made by you all, whom, euery one alone, I should for many respects be willing to gratifie ; yet as the case standeth, I doubt not but with the consent of the most part of you, I shall be excused at this time of this taske which would be laid vpon me. For sure I am, that it is not vnknowne unto you, that I haue alreedy vndertaken a work tending to the same effect, which is in heroical verse, vnder the title of a Faerie Queene, to represent all 584 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. the moral vertues, assigning to euery vertue a Knight to be the patron and defender of the same, in whose actions and feates of arms and chiualry the operations of that vertue, whereof he is the protector, are to be expressed, and the vices and unruly appetites that oppose themselues against the same, to be beaten down and ouercome. Which work, as I haue already well entred into, if God shall please to spare me life that I may finish it according to my mind, your wish (J/. Brysketi) will be in some sort ac- complished, though perhaps not so effectually as you could desire. And the same may very well serue for my excuse, if at this time I craue to be forborne in this your request, since any discourse, that I might make thus on the sudden in such a subject would be but simple, and little to your satisfactions. For it would require good aduisement and premeditation for any man to vndertake the declaration of these points that you have proposed, containing in effect the Ethicke part of Morall Philosophic. Whereof since I haue taken in hand to discourse at large in my poeme before spoken, I hope the expectation of that work may serue to free me at this time from speaking in that matter, not- withstanding your motion and all your intreaties. But I will tell you how I thinke by himselfe he may very well excuse my speech, and yet satisfie all you in this matter. I haue scene (as he knoweth) a translation made by himselfe out of the Italian tongue of a dialogue comprehending all the Ethick part of Moral Philosophy, wTitten by one of those three he formerly mentioned, and that is by Giraldi, vnder the title of a dialogue of ciuil life. If it please him to bring us forth that translation to be here read among vs, or otherwise to deliuer to us, as his memory may serue him, the contents of the same ; he shal (I warrant you) satisfie you all at the ful, and himselfe wil haue no cause but to thinke the time well spent in reuiewing his labors, especially in the company of so many his friends, who may there- by reape much profit, and the translation happily fare the better by some mending it may receiue in the perusing, as all writings else may do by the often examination of the same. Neither let it trouble him that 1 so turne ouer to him againe the taske he wold haue put me to ; for it falleth out fit for him to verifie the principall of all this Apologie, euen now made for himselfe ; because thereby it will appeare that he hath not withdrawne himselfe from seruice of the State, to liue idle or wholly prinate to himselfe, but hath spent some time in doing that which may greatly benefit others, and hath serued not a little to the better- ing of his owne mind, and increasing of his knowledge, though he for modesty pretend much ignorance, and pleade want in wealth, much like some rich beggars, who either of custom, or XX "^ DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE " 585 for couetousnes, go to begge of others those things whereof they haue no want at home. With this answer of Al. Spensers it seemed that all the company were wel satisfied, for after some few speeches whereby they had shewed an extreme longing after his worke of the Fairie Queene, whereof some parcels had been by some of them scene, they all began to presse me to produce my translation mentioned by M. Spenser, that it might be perused among them ; or else that I should (as near as I could) deliuer unto them the contents of the same, supposing that my memory would not much faile me in a thing so studied and aduisedly set downe in writing as a translation must be.^ Bryskett then proceeds to read his translation, which is interspersed with interruptions, and observations in reply by the author in his own person, which show wide knowledge and classical reading. He explains here and at the end of the book that he has used freedom in dealing with his original, omitting some things and adding others. In other words, he has constructed a treatise which represents his own philosophic views, and they are those which will be found in Bacon's acknowledged works. They are also couched in his style, with that attractiveness of style and sense of authority which is the special feature of his work in the region of intellectual thought. The following extracts, with comments, are given in order to illustrate this view : Of the child : . . . expedient that care be had to make him conceive a knowledge of that simple, pure and omnipotent nature, the most high and ever-living God. . . . For he that is void of religion, and of that feare of God, which is in effect but a due reverence unto his Majesty, can never in all the whole course of his life do anything worthy prayse or commendation. We have already noted a similar habit of referring to the Deity by Spenser and Bacon. There is a passage in the " second day " of unusual interest, in which it seems to me probable that Bacon is ' The "u" used for " v " in the original has heen retained in this extract. 586 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. giving an account of his early education. The passage has no point unless it is autobiographical, and regard being had to the facts ascertained about Bryskett the Irish ofificial (as noted above), it obviously cannot apply to him. On the other hand, it would apply in every particular to the circumstances of Francis Bacon. To a remark of Sir Robert Dillon, that the advance- ment of the child depended much on the care and diligence of the parents, Bryskett replies : That is (said I) most true, and I can verifie it in myself; for such was my fathers care (who not only in the education of his children, but also in the ordering of his household, was second to no man of his degree that ever I knew) as before I was full five yeares of age, I had gone through mine Accidence, and was sent to schoole to Tunbridge, 20 miles from London, and if either the aire of the place, or some other disposition of my body had not hindered my health by a quartaine ague that tooke me there, I might have bin a forward scholer in my grammer at 6 yeres old, and have bin ready to have accompanied my learning with those corporall exercises which by some are set downe as fit to be used by children betweene the yeares of five and ten, as well to harden their bodies and to make them apt for the wars (if their disposition be thereunto) as for health. But by that unhappie accident, not only the health and strength of my body, but my learning also met with a shrewd checke, which I could never sithens recover sufficiently. Neverthelesse as much as my father could performe, he omitted not to have me trained both to my booke and to other exercises agreeable to his calling and abilitie, following (as I suppose) such precepts as he had found set downe by some worthy authors treating of that matter. The exact forme of which education perhaps is hard to be observed, but by such as have together with a fatherly and vigilant care, wealth and meanes answerable to finde in their owne houses schoole-masters to instruct and fashion their children according to those rules and precepts. For by them, before the child attaine the age of 14 yeares, he should not only have learned his Grammer, but also Logike, Rhetorike, Musike, Poetrie, drawing and perspective, and be skillfull at his weapons, nimble to runne, to leape and to wrestle, as exercises necessary upon all occasions where fortitude is to be employed for the defence of his countrey and Prince, his friends, and of his faith and religion. '&• Here, it seems to me, is the precocious and delicate XX '.4 DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE'' 587 child, the son of a father known for sagacity and wit, who had raised himself in the service of the State to a great position, and who desired to bring his youngest son up to the same calling. York House was his London residence, and it was there that Francis Bacon, as he tells us, was born. Tonbridge School was one of the new " free grammar schools " of the Reformation, and was the kind of school (where a liberal education was given) to which a man like Sir Nicolas Bacon would naturally send his son. It was founded in 1553 by Sir Andrew Judde, a merchant adventurer who acquired great wealth and became Lord Mayor of London. The school was conveyed in 1561, under the will of the founder, to the Skinners' Company, of which he was a member.^ The old school was pulled down, to make place for the present one, in the middle of the last century. The effect of the loss of young companionship and the discipline of school teaching which the writer regrets perhaps accounts, to some extent, for Bacon's lack of the " sensus communis " (to which I have before adverted) and for the looseness of scholarship which is noticeable in his writings. On the other hand, the illness here referred to evidently had the result of isolating the boy from his fellows, and giving his genius opportunities of a freer development than would have been possible at a school. This would account also for the very early age (twelve years and three months) at which Bacon was sent to Cambridge. He left the University in his fifteenth year, and thenceforward he educated himself. By the time he returned to England from France, when he was just eighteen, it is probable that he had a general acquaintance with continental as well as classical literature, and his extraordinary memory enabled him to use his reading without apparent effort. At first he is largely dominated by it and lets it appear in excess, but by degrees it becomes subservient to compositions of an entirely original and native type. In this view Shake- speare's lack of scholarship is seen to be more apparent ' Rivington's Histoty of Toubridge School. S88 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS chap. than real, and to arise largely from the indifference of the writer to historical accuracy, under a considered theory of art. Bryskett brings a further charge of " obscurity " against Aristotle, here again speaking in his own person, not as the " translator " : But before we enter into that matter you must understand that Plato and Aristotle have held a several! way each of them in their teaching. For Plato from things eternall descended to mortall things, and thence returned (as it were by the same way) from the earth to heaven againe ; rather affirming than prooving what he taught. But Aristotle from earthly things (as most manifest to our senses) raised himselfe, climing to heavenly things, using the meane of that knowledge which the senses give, from which his opinion was that al humane knowledge does come. And where sensible reasons failed him, there failed his proofes also. Which thing, as it hapned to him in divine matters, so did it likewise in the knowledge of the soule intellective (as some of his interpreters say) : which being created by God to his owne likenesse, he hath written so obscurely thereof, that his resolute opinion in that matter cannot be picked out of his writings. The two following passages (spoken apparently in the author's own person) contain the same ideas as to the nature of the soul (adapted in a similar way from Aristotle) as those expressed by Bacon and Spenser : For doubtlesse the vegetative and sensitive soules, which cannot use their vertues and operations but by meane of the body, die with the body. But the intellective soule, which is our onely true forme, not drawne from the materiall power, but created and sent into us by the divine majestic, dieth not with the body, but remaineth immortal and everlasting. Let us therefore conclude with Aristotle that both the passable \J.e. " the cogitative or imaginative "] and the possible under- standings are vertues of the Intellective soule,^ insomuch as she is the particular and proper forme of every man, and that as a humane soule she is everlasting, impassable, not mingled with ' The "possible" is tlie "intellective" from one point of view. The argument here is an attempt to show that Aristotle's doctrine did not imply the existence of " two scverall soules" in man, "a manifest heresie as well in Philosophic as in Christianitie " (p. 276). XX "A DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE'' 589 the bodie,but severed from the same, simple and divine, not drawne from any power of matter, but infused into us from abroade, not ingendred by seede : which being once freed from the bodie (because nature admitteth nothing that is idle) is altogether bent and intent to contemplation, being then (as Philosophers call it) actus purus, a pure understanding, not needing the bodie either as object or as a subject. The following passage indicates the writer's view that true knowledge is only to be obtained through self- knowledge. This is, no doubt, a view of great antiquity, being an instinctive feeling which grows with spiritual development.^ Which things he weighing and considering, he reacheth not onely to the knowledge of himselfe but of other men also. The thought is carried further in the following (spoken by the Lord Primate) as to the end of the soul : The contemplation of his divine majestie, who is the onely true and perfect good and happinesse. The perfection of which divine majestie is the knowledge of himselfe ; and knowing him- selfe to know all things by him created and produced. Like Spenser, the writer denounces contemporary scribblers who profess to be poets, and he approves of Plato's suggestion that there should be a " magistracy " over their productions (p. 150): Which regard if it were had nowadays, we should not see so many idle and profane toyes spred abroade by some that think the preposterous turning of phrases, and making of rime with little reason, to be an excellent kinde of writing, and fit to breed them fame and reputation. . . . But to men of judgement, and able to discerne the difference betweene well writing and pre- sumptuous scribling, they minister matter of scorne and laughter.^ ^ Compare, for instance, the following from the sayings of the ancient Chinese philosopher Lao-tsze : " He who has a knowledge of other men is intelligent, he who has a knowledge of himself is enlightened," ' Cf. pp. 8, 12, above. This passage contains a good example of that habit of quotation in Bacon alluded to in Chapter V., of distorting an author's mean- ing (whether intentionally or from carelessness) to suit his own argument : "For Plato condemned not Poesie, but onelie those Poets that abused so excellent a facultie, scribling either wanton toyes, or else by foolish imitation taking upon them to expresse high conceits which themselves understood not." See as to this at p. 147 above. 590 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CHAP. The writer takes the same view as Bacon about the myths : But to make an end with Poets, he that niarketh those fictions which Homer hath written of their Gods, Hke as those of Virgil, and other of the heathen Poets, though at the first they seeme strange and absurd, yet he shall find under them naturall and divine knowledge hidden to those that are not wise and learned : which neither time nor occasion would that I should here insist upon. Bacon's view was that the myths were much older than Homer, and that " a concealed instruction and allegory was originally intended in many of the ancient fables," being the form of teaching which also was then most accessible to the minds of the generality. " It may pass," he writes, " for a further indication of a concealed and secret meaning, that some of these fables are so absurd and idle in their narration as to show and proclaim an allegory, even afar off." ^ At p. 1 60 of the book, the writer mentions Sir Philip Sidney as an instance of exceptional judgment and staid behaviour in youth, " who being but seventeene yeeres of age when he began to travell, and coming to Paris . . . was so admired among the graver sort of Courtiers . . . so was he likewise esteemed in all places else where he came in his travell, as well in Germanie as in Italy." In the " Pastorall ^^glogue " included in Spenser's works, which is initialled " L. B." and supposed to be by Ludowick Bryskett, " Lycon " refers to himself as travelling abroad with Sidney. This passage, however, contains no information which was not common knowledge. The following passage compares with those expressing the same thought in Spenser's View of t/ie Present State of Ireland, in the Faerie Queene, and in King Lear, which I noticed in the previous chapter : What a folly it is to beleeve that we cannot resist the inclinations of the stars. . . . The beginning of all our operation is undoubtedly in our selves. . . . And consequently we may by ' Cf. extract from preface to The Wisdom of the Ancients, quoted at p. 123 above. XX "^ DISCOURSE OF CIVILL LIFE" 591 our free choice and voluntarily give ourselves to good or to evill, and master the inclination of the heavens, the starres or destinie, which troubleth so much the braines of some, that in despite of nature they will needes make themselves bond being free. In the following passage (p. 206) the author again shows that he was an Englishman : And if mine author mistrusted his eloquence (as he doth) in a matter meete to be set forth so effectually as this, what may I say of myselfe, that am tied to declare to you in our language, inferior much to the Italian, al that he hath set downe touching the same ? At the time when Bacon began to write the English language was much inferior to the Italian as a means of literary expression, and it was the ambition of " Immerito " to do what he could to alter this {^Harvey Correspondence, etc.). Asked by Captain Norris (p. 239) the cause why it was that " shamefastnesse maketh the red colour come into a man's face and that feare doth make him pale," Bryskett replies (as regards fear) that it maketh the mind which conceiveth it to startle, and looking about for meanes of defence, it calleth all the bloud into the innermost parts . . . whereby the exterior parts being abandoned and deprived of heate, and of that colour which it had from the bloud and the spirits, there remaineth nothing but palenesse. This is Bacon's theory of " spirits," which I discussed in Chapter IV. The opposite effect is described in Spenser's Faerie Queene, where Britomart recognises Arthegal as the lover she has seen in the enchanted glass : Soone as she heard the name of Artegall, Her hart did leape, and all her hart-strings tremble. For sudden joy and secret feare withall ; And all her vitall powres, with motion nimble To succour it, themselves gan there assemble ; That by the swift recourse of flushing blood Right plaine appeard, though she it would dissemble, And fayned still her former angry mood. Thinking to hide the depth by troubling of the flood. In concluding, the writer discusses " magnanimity " 592 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS CH. xx and " the vertues assigned to wait upon " it " somewhat more amply than mine author, who hath (in my opinion) a little too briefly touched them in the description of a magnanimous man." This leads to some remarks on the nature of wisdom, and in a passage of great interest (p. 255 sq.) the views of the writer (who is here speaking in his own person) are given on the nature and limits of the human understanding in relation to scientific inquiry. They correspond, in manner and substance, with those of Bacon, as found in his philosophic writings. Some further discourse follows on the nature of the soul, and, with a pleasant remark to " Mr. Spencer " about his having shifted the burden of the discourse on to Bryskett, the colloquy is brought to a close. SOME DATES RELATING TO EVENTS AND PERSONS OF THE PERIOD 1558. Accession of Elizabeth (b. 1533). William Cecil, Secretary, and Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper. 1559. Acts of vSupremacy and Uniformity. 1560. Foreign marriage proposals. General expectation that the Queen would marry Dudley. Death of Francis II. of France (Dec.) ; accession to power of Catherine de' Medici. I 56 1. Francis Bacon born. 1564. William Shakespeare born. 1568. Mary, Queen of Scots, takes refuge in England (b. 1542 ; Queen Consort of France, 1559; returned to Scotland, I 561). Insurrection of the Netherlands begins. 1569. Insurrection in the northern counties on behalf of the old religion and the liberation of Marj' Stuart, led by Northumberland and Westmoreland. 1570. Bull of Pope Pius V. (Feb.) excommunicating Queen Elizabeth and absolving her subjects from their allegiance. 1572. Massacre of St. Bartholomew. Execution of the Duke of Norfolk. Burghley, Lord Treasurer. 1579. Desmond rebellion in Ireland, fostered by Spain and the Pope; suppressed by 1583, and Munster colonised. 1580. Jesuit mission to England under Campion and Parsons. I 58 1. Alengon visits England; public protests against the marriage. 1583. Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury. The High Commission Court established on a permanent footing. I 584. Throckmorton's conspiracy. Association to protect the Queen. Assassination of the Prince of Orange. 1586. Whitgift's "Star Chamber Decree" (Jan.) for censoring the press. Babington's conspiracy. Death of Sir Philip Sidney. 1587. Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots. 1588. Defeat of the Spanish Armada. Death of Leicester. "Martin Marprelate" attacks on Whitgift and episcopacy (continued in 1889). 1589. Death of Catherine de' Medici. Henry of Navarre, King of France. 593 2 Q 594 SPENSER AND THE BA CON IM PERSONA TIONS I 590. Death of Walsingham. I 591. Essex takes a force to France to assist Henry IV. 1595. Tyrone in open rebellion in Ireland. 1596. Expedition, led by Essex, to Cadiz. Robert Cecil, Secretary. 1598. Death of Burghley. Death of Philip of Spain (reign from 1556). Defeat of an English force at the Blackwater by Tyrone ; rising in Munster. 1599. Essex takes command in Ireland against Tyrone ; fails, and returns without leave ; is succeeded by Mountjoy. Death of Spenser. 1 60 1. Abortive rising of Essex in London ; his execution. 1603. Submission of Tyrone. Death of Queen Elizabeth (March). Accession of James I. Ralegh sentenced to death and imprisoned in the Tower. Robert Cecil, Secretary. 161 1. Colonisation of Ulster. 161 2. Death of Salisbury (Robert Cecil). 16 16. Fall of Somerset (Robert Carr) as the King's favourite, and rise of George Villiers (Buckingham). Death of Shakespeare. 1 6 1 8. Execution of Ralegh. 162 I. Impeachment and fall of Bacon (Viscount St. Albans). 1623. First folio of Shakespeare's plays published. 1625. Death of King James. Accession of Charles I. 1626. Death of Bacon. Francis Bacon, b. Jan. 1561 ; at Trinity College, Cambridge, with his brother Anthony, i 573-1 575 ; formally admitted to Gray's Inn, June 1576 ; went to France on the embassy of Sir Amias Paulet, 1576 (probably September); his portrait painted by Milliard in his eighteenth year (possibly when he was on a visit to England) ; travelled with the Court in France (he alludes to his being at Poitiers) ; returned to England on the death of his father, March 1579; first surviving letter dated from Gray's Inn, iith July 1580. Solicitor-(}eneral, 1607; Attorney-General, 1613 ; Privy Councillor, 1616 ; Lord Keeper, 1 617; Lord Chancellor, 1618; impeached and sentenced, 1621 ; died 1626. Sir Nicholas Bacon, i 509-1 579. William Cecil, Lord Burghley, i 520-1598. Sir Henry Sidney, i 529-1 586. .Sir Francis Walsingham, 1530?-! 590. Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1532 ?-i588. Sir Walter Ralegh, 1552?-! 6 18. Sir Philip Sidney, 15 54- 1586. Sir Robert Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, and Earl of Salisbury, i 563 ?- 1612. DATES RELATING TO THE PERIOD 595 Charles Blount, Lord Mountjoy, and Earl of Devonshire, i 563-1606. Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, i 567-1601. Henry Wriothesley, third Earl of Southampton, i 573-1624. William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, i 580-1630. George Gascoigne, 1525 ?-i577. Gabriel Harvey, 1545 ?-l63l. Edmund Spenser, 1552 ?-i599. John Lilly (Lyly), i554?-i6o6. Robert Greene, 1560.^-1592 (date taken from Harvey's account). William Shakespeare, i 564-16 16. Venus and Adonis published, 1593; returned to Stratford about 1596; first play published under his name, 1598. Thomas Nashe, i 567-1601 ? Ben Jonson, i573?-i637. INDEX Allegory, 50, 59, 60, 72 ;/., 121, 123 «., 179, 225, 288, 470, 590 Ambiguities, intentional, 61, 63, 71, 94, 98, 163, 179, 239, 349 «., 391, 470. 477. 504 America, 300, 305, 306, 319 ; and Ireland, 344-46 Amoretti, The, and Spenser's marriage, 34. 374 SQ- Anagrams, names in the nature of, 67, . 70, 94, 96, 487 "Angel," 382-84, 389, 455 Antique words, 5, 6, 7, 28, 58 Apologie for Poetrie, An, 3 ?i., 124 ?i., 148-51, 185 n., 190 ; and Spenser's lost English. Poete, 10, 14, 148 n. ; Sir J. Harington on, 188 n. ; one of a series, 228 Arcadia, The, j,n., is,n., 147, 185 «., 230 ; ordered by Sidney to be burned, 188 ; theory for, 358, 362, 504 Argument of the book, the, shortly stated, 1-4, 7, 8, 9 ; purpose of, 57 Aristotle, "magnanimity," 60, 591; theory of the soul, 109 sq. ; Bacon's quarrel with, 119 «., 156, 364 «., 582 ; on poetry, 150, 151 ; Bryskett on, 581, 588 Arte of English Poesie, The, reference to Shephiards Calender, 5 w. ; con- temporary " rymers " denounced, 12 n. ; state of poetry described, 48 ; references to the Partheniades, 84 n. ; hints as to rewards to poets, 99; definition of "rascal, " loi ; use of the term "spirits," 137 ; use of the term "simple," 142; on the poet's art, 157, 158 ; nature of the work, and circumstances of publica- tion, 157 71. ; Sir J. Harington on, 188 n. ; one of a series, 228 ; the "old gentlewoman" and the nurse in Romeo and Juliet, 494-99 Arundel, Philip Howard, Earl of, in Faerie Qiieene, 93-95, 468 Astrophel, 190, 350 sq. Astrophel and Stella sonnets, the, 3 n. , 185 «. ; genius and character of the author, 190, 362 sq. ; first publica- tion of, 336 ; discussed, 356 sq. ; on "wit" and "will," 491 ; legal metaphor, 500 «. ; absence in love, 501 ; theory for, 502-504 Aubrey, Brief Lives, value of, 418 «. ; on Ralegh, 419, 459 ; on Bacon, 509, 510, 517, 520, 524 .u/.; on Hobbes, 517 Bacon, Ann, Lady, burial-place of, 161 ; her religious influence, 209, 210 ; works for the Reformed Church, 210 ; correspondence with her sons, 398-401, 409, 525 ; with Burghley, 402 ; her character, 399, 400 ; latter years and death, 401 ; her dislike of the revels at Gray's Inn, 405, 409 Bacon, Anthony, in the household of Essex, 46 ; correspondence with his mother, 398 sq. ; death of, 401 ; his relations with his brother, 401, 523, 553 Bacon, Francis, his claim to immor- tality for his Essays, 5 n. ; his style and that of " E. K." compared, 17, 18, 20, 22, 25 ; on Homer, 26 ; conflict between the active and con- templative, 47, 53, 129, 232, 239, 491 ; supposed allusion to in The Silent Woman, 48 ; early ambition, 50, 129, 181, 239, 259 ; his sanguine temperament, 50, 518 ; impulse for self-expression, 50 ; methods of secrecy, 50, 53 ; absence of personal feeling. 51 [cf. 196] ; slendemess of hisemotions, 51, 104, 146; detach- ment from individuals, 51, 104, 146 ; connection with Whifgift, 51, 52, 61 ; writes in the " Martin Mar- prelate" controversy, 52, 549; and for Walsingham, 52 «., 185; his ambition to shine in the world, 53, 597 598 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS 119 «., 157 ; his admiration of Grindal, 61, 62 ; loss of prospects on the death of his father, 62, 173 ; his ' ' Discourse in Praise of the Queen," 67, 381, 390 ; advice to King James as to Irish colonisa- tion, 81, 531 ; connection with the Earl of Cumberland, 87 ; his ideas as to the nature of the soul, 99, 107- 120 ; his attitude towards the people, 103, 104, 127; a portrait of him- self, 103 ; universality, 104, 146, 413, 522 ; his passion for order, 104 ; the phenomenal character of his imagination, 104, 118, 199, in combination with philosophic judg- ment, 104 ; the defects of his character examined, 104, 146, 199, 413 ; his habit of idealising the sovereign, 105, 448, 449 ; his spiritual feelings primitive, 105, 113 ; his attitude towards the Christian revelation, 107-13, 120, 127, 128 ; dexterity in writing, 108 ; on atheism, 108, 114; his philosophic attitude and purpose, 108, iii, 112, 119, 120 ; his dislike of the Copernican theory, no, 309 n. ; the extent of his familiarity with Aristotle, 109, 119 ; the charge against him of materialism, iii, 120 ; his quarrel with Aristotle, in «., 119 «., 156; on metaphysics, 112 ; on man, 114, 331 ; his theory of " spirits," 1141^., 135, 136 ; his passion for scientific inquiry, 119, 120 ; his dislike of philosophers, 119, 582 [cf. 238]; on Socrates, 119 «., 387 «. ; claims a natural familiarity with truth, 120 ; first appointment under the Crown, 121, 409, 520 ; period of greatest literary activity, 121 ; on the use of allegory, 123//. ; rivalry with Robert Cecil, 129, 413, 439 ; time spent in study, 129 ; admits abstraction in affairs, 129 ; on the masque, 133 ; his claim to "simplicity," 138-40; defends himself on a charge of pride, 138 ; expresses himself as out of harmony with his surroundings, 140 ; his "inaccuracy," 142, 143, 145.?^.; draft for a pardon, 145 ; his aim to supersede antiquity, 146 ; lack of "personality," 147; his views on poetry, 152-55 ; disclaims envy of dead thinkers, 156; "a tired, sea- sick suitor," 163, 167 «., 407; his practice at the Bar, 167 «. , 411 ; practice of writingunder ' ' impersona- tions," 169, 221 [cf. 8, 9]; methods for " advertising " and " reviewing " his works, 169, 222 ; habit of prais- ing his own work, 169 [cf. 7] ; devices for controversial satire, 169 ; his financial embarrassments, 169, 173 n-> 398. 400. 409 [cf. 486]; early relations with Burghley and Leicester, 173 ; self-esteem, i8i, 232 ; his precocity as a child, 181, 209, 211, 232, 586; his portrait as a boy, 181 ; his attitude towards the religious controversies, 193, 196, 548, 549 ; in "Tower" employ- ment, 195,404; Squire's conspiracy, 198 ; the affair of Lopez, 199 ; his longingfor power, 199 ; unscrupulous methods, 146, 200 ; his want of "common sense," 200, 408 [cf. 196] ; suggested early mastery of the poetic art, 227 ; his interest in education, 229 ; his Court "devices," 45 w. , 230, 427 ; his Essays self- regarding, 238, 387 «. ; probable early acquaintance with Ralegh, 244 ; probable visit to Kenilworth, 248 ; his essay on "Gardens," 273 ; his motto, 274 n. ; impetuous sequence of ideas, 287, 463 ; early interest in "divinity," 293; on the tides and sea- cuiTents, 307-10 ; intercourse with Galileo, 307 n. ; his imperialism, 318 ; on "magnanimity," 318 ; on the pretensions of Spain, 319 ; on "the universal frame of nature," 331 ; " concealed poets " and ' ' con- cealed philosophers," 348 ; poem by, 367; his essay on "Deformity" and Robert Cecil, 387 n. ; on imagination in youth, 388 ; early sense of age, 388, 397, 454, 516 ; his relations with Ralegh and Cecil at the end of Elizabeth's reign, 395- 397, 439 ; his views on friendship, 69 n. , 396 ; his attitude towards his mother, 399 ; his retainers, 399 ; offends the Queen, 398 ; her opinion of him, 403 ; "a withered branch," 404 ; " Promus of Formularies and Elegancies," 405, 522; "the Waters of Parnassus," 405 ; at Twicken- ham, 405, 406 ; the revels at Gray's Inn, 405, 409 ; his reliance on written statements, 408, 513 ; his mercurial temperament, 408, 518 ; and disciplined mind, 408 ; his interest in public affairs, 410 ; describes himself as a "common," 412 ; his independence of friends, 412, 523 ; his conduct towards Essex considered, 412, 413, 438, INDEX 599 555 [cf. 90] ; on Elizabeth's " lighter qualities," 422 ; on piracy, 432 ; his attitude towards the Sovereign, 448, 449, 458 ; claims credit for "care" in the King's service, 451 ; Queen Elizabeth's "watch candle," 238 «., 452 ; his habit of idealisa- tion, 458, 510, 511, 520; his latter relations with Ralegh, 458, 459 ; his relations with Buckingham, 199 «., 458 ; his weakness in the face of power, 458 ; fanciful beliefs, 464 ; his patriotism, 481, 560; states he is naturally bashful, 482 n. ; early acquaintance with Queen Elizabeth, 484 ; " The Writer's Prayer," 493 ; his marriage, 504, 509 ; Verulam House, 509 ; his gardens, 509-11 ; Gorhambury, 510; his burial, 161, 510 ; ineffective in business relations, 511-13 ; Tobie Matthew on, 511 «. ; plays a part, 140, 200, 512 ; as a speaker in Parliament, 513 sq. ; Ben Jonson on, 513-16, 518 ; his relations with Ben Jonson, 516-18 ; and with Thomas Hobbes, 517 ; account of by A. Wilson, 516 ; his fall and state of mind after, 518 ; his imprudence, 519 ; the subject of scandalous rumour, 519 ; charged with pride, 520 ; his extravagance, 520 ; self-idealisation, 520 [cf. 503] ; his phenomenal memory, 521, 522 ; rapidity as a writer, 522 ; his character as a philosopher, 59 «. , 522 ; his dislike of detail, 522, 523 ; his friendship with Bettenhain, 523 ; and George Herbert, 524 ; his health, 524 sq., also 116, 121, 129, 398, 402, 409 [cf. 586] ; the activity of his imagination, 525 ; his ideas for the prolongation of life, 526 ; his taste in music, 526 ; "irrigation in the spring showres," 527 ; his views on Ireland, 528-32 ; his mind formed on Roman models, 113, 532; his working relations with his brother, 553 ; his account of the affair of Smerwick, 560, 562 ; per- haps an account of his early educa- tion, 585-87 Bacon, Sir Nicholas, 181 ; as an ally of Burghley, 210 ; visit of the Queen to, 484 Bancroft, Bishop, and the "Martin Marprelate " controversy, 52 n. Bettenham, Jeremiah, 412 «., 523 Bingham, Sir Richard, 81, 567; al- leged poem by, 316 " Bothwell," 438-40 Boyle, Elizabeth, 374, 375, 569 Eiryskett, Lodowick, with Spenser in Ireland, 36, 574, 577, 582 ; his elegies on Sidney, 352, 573, 590 ; sonnet by Spenser to, 385, 579 ; said to be an Italian, but expresses himself as an Englishman, 573, 575, 579, 581, 591 ; on Plato and Aris- totle, 581, 588; his early education, 585-87 ; on the soul, 588 ; on self- knowledge, 590 ; denounces con- temporary "rymers, " 589; on the myths, 589 ; on men attributing the faults of their nature to the stars, 590 ; use of the term " spirits," 591 ; on "magnanimity," 591; on the human understanding, 592 Buckingham, Charles Villiers, Duke of, and Bacon, 199 «. , 458 Burghley, Mildred, Lady, her work for the Reformed Church, 210 Burghley, William Cecil, Lord, objects to Spenser's pension, 40, 41 ; attacks on by Spenser, 41, 50-52, 161, 173, 174, 177, 180 ; his position at the Court, 47 ; sonnet addressed to by Spenser, 50 ; in Faerie Qiieene, 90 ; secures Walsing- ham's papers, 95 n. ; petitioned by Bacon for office, 129, 163, 167 »., 407, 408 ; censures him for pride, 138 ; employs him, 195, 404 ; his relations with Leicester, 172, 173, 177, 180, 194 ; Catholic attack on, 174 «., 209 ; his work for the Re- formed Church, 210 ; letter to Lady Anne Bacon as to her two sons, 402 ; alleges want of power to help his friends, 402 ; his official memoranda, 572 Burns, Robert, the limitations of his genius, 54, 230, 231 Caesar, Bacon's admiration of, 364 n. Carey, Elizabeth, Lady, 184, 349 Carey, Robert, 75 Cecil, Sir Robert, his relations with Bacon, 129, 162, 396 ; Catholic attack on, 174 «. ; scurrilous epi- taph on, 332 M, ; reputed reference to in Bacon's Essays, 387 n. ; his position and prospects on the death of the Queen, 395, 396 ; corresponds with Bacon, 398 sq. ; interview with Lady Bacon, 400 ; his character and methods, 413, 432, 435 ; corresponds with Ralegh, 423^4^. ; his diplomacy on the accession of James, 439 ; his intrigues against Ralegh, 465 Chatterton, Thomas, his use of antique 6oo SPENSEI? AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS words, 29 ; limitations of his genius, 54 ; his precocity, 204-6 Church, the, and the State, 47 ; the attitude of Bacon towards, 108, 549 ; and of the author of Leicester's Com- monwealth, 193, 196; of Gascoigne, 229, 243 ; and of Spenser, 489, 548 Cobler of Canterburic, T/ie, 168-70 "Colin," as the author, 14, 19, 23, 167, 330, 332, 365 ; Leicester the early patron of, 163 Colin Clout's Coyne Home Again, dale of composition, 43, 66, 178, 350 ; eulogies in, inconsistent with the Complaints, 44, 178, 349 ; "The Ladie of the Sea," 333 ; '' The Shepheard of the Ocean," 333 ; " Action," 334 ; " Corydon," 348 ; the Queen and the ladies of the Court, 349; "Amaryllis," 65, 349; " Amyntas," 65, 66, 349 Complaints, The, publication of, 43, 159, 160 Congreve, William, class feeling, 52 ; precocity, 204, 207 Court, the, conditions of under Eliza- beth, 47, 177, 501 ; suitors at, 47, 162 ; competition for power at, 395, 420, 438, 445 Crowds, Bacon's opinion that men are more open to impressions in, 154 Cumberland, George Clifford, Earl of, in Faerie Queene, 87, 505, 506 ; his character, 87 ; dispute with the Crown as to share in the capture of the Madre de Dios, 423, 431, 432, 505 Cumberland, Margaret, Countess of, in Faerie Queene, 87 ; her character, 88 ; allusions to, 164, 349 «. Daniel, Samuel, his claim to immor- tality, 5 n. ; pleads "necessity" for writing for the stage, 9 «. ; on the masque, 133 «. ; A Defence of Ryme, 228, 338, 342 ; " impersona- tion " of, 334 sq. ; his life and circumstances, 335, 337 ; Mountjoy his patron, 335, 337, 343 sq. ; his relations with the Countess of Pem- broke, 335, 342, 343, 347, 360 ; tutor to Lady Anne Clifford, 88, 335 ; the "Delia" sonnets, 336, 347. 360; " M. P.," 337, 347; his character as a poet, 338, 343, 344, 347 ; the " Letter from Octavia," 224. 342 Dante, autobiographical element in his poetry, 54 ; the imagination of, Daphnaida, 133 »•, 330 Davison, Secretaiy, his part in the execution of Mary, Queen of Scots, 91, 92 ; letter on travel, 191 ; official form used by, 572 Declaration of the True Causes, etc. , A, 174 n. , 209 Defence of Poesie. See Apologie for Desmond, Earl of, the rebellion of, 32, 36, 71, 81, 558, 563 Devonshire, Earl of. See Mountjoy Dickens, Charles, the limitations of his invention, 54, 230, 231 Discourse of English Poetrie, A, reference to the authorship of the Shepheards Calender, 5 ; compared with .the " E. K." Glosse, 9 ; con- temporary " rymers " denounced, II ; Platonic love, 16 n. ; use of the term "simple," 142 Donne, John, his character as a poet, 49, 348 ; regrets publishing verse, 49 ; allusion to, and connection with, Essex, 64 n., 349; on private practice at the Bar, 167 n. ; on the accession of King James, 439 n. Dorset, Anne, Countess of, erects a monument to Spenser, 34, 88 Drake, Sir Francis, alleged poem by, 315 Du Bellay, 203, 392 " E. K. ," and Edward Kirke, 3, 14; explains his undertaking the "Glosse," 5, 13, 14; denounces contemporary " rymers," 7 ; manner of writing about love, 8, 18 ; on "Platonic" love, 15; on old age, 16; on " Elfes and Goblins," 22; on Homer, 25 ; his commentary on the Dreames, 14, 26 ; on the Queen, 20; no mention by of "Immerito" in Ireland, 33; and " G. T. ," 216. See also under Harvey Elizabeth, Queen, Irish policy of, 32, 35, 69-71 ; parsimony of, 32, 96, 189, 506, 549, 554, 558; her Court and government, 47 ; the Alen9on marriage, 62, 84 «., 172, 176, 177, 185, 19s ; references to marriage with Leicester, 62, 172, 194, 256, 259, 275, 280 w., 474, 477; admira- tion of the Turk for, 67 ; letter to Henry of Navarre, 68 ; her relations with her favourites, 74, 75, 421-23 \see also under Essex and Ralegh] ; two letters to Mountjoy, 75 «. , 421 ; her position in regard to the execu- tion of Mary, Queen of Scots, 90- 92 ; and Leicester's marriage, 175, 176 ; visit to Kenilworth, 248 sq. ; INDEX 6oi descriptions of her habit of delay, 401, 403, 404, 406 ; the outlook on her death, 395, 434, 439 ; as an "adventurer," 423, 432, 505; her apprehension about the play Richard the Second, 437 Some poetical allusions to : in Faerie Queeiie, 59, 66, 74, 80, 90, 94, 100; extravagant eulogy of, 84«., 178, 223, 256 sq. ; deification of, 113 «., 272, 330, 334; addressed in the language of love, 332, 366, 370, 422, 475-78 ; the practice discussed, 58, 105, 256, 257, 448 ; various allusions to, 379 f^/. , 501 Elizabethan Age, simplicity of, 14, 222 ; described as "iron and malitious," 48 ; severe penalties, 51, 240, 311 ; material prosperity, 164 ; over- sea adventure, 77 n., 300, 314- 319, 326-27, 462; piratical war- fare, 303, 431, 505 ; strength of men's feelings, 11,12 n. ; Civil Service, 31 ; Church controversy, 47, 549 ; popularity of sermons, 549 ti. ; Puritans, 72 «., 548 n. ; allusions to the teaching in the Grammar Schools, 233, 586 Books and writers in : use of books, 46 ; difficulties of publica- tion, 157 n., 220, 329 ; absence of publicity, 4«., 9, 14, 146, 262 ; press censorship, 51, 169, 176 n., 329 ; dangers of writing, 51, 107, 177, 358 n. ; risks of a reputation for scientific inquiry, 127 ; advantages of writing under a great name, 188 n. ; condition of professional writers and scholars, 3, 119 «., 146, 256, 336, 517 See also under Court, England, Poetry, and Stage England, the Church of, 47, 210, 546, 548 ; Bacon on the union of with Scotland, 318; as "The Lady of the Sea," 333 n. ; drunkenness in, 286, 289-92 ; fashions of dress in, 290 ; efforts made by for the re- duction of Ireland, 344-46. See also under Elizabethan Age English, the, admiration of gravity by, 46, 353 ; turbulent early his- tory of, 47, 537, 538 ; language monosyllabic, 226 ; reserve of, 387 Epithalamion, 3 4, 223, 386 scf . Essex, Robert uevereux, second Earl of, alleged friendship with Spenser, 39-46 ; pays for his funeral, 39, 46 ; his rivalry with Ralegh, 44-46, 7^, 418 ;/., 438-41 ; literary assistance rendered to by Bacon, 45, 188 «., 191, 391, 392 ;/. ; his relations with Bacon, 46, 69, 90, 199, 395 sq.. 412, 552-56 ; his character, 46, 395, 412, 555 ; in Faerie Queeue, 61, 63, 64, 67-74, 95- 96. 488 ; pos- sibility of his marrying the Queen, 64, 391 ; and of succeeding to the throne, 64, 395, 439 ; the popularity of, 64, 395 ; his relations with the Queen, 44, 68, 403, 404, 422 ; offends her by marrying, 75, 488 ; the story of the ring, 88 n. ; his marriage with Frances Walsingham, 95 «., 488; his "Apology" at- tributed to Anthony Bacon, 188 w. ; and the account of Squire's conspiracj' (by Francis Bacon) to him, 198 ; alleged reason for the charge against Lopez, 199 ; and Daniel's Tragedy of Philotas, 338 ; connection with Donne, 64 n. , 349 ; allusions to by Shakespeare, 64 ;/. , 437 ; his Irish command and Bacon's advice, 438, 550-56 ; Ralegh's reference to as " Bothwell," 440; his appointment as Earl Marshal, 552, 553 Euphuism, 221, 294, 327 Faerie Queene, T/ie, publication of, 43, 44' 579 ; written from the point of view of the Court, 47, 82, 89 ; length of the poem, 53 ; purpose of the work, 55 ; incongruities of, 56 ; alleged dream-character of, 56 ; in- terpretations offered, 57 ; character- istics of the author of, 57-60; sense of humour in, 58, 494 ; the natiu^e and method of, 59, 60, 80, 89 ; the "general" and the "particular," 59, 60 ; Upton on the characters, 60 ; the personal element in, 60, 61, 470 sq. ; reference to by Nashe, 66 ; Irish allusions in, 76-82, 468 ; the " Mutabilitie " cantos, 79-82, 492; itsaristocraticstandpoint, 103, 507//.; allusions to the completion of, 385, 579 ; paper explanatory of the alle- gories, 470 //. ; possible dates of composition of Books I. and II., 473, 482 ; the religious motive in, 489 ; use of law terms in, 499 ; im- partiality, 501 ; Bryskett's reference to, 579, 582 The characters referred to : Alma, 97 w., 481, 482 ; Amoret. 74, 94, 469. 483; Arthegal, 35//., 36, 46, 62-74, 90. 97. 135. 391. 472: 6o2 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS Arthur, 59, 67, 68, 90, 97, 473-82, 484, 486 ; Belphoebe, 59, 74 «., 389, 447, 448, 466, 483, 484 ; Blandamour, 92-94, 440 n. , 468 ; Blatant Beast, the, 72, 486-88 ; Braggadochio, 62, 471, 473 ; Brito- mart, 63, 83, 135, 389, 391, 472, 494, and Amoret, 74 «., 94, and Scudamore, 469 ; Burbon, 68, 71 ; Calepine, 96, 487, 488 ; Calidore, 95, 96, 487, 488 ; Cleopolis, 471, 490 ; Continent, the, 83 ; Cupid, the Maske of, 98 ; Cynthia, 80, 370 ; Despetto, Decetto and Defetto, 486 ; Desyre, 99 ; Detraction, 72 ; Dragon, the, 61 ; Duessa, 72 ?i., 90, 92, 480 ; Ease, 99, 100 ; Fans}-, 99; Florimell, 82, 85-89; Flourdelis, the Lady, 68 ; Fosters, the three, 83 ti. ; Glauce, 494-99 ; Grantorto, 70-72 ; Guyon, 61, 470-73, 481, 482 ; Hope, 100 ; Irena, 70-72 ; Lady of Delight, the, 472 n. ; Lee, the river, 97, 98 ; Marinell, 80-90, 505 ; Meliboe, 95, 96 ; Mercilla, 90 ; Mirabella, 486 n., 500 ; Mona, 65 ; Oberoii, the mightie, 96 ; Orgoglio, 480 ; Palmer, the, 61, 62 ; Paridell, 92-94, 468; Fastorella, 95, 96, 488 ; FoUant^ and Lady Munera, 97 ; Pride, the house of, 501 ; Radi- gund, 97 ; Redcrosse Knight, the, 60, 66, 68, 470^(7., 474, 477, 489- 492 ; Rich Strond, the, 82, 83, 89 ; Satyrane, 78 ; Scudamore, 73-76, 94, 468, 469 ; Serena, 96, 486-88 ; Sergis, 70, 71 ; Spanish Armada, the, 63, 97 ; Talus, 71, 73, 98, 102 ; Timias, 46. 73. 74, 84^., 371, 386, 448, 466, 483-88 ; Una, 60. 471, 474. 477. 490 ; Zele, 90 Fleming, Abraham, 279 «. Fowre Hymns, The, 44, 88«., 113 «., 164, 349 «•. 507 Frobisher, Sir Martin, and the North- West Passage, 295, 297 «. , 300; alleged poem by, 316 ; capture of the Madre de Dios, 423, 424, 425 Gascoigne, George, early life, 211 ; mentioned in Harvey's Letter-book, 221 ; Posies, 212, 2ii)-2^\ "H. W. " and "G. T.," 213-16 ; Tlie Ad- ventures of Master F. /. , 212, 218, 223 ; The Fruites of Warre, 220, 242, 247, 282 ; Certayne Notes of Instruction, 224 ; list of further works, 228 ; The Glasse of Governe- tnent, 229 - 41 ; autobiographical element in his writings, 230, 246 ; his character and later circumstances, 242, 244-46 ; his church views, 243 ; The Steele Glas, 242, 244 ; verses by Ralegh, 243 ; The Grief of loye, 246, 281, 282; The Tale of Henietes, 247, 279 sq. ; The Princely Pleasures at Kenehvorth, 2\^ sq. ; The Queenes Maiesties entertainment at Wood- stock, 280 n. ; A Delicate Diet for daintiemoi/thde Droonkardes, 282- 292 ; Lewis and John Dyve, 283- 285 ; The Spoyle of Antwerpt, 282, 283 ; The Droomme of Doomsday, 292 ; Prefatory Epistle to Gilbert's Discourse, 247, 293 sq. Genius, its instinct for concealment, 53 ; limitations of, 54 ; judicial control of, 104 ; feminine element in, 182 ; precocity of, 204 sq. Geoffrey of Monmouth and Spenser, 67, 144, 494 Gibbon, Edward, class feeling, 52 Gilbert, Sir Humphrey, A Discourse of a Discoverie, etc., to Cataia, object of, 294 ; account of publication of, 295 jy. ; contents of, 305, 306, 310- 312 ; his circumstances, 295, 296, 302 ; his initiative in North- Western discovery, 299-301 ; paper as to " How her Majesty might annoy the King of Spain," 302 ; his start for Newfoundland and fate, 304, 324 ; Camden on his project and character, 304, 327 n. ; Peckham's Report on his vo3'age, 312-20, 324 j^. ; and the Report by Hayes, 320-24 " Golden wyre," 389 Greene, Robert, connection with Nashe, 5 «. ; employed by Bancroft in the " Martin Marprelate " contro- versy, 52 n. ; his Pandosto and the Winters Tale,q6; and "Euphues," 167 «. ; Harvey's account of his death, 168 ; on the authorship of The Cobler of Canterhurie, 168, 169 ; the "Panther" parallel, 170; the "Peacock's feet" parallel, 286; his motto, 480 n. ; a suggested allusion to his genius, 480 ;/. Grey de Wilton, Arthur, Lord, his Irish appointment, 31, 32 ; reasons for taking Spenser as his secretary, 32, 34 ; his administration, 35, 70, 559 ; his recall, 35 ; his action at Smerwick, etc., 35, 72, 371, 559- 563 ; early services under his father, 35 n. , 284 n. ; death, 35, 69 ; sonnet to in Faerie Queene, 35 ; alluded to as " Arthegal," 35 n. , 36, 67, 69-73 ; and Bryskett, 576 sq. INDEX 603 Grindal, Archbishop, in Faerie Queene, 61 ; Bacon's eulogy of, 62 ; and Leicester, 173 "G. T.," 213-16, 235, 348 Hakluyt, Richard, and the Gilbert voyage, 313, 321, 328 ; on the capture of the Aladre de Dios, 506 ; and the account of the last fight of the Kevenge, 506 n. Harriot, Thomas, mathematician, 127 «., 459 Harvey, Gabriel, letters between and "Immerito," 2, 3, 8, 22, 26, 76, 211, 236, 473 n., 503, 591 ; intro- duction of Spenser by to Sidney, 2 ; address by " E. K." to, 6 ; allusions by " E. K." to unpublished works by, 8, II, 23; andby Webbe, 10; his two brothers, 10, 23 71. ; his Latin works, 10, II, 23; his patron, Sir Thomas Smith, 11 ; the Harvey- Nashe controversy, ir, 329 ; sudden cessation of publications by, 11, 479 n. ; his Letter-book, 12, 15, 19, 22, 23, 221, 277 n., 296, 329; his intimacy with " Immerito," 15, 28 ; as Hobbinol, 15, 28, 332 ; on sizars, 102 ; his account of Greene's death, 168 ; controversial satire, 169 «. ; on Mother Hubberds Tale, 176 ; on poetry and St. John's Revelation, 211 ; compared by Nashe to a peacock, 286 ; the sonnet addressed to him by Spenser, 369, 579; on "Immerito" and " Rosa- linde," 503 ; Spenser mentioned in a note in one of his books, 572. See also under Nashe Harvey, Richard, 23 n. Hatton, Sir Christopher, as a favourite of the Queen, 47 ; offends her by marrying, 176 n. ; perhaps in Mother Hubberds Tale, 177 ; in the " Bothwell " letter, 440 Hawkins, Sir John, alleged poem by, 315 Hobbes, Thomas, Aubrey on, 517 ; his relations with Bacon, 517 Holinshcd, use of by Spenser, 67 ti., 77 > 77 n-' 558 «• Howard of Effingham, Lord, 88,91, 552 " lago," age of, 3 ; villainy of, 465 " Ignoto," 367-69 Imagination, limitations of, 54 ; self- expression in, 230, 231 ; in youth, Bacon on, 388 ; and judgment, 104, 387 ; spontaneous period of, 387, 388 "Imitation" (dramatic), effect on character of, 146, 147 "Immerito," The Shepheards Calender published under the name of, 6 ; denounces contemporary "rymers," 8 ; verses by, and by " E. K.," 22 ; intimacy with Harvey, 15, 28 ; his self-esteem, 28 ; no mention by of Irish experience, 33, 34 ; early con- nection with Sidney and Leicester, 2, 3, 19, 25, 27, 31 ; Holinshed used by, yj ; his motto, 89 n., 202 ; compared with " G. T. ," 216 ; and with Gascoigne, 227 ; alleged pub- lication of Harvey's poems without his consent, 296 ; his correspondence with Harvey, 329, 503. See also under Harvey Impersonation, 9, 9 «. Ireland, Elizabeth's policy in, 32, 35 ; sheriff's post in, 38 ; episode in Faerie Queene, 69 sg. ; local allusions to in Faerie Queene, 76-82 ; the harp of, 81, 531 ; Bacon's views on the reduction of, 319, 529-32 ; also Daniel's, 344 ; and the English, 572 James, King, possible reference to in Faerie Queene, 64 ; position of the leading men before and on his accession, 395, 396, 439 ; Bacon's habit of addressing, 448, 449, 520 ; Bacon's relations to, 458 ; his hatred of Ralegh, 465 Jonson, Ben, his account of Spenser's death, 38; "Sir John Daw," 48; narrow escape from mutilation, 51 ; on the allegories in Faerie Queene, 72 «., 470 n. ; on Daniel, 339 n. ; on Ralegh as a writer, 460 ; on Bacon, 513-16, 518; and on Shake- speare, 515 ; in Bacon's establish- ment, 516-18 Keats, John, letters of, 362 Kilcolman, Spenser at, 36-38 ; de- scription of, 36 «. ; poem dated from, 43, 332, 349 ; allusions to district of in Faerie Queene, 78, 79. 98 ; Ralegh's supposed visit to, 38. 332 sq. , 350, 373 Kirke, Edward, and " E. K.," 3, 14. 479 «• Knollys, Lettice, Countess of Essex and Countess of Leicester, perhaps referred to in Faerie Queene, 63 ; her marriage with Leicester, 175 ; Queen's visit to at Chartley, 356 Laneham, Robert. 248, 249. 255. 260 n., 261 sq., 479 n. 6o4 SPEA'SER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS "Lee," the river, in Ireland and England, 97, 98 Leicester, Robert Dudley, Earl of, as Spenser's patron, 2, 25, 27, 31, 163, 172-74. 477 [cf- 260, 275]; intended originally as the hero of Faerie Queene, 24, 62 ; allusions to his death, 63, 163, 174 ; offence given by Spenser to, 164, 172, 173, 177, 179. 180 ; poetical advocacy of his marriage to the Queen, 172, 259, 275, 280 n. ; his relations with i Burghley, 173, 177, 180 ; an allusion to his marriage with the Countess of Essex, 175 ; and Sidney's letter to the Queen, 186 ; his ambitious projects and character, 67 «. , 194, 197 ; entertains the Queen at Kenil- worth, 248 ; relations with Ralegh, 373, 417 ; allusions to in Faerie Queene, 62-64, 66, 68, 473-77, 481 Leicester s Comtnoiiwealth, 192 sq. Leicester's Ghost, 6'jn., 192, 196 Lilly (Lyly) John, a parallel, 170 ; character as a writer, 230, 478 n. ; eulogy of the Queen, 257, 477, 478 «. London, descriptions of, 174, 490 Love and the passions, 8, 18, 99, 131. 277. 362, 387, 491, 507 Lucretius on the nature of deity, 112 "Magnanimity," 60, 113, 154, 318, 591 Man, Bacon on, 114; "the kingdom of," 120 ; Shakespeare on, 331 ; habit of attributing his faults to the influence of the stars, 535, 536, 590 Marot, Clement, 15, 16, 27, 203, 208, 209 "Martin Marprelate" controversy, the, 52, 487, 548 Mary, Queen of Scots, in Faerie Queene, 72 «. , 90-92, 97, 472 «., 480; and Queen Elizabeth, 91, 92 Masque, the. Bacon and Daniel on, 133 Meres, Francis, 371 n., 479 n. Milton, John, and the tradition as to Spenser's Irish service, 33 ; an autobiographical element in his poems, 54 ; connection with Spenser's "Amaryllis," 65 n. ; the precocity of, 204 n. ; price received by for Paradise Lost, 220 ; correspondence in style between his poems and other writings, 416 ; Aubrey's life of, 418 n. Mother Ilubberds Tale, date of com- position, 43, 160, 175, 176, 178 ; the attack on Burghley in, 41, 50- 52, 174, 196 ; and the censorship, 51, 52, 176 n. ; description of the suitor in, 162 ; alluded to in a Catholic pamphlet, 174 n. ; and by Harvey, 176; suppressed, 177; reference to the state of the clergy, 548 Mountjoy, Charles Blount, Lord, the Queen's attachment for, 75 «., 421 ; reduction of Ireland by, 75 //., 343- 346, 420, 438 ; a dedication to "oy Bacon, 156 ; patron of Daniel, 335, 337 ; Daniel's funeral poem on, 343 ; his relations with Lady Rich, 75, 346, 356 ; death of, 357 ; his dislike of Ralegh, 420 Muiopotmos, 44, 179 sq. Munster, settlement of, 36, 38, 42, 81 ; rising in, 38, 565 ; remoteness of, 52 ; Sir Henry Sidney's description of, 549 n., 557, 558; Spenser's account of in the liezv, 556, 558 ; in the petition, 570 " Mutability," the sense of in Spenser, 19, 104, 133 «., 163, 174, 184, 208, 330, 492 ; Shakespeare on, 104, 132, 331 ; Bacon on, 331, 493 Nashe, Thomas, first mention of Spenser as a poet, 5 n. ; the soul in the body, 18 t/. ; his style com- pared with that of others, 8, 12, 279 «., 288, 291, 361 ; the Harvey- Nashe controversy, 11, 329; em- ployed by Bancroft in the "Martin Marprelate" controversy, 52 «. ; on " Amyntas " and Faerie Queene, 65, 66 ; his complaints, 102, 360 ; suggested as the author of Tarleton's Newes, 168 ; compares Harvey to a peacock, 286 ; unauthorised publi- cation by of Astrophel atid Stella and of Daniel's sonnets, 336, 358- 362 ; suggests that Harvey himself wrote the sonnet addressed to him by Spenser, 369 Nature, philosophical conception of in Faerie Queene, 80, 492 ; Bacon's reverence for, 11 1 ; his insight into, 116, 118; his "Interpretation of," 120 Norris, Sir John, in Faerie Queene, 68 ; dissensions with Russell in Ireland, 570 Northampton, Henry Howard, Earl of, his intrigues against Ralegh, 465 Northumberland, Henry Percy, eighth Earl of, in Faerie Queene, 93, 94 ; 440 n. INDEX 605 Northumberland, Henry Percy, ninth E^rl of, 127 «., 440, 459 ' ' Northumberland " MS. , 45 n. , 93 11. , 185, 197, 523 «• Observations on a Libel, Bacon's, 185, 187, 209 Ormonde, Earl of, 32, 70, 558, 563 Palladis Tantia, 370 Partheniades, the, 84 ;/. Pedaniiiis, 277 n. Pelham, Sir William, 32, 558 ; alleged poem by, 314 Pembroke, Henry Herbert, Earl of, 186, 503 Pembroke, Mary, Countess of, relations with Spenser, 160, 349, 351, 502- 504 ; with Daniel, 335, 342. 343, 347, 360, 361 ; and with Nashe, 360 ; perhaps at Kenilworth, 276 «. ; her translation of Antonius, 342 ; paraphrase of the Psalms, 343 ; marriage, 503 ; the additions to the Arcadia, ■>,b'2, 504 ; epitaph on, 504 Perrot, Sir John, in Faerie Queene, 78, 82 ; in the View, 571 n., 578 n. ; in Bryskett's Discourse, 578 Plato, the soul, 109; poets, 119; effect on character of dramatic work, 146 ; his ideal and the modern State, 147 ; " Atlantis," 305 ; Bryskett on, 581, 588, 589 Poetry — I. In the age of Elizabeth : publication of by people in good position not well regarded, 9, 48, 49 ; complaints of the contempt for, 13, 24 ; prejudice against, 160 ; the "new," 7, 47, 255, 340, 347; English metres, 226 ; strictures on contemporary " rymers " : " E. K.," 7, "Immerito," 8, Webbe, 11, 12, Puttenham, 12 «. , Gascoigne, 225- 227, Br)'skett, 589 ; allusions to popular tales and ballads, 12 n., 266, 267 II. General : imagination and experience, 54 ; French criticism of English, 105; "invention" in, 105; "feigned history," 105 «. , 149, 152-54 ; Sidney on, 148 sq. ; Bacon on, 152 sq. ; Puttenham on the "artificial" and the "natural" in, 157, 158 ; Gascoigne on, 225 sq. ; the sonnet and blank verse, 347 ; new metres, 354, 447, 454 ; imagination and reason, 387 ; as a feature of Court life, 388, 442 ; correspondency between an author's poetry and his other writings, 415 ; the difficult art of, 433 ; myths and the poetry of antiquity : Bacon on, 123 n., Sidney on, 124 «. , Gascoigne on, 288, Bryskett on, 590 Poets, the inspiration of: "E. K. ," 13, Puttenham, 137, 157, Sidney, 149 jy.. Bacon, 388 ; honour and rewards for, 25, 26, 99; Plato on, 119, 147; "right," 105 «. , 147, 150; effect on character of "imitation" (dramatic), 146 ; Sidney on the historian and the poet, 151 Pope, Alexander, precocity of, 204, 206 Pope, the, and rebellion in Ireland, 32, 559 ; excommunication of Elizabeth by, 559 " Prosopopoia, " impersonation, 9 n. Prothalamion , 44, 98, 163, 173 Publication without consent, instances of alleged, 6, 14, 216, 295 sq., 336, 360 Puttenham, George. See Arte of English Poesie Ralegh, Sir Walter, his estates in Munster, 38, 374, 565 ; his retreat from the Court and visit to Ireland in 1589, and his denial of loss of favour, 38, 333, 350, 418, 445 ; consulted by the Queen in Irish matters, 38, 420, 564 ; denounced to the Queen by Essex, 44 \see further under Essex] ; his position at Court, 47 ; his relations with the Queen, 73, 74, 421-27, 443 ; exploration of the Orinoco, tj n., 460 sq. ; verses in Gascoigne's Steele Glas, 243 ; his early life, 244, 304 n. , 372, 416 ; an "adventurer" in Gilbert's New- foundland voyage, 304, 323 ; con- nection with Hakluyt, 321, 506 n. ; and Colin Clout, 332-35, 350; scurrilous epitaph on Cecil attributed to, 332 «. ; eleg}' on Sidney attributed to, 355 ; his verses to Spenser in Faerie Queene, 367, 459 ; and "Ignoto," 367-69; his "Cynthia," 369, 370, 442 sq. ; Spenser's inti- macy with considered, 371-74 ; at Smerwick, 371,560; differences with Lord Grey, 373, 419, 420 ; as a retainer of Leicester, 373. 417 ; Devonshire antiquaries on his lineage, 376, 378 n. ; jealousy at his rise, 378 ; his marriage and loss of favour, 392, 414 ; his prospects on the death of the Queen, 395, 435 ; his attitude towards tho succession of 6o6 SPENSER AND THE BACON IMPERSONATIONS James, 396, 439, 465 ; his influence on Bacon, 396 ; charged with atheism, 414, 487 ; his style of writing, 416, 433 ; the spelling of his name, 416 ; descriptions of, 419 ; his unpopularity, 419, 420, 432 ; his arrogance, 419, 420, 445; charged with unscrupulous ambition, 420, 428 ; the Queen's respect for his opinion, 420 ; grants to by the Queen, 423 ; and the Madre de Dios, 423, 431, 432, 505, 506 71. ; reports of his marriage, 424 ; committed to the Tower, 425 ; gross flattery of the Queen, 426, 435 ; his relations with his wife, 427-29 ; on piracy, 431 ; his respect for Cecil, 432, 437 ; as a man of action, 432, 433 ; allusion by to Richard the Second, 436 ; the "Bothwell" letter, 438-41; his imprisonment under James, 439, 465 ; the verse petition to Queen Anne, 454 ; his epitaph, 457, 458 ; assistance rendered by others in his History of the World, 458-60 ; his exaggerations, 463; intrigues against him by Northampton and Cecil, 465 ; paper explaining Faerie Qi/eene allegories given to, 470 n. ; his proposals for garrisoning Ireland, 563, 564 ; suggested poetical allusions to in Faerie Queene, 73-76, 94, 468 \see also wider Timias], and in Shakespeare, 378, 397, 465 Rich, Penelope, Lady, her relations with Mountjoy, 75, 346, 356 ; and "Stella," 190, 349, 351-64, 502- 504 " Rosalind," 2, 15, 19, 27, 28, 216, 364-66, 385, 486 «., 502-4 Roydon, Matthew, 317, 352, 422 Ruines of Time, The, 43, 160-64 ; the attack on Burghley in, 51, 52, 161 Scott, Sir Walter, autobiographical element in, 230 Shakespeare, William, claim to im- mortality, 5 n. ; the play Sir Thomas Afore, 49 ; absence of manuscripts, 53 ; the alleged " unconscious " order of his work, 55 ; on Essex, 64 «. , 437 ; some characters in the Winter's Tale, 96 ; his attitude towards the people, loi, 106 ; sense of muta- bility, 104, 132, 331; his "invention," 105 ; Tolstoi's hatred of, 106 ; the Tempest examined, 121-33 '> his use of the term "spirits," 121 S(/., 134- 137 ; and of the term "simple," 141 ; his "inaccuracy," 142, 587; his "anachronisms," 143-45 ; the "im- personality " of, 147 ; the complaints of Hamlet, 148, 163, 331 ; his plays and Bacon's remarks on the drama, 15s ; a description applicable to his genius and art, 157, 158 ; theallusions in the Teares of the Muses, 164 ; "Yorick," 171; early Shakespearian humour, 224, 269; the "autobio- graphical" element in, 230, 231; Midsummer Night's Dream and the Queen's entertainment at Kenilworth, 248, 255, 268, 273 ; the impetuous sequence of his ideas, 287, 463 ; on drunkenness, 291, 292 ; the style of Lucrece, 341; the "argument" of Antony and Cleopatra, 342 ; his prose, 415 ; The Phoenix and Turtle, 422 ; an allusion by Ralegh to Richard the Second, 436 ; Othello, 465 ; some parallels with Spenser, 494-99 ; his way of using law terms, 500 ; absence in love, 501 ; and the Countess of Pembroke, 502 ; the sonnets of, 502, 503 ; Ben Jonson on, 515 Passages quoted from, or refer- ences to: Othello (lago's age), 3; King Lear (the gods and old age), \^\ Richard II I. (and "E. K."), 21 ; Measure for Measui-e (the people), 106 ; T roil us (reference to), 106 ; //(7;«/f/(" the groundlings"), 106 «. ; Tempest (" spirits "), 124-33 '< ^Iy K. .'<: K. Ci.ark', Limitkd, lidinhurgli. "r^ lllllllllllllllllllllllllllllllli AA 000 598 858 9 f V