THE LIBRARY OF THE UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA ^ GIFT OF Mr. & !4rs. John R, Harris Digitized by tine Internet Arciiive in 2008 witii funding from IVIicrosoft Corporation littp://www.arcliive.org/details/baconssecretdiscOOcuniricli BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED IN CONTEMPORARY BOOKS On BAlCJ\'' a pdintjonjcauoir, Awwjnr Ic tcmpd- cc poiiiicir , Olid diirjra plus .)u: ton cuiurc , This portrait of Bacon is reproduced from ' Les Oeuvres Morales et Politiques de Messire Francois Bacon." De la version de J. Baudoin Paris, 1633. AGON'S SECRET DISCLOSED N CONTEMPORARY BOOKS BY GRANVILLE C. CUNINGHAM LONDON GAY esf HANCOCK, LTD. 12 & 13, HENRIETTA STREET, COVENT GARDEN MCMXI All rights reserved (S^4 PREFACE Tee great interest that has gfown up in retent years in the life arcd work of Francis Bacon 'induced me to collect early editions of his hooks, anh of hooks that ham a hearing on him and on his life, Reading these and corliparing them has brought out many curious facts, and has sug- gested or compelled many still more curious in- ferences, while numberless questions that press for answers have sprung up. From i^eading and annotating the step to publishing is not a long one, though it is one often taken with great hesi- tation. But the facts that I have been able to gather together have convinced me that there is a real mystery and a carefully -veiled secret about the life of Francis Bacon. The uncovering of all this has proved an absorbing pastime for myself and to those who are interested in this question the windings of the trails I have been following will, I hope, prove also attractive and stimulat- ^ V rr vi PREFACE ing. This is what has led to the production of the present little hook, which, small though it is, represents the search and thinking out of some years. GRANVILLE C. CUNINGEAM. 37, Craven Hill Gardens, IF., Aitgust 1, 1911, CONTENTS CHAPTER PAGE I. LORD bacon's cipher - - - - 1 II. A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON - - - 37 in. BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER - - - 77 IV. JOHN BARCLAY'S * ARGENIS ' AND BACON'S SECRET LIFE ------ 128 V. BACON AND SHAKESPEARE - - - 166 APPENDIX- - - - - - 181 LIST OF ILLUSTRATIONS FACING PAGE I. PORTRAIT OF BACON - - FroiUispiece II. PORTRAIT OF QUEEN ELIZABETH - - - 27 III. THE TABLET TO SPENSER IN WESTMINSTER ABBEY 77 IV. PORTRAIT OF LEICESTER - - - - 128 VU INTRODUCTION It is perhaps well that I should set down very briefly Bacon's orthodox Life, as one may call it — that is, his life as generally recorded and accepted ; and also his cipher Life — that is, his life as recorded in the records in cipher that he has left behind him. The following — very briefly — is a sketch of his orthodox Life : He was the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal of England, and Lady Anne Bacon, his wife, born at * York House, or York Place, in the Strand ' (as William Rawley says in his ' Life of Bacon,' in the ' Resuscitatio ' of 1657), on January 22, 1560.* The registra- tion of his baptism, on the 25th day of the same * January, 1560, in the Elizabethan age would be 1561 according to modern ways of counting. In Elizabeth''s time New Year's Day was on March 25, so that 1561 would not commence until that day ; but, of course, according to the modern system, it would begin on January 1. IX X BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED month, may be seen in the church of St. Martin's- in-the-Fields, which standvS near by the ancient site of York House * in the Strand.' He very early showed wonderful traits, and, owing to the posi- tion that his father and mother held about the Court of Queen Elizabeth, was in his childish days much in evidence at Court, and at a very early age taken notice of by the Queen, who was amused at his precocity, and named him her 'little Lord Keeper.' At the time he was born the Queen was about twenty-eight years of age, and had been on the throne a little over two years — i.e., since November 17, 1558. Bacon was sent to Cambridge University in 1573, when he was little over twelve years of age. He was there for four years, and left without takino^ a deofree. His tutor was the celebrated Whitgift, afterwards Archbishop. When he left, at the age of sixteen, he was sent to Paris to reside with the English Ambassador there, Sir Amyas Paulet. He was there for two years, until the death of his father in 1579. It was found that no provision had been made by Sir Nicholas in his will for his youngest son Francis, though it was said that he had fully intended doing so, and had set apart a sum of money for this purpose. Rawley does not give any definite date for Francis's return INTRODUCTION xi to England, though he does not mention his having been elsewhere than at Paris with Sir A my as Paulet, and his two years' sojourn there is assumed to be the extent of his residence abroad. * Being returned from travel/ as Rawley says, he devoted himself to the study of the common law. He continued to be much about the Queen, and advised her on all matters, and was, indeed, appointed Queen's Counsel Learned Extraordinary — an honorary appointment which apparently carried ao salary with it. He * stood at a stay * during Elizabeth's lifetime, and never received from her any public appointment or honour, his only emolu- ment being the reversion of the Register's Office in the Star Chamber, worth £1,600 per annum, and into this he did not come for twenty years. He was Member of Parliament for some time, but that was the only public position he occupied during Elizabeth's lifetime. When she died, in 1603, Bacon was forty-two years of age — that is to say, the best years of his life had passed ; he had traversed that period in which the products of genius would have been expected to be most evident, and, so far as the world knew, all that had come from him was a small volume of Essays and a work with at least a somewhat portentous title, * Partus Maximus Temporis ' (' The Greatest xii BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED Birth of Time '), which has not, howe\ er, survived to enlighten posterity. At the death of Queen Elizabeth Bacon's pen had given but little to the world, so far as the world knew. With the coming of King James in 1603 his worldly position improved. He was knighted; he was made Attorney-General ; and by 1619 had reached the great position of Lord Chancellor. Then came, in 1621, his fall, charged as he was with taking bribes. It is difficult to say to what extent, if any, he was personally corrupt, or whether his crime consisted in having servants about him who bled the public in his name, but, at any rate, he suffered under the charges brought against him, and was removed from his high position. He obtained the King's pardon, though the pardon of such a King could not do much to rehabilitate the damaged character of such a man, and was summoned to the first Parliament that sat after the King's death in 1625. On April 9, 1626 (Easter Sunday), Bacon departed this life. He is said to have died at the house of Lord Arundel in Highgate, after a short illness, caused, in the first instance, by making experiments with stuffing a fowl with snow. Though he was ill — and at so short a distance from London — for some days, it seems that none of his Xlll INTRODUCTION friends or retainers were with him on the occasion. '^iSj ^^^ The faithful Rawley apparently was absent, so, ' " i^too, was his reverential admirer, Ben Jonson, who -y 5j i has given us such a paean of praise of my Lord-v j ^^^ Bacon in his 'Discoveries' — at least, neither of s^^AQ them says anything of Bacon's last hours, and had /r ^j^ either been present on that sad occasion, it seems t^ that belonged to the Roman city of Verulamiu ^^at St. Albans. A most beautiful monument — •, ^ Bacon himself seated in a chair, asleep — was erected I to him in this church after a few years by his I friend, Sir Thomas Meautys. During King James's reign Bacon brought out many works of philospphy and history, and though i xiv BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED lie was trammelled by the cares of public office he seems never to have ceased for a moment to work at the great scheme of philosophy that he had set before him. In 1605 appeared the ' Two Books of the Advancement of Learning/ followed by the * Wisdom of the Ancients,' the ' History o£ Life and Death/ the 'Novum Organ um ' (1620), * History of Henry VIL' (1622), ' De Augmentis Scientiarum ' (1623), ' Sylva Sylvarum ' (first published in 1628), with many minor pieces. He, who up to the age of forty-two produced scarcely anything, between the ages of forty-two and sixty- five gave forth all these brilliant and massive works, while at the same time strenuously employed in the affairs of the nation. This is one among the many curious aspects of Bacon's life. Bacon's cipher Life differs widely from the fore- going. He was born probably about the date Rawley gives — January 22, 1561 — the offspring of the secret marriage of Queen Elizabeth and Robert Dudley, afterwards Earl of Leicester. This mar- riage had taken place some time about September, 1560, immediately after the mysterious and sudden death of Dudley's wife — the beautiful Amy Robsart. Her death occurred at Comnor, near Oxford, and INTRODUCTION xv was so suspicious that it was made the subject of inquiry, and there were not wanting those who said it had been contrived by Dudley in order that he might marry the Queen, even as his brother had married that unfortunate Queen, the Lady Jane Grey. The time of this marriage was only some four months before the birth of the child Francis. The Queen * sequestrated ' herself for this birth, and was attended by Lady Anne Bacon, the wife of Sir Nicholas. When the child was born it was at once taken in charge by Lady Anne, and was con- veyed to her residence, York House, in the Strand. Here Lady Anne was herself brought to bed of a child that was stillborn, but this circumstance enabled her the more easily to pass off the Queen's child as her own. It was baptized at St.Martin's-in-the-Fields, under the name of Francis, on January 25, and was thereafter brought up as the son of Sir Nicholas and Lady Anne Bacon. Eawley, in his account of Bacon's birth in the Life before alluded to, is ambiguous — and I believe quite intentionally ^ ambiguous — about the place where it took place. Of course I believe that Eawley knew all about Bacon's story, and when he wrote his 'Life' in 1657 for the 'Eesusci- tatio,' there were many ambiguities thrown in, and xvi BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED here and there facts cleverly inserted. When he says that Bacon was born in ' York House, or York Place, in the Strand,' he makes a statement that would induce one to believe that ' York House ' and * York Place ' were different names for the same locality. They were not : ' York House ' was a well-known house in the Strand ; * York Place ' was the old name for Whitehall, the Royal Palace in which Queen Elizabeth resided. This is clearly brought out in the play, 'King Henry VIII.,' Act iv. Scene i., in the following dialogue des- cribing the return of Anne Boleyn to the Palace after her Coronation : T%ird Gent. ... So she parted, And with the same full state paced back again To York Place, where the feast is held. First Gent, Sir, You must no more call it York Place, that's past ; For since the Cardinal feU, that title's lost : 'Tis now the King's, and called Whitehall. Third Gent, I know it ; But 'tis so lately altered that the old name Is fresh about me. So that Rawley, in his frankly ambiguous way, plainly intimates that Bacon might have been born in Whitehall, the Queen's Palace.. Apparently from the cipher story two ceremonies INTRODUCTION xvii of marriage — or one, a quasi- marriage, the other a real marriage — were gone through between Elizabeth and Robert Dudley. The first took place in the Tower in 1554, when the Princess Elizabeth and Dudley were both in confinement there. There had been a very ugly scandal about Elizabeth and Sir Thomas Seymour, who was her gaoler, at w^hich Queen Mary had been greatly in- censed. The ceremony, at this time between Elizabeth and Dudley as mentioned by the cipher, could have been of no legal value, for Dudley's wife was then alive. The next ceremony that took place was a secret marriage in the presence of witnesses, one being Sir William Pickering. This was some time in September, 1560, after the death of Robert Dudley's wife, when of course the ceremony could be legally and properly per- formed. Bacon's childhood and boyhood passed as pre- viously told. One day, when he was about six- teen years of age, and when he was present at Court, a remark dropped by a 'silly maid' — a remark that showed there had been Court gossip about the lad Francis Bacon — came to Elizabeth's ears, and there was a terrible scene. But the remark gave Bacon a hint of the secret concerning him. He went home to Lady Anne Bacon and xviii BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED got from her the truth. His position was ac- knowledged by the Queen. At the same time he was sent oflp to Paris to be with Sir Amyas Paulet, the Ambassador to the French Court, as no doubt it was considered best that he should be out of the way at this juncture. It was when here that he fell in love — boy though he was — with Marguerite de Valois, wife of Henry of Navarre, he who was afterwards Henry IV. of France ; and full of the greatness and splendour of the position in the world which he had recently discovered to be his, he conceived the idea of arranging a divorce between Marguerite and her husband and marrying her himself — a sufficiently crazy project even for a love-lorn youth, as Marguerite was nine years his senior, and in many ways unsuitable. Neverthe- less, he came to see his mother, Queen Elizabeth, on the subject, and returned to Paris with but scant comfort ; but his love for Marguerite was the overmastering passion of his life, and dominated his mind for many years. His wonderful genius and his amazing versatility soon found for themselves an outlet : very early he began writing poems and plays. His first com- position appeared anonymously, but soon he adopted the plan of using other men's names as his masques under which to publish. As the future INTRODUCTION xix King it is evident he could not be suspected, even, of writing plays for the theatre. Very early, too, he adopted the plan of weaving into the books he wrote and published the wonderful story of his birth and great destiny ; and very early, too, the splendour of this story began to be dimmed by the misery caused by the non-recognition of his birth- right. The Queen delayed and postponed from day to day. And yet through it all he continued to write and to pour out the most sj)lendid litera- ture the world has ever known. ' Who hath filled up all numbers, and performed that in our tongue, which may be compar'd or preferr'd either to insolent Greece, or haughty Rome,' to quote Ben Jonson's praise of him. The masques under which he wrote were Spenser, Greene, Peele, Marlow, and Shakespeare, with minor names less frequently used, and many books anonymously produced. This work went on to the very end of his life, and at his departure in 1626 many works were left unpublished. The production of the great 1623 folio, in which he gathered up and revived the best of the so-called Shakespeare plays, and coolly produced a number of new plays under that masque, though the * masque ' had been dead for seven years, was the great work about which he XX BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED busied himself after his fall, and when he had leisure on his hands. This, in brief, is the cipher story of Bacon's life. Are there any corroborations of it to be found in contemporary books ? BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED IN CONTEMPOEARY BOOKS CHAPTER I LORD bacon's cipher * The great cause of his [Lord Bacon's] suffering is, to some, a secret. I leave them to find it out, by his words to King James. " I wish [said he] that as I am the first, so I may be the last of sacrifices in your Times." ' Thus wrote Archbishop Tenison in his 'Account of all the Lord Bacon's Works,' published in 1679 with ' Baconiana.' The remark is highly interest- ing, and shows that there was some secret and great cause of suffering, which, though unknown to some, was known to others, and among those others Tenison himself. That we, to whom it is unknown, should be left to find it out by the cryptic speech to King James above quoted, is 1 2 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED extremely tantalizing. What was the cause of his suffering ? Tenison says no more, but leaves us with this dark hint. What was his secret ? So completely has it been kept a secret throughout these many long years that men have forgotten that there was any secret, and have ceased to wonder about it or to trouble their heads with the matter. It is only in quite recent times that the veil has been lifted and men have been allowed to see what was the great cause of Lord Bacon's suffering, w^hat was the great secret of his life. The marvellous tale, close hidden in the cipher which he himself wove into all his published books, and into many other books as well, tells us that he and Robert, Earl of Essex, were both sons of Queen Elizabeth by her lawful husband, Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester ; that, though lawful, the marriage was secret, and was continuously kept secret ; and the supreme misery of Bacon's life was caused by the hell of baffled hopes in which he lived.* His royal birth, though real and true, * Compare Shakespeare, Sonnet CXIX. ' What potions have I drunk of Siren tears, DistilPd from limbecks foul as hell within, Applying fears to hopes and hopes to fears. Still losing when I saw myself to win !' LORD BACON'S CIPHER 8 was unacknowledged ; the great position, though rightly his, was kept from him ; and between the hope of gaining his own, and the fear that the publication of his secret might lead to his instant destruction, lay the torture of his mind. The deciphered story shows this over and over again, and brings out in the clearest light what were Bacon's inmost and secret thoughts. And it is only through the deciphering of this story that the great cause of Bacon's suffering has been made known to the present generation. That which was in Tenison's time ' to some a secret ' has been forgotten by all, and the knowledge of it only renewed by this recent lifting of the veil. Without the deciphered story nothing would ever have given any clue to the secret ; with it many of the dark and cryptic passages of Bacon's letters become intelligible, and his speech to King James becomes full of meaning. The task that will be full of interest is to gather up the threads that are scattered in various places and see how much like to the cipher story the fabric is that can be made from them. But to do this completely would involve a very long and elaborate work. It is extraordinary to notice how carefully the secret has been guarded. Even Arch- bishop Tenison, writing so long after the events, t "V 4, BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED 11 . . ^v V speaks of it with the utmost restraint. Why should s^ he, more than fifty years after Bacon's death, hesi- \^;r . tate to speak out and say what it was ? — unless i . ^ j[ the secret were something that still affected those^^j ^ i who were living, and was not merely personal to Jj' Bacon himself ^ Such would be the case if th cipher story of Elizabeth's marriage were true ^'i Tenison evidently knew the secret : he did not L ^ wish to tell it, and yet he hoped, for some reason, 4.^ that it would not remain hidden for ever. So he •'•j-^ gives the hint contained in Bacon's s2Deech to King ^ i James, trusting that that will put searchers on the i \ track and bring everything to light in due course. ^ i t He has failed of his purpose, for the hint has been ^ ^ ^ quite disregarded these many years. Then con-.. M^ sider the speech itself. How strange and mys- ^"* ^ terious to be made by a subject to his King. 4 *^ J\^ What did he mean by calling himself * the first of ^^ ^ J' J sacrifices in your Times ' ? It is diflficult to con- ^ ^:^ 'Z ceive what circumstances in his life would justify ^ : ]j[t^- his using such an expression to his Sovereign, \ , J^ except the cipher story were true. Then, indeed, Jx 4 he would have full warrant to speak of himself to i '^ j King James — and to the King more than to any ^ ^ ^"^ other — as the first, or chief, of sacrifices. And*" >,'3 remember that Tenison puts this forward as offer- ' f ^ H^ ing the clue to his secret. It has nothing to do LORD BACON'S CIPHER 5 with his fall and subsequent disgrace : this, doubt- less, was a cause of much suffering during the last few years of his life, but it was public, and well known to all. The secret cause of his great suffer- ing had to do with a sacrifice of himself that was known only to few. The Archbishop seems pur- posely to bring the King into the matter to indicate the King's connection with it. In any Bacon research the chief matter to be investigated is his famous biliteral cipher, and the use he made of it. To understand any man and to properly appreciate his work, we must know who he was and what were the circumstances in which he lived. I£ his life was muffled up in some great secret, we cannot know the man unless we know the secret. Tenison of course knew about this cipher, and, I suspect, had deciphered it. Indeed, it would not surprise me to find that he himself has used it in his * Account of all the Lord Bacon's Works.' What he says on the cipher is as follows : * The fairest and most correct edition of this Book ' (' The Advancement of Learning '), * in Latine, is that in Folio, printed at London, Anno 1623. And whosoever would understand the Lord Bacon's Cipher, let him consult that accurate edition. For, in some other Editions which I have perused the form of the letters of the Alphabet, in 6 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED which much of the mysterie consisteth, is not observed. But the Roman and Italic shapes of them are confounded.'* It strikes one as curious that Tenison should draw such very marked attention to this 1623 edition. In the 1624 edition published in Paris — which has been deciphered by Mrs. Gallup, and the deciphering published — the exjDlanation of the cipher, so far as making one understand how to use it goes, is quite as clear as in the 1623 edition. This also is the case with the first English version of the 1623 edition, put out by Gilbert Wats in 1640. Here, too, the explanation of the cipher is quite clear and complete ; but Tenison is at pains to throw discredit upon this translation,! as though anxious to drive all inquirers to the 1623 edition. I do not know if Wats's book is as deficient as Tenison would lead one to think. It is the only translation that has been made ; indeed, by some it is supposed — and apparently on very good grounds — to be instead of a translation, an English version, left by the Great Master himself. A consideration of Bacon's own remarks on the subject inclines one * ' An Account of all the Lord Bacon's Works,' 1679, p. 27. t Ibid,, p. 26. LORD BACON'S CIPHER 7 to think that the * De Augmentis ' was originally composed by him in English. In his letter to Prince Charles, accompanying the gift of the book, he says : ' I send your Highness in all humbleness my book of *' Advancement of Learning," translated into Latin, but so inlarged, as it may go for a new work. It is a book, I think, will live and be a citizen of the world, as English books are not.' Again, in his letter to King James accompanying the presentation copy of the w^ork, he repeats the statement :* ' It is a translation, but almost inlarged to a new work. I had good helps for the language.' The enlargement that he refers to is from ' the two books of Sir Francis Bacon, of the Proficiency and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Human,' previously published in 1605. But if, as he plainly says, this ' De Augmentis ' was a translation into Latin, clearly there must have been an English version from which it was translated, and I strongly suspect that the 1640 edition brought out by Wats is this original English version. It is strange that so much mystification * Birch, ' Letters of Lord Chancellor Bacon/ p. 351, 8 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED should go on about apparently so simple a matter as the translation of a book ; but this mystification is no new thing to come across in connection with Baconian literature, for mystery in that matter is the rule rather than the exception. Tenison, in his ^ Account of all the Lord Bacon's Works,' when dealing with this translation, says (p. 24) : ' Afterwards he enlargetli the Second of those Two Discourses' (the 1605 edition of the * Ad- vancement ') * which contained especially the above- said Partition, and divided the Matter into eight Books. And knowing that this work was desired beyond the seas, and being also aware that books written in a modern Lano^uaofe, which receiveth much change in a few years, were out of use, he caused that part of it which he had written in English to be translated into the Latin tongue by Mr. Herbert,''^ and some others, who were esteemed masters in the Roman eloquence.' Then, on p. 26, in regard to the retranslation back into English, Tenison says : * The whole of this book was rendered into English by Dr. Gilbert Wats of Oxford, and the Translation has been well received by many.' * This was George Herbert, to whom Bacon subse- quently dedicated his metrical versions of some of the Psalms. LORD BACON'S CIPHER 9 It is this retranslation of Wats which, I believe, is the original English version composed by Bacon. Wats evidently had access to Bacon's manuscript, for in his English version he gives a long preface of Bacon's in English that has no counterpart at all in the Latin version. If he had access to Bacon's papers so as to get this, why not also the rest of the English manuscript. The whole question is curious and involved, and perhaps the most curious part is that neither Tenison, nor Wats, nor Rawley himself — who was always standing by, as it were, at the bringing out of any of these w^orks — calls any attention to the fact of the aj)pearance for the first time of this important preface, nor does any of them offer explanation of its non-appear- ance in Latin. Rawley himself in 1638 — only two years before the appearance of Wats's book — brought out a very important volume containing a large number of Bacon's works in Latin, and among them was the * De Augmentis Scientiarum.' This apparently follows the 1623 edition; and here also there is no hint of the long and important preface — ex- tending to thirty-five pages folio — that Wats's English version possesses. Rawley, as one of the custodians of Bacon's papers, must have known of this preface, and must indeed have put Wats in 10 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED possession of it, and yet there is no allusion to it, either to explain its omission in 1623-24 and 1638, nor why nor how it was reserved to be brought out with a translation of these books in 1640, fourteen years after Bacon's death. There is also a translation of this work into French, * made upon the motion of Marquis Fiat ' (Tenison's ' Baconiana/ p. 27), that was first brought out about 1625 (apparently) and again in 1632. There is a letter of Bacon's (' Baconiana ' pp. 201-202) to the Marquis Fiat, undated, but probably written about 1625, sending the last edition of his Essays, in which he alludes to the French translation of the ' Advancement of Learn- ing.' It is notable that this French translation lacks the long preface that came out with the English translation, and it is also notable, I think, that these French versions came out so long before the English (in 1640). The explanations of the biliteral cipher are, of course, fully and completely given in the French editions as in the Latin and English. With the English edition also appears a selection from the ' Manes Yerulamiani,' first published separately in 1626. I suspect there is something in the 1623 edition o£ the * De Augmentis Scientiarum,' other than LORD BACON'S CIPHER 11 'the form of the letters of the alphabet,' that makes Tenison anxious that it should be consulted by those who wish to understand the cipher ; probably some important information in cipher. This edition seems to be rare and hard to find ; but there are two copies of it in the British Museum Library. There is a small edition of the ' De Augmentis/ published at Ley den in 1645, and in this the explanation of the cipher is very difficult ; indeed it would be impossible to com- prehend it from this, as the biliteral character of the alphabet is hardly visible. It is interesting, how- ever, to note that the examples explaining the cipher are given in ordinary printed italic letters : the examples in the former editions had all been given with script letters. There is a book — quite a small volume — called * Mercury, or the Secret and Swift Messenger/ attributed to John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, and published anonymously in 1641, in which Bacons biliteral cipher is fully set forth, and the use of it explained by examples. It is interesting to note, too, that there is an example given of a way of using the biliteral that Bacon himself did not pro- pose, and the sentences used for exemplifying Bacon's method are different from those used in the 'Advancement of Learning.' Another small book 12 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED by John Falconer, styled ' The Art of Secret Infor- mation disclosed without a Key,' was published in 1685. This also treats of Bacon's biliteral cipher, explains how it can be used, and gives full examples. All this goes to show that when these little books were published Bacon's biliteral cipher was fully appreciated and understood. And at a time when ciphers and secret writing were so much in use by all men, it is not hard to believe that this — the best of all cij^hers — was actually used for the purpose for which it was designed. /^*^ / -^cce**^ . As showing how extensive was the use of ciphers, I may mention that among the papers of Mary, Queen of Scots, that were seized by Queen Elizabeth, were found about sixty^ kinds of ciphers (* History of Mary, Queen of Scotland,' Stranguage, 1624, p. 176). It is interesting to trace the growth of this invention of Bacon's from its birth. The first men- tion of it occurs in the first issue of the ' Advance- ment of Learning,' which came out in 1605. This was published in English under the title, ' The Two Bookes of Sir Francis Bacon. Of the Pro- ficience and Advancement of Learning, Divine and Humane.' What he says about ciphers is as follows : LORD BACON'S CIPHER 13 ' For Cyphers they are commonly in Letters or Alphabets, but may be in Words. The kindes of Cyphars (besides the simple cyphars with changes, and intermixtures of Nulles and Non-significants), are many according to the Nature or Rule of the infolding — Wheele Cyphars, Kay Cyphars, Doubles, etc. But the vertues of them whereby they are to bee preferred are three ; that they bee not laborious to write and reade ; that they bee impossible to decipher ; and in some cases, that they bee without suspicion. The highest degree whereof is to write Omnia per omnia ; which is undoubtedly possible, with a proportion Quintuple at most, of the writing infoulding, to the writing infoulded, and no other restrainte whatsoever. This Arte of Ciphering hath for relative an Arte of Desciphering : by supposition unprofitable ; but as things are, of great use. For suppose that Cyphers were well managed there bee Multitudes of them which exclude the Discypherer. But in regarde of the rawnesses and unskillfullnesses of the handes through which they passe, the greatest Matter are many times carried in the weakest ciphers. ^ In the enumeration of these private and retyred Artes it may bee thought I seeke to make a great Muster Rowle of Sciences ; naming them for shew and ostentation, and to little other purpose. But kit those which are skillfull in them judge^ whether I bring them onely for appearance, or whether in that which I speake of them (though in few Markes) 14 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED there bee not some seed of proficience. And this must bee remembered, that as there bee many of great account in their Country and Provinces, which when they come up to the Seate of the Estate are but of mean Ranke and scarcely regarded : so these Arts being here placed with the principall and supreame Sciences, seeme petty things : yet to such as have chosen them to spend th^ir labcm^'s studies in them, they seeme great Matters.' V^'^/^^**^ This is the sum of all that he says. From this it would be impossible to understand the cipher or make anything but the baldest guess at what he meant by ' a proportion Quintuple at most, of the writing infoulding, to the writing infoulded.' No one could with such directions as these, either con- struct the cipher or recognize it if he happened across it, or, less still, decipher it if it were placed before him. There is, in fact, merely a hint given that the highest degree of cipher can be attained with a quintuple proportion of the writing infolding to the writing infolded : but as to how this is done, there is no explanation at all. And yet in the subsequent paragraph Bacon apologizes for having mentioned these ' private ' and ' retyred Artes ' (though apology were not needed when he has not troubled one to follow any explanation), they being small affairs ; and then concludes by saying : ' Yet LORD BACON'S CIPHER 15 to such as have chosen them to spend their labour's studies in them/they seeme great Matters.' Is not this a curious ending ? The cipher is alluded to in the most veiled and restrained manner, with nothing but the merest hint of what it is. And yet this concluding sentence would suggest to one that he had chosen it to ' spend his labour's studies in it ' — that is, to use it for infolding writing by it.* This version of the ' Advancement of Learning ' was reprinted on different occasions. Besides the edition of 1605 there is a copy of date 1629, and it came out again in 1633. But the full and large work in Latin was brought out in 1623, under the title of ' De Augmentis Scientiarum.' It was printed in that year in London by John Haviland. This is the book to which attention is specially directed by Tenison, as before said. In the fol- lowing year — 1624 — it was brought out in Paris, also in Latin. It forms nine books of the great * Instauratio ' which Bacon had set himself about. In this 1623 edition, followed by the Paris 1624 * Cf, Shakespeare, Sonnet XLVIII. : ' How careful was I, when I took my way, Each trifle under truest bars to thrust, That to my use it might unused stay From hands of falsehood, in sure wards of trust ! But thou, to whom my jewels trifles are," etc. 16 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED edition, the famous biliteral cipher is for the first time clearly set out, and the use of it explained by examples. It is most plainly and thoroughly done, so that anyone with but little trouble can understand it. As I have said before, Tenison directs special attention to this 1623 edition, but, so far as one can see, the explanation is equally clear in the 1624 book. Bacon departed this life in 1626, and this cipher of his remained in its Latin dress. Eawley republished it in 1638 in his * Baconi Opera Moralia et Civilia,' but it was not until 1640 that Gilbert Wats brought out the English version, with the cipher fully illustrated and explained in English."-'-* Wats's book was printed at Oxford by Leon- Lichfield under the title ' Of the Advancement and Proficience of Learning of the Partitions of Sciences IX Bookes.' The part referring to the biliteral cipher and the explana- tion of it is very clear, and it is interesting to note how it is an expansion of the ideas set out in the smaller 1605 work. Bacon says : ' Wherefore let us come to Cyphars. Their kinds are many, as Cyphars simple, Cyphars inter- mixt with Nulloes, or more significant characters ; Cyphars of double letters under one character : * Book VI., Chap. I., p. 264. Edition 1640. LORD BACON'S CIPHER 17 Wheele-Cyphars : Kay-Cyphars : Cyphars of words : Others. But the virtues of them whereby they are to be preferr'd are three : That they be ready, and not laborious to write : that they be sure, and lie not open to Deciphering : and lastly if it be possible, that they may be managed with- out suspition. For if Letters Missive fall into their hands, that have some command and authority over those that write : or over those to whom they were written : though the Cyphar itself be sure and impossible to be decypher'd, Yet the matter is liable to examination and question : unless the cypher be such as may be voide of all suspition or may elude all examination. As for the shifting off examination, there is ready prejDared a new and profitable invention to this purpose ; which seeing it easily procured, to what end should we report it as Deficient. The invention is this : That you have two sorts of Alphabets, one of true letters, the other of Non significants, and that you likewise fould up two Letters : one which may carrie the secret, another such as is probable the Writer might send yet without perill. Now if the mes- senger be strictly examined concerning the Cypher let him present the Alphabet of Non significants for true letters, but the Alphabet of true letters for Non significants : by this Art the examiner falling upon the exterior letter and finding it probable shall suspect nothing of the interior letter. But that jealousies may be taken away, we will annexe % 18 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED another invention, which, in truth, we devised in our youth when we were at Paris : and is a thing that yet seemeth to us not worthy to be lost. It containeth the highest degree of Cypher, which is to signify Omnia per omnia, yet so as the writing infolding may beare a quintuple proportion to the writing infolded : no other condition or restriction whatsoever is required. It shall be performed thus : First let all the letters of the Alphabet by transposition be resolved into two Letters only ; for the transposition of two letters by five placings will be sufficient for 32 differences, much more for 24 which is the number of the Alphabet. The example of such an Alphabet is on this wise. Here follow the full and complete examples of the biliteral cipher,* showing how to use it. The letters employed for the purpose are script, not type. To have used the italic type in the examples, similar to that used in the printing of his books would — Bacon doubtless thought — have been a little too clear and plain, and would have led to the deciphering too readily. For had the infolded tale been deciphered during his life- time, his life would not have been worth a minute's purchase. But it is interesting to note, as I pointed out before, that in 1645 there was brought * See Appendix for facsimile reproduction of the cipher explanation from ' De Augmentis Scientiarum,' 1623. LORD BACON'S CIPHER 19 out an edition at Ley den, in which the examples were given in the ordinary printed italic letters. Li this, however, the differences between the two founts of italic type used are so extraordinarily minute that it is almost impossible to detect them. I believe there are two founts used, but they are marvellously similar. But this 1645 edition marks a distinct step in advance. For the first time it is ventured to make the explanation of the cipher with the ordinary printed letters, though it is done with extreme caution. It is as though those bringing out the various editions were begin- ning to fear that the whole thing was too carefully hidden, and was in danger of never being dis- covered. First there are the 1623 and 1624 editions in Latin, with the cipher letters in script : these are extant for some years, and no one's attention is drawn to the deciphering of the hidden story. Then Bacon departed this life's stage on the date given by Rawley, April 9, 1626. In 1638 Rawley ventures to bring out the * De Augmentis ' again, still in Latin, with the cipher letters in script, but it is issued in a volume with the ' History of Henry YII.,' ' New At- lantis,' ' History of Winds,' ' History of Life and Death,' and other pieces, all in Latin under the title of ' Opera Moralia et Civilia,' in the hope, J^ 20 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED perhaps, that in company with these other pieces attention may be drawn to it. But still no one ^ takes any notice of it. Then in 1640 a bold step is taken : the English version is brought out by Wats ; but even still caution is observed, and the book is published in Oxford, perhaps with the notion of not attracting too much attention, and it is brought out as a translation, the idea possibly being that, if it were announced as the English ^ version of the 1623 original, the attention of the^ world of letters would be too strongly directed to it. The letters of the cipher explanation are still in script. In the following year, 1641, John Wilkins, Bishop of Chester, brought out (anonymously) his * Mercury, or the Secret and r5(> Swift Messenger,' in which Bacon's cipher is fully t • explained, and examples of its use given that differ A from those presented in the ' De Augmentis.' The * letters used are still script and not type. But ^ even after these two publications in English, there h seem to have been no minds quick enough to seize upon and follow up the hints thrown out ; ori possibly there were none sufficiently interested inn the subject to concentrate their thoughts upon it ; at any rate the cipher story remained uninvesti- gated. - Those who had the secret in keeping were now becoming alive to the fact that it was V LORD BACON'S CIPHER 21 so well hidden there was danger of its never being discovered. For some reason they were prevented from openly disclosing it ; it must be discovered by others. So in 1645 they resolved upon publishing the * De Augmentis,' with the cipher explanations given by printed italic letters — not by script as formerly. But great care had to be used, and the book was published at Leyden in Latin, doubtless for the purpose of avoiding too great notice, and to leave a door of escape open to those, still living, who might be implicated by the cipher story if published, by saying that the whole thing was a fraud of the Leyden printers. But even after the publication of this Leyden edition there is no evidence that anyone, outside the small circle of the initiated, became acquainted with the cipher mystery or endeavoured to unravel it. There is another edition of the ' De Augmentis,' published in Latin, at Amsterdam in 1662, and in this cipher explanations are also made in the same type as used in the body of the work ; but with differences of type that are tantalizingly minute. In 1679 Archbishop Tenison published his 'Account of Lord Bacon's Works,' and in the passage that I have quoted draws attention to the cipher as put forth in the 1623 edition, being the first book in which it appeared. And from that 22 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED time until recent years, when Mrs. Pott and Mrs. Gallup first published their decipherings from various books, no attention has been directed to it ; and never, until the work of these ladies appeared, has any deciphering of Bacon's work been made public. I think it is due to Mrs. Pott — who has done so much, and so much more than others, to let in the light upon the hidden places of Bacon's life — to remember that she was among the first to decipher the message that Bacon has left secreted in his many books. It is a great achievement, and one much to be proud of, and it is to be regretted that others interested in this question do not take up a work that yields such valuable results. The difficulties of deciphering are enormous, and the patience required almost infinite, yet the work should be done. It was in ^Baconiana' for Septem- ber, 1899, that Mrs. Pott published her deciphering of short passages from various books, some of which had, on the faces of them, little connection with Bacon ; and I fancy that Mrs. Pott had deciphered a good deal more than is there given forth. To verify the cipher, in the sense of one- self deciphering, is a most difficult matter, for the work of deciphering needs boundless perseverance and the keenest eyesight ; but, as I said before, it LORD BACON^S CIPHER 23 is much to be regretted that those with fitness for the work do not take part in it, for the discoveries to be made are of the profoundest interest. I think there can be no doubt that the various publications of the cipher show a development that is very significant. Doubtless the fear those had who were privy to it was that, if it were discovered, and the tale laid bare during their lifetimes, they might be involved in dire punishment. This would inculcate careful hiding. On the other hand, if too carefully hidden, it might never be discovered, and all the labour — the enormous labour — of infolding the secret story quite wasted. And this is the fate that has nearly overtaken it. As the years slipped away after Bacons death, interest in him and his works gradually subsided. The stormy years of the Cavalier and Roundhead wars was not the time for men to busy themselves about a literary puzzle of the past. By the year 1679 Archbishop Tenison had to administer a gentle w^hip to try and rouse curiosity once more about Bacon. But the great cause of his suffering, which was then to some a secret, remained a secret, gradually ceased to interest any, and in time was forgotten by all. None remembered that the great man's life had been clouded by suffering different from that of ordinary mortals, and none U BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED were induced to make any special investigation of his life or writings. It is only in recent years that interest has been revived in Bacon, and that minds have been directed strenuously to solving the mystery of his life. That the cipher story contains the mystery I quite believe. That it should be deciphered is of capital importance. Bacon undoubtedly set great store by his cipher. This is abundantly evident by what he has said about it. I have quoted already from the 1640 edition, the English version of the * De Augmentis,' where he introduces the cipher. I now give his concluding remarks on the subject (lib. vi., cap. i.), as they are interesting to compare with what he first said when writing about it in the ' Advance- ment of Learning ' in 1605 : ^ But it may be that in the enumeration, and, as it were, taxation of Arts, some may thinke that we goe about to make a great Muster Rowle of Sciences, that the multiplication of them may be more admired : when their number perchance may be displayed, but their forces in so short a treatise can hardly be tried. But for our parts we do faith- fully pursue our purpose, and in making this Globe of Sciences, we would not omit the lesser ^nd remoter Islands. Neither have we (in our LORD BACON^S CIPHER 25 opinion) touched these Arts perfunctorily, though cursorily ; but with a piercing stile extracted the marrow and pith of them out of a masse of matter. The judgment hereof we refer to those who are most able to judge of these arts. For seeing it is the fashion of many who would be thought to know much, that everywhere making ostentation of words and outward terms of Arts, they become a wonder to the ignorant, but a derision to those that are Masters of those Arts : we hope that our labours shall have a contrarie successe, which is, that they may arrest the judgment of everyone who is best versed in every particular Art : and be under- valued by the rest. As for those Arts which may seeme to bee of inferior ranke and order, if any man thinke wee attribute too much unto them : Let him looke about him and he shall see that there bee many of special note and great account in their owne Countrie, who when they come to the Chiefe City or seat of the Estate, are but of mean ranke and scarcely regarded : so it is no marvaile if these slighter Arts, placed by the principal and supreme Sciences, seeme pettie things : yet to those that have chosen to spend their labours and studies in them, they seeme great and excellent matters.' These concluding words seem to me to be of great importance. Note, too, that they are a care- ful expansion of the ending that I have quoted from the 1605 edition of the * Advancement of 26 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED Learning.'^ Does not Bacon's saying 'to those that have chosen to spend their labours and studies in them, they seem great and excellent matters/ clearly imply that he had thus chosen to spend his labours and studies — i.e.y in using the cipher for infolding secret writing ? Spending labours and studies in them could not refer to their invention, for with regard to the great biliteral — the Omnia per omnia — about which he is writing, he tells us that he devised that in his youth when he was at Paris. His labours and studies in it afterwards must, therefore, have been in the using of it for the purpose for which it was devised. Another interesting and important fact to note is that though Bacon devised this cipher in his youth when in Paris — that is, from 1577 to 1579 — it was not until 1623, some forty-five years after, when he was past sixty years of age, that he gave it to the public in such manner that it could be under- stood. And it is not as though it had during that long interval dropped out of sight and been for- gotten ; he had carried it clearly in his mind, for he alludes to it, though does not give the key to it, in 1605. When it was a thing in which he was so interested, and when he thought it so excellent a matter, why did he not give it to the world in * See p. 14. Q Elizabeth. flic aqcs- mirrour , and an EVROPES wonder, 77hr JVETHZBj*Ajh)jJBS J JuiG^^i^at^ Frances ^ndc / LORD BACON'S CIPHER 27 1605? I believe the simple explanation is that he was afraid to publish it then, lest the story should be made known during his lifetime ; but that when he came to be past sixty years of age he felt that he must take the risk of publishing, lest he died and all his labours were lost. We must remember, too, that Bacon was in a very peculiar position in regard to the making known of his cipher. Ordi- narily the use of a cipher was in correspondence between two friends, each having the key, the cipher being unintelligible to all others. But in Bacon's case, while the cipher message was given to the whole world, the key had also to be given to the whole world. It does not require much strain of the imagination to realize that how best, and in what way safely, to do this must have been a long puzzle to Bacon. If he were to leave the key in the hands of a select few to be produced a certain number of years after his death, it might easily happen that even in the lifetime of these few no proper time would arrive to declare the secret. For it was of such a nature that the mere fact of being privy to it might endanger the life of the holder. Or he might entrust it to some secret society, to be brought out in due course as to the society might seem proper ; but this was open to the objection that as time went on the society might be dominated 28 BACON-^S SECRET DISCLOSED by men who would object to the secret being made public. Therefore he would come to the conclusion that the best and safest course to take was the bold one of making the key public, with safeguards and protections about it, and to trust to the keen wit and watchful care of those who were in the secret to prevent its being unveiled too soon while those were alive who might be injured by its disclosures. This, of course, was open to the objection that it might never be discovered, and would lie buried for ever. But Bacon relied on the intelligence of the public to pierce the veil he had carefully drawn over his work, and relied, too, on the strong interest he believed the public would take in all his writings, and on the profound study that would be devoted to them. In this, I think, he was mis- taken. So far as one can judge from contemporary writing, I do not think Bacon was read to any great extent, and the age of criticism had scarcely dawned. For this reason, the remarks of Arch- bishop Tenison are to my mind of great impor- tance. He is the only w^riter that I know of living in Bacon's century who makes mention in any appreciative way of the cipher ; and Tenison' s words are, it seems to me, carefully restrained, and rather meant to incite curiosity about it and draw attention to it, than to criticize or explain. LORD BACON^S CIPHER S9 Tenison gives one the impression of knowing much more than he cared to say, and of being anxious to to get men to come forward of themselves and find out what is hidden. And while he does this, he never says that the cipher covers up anything that is w^orth knowing, but rather leaves it to be inferred that such is the case. Indeed, while we speak of Tenison as having done this and that in ' Baconiana,' we must remember, as a matter of fact, the book was pub- lished anonymously, and was only attributed to Tenison in after-years, mainly because at the end of the ' Account of all the Lord Bacon 's Works ' therein printed are inscribed the initials ' T. T.,' which have been interpreted to mean ' Thomas Tenison.' But if it were Tenison who wrote this book — as has been generally believed — the fact that he shrouds himself from public view only goes to show what a strange care he took so as not to be too readily identified with the book. Though why he should do so puzzles one to determine ; for to act as literary executor to so great a man as Bacon could in no way be deroga- tory, even to an Archbishop. As one might expect, there are no letters from Bacon that speak of the cipher, but there is one that contains an allusion that has been thought to 30 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED refer to it. This is a letter to Tobie Mathew — who was deeply in Bacon's confidence — written in, i| or soon after, the year 1605. He says — * I have sent you some copies of my Book on the Advancement which you desired, and a little work of my Recreation, which you desired not. My instauration I reserve for our confidence ; it ^ sleeps not. These works of the Alphabet are in my opinion of less use to you where you are now, than at Paris, and therefore I conceived that you had sent me a kind of tacit countermand of your former request. But in regard that some friends of yours have still insisted here, I send them to you and for my part, I value your own reading more than your publishing them to others. . . .'^ Upon this Mr. Spedding comments — 'What these '* works of the alphabet " may have been I cannot guess ; unless they related to Bacon's cipher' (Phil., ' Works/ i. 659). Though it would be most interesting could we believe that there was here an allusion by Bacon himself to his cipher, I for my part cannot accept it as such. These ' Works of the Alphabet * clearly refer in the letter to ' a little work of my * Stephen's 'Letters of Sir Francis Bacon,' edition 1702, p. 36. LORD BACON'S CIPHER 31 Recreation * which you ' desired not.' They cannot include the ' Book of the Advancement/ because Mathew desired that; but Bacon conceived that Mathew had sent him a kind of tacit countermand of his former request for the * Works of the Alphabet ' ; though in regard that some of Mathew's friends in London insisted, he sends them to him, being a little work of his Recreation. Now, in the ' Promus ' — that most valuable col- lection made by Bacon of ideas and sayings to be used in his work — the bits of marble ready for his mosaics — there occurs the following, taken from the ' Adagia ' of Erasmus, and numbered 516 in Mrs. Pott's publication : * Tragedies and comedies are made of one alphabet.' Seeing that this idea was in Bacon's mind, what more likely than that in writing to his intimate Tobie Mathew he should speak of the tragedies and comedies that he privately wrote as * Works of the Alphabet,' and that this little work of his Recreation was none other than one, or some, of his plays ? To me this explanation seems the more likely, and to fit better the sense of the letter, rather than that the reference was to cipher work. But Spedding*s comment is valuable as 32 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED showing that he — who had studied Bacon's writings so thoroughly — looked upon the use of the cipher as a thing to be expected. We can understand the risk that Bacon ran in publishing the ' De Augmentis ' with the cipher explanation in it, but if his labour was not lo be thrown away, some risk must be taken. He deferred the publication until the end of 1623 — the same year that the great folio edition of the Plays came out — and April 9, 1626, was the day, accord- ing to Rawley, when he died. He had thus come very near to the end of his earthly career w^hen he decided to risk publication. I imagine, too — as I said before — that few copies of the book were printed in 1623, for it appears to be extremely scarce. In this brief and doubtless incomplete account of Bacon's biliteral cipher I have been able to put together the facts that have come to my hand and my own thoughts on the subject. But know- ing even these few facts of the cipher, would anyone be astonished to find that Bacon had used it ? Is it not probable that he would use it if he had anything to transmit in a secret manner ? With the knowledge that Bacon devised such a cipher, it would seem to be one's duty carefully to examine his works to see if perchance it might have been used there. And yet when the announcement was LORD BACON'S CIPHER 33 made, not long ago, that the cipher had been dis- covered and deciphered, it was received with shouts of derision and ridicule. Literary men, who should have known something of the subject, wrote and spoke as though the biliteral cipher had been concocted by the lady who made known its de- ciphering. Doubtless they were chagrined to find that they had passed by, unnoticed, what had proved of so much value when taken up. Doubt- less, too, they were doubly chagrined when they remembered the learned volumes they had written upon the lives and literary style and literary development of various Elizabethan poets, and found that the tale disclosed by the cipher showed these poets to have been but the masks for one stupendous genius, Francis Bacon. But is this sufficient reason why we should neglect to follow up the great clue that has been given ? Why we should allow the wonderful secret story of Bacon's life that has been hidden for 300 years to remain hidden for ever ? I think not ; and I think that the careful study and unravelling of this biliteral cipher should be undertaken and followed up by all who admire and reverence Bacon's life and work, and by all who desire to see justice done to a great man. Those who wish to do this will find ample 3 34 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED material to their hand. Books of almost every kind published in England during Bacon's life- time, and for a good many years after the date given of his death, are plainly full of double type in the italic printing. I think I am safe in saying that, of the books of any literary pretensions pub- lished between 1570 and 1670, a very great number contain the italics in double type. One often finds that two editions of the same work diflPer only in respect of the italic printing. While the Roman type has been printed letter for letter in exact correspondence in the two editions, the italic printing has been changed, and the two types shifted in such a way that the unfolded story is probably told in a different manner. A notable instance of this can be seen in the two editions of Bacon's * History of Henry YIL' — the one pub- lished in 1622, the other in 1629. These editions are by different printers ; the Roman type exactly corresponds, but the italic, which is plainly bi- literal in both, has been changed throughout, so that one edition differs from the other. The 1622 edition itself offers this peculiar puzzle : that there are extant no fewer than five different versions of the italic printing, all put forth by the same printer as one and the same edition. What this means or implies no one at present can say. It is possible LORD BACON'S CIPHER 35 that this is a blind adopted by Bacon and his friends to throw seekers off the track. And it has had that effect even at this day. For when these differences have been pointed out, men have at once exclaimed : ' That shows that there cannot be a cipher story in this book, for the italics should be the same.* But this conclusion, though on the face of it reasonable, is not the only one that can be drawn. The contraction of a word in the enfolded story by two letters would change the italic printing by ten letters, and thus make it all different from that point, and yet the story enfolded would remain the same. To those who are anxious to undertake this deciphering work I would say that two things are necessary — unbounded patience and vast en- thusiasm for the subject. The minute and tan- talizing differences of the letters are such as to weary the most enduring. But one can under- stand how keen must be the delight of gradually unfolding a message that has lain hid for 300 years. As Mrs. Pott says, in the article that I have referred to — * The apparition of words coming out, letter by letter, in single file, and forming themselves into battalions, compact and connected sentences, and often of the most unexpected kind, is intensely interesting and 36 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED exciting.' And it is a work that those with time on their hands might well devote themselves to. When this work has been accomplished there will be realized the truth of the Latin motto prefixed to the ' Advancement of Learning ' — ' Crescit occulto velut Arbor aevo Pama Baconi.' CHAPTER II A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON To throw new light upon the life of Lord Bacon, and to produce hitherto unknown facts in regard to it, are deeds of great importance to those who are Baconian admirers. Yet this is what I think I am able to perform in the few following pages. In the year 1631 there was published in Paris, by the firm of Antoine de Sommaville and Andr^ de Soubron, a book entitled ' Histoire Naturelle de Mre. Francois Bacon, Baron de Verulan {sic)y Vicomte de Sainct Alban et Chancelier d'Angle- terre.' At first one might imagine that this was a translation of Bacon's ' Sylva Syl varum,' but a very slight examination shows that this is not the case. It is a treatise on natural history in French that has no counterpart in English. The trans- lator, who in the licence to print is said to be Pierre Amboise, tells us, in the address to the reader, that he had been aided for the most part in 37 38 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED his translation by the author's manuscripts ; but the manner of obtaining these is not explained, nor is any explanation offered of the interesting fact that these manuscripts have never appeared in English. But *he' tells us further that, on account of his having been aided by these manu- scripts, he has considered it necessary to add to, or diminish, many of the things that had been omitted or added to by Bacon's Chaplain (Rawley), who, after the death of his master, had all the papers that he found in his cabinet confusedly printed ; and he adds further : ' I say this so that those who understand English will not accuse me of inaccuracy when they encounter in my trans- lation many things that they will not find in the original.' From this it would seem that * he ' had his eye upon an English edition of the work he was translating. If so, there is nothing anywhere recorded of it. The licence to print is issued, as before stated, to Pierre Amboise, Escuyer, sieur de la Magde- laine, who is there said to have translated into French a book entitled the * Natural History of Mr. Francis Bacon, Chancellor of England, with some letters of the same author ; together with the life of the said Mr. Bacon, prepared by the said applicant,' which he desires to bring into A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 89 light. But, though the licence to print is given with so much particularity, there are no letters of Bacon's in the volume ; but at the end of it there is a translation into French of Bacon's ' New Atlantis/ which, so far as I have been able to examine it, seems to be fairly literal, and about which nothing was said in the licence. The book is dedicated by ' D. M/ to the Mon- seigneur de Chasteauneuf, who was Ambassador Extraordinary to England from France in 1629 and 1630 ; but who ' D. M/ is, or whether he had anything more to do with the work than write the epistle dedicatory, and if more, what more, there is nothing whatever to show. One would naturally suppose that the person who signed the dedication of the work had a considerable part in its composi- tion, but we are distinctly told in the licence that it is Amboise who has made the translation into French. It is, therefore, not easy to see why * D. M.' appears on the scene at all. However, from the dedication to the permission to publish * Avec Privilege du Roy,' the book has all the appearance of having been brought out in a thoroughly regular manner, and under patronage of the highest class. Besides, in the introductory matter to the translation of Bacon's ' Advancement of Learning,' published in 1640, Grilbert Wats, th^ 4)0 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED translator, speaks of this * Histoire Naturelle/ and the work that Pierre Amboise has done in con- nection with it, in terms of praise, and quotes Amboise as worthy of respect and attention. I shall allude to this again, but in the meantime the remarks of Wats on this book afford the most certain evidence that it and its prefatory chapters were accepted by what we may call the Bacon party as a perfectly trustworthy and reliable book. It is important to remember this when we come to read the statements the book contains in regard to Bacon's life and lineage. Following upon the licence to print there is the life of Bacon, and this it is that is particularly interesting. Except for the allusion that I have quoted in the licence to print, the writer of this is not identified, not even by initials. The short sketch that he gives is interesting in that it differs in many points from the life that was brought out — long afterwards — by Eawley, and which has been so faithfully followed by subsequent biographers. We miss in this French sketch the little stories about Bacon's being called by the Queen her * little Lord Keeper/ and of his reply to Her Majesty, when asked how old he was, that he was just two years younger than Her Majesty's happy reign — stories which I confess have never seemed to me A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 41 to be particularly illuminating. Instead we have the information that he spent some years of his youth in travel in France, Italy, and Spain, and that his father was extremely solicitous about his education and upbringing. Important facts such as these are unnoticed by Eawley, and unknown to other writers. And yet in this life other important matters are slighted. There is no mention of dates of birth or death, nor is the name of either his father or his mother ever brought out : his father is spoken of simply as ' son pere,' his mother not at all. And it is important to notice that this life of Bacon in French was the first that ever appeared in print. At the date — 1631 — no account of his life had come out in English, and it was not till 1657 that Rawley brought out for the first time his life of the Lord Bacon as part of the ' Resuscitatio ; or, Bringing into Public Light of Several Pieces.* One might have thought that the publication of Bacon's ' Sylva Sylvarum ' — the first edition of which was brought out by Eawley in 1627, just a year after Bacon's death — would have been a good and fitting occasion on which to have pro- duced a short life of the great author, or on the republication of this work in 1628, 1631 (the very year in which the French book came out), 1635, 42 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED 1639, etc. ; but it was not until the appearance of the ninth and last edition (as it is called) in 1670 that the life appeared with the ' Sylva Syl varum.' Neither did it appear with the English version of the * Advancement of Learning ' brought out by Gilbert Wats in 1640, as might reasonably have been the case, especially as Wats was acquainted with the French life, and actually quoted from it ; but, as I said above, it was held back by Rawley to make its first appearance in English in 1657. This sketch that appeared in this French book of 1631 — only five years after Bacon's death — is therefore undoubtedly the first printed life, and antedates the English life by some twenty-six years. I think this adds very materially to the value of this work, and in con- sidering it, it is important to notice in how many particulars it differs from the orthodox conception of Bacon's parentage and early years. What * son pere' did for him, as described in this sketch, difi'ers greatly from what Sir Nicholas Bacon did, or could possibly have done. Sir Nicholas died on February 20, 1579, when Francis was barely turned eighteen years of age, and left him without any provision for education or maintenance. Such was not the conduct of * son pere ' as set out in this life. The cipher story, that disclosed the informa- I A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 43 tion that Bacon was the son of the Earl of Leicester and Queen Elizabeth, born of their secret marriage, and that he was brought up by Sir Nicholas and Lady Bacon as their son, is familiar to students of the Baconian question, and it is remarkable how the language of this life lends ^ support to that tale. I have thought it would be interesting to re- produce here translations of the dedication, the address to the reader, and the life, in the order in which they appear in the * Histoire Naturelle/ Each of these has something of particular interest to students of the Bacon question. The life is followed by a few verses addressed by ^ Mr. Auvray, advocat en Parliament, a Monsieur Bacon Chancelier d'Angleterre, sur son Histoire Naturelle, traduit par le sieur D. M.' There does not seem to be anything especially interesting in these verses. They are of the usual laudatory character. The only point to note is that the translation is here attributed to ' D. M.,' and not to Amboise. Further, in the concluding stanza both Bacon and * D. M.' are apostrophized as ' Immortals enfans du Parnasse,' a phrase that is applicable to poets^ and not to philosophers, and would suggest that * Maitre Auvray' had a knowledge of Bacon's poetical work. 44 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED The following is a translation of the dedica- tion: *T0 MONSEIGNEUR DE ChASTEAUNEUF, KeEPER OF THE Seals of France. * MONSEIGNEUR, * This Chancellor, whom we have so often brought over to France, has never yet left England with so much zeal to make known to us his wonders as now since he has known the rank that we have assigned to your virtues : so that now his History, with all the fine embellishments it has formerly obtained from his pen, appears before your eyes, in like manner as did that magnificent and studious Queen, who in order to see the greatness of a Prince-Philosopher undertook a voyage with all the pomp and circumstance of which she was capable. These are the fruits of a land where you have shewn those of your prudence : or rather it is a treasure of which I can claim no more than the smallest part, since being devoted entirely to you, and having discovered it during your Embassage, it should not fall into other hands than your own. One opinion from you of his superiority will be enough for his Glory ; and I feel assured that your Name on the front of this work will make it last throughout Centuries, an end that we should not attain though we endured to the end of the World. We should value it doubtless as we value those A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 45 pictures that are preserved in galleries, not for the merit of the painting, but for the portraiture of him whom they represent to our eyes. If Mr. Bacon had lived in our times, 1 do not doubt but that he would have taken your actions as the model for his. And so, Monseigneur, I do not think I am far from his intentions if to-day I offer to you his works. It is true that it would have been easy for this great man to have found a better pen than mine to have shewn forth his Genius, but I am sure when entering your house he could not have chosen a man more desirous of appearing on every occasion. * Monseigneur, ' Your most humble and * most obedient servant, ' D. M.' In regard to the foregoing, I would say that the opening phrase about bringing this Chancellor so often over to France is intended to mean (as it seems to me) the Chancellor, as represented by his works, not the man himself ; though the phrase has an ambiguous ring about it, and may be intended to suggest frequent visits of Bacon to France. The * Advertisement au Lecteur ' then follows : * Address to the Reader. ' This work of Mr. Bacon's, though posthumous, does not the less deserve to be recognized as legiti- 46 BACON S SECRET DISCLOSED mate, since it has tlie same advantages as those that have been brought to light whilst he was living. If the Author had had the desire to see it there, we should have seen this work in the press at the same time as his other books, but having designed that it should grow more, he had intended to defer the printing until the completion of all his works. This is a Natural History where the quali- ties of metals and minerals, the nature of the elements, the causes of generation and decay, the different actions of bodies upon each other, are treated with so much brilliancy, that he seems to have learned the science at the school of the first man. Of a truth, if in this he has rivalled Aristotle, Pliny, and Cardan, he has nevertheless borrowed nothing from them, as though he had intended to make it plain that these great men have not treated the subject so fully, but that there still remain many things to be said. For my part, though I have no intention of establishing the reputation of this Author at the expense of Antiquity, I think I may always truly say that in this subject he has had a certain advantage over them ; since the greater number of the Ancients, who have written upon nature, have been content to retail to us that which they have learnt from others : and, without reflect- ing that very often that which has been given to them as a true description is very far from the truth, they have preferred to bolster up with their arguments the tales of others rather than themselves A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 47 to make original researcla. But Mr. Bacon, instead of stopping at the same boundaries as those who have preceded him, will have Experience joined with Reason. *And to effect this he had a country house somewhat close to London, which he retained only in order to carry on his Experiments. In this place he had an infinite number of vases and phials ; some of which were filled with distilled waters, others with plants and metals in their native state ; some with mixtures and compounds ; and leaving them exposed to the air throughout all seasons of the year, he observed carefully the different effects of cold or of heat, of dryness and of moisture, the simple productions and corruptions, and other effects of nature."^ It is in this way that he has found out so many rare secrets, the discovery of which he has left to us ; and that he has exposed as false so many axioms that until now have been held as inviolable among the Philosophers. If, in order to make the meaning clear, I have used in this trans- lation many words more Latin than French, the Reader should lay the blame chiefly upon the sterility of our language, which is so defective that many things often remain unexpressed unless we have recourse to foreign languages. ' I shall be pleased also if the Reader will take notice that in this translation I have not exactly followed the order observed in the original English, for I have found so much confusion in the dis- position of the matter that it seemed to have been 48 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED broken up and dispersed rather by caprice than by reason. Besides, having been aided for the most part by the Manuscripts of the Author, I have deemed it necessary to add to, or to take from, many of the things that have been omitted or aug- mented by the Chaplain of Mr. Bacon, who after the death of his Master, printed in a confused manner all the pajDers that he found in his cabinet. * I say this, so that those who understand English will not accuse me of inaccuracy, when they en- counter in my translation many things that they do not find in the original.' There is one passage in the foregoing which I have marked between two asterisks, for a reason that will be shown later on ; but in the meantime I would draw attention to the fact stated, that the translator was in possession of Bacon's manuscripts ; and, further, from the last sentence one would be led to infer that there is an English original (printed, I presume), which might be compared with this French translation. Where is this English original ? There is nothing corresponding to it among Bacon's works, as now known. After this follows the ^ Privilege du Roy,' but there is not anything in this that seems to be necessary to translate, except that the permission is given to translate and publish * I'Histoire Naturelle A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 49 du sieur Francois Bacon Chancelier d'Angleterre, avec quelques Lettres du mesme Auteur : ensemble la vie du dit sieur Bacon composee par ledit ex- posant'; while in the book, as translated, there are no letters of Bacon's, but there is a translation of the ' New Atlantis/ The ' Life ' then follows : 'Discourse on the Life of M. Francis Bacon, Chancellor of England. ^ Those who have known the quality of M. Bacon's mind from reading his works, will — in my opinion — be desirous to learn who he was, and to know that Fortune did not forget to recompense merit so rare and extraordinary as was his. It is true, how- ever, that she was less gracious to his latter age than to his youth ; for his life had such happy beginning, and an end so rough and strange, that one is astonished to see England's principal Minister of State, a man great both in birth and in possessions, reduced actually to the verge of lacking the necessaries of life. * I have difficulty in coinciding with the opinion of the common people, who think that great men are unable to beget children similar to themselves, as though nature was in that particular inferior to the art which can easily produce portraits that are likenesses : especially as history teaches us that the greatest personages have often found in their 4 50 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED own families heirs of their virtues as well as of their possessions. And indeed, without the need of going to search for far away examples, we see that M. Bacon was the son of a father who possessed no less virtue than he : his worth secured to him the honour of being so well-beloved by Queen Elizabeth that she gave him the position of Keeper of the Seals, and placed in his hands the most important affairs of her Kingdom. And in truth it pains me to say that soon after his promotion to the first-named dignity, he was the principal instrument that she made use of in order to establish the Protestant Religion in England. * Although that work was so odious in its nature, yet if one considers it according to political maxims, we can easily see that it was one of the greatest and boldest undertakings that had been carried out for many centuries : and one ought not the less to admire the Author of it, in that he had known how to conduct a bad business so dextrously, as to change both the form of Religion, and the belief, of an entire Country, without having dis- turbed its tranquility. M. Bacon was not only obliged to imitate the virtues of such an one, but also those of many others of his ancestors, who have left so many marks of their greatness in history that honour and dignity seem to have been at all times the spoil of his family. Certain it is that no one can reproach him with having added less than they to the splendour of his race. Being A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 51 thus born in the purple [7ie par my les pourpres] and brought up with the expectation of a great career [I'esperance d'une grande fortune], his father had him instructed in *' bonnes lettres " with such great and such especial care, that I know not to w^hom we are the more indebted for all the splendid works \les beaux ouvrages] that he has left to us : whether to the mind of the son, or to the care the father had taken in making him cultivate it. But, however that may be, the obligation we are under to the father is not small. Capacity [jugement] and memory were never in any man to such a degree as in this one : so that in a very short time he made himself conversant with all the knowledge he could acquire at College. And though he was then con- sidered capable of undertaking the most important affairs [capable des charges les plus importants] yet, so that he should not fall into the usual fault of young men of his kind (who by a too hasty ambition often bring to the management of great affairs, a mind still full of the crudities of the school), M. Bacon himself wished to acquire that knowledge which in former times made Ulysses so commendable, and earned for him the name of Wise ; by the study of the manners of many different nations. I wish to state that he employed some years of his youth in travel, in order to polish his mind and to mould his opinion by intercourse with all kinds of foreigners. France, Italy, and Spain, as the most civilized nations of the whole 52 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED world were those whither his desire for knowledge [curiosite] carried him. And as he saw himself destined one day to hold in his hands the helm of the Kingdom [_le timon du Royaume] instead of looking only at the people and the different fashions in dress, as do the most of those who travel, he observed judiciously the laws and the customs of the countries through which he passed, noted the different forms of Government in a State, with their advantages or defects, together with all the other matters which might help to make a man able for the government of men. Having by these means reached the summit of learnino: and virtue, it was fitting: that he should also reach that of dignity. For this reason, some time after his return, the King, who well knew his worth, gave him several small matters to carry out, that might serve for him as stepping-stones to high positions : in these he acquitted himself so well that he was in due course considered worthy of the same position that his father vacated with his life. And in carrying out the work of Chancellor he gave so many proofs of the largeness of his mind, that one can say without flattery that England owes to his wise counsels, and his good rule, a part of the repose she has so long enjoyed. And King James, who then reigned, should not take to himself alone all the glory of this, for it is certain that M'^^ Bacon should share it with him. We may truly say that this Monarch was A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 53 one of the greatest Princes of his time, who understood thoroughly well the worth and value of men, and he made use to the fullest extent of M. Bacon's services, and relied upon his vigilance to support the greater part of the burden of the Crown. The Chancellor never proposed anything for the good of the State, or the maintenance of justice, but was carried out by the Royal power ; and the authority of the Master seconded the good intentions of the servant ; so that one must avouch that this Prince was worthy to have such a Minister, and he worthy of so great a King. ' Among so many virtues that made this great man commendable Prudence, as the first of all the Moral virtues, and that most necessary to those of his profession, was that which shone in him the most brightly. His profound wisdom can be most readily seen in his books, and his matchless fidelity in the signal services that he continuously rendered to his Prince. Never was there man who so loved equity, or so enthusiastically worked for the public good as he : so that I may aver that he would have been much better suited to a Republic than to a Monarchy, where frequently the convenience of the Prince is more thought of, than that of his people. And I do not doubt that, had he lived in a Republic, he would have acquired as much glory from the citizens, as formerly did Aristides and Cato, the one in Athens, the other in Rome. Innocence oppressed found always in his protection 54 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED a sure refuge, and the position of the great gave them no vantage ground before the Chancellor, when suing for j ustice. * Vanity, avarice, and ambition, vices that too often attach themselves to great honours, were to him quite unknown, and if he did a good action, it was not from the desire of fame, but simply because he could not do otherwise. His good qualities were entirely pure, without being clouded by the admixture of anj^ imperfections ; and the passions that form usually the defects in great men, in him only served to bring out his virtues ; if he felt hatred and rage it was only against evil doers, to shew his detestation of their crimes ; and success or failure in the affairs of his country, brought to him the greater part of his joys or his sorrows. He was as truly a good man, as he was an upright judge, and by the example of his life, corrected vice and bad living, as much as by pains and penal- ties. And in a word, it seemed that Nature had exempted from the ordinary frailties of men him whom she had marked out to deal with their crimes. AJl these good qualities made him the darling of the people, and prized by the great ones of the State. But when it seemed that nothing could destroy his position. Fortune made clear that she did not yet wish to abandon her character for instability, and that Bacon had too much worth to remain so long prosperous. It thus came about that amongst the great number of officials such as A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 56 a man of his position must have in his house, there was one who was accused before Parliament o£ exaction, and of having sold the influence that he might have with his master. And though the probity of M. Bacon was entirely exempt from censure, nevertheless he was declared guilty of the crime of his servant, and was deprived of the power that he had so long exercised with so much honour and glory. In this I see the working of monstrous ingratitude and unparalleled cruelty ; to say that a man who could mark the years o£ his life, rather by the signal services that he had rendered to the State, than by times or seasons, should have received such hard usage, for the punishment of a crime which he never committed ; England, indeed, teaches us by this that the sea, that surrounds her shores, imparts to her inhabitants somewhat of its restless inconstancy. This storm did not at all surprise him, and he received the news of his dis- grace with a countenance so undisturbed that it was easy to see that he thought but little of the sweets of life, since the loss of them caused him discomfort so slight. He had, fairly close to London, a country house replete with everything requisite to soothe a mind embittered by public life, as was his, and weary of living in the turmoil of the great world. He returned thither to give him- self up more completely to the study of his books, and to pass in repose, the remainder of his life. But as he seemed to have been born rather for the 56 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED rest of mankind than for himself, and as by the want of public employment he could not give his work to the people, he wished at least to render himself of use by his writings and by his books ; worthy as these are to be in all the libraries of the world, and to rank with the most splendid works of antiquity. * The History of Henry YII. is one of those works which we owe to his fall, a work so well received by the whole world, that one has wished for nothing so much as the continuation of the History of the other Kings. And even yet he would not have given opportunity for these regrets, had not death cut short his plans, and thus robbed us of a work that bid fair to put all the others to shame. ' The ISTatural History is also one of the fruits of his idleness. The praiseworthy wish that he had, to pass by nothing but to connote the nature and qualities of all things, induced his mind to make researches which some learned men may perhaps have indicated to him, but which none but himself could properly carry out. In which he has with- out doubt achieved so great a success, that but little has escaped his knowledge : so that he has laid bare to us the errors of the ancient Philosophy and made us see the abuses that have crept into that teaching, under the authority of the first authors of the science. But whilst he was occu- pied in this great work, want of means forced him to concentrate his mind on his domestic affairs. A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 57 The honest manner in which he had lived was the sole cause of his poverty ; and as he was ever more desirous of acquiring honour than of amassing a fortune, he had always preferred the interests of the State to those of his house ; and had neglected, during the time of his great prosperity, the oppor- tunities o£ enriching himself: So that after some years passed in solitude he found himself reduced to such dire necessity that he was constrained to have recourse to the King, to obtain, by his liberality, some alleviation of his misery. 1 know not if poverty be the mother of beauty, but I aver that the letter he wrote to the King on that occa- sion is one of the most beautiful examples of that style of writing ever seen. The request that he made for a pension is conceived in terms so lofty and in such good taste, that one could not deny him without great injustice. Having thus obtained the means to extricate himself from his difficulties, he again applied himself, as before, to unravel the great secrets of nature. And as he was engaged during a severe frost in observing some particular effects of cold, having stayed too long in the open, and forgetting that his age made him incapable of bearing such severities ; the cold, acting the more easily on a body whose powers were already reduced by old age, drove out all that remained of natural heat, and reduced him to the last condition that is always reached by great men only too soon. Nature failed him while he was chanting her praise : 58 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED this she did, perhaps, because, being miserly and hiding from us her best, she feared that at last he would discover all her treasures, and make all men learned at her expense. Thus ended this great man, whom England could place alone as the equal [en paralelle avec] of the best of all the previous centuries.' Such is the 'Life.' With the difficulties of trans- lation I fear that I have only imperfectly brought out the spirit of the original. Parts of the work are so intimate and so introspective that the thought has come to me that I was dealing, not with Pierre Yamboise or with ' D. M./ but with Bacon's own ' Apologia pro Vita Sua.' One seems to catch, the personal note of bitterness, grieving over unrealized hopes and shattered ambitions. ' The long bright day is done, And darkness rises from the fallen Sun !' And again the fierce cry of indignation is heard at the recollection of the ' monstrous ingratitude ' and * unparalleled cruelty ' from which he has suffered. All this is so different from the dry and precise details of Eawley's ' Life,' so much more interesting, and, if one may venture to say it, so much more like Bacon. When we analyze the *Life' in detail we find A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 59 passages that are impossible to reconcile with the theory of Sir Nicholas Bacon's parentage, while at the same time there are statements that will not fit with Leicester. The information that ' son pere ' was the principal instrument used to establish the Protestant religion in England is not readily applicable to either Sir Nicholas Bacon or Leicester, though I think more can be brought forward as indicating Leicester than Sir Nicholas. In the anonymous book called 'Leicester's Commonwealth,' first published about 1584, and recently produced afresh by Mr. Burgoyne of the Brixton Library, there are passages that show that Leicester inter- ested himself to a great extent in what one may call religious politics. But indeed Leicester's power was so great, and he used it in so masterful a fashion, that almost whatever he had a mind to he could do. The remarks about Bacon's ancestry are very significant. Tracing his ancestors through Sir Nicholas Bacon, how could it be said that they 'have left so many marks of their greatness in history that honour and dignity seem at all times to have been the spoil of his family ' ? Sir Nicholas came of no exalted stock — his father was Mr. Robert Bacon, of Chiselhurst; and his mother, Isabella, daughter of Mr. John Caye, of 60 BACON S SECRET DISCLOSED Pakenham, in the county of Suffolk.* But, tracing the ancestry through Leicester and Queen Eliza- beth, the statement was well within the truth. And in the very next sentence the author speaks of 'the splendour of his race,' a phrase quite inapplicable to the progenitors of Sir Nicholas Bacon. Of Leicester, too, it could be said with much more force than of Sir Nicholas, that Her Majesty 'placed in his hands the most important affairs of the Kingdom.' At his death, in 1588, he was Lieutenant-General and Marshal of all England ;t the latter a position that has never been held by any other subject. On the other hand. Sir Nicholas, though he was made Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, was never advanced to the position and title of Lord Chancellor. Again, take the phrase, ' born in the purple,' as applied to Francis Bacon ; this is strikingly signifi- cant. So, too, is the expression, ' brought up with the expectation of a great career.' By no stretch of the imagination could this apply to the youngest son of Sir Nicholas Bacon. Sir Nicholas died when Francis was just eighteen, and left no pro- vision at all for him (see Rawley's * Life '), while there was nothing in his upbringing under the * Birch's ' Heads of Illustrious Persons,' p. 31 . t Stowe's * Chronicles,' p. 750. Edition 1615. A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 61 Bacon parentage that could lead him to the expec- tation of a great career. Again, how very clear and striking are the remarks about Bacon's travels. All that we know hitherto about his having been abroad is contained in Rawley's ' Life.' What he says is that Francis, being sixteen years of age, and having learnt all that college could teach him, was sent to be with the English Ambassador in Paris, Sir Amyas Paulet. This was in 1577, and, with the exception of a visit to Queen Elizabeth, he remained here until the death of Sir Nicholas, which took place on February 20, 1579. Barely two years covers the time of the Paris visit. True it is that Rawley in the * Life ' vaguely says : ' Being returned from travel,' without specifjdng where he had been, or how long, or the time of his return. But this French ' Life' plainly says that he spent some years of his youth in travel, and passed through France, Italy, and Spain. We have here the very sort of education that one would say Bacon must have received in order to form him for the work he after- wards did. Note, too, the extraordinary sentence : ' And as he saw himself destined one day to hold in his hands the helm of the Kingdom,' etc. What can this mean except that the author of this ' Life ' conceived that Bacon at that time was filled with 62 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED the idea of his royal birth ? The cipher story, to which I have alluded, tells us that he came to the knowledge of the wonderful position in which he stood when he was about sixteen years of age, and just before he was sent away to be with Sir Amyas Paulet. In the above quotation there is an unmis- takable recognition of this fact, and I do not think that there is any other reasonable explanation of the passage but that the writer had reference to Bacon's exalted parentage. As the youngest son of Sir Nicholas and Lady Bacon, he could not by any straining of imagination conceive himself when a mere lad as * destined one day to hold in his hands the helm of the kingdom '; but as the lawful, though unacknowledged son of Queen Elizabeth, such a destiny would inevitably present itself. It is curious to note that from this period of travel the ' Life ' makes a jump into the reign, and well into the reign, of James I. All the period of Queen Elizabeth's life is passed over without a word. The hiatus is very remarkable, and may be not without significance. The account, too, that is given of Bacon's life and work after his fall and retirement is very interesting, and has about it a personal note that seems to me most .remarkable. The thoroughly intimate manner in which the A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 63 writer speaks of the letter Bacon wrote to King James is noteworthy, remembering that this 'Life' was published early in 1631. I conceive it is impossible that this letter could have been public property at this early date ; Eawley does not give it in the ' Resuscitatio ' published in 1657 ; nor is it given in the ^ Cabala ' that appeared in 1654 ; but it is given by Stephens in his * Letters of Sir Francis Bacon/ published in 1702,"^ and in a footnote there I gather that it was quoted in one of Howell's letters ; Howell, in the year 1 642, was appointed Clerk to the Privy Council, and in that capacity might have seen, and perhaps taken, a copy of this letter of Bacon's. He quotes the very Avords of the letter, f as it subsequently appeared in Stephens's volume in 1702. The date of Howell's letter, addressed to Dr. Prichard, in which he makes the quotation, is January 6, 1625; but this date is plainly wrong, for in the letter he speaks of Lord Bacon's death, which did not take place till April 9, 1626. It must be remembered, however, that ' Howell's Letters ' were written ' for publication,' while he was in the Fleet Prison, 1643-51, and many of the letters, and their dates, were supplied from recollection. They were * At pp. 272 and 297. t 'Howell's Letters,' 7th edition, p. 158 (1705). 64 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED first published in 1645. The interesting fact for me is that this year, 1645, was the occasion when Lord Bacon's letter to King James was first alluded to in any English publication, while the full letter did not appear until 1702 : and yet this unknown French author, writing in 1631, speaks of this letter in a manner showing that he was thoroughly familiar with it. The legitimate inference from this is, I think, that this French author had access to the innermost sources of information on matters concerning Bacon, and what he says about him should be accepted as being of the very best authority. The choice of the person to whom this book is dedicated is not without a certain significance. It is dedicated to Monseigneur de Chasteauneuf, who, as I said before, was Ambassador Extra- ordinary to England in 1629 and 1630. Allowing for diflferences of spelling, I imagine that this De Chasteauneuf was a relative, possibly a son, of the Monsieur de Castelnau, Ambassador to England from France in Elizabeth's reign, of whom Birch speaks in his ' Heads of Illustrious Persons ' (published in 1747) under the title of * Leicester,' as having been directed by his Government to press on the marriage between Queen Elizabeth and Leicester. The passage from Birch is ex- A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 65 tremely interesting, and as lie relies upon tlie ' Memoirs de Monsieur de Castelnau '* for the statement he makes, perhaps I may be permitted to quote. He says : * When Queen Elizabeth ascended the throne, she gave him [that is, Leicester] the earliest marks of her esteem, and in the first year of her reign made him Master of the Horse, and Knight of the Garter. Encouraged by these signal dis- tinctions, he flattered himself with the most promising hopes, and imagined, that if his Lady were dead, he needed not dispair of soon ren- dering himself agreeable to Her Majesty. With this view he sent her into the country to the house of one of his dependents at Comnore, near Abington, where it is said he first attempted to have her taken off by poison ; but failing in this * See ' Memoires de Michel de Castelnau ** a Bruxelles, 1731, vol. i., p. 184. De Castelnau's words are: 'Mais j'avois aussi charge de leurs Magestez, qui si je trouvois la Reine d'Angleterre disposes, comme Ton disoit, d'espouser le Milord Robert Dudley, qu'elle avoit fait Comte de Leicester, et avance pour sa vertu et ses merites, comme estant des plus accomplis Gentils-hommes d'Angleterre, et qui estoit aime et honore d'un-chacun, et que son affection fuft de ce coste-la, comme estoit celle de la Reine d'Escosse au Millord d'Harlay (Darnley) je fisse d'une main au nom de leurs Majestez tout ce qu'il me seroit possible pour avancer ces deux Mariages.' 66 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED design, caused her to be thrown down from the top of a staircase and murdered by the fall.' (This, of course, refers to the unfortunate Amy Robsart). ' In the meantime he met with a more favourable reception than ever from the Queen. The man- agement of all affairs was principally intrusted to him ; and though her Majesty did not openly countenance his pretensions, she seems not to have been at all displeased wdth the overture. She frankly declared to Sir James Melvill, the Scottish Ambassador, that she looked upon him as her brother and her best friend ; and that, had she ever designed to have married, her inclination would have led her to make choice of him for a husband. And some time after, when Monsieur de Castelnau, the Ambassador of France, was pressing this match by order of the French Court, she told him, that if this nobleman had been descended of a royal family, she would readily have consented to the motion he made in his master's name ; but she could never resolve to marry a subject of her own, or raise a dependent into a companion.' Of course, by the cipher story we are told that the marriage had been performed a considerable time before the date of the conversation with Castelnau, and while he was pressing for the marriage, Elizabeth was holding back from the public acknowledgment of what had already been accomplished. Perhaps she wished to preserve to A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 67 herself the right of either proclaiming the mar- riage, or treating it as a morganatic alliance, a policy of hesitation that was made decisive by the sudden death of Leicester in 1588. But, how- ever that may be, I think there is an interesting connection shown between the man to whom this book is dedicated and the Monsieur de Castelnau who was instructed to negotiate the marriage between Queen Elizabeth and Leicester. It must be readily apparent that the publication of this * Life ' at the time it was brought out, containing allusions such as I have pointed out, was not unattended with danger to author and printers if these allusions were too clear. Indeed, to obtain the King's licence it would be necessary to make these allusions sufficiently obscure. We must remember that Louis XIII. was brother to our own Queen Henrietta Maria, the wife of Charles L, and therefore care would have to be taken that the royal licence was not asked for anything that might be obnoxious to royal feel- ings, as this would be merely to court a refusal. If one could find a Spanish edition of a work of Bacon's about this period, with a life of the author prefixed, one might look for a greater freedom of speech and a further lifting of the veil. One very important thing in connection with 68 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED this book remains to be dealt with more in detail. I have alluded to the fact that Gilbert Wats, who brought out the English version of the nine books of the * Advancement of Learning' in 1640, in the * Testimonies consecrate to the Merite of the incomparable Philosopher' prefixed to that version, speaks of Pierre Amboise's ' Histoire Naturelle,' and quotes from what he terms Amboise's ' just and elegant discourse upon the life of our Author.' When we bear in mind the statements in regard to Bacon's life that I have just been dealing with, and which are extraordinary when contrasted with the statements that Rawley afterwards made, it is somewhat astonishing to find that Wats has not a word of correction to make in regard to these statements, but commends them as forming a * just and elegant discourse.' If Pierre Amboise's life be just, how can Rawley's *Life' be true ? I think there is here a dilemma that will require some casuistry to escape from by those who stand by Rawley's ' Life.' It must be remembered, too, that the opinion of Gilbert Wats cannot be lightly set aside. Whoever he was, or whether his was only a nom de guerre, it is undoubted that he was entrusted by the custodians of the Bacon documents with the bringing out of one of the most important of Bacon's English works. The great book, ' De i A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 69 Dignitate et Augmentis Scientiarum, Libri IX. / appeared in London in 1623 and in Paris in 1624, being Latin throughout. That Bacon actually composed this in Latin I do not believe, because he always acknowledged himself to be a poor Latinist, and in his letters speaks of obtaining the help of those who were good Latin scholars for the translation of this book into that language.* I do not think there can be any reasonable doubt but that Bacon first composed the *De Augmentis' in English, and that it was subsequently translated into Latin. If this were the case there would necessarily be the English version, and I believe it is this, and nothing less than this, that Gilbert Wats was entrusted with for publication in 1640. Besides this there is a long preface in English, extending to some thirty-four pages in folio, by Lord Bacon himself, that has no counterpart in the Latin editions, and was something quite new in the 1640 book. Again, there is a division of the first of the nine books into chapters in 1640, which was not done in the Latin books, and a Latin address to the reader by Rawley, which is passed over and left untranslated, while a new address by Gilbert Wats is substituted. It is curious also to note * See ante, p. 7. 70 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED that all the subsequent Latin editions — those brought out in Leyden and Amsterdam — follow what I may call Rawley's 1623 and 1624 editions, and have entirely ignored the long English preface that Gilbert Wats had obtained for his book. From all this it is apparent, I think, that Gilbert Wats had very special access to the Bacon manuscripts, and was confided in most fully by those who were the custodians of these documents. Therefore, when Wats quotes from this * Histoire Naturelle,' and speaks of the life therein recorded as being a *just and elegant discourse/ he gives to it a guarantee of truthfulness that cannot be dis- regarded. Where this ' Life ' differs from Rawley's, brought out twenty-six years later, we are entitled to claim the French life, backed by Wats's opinion, as being the more reliable. Wats's remarks upon this book are so important that I may be excused for quoting them in exteiiso* He writes as follows : * Mr. Pierre Amboise, Sr. de la Magdelaine, in his just and elegant discourse upon this life of our Author, delivers his censure thus : * " Judgment and Memory never met in any man in that height and measure they met in him ; * See ' Advancement of Learning,' edition 1640. A NEW LIFE OF LOUD BACON 71 so as in short time he became Master of all those knowledges which are learnt in Schooles." ' A page after : " But as he ever valued him- selfe ; rather borne for other men than himselfe : now that he could not, for want of employment any longer endow the publique with his Active perfections, he was desirous at least to become profitable in a contemplative way by his writings and by his books, monuments certainly meriting to find entertainment in all the Libraries of the world, and which deserve to be ranged with the fairest works of Antiquity." ' The foregoing is all from the ' Life,' and it is easy to compare these passages with the translation that I have given. After this Wats makes a somewhat long extract from the advertisement to the reader, and this is unusually interesting, as he makes a very notable departure from the French. I will not give the whole of the quotation, as it is some- what long, but I will give the part where the difference occurs. Wats introduces it in this way : ' The same noble French man in his Advertise- ment to our Author's Nat. History, thus expresses him — **'... But Mon'* Bacon not relying upon the meer word and credit of such as went before him will have Experience joined with Eeason : ''''"and examined the receiv'd principles of the Schooles by the effects of Nature, the speculations of the In- tellectual Globe by the operations of the Corporale.* 72 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED By this means lie hath found out so many rare secrets, whereof he hath bequeathed us the inven- tion, and made many axioms acknowledged for false, which hitherto have gone current among Philosophers, and have bin held inviolable.' " Now if the reader will turn to p. 47 he will see there a passage included between two asterisks which is a correct translation of the French original, and which corresponds to the very different lan- guage contained within two asterisks in the above passage. It is difficult to imagine why Wats should have gone about it to suppress this most interesting description of the country house that Bacon had close to London, equipped for his experiments. What object could be served by this concealment ? And the explanation would be no more satis- factory if we assume that he was quoting from a different edition of the * Histoire,' for why should the editions be changed in this particular ? And of course there is not the smallest ground for thinking that there is another edition. But if Wats thought himself justified in taking such liberties with the translation in a matter that one cannot conceive to have been of great importance, much more should he have entered some protest against the extraordinary statements about Bacon A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 73 contained in the ^Life,' if he had thought these state- ments were untrue. His intimate and unrestrained dealing with the French is strong evidence that he approved what he has left uncorrected. Indeed, the mere fact that he has so strongly drawn atten- tion to Pierre Amboise's ' Life' by quoting from it as he does is good proof that he approved of it. There is a copy of the ' Histoire Naturelle ' in the library of Sir Edwin Durning Lawrence, and on the fly-leaf of the book there is a remark, written in contemporary handwriting and in old French, that is of very great interest. I have been favoured with a copy of this, and I give it, both in the original French, and in a translation : it is as follows : * Le Docteur Eawley et Isaac Gruter de Hollande pretendent que le Traducteur de cette Histoire y ait ajoute de son cru plusiers choses qui estoyent point dans le Manuscrit Anglois dont il s'est servy. Mais il est plus davancer cela que de le prouver : et si Ton vient a lire exactement cette Traduction on verra clairement, ce me semble, que ce qu'elle a de plus que 1' Anglois public par le Docteur Eawley, ne peud estre que du Chancelier Bacon, et par con- sequent, que le Traducteur s'est servy d'un Manu- scrit plus complet que n estoit celuy du Chapelain. * S. CODOMIEZ, * or S. COLOMIES ?' 74 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED * Doctor Eawley and Isaac Gruter of Holland assert that the Translator of this History has added to it from his imagination, some things that were entirely absent from the English manuscript with which he was provided. But it is easier to say this than to prove it ; and if one reads carefully this Translation one can clearly see, it appears to me, that what there is in it more than in the English version published by Doctor Rawley, can only be from the Chancellor Bacon ; and conse- quently that the Translator has been furnished with a Manuscript more complete than that of the Chaplain. ' S. CODOMIEZ, 'or S. COLOMIES.' The signature to this interesting memo, is not very distinct, and I have no suggestion to make as to the identity of the person. But this certainly seems to show that there was extant an English version that could be compared with the French translation ; and this again raises the question as to the fate of this English edition. There is nothing corresponding to it in any of the lists published by Rawley or Gruter. This memo, also shows that Rawley and Gruter must both have been familiar with the book we have been considering, and consequently with the life prefixed to it, and yet neither — to the knowledge of M. Colomies at A NEW LIFE OF LORD BACON 75 any rate — took exception to the statements made therein, and which were so inconsistent with those that Rawley afterwards made when he undertook to write the ' Life.' This memo, of M. Colomies seems to have considerably increased the puzzle surrounding the book. There is a copy of this ' Histoire Naturelle ' in the British Museum Library, and I am informed that it has been there since about the year 1820. There is no mention of the book, or any notice of it whatever by Spedding, and it is somewhat remarkable that he should have so completely over- looked it, in view of the attention Wats directs to it, and the importance he evidently attributed to it. One would have thought that the instinct of research would have led Spedding to follow up this clue, and to attempt to clear up the difficulties that are suggested. The late Rev. Walter Begley has a full notice of the book in the third volume of his ' Nova Resus- citatio' (1905), but he was more interested in the Natural History and its parallelisms with Bacon's other works, and does not appear to have realized the significance of the ' Life.' The book is itself valuable, and it is strange that an English translation of it has not been made long ere this. Apart from the interest attaching to 76 BACO>rS SECRET DISCLOSED Bacon's knowledge and thoughts upon Natural History, there are facts of his own life that are incidentally mentioned — as that he had been in Scotland — which I do not think are mentioned else- where in his letters or writings, and which give new information about him. A complete translation of this book would, I imagine, be welcomed by Bacon's admirers. I think, however, it must be conceded that what Pierre Amboise has bequeathed to us is of very great value in helping us to know what Bacon's life really was, and in aiding us to understand the mystery and the secrecy in which he was involved. The line in Ben Jonson's Ode to him on his sixtieth birthday comes to my mind as I conclude : * Thou stand'st as if some Mystery thou did'st !' (treat -yTfZ.W^KHS t.\u-rii-J 'J^n7iu:<-.Uh-/t /ii<: oi\nu\. f/Corv ere i//~r/\an\i (/i . ^cs ^i/c //,- n ir gj^ja^gg^ ^ This picture of the tablet to Spenser in Westminster Abbey is reproduced from the Folio Edition of Spenser's Works, published in London in 1679. CHAPTER III BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER To those who have taken the trouble to study the original editions of Spenser's works, there are apparent many peculiarities that are not easily explained. In a few pages I hope to be able to bring some of them together. And at the outset I must premise that my attention was first turned to this subject by the statement in Bacon^s cipher story, that he had used Spenser's name as a mask under which to bring out poems of his own. If this statement were worth verifying, a first step in the business would be to look carefully into the various early editions of Spenser's works and see if they disclosed anything ; and in particular if they, or other contemporary writers, gave any account of the poet's life. In the year 1679, eighty years after Spenser's death, a handsome folio edition of his works was brought out. It comprised all his poems, including 77 78 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED ' Britain's Ida,' which was first attributed to Spenser in 1628 by Thomas Walkley, who then brought it out, but which is now generally repudiated by the Critics. It also contained his prose ' View of the State of Ireland/ There is no indication given as to who was the editor of this edition. In this, however, it does not differ from the two previous folios of Spenser's poems, brought out, the first in 1611, the second in 1617. These two are entirely without any preface or editor's name : they simply came out. That of 1611 is the first gathering of Spenser's poems that had been made, and is notable for the fact that in it, for the first time, the ' Shepherd's Calendar ' appears as a work of Spenser's : previous to that date the five quartos of this poem, that had come out during the poet's lifetime, had appeared anonymously, and it was not until 1611 — thirteen years after Spenser's death — that the * Shepherd's Calendar ' is quietly, and without any explanation, included in the volume of Spenser's works. One would have thought that the editor of this volume, whoever he was, would have seized the opportunity to announce that this important poem, hitherto unacknowledged, had now been definitely ascertained to be one of Spenser's works : but there is not a word : and, as BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 79 so often happens with these Elizabethan poets, works that knew them not during their lifetime pace forth after their deaths as their veritable children. The 1679 folio is worthy of special notice, in that it has prefixed to it a short sketch of the life of Spenser. There was nothing of this sort in either of the two earlier folios. The only biography that I know of previous to 1679 is a very short one that appeared among Fuller's ' Worthies/ pub- lished for the first time in 1662, two years after Fuller's death. This was very slight and incom- plete : it submitted no date of birth, and gave the year 1598 as the date of the poet's death. Then most of the space was occupied in relating the story of Queen Elizabeth's having promised him £100, and how he had been balked of this by the stinginess of the Lord Treasurer, and only obtained it after waylaying Her Majesty in one of her pro- gresses, and propounding his grievance in a witty rhyme. After 1679, Winstanley brought out in 1684 and 1688 his 'Select Lives of the Most Eminent Persons' and his 'Lives of English Poets.' In both of these he deals with Spenser in much the same way as Fuller dealt ; there is very little said about his work. No date mentioned of his birth, 80 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED and that of his death is put at 1598, while an epitaph is recorded that is completely different from that of the 1679 folio. Whenever we open the 1679 folio we are struck by its very unexpected appearance. If one is familiar with the 1611 and 1617 books, and the gaily illustrated frontispiece which adorns them, the funereal aspect of the 1679 folio comes as an unpleasant surprise. Instead of a lively young shepherd confronting a fantastically dressed young woman, who might be typical of poesie or the drama, we have simply a dark and gloomy picture of a monumental tablet. This picture of the stone in Westminster Abbey is sufficiently large and clear to enable one to read with ease the inscription on it. What strikes one at once is the extreme peculiarity of such an adornment as this to such poems as Spenser's. They are not gloomy or funereal in character ; and the period at which this folio came out, being eighty years after the poet's death, was too remote to make a memorial edition appropriate. Such an edition might have had some reason in 1611, but not in the third folio in 1679. And certainly there is nothing attractive about this frontispiece. If, however, we are surprised at the general appearance of this page, our surprise is BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 81 increased on reading the epitaph. It is as follows : ' Heare lyes (expectixg the Second COMMINGE OF OUR SaVIOVR ChRIST IeSVs) the BODY OF EDMOND SPENCER THE Prince of Poets in his tyme WHOSE Divine Spirit needs noe OTHIR witness THEN THE W^ORKS WHICH HE LEFT BEHIND HIM HE WAS BORNE IN LoNDON IN THE YEARE 1510 AND DIED IN THE YEARE 1598/ Now, it requires very little acquaintance with the writings of Spenser to know that birth in the year 1510 is quite incompatible wdth the poems that are attributed to him, and which first began to come out in 1579, when he would be sixty-nine years of age. The ' Shepherd's Calendar,' the first quarto of which appeared in that year, is un- doubtedly the work of quite a young man, and, indeed, the author is alluded to as a lad. So much was this discrepancy between this date and Spenser's writings apparent that, in 1778, when his tablet in Westminster Abbey was restored and made as it is at the present day, though the exact shape and adornment of the stone was preserved, so that we have it as represented in our folio, and though the 6 82 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED wording, S23elling and arrangement of lines were strictly followed, the dates were altered. The inscription of the present day concludes : ' HE WAS BORN IN LoNDON IN THE YEARE 1553 AND DIED IN THE YEARE 1598.' To change dates on such a solemn record as a monumental tablet in Westminster Abbey must strike one as an extraordinarily violent action. There is no statement informing us why it was done, nor who did it. On the base of the present stone there is simply cut : ' Restored by private subscription in 1778.' For 180 years after the poet*s death the dates 1510 and 1596 were suffered to remain, and were not changed by his contemporaries and those who knew him. They were apparently accepted as true; and yet it is without question that the first date (at any rate) is quite impossible when taken in con- junction with his work. I have said that in neither of the two early folios was there anything of the nature of biography. The question of the date of birth was therefore not raised. Fuller and Winstanley both avoided it, by simply saying nothing about it. How, then, does this unknown editor of the 1679 folio — who has boldly selected a BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 83 picture of this monumental tablet, with its extra^ ordinary dates as a frontispiece for this edition — how does he deal with this difficulty ? It was impossible that he could read the ' Shepherd's Calendar' without seeing the incongruity between the author of that and an old man of sixty-nine. Yet he begins his biography with the following words : 'Mr. Spenser was born in London (as his epitaph says) in the Year of our Lord, 1510,' after which he no further attempts to explain away the difficulty. And a few lines farther down he says : * Mr. Sidney (afterwards Sir Philip), then in full glory at Court, was the person to whom he [Spenser] designed the first discovery of him- self This period, when Sidney was in full glory at Court, could not have been earlier than 1577, and was probably a year or two later, when Spenser, if born in 1510, would be sixty -seven and over, which is absurd. And yet the editor does not in the least attempt to palliate the difficulty. Rather does he seem to have purposely done all he could to emphasize it and rivet attention upon it. The picture of the tablet was put in, seemingly, to pre- vent anyone from saying that it was only a printer's error in the biography, when it states that he was * born in London ' (as his epitaph says) * in the 84 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED Year of our Lord, 1510.' But is it not a strange thing that a biographer should commence his bio- graphy with such a statement as this, that is manifestly out of truth with the life he is going to write, and then in no way try to explain the puzzle ? So plainly to throw discredit on his own work is almost as though he were laughing in his sleeve at his readers. The biography occupies only about a page and a half of the folio. In his summary of Spenser's character the writer says : ' He was a man of extraordinary accomplish- ments, excellently skilled in all parts of Learning : of a profound Wit, copious invention, and solid judgment. . . . He excelled all other Ancient and Modern Poets, in Greatness of Sense, Decency of expression, Height of Imagination, Quickness of Conceit, Grandeur and Majesty of Thought, and all the glories of Verse. Where he is passionate, he forces tears and commiserations from his readers ; where pleasant and airy, a secret satisfaction and smile ; and where bold and Heroique, he inflames their breasts with Gallantry and Yalour. . . . He was, in a word, completely bappy in everything that might render him Glorious and inimitable to future ages.' One cannot but be struck by such tremendous praise as this ; it would scarcely be possible to say BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 85 anything higher ; indeed, this man must have been the very greatest of all men, since ' he excelled all other Ancient and Modern Poets.' One is forcibly reminded of the language that Ben Jonson, in his ' Discoveries,' uses of Francis Bacon. He there says : * But his learned and able (though unfortunate) successor is he ^ (i.e., Bacon) * who hath filled up all numbers, and perform'd that in our tongue which may be compared or preferr'd either to insolent Greece or haughty Rome. ... So that he may be named and stand as the mark and acme of our language. . . . My conceit of his person was never increased toward him by his place or honours. 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.' It is very remarkable, and may have intentional significance, that Ben Jonson scarcely ever mentions Spenser w^hom the unknown editor of the 1697 folio so highly extols ; and, in his list of the great ones of the Elizabethan period, entirely ignores him. All that he says of Spenser is contained in two passages in the ' Discoveries ' ; the first on 86 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED p. 97 (edition 1641) where he says: 'Nay, if it were put to the question of the Water- rhymers works, against Spenser's I doubt not but they would find more suffrages/ And again on p. 116 : ^ Spenser in affecting the Ancients writ no Language ; yet I would have him read for his matter ; but as Virgil read Ennius.' This is indeed mild notice as compared with the eulogium of the unknown biographer I have been considering, but Jonson's treatment of the Eliza- bethan poets and writers throughout is extremely puzzling. His remarks upon Shakespeare are well known, and have been often quoted. They are pitched in a much lower key than those applied to Bacon, and are the praises due to a worthy man, whose worth had been conspicuous among the actors of the time. * He was indeed honest,' says Jonson, ' and of an open and free nature : had an excellent Phantasie, brave notions and gentle expressions : wherein he flowed with that facility, that sometimes it was necessary he should be stop'd,' etc. Compare this with the high praise Jonson pours out upon Bacon, and one can have little doubt that, when speaking thus of Shakespeare, he had not in mind a great author. But indeed, when we speak BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 87 of Ben Jonson and Shakespeare we cannot but call to mind the laudatory poem prefixed to the 1623 folio, where Jonson says of his ' beloved the Author Mr. William Shakepeare :* * Or when thy socks were on Leave thee alone, for the comparison Of all that insolent Greece or haughtie Rome Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come,' using in each case the same comparison with ' insolent Greece * and ' haughtie Rome ' for both Shakespeare and Bacon. It seems as though Jonson had in mind in this last case a different ' Shake- speare ' from him whom he speaks about with such slight praise in the * Discoveries.' And what shall we say of the fact that Marlow, Green, Peele, Nash, and the many others of the Elizabethan times, the ' nest of singing birds ' that John Richard Green spoke of, have no place at all in Jonson s review ? But we must not allow ourselves to be drawn into the extraordinary labyrinth of Ben Jonson' s utter- ances, and silences, regarding contemporary and earlier poets or writers. To follow this would take much time, and no one has yet reached the end of it. I may add that Ben Jonson's * Discoveries ' were first printed and made public in 1641, four years after Jonson's death ; though, as usual in such matters, we have no means of knowing who 88 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED edited them and brought them out. It is interest- ing to note that the writer of the article upon Jonson in the ' Dictionary of National Biography ' remarks, without, as I think, any arriere pensee in the matter : ^ The 171 detached paragraphs (of ' Discoveries*) approach the type of the Baconian Essay, though Jonson depreciates the name.' I do not doubt but that in the future we may find a reason why the * Discoveries ' approach the type of the Baconian Essay. But let us return to Spenser. After the short biography (in the 1679 folio) there follow some five of the letters of the Harvey-Immerito correspond- ence. I need scarcely remind my readers that the ' Shepherd's Calendar ' was published anonymously under the pseudonym of ' Immerito.' The letters are written in 1579-80. They form part of a much larger correspondence which has been preserved to us in Harvey's letter-book, and which has been reprinted by the Camden Society. Harvey ad- dresses his correspondent as * Immerito ' and ' Signor Benvenolio.' Spenser's name never once occurs in all the letters (except that in some of the printed editions, the letter of October 5, 1579, has E. Spenser's name added as a signature), and the BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 89 inference that they are addressed to him is drawn from the fact they are addressed to the author of the poems that are now attributed to Spenser. In one letter addressed by Harvey to Immerito, the following occurs : ^ You suppose most of these bodily and sensual pleasures are to be abandoned as unlawful, and the inward, contemplative delights o£ the mind, more zealously to be embraced as most commendable. Good Lord ; you, a gentleman, a courtier, a youth, and go about to revive so old, and stale and bookish opinion, dead and buried many hundred years before you or I knew whether there were any world or no !' Language such as this was not applicable to the traditionary Sj)enser ; in his youth — the poor son of a journeyman tailor — he could not be called * a courtier '; still less could the Spenser of our biographer, born in 1510, be called *a youth' in 1579. But such language exactly fitted the young Francis Bacon, intimate about the English Court, and just returned from the Court of France. The whole of this Harvey-Immerito correspondence forms a large subject by itself, and is full of puzzles and peculiarities. Like so much of the Elizabethan literature, whenever one begins to 90 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED examine closely, one comes upon incongruities and mysteries. The original Harvey letter-book has been preserved in manuscript, and one's trouble is only intensified by the fact that it has been seriously mutilated, whole pages removed, and letters broken off just at the point where they seemed about to disclose something. The jiassage above quoted is one little minnow that has escaped from the drag net wherein the bigger fish have been caught and carried away. There is another little minnow that I have come across that is worth looking at. In Harvey's letter-book^ there is what he calls ' A short poetical discourse to my gentle masters the readers, conteyning a garden communication or dialogue in Cambridge between Master G. H. and his companye at a Midsummer Commence- ment, together with certayne delicate sonnets and epigrammes in Inglish verse of his making.' From this I make the following extract as con- taining that which is of interest in the present con- nection. Harvey says (p. 101) : ' And heare will I take occasion to shewe you a peece of a letter that I lately receyved from the Courte written by a friende of mine, that since a * See Camden Society's publications, 1884, p. 95. BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 91 certavne chaunce befallen unto him, a secret not to be revealed, calleth himself Immerito : * " The twoe worthy gentlemen, Mr. Sydney and Mr. Dyer* have me I thanke them in some use of familiaritye : of whom and to whom what speache passeth for your credite and estimacion I leave yourself to conceyve, having allwayes so well conceyved of my unfained affection and good will towards you. And nowe they have proclaimed in their apecco Trayo),^ Thus ends the quotation. N'ow, the interesting thing is that this quotation is from one of the very letters given in the 1679 folio as being from Immerito to Gabriel Harvey. It is dated October 5, 1579. The quotation I have given above breaks off in the middle of a sentence, and seems to be a mutilation, for certainly there is not much infor- mation conveyed by the quotation as it is cut short. The continuation of the letter describes a new school that Sidney and Dyer are founding, to prescribe certain rules and laws for English verse. But the interesting fact is that Gabriel Harvey describes Immerito as writing from Court ; and that since a certain chance had befallen him, a secret not to be revealed, he had assumed the name * These, of course, would be Philip Sidney and Edward Dyer. 92 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED of ' Immerito.' Gabriel Harvey had not much reason to make any mystery about Spenser, the poor Cambridge scholar, and son of a journeyman tailor, nor is it conceivable that such a one should be writing from the Court of Queen Elizabeth ; but the circumstances exactly fit young Francis Bacon, now in high favour with Queen Elizabeth ; while the * chance befallen unto him ' would have refer- ence to his discovery of the fact — as set out by the biliteral cipher story — that he was the son of Queen Elizabeth and Leicester, knowledge that came to him in 1577, just before he was sent off to France to be with Sir Amyas Paulet : a secret, indeed, ' not to be revealed.' The hypothesis that * Spenser ' was ' Bacon ' when taken in conjunction with the revelations of the cipher story makes clear and plain numerous passages in the ' Spenser ' writings that otherwise are inexplicable, and that for 300 years have been passed over by commentators without remark, or treated only by wild and baseless imaginings. The cipher story gives the key to much that hitherto could not be unlocked. There is a strange piece of literary juggling in this 1679 folio to which I have now to call attention, the elucidation of which is, I am sure, not easy. BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 93 At the very end of the folio, immediately before the glossary, there occurs this notice : ' Reader, Be pleased to take notice, That in the later Editions of Spenser's Poems in Folio (which we now followed) there is wanting one whole stanza, in the month of June, which out of the First Edition of the Shepherd's Calendar in quarto may be thus supplied, and is to come in at Page 25, Col. 8, after the 28th line/ Then follows the verse. I find that this omitted verse last appeared in the 4th or 1591 quarto of the * Shepherd's Calendar': it was dropped out of the 5th quarto, that of 1597, and was also wanting in the two folios of 1611 and 1617. But though lacking in these books, it is curious that the corresponding change in the Glosse was overlooked, and the allusion to the omitted verse still appears there. What could have been the reason for dropping out this verse ? And why, when it was restored, should it be done in this way, and not put back into its proper place ? It was evidently done of set purpose, and was carefully kept out of its place for these ninety years ; but why ? Another strange light is thrown on this affair by a Latin version of the 'Shepherd's Calendar' that came out in 1653 (twenty-six years before the folio of 1679), George 94 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED Bathurst being the author. At the end of this book, in quite the same way, and in the same form of words, notice of this omitted verse is given and the verse recited. Now, this Latin edition has the Latin on one page, and the corresponding English opposite to it. But the curious thing is that while the Latin translation of the verse is given in its proper place in the poem, the English original is left out on the opposite page ; and in order to make the fewer English verses correspond in space with the Latin, the printer has been at pains to spread out the English lines so as to fill up the page. It would have been so much easier, one would have thought, and so much seemlier, to have put the English verse in its place, but for some reason the printer felt himself bound to observe some unexplained behest, and keep the verse out. Seemingly this behest, or whatever it may have been, applied only to the English verse, for in the 1679 folio itself, there is inserted the Latin version of the ' Shepherd's Calendar,' and the translation of the omitted verse appears in its proper place. There is not a word of explanation anywhere of what all this means, or 'why the omission was first made : just as in the case of Spenser's birth-date, the statement is made and we are left to guess or imagine the meaning of it. BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 95 The verse itself gives little help towards the solution of the puzzle. It might refer, and could only refer, one would think, to the recent death of some great man. But whose death ? The verse last appeared in 1591 : it is partially restored in 1653 and 1679 : and wholly restored in John Hughes' edition of ^ Spenser's Works,' published in 1715.* Spenser died in 1596-1598. This is what the verse says : * Now dead he is, and lieth wrapt in lead (O why should death on him such outrage show !), And all his passing skill with him is fled, The fame whereof doth daily greater grow. * Hughes' edition of Spenser's works is a very extra- ordinary production. He takes the most violent liberties with the text without the smallest warning to the reader that he is doing so. Spenser had prefixed to each eclogue of the ' Shepherd's Calendar "* a short argument. In every instance Hughes has coolly deleted Spenser's ' Argument,' and substituted one of his own, and no hint is given to the reader on the subject. But, worse still, he has omitted entirely all the glosse upon the text, which, as I show hereafter, is so full of interest. I presume Hughes found there were things in this glosse he could not understand or explain, so he dropped it out. And one would read his edition of the ' Shepherd's Calendar ' without ever sus- pecting that there had been a glosse. Thus are difficulties in literature overcome. 96 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED But if on me some little drops would flow, Of that the spring was in his learned head, I soon would learn these woods to wail my woe, And teach the trees their trickling tears to shed/ I think it can hardly be gainsaid that it was the deliberate intention of the editors of these various books to refer to, and draw attention to, some particular person, and to this person's death, by the unusual treatment of this verse. But I fear some other important parts of the puzzle are wanting, so that it is impossible for us as yet to put the pieces together. The year 1679 seems too remote from the death of anyone whom we even suspect to be connected with the ' Shepherd's Calendar,' and yet there is undoubtedly, as I think, some hidden reference here. It is not, either, a mere printer's matter : it must have been handed down to, and passed on through, the various editors. The books have quite diiferent printers. The 1617 folio is 'Printed by H. L. for Matthew Lownes.' The 1653 Latin version is * Printed for M. M. T. C. and Gabriel Bedell, and are to be sold at their shop at the Middle Temple Gate in Fleet Street '; and the 1679 edition is * Printed by Henry Hills, for Jonathan Edwin, at the Three Eoses in Ludgate Street.' I cannot leave this verse without drawing attention to the line : 'The BACON AND EDxMUND SPENSER 97 fame whereof doth daily greater grow/ as being so strongly reminiscent of the Latin verselet inscribed at the end of the * Manes Verulamiani ' in the 1640 edition of Bacon's ' Advancement of Learning/ the translation of which is, ' The fame of Bacon grows as a tree for some unknown age.' Recalling now the statement of the cipher story that Bacon used Spenser's name as a mask under which to bring out his poems, one turns to the * Shepherd's Calendar ' to see if any information can be got from that book itself. And when doing this it is necessary to say something about Spenser's life. With the date of his birth we are sufficiently familiar. In the year 1580 he went to Ireland as Secretary to Lord Grey of Wilton, and remained there practically for the rest of his life. He is said to have visited England on two occasions, in 1589- 90 and 1596, and was in Ireland within a month of the close of his life in Westminster in 1598. This is from the ' Dictionary of National Biography.' In his book, 'The Strange Case of Francis Tidir,* Mr. Parker Woodward has some interesting par- ticulars about Spenser's life and movements. He gives the day of his death as January 16, 1599, which, of course, according to the old style, would be called 1598. He says further : ' There is no evidence of his having visited England between 98 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED 1580 and December. 1598.' He also details the futile attempts that have been made to identify Spenser with the various Edmund Spensers whose name has been encountered in records of the period. The ' Encyclopaedia Britannica ' (ninth edition) says that Spenser went to Ireland in 1580, was there till 1589, returned to London in that year, back to Ireland in 1591 ; returned to London probably in 1595 ; back to Ireland again for a brief time in 1598 ; returned to London, and died there on January 16, 1599. With regard to his parentage, his father was supposed to be John Spenser, a free journeyman tailor, but, adds the writer of the article, ' Nothing approaching certainty can be reached on this point.' The curious discrepancies as to times of visits to England seem to have arisen from the fact that there is no actual evidence of those visits, and that they have been inferred from various phrases picked out of the Spenser poems. One fact upon which all seem to agree is that he was buried in Westminster Abbey, and the tablet I have described erected to him at the charges of the Earl of Essex. Taking 1579 as the date of the first appearance of any of the so-called Spenser poems (the ' Shepherd's Calendar '), we see that throughout the whole of the time when all his BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 99 poems were coming out, Spenser was resident in Ireland, and was a stranger to London and its literary society. I do not think there can be any question of this : all the researches into his life approximately agree as to the date of his going to Ireland and the length of his stay there. As Mr. Parker Woodward truly says, it is an extraordinary thing that a peot resident in Ireland, which at that time was many days remote from England, should be so well acquainted with ladies of Queen Eliza- beth's Court as to address poems to them. No correspondence with him has ever been shown to exist. Further, there is the undoubted fact that all the five quarto editions of the ' Shepherd's Calendar/ all of which came out during Spenser's lifetime, were published anonymously. The first of these editions was published in 1579, the second in 1581, a third in 1586, a fourth in 1591, and the fifth in 1597. During all these years, while this book was being read — and apparently, from the frequency of publication, it was Svell liked of — Spenser's name was in no way connected with it, and Spenser's authorship in no way hinted at. I think it is most important to keep this fact clearly in mind. It is the more remarkable and significant as during many of these years Spenser's authorship as a poet 100 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED was plainly acknowledged. The first edition of the ' Fairie Queen ' with his name as author was brought out in 1590, and his minor poems appeared in his lifetime with his name acknowledged on the title-page. But with the ' Shepherd's Calendar ' it was different. For many years it was read as the work of an unknown writer, and it was not until 1611, when it was included, without explana- tion or remark, among Spenser's works, in the first folio edition of his poems, that the people of England were given to understand that this also was by the author of the ' Fairie Queen,' and that, be it remembered, was thirteen years after Spenser's death. Surely this suppression of authorship was for some reason. Or was it, perhaps, that the attribu- tion of authorship to one who had been in the grave for thirteen years was an easy and a safe way of quieting troublesome questioners ? The * Shepherd's Calendar ' is largely biographical. If people were constantly trying to pierce the veil of anonimity, some awkwardly correct guesses might be made, but if it were boldly announced that the author was one who was dead thirteen years ago there was nothing more to be said ; and though the statements made, and things hinted at, might be such as to excite the deepest curiosity, the dead BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 101 author could not be questioned, and could not rise to explain. That the anonimity of the book was recognized is shown by a contemporary allusion to it in Put- tenham (or Webster's) ' Arte of English Poesie,' published in 1589. In chapter xxxi., book i., of that work, Puttenham, when speaking of the various poets who have arisen in England, and when describing their various characteristics, says : * For Eclogue and pastoral Poesie, Sir Philip Sydney, and Master Challenner, and that other Gentleman who wrote the late Shepherd's Calendar.' Further, George Whetstones, in his * Honour- able Life and Valiant Death of Sir Philip Sidney,' published in 1587, clearly and plainly attributes the * Shepherd's Calendar ' to Sidney, and this though the book professes to be dedicated to Sir Philip himself! (See note at end of Chapter.) It is clear from these that the name of Spenser at that time was unknown as the author of this work, and that there was complete uncertainty on the subject. Besides the halo of mystery surrounding the book from this anonymous publication, and the interest aroused by the suppressed verse that I have spoken of, there is the double interest called forth by its biographical character. 102 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED The * Shepherd's Calendar ' consisted of twelve eclogues, proportionable to the twelve months of the year. After the fantastic fashion of the time, each eclogue consisted of a dialogue between two shepherds, and these ' shepherds ' masqueraded under various names. At the end of each eclogue there is a ' glosse,' and the great interest of the work is contained in this glosse, in that it explains partly who is intended by some of the characters. Thus, in the very first month, January, the young shepherd lad, Colin Clout, is introduced, and in the epistle preceding the eclogues we are informed that under this name the author's self is shadowed, while, as if to emphasize the fact, we are told in the September glosse, *Now I think no man doubteth but by Colin is meant the Author's self.' Other persons that we have either set forth, or alluded to, are Henry YIIL, Queen Anne Boleyn, Queen Elizabeth, Robert Earl of Leicester, Gabriel Harvey, and some who can only be guessed at. But for me at present the important fact is that Colin is the author, and what is said of Colin refers to the author. Now, assuming as a working hypothesis that the author was Bacon and not Spenser, how do the facts of Colin' s life fit Bacon's ? That is to say, how do they fit Bacon's secret life, as it has been disclosed to us in the BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 10^ cipher story, not the ordinary surface life that has been carefully retailed by his modern biographers. We know that Bacon when about sixteen years of age (in 1577) went to Paris, and for the period of two years resided at the Court of Charles IX., under the roof of the British Ambassador, Sir Amyas Paulet, and that he returned to England on the death of Sir Nicholas Bacon in 1579. At this time he would be eighteen years of age. The cipher story tells us that when in Paris he fell madly in love with Marguerite de Yalois, sister of the King, wife of Henry of Navarre, and daughter of Catherine, the widow of Henry II. It was in 1579 that the first edition of the ' Shep- herd's Calendar ' came out, and Colin is introduced to us in the argument as a shepherd boy, who ^complaineth of his unfortunate love, being but newly as it seemeth enamoured of a country lass, called Eosalinde.' As showing Colin's youth, he speaks of himself in the following words ; ' Such stormy stours do breed my baleful smart As if my years were waste and waxen old, And yet, alas, but now my spring begun, And yet, alas, it is already done." And again, he says that it was in ' the neighbour town ' that he first saw the beautiful Rosalinde. 104 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED * A thousand sithes I curse the careful hour Wherein I longed the neighbour town to see, And eke ten thousand sithes I bless the stour, Wherein I saw so fair a sight as she.*" It is necessary to note these points. Upon the hypothesis that Colin was Bacon, it was in Paris (the neighbour town) when he was in the spring of his years that he first saw Marguerite : upon the hypothesis that Colin was Spenser, I know not what neighbour town the reference could be to. The Spenser biographers set forth that Spenser met and fell in love with Rosalinde somewhere in the north of England, and that she was a yeoman's daughter ; and this too, in spite of the fact that the glosse for the April Eclogue states that Rosa- linde is 'a gentlewoman of no mean house'; and is besides a foreigner. To remove the veil that has been thrown over Rosalinde, and to disclose her. identity, is, I submit, the touchstone of this poem. The efforts of Spenser's biographers in this direction have been singularly ineffective, simply because they have been following a perfectly worthless clue. There are certain indications given in the various glosses as to who Rosalinde was. First in the January Glosse, the opening month of the ' Calen- dar,' it is stated that : BACON AND EDxMUx\D SPENSER 105 * Rosalind e is also a feigned name, which being well ordered will bewray the very name of his love and Mistress, whom by that name he coloureth.' This, of course, means that the letters of the name ' Rosalinde ' otherwise disposed, in the way that was much in vogue by the makers of name- anagrams at that time, would ' bewray ' the real name of his love. Further, in the April Eclogue, Rosalinde is described as * the widow's daughter of the '* glen " ' and as a foreigner. The glosse upon this is very explicit. It says : * He calleth Rosalind the widow's daughter of the Glen, that is, of a country Hamlet or borough, which I think is rather said to colour and conceal the person, than simply spoken. For it is well known, even in spite of Colin and Hobbinol, that she is a gentlewoman of no mean house, nor endued with any vulgar and common gifte, both of nature and manners : but such indeed, as neither Colin be ashamed to have her made known by his verses, nor Hobbinol be grieved that so she should bee commended to immortality for her rare and singular virtues.* In the poem Rosalinde is spoken of as a ' frenne,* and the glosse says ' Frenne, a stranger. 106 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED The word I think was first poetically put, and afterwards used in common custome of speech for forrenne.' In dealing with this name the biographers have been quite unconvincing. * The Dictionary of National Biography ' suggests that she was * Rose/ the daughter of a yeoman named ' Dyneley * : but Rose Dyneley could not be extracted from Rosa- linde : and this ignores that she was a foreigner, that he met her at a town, and that she was * the widow's daughter of the glen.' The Rev. J. H. Todd, in his biography of Spenser prefixed to * Spenser's Poems' (1805), suggests ^ Rose Linde,' which is certainly not a very mystical veiling of the name ; but does not attempt to deal with the other points : and somewhere else I remember to have seen Alis Dome. But all these are incon- clusive as ignoring the other conditions entirely ; especially * that she is a gentlewoman of no mean house,' and it is quite evident that the conditions premised for Rosalinde can in no way be made applicable to the love of Edmund Spenser. How shall we fare under the hypothesis that 'Colin' meant Bacon, and that 'Rosalinde' was Bacon's love, Marguerite ? Well, Marguerite was a ' foreigner ' ; he met her at the ' neighbour town ' of Paris, whither he had BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 107 gone to reside temporarily with Sir Amyas Paulet. She was, undoubtedly, * a gentlewoman of no mean house/ for she was of the House of Yalois, that had given many kings to France, and was the daughter of Henry XL That she was * the widow's daughter ' is undoubted, for she was the daughter of Catherine de Medici, the widow of Henry II. ; and that she was ' of the glen ' is also equally apparent, for she w^as Marguerite de Yalois, that is, Marguerite of the Valley, or Margaret of the Glen. I think it would be impossible to find a parallel more accurate than this. But what about the name ' Rosalinde,' which, being well ordered, * will bewray the very name of his love and Mistress ' ? Here I must premise that Marguerite in French means a daisy ; and that such was its meaning in the sixteenth and seventeenth centuries is shown by a marginal note in Drayton's poem, * The Miseries of Queen Margarite ' (a different Queen Margarite this), published in 1627. This note says ' Margarite in French signifieth a Daysie.' Then, again, I must call up an obsolete word, 'lorn,' meaning 'lost.' This word is used in the Janizary Eclogue of the ' Shepherd's Calendar,' and it is also to be found in the glossary of words at the end of the 1679 folio, where, among a 108 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED very few words beginning with L, its meaning is given. Now, Eosalinde well ordered gives us * Dasie Lorn,' or ' Lost Marguerite,' which, I think, is a remarkably close approximation to the very name of his love and Mistress ; and in extracting this anagram out of ' Rosalinde,' the only liberty I have had to take is to spell Daisy as given above Dasie, which, considering the latitude then allowed in the matter of spelling, is not a great liberty. In an early seventeenth-century dictionary I have seen it spelt Dazy.^ This making of name- anagrams at the time I am speaking of was very fashionable among poets and literary persons, and though the custom may seem rather silly to us, and we are quite unable to catch the flavour or bouquet of it, yet in those days it was often used as a delicate form of praise, and if one could extract some flattering attribute from a person's name, it seemed in some way an evidence that the person must possess the particular quality * In the 1611 and 1617 foHos 'Rosalinde' is spelt with the final ' e "* in January Eclogue and Glosse. In the April Glosse she is called ' Rosalinda," and is also spelt ' Rosa- lind,' without the final ' e,' but in the Eclogue it has the final * e.' In the June Eclogue there is the final ' e,' and in the August it is lacking. In the 1679 folio the name was spelt without the final ' e."* i BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 109 — as when ' James Stuart ' makes * A just master.' A great deal of this work has been done, and we need not be surprised to find the play used in Rosalinde's case. But I think I may claim that the above transla- tion of Rosalinde is most apt, and fits in most perfectly with the other parts of the puzzle, r It is interesting to see if anything can be ex- tracted from the ' Shepherd's Calendar ' about Colin's — that is, Bacon's — birth and parentage. Those who are acquainted with the cipher story are aware that it sets forth that Bacon was the lawful son of Queen Elizabeth and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, begotten of their secret marriage, and that the misery of Bacon's life was caused by the continued refusal to acknowledge and announce to the world his true position. In the preceding chapter I have given a translation of a French life of Bacon, prefixed to a little-known book of Bacon's, 'Histoire Naturelle/ published in Paris in 1631. This ' Life * was the first that had ever been pub- lished, and antedated by twenty-six years Rawley's * Life,' which was the first English production on the subject. The French ' Life ' contained some remarkable confirmations of the cipher story, and many statements that were intelligible only if read in the light of the cipher story. If I am right in 110 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED assuming that in the ' Shepherd's Calendar * Colin, the author, means Bacon and not Spenser, are there any birth allusions to confirm this ? The sixth stanza of the April Eclogue begins : * Colin, thou kenst the Southern Shepherd''s boy Him love hath wounded with a deadly dart."* There is nothing in these lines particularly to arrest attention, and anyone would pass them by without pausing either for inquiry or examination. But when we turn to the gloss on this we find the following : * Coliriy thou kenst. Seemeth hereby that Colin pertaineth to some Southern Nobleman, and per- haps in Surrey or Kent, and because he so often nameth the Surrey downs.' Now I submit that there was absolutely nothing in the lines I have quoted that seemed to imply, or required the explanation to make them intel- ligible, that Colin pertained to some southern nobleman. It seems to me that this piece of information is dragged into the glosse solely to give us a hint as to who Colin really was, and to tune the mind to the idea that he was not only not of mean and low condition, but of high degree and noble lineage. I cannot see any other reasonable explanation of this glosse. BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 111 Again, it is remarkable in what a delicate and almost cunning manner the Earl of Leicester is brought in. This occurs in the eighth stanza of the October Eclogue : ' There may thy Muse display her fluttering wing, And stretch herself at large from east to west, Whither thou list in fair Eliza rest ; Or if thee please in bigger notes to sing, Advance the worthy whom she loveth best, That first the white Bear to the stake did bring.' If it were not for the glosse this would be some- what vague, though, of course, the bear and the ragged staff were — in those days at least — well known as the distinction of the Earl of Leicester. But the glosse says : * The ivorthy^ he meaneth (as I guess) the most honorable and renowned, the Earl of Leicester, whom by his cognisance (although the same be also proper to other) rather than by his name, he bewrayeth, being not likely that the names of worthy Princes be known to Country Clowns.' The glosse also explains that by ' Eliza ' is intended Queen Elizabeth ; and note that Leicester is styled ' the worthy whom she loveth best.' In the September Eclogue there is introduced a character styled ' Roffin ' and ' Roffy.' A story is brought in to show Roffin's power and cleverness in BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED (* for Roffy is wise, and as Argus eyed ') in circum- venting a wolf in sheep's clothing that came among his flock and stole the lambs away. I cannot but think that this tale has reference to some occurrence in actual life, veiled under fanciful characters. The glosse says : ' This tale of Roffy seemeth to colour some particular action of his. But what I certainly know not.' In another part the glosse says : * Roffy, the name of a Shepherd in Marot his Eclogue of Robin and the King. Whom he here commendeth for great care and wise governance of his flock.' All this playing v^dth the name Roffin, Roffy, and Robin, suggests to one's mind the idea of j Robin for Robert (as it was constantly used) and Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, w^ho under the Queen, had great power and responsibility in the governance of the flock. It seems to me a cautious and crafty hinting at the identity of Roffin, meant to pique the reader's curiosity, and yet leave the writer uncommitted to any definite statement ; so that though one might guess at whom he glances under the mask of Roffin, it might always be open to him to deny the charge. And there was need BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 113 for wanness and caution, so as not to blurt out too plainly who was meant, if he were some very great and secret personage, for within half a dozen lines of his coming upon the scene, we are told that Colin is his son : 'Colin Clout, I ween, be his self boy.' And in the former glosse that I have quoted from the month of April, it is said that Colin is a nobleman's son : therefore, joining this with that, it is abundantly clear that under the name of Roffin or Roffy some nobleman is intended. That it is certainly the Earl of Leicester, I cannot say, from what we have here ; but if I am right, then I think we will find, in some quite different writing or poem, the Earl of Leicester plainly spoken of as * Roffin ' or ' Roffy '; we know that he is often called * Robin.' It is in this manner that the different pieces of the Bacon puzzle are scattered about, and have to be carefully picked out and put together. We can see now if Bacon is identical with Colin Clout as the author how important all this tale about Roffin becomes as a confirmation of the Bacon cipher story. And I think that great significance is to be attached to the glosse upon the line ' Colin Clout, I ween, be his self boy.' It is as follows : 8 114 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED * Colin Clout. Now I think no man doubteth, but by Colin is meant the author's self.' This is the only mention in any of the glosses that Colin is the author : the other mention of the fact occurs in the preliminary epistle. Colin 's name comes up frequently in different eclogues ; there is absolutely nothing in the occurrence of the name at this particular time to suggest his author- ship or to require any explanation in the glosse : but I believe the assertion was made at this point so as to couple the author of these poems with the parentage that was at the same time announced, and fix the idea in the reader's mind. That there was an intimate and mysterious con- nection between the Earl of Leicester and the author of the Spenser poems is shown by the extraordinary dedication of ' Virgil's Gnat.' This was one of the minor Spenser poems included under the name of Complaints, which were published in 1591. The Earl of Leicester died in 1588. The dedication is as follows : ' Virgil's Gnat, long since Dedicated to the Most Noble and Excellent Lord, the Earl of Leicester, deceased. ' Wronged, yet not daring to express my pain, To you (great lord) the causer of my care, In clowdie tears my case I thus complaine Unto your self, that only privy are.' BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 115 There is no connection that can even be sug- gested between Spenser and the Earl of Leicester that will oiFer any explanation of these words, or assign a reason why they should be addressed to a man w^ho had been dead for some years. In 1591 Spenser had been for eleven years in Ireland, and was in comfortable circumstances, with his secretary- ship and 3,000 acres of land in the county of Cork. But with Bacon's cipher story in our minds, and Bacon as the speaker of these words, how plain they become and how full of meaning. These four lines give, in the most concentrated form, the very pith and marrow of his misery. Leicester had indeed wronged him deeply, by neglecting to make clear to the world his real position and his birth- right ; and yet Bacon did not dare to exjoress his pain, nor tell what, or how, he suffered. After the lines that I have quoted, the little dedicatory poem continues : ' But if that any Oedipus unware Shall chance, through power of some divining sprite, To read the secret of this riddle rare, And know the purport of my evil plight, Let him be pleased with his own in sight, Ne further seek to glosse upon the text : For grief enough it is to grieved wight. To feel his fault and not be further vext. But what so by my self may not be shown, May by this Gnat's complaint be easily known.' 116 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED There seems to be a very strong and plain hint here that the * Virgil's Gnat ' in some way contains the secret o£ the riddle, and will disclose ' the purport of his evil plight.' For three hundred years and more this poem has been public property, and the reading of it in Spenserian light has failed to extract any secret, or even to bring to mind any- thing in the way of a riddle that it might contain. What idea is there of any riddle about Spenser ? I suggest that it should be carefully read in the light o£ the Bacon cipher story, to see what in- formation it could yield. The doing of this would be a most interesting task for one equipped with the necessary classical knowledge, and with a wide reading in Ancient Mythology — with which the poem is packed. I believe — on the authority of the Rev. J. H. Todd — that the translation differs in many places from Virgil's original, and these points of difference would, without doubt, be of importance. There is another Spenser poem, ' Mother Hub- bard's Tale,' published in 1590, that contains an interesting and highly introspective passage that seems to have no explicable bearing upon Spenser. It as as follows : ' So pitiful a thing is Suters state, Most miserable man, whom wicked fate BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 117 Hath brought to Court, to sue for had-ywist, That few have found, and many one hath mist ; Full Httle knowest thou that hast not tride What hell it is in suing long to bide ; To loose good days that might be better spent, To waste long nights in pensive discontent, To speed to-day, to be put back to-morrow. To feed on hope, to pine with fear and sorrow ; To have thy Princes grace, yet want her Peers ; To have thy asking, yet wait many years ; To fret thy soul with crosses and with cares ; To eat thy heart through comfortless despairs ; To fawn, to crouch, to wait, to ride, to run ; To spend, to give, to want, to be undone. Unhappy Wight, born to disastrous end, That doth his life in so long tendance spend.' When we remember that this poem was pub- lished in 1590, and that for the ten previous years Spenser, the poor scholar, had been enjoying his secretaryship in Ireland with — as I said before — his 3,000 acres of land in Cork County, it is diffi- cult, if not impossible, to imagine what there was to call forth such bitter resentment as is shown in these lines. So far as worldly goods are concerned, Spenser had done pretty well for himself, and from being the moneyless son of a journeyman tailor had very quickly climbed into a position, both good socially and well remunerated. Most certain it is — at least, as certain as anything that is known 118 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED about Spenser — that he had not been brought to Court there, to spend his life in long tendance. His life about the Court had been very brief, and its briefness had ended in his very comfortable Irish billet, which he had continuously enjoyed. But once again recall the cipher story to mind, and think of these words as written by Bacon about himself, and see how marvellously well they fit his case. Since 1577, when as a boy of sixteen he first came to the knowledge of the splendid future that lay before him as the eldest son of, and true heir to, the Queen, he had been fretting his heart out as year after year passed away, and the public acknowledgment of his real position was still post- poned. Day after day he fed on hope, and pined with fear and sorrow. Day after day that which had seemed certain was becoming more vague and shadowy. Then came the death of Leicester, just two years before the above wail of ' hope deferred * broke from him, and the position became still more full of poignant misery. Though he struggled against admitting it, the fear was beginning to take definite shape, that he might for ever be deprived of his birthright, and lose all that he had built his hopes upon. And just at this very period Bacon himself was writing to his friend, Fulke Greville, a letter whose BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 119 spirit is wonderfully in accord with the lines from * Mother Hubbard's Tale/ This letter is given at p. 89 of the Letters in the ' Resuscitatio ' (1657), as follows : ' I understand of your paines to have visited me; for which I thank you. My Matter is an end- less Question. I assure you I had said : Reqiesce anima mea : But now I am otherwise put to my psalter ; Nolite conjideri, I dare go no farther. Her Majesty had by set speech, more than once, assured me of her intention, to call me to her service ; which I could not understand, but of the place, I had been named to. And now, whether Invidus Homo hoc fecit; or whether my Matter must be an Appendix to my Lo: of Essex sute ; or whether Her Majesty, pretending to prove my Ability, meaneth but to take advantage of some Errours, which, like enough, at one time or other I may commit ; or what it is ; but Her Majesty is not ready to dispatch it. And what though the Mr. of the Rowles, and my Lo: of Essex, and yourself and others, think my case without doubt ; yet in the meantime I have a hard condition to stand so, that whatsoever service I do to Her Majesty, it shall be thought to be but servitium viseatum, time-twiggs, and Fetches, to place my self, and I shall have Envy, not thanks. This is a course to quench all good spirits, and to corrupt 120 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED every Man's Nature : which will I fear, much hurt, her Majesties Service in the end. I have been like a piece of stuff bespoken in the Shopp : 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 tlyeth away, and lighteth a little before, and then the Child after it again, and so in Infi- nitum. I am weary of it : As also of wearying my good friends : Of whom Nevertheless, I hope in one course or other gratefully to deserve. And so, not forgetting your Business, I have to trouble you with this idle letter, being but Justa et Moderata, Queremonia^ for indeed I do confess primus Amor will not easily be cast off. And thus again I commend me to you.' To Bacon his ' Matter' seemed, indeed, an 'end- less question ' while he continued ' to waste long nights in pensive discontent.' I think it would be difficult to find any two passages in disjoined literature more thoroughly in accord than are these. Both are equally eloquent of the misery that Bacon was suffering in secret : neither can be fitted to Spenser, or be explained by the circumstances of his life. The whole of the Spenser poems are filled with allusions to Bacon's secret life, and if these poems were carefully read, with the circumstances of that BACON AND EDMUxVD SPENSER 121 life in the reader's mind, numerous confirmations of that life-story will be found. That these discoveries have not been made ere this is owing to the lack of the clue that the cipher story has given. There is yet another most interesting point — at least, so it seemed to me — to which I must draw attention. The Editor of the 1679 folio, in his short life of Spenser, recounts how that Spenser designed to make the first discovery of himself to Mr. Sidney (afterwards Sir Philip) — *and to that purpose took an occasion to go one morning to Leicester House, furnish't only with a modest confidence, and the ninth Canto of the First Book of his " Faery Queen." ' The Editor then goes on to tell of Sidney's wonder- stricken admiration of the poetry, and how he first told his steward to give the author £50, and then as he read more, bade him give £100. I think this is the first time that this story, now well known, appeared in print. One naturally turns to the Ninth Canto of the First Book to see what there is in it, and I must say I was astonished to find that the opening stanzas describe the secret birth and upbringing of Sir Arthur as being exactly similar to what the cipher story tells of Bacon him- U2 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED self. This is, I think, so strangely significant that I will transcribe the lines. Una and Sir Arthur are together, and are about to separate : ' But ere they parted, Una fair besought That stranger Knight his Name and Nation tell Least so great good as he for her had wrought, Should die unknown, and buried be in thankless thought. ' Fair Virgin (said the Prince) ye me require A thing without the compass of my wit For both the linage and the certain sire From which I sprung from me are hidden yet. For all as soon as life did me admit Into this World, and showed Heavens light, P'rom Mothers pap I taken was unfit. And straight delivered to a Fairy Knight, To be upbrought in gentle thews and Martial might. ' Unto old Tim on he me brought by live Old Timon, who in youthful years hath been In warlike feats th' expertest Man alive And is the wisest now on Earth I ween ; J His dwelling is low in a valley green Under the foot of Rauran mossie hore From whence the River Dee as silver clean His trembling billows rolls with gentle rore : There all my days he trained me up in vertuous lore. ' Hither the great Magician Merlin came, As was his use oft times to visit me, For he had charge my discipline to frame And Tutors nouriture to oversee. BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 123 Him oft and oft I ask't in privity, Of what loines and linage I did spring, Whose answer bad me still assured be That I was Son and Heir unto a King, As time in her just term the truth to light should bring.' I think one is almost forced to believe that the writer of the life in the 1679 folio had the cipher story of Bacon's birth in his mind when he draws attention to its precise counterpart by this little tale about Spenser and Sir Philip Sidney. Indeed, one is almost forced to believe that the author of the Ninth Canto was thinking of Bacon's secret birth when he composed these stanzas. There is no special literary beauty about this Ninth Canto that marks it out as far superior to its fellows that it should be picked out from among them for commendation. But when we know the cipher story we can see the significance of the author (Bacon) presenting this poetic epitome of his secret birth to his patron Sidney. Of course there are those who will say that it is a mere coincidence that the tale of Arthur's birth and lineage should so closely accord with the secret — and only recently revealed — story of Bacon's parentage ; and that this account of Arthur's birth should be so markedly brought to the reader's notice in the lU BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED manner adopted by the writer of the Spenser life in this 1679 folio. There are those who explain any puzzle or peculiarity by saying, ' It is a mere co- incidence.' For my part it seems to be much more like a carefully arranged piece of work, and intended to do service as a finger-post, telling the searcher that he is on the right path. Another finger-post, as I may call it, is to be found, I think, in the ' mistakes ' in paging in the very early edition of the * Fairie Queen.' I know that in taking up this question of erroneous paging one is entering upon very treacherous and unstable ground. Though I cannot but believe that these * mistakes ' have been intentionally made, it has — it seems to me — so far been impossible to evolve any consistent and reasonable theory on the sub- ject that will show a purpose generally applicable to these cases. In most instances I confess the object of the * mistakes ' seems to be quite hidden. Still I think in the following case I can offer a probable explanation. These ' mistakes ' occur in the volume of the 'Faerie Queen' containing the three first books, published in 1596. This is known as the second edition of the first volume, the first edition having been published in 1590. Now, in this second edition (1596), these mistakes are to be found. Page 10 is paged 18. Then from BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 125 page 78 the paging goes to 81, 82, 83, 84, etc., up to 96, when 95 and 96 are repeated, thus bringing the paging right again. But 78 deducted from 96 gives 18, which taken in conjunction with the mistake at page 10 seems to call attention to 18. Next, page 102 is paged 120, being 102 + 18. This would seem to be intended to direct attention to page 120, and when one turns to it, one there finds the ^ birth stanzas ' that I have given above. The only other mistakes in paging throughout the volume are 331 for 311, 478 for 468, and 600 for 510 (there are only 590 pages in the volume). Now in each of these cases, if we deduct the true page from the false, we get 20, 10, and 90, and the sum of these is 120 : seemingly again indicating the page on which the ' birth stanzas ' occur. It may be that these are only coincidences, but to me they seem more like finger-posts. In the 1590 edition of this volume the 'mistakes' are much more cryptic, and no explanation can be ofi*ered. Page 10 is correctly printed, so is page 102. From page 78 the paging goes on in this extraordinary 81 80 81 84 85 84 85 88 89 88 89 ^^^- 79 80 81 82 83 84 85 86 87 88 89 92 93 92 93 96 95 ^ ^, r t i. 90 91 92 93 94 95' 0^ the upper Ime I have given the false paging, and on the lower the 126 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED correct ; from which it will be seen that every two wrong pages are succeeded by two right pages — 96 is the last wrong page, and the pages come right on 95. What was intended by this, I am afraid, was too hidden to be found out ; and perhaps it was for this reason that the author made it plainer in the 1596 edition, as he saw it was hopeless for anyone to obtain any direction from the above figures. Even the 1596 'mistakes' probably failed to direct anyone, and the editor of the 1679 folio introduced the little story I have related before, so that one should be induced to turn to the Ninth Canto and read these verses. The ^ birth stanzas' are on page 120 in the 1590 edition as in the 1596. But I think it is not unreasonable to say that the ' mistakes ' in the 1596 edition were meant and designed to draw attention to page 120 and the birth stanzas there set out. And I think the further conclusion is also warranted that attention was drawn to these stanzas, and these stanzas were written, because they epitomized Bacon's secret birth. I have no doubt there are many more passages in the Spenser poems that might become clear if read in Baconian light. What I have done in the short time I have been able to devote to the subject convinces me that careful research would This portrait of Leicester is reproduced from ' Leycester's Commonwealth : Conceived, spoken, and published, etc. Printed 1641/ The riaht Hon^l^^DhertDuiley Farlc of Leicester, Baf-on of Denbigh, knight of the nohy order of S^.Gcorqe ^ S^Michall^andU one of her Aia^':^ ho . -privy counfell U:c W Atarjhati/culp BACON AND EDMUND SPENSER 127 bring much more to light. And we must remember that it is only by following the clue given by the cipher story that these discoveries have been and will be made. Without this clue, these poems would be continuously read, and no hidden meaning suspected. But by carefully following the clue, confirmations of the cipher story will be found, and many tangled passages will be smoothed out. Note. — The following is Whetstones'* allusion to the authorship of the ' Shepherd's Calendar ' spoken of on p. 101 : From SIR PHILLIP SIDNEY, HIS HONOURABLE LIFE, HIS VALIANT DEATH AND TRUE VERTUES. By GEORGE WHETSTONES, Imprinted at London for Thomas Cadman, 1587. ' What be his workes the finest wittes do gesse. The Shepherd^s notes that have so sweet a sounde, With laurell boughes his healme long since have crown'd.' A marginal note says : 'The last Shepherd^s Calendar, the reputed worke of S. Phil: Sidney, a worke of deep learning, judgment, and witte, disguised in Shep's Rules. ^ CHAPTER lY JOHN Barclay's ' argenis ' and bacon's SECRET LIFE To those interested in solving the great puzzle of Bacon's life, I have long felt that the study of the literature of the period from 1570 to 1670 ought to be one of deep fascination, in view of the possibility of finding covert allusions to the great man, and veiled information that would throw light upon the obscure places of his life. It is strange how very little there is said about Bacon in the writings of the century that covered his life. One comes across his name but seldom in any contemporary work, and it would seem almost as though there had been a ' conspiracy of silence ' on the part of contemporary writers. Since the revelations made by the deciphering of Bacon's biliteral cipher, and a clue thus afforded to what Bacon's secret life really was, the unveiling of that which has been covered up has become of greater and greater 128 JOHN BARCLAYS 'ARGENIS^ 129 interest. We Have had a number of ciphers brought before us of late — key ciphers and number ciphers ; and though I do not presume to give an opinion for or against any of these, nor to belittle their importance as links in the chain that will ultimately firmly, and beyond cavil, bind Bacon to his works and the works to Bacon, still it is well to bear in mind that the only cipher which Bacon himself set out in full, and fully explained, so that it might be used by any who chose to use it, is the great biliteral. Other ciphers may, and I doubt not do, in a secret manner tell us who is the author of such and such a book, and reiterate information of this sort, that is of the highest value. But the biliteral — which Bacon, as he tells us, invented in his youth when he was in Paris — goes much further than this, and gives us, when deciphered, a continuous and elaborate history of his life ; and this cipher story can be woven into the type of any book in any language without exciting the suspicion, or even the curiosity, of those who may read the book. It is the decipher- ing of this from various books during recent years that has raised so much controversy, and from the extraordinary and wholly unexpected nature of the information disclosed, given ground to some on which to found a violent disbelief. For my part, 9 130 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED I have always felt that if Bacon took the trouble to invent this cipher, and the further trouble to preserve it and exemplify it in his greatest and most valued work (the ' De Augmentis Scien- tiarum '), there was a strong a priori reason for believing that he would us^it for the^ purpose for^ which he had invenl£4^it. f Therefore, to find that there were long passages of important life history in this cipher in various works printed during Bacon's lifetime should not, to my mind, be in any way surprising. That they have been found is therefore no more than one might expect. But the matter disclosed by the deciphering was so novel, so unexpected, so unknowm to history, so subversive of established beliefs, that thej-e was not unnaturally a strong aversion to --few- accept- ance, and consequently, though irrationally, a strong outcry against the decipherer. Here again, for my part, I felt that, because the story w^as unexpected, it w^as not necessarily untrue ; rather was it, because of its strong opposition to accepted beliefs, that it had been committed to cipher. If it had been some ordinary matter but little out of the way, there would have been no reason to make all the fuss and trouble of a biliteral cipher about it. But, assuming the truth of it, might not one JOHN BARCLAY'S 'ARGENIS' 131 reasonably expect that allusions to this secret life might be found in contemporary literature ? Allusions that would be sufficiently veiled to be passed by by the uninitiated, but to those who had some hint of the truth, might be fully understood, and, when thus discovered, would be a corrobora- tion of the truth of the story. It was with this in mind that I made a careful examination of the 'Shepherd's Calendar,' attributed to Spenser, and in Chapter III. of this book, where the subject was fully dealt with, I think I brought forward very strong corroborations of important parts of the cipher story. The book to which I now wish to direct atten- tion is John Barclay's ' Argenis.' I do not suppose many people have read this. It is an elaborate allegorical history, with fanciful Greek characters, written much after the style of Sidney's ^Arcadia,' and extending to 483 pages of large quarto. It first appeared in Latin in Paris in 1621, and, like so many other literary works of the very highest class of the century from 1570 to 1670, it came out after the author's death. It was said to have been edited by his friend Peireskius, and how much it may have gained or lost in the editing the world will never know. At the time of writing this I came across a life of this Peireskius, written in 132 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED Latin by the learned Petrus Gassendus, translated into English by W. Eand, doctor of physick, and published in London, octavo, 1657. It was the English translation that I got. There is not much said in this * Life ' about Barclay and his ' Argenis,' but the little that is said is interesting. Under the date of 1619, it is said that Peireskius had received a great part of the work — the ' Argenis,' which he was to see printed, and that he had ' mitigated ' a dialogue therein, which he had conceived to be of somewhat too free a strain. It is thus that the hand of the editor is made apparent. Sf^ r>* 4. aba^^>-*^ ^-wu-uJ^^^^v Under the date of 1621, in the * Life,' allusion is made to the unlooked for death of Barclay, and the remark here is full of interest. The ' Life ' says : ' Just about the same time \i,e.^ the time of Barclay's death] it happened that Peireskius urged him to finish his " Argenis ": wherefore among other things it grieved him that Barclay had not fi nisht that Work according to his owne mind.' From this we learn that the ' Argenis ' was not finished by Barclay, and thus the account of his sudden death alluded to below, after the completion of his great work, is robbed of its dramatic interest by the fact that the work was not completed ; and probably the somewhat crude and drastic termina- JOHN BARCLAY^S 'ARGENIS' 133 tion to the tale is due to Peireskius, and not to Barclay. John Barclay was born in 1582 at Pont a Mousson, where his father, William Barclay, was professor of civil laws. The first part of his ' Satyricon ' was published in the name of * Euphormio Lusininus,' and was said to have appeared in London in 1603. A second edition appeared in Paris in 1605. Barclay's stay in England at this period was short. He first went to Angers, and then to Paris in 1605, where he married Louise Debonnaire, the daughter of an army paymaster, and herself a Latin scholar and poetess. The pair moved to London in 1606, where in that year he published Latin poems entitled ' Sylvse.' They continued to reside in London for nearly ten years, and in 1616 left for Rome. Here he established himself and composed his ' Argenis.' According to a manuscript note in a copy of this work belonging to M. Dukas, it was finished on July 28, 1621. On August 1 immediately following, Barclay was stricken with a violent fever, and expired on the 15th of the same month. Ralph Thorie, in his anonymous elegy on Barclay's death (London, 1621), more than insinuates that he was poisoned. In the same year the ^ Argenis ' came out in Latin in 134 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED Paris. I am indebted to the * Dictionary of National Biography ' for the foregoing facts. The fact that stands out in this narration is that Barclay has their peculiarity in company with all — or almost all — the splendid writers of this age. His greatest literary work appeared after his death. What the underlying significance of this may be I know not, but it is a circumstance that has no parallel in any other 100 years of English literature, that after the death of a great poet or writer — and often many years after the death — works came out that were either pub- lished anonymousl}^ while the author was living, or that were quite unheard of during his life, and have no assignable connection with the author — such as bequeathed by Will, or instructions to executors. We have only to recall the names of Spenser, Peele, Marlow, Shakespeare, Beau- mont and Fletcher, to be impressed to the extent of this state of things. The ' Argenis ' was — as I have said — first pub- lished in Latin in Paris, in 1621, and again there also in Latin in 1622. The first English trans- lation by Kingsmill Long appeared in London in folio in 1625. A second English translation by Sir Robert le Grys and Thomas May came out in London, quarto, 1629, and to this for the first JOHN BARCLAY'S 'ARGENIS' 135 time was added a key, to explain who were the persons under the ' fained names/ And a third English translation, again by Kingsmill Long, quarto, 1636, with pictures and also a key to unlock the whole story. A translation by Ben Jonson was entered at the Stationers' Hall on October 2, 1623, but was never published. It is much to be regretted that we have not got this translation, but it is interesting to see that one standing so close to Bacon should thus early have taken up the work, if indeed, perchance, his hand in it was not even earlier than this. It is the 1629 edition that I have used and from which I quote. The 1629 edition is said on the title-page to have been done into English : * The] Prose upon His Majesties' Command : by Sir Robert le Grys, Knight : and the Verses by Thomas Day, Es- quire.' And certainly it would seem to require the protection of a Royal Command to keep a trans- lator scatheless, as well as a publisher, for when one has read the * Argenis,' there are without doubt statements that, in the reign of good Queen Bess, would have made an unhappy writer's head * stand tickle ' upon his shoulders, and even in the days of Charles I. might easily have been made a Star Chamber matter. When we call to mind how angry Queen 136 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED Elizabeth was with Mr. (afterwards Sir John) Hay ward for his book of the deposing of Richard II., and the coming in of Henry IV"., with its am- biguous and suspicious dedication to Essex, for which the worthy doctor was committed to the Tower (see Bacon's ' Apothegm,' No. 22), we can imagine how furious she would have been at the plain and unvarnished statement — though under * fained names ' — made in the * Argenis.' Someone undoubtedly would have paid for this, and there would have been a well-considered ^ lopping off of limbs ' over it. All the more diffi- cult to understand, therefore, is the action of Charles I. in ' commanding ' this translation with the key attached, which would lay bare to those who suspected, the very things that would have irritated Elizabeth beyond measure. It should, however, be borne in mind, that at the date of publication of this book (1629), Bacon had been off the stage of this World's Theatre for about three years, as the accepted date of this is 1626, and therefore revelations about Queen Elizabeth and her marriage, and son, even if scented out by the half initiated, would not be of such importance as they would have been a few years before. But with every consideration one can give the matter, the behaviour of Charles I. with JOHN BARCLAYS 'ARGENIS^ 137 regard to this book remains very strange and puzzling : and the puzzling nature of his conduct is not lessened when we find from Sir Robert le Grys' ' Epistle Dedicatorie ' to him, prefixed to the volume, that the book ' hath already been honoured by your Majestie's approbation ' ; and further in Le Grys's address ' To the Understanding Reader/ when ^ve find him apologizing for possible mistakes in the translation, and giving as his excuse that *he would have reformed some things in it, if his Majesty had not so much hastened the publishing it.' Why should Charles have hastened the publishing of it, especially with the key attached, making clear the extraordinary state- ments about Queen Elizabeth, when there was the English translation of 1625 open to him and others to read, which gave the story in its entirety, though without the key. And yet, why should Charles desire to have the key made public ? There is much here to exercise one's ingenuity of speculation. But, of course, the answer was that the whole thing was a mere 'jeu d esprit ' ; a sort of gam- bolling of a literary elephant with no ulterior meaning, and though perhaps a little bold, might be allowed to pass. And this answer, though it would not have soothed Queen Elizabeth, would 138 BACOKS SECRET DISCLOSED possibly serve for those who knew nothing o£ Bacon's secret life, and had not the light of the cipher story to illuminate the dark places of the text, or to distinguish between pure fiction and veiled fact. Barclay's ' Argenis ' is a pseudo-historical account of intrigues, battles, love-making, and marriages, of kings and princes, and lesser folk, revelling in old Greek names, who lived about Sicily, Sardinia, Gallia, Mauretania, and other places. Amid stirring fights, and tender love passages, there are interlarded long and elaborate disquisitions upon Astrology, the Duty of the Civil Power to put down Heresy, the Reform of the Law Courts, the Duties and Privileges of Ambassa- dors, and so forth : makino^ altoofether somewhat heavy reading, as one considers it nowadays. But at the end of the 1629 edition there is inserted a key, by which we are informed that under Greek and fanciful names certain well-known personages are intended, thus ' Argenis ' is the daughter of the King of France, and in the end, wife to Poliarchus (Henry TV.), so it is not diffi- cult to identify her as Margaret of Valois : Meleander is Henry IL or III. of France. Poli- archus is Henry lY. of France ; Radirobanes is Philip IL of Spain ; Selenissa is Catherine de JOHN BARCLAY'S 'ARGENIS' 139 Medici ; Hyanisbe is Queen Elizabeth ; Archom- brotus, or Hiempsall, is her son ; Nicopompus is the Author, and so on through a long list o£ minor characters. And under fanciful names various countries are intended ; thus Sicily is France ; Sardinia is Spain ; Mauretania is England, and the Moors are the English ; Gallia is Navarre, and so on. So that in reading the book one is reading a double story, and sometimes under a fanciful dress a great historic truth may be recorded ; often, indeed, it is difficult — or impossible — to know whether some statement, at variance with received history, is put forward as mere airy fancy, or as a concealed fact. No doubt when the book was written there were many people who could have vouched for the truth of statements, that to others less informed in Court secrets would have seemed mere imaginings, but the day for such knowledge has long gone past, and it would be impossible now to write a commentary on the book clearly sepa- rating the truth from the fiction. What, hovvever, is interesting to me is to pick out passages and recorded actions of individuals that are confirma- tory of Bacon's cipher story, and that run in parallel lines with it. We all know the cipher story : that Bacon was the legitimate son of Queen Elizabeth 140 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED by her secret marriage with the Earl of Leicester, and that the hope and dream of his life was that he would ultimately be acknowledged by the Queen as her son, and proclaimed as her successor. Further, that the great and overmastering passion of his life was his love for the beautiful Marguerite de Yalois ; and that her he has immortalized under various names in his writings, but specially as * Rosalinde.' Early in the book, Nicopompus, whom by the key we are told is the author, sets forth, in a discussion with his friends Antenorius and Hiero- leander (who was secretary to Argenis), the principles which governed him in composing his 'Fable like a History'; and it is very important for the proper digesting of this fable to keep these principles in mind, for they show us that he fully intended to stray from the truth as he pleased, and they warn us that it would be impossible, without some other guiding light, to distinguish between veiled truth and pure fiction. And I do not doubt that these principles applied, and were intended to apply, to other poetic histories besides the fable in hand. It is said of Nicopompus, a few pages previously (p. 126), that ' he was of Ante- norius, his most inward friends, and, being wearied of the cares and troubles of the Court, did seeke, JOHN BARCLAY^S *ARGENIS' 141 with the sweet conversation of that old man, a while to forget the disquieted Commonwealth.' From which we learn that Nicopompus Avas a denizen of the Court ; and further on in the book we find that he employed himself, and was em- ployed by others, in writing sonnets for various festive occasions, and even in writing little poems on behalf of other people, that should redound to the poetical fame of those others. All of which is strongly reminiscent of Francis Bacon and his works. What Nicopompus says in regard to the scheme of his work is contained in the following speech which he delivered (p. 131) to his two friends Antenorius and Heiroleander. * *' I will (saith he) write a Fable like a Historic. In it I wrap up strange events : armes, marriages, bloud, and contentments, I will blend together with success that could not be hoped for. The vanitie that is grafted in man, will make them delight to reade me : and therefore they will study it the harder, because they shall not take mee in their hands, as a severe Instructor. I will feede their minds with divers contemplations, as it were with a Landskip. Then, with the imaginations of danger, I will stirre up in them pittie, feare and horror. At last, when they are perplexed, I will relieve them, and make faire weather of a storm. 142 BACOxN'S SECRET DISCLOSED Whom I please I \Till redeeme out of the hand of destinie ; at my pleasure suffer to perish. I am well acquainted with the humors of our people : because they will believe that I trifle ; I shall have them all. They will love me, as they doe the showes of the Theater or the Tilt-yard. So having won their liking to the Potion, I will also add to it wholesome herbes. Yertues and vices I will frame, and the rewards of them shall sute to both. While they reade, while as not concerned in it, they shall be angry, or favor, they shall meete with themselves, and as in a Looking-glasse, they shall see the face and merit of their own fame. Perhaps, they will bee ashamed to play any longer that part upon the Stage of this World, which they shall perceive in my Fable to have been duely set out for them. And lest they should complain that they are traduced, there shall be no man's picture to be plainely found there. To disguize them, I will have many inventions, which cannot possibly agree to those that I entend to point at. For this liberty shall be mine, who am not religiously tyed to the truth of a History. So shall vices not men be galled, nor shall any have reason to bee offended, but he that first will basely confess himselfe de- filed with those abominations, which I have so scourged. Besides I will everywhere give them imagined names, onely to personate both the vertues and vices. That in this my Booke, he shall erre as well, that will have it all to be a true JOHN BARCLAY'S 'ARGENIS' 143 relation of things really done, as he that takes it to r V^ f be wholly fained. ^V ♦ '" Antenorius was tickled with this new kind of J^?- « writing, and cheerfully rubbing his hands together, ' Bestow ' (saith hee) if thou be a good fellow, ^ Nicopompus, this labour upon the Common-wealth. If thou regardest thyselfe, or the age in which thou livest, thou art merely a debtor of it. Such a Booke will be long lyved, and convey the Author of it, with much glory, to posterity. But the profit of it will be infinite to rip up wicked men, ^^ ^^ .^ and arme vertue ao^ainst them !" ' ? ? '^ ^' % l We may gather from this that Nicopompus and & ^^ ^ his friends had great hopes of the book, and of the % ^jP effect it would have ; and we need not be surprised a ^^ to find that at the end we have the boastful Latin y>^ X verse that appears in other books of this period : ^L C ' Jamque opus exegi, quod nee Jo vis ira,' etc. N Z^. We are first introduced to Hyanisbe (Elizabeth) at p. 124 of the book. Poliarchus (Henry IV.) is^^^^,^ represented as being on board a pirate's galley, by which he had been rescued from drowning, together with his friend Gelanorus (Duke of Bouillon). These two turned upon the pirates, and by their prowess with their swords overcame them, and got command of the ship. Then they find that on board there is much treasure that has been taken 144 BACOiVS SECRET DISCLOSED from Hyanisbe, and so determine to steer their course to Mauretania (England), and restore her property to the Queen. This, accordingly, they accomplish, and to the Queen's great joy, who visits them on the galley, give back to her the great treasure she has lost. The story then proceeds (p. 124): ' Towards evening the Noblemen sent by the Queen, came to Poliarchus, appointed by her to suffer him want no kind of courteous or hospitable entertainment. From them, in various discourses, he understood concerning the Queen thus much ; that she was called Hyanisbe, and about three and twenty years since succeeded her brother Juba in the Kingdom. Before she came to the Crowne, she had been married to Siphax, a man of the most eminent qualitie, next the Kings, of all the Moors, who at the time of King Juba's decease, did also dye, leaving her with childe. That the Queene some months after was delivered of a sonne, whom she named Hiempsall, and he by the favour of the Gods had with his excellency of spirit outgone the wishes of his people, but that now to win himselfe honour among strangers, he was gone to travel in habit of a private person ; into what Country, except only to the Queen, was unknown.' These statements concerning Queen Elizabeth are sufficiently startling. There are some that we JOHN BARCLAY^S 'ARGENIS' 145 know at once are untrue, and which, as Nico- pompus says, ' cannot possibly agree to those that I intend to point at.' But there remains the statement that she was married to ' a man of the most eminent qualitie, next the Kings, of all the Moors ' (English), which would fairly agree with Leicester, though the death of her husband is erroneously stated. But then, Nicopompus is * not religiously tyed to the truth of a History,' as he has told us. The description of the son Hiempsall — 9o (can anyone suggest the derivation of this name, or any hint wrapped up in its numerical value ?) is most interesting in the fact that 'to win himselfe honour among strangers he was gone to travel in the habit of a private person ; into what country, except only to the Queen, was unknown.' Taking this son to be Bacon, it is curious to note how much mystery and concealment there has been about his travels in his youth. At that period it was quite the usual thing for a young man of birth and breeding to finish his education by an extended tour on the Continent, and resi- dence abroad for perhaps two or three years. That Bacon should do this would not be surprising, except that as the youngest son of Sir Nicholas— who was not a rich man — it might be thought to be more than his father could reasonably afford. 10 146 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED But we have never had any very clear notion of how much time Bacon did spend abroad, or to what extent he travelled as a young man, beyond the two years that he spent in Paris from 1577- 1579 with the Engii:sdlh *y.^ Or to look at it from another point of view. Did * Barclay, in writing this book, desire to preserve in it certain important, though, to the writer, highly dangerous, historic facts ; that to do this he adopted the plan of weaving these facts in with ridiculous fictions, so that it might be open to him or his friends in his defence to say, ^ The statement that Queen Elizabeth was married and had a son is just as much pure fancy as that Henry of Navarre killed Philip II. in single combat, and need not be noticed ?' While by the initiated and those who had some knowledge of the secret history of the times these statements about Elizabeth would be recognized as true, and would stand for all time as a witness to the truth. I think this book of Barclay^s deserves very much more careful study and sifting than it has hitherto obtained. The Key attached to the 1629 JOHN BARCLAY'S 'ARGENIS' 163 and subsequent editions, when taken in conjunction with the cipher story of Bacon's life, gives us the power to unlock and set forth the secret facts embedded in it ; but we must remember that it is to the cipher story, as recently deciphered from Bacon's great biliteral, that we ow^e the power of doing this. Before the cipher story had disclosed the marvellous secrets of Bacon's life, one might have read the ' Argenis ' — as it has been read any time during the past long period — without any intelligent appreciation of the statements about Queen Elizabeth, and would have set them down as no more truthful than all the other phantasies : now, with the cipher story in mind we read the tale of Argenis with a totally different understand- ing. In the same way the glosses upon the ' Shepherd's Calendar,' when read in the light of the cipher story, gave unsuspected confirmation of the details of that narrative. If we could find a key to Sidney's ' Arcadia ' or to the * Fairie Queen,' similar to that which has been supplied to the * Argenis,' I feel confident that both these books would disclose much hidden and secret history of the Elizabethan period, and would without doubt confirm the revelations of the cipher story, showing Bacon to have been, not only born to great and high position in the world, but also the greatest 164 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED literary genius the world has ever known, and the author of marvels in Poetry and Prose that have hitherto been attributed — and are still attributed by the literary men of England — to quite common individuals whom he used as his masks. The recognition of the true Bacon, and his enthrone- ment on his own proper seat, will coincide with the acceptance of the story of his life and works, which he left to us with such tremendous labour embedded in numerous books of the period in his great biliteral cipher. Before concluding, I would say a few words about the Key at the end of the book, which explains, or is meant to explain, who are the persons under the ' fained names.' But some of the omissions are quite as important as the ex- planations. Hiempsall — whom we would like to know something about — is not referred to, and Archombrotus, the other name by which Queen Elizabeth's son is known, is explained in the Key as being the Duke d'Alencon, the son of the King of France, adopting in that way the phantastic tale that he was the son of Queen Elizabeth's sister Anna ! Meleander is said to be Henry III., but it is evident from the text that he stands for the King of France at various periods of the story. JOHN BARCLAY'S 'ARGENIS' 165 Argenis, again, is said to represent the French Crown or right of succession, but in the text — e.g.^ Hyanisbe's letter to her son — she is clearly the daughter of the King of France, and afterwards marries Poliarchus (Henry IV.). CHAPTER V BACON AND SHAKESPEARE In any discussion upon the mystery of Bacon's life, the matter that the public generally is most inter- ested in is undoubtedly his connection with the Shakespeare plays, and one can scarcely omit say- ing something upon this great and greatly dis- cussed subject. The first view that in my mind presents itself is, 'Did Shakespeare write the Plays ?' for if there is abundant evidence that he did so, I should think that would be the conclusion of the whole matter. To me — as to many — the plays are extremely attractive, and on many an occasion, when alone and far from any English-speaking people, the reading of these plays has been a delight and a comfort unspeakable. The splendour and the glory of the language seems never to dim or to fail ; and the exquisite imagery, scattered everywhere with an unstinting hand, as from an inexhaustible store, is always of a beauty 166 BACON AND SHAICESPEARE 167 and aptness beyond anything one can find else- where. One reads with bated breath, taking in every phrase and every word, as beyond and above what anyone else ever did, or could, write. But when one reads a book or a series of books, written by an individual upon any given subject, and each book shows profound knowledge and a perfect mastery of the subject, one naturally conceives an admiration for the author, and it is only but a short ste£_£urther to experience a strong desire to know something about the man, whose writings have been perhaps a joy and a delight for years. /! For instance, suppose that I was attracted by, and in the habit of reading, a series of works on electricity and its practical applications, written by John Walker ; that as each book came out it showed a deep insight into electrical problems, a wonderful facility for dealing with calculations in the higher branches of mathematics, a thorough knowledge of the practical working of motors and dynamos, and an almost encyclopaedic acquaintance with all that other men had written or said on the subject ; and suppose that after a time, my wonder at the extraordinary cleverness of the books in- creasing, I at last get to know the author, John Walker, and then find to my amazement that he is a young man of scarcely any education at all, 168 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED brought up in a remote little village by illiterate parents, where motors and dynamos are as com- pletely unknown as the higher mathematics, that he works till two-and-twenty as a butcher, then leaves wife, children, and home to get away from poaching scrapes, that his habits are those of a roysterer and a * sport ' rather than a student, that he possesses no books, can scarcely write, and with regard to his books {those that appear in his name) is so little interested in them that he does not trouble to secure his property in them, would I not be blind if I did not at once see that John Walker was merely lending his name for the pub- lication of these books, and that, for some reason or another, the true author was keeping in the back- ground ? Now this is exactly the light in which Shake- speare appears to me. Of course so long as one knows nothing of the personality of Shakespeare, one reads the marvellous plays without any feeling of doubt about their authorship. The more one reads the more one is impressed by the stupendous intellect, the vast learning, the omnivorous reading, the penetrating insight, the extraordinary speciali- zation of knowledge of the author ; while all this is suflPused by a tender human spirit, that makes the dry bones of learning and research alive with BACON AND SHAKESPEARE 169 warmth and passion. When one arrives at this state of admiration of the author and wonder at his achievement, one naturally asks what manner of man was this Shakespeare ? Where was he edu- cated, where brought up ? How did he acquire all this vast and diffuse knowledge ? What were his habits of study that made it possible for him to crowd so much into one short lifetime ? What life did he lead, and with whom did he associate ? : And wonder succeeds wonder when the facts of the case are unfolded. We learn that he was born of illiterate parents of the illiterate class in the insignificant village of Strat£ord-on-Avon, in the year 1564 ; that he may have received some educa- tion at the Grammar School of the place, but that there is no proof of this ; that at sixteen, or pos- sibly younger, he was apprenticed to a butcher ; that at eighteen he hurriedly contracted a marriage with a woman eight years his senior, and that his first child was bom some six months after the ceremony ; that at twenty-one to twenty-three (dates difi*er), pressed by increasing family and the troubles of his poaching scrapes, he left Stratford to seek his fortune in London, where he is spoken of as holding horses at the theatre, and afterwards as occupying a minor post in the establishment as call-boy or supernumerary of some sort. In all 170 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED this there is the ordinary life of a young man o£ the lower-middle class of the period. There is not the smallest appearance of education, culture, refine- ment, or learning. There is no place for study or reading : his time is taken up with butchering and babies — at Stratford — and afterwards in London, by the necessity of earning his daily bread, and there is not the remotest indication of the life of the student and philosopher. There is not a book that he is ever known to h ave possessedj_^and the only specimens of his handwriting, five badly written signatures, would indicate that he was little accus- tomed to the pen. Yet we are asked to believe that within a couple of years or so after his arrival in London, plays written by him began to appear — plays written in the most courtly, refined, and classical English, replete with learning, full of evidence of wide reading, dealing with aristocratic life and manners, and instinct with poetry of the very highest order, f One of his biographers even has the absurdity to suggest that the courtly and classical poem, 'Yenus and Adonis,' was already written by him before he left Stratford, and that he arrived in London with it in his pocket. Seeing the sort of man Shakes- peare was in Stratford, I think it would be difficult to find a stronger instance than this of BACON AND SHAKESPEARE 171 bolstering up an absurd theory by a ridiculous suggestion. In dealing with this Shakespeare question, one must always make great allowance for the 'personal equation ' in arriving at a decision. To me it has always been a puzzle (since I have had any know- ledge of the life of Shakespeare) how anyone could read a biography of him without having serious doubts raised or suggested as to the authorship of the plays. How anyone could write such a biography, without being forced to the conclusion that Shakespeare never wrote the plays, is beyond my comprehension. The details of his life are so common, sordid, and petty ; they are so utterly wanting in any illuminating flash of intellectual power, that the mere statement of them to my mind is sufficient to carry conviction. Is there one action of the man Shakespeare reported to us, or that has come down to us by tradition, that would make one exclaim, ' That is what I should expect of the author of " Hamlet" or " Henry VIII." ' ? Look at the little verses attributed to him by Stratford tradition, how vulgar and common ; the ' wit combats,' how unworthy ; the money dealings, how sordid. Yet to other men the enumeration of these very details has in some sort enabled them to understand Shakespeare better, and to grasp the 172 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED fact more firmly, that he was the author of the plays. To me the current biographies are mere ploughing of the sand, utterly barren and uncon- vincing. What help can it afford, to show that he has sold another load of stone to the Stratford Aldermen, or sued another poor devil for a debt of a few shillings, or kissed the babies of some obscure innkeeper ? What bearing have such facts as these upon the authorship of the plays, or how can they help to smooth out the incongruity between the 3'onng butcher or middle-aged malt dealer of Stratford, and the extraordinary personality that gave the world the great Shakespearian dramas? And yet the biographies of Shakespeare are made up of such details as these, and the discovery of one more sordid fact is hailed with as much delight as the finding of a bundle of Shakespeare's letters, dealing with the plot and writing of one of the plays might give. One thing stands out clearly to my mind after reading the biographies, namely, that such a man as is there described, or attempted to be described — for the information about him is so meagre — could not have been the author of the plays. For, be it remembered, we have not only to deal with the incongruity of his life before he went to London, but also with the incongruity after his return to Stratford. BACON AND SHAKESPEARE 173 There is no doubt that Shakespeare went to London abou t 1585-1587 ; that he was there up to "^-OO^Tpor^perhaps a little later, or possibly not so ' late ; that during those years he became a successful ) ^feh ^atr i c a L . rfta» ftggy and made money, and was also an actor, appearing in minor parts. In 1604 he would be forty years of age. At that time, or there- abouts, he retired to Stratford, and set himself up in what, I presume, would be one of the best houses in the town, though the town itself was a place quite insignificant. And what do we find him doing? Gathering about him the books that must have been the delight and the constant companions of the writer of the plays 1 Spending his time in cultured ease, in reading, in correspondence with the learned of the age, in writing, that he may pour out the rich stores of his full}^ charged brain ? Not a bit of it. He simply drops back into the common petty life from which he had freed himself twenty years before, with this difference, that whereas then he was struggling with poverty, now he has money at his command. He takes up brewing apparently, for he deals in malt ; he lends money, he buys bits of property here and there, and doubtless cuts a figure in the eyes of the Stratford people, who remember him as the youn^ butcher who, married Ann *H^tfeawSy uncTer ratheraisdreditable circum- 174 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED stances, and then left the place to seek his fortune in London. And so until he is fifty-two he spends the last ten or twelve years of his life in this sort of way. Is it to be believed that this man was the author of those wonderful plays ? That he, having * filled up all numbers ' w^hile still in the full strength and vigour of his intellect, should volun- tarily bury such a mind in such a grave as Stratford? To me it is incredible. And there is not a single ray of light from tradition to help one to understand the incongruity of the situation. Far from it. Tradition represents him as on no higher plane intellectually than those about him, and the master mind of the age is satisfied with ' wit combats ' of the pettiest sort while tippling with the yokels of Stratford. Again I say, * Incredible !' And so in 1616, when only fifty-two years of age, Shakespeare died ; tradition says from the effects of a drinking bout. Lord Penzance* brings out very clearly, I think, that during his lifetime Shakespeare never asserted himself as the proprietor of the plays. The property in them, conferred by the entry at * ' The Bacon-Shakespeare Controversy," by Lord Penzance, Sampson Low and Co., London, 1902. BACON AND SHAKESPEARE 175 Stationers' Hall, was always in someone else, and in men who had no known connection with Shake- speare. At his death, too, there is the same entire ^^ lack of interest in, or even contact with, the plays.^ In his will — a long document dealing with his ? various bits of property with considerable detail, p and making bequests to various persons besides his V immediate family — there is not a word about ^ manuscripts, books, papers or letters of any kind y^ at all. The plays, published or unpublished, are J £j not alluded to in the slightest manner. Eeading '^ i I the will through, no one would gather that the;^\ .^ Testator was a great and splendid writer, leaving n p" behind him a number of unpublished works. He % appointed his son-in-law, John Hall, and his J"^^ daughter, Susanna, residuary legatees and exe- V^^ cutors of the will, and Thomas Russell and Francis 4 ^ - Collins (Solicitor of Warwick) overseers, none of ^ whom were in any sense literary people or con- t C* nected with literature. He did not, however, for-^| " ^ get his old theatrical days in London, for he left ^y ' to my fellowes John Hemynges, Richard Burbage f\*^ H and Henry Cundell XXV1« YIII^ apiece buy them ^ | ^ rings.* These were his fellow-actors with whom he had been associated for many years in his theatrical undertakings ; and it is significant that |!^ even while remembering them he should give no r •> p. 116 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED word of instruction about unpublished plays, sup- posing that any were in his possession. It would have been most natural, and even to be expected, that he should have done so ; or left them some copies of his favourite plays or favourite authors. But as regards books and manuscripts the will is entirely (and most significantly) silent. From this time forth the world hears and knows nothing more of the Shakespeare family in con- nection with literature. And at the time of his death the world expressed not one word of sorrow or regret. There are no funeral elegies, no mourning poems, such as were published in plenty at the death and burial of Sir Philip Sidney, for instance ; but the great author of these wonderful plays and poems drops into the grave with no more remark or notice than any other of the worthies of Stratford with whom he was familiar and did business. It was not until the appearance of the 1623 folio that the usual laudatory poems, with which authors of the day were treated, made their appearance. But in 1623, seven years after Shakespeare's death, there appeared the folio edition of the plays, with a preface written by Hemynge and Cundell, ' the two fellowes mentioned in the Will and who were actors with Shakespeare.' This preface is a BACON AND SHAKESPEARE 177 most remarkable and interesting document, and is quite worthy of the attention Lord Penzance has bestowed upon it. These two actors put them- selves forward as the collectors or gatherers of the plays for the purpose of keeping alive the memory of so worthy a Friend and Fellow as was Shakes- peare. They do not profess to act in any other capacity, except to correct errors that had come with the publications, for they say very plainly : ' We pray you do not envy his Friends the office of their care and pain to have collected and published them [" the plays "] and so to have published them : as where before you were abused with diverse stolen and surreptitious copies, maimed and de- formed by the frauds and stealth of injurious im- postors that exposed them ; even those are now offered to your view cured and perfect of their limbs : and all the rest absolute in their numbers as he conceived them. Who as he was a happy imitator of Nature was a most gentle expressor of it. His mind and hand went together. And what he thought, he uttered with that easiness, that we have scarce received from him a blot in his papers. But it is not our province who only gather his works* and give them to you, to praise him.* " My italics. 12 178 BACON^S SECRET DISCLOSED Now no one reading the foregoing would be given to understand that out of the thirty-six plays published in the folio edition only sixteen of them had appeared in print before : that twenty were printed now for the first time, and that of these twenty, six were entirely new plays that never had been heard of before. What reason had Hemynge and Cundell for glossing over and hiding this most important fact ? Surely if their object was, as they stated, to keep alive the memory of ' so worthy a Friend and Fellow as was Shakespeare ' they could not do it more effectually than by announcing that not only did they offer plays that were known to the public, but that there were also fourteen plays that, though performed on the stage — as they appear to have been — had never before been printed : and besides these, six entirely new plays that no one had ever seen or heard of previously. Surely such facts as these would be of the greatest value in drawing people to purchase the folio, and in giving those, who had some knowledge of and admiration for Shakespeare's work, an opportunity to become further acquainted with it. Not only, however, do they gloss over this fact but in a previous part of their preface to the readers, they plainly deny it, where they say : BACON AND SHAKESPEARE 179 ' And though you be a Magistrate of Wit, and sit on the stage at Black-Friars or the Cock pit to arraign Plays daily, know these plays have had their trial already and stood out all Appeals ;' [note the Baconian legal language here], ' and do now come forth quitted rather by a Decree of Court than any purchased letters of commenda- tion/ Now this was distinctly untrue with regard to six of the plays : these being entirely new had not ' had their trial already/ It is impossible to imagine any valid reason that Hemynge and Cundell could have had for suppressing the fact of these six new plays, if their object in publishing the folio edition was to keep alive Shakespeare's name. It was a fact of primary importance and one which — if they were really doing what they professed to be doing — they would have been only too ready and anxious to proclaim. It added glory to their friend and fellow and would show them to be in the best position to bring out the edition. But it was entirely suppressed and hidden — why ? K the great plays were written by another under cover of Shakespeare's name, and this other desired to remain unknown, while giving to the world all his writings, then IIum)^ii ' g( J and Cun(kir» preface 180 BACON'S SECRET DISCLOSED becomes consistent and intelligible, otherwise it is purposeless falsehood. OL^-^-^-^^''^-^*-^^^ - The world — and especially the literary world — may not yet be ready to acknowledge that this other was Bacon, but to my mind the evidence in his favour is overwhelming, and it will not be long before he is established on the throne that Shake- speare — who himself never claimed it — has so long occupied. ♦. y^ >v4-^Lx^dv«^ U^*^^^JLc>/ ji^ciw^V oL£-XJL(lu>t>Co-'eJ^^ ^ ^L».-t^/>l^ ^^i-«-'X^ ^y^-^^^-^j^j yu . r? ^£A Ji ^ iL.^ iW^ X* ^ ^.JSP-y^^.^ V il^ ^ ./'. 4iy .mJ^ n APPENDIX Plate j. Liber Sextos. I 2-^9 Exemplum (^y^lphahti ^iliterartp *,ri M aMa. aupfp ' apciaa aDaaJ) cbavH: ^afa^S gc ^ Qp (db S q" V w x> y faafn. fa ^naioM convprtmdf. S^c ♦ y csEsaasaBtBBiBra W^ BILLING AND SONS, LTD., PRINTERS OTJILDFORD . u^^nH Field Station, Bldg. wu '''*T30, Soum46mS.ee. Richmond, CA 94804-4693^^^^^ »a BOOKS MAV B"^,';*|-I-^°XaM»^^^^ jrrB.rrrs'p^srL5.-eau.o^e«^ FEB 5 2008 DD20 12M 7-06 %M