iiiiilil , Jii#i|| aigfiigilrii 'fSte skiffli S ■i*L. .,5«a|[jpiijii.li|i !#» ^.Of A:^Hm01fM J0>^' JSANCElfj> 1^ , ^ummo/: %■ . (^F ^11-' %a3AINn-3HV''~ ^lOSANCElfj-^ ^- ^/iiUAjNnjivv' ,^Of-CA[IF0% ^^oxanmi'^''' '^'^ommn'^ %.: jjnvjjo>^' '^j:?i2'jkysov^'^ -:3 '^FCAllFO/iV, ^6'vi}!VHan"\\'^' o %UOKVS01^^ '^/iJi3AINa-3Ww' *vMUBRARY(?/r, .\V\FINIVERS/A .v>;lOSANCfl^;A -^^vN^-UBRARY^/^ ^vMllBRARYQr^ m\ym/A o ^ ^\WEUNIVER5'/^ ■^/sauiNa-Jivv^ ^&Aavaaii-i^ ^;OFCAllFOft^ AMEUNIVERSy/i ^lOSANCElfX^ o ^ ,avnan^^^ ^OAavtian-i^ ^riuojjy.soi^ "^/^iOAiNn-jy^ ^OFCAIIFOi?^ ^0;^avaani'^ ^ PIVERS//- ^losANCEierA O > o^lOSANCElfjv. o ^/iaaMNAMV ^OFCAIIFO/?^ ^OFCAIIFOI?^ "^ii^AavaaiH^^ ^(?Aavaaiii^'^ ^WEUNIVERi//, '^aOJllVOJO-^ '^<^0JnV3J0=v> ^OFCAIIFOfiV ^WEUfJIVERS-ZA iivaaivi^N"^ >&Aavaani^ &Aavaan# ,^ ^lOMElfx^ UNIVERS/^ <^IUBRARYQ^, <\N^UBRARYQ/:^ ?r ^ 1 ir"^ ^ 1 ir"^ i § aJ h? i a JJ ? i .^WEUNIVERi-/^ B Y THE SAME AUTH OR. Demy 8vc», doth extra, 7s. 6d. Bacon, Sbakespeare, anb tbe IRosicrucians, "A most remarkable book. Like its predecessor, 'A New Study of Shakespeare,' one cannot open it without learning something. . . . But all the same the book is a curiosity, and no Shakespeare-Bacok libraut SHOULD BE WITHOUT IT." — Shakspcaviancf ( Ncw Ycji-k). "A noteworthy attempt has been made to fix the disputed authorship of the Shakespearian, and likewise of other writings, upon a set of literary eccentricities who existed in Shakespeare's time under the name of ' Rosi- crucians,' after one Christian Rosenkreuz, a German noble of the fifteenth century. The fame of this curious literary ' sect ' has just been revived by Mr AV. F. C. Wigston. He endeavours to show that there existed in Shakespeare's day a learned college of men who wrote in secret, among whom were Lord Bacon, Sir Philip Sydney, Shakespeare, and Ben Jonson, and that these together concocted the plays." — Westminster Mevieiv. "If Mr Donnelly's ' great cryptogram ' should turn out to be a real dis- covery, we do not see why Mr Wigston's should not be so too. We fully believe that the two theories must stand or fall together."— iVoics and Queries. Opinion of Mr James Hughan, author of many Masonic books, and re- puted to be the highest Masonic authority in England : — "I have carefully read your able article in the journal of the Bacon Society with gi'eat interest and mxich apjireciation. Prima facie, the case is made out, it appears to me, but beyond that I cannot go at present ; but the evidence is so remark- able, as well as curious, that no one of a thoughtful mind could possibly refuse your claim to consideration. The New Atlantis seems to be, and PROBABLY IS, THE KEY to the modcm Rituals of Free-masonry. Your Noble Volume on Bacon, Shakespeare, and the Rosicrucians does much to clear the way. " "The most powerful argument yet issued on the Baconian side." — Information. " I have found it an intensely interesting work. You are steadily pushing open a door that leads to a great discovery." — Ignatius Donnelly, Author of " The G-reat Cryptogram." "We hail with satisfaction the publication of Mr Wigston's remarkable and learned work on a subject of which others have thought and discoursed, especially with regard to the sonnets, but which is for the first time brought forward in print with a boldness and ability which must rank the author as first amongst the pioneers in this newly opened mine of truth." — The Bacon Journal. " It is further admittedly curious, and we readily give Mr Wigston the benefit of the fact, that among the ' misleaders ' whom the Confessio advises its disciples to have nothing to do with, ' one of the greatest ' is stated to be a 'stage player, a man with sufficient ingenuity for imposition.'" — Light. " The volume contains much that is most interesting." — Glasgow Herald, BY THE SAME AUTHOR. Dciti}/ 8ro, cloth ^ Is. Cvl. H Bcw Stu^\> of Sbahcspeave. "Certainly the most iioU-wortliy and valual.le of all the works elucidating the inner meaning of the greatest poet of modern times which have appeared. The books on Shakesj)eare, and his writings, would of themselves make a resj>ectal)le library, numerically considered. Most of them, however, are sui>erlicial and of small value, and many are absolutely worthless. The book under consideration, published anonymouslj' in 1884', seems not to have re- ceived the careful attention which it undoubtedly merits. It is evidently the production of a scholar and thinker who has given the Shakespearean writings a critical and exhaustive examination." — The Platonist. BY THE SAME AUTHOR. 8vo, cloth, Is. 6d. 1f3erniC6 Stella; OR, 1l-lotc6 an^ 3ottiiu35 upon the Bacon Cipbcr. "I read your book with the highest interest and pleasure, from the first l>age to the last. / think you Juive proved your case, and broicght forward some curious and novel facts. There is, I think, no doubt that there is a cipher in the prose uvrks of Lord Bacon, as you su^/gest." — Letter from Honourable Ic-.NATir.s Donnelly, Author of " Great Cryjdogram," etc., 12th July 1890. " Mr Wigstou ajiologises for the style of this book on the ground that it is ' only a collection of rough notes hurried into print by circumstances connected with the theft of a portion of the manuscript.' Ko doubt he fears lest some future Shakespeare, who is the thii'f, may hereafter get the credit of a work so erudite and so valuable." — The Bookseller. "Rough and unmethodical as the book is, however, it shows prodigious research and study, and a really extraordinary ingenuity." — J'ublishcrs' Circular. KKCJAN PALL, TKENCH, TEUBNER & CO., 57 ANU 59 LUDGATE HILL, LONDON. FRANCIS BACON, POET, PROPHET, PHILOSOPHER. PBixrEu Br TlliNIlULL AND SPEAK*. EIUXBlliGn. Qj.'ocr^ fre^ccj'o'cc^ ? 'off^.is: ^iejp: ^o'e^ck^^ MAX: aTM'^i'{ps^ 0/A^}/.r /^^CmO: OdZiW: C.^f.'¥a:43:q^JlM PP SfVG : c I -J I DC vxvi . FEANCIS BACON POET, PROPHET. PHILOSOPHER VERSUS PHANTOM CAPTAIN SHAKESPEARE THE ROSICRUCIAN MASK W. F. C. WIG ST ON AUTHOR OF '■ A NEW STUDY OP SHAKESPEAKE," " BACON, SHAKESPEARE, AXD THE ROSICKUCIANS," "HERMES STELLA." " Orpheus himself was torn to pieces by the women in theh' fury, an'l his limbs scattered about the fields: at whose death, HELICON (river sacred to the Muses), in grief and indignation, buried his waters under the earth to reappear elsewhere." (Bacon's " Wisdom of the Ancients," Orpheus.) LONDON KEG AN PAUL, TRENCH, TRUBNER & CO., Lt? 1891 (^3 \ PR V ^bt3 Mork is ^e^icate^ vy IGNATIUS DONNELLY IN TOKEN- OF RESPECT AND ADMIRATION BY THE AUTHOR. 190144 PREFACE. It may interest those who are ah-eady converts to the Baconian theory of the authorship of the Plays, to learn that Mr Donnelly has made further discoveries. He writes under date 12th July 1890: "I am still at work, in all leisure moments, upon the Cipher, and am working out the complete and perfect story, and hope to publish something before long that will end the controversy." ERRATA. Page 20, line 15, read 52 for 25. Page 157, line 8, read Vcnoiio for Vcnatis. Page 160, line 9, read Saneluuiiatlioii for Saiicuinatliou. CONTENTS. PAGK Introduction . ...... xv Preliminary Remarks — Lithograph Facsimile Copy of pages 52, 53, "CoNFESSio Fbaternitatis, or Confession of the Laud- able Order of the Rosy Cross," published at Frankfort, 1617, showing how a Stage Player is held up to contempt as an impostor — Michael Maier publishes three works immediately after his return from a visit to England in 1616 — In his "Ex- amination and Exposure of Drones and False Alchymists," he re-echoes the " Confessio," and identifies Poetry with Alchymy, giving hints for the Rosicrucians themselves — His Sei-io Comic Dialogue, "I/imis Serius," written also with regard to his stay in England — Contains the story of the " Waking Man's Dream," repeated in the Induction of the "Taming of the Shrew," by the incident of the substitution of Christopher Sly in the place of a Lord — Bacon's Fragment upon Fame — Para- phrase from Virgil — His Fable of Perseus twice repeated — The Perseus myth a Rosicrucian myth centre. CHAPTER I. History op King Henry the Seventh ..... 1 Bacon's History of " King Henry the Seventh " — Missing Link in the orderly succession of Chronicle Plays — Bacon writes this sole History — Parallels — Cipher connection between Bacon's "Henry the Seventh" and the 1623 Folio Plays. CHAPTER II. Bacon's Essays applied to the Plays ..... 25 Ambition, Envy, and Deformity — Richard III. — Thersites — Edmund — Don John — Philip the Bastard —Cassius and Csesar — Cicero. CONTENTS. CHAPTER III. PAGR Bacon's Essays applied to thk VL.\.\?.—contlmi.ed . , 42 Suspicion — Malice — Cunning — Othello and lago. — Vain-Glory — Achilles and Ajax. — Boldness — Bardolph, Nym, Pistol. — Parasites and Trencher Friends — Timon and Apemantus. — Usury — Revenge — Shylock. — Riches — The Three Caskets. — Friendship — Parents and Children. — Followers and Friends. CHAPTER IV. Divination and Prediction ...... 70 Augury — Perspective — Reflection — Glass Mirror — Rosicrucian Ideas— The World as Theatre— The Theatre as Nature— The Music of the Spheres — Another Rosicrucian Doctrine. CHAPTER V. Bacon's " Georgics of the Mind " ..... 99 Quotations showing Shakespeare employs the word v:icd for vice— Our Bodies compared to a Garden — Abandoned since the Fall — King Lear a neglected piece of ground, crowned with furrow weeds and darnel — The Microcosm the reflection of the Macrocosm — Diseases of the Mind — The Parable of the Talents illustrated by " Measure for Measure." CHAPTER VI. Bacon and Seneca ........ 132 Poem by Powell, comparing Bacon to Seneca the Dramatist— Evidently written by one who knew Bacon's poetic side — Re- semblance of Bacon to Seneca — His self-comparison with him — Both sacrifices of Faction. CHAPTER VII. "Antitheta" in Bacon's Writings ..... 139 Find their reflection in the antithetical stylo of Sliakespeare — Evidence of an impersonal philosophical mind trained in the schools — Bacon's Collection of Antitheta simply Texts for his CONTENTS. xi PACK Essays — Antitheta found in the " De Augmentis," under the " Wisdom of Private Speech," and as part of the Delivery of Secret knowledge or Tradition — Colours of Good and Evil — Tlio Antitheta really the Colours of the Dramatic Ai-tist — Strange introduction of Bacon's Works in the "De Augmentis" as deficients. CHAPTER VIII. History, Poetry, Philosophy ...... 153 Bacon's suspicious definition of History and Poetry — Their close relationship as past history made present or visible — The number of Chronicle Histories in the 1623 Folio — Bacon's tri- partite foundations of Learning, or Faculties of the Soul — Memory — Imagination — Reason— Makes Poetry one of the eman- ations of the Soul, on which Science is based — Nevertheless confesses, "Poetry is not a knowledge, but a play of wit" — Enigmatic character of "The Advancement of Learning" — Bacon identifies History with Custody or Memory — His art of Tradition or Delivery or transferring those things laid up in the memory to others, &c. CHAPTER IX. Verulam and Cymbeline .... . . 172 Old Verulam seat of Cassibulan, uncle to Cymbeline — Imogen and her two brothers j^arallels for Helen, Castor, and Pollux — The Lion's Whelp — Curious MSS. written by Sir Tobie Matthews. CHAPTER X. Temple and Verulam H(juse ...... 186 Aubrey's descriptive details — Paintings from classical subjects — Ceres — Jujjiter and Apollo represented on the walls of Verulam House — The Fish Ponds. CHAPTER XI. 1'arallels ....... . 192 Hamlet — Bacon's "Wisdom of the Ancients" refound in the Plays — Horticultural Parallels — Custom, Habit, Use — Love — Falconry — Swans — Duke Humphrey — Music. CONTENTS. BACON, SHAKESPEARE, AND THE EOSICEUCIANS. CHAPTER I. I'AGR Bacon axd the Rosicrucians ...... 271 Dc Quincey's statements misleading — Rosicrucians not gold- seekers — Rosicrucians reveal Baconian ends — Their Book of Nature reflected in Bacon's "Sylva Sylvarum" — Maier \'isits England — On his retui'n to Germany seeks to found a Society — • Bacon was enlisting the services of learned men beyond the seas for some secret purpose unknown to us — History of the Royal Society mixed up with the history of the Rosicrucian Campanella — Testimony of Des Cartes, Liebnitz, Helmont, showing the Rosi- crucian Society did not exist abroad — Parallels between Bacon's writings and Fludd's — Allusions to Solomon, Persian Magic, and the Star in the East, both by Fludd and Bacon in identical language — Bacon adopted the Rosicrucian emblem or type of Architecture and Agi-iculture. CHAPTER n. Notes on PiOSicrucian Literature ..... 299 Strange correspondence between Rosicrucian literature and the date of Shakespeare's death, 1616 — The controversy is at its height in 1617, when the Englishman Robert Fludd defends the Order against the attacks of foreigners — Bacon's term Instaura- TION also used by the Rosicrucians in the sense of RESTORATION of ^xis, and Sciences — Burton's evidence in his "Anatomy of Melancholy," 1621 — Statement that the founder of the Rosi- crucian Order was then living — "Omnium artiinii ct sctcniiannn instauratm' " — In England only Rosicrucianism took root, show- ing its origin — Fludd receives money from abroad, and publishes at Frankfort — Receives letters^from foreigners — His own words prove originality — Parallels. CHAPTER III, Rosicrucian Parallei-s to Bacon's Writings .... 312 Air, Soul, Sph'it — Bees and Roses — Rose and Lily — The Raven and Dove — Weapon-salve — The Chain of Nature — Pan — Orpheus — Strife and Friendship — The giving of Names — Foundations — Nil nisi Parmihis — Signets or Seals — Magnalia or Marvels — The CONTENTS. xiii I'AGi; Lion's Whelp — Rosicrucian Curiosities — Everlasting Lamps — The Pythagorean number Thirty-six— Heydon's " Land of the Kosi- crucians " identical line for line with Bacon's "New Atlantis." CHAPTER IV. General Remarks ........ 357 Bacon's "Restoration of Knowledge" connected with his "New Atlantis," the seat of the "Secret Doctrine" — The six days of Creation — Hint for the Creative Cycles connected with the Naros — Fondness of Rosicrucians for the week as a type — Bacon's extraordinary predilection for Solomon — Bacon and Campanella — The City of the Sun — Parallels presented in the play of the "Tempest" — Ben Jonson's "Fortunate Isles" — Allusions to Rosicrucians. CHAPTER V. Bacon's " Holy War " ....... 381 The Templar origin of the Rosicrucians — Bacon writes in the spirit of a Knight Templar, urging a Crusade — Though only a peaceable one with pens — Suspicious references to different • Orders — Bacon refers to the Temple and its rebuilding — The House of Wisdom^Bacon's Anti-Papal and Anti-Mahommedan Spirit — Bacon's allusions to Sacrifice — His renunciation and complete self-effacement — These were Rosicrucian doctrines. CHAPTER VI. Hermes Stella ........ 397 Bacon's Astrological MSS. Notes, 1603, with strange Parallels from the Rosicrucian, Robert Fludrl — The German text of the sixth chapter of Fludd's "Tractatus Apologeticus," 1617, showing how in 1603 the planet Jupiter was in conjunction with Saturn, Appendix ......... 419 Cipher Tables — Notes upon the mispag-ing in the 1640 "Ad- vancement of Learning " — English words in the text of the first edition of the ' ' Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosy Cross, " 1616 — Maier's locality of the Rosicrucians — Plainly the Hesperides or Atlantis. INTRODUCTION. This work is the result of some few months' close study. It is. certain anybody giving himself up to complete devotion to this work, might easily double or treble the number of parallels I adduce. The chief difficulty is the recognition of parallelism, for a student must have Shakespeare or Bacon by heart first, since we cannot read the two authors at the same time, and an ordinary remembrance of the chief passages in the plays is not sufficient for discovery. The works have to be read and re-read thousands of times, and recognition of the same thoughts dis- guised under different language requires practice and a quick eye to detect them. It is certain there is hardly a line, certainly not a simile, illustration, or metaphor, which may not be found repeated by both writers. This may seem a bold assumption, but let any one doubting it, read Mr Donnelly's parallels, then the vast collection adduced by Mrs Pott, and the Journal of the Bacon Society, together Avith mine, and it is not too much to say they must amount to thousands — certainly to at least five hundred complete and perfect ones. Those who refuse to acknowledge this evidence must be prejudiced, and are determined evidently to defend Shakespeare's prescriptive claim to the authorship of the plays, at the point of the bayonet. They belong to a class who would have the star Lyra rise and set by authority. But how long will fashion, passion, and prejudice hold out against Truth ? It is indeed astonishing to find both Mr Aldis Wright and Dr xvi INTR on UCTION. Abbott, in their editions of the "Advancement of Learning" and "Essays," filling their notes ami glossaries with illustrations from Shakespeare to parallel the English of Lord Bacon's prose writings ! I have endeavoured to avoid repeating parallels already pub- lished by others, but it is quite impossible to entirely escape a charge of plagiarism on this point. It is impossible to guard against repetition of parallels which are daily being discovered, or to be acquainted with the entire range of Bacon-Shakespeare literature, which threatens to become enormous. Some of my parallels already have appeared, biit I hope they are illustrated anew, and I think the greater part are original ; I may truly say, all have been independently arrived at. Professor Fowler points out in his work, the "Novum Or- ganum," the marvellous resemblance in style, thought, and literary genius in every direction, in all which no other author can be compared to Bacon, except it be Shakespeare. Testi- monies of this sort, without any theory or thought behind to suggest that Bacon wrote the plays and is Shakespeare's double, a,re highly valuable on account of their perfect immunity from any suspicion of bias or prejudice. We find Dr Kuno Fischer pointing out in like manner how the " Want of ability to take an historical survey of the world is to be found alike in Bacon and Shakespeare together, with many excellences common to them both. To the parallel between them, which Gervinus with his peculiar talent for combination has drawn in the concluding remarks to his ' Shakespeare,' and has illustrated by a series of appropriate instances, belongs the similar relation of both to antiquity, their affinity to the Roman mind, and their diversity from the Greek. " The great interest that Bacon took in portraits of character is proved by the fact that he attempted to draw them himself. With a few felicitous touches he sketched the characters of Julius and Augustus Cajsar, and his view of both was similar to that of Shakespeare. In Julius Caesar he saw CJ --^ '^ ^ a ^C< ^ s= ^ 5; s: '^.S ScH H = *=» g^^^S ^-^'-Sg)^ .5 5 ele ^S? 5^1^ w:» "^^ li i^ 5^ '-^ ^y *^ ^- ^- c^ 5 'XT' § -g' n «•= ~ ccx^ 3 £ ' 5 ^ ':i^'5:<9 ^-' 2 s 5 = H^ =^ 5" := ^^ t = § Z;.^'^ <^ b ^' ^ ^ § ^-^ = ^-^ = 't) 'ri ^ -^ "^ • . ^ ^ *- «i:x ^ ii V £ »- 5 ^ X s ^ :x ■^ ^ ? 5 '-=^*ii-C« i^^S>^ 3- -^5 0:1 ■»— t^ » jp »- SI '-^ ■_■ ii '^J c i: "S ^ ,0 <^ '-» J- •^ S -^ "2 ~ £ s: ^ % ^^ 5 FtS C S £ H '^^ — *-■ "^-"xs f'psf.gSf® R Svfc S ** »- «" 5 :r JS i; H • — -_< <-,— (£a. .C\ 'r^ ■ ~ *5 ^ h: ^- =: Ji ''^ ii '^ «^ ^ O •" ^ '-' JIl "^ ^ "^ ■— ^ " .^_. ^^ t^ ->• -^ ^C^-^^ >2 «i=.,~ = — — — C" 5- '=* i;; ^ o ^ ^ h"^'2^«c<^g' § -- ^ ~ •Cj ,ii >^ 0<' «> .-^ f-> f-> .t; W ii= 5 ^ 02 c o U *- ~ '"' *» c « J^>ci '"Si wj=- ■" Ti s 51 '"* « >J=N *- — •^ £ J.—, »i^ — '^ ^ f:,t I f^^ I {§ I ^'1 l^ft n S ^ iS .;s S '-► r; ji icL^-N& <>» C^ s ~ <-* t2> •si =: ~ jc» s ;; — £« =: c: C '-^ :: 5 -* *— Ji* ^ « f ^/ » ~ -" -^ V <— -v *— ^ ^ ^ i-f ^^ -^ «5 o S Si '<^ -- ^ »i\ ~ £1 ^^ V *^ S ** i^ S ^ S2v ^ ^£^'y 1617, the " Confcssio" being bound up witli the former. (Waite's "Real History of the Rosicrucians," p. 64.) INTR on UCTION. xxv to relieve his feelings or mind, and partly in order to light a torch for others, lest in dark obscnrity they may slip over the same stnmbling block, or break their head against the same beam, therefore they are to allow themselves to be fortified from these horseleeches and wasps, who not only iixick up the blood and substance of others, but even endeavour to inflict the acutest sufferings in the mind as well as the body. At first, on reading this, as well as the cau- tion in the " Fama Fraternitatis," already quoted, the tevrnpseudo- chyniist seemed to possess little that was pertinent or applicable to Shakespeare. But great was my astonishment upon commenc- ing this tract, to find Maier opening with poetry, and evidently, by his allusions to Helicon and Parnassus, pointing at the society of the Rosicrucians themselves. Presently I found him identifying Poetry under the title Chymistry, in most unmistakable terms. I cannot therefore do better than give the Latin text itself, by which the reader will be convinced Maier turote this tract to expose some impostor Poet, as a Drone (Fucus) living upon the work of others. The Preface commences : — " Quod Poetse antiqui de suo Helicone finxerunt, quod ex diversis hominum generibus ad ejus apicem tendentibus paucis- simi eo, quo destinarint, perveniant, multi in medio haereant, des- perantes ad summa ascendere. Maxima autem pars, ad radices imas subsidens, ne cogitet quidem pedem altius efFerre, id de Chymica arte revera absque ulla translatione aut figura intelligi debet. Est enim Helicon mons Boeotise, non procul a Parnasso, Musis sacer, in quo Lapis ille a Saturno pro love devoratus, ejectus, Pko monumento perpetuo servatus est, ut testatur Hesiodus : Ad Hunc Lapidem videndum et pro summo mira- culo amplectendum contendunt ad dictum montem multa homi- num millia : verum vix unus ex myriade ad istum pervenit, ceteris, ut ante relatum, circa media et ima occupatis. Causa vero tam difficilis adscensus in hunc montem est multiplex, de qua alias. De artificibus, qui evictis difficultatibus omnibus verticem superarunt, dictum est in Symbolis Aure.e MenS/E. Illis, qui circa media latera morantur, et viam ignorant, cui insistant, XX vi INTR OD UCTION. ViATORUM, instar Ai'iadncs Philosophicse, dicavimus, utpote Philo- sophis, et doctis viris, qui extra septem illas portas, sen montes planetarum non evagantur : Cceteri, qui ad injiimi loca abjedi, circa planitiem existentes, partim otiosi lurcones, pignque ventres, partim nebulones ineptis nugis, et dolis satagentes, excurrunt in aliorum res it bona genio pii'^'^datorio, aut certe ingenio proditmio, ad hunc iractatiim reservati sunt. Pnmi<, Gloria et honos pro ai'tis documentis, veluti didactron debitum, cessit. Seciindis, Instrumentum vel filum noii inconcinnum ad artis penetralia viam monstrans a nobis adminis- tratum est, ut quasi a carceribus ad calcem, ab initio ad finem, feliciter perveniant. Ultimis, utpote fucis admonitio et castigatio in Examine prsescribitur. Fucos autem eos omnes vocatos velim, non qui in arte simpliciter errant et decepti sunt ab aliis, sed qui alios animo decipiendi invadunt, tentant, irretiunt, et fallaciis captant, sua cum utilitate et illorum damno. Quod genus hominum cum tarn Reipublic^, quam Chymicas sit valde noxium, inprimis agnos- cendum et praecavendum erit " (p. 10, "Examen Fucorum Pseudo- chymicorum," 1617). The reader will now be surprised to find Maier classing Poetry and Poets under the head of Chymistry and Chy mists (upon page 15), with the marginal note " Chjmico necessaria Poetica" : — " Absque omni dubio, qui velit et speret ex doctrina propria indagare banc artem et non tumultuaria quadam materiarura ex- perimentatione, ille opus habebit arfibus dicendi et Unguis, quarum ambitu ars Chymica comprehenditur : ac inprimis Poetica, quce de mdlo alio siibjecto, quam de Chymicis allegoriis et figmentis primitus introducta est, quemadmodum in nostris Hieroglyphicis per omnes libros et fabulas demonstravimus. Nam qui corticem rerum inclusarum non penetrat, is minimc ad has perveniet, sed semper ha^robit in superficie et literali interpretatione, quae etiamsi satis nota esset, tamen non prodesset, nisi et figuras et allegorias, seu metaphoras dicendi, quibus saepissime utuntur authores, omnes perspectas habeat." The reader will see that Maier includes Poetry under the title of Alchymistry, and refers to his Hieroglyphicis ("Arcana Arcanis- sima hoc est Ilieroglyphica /Egyptio-Grceca "), in which he expounds JNTR on UCTION. xxvi i the allegories concealed behiiul the gods of Egypt and Greece in a profound manner, closely resembling Lord Bacon's " Wisdom of the Ancients." (This book, of which I possess a copy, is very curious and rare. It treats of Osiris, Isis, Apis, &c., and the whole Greek Pantheon, most abstrusely.) In September 1616, again, — that is, five months after Shake- speare's death, — I find Michael Maier published also a humorous dialogue entitled "Lusus Serius, quo Hermes sive Mercurius Eex, Mundanorum omnium sub homine existentium, post longam (lisceptationem in concilio Octovirali habitam, homine rationali arbitro, Judicatus et constitutus est" (Oppenheim, Sumptibus Lucffi lennis. Bibliop., 1616). It is dedicated to — Dn. Francisco Antonio, Londin. Anglo, Seniori. Dn. Jacobo Mosano, lUustris Mauri tii Hassise Landgi'avii, Archiatro digniori. Dn. Christiano Eumphio Electrolai Palatino ad Ehenum Med. ordinario circumspecto. The Dedicatory Epistle to these three persons is as follows : — " Viri, Virtute, Doctrina veraq; animi Nobilitate longe conspicui, cum usu receptum sit inter vere amicos, ut alter alteri donaria, etiam cjuoad precium exigua, uti sunt poma, nuces, aliave esculenta, potulenta seu utensilia, non tarn propter se, suamve dignitatem, quam grati animi, nullo loci vel temporis spacio interrupti, significationem, mittat et ab invicem recipiat, hinc non dubitavi, vobis nonnihil ex vernis meis, et quasi raptim ex ingenii lusu (dum in Anglia aliquando in hujusmodi mentem post seria Chymica inciderem) natum et productum, non quidem instar Minervse (Phidiae) ex Jovis Cerebro prosilientis, sed potius Hebes (quam Juventutem Latini appellant, quasi jucunditati praefectam et Jovi a poculis) ex Junonis citta, pica seu malacia, hoc est, esu lactucse agrestis, cum ab Apolline convivio accepta esset, absque ullo cum mare concubitu, mons- tros6 edita3, mittere et oflferre ; quod scriptionis genus, si seriis indulgens studiis, ut ludibundum, si animi recreationi, ut non xxviii INTRODUCTION. minus serium, pro Yestro in me amore, meoqiie in vos candore miituo, recipiatis, etiam atque etiam rogo. Nee vero velim, \\t tam doni precium, quod quia chartaceum, vile est nimis, quam donantis animum, qui vobis nunquam non addictus, respiciatis et veluti nuces aut poma, ab arnica manu profecta, sestimetis. Interim quomodocunque sit, me vobis Regem et preciosissima fere mundi omnia dedicasse et obtulisse, si non quoad formam, tamen materiam, agnoscetis, meque inter Yestri amantissimos, ut hactenus (quod ego vicissim) numerabitis. Yalete, dabam Francofurti ad Moenum, ipso ex Anglia reditu, Pragam abituriens ; Anno 1616, Mense, Septembri." This epistle demonstrates the fact Maier had written or conceived this tract whilst in England. The work is disposed in the form of a dialogue, and might be called a serio-comic play. The Cow, the Sheep, the Goose, the Bee, the Silkworm, the Oyster, together with Mercury, as representatives of the animal, vegetable, and mineral kingdoms, appear before an appointed judge, and respectively lay claim to be selected kings of the world. Each recounts the benefits conferred by its species upon man. The cow supplies milk, the goose pens, the bee wax and honey, the silkworm silk, the flax cloth, and so on; all this being argued at length and in detail by each, very plausibly in his own favour-. That there is some undermeaning implied in this fable cannot be questioned. But what, indeed, is important and most striking is, Avhen the silkworm comes to recount the services it renders humanity, the story of the Waking Man's Dream (which is rej^eated in the Induction of the " Taming of the Shrew " by the sup- posed Shakespeare, in the humorous character of Christopher Sly), is repeated verbatim. It is given by Maier exactly as Hazlit gives the story of Phillip, Duke of Burgundy, in his Shakespeare Library. The Silkworm {Bomhyx) boasts of the splendour of the silks it spins, and how indebted man is to his works, and (upon page 35) thus addresses the judge before whom it is speaking : — INTRODUCTION. xxix ''Tu ipse optimc novisti, vel doctissimura in literis et scientiis absolutissimum virum in nullo vel saltern cxigno haberi precio, si non bene vestitus fuerit, nee ut talem decebat, se prajbuerit ; Ac quemcunque vis semihominem, si mentem spectes, serico indutum magnifice, literatissimo illi ante ferri. Tantum tela nostri operis prsestare potest, de quo si dubites, vol vera historia rem tibi ob oculos ponam. Phillipus Bonus Burgundi?e Dux aliquando noctu invenit quendam ex infima plebe cerdonetn Grandavi in foro sonino vindque sepultum, quera a niinistris suis attoUi et gestari secum in aulam Ducalem, ubi hominem vestibus suis vilissimis et immundis exui, et indutum indusio lineo in Ducalem lectum reponi jussit, donee villum, quod biberat, edomiret. Mane adfuerunt ipsi pueri Nobiles eleganti facie et vestitu, qui expectarent, dum homo evigilaret, quem interrogarunt, ut ipsum Ducem soliti errant, gestibus et dictis ad blanditias et reverentiam corapositis, quo modo vellet vestiri, et simul diversa genera vestium ipsi, ut inde delectum haberet, proposuerunt. Homo multis modis de statu suo ab initio dubit- avit,ut et de loco, secumque diu disputavit,an esset ille, qui habere- tur, an ver5 alius ille, qui fuerat. Cum vero animadvertisset et nobile viros adesse, qui sibi ad nutum adstarent et quaererent ; An non vellet surgere et ad consueta officia redire, facile sihi- persiiacleri jmssus, sese esse Ducem, qui haberetur. Indutus itaque restihus clucalibiis, cum liac sibi convcnientes sentiret, non aliter jmfavit, qiutm sese esse tot famulorum Dominum et (necio, quo fata, factum) totius regionis potentissimum Piincipem. D^icitur magna comitatu ad viridaria aulse proxima, hinc ad vivaria piscium, deinde ad jentaculum ; a quo tempus teritur ambulando ad alia diversa loca, confabulando de rebus variis, in quibus omnibus, homo, ([uoad corpus et habitum, se pra^buit (qui non erat) Ducem, quoad mentem et cpetera omnia (qui erat) cerdonem. Post ad prandium adducitur, in quo ipsi pulcherrimte foeminse adjunguntur et optimates aulse quicunque. Hinc ad venationem ferarum cum equis et canibus, multisque aulicis contendit, unde ad coenam, in qua cum opiparis et varii generis ferculis tractaretur, ac XXX INTR OD UCTION. interim in sanitatem ipsius ah omnibus optimi vini pocula propinarentur, facilime, cur id genus vini impense amaret, iterum inebriatus est, ut prius, ac in profundissimum somnum conjectus. Turn ipse Dux Phillipus (qui hactenus inter aulicos fictitio inserviverat liunc hominem, qui hue usque Principis personam sustinuerat, iterum pristino suo loco in medium fori, unde desumptus fuerai, suis propriis vestibus indutum, reportari mundavit ; ul:)i cum noctem peregisset, ac mane se eo in loco animadvertisset, diu dubitavit de statu suo ; an esset ille, qui nunc videretur, an, vero dux ille, qui visus erat. Verum cum aliter sibi persuadere non posset, prsesentibus omnibus signis, inprimis vestibus laceris et vetustis, quae cerdonem ilium viliorem declararent, et absentibus, quae ducem, tandem domum rediens, uxori su3e veluti somnium, quod ea nocte viderat, quomodo in duels aula fuisset et qua ratione tractatus, ambulationi et venationi, reliquisque rebus omnibus operam dederit, narravit. Ex quibus apparet, vestes ex nostris telis confectas maximam vim habere ad persuadendum hominibus illis, qui eas gestant, et aliis, qui eas gestari cernunt, qualis et quantus quisque sit. Nam plerique, qui vident se bombycinis exuviis indutos, etiamsi sint ex infima sorte homines et nullo nobilitatis aut doctrinse colore imbuti, mox sibi persuadent, quod sint tales, quales habentur (ut ille cerdo) cum videant ab omnibus sibi ad nutum dici, applaudi et faveri. Sic et alii, qui cernunt quendam sei'iceis fills circumsep- tum, non ilium pro verme bombycino habent, at pro ave, cujus- nidum molliores texturse ornent, imu pro eo, cui, ut fortiori as- surgendum, ut formoso abblandiendum, ut erudito in sermonibus concedendum, ut seniori locus commodior relinquendus sit. Tan- tam vim inesse nostris telis animadvertis, ut magis, quam Magnes ferrum, ilhie attrahant hominum oculos ad sese, sibique eos pro- pitios reddunt. Inde versiculi : — Ilunc homilies decorant, ([uem vestimenta decoraiit : 111 vili veste nemo tractatiir honeste : Vir bene vestitus pro vestibus esse peritus Creditui- a niille, quamvis Idiota sit ille : Si careas veste, nee sis vestitus lioneste, Nullins es laudis, (^namvis scis oimic, (^uod audis." INTR OD UCTION. xxxi I need hardly translate this extract at length. Briefly para- phrased the Silkworm declares dress to be everything, though only appearance.* To illustrate this he relates how Phillip, the Good Duke of Burgundy, discovered one night a certain tanner (cobbler or artisan) asleep dead drunk on the market-place, whom he caused to be lifted up and carried to his Ducal Palace, his rags taken oflF, and clothed in a linen shirt, then put in the Duke's bed. A number of noble youths or pages of elegant appearance and dress were present, who, upon his awaking, asked him Avith the same flattery and reverence of words they were accus- tomed to use to the Duke, how he would dress, and at the same time proffered him diff'erent suits of clothes to dress himself in. The man was at first doubtful as to his own condition or where he was, and for a long time disputed with himself whether he was the person he was considered to be, or truly himself. But indeed when he perceived that there were really noblemen present, who waited upon his pleasure and inquired whether he would not get up and betake himself to his duties, he easily allowed himself to be persuaded that he was the real duke, as he was held. Clothed in the ducal garments, which he felt were agreeable and beseeming him, he soon believed, since he was the lord of so many domestics, he must be a prince of power and importance. Then he is led by a great crowd of courtiers to the ducal garden, next to the fish ponds, and thence to breakfast, after which the time is spent in strolling about to other various spots, conversing upon various things, in all of which the man appeared to be, as far as concerned his dress, the Duke himself (which he was not), but in mind and all other things a tanner (which indeed he was). Later on he is led to dinner, at which the most beautiful ladies and the highest in rank were present. After that he goes out to hunt with horses and dogs, then to a banquet, at which dainties and dishes of various sorts are served * The reader Avill recognise in the moral of this passage the ' ' Clothes Philo- sophy " so abundantly satirised in the plays — " The world is still deceived by ornament." xxxii INTRODUCTION. to him, and meanwhile is primed easily Avith wine, drunk in his honour, the result being that he again gets intoxicated as before, and falls into the profoundest slumber. Then Duke Phillip (who hitherto had waited, disguised with the courtiers, upon this man, who up to the moment had played the character of the prince) ordered him to be carried to the same spot in the market-place where he had been first found, and his own clothes restored to him. AVhen he had passed the night, early in the morning perceiving where he was, for a long time he was in doubt as to his own identity, whether indeed he was what he seemed, or the Duke he had appeared to be. But persuaded by outward signs, and by his torn and old clothes, which declared him to be a peasant, he at length returned home and related to his wife what he had seen that night — how he had been to the ducal palace, how treated there, the walking and hunting, and the rest, as if it had been a dream. From which it is manifest the garments spun from our Avebs possess an extraordinary force in persuading those who wear them, and those who perceive us wearing them, who and what each one is. For very many who see themselves clothed in the skins of the silkworm, even though they be of low extraction, and possessing no colour of nobility or learning, presently persuade themselves that they are those they are held to be (like this tanner), since they behold themselves flattered and applauded by all. The reader will perceive this is the story of Christopher Sly which Hazlitt long ago pointed out was repeated by this tale of the Duke of Burgundy, entitled the " Waking Man's Dream." Con- sider Maier conceives this '■^Lusiis Serins" in England, and publishes it a few months after Shakespeare's death, dedicating the piece to an Englishman whom / suspect was Bacon himself ! Wlu) was Dr Francisco Antonio ? Here are the two Christian names of Lord Francis Bacon and his brother Anthony Bacon. Why is he a Lord (seigniori) 1 This story related by Maier is upon pages 35, 36 of the tract, corresponding with the two play numbers, 35, 36 (cata- logue and full number) of the 1623 Folio! The evidence taken INTRODUCTION. xxxiii altogether is considerable. The other piece upon false Chymists is written at the same time exactly, as the preface informs us — • September 1616. The " Fama Fraternitatis " was rewritten (the one we cite from), 1617, published at Frankfort, voliere, Maier and Robert Fbidd were also both publishing. The prefaces to both the "Lusus Serius" and "Examen Fucorum" conclude, Daharn Franco- furti ad mcenum. Anno 1616, Mense Septembri." The " Fama " I cite from is also published at Frankfort, 1617, and in the preface it states it has been rewritten and improved. In my work, " Bacon, Shakespeare, and the Rosicrucians," I pointed out how wonder- fully adapted the story of Sly, in the " Taming of the Shrew," was to represent a man of low extraction like Shakespeare set up by a nobleman like Bacon in his own place with regard to plays or players. Sly, in " The Taming of the Shrew," remains un- restored to his former condition, and the joke is therefore left un- conchded, as if to suggest it is still in act of perpetration respect- ing Shakespeare's false position with regard to the plays. That the Rosicrucians were closely connected with Poetry can be proved from their writings. Two of the works of John Valen- tine Andreas, the Rosicrucian Protagonist (which I possess), con- tain upon the title-page — " Helicone Juxta Parnassum." These works are : " Menippus sive Dialogorum Satyricorum Centuria," 1617, and " Turbo, sive Moleste et Frustra per cuncta Divagans Ingenium," 1616. Upon page 158 of Michael Maier's " Themis Aurea" (or " LaAvs of the Rosicrucian Fraternity," 1618), I find this : " Augar non sum, neque vates, licet laurum aliquando momorderim et in Parnassi umbra paucas horulas dormierim, nihilominus, nisi fallor, eorum characterum R. C. expositionem in aenigmatiljus, HI) 6, Symbolorum auree, mense satis evolvi : R. n, Pegasum, et C. Julium, si ad mentem non sonum verbi resj)icia- tur : Sit til)i clavis, Arcanorum Cognitio : En dabo Arcanum : d.wmml. zii. w. fgqqhka. x. Si potes aperi : Nee pluribus, nee clarioiibus opus est. An non hie est unguiculus Rosei illius Leonis gutta Pegasese Hippocrenes ? " (Copied from a genuine and xxxiv INTRODUCTION. original copy })rinted at Frankfort, Typis Nicolai HofFmanni, 1618.) Mr Waite translates this thus : — " 'I am no augur nor prophet, notwithstanding that once I par- took of the laurel, and reposed a few brief hours in the shadow of Parnassus ; nevertheless, if I err not, I have unfolded the signifi- cance of the characters R. C. in the enigmas of the sixth book of the Symbols of the Golden Table. E signifies Pegasus, and C, if the sense not the sound be considered, lilium. Let the Know- ledge OF THE Arcana be the key to thee. Lo, I give thee the Arcanum ! d. wmml. zii. w. sgqqhka. x. Open if thou canst. . , . Is not this the hoof of the Red Lion * or the drops of the Hippo- crene fountain 1 ' Beneath this barbarous jargon we discern, hoM^ever, an analogy with the Rose symbolism. Classical tradi- tion informs us that the Red Rose sprang from the blood of Adonis, but Pegasus was a Avinged horse which sprang from the blood of Medusa, and the fountain of Hippocrene was produced by a stroke of the hoof of Pegasus " (Waite's " Real History of the Rosicrucians "). Now compare what the same writer, Michael Maier (who visited England in 1616, and was friends with Robert Fludd), writes in his " Arcana Arcanissima " ("Secret of Secrets," from which I cojiy), under the marginal note, "Forts Heliconis imde": " Ejusdem Pegasi unguldfons Hippocrene in bicipiti Parnasso excltatus traditur, ex quo Mmce; Apollo, poetce et omnes literati hibunt et eniditiores evadunt : Sic eruditio poetarum ex f ante Parnassi, hie ex ungida Pegasi, Pegasus ex cruore Medusa', Medusa ex monstro marina progenita, a Perseo trucidata, Perseus e Jave, Jupiter h Saturno, Saturnus h Coelo, ta7iquam aurea cathena dependet, &c." (p. 157, Oppenheim, 1616). The reader, I think, will see the society was probably con- * " This is evidently the Mithraic Lion of Persia (the Lion of the Clierubim of the Chaldees) — the /ttoJ Z/o«. of the Chaldees. Porphyry names this Lion Perses (Perseus, Brightness, the sun born) or the Sun incarnate as man" {vide " Enoch," vol. ii. p. 49, Kenealy). Mr "Waite lias made the mistake of substi- tuting in his translation "Lilium "for "Julium." " .Tulium " is evidently a reference to the house of the sun Leo in July. Pegasus was the seal of the KnigJit Templars (p. 189, "The Gnostics," King). INTRODUCTION. xxxv nected with Poetry, and particularly with the fount Helicon, which flowed from Parnassus to the fountains of the muses called Aganippe and Hippocrene. Castalia was also a fountain of Parnassus sacred to the muses and Apollo. It is remarkable to find the "_/zV.S'/ heir" of the supposed Shakespeare's invention carry- ing this motto— Yilia miretur valgus ; milii flavus Apollo Pocula Castalia plena miiiistret aqua. ("Venus and Adonis.") Here is direct connotation with Apollo, Parnassus, and the foun- tain of Castalia, close to Helicon, if not identical with it. The emblem upon the title-page of Lord Bacon's Collection of Apophthegms (published 1671, " Eesuscitatio ") is a tvinged horse — Pegasus.^ It is again remarkable to find Bacon, in his explanation of the fable of Perseus (VII. " Wisdom of the Ancients "), writing : — " The conclusion of the war is followed by two effects : first the birth and sj^ringing up of Pegasus, which obviously enough denotes Fame, flying abroad and celebrating the victory." This he again introduces and repeats in his "De Augmentis " (1623, 1638, 1640), Book II.; the Fable of Perseus being selected by him to illustrate Parabolical Poesy. If the reader will turn to the catalogue of " A New World of Sciences " (always found at the end of the " De Augmentis "), he will find the sixth " Deficient," entitled " Sapientia Veterum, Philosophy according to Ancient Parables." If now he "will turn to the Second Book of the " De Augmentis," 1623, he will find this Sixth Deficient introduced, page 108 (1640), as an examp)le of the Fables of the Poets in connec- tion with Parabolical or Allusive Poetry, and in touch with the entire subject of the Drama and Stage-Plays upon the previous pages 106, 107. Let me earnestly entreat the student's attention to this, w^hich is a decided proof, Bacon's "Wisdom of the Ancients" was Avritten parabolically, and in connection with Allusive Poetry or Stage-Plays, — the Theatre. It is not in merely reading my statements, but in testing them, the reader will appreciate the truth and value of what I adduce. He will see, in a moment, Avhy Bacon has xxxvi INTR OD UCTION. reserved the titles of his Deficients for a catalogue at the end of the work, — evidently with a view to concealment and safety, — these Deficients being only coasted along. " But these are but coastings along the shore j^;re??2e?if?o litus iniquum" (page 123, Book II. "Advancement of Learning," 1605, Wright). This shows Bacon thought these Deficients dangerous subjects to do more than hint at. In his " Distribution Preface " he writes : " Wherefore we ■wall not neglect to side along (as it were in passage) the coasts of accepted Sciences and Arts, and to import thither something useful and profitable" (p. 22, "Advancement," 1640). But to return to our citation, it is certainly remarkable to find Bacon connoting Fame vnth the springing up of Pegasus, seeing it is a hint for Poetry, if not for the " Fama Fraternitatis " itself. In Bacon's " Resuscitatio," 1671, is to be found a fragment entitled Fame, this being printed in type of extraordinary and remarkable size, quite out of agreement with the other chapter headings, and advertising itself as a singularity of the work, evi- dently done to attract notice. Directly Ave examine this Essay fragment, we find the first part entirely borrowed from Virgil's description of Fame (fourth book, "JEneid," 173 1.). Extemplo Libyre magnas it Fama per uibes ; Fama, malum, quo non aliud velocius uUum : Mobilitate viget, viresque acquirit euudo. Parva metu primo ; mox sese, attollit in auras, Ingrediturque solo, et caput inter uubila condit. lUam Terra parens, ira irritata deoruni, Extremam, ut perhibent, Coeo Enceladoque sororem Progenuit, pedibus celerem, et pernicibus alis. Monstrum horrendum, ingens ; cui, quot sunt corpore 2)lumm, Tot vigiles oculi suhtcr, mirabile dictu. Tot linyuoe, totidcm ora sonant, tot subrigit aurcs. Nocte volat coeli medio terrreque, per umbram. Stridens, nee dulci declinat lumina somno. Lvice sedet custos aut surami culmine tecti, Turribus aut altis, et magnas territat urbes.* " The Poets make Fame a Monster. They describe her in part, * Virgil borrowed his pbantom from tlic^ Eris of Homer, and lines 176, 177 are directly imitated from the Greek poet (" Anthou's Virgil," 410). INTRODUCTION. xxxvii finely and elegantly, and in part gravely and sententiously. They say, look how many feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath. So many tongues ; so many voices ; she pricks up so many ears. This is a flourish : there follow excel- lent Parables ; as that she gathereth strength in going ; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet hideth her head in the clouds. That in the day time she sitteth in a watch tower, and flyeth both by night. That she mingleth things done with things not done : and that she is a terror to great cities ; but that Avhich passeth all the rest is : they do recount that the earth, mother of the giants, that made war against Jupiter, and were by him destroyed, there- upon in anger brought forth Fame. For certain it is, that Rebels figured by the giaitts and Seditious Fames and libels, are but brothers and sisters ; masculine and feminine. But now if a man can tame this Monster, and bring her to feed at the hand, and govern her, and with her fly other ravening fowl, and kill them, it is somewhat Avorth. But we are infected Avith the style of the Poets. To speak noAV in a sad and serious manner ; there is not in all the politics a place less handled, and more worthy to be handled, than this of Fame. We will therefore speak of these points. What are false Fames; and what are true Fames ; and how they may be best discerned ; how Fames may be sown and raised ; how they may be spread and multiplied ; and how they may be checked and laid dead"(ix 212, " Eesuscitatio," 1671, Pars.I). The first part is entirely a paraphrase of the passage cited from Virgil. Directly we turn to the Rosicrucian Romance known as the " Chemical Marriage of Christian Rosy Cross," published at Strassburg, 1616, Ave read at the commencement: "Now the same thing still tAviching me several times by the coat, I glanced back and behold it was a fair and glorious lady, Avhose garments Avere all skye-colour, and curiously bespangled with golden stars. In her right hand she bare a trumpet of beaten gold, whereon a Name Avas ingraven Avhich I could Avell read but am forbidden as yet to reveal. In her left hand she had a great bundle of letters xxxviii INTRODUCTION. in all languages, which she (as I afterwards understood) was to carry into all countries. She had also large and heautiful uings, full of eyes throughmif, wherewith she could mount aloft, and fly- swifter than any eagle " (p. 100, "Waite's "Real History of the Rosicrucians "). Compare Bacon : " The Poets make fame a Monster. They de- scribe her in part finely and elegantly ; and in part gravely and sententiously. They say look how many feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath tmderneath ; so many Tongues ; so many voices ; she pricks up so many ears. This is a flourish." John Valentine Andreas, in his description of his own life, declared he composed the "Chemical Marriage of Christian Rosy Cross" in 1602 and 1603, and his own words are, " Ludihium cum monstrorum fcecundo fo'tu, quod mireris a nonnullis aestimatum et subtili indagine ex- plicatum, plane futile et quod inanitatem curiosorum prodat " (p. 99, " Joh. Val. Andreas und sein Zeitalter," Rossbach, 1819). The reader will see the term monster used by both this writer and Bacon in connection with Fame. The trumfpet is con- stantly introduced in the Rosicrucian manifestoes in connection with Fame, as may be seen in the above extract from the " Marriage of Christian Rosenkreutz." Ujion the frontispiece engraving of Sir Walter Raleigh's " History of the World," 1614, may be recognised an engraved symbol of this Fame — a woman with wings, the latter covered underneath with eyes. She holds a trumpet she is blowing to her lips. Beneath she is described by the title " Fama Bona." It may be seen Bacon evidently is describing this allegorical figure. It is very curious Sir Walter Raleigh's " History of the AVorld," containing this highly masonic engraving, bears date 1614 — that is the same year the " Fama Fraternitatis of the Meritorious Order of the R. C." saw light. " And this kind of merit was lively set forth in that famed relation of Orpheus Theatre, where all beasts and birds assembled, which, forgetting their proper natui'al appetites of pre)', of game, of quarrels, stood all sociably and lovingly together, listening INTRODUCTION. xxxix unto the airs and accords of the harp " (p. 49, " Advancement of Learning," 1640). The next page, 50, is mispaged 52 (Shake- speare's age, 1616), and constitutes the first false page in the work. (The words Orpheus Theatre are the 49th and 50th in italics from the top of the page, and the 23rd likewise from the bottom upwards). P. 49, J Orpheus, 49, 24. 1640 "Advancement of Learning," [ Theatre, 50, 23. Evidently this connotation of the word Theatre with the number fifty is to call attention to the next page fiftij mispaged fifty-two, that is Shakespeare's full years when he died, 1616, and thus to suggest the Shakespeare Theatre I Directly we read Bacon's Fahle of Orpheus (in his " Wisdom of the Ancients ") we find the following reference to Helicon, which the Rosicrucians called their sacred spring ! " Orpheus himself was torn to pieces by the women in their fury, and his limbs scattered about the fields : at whose death. Helicon (river sacred to the Muses) in grief and indignation bimed his waters under the earth, to reappear elseivhere" ("Wisdom of the Ancients," XL, Orpheus). Bacon explains this fable thus : " The singing of Orpheus is of two kinds ; one to propitiate the infernal powers, the other to draw the wild beasts and the woods. The former may be best understood as referring to natural philosophy ; the latter to philosophy moral and civil. For natural philosophy proposes to itself, as its noblest work of all, nothing less than the restitution and renovation of things corruptible, and (what is indeed the same thing in a lower degree) the conservation of bodies in the state in which they are, and the retardation of dissolution and putre- faction. "But howsoever the works of wisdom are among human things the most excellent, yet they too have their periods and closes. For so it is that after kingdoms and commonwealths have xl INTR on UCTION. flourished for a time, there arise perturbations and seditions and wars ; amid the uproars of which, first the laws are put to silence, and then men return to the depraved conditions of their nature, and desolation is seen in the fields and cities. And if such troubles last, it is not long before letters also and philosophy are so torn in pieces that no traces of them can be found but a few fragments, scattered here and there like plmih from a shipwreck; and then a season of barbarism sets in, the waters of Helicon being sunk imcler the ground, until, according to the ajypointed vicissitude of things, they break out and issue forth again, perhaps among other nations, and not in the places where they were before " (Orpheus XL, or Philosophy). The Latin text runs : " Adeo ut fragmenta tantum ejixs, in paucis locis, tanquam Naufragii Tabulae, inveniantur et barbara tempora ingruant ; Heliconis aquis sub terra mersis ; donee debita rebus vicissitudine, non iisdem fortasse locis, sed apud alias Nationes erumpant et emanent" (1638, "Opera Moralia "). Upon page 91, ch. vi., "Advancement of Learning," 1640, Bacon again introduces this subject in the same words : — "Antiquities, or the Eenuiins of Histories, are, as we said, tanquam TabiUa Naufragii ; when industrious and understanding persons (the memory of things being decayed and almost overwhelmed with oblivion) by a constant and scrupulous diligence, out of Genealogies, Calendars, Inscriptions, Monuments, Coins, Proper Names and Styles, &c., &c., recover and save somewhat from the dehige of Time." There are exactly fifty-two words in italics upon this page in the 1640 "Advancement of Learning," as if to suggest some connection with Shakespeare or 1616. It is very well worthy note, the three ancient fables Bacon introduces in his " De Augmentis " in order to illustrate Para- bolical Poesy, are the fables of Pan, Perseus, Dionysus, because these three are closely connected Avith Rosicrucian mysteries. Pan and Perseus especially being introduced by Robert Fludd ("Tractatus Apol.," 1617) and Michael Maier ("Arcana Arcanis- sima ") in the same way as by Bacon. INTRODUCTION. xli The author of " Nimrod " writes : " Roger Bacon's Avritings are scarcely distinguishable in their character from those of the Rosi- crucians, and the latter avow that the name and fable of Demigorgon conceals the secret of their art " {vide " Echo Colloquii," p. 97 ; " Mmrod," vol. iv., p. 223). It is very striking to find Lord Bacon giving this story of Pegasus and Medusa in his " Advancement of Learning" (upon page 73 of the 1638 edition, and pages 120, 121, "Advancement of Learning," 1640), almost in the same words as it is related by the great Rosicrucian, Michael Maier (upon page 157), in his "Arcana Arcanissima." "Perseus, a Prince of the East, is reported to have been employed by Pallas for the destroying of Medusa, who was very infestious to the western parts of the world, about the uttermost coasts of Iberia. A monster, huge and fierce, of an aspect so dire and horrid, that Avith her very looks she turned men into stones. Of all the Gor- gons this Medusa alone was mortal, the rest not subject to death. Perseus, therefore, preparing himself for this noble enterprise, had arms and gifts bestowed on him by three of the gods. Mer- cury gave him wings, fitted for his feet, not his arms; Pluto, a helmet; Pallas, a shield and a looking-glass. Notwithstanding, although he was thus well furnished, he Avent not directly to Medusa, but turned into the Grese, which, by the mother's side, were sisters to the Gorgon. These Gre^e, from their birth, were hoary headed, resembling old women. They had but one only eye, and one tooth among them all, — this eye and tooth they lent to Perseus." Compare Maier : " Dum Perseus par ere cogitur, ad iter sese accingit; A Pallade itaque; scutum et speculum, a Mercurio Harpen seu falcatum eusem, a Phitone peram et galeam, a Nymphis talaria seu calceos volucres mutuatus est : quibus instrumentis Perseus instructus ad Medusam, multos homines in saxa conver- tentem unam Gorgonum contendit. Primo autem ad Greas Per- seus profectus est, quce erant sorores Gorgonum, munero tres oculum et clentem unicum communem, habentes, quos ab illis mutuo acceptos tarn, diti retiiiuit donee illce Nijmphas, qua: alatos calceos habererit indi cassent, etc." (p. 155, "Arcana Arcanissima"). xlii INTR on UC TION. The reader ■will perceive the singular parallelism of these trifling details, which space forbids my illustrating further. Maier gives all this in coniext loifh the fountain of Helicon, evi- dently (as he shows in his " Aurea Themis ") connected uith the Ilosicnician fraternity. Bacon's account of this fable is included in what he calls the Theatre, viz., the second book of the " De Augmentis," 1623, which he concludes Avith the words, ^^ Bid we stay too long in the Theatre, let us now pass on to the palace of the mind" (p. 130, 1640 "Advancement of Learning"). Amongst the few valuable and genuine Eosicrucian works to l)e found, there is one little known, with the title " CONSPICTLIUM NOTITL^ inserviens OCULIS ^GRIS qui lumen veritatis Ratione medii subjecti, objecti et finis ferre recusant, oppositum Admoni- tioni Futili Henrici Neuhusii de Fratribus R. C. An sint 1 Quales sint ? Unde nomen illud sibi asciverent ? Etc ab. Euchario Cygn^o." The date is 1614. The author's name is evidently only a pseudonym. I find in this tract some extraordinary parallels to Bacon's MTitings. For example, in Bacon's Sixth Book of the 1623 " De Augmentis," he obsciu^ely discusses a method of the delivery of secret knowledge, which he entitles "Traditio Lajmpadis,* sive methodus ad Filios." " The delivery of the Lamp, or the method bequeathed to the sons of Sapience." If the readei* wiW turn to Bacon's " Redargutio," Avhich is laid at Paris, he will find the address interspersed with the expression " sons," which shows Bacon belonged to some brotherhood or craft. Cygnjeus, in replying to the question as to the natm^e of the Rosicrucian 1)rotherhood, writes : " Certitudo et continua series Collegiorum, ([Wie antiquitus occulta similis artificii et rerum naturalium, non sine admiratione, professionis variis in locis et nationibus floruer- unt, et tandem quasi per manus ad nos Germanos pervenerunt, ne haberemus, absit scandalum, incusare Deum, quasi omnia * Michael Maier writes in his "Laws of the Rosicrucian Fraternity" ("Themis Aurea," p. 26): — "Deinde habent successionem ab eodem ad se nsr^ue et L.\mpaua sibi in cursu traditam acceperunt a noto dicti« Frater- nitatis consorte sen foederis membi'o IcKitimo." INTRODUCTION. xliii primis Patribus ex Jure primogeniturse donarit, et in ultima setate manum prsecluserit. De qua injuria aeque conqueritur Fernel. in prefat. lib. de. addit. rer. quasi nostrum seculum tiinti stuporis tantseque tarditatis vellemus insimulare, nil novum ut cudere posset, nullarum artium afFerre proventum. Ut autem ignorantes ambulatorium illud munus videant, visum mihi est stricte ordi- nem recensere, quomodo una natio alteri lampada tradiderit " (p. 8). Cygnseus then proceeds to point out that the Egyptians had their secret college ; that there followed the Cabiri of Samothrace, the Eleusinians, the Magi of Persia, the Brahmans of India, the Gymnosophists of Ethiopia, the Pythagoreans in Greece, &c., and he concludes with the Rosicrucians themselves as the last link in this chain of tradition. Upon the title page (bis) of the 1640 "Advancement of Learning," there is this motto at the foot of the page : — Deus Omnia In mensura, et numero,et ordine Disposuit. (p. 61.) Now compare Cygnaeus : " Nam primus Creator amat harnio- niam et odit dissonantiam, qui omnia in numero, 'pondere et mensura teste Salomone Saj) 7 disposuit" &c. (p. 18). Cygnseus tells us the Rosicrucians were a militia who borrowed their symbol of the Cross from Constantine. " Verum quod quidam duos characteres R. C. interpretentur Roseam Crucem, non caret ratione : quia inde opti- mus typus confessionis et prof essionis elucesit. Nam cruce que est sigillum et symbolum veri Christiani, volunt testari, se militare sub vexillo Christi, contra, mundum, carnem, et Satanam. Et Christus ipse Matth. 10, Mark 8, Luke 9, admonet, si quis vult me sequi, deneget semetipsum, et tollat crucem suam, et sequatur me. Legimus quoque ; c. 9, Ezech. in populi clade Dominum curam gessisse eorum, qui litera T, id est, cruce signati erant super frontem, a viro lineis induto, et atramentarium scriptoris in lumbis suis habente. Prseterea, hoc symbolum non multum xliv INTR OD UCTION. abludit a Lutheri sigillo, in quo continebatiu- criix in corde, et cor comprehendebatur a Eosa. Quid referam de Constantino, cui dubitanti an Eomam duceret exercitum, ostendit Deus illustre signum \actori8e : Nam medio die in clara " luce, vidit Constantinus in coelo igneam crucem, cum literis EN TOTTii NIKA (In hoc vinces)," p. 27. This pi'oves the Society was related to the Templars, who adopted the Ked Cross from this vision of Constantine. More- over, the reader will perceive in Bacon's " Holy "War " this motto repeated, and there is no question the Rosicrucians were, like, the Salvation Army of to-daij, soldiers of the Cross. Upon the title page of the " Sendbrieif " (or " Missive to the Fraternity of the Rosicru- cians "), by Julian de Campis, published with the " Fama Frater- nitatis," 1617, Frankfort, I find this at the bottom, " MiLiTA BONAM MILITIAM, servans fidem et accipies coronam glorise." Bacon's' " Holy War " is, I am convinced, entirely written in the spirit of a Peacefid Soldiery, and should be studied as a Rosicru- cian tract for the initiated alone. Cygnseus, " Quoad Rosas, illse sunt signum victorise : Nam Scipio ex Africa reversus, et primus de Hannibale triumphaturus, militibus octavse legionis, qui primum Carthaginensium castra oppugnassent, ac Ducis eorum insignia abstulissent fasciculum Rosarum gestandum, imo clypeis depictas Rosas ferendas concessit. Sane ajjud Homerum Achillis scutum legitur, necnon Cassides Hectoris et ^nese. Arminius Germanise Princeps Rosam in Insignibus habebat. Marchiones Branden- burgenses Comitesqiie de Eherstein, necnon plurimse familiie, strenua nobilitate clarse, Rosas inter sua insignia gloriose locatas habent : Nam Rosa principibus merito gestanda videtur. Prreterea Rosa Auroras est dicata, signum habetur silentii, laetitiae, et omnium florum Regnia. Ex Rosa apis mel, aranea venenum parat, juxta Brisardi emblema — Toxica ab hoc carpit sublimis aranea flore, Dulcia (|uo parvic mella parantur api. Rosa Cantharidcs interficit, et juxta allium plantata, odoratior evadit juxta Camerarii emblema : — INTRODUCTION. xlv Livor iners stiraulos generosis mentibus addit : Sic per foeda Rosis allia crescit odor." (p. 29.) Those Avho are acquainted with Baden-Baden and its neigh- bourhood doubtless will remember the castle of Eberstein in the Murg Thai, idtli its stone boar and rose crest. In Bacon's " Redar- gutio " I find him introducing this sly hint for the Fraternity : — " Certe, Jilii, facultates artium et scientiarum omnium consensu aut empiricse aut rationales sunt. Has autem bene commistas et copulatas adhuc videre non licuit. Empirici enim, formicae more, congerunt tantum et utuntur. Rationales autem, aranearum more, telas ex se conficiunt. Ajns ratio media est, quce maieriam exfloribus tani horti quam agri elicit, sed sirnul efiam earn propria facuUate vertit et digerit " (" Redargutio Philosophiarum," p. 583, vol. iii., Phil. Wk., E. and S.). This emblem of the Bee and honey I find Fludd, Vaughan, and Cygnaeus introducing in the same manner. The emblem to Fludd's " Summum Bonum " is a Rose with a Bee alighting upon it, and the motto, Dat rosa mel apibus. This shows the Rosicrucians borrowed from the Essenes. But the reader will note that Bacon has laid the " Redargutio," toitli its address to fifty persons, styled sons, at Paris. It is here again we hear of a great Rosicrucian meeting of thirty-six members in 1623, the date of the Folio Plays and " De Augmentis." Christopher Murr writes : " The Phoenix is a favourite Rosicru- cian idea," and in 1616 we find Michael Maier publishing a work upon his retm*n from England to Bohemia. The title is " Jocus Severus, h, e Tribunal sequum quo Xoctua Regina avium, Phoenice arbitro, post varias disce'otationes et querelas volucrum earn infestantium pronunciatur, etc." Francof., 1617. In the Preface we read: "Dabam Francofurti ad moenum, mense Sep- tembri a 1616 transitu ex Anglia in Bohemiain." The reader will see Maier actually published three works all bearing date Sep- tember 1616, after his return from England, five months after Shakespeare's death. Consider the last poem of the sujjposed xlvi INTRODUCTION. Shakespeare bears the mysterious title " The Phcenix and the Turtle," and is evidently in connection with Chester's " Love's Martyr," * where a gi'eat many more poems upon the same subject may be found. Professor Buhle maintains Maier wrote this work, " Jocus Severus," during his sojourn in England. Buhle points out there were no lodges and no Rosicrucians in Germany, Avhere it never took hold at all, but the case in England was different, for there it gave rise to Freemasonry. I maintain Maier obtained inspirations in England, which is proved by his three works, " Lusus Serius," " Examen Fucorum," and " Jocus Severus," all bearing the same date, September 1616, published upon his return home. Theg must have been written in England. * In this work we find Shakespeare's poem, "The Phcenix and the Turtle." Two pages previous to it tliere is an Invocation to AjioUo and the Muses — " Invocatio ad ApoUinem et Picrides" (p. I7l). An allusion pointing to Helicon and ParnassTis. PART I. Evelyn (in his Discourse of Medals) describes Bacon with "a spacious Forehead and piercing Eye, always (as he had been told by one that knew him well) looking upwards, as a soul in sublime contemplation." Osborn (in the second part of his Advice to his Son), writes : " His majcstical carriage struck an awful reverence in those he questioned." CHAPTER L bacon's history or king henry vii. De Connuhio Rosarum. Septimus Henricus non aere et marmore Wvit ; Yivit at in chartis, magne Bacone, tiiis. lunge duas, Henrice, rosas ; dat mille Baconus ■; Quot verba in libro, tot reor esse rosas. — T. P. The omission of the History of King Henry VH. in the succes- sion of the Chronicle pi-ays is excessively striking and curious, because this period, of all others, Avas full of incident, full of discovery, and, in the union of the Eoses, marks an epoch and period in the history of England. Bacon Avrote only one complete prose history,* that is the perfect one of King Henry VH., which, for some purpose unexplained, we do not find in the 1623 Folio. Examination of the succession of the Chronicle plays betrays the seeming intention to take the chief reigns from King John in order, and thus carry History up to Henry the Eighth. We have King John, Richard H., Henry IV., Henry V., Henry VL, Richard IH., each legitimately following on each other's heels ; but after Richard HI., Henry VHI. follows, and the one History (perhaps of all the most important) is, as it were, ''ripped out" of the chronological succession of kings or reigns. It has occurred to us if Bacon wanted to prove his claim to the authorship of the plays, that such an omission might be made an instrument of extraordinary use as evidence, external and internal^ for the dis- covery of truth by posterity ; because there is, of course, much * The " History of King Heniy YIIL," by Bacon, is only a fragment, just commenced. The Memorials of Queen Elizabeth's reign, entitled the " Felicities of Queen Elizabeth," is not a history, but a general survey of her times and character, A 2 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII in the history of King Henry VII. interwoven with the history of his predecessor Richard III., and his successor Henry VIII. ; these connections might be reflected from Bacon's History to the plays in question as links of evidence, by parallels of treatment. The claims of Perkin AVarbeck arose from his personating the Duke of York, one of the two princes murdered in the Tower by Richard III. Now, in Bacon's account of this incident of rebel- lion and imposture in his history of the reign of King Henry VII., he A\Tites : — " To detect the abuse (Perkin Warbeck's claims of legitimacy) there were but two ways ; the first to make it manifest to the world, that the Duke of Yorke was indeed murdered : the other to prove that were he dead or alive Perkin was a counterfeit. For the fii'st thus it stood. There were but four persons, that could speak upon knotvledge to the murder of the Duke of Yoi-k, viz. : Sir James Tyrrell (the employed man from King Richard), John DiGHTON and Miles Forrest, his servants (the two butchers or tormentors), and the Priest of the Tower, that buried them. Of which four Miles Forrest and the Priest were dead, and there remained alive only Sir James Tyrrell and John Dighton. These two the King caused to be committed to the Tower, and examined touching the manner of the death of the two innocent Princes. They agreed both in a tale (as the King gave out) to this effect : That King Richard having directed his warrant for the putting of them to death to Brackenbury, the Lieutenant of the Tower, was by him refused. Whereupon the King directed his warrant to Sir James Tyrrell, to receive the keys of the lower from the Lieidenani (for the space of a night) for the King's special service. That Sir James Tyrrell accordingly repaired to the Tower by nighty attended by his two servants afore- named, whom he had chosen for that purpose. That himself stood at the stair-foot, and sent these two rilluins to execute the murder. That they smothered them in their bed, and that done called up their master to see their naked dead bodies, which they had laid forth. That they were buried under the stairs, and BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 3 some stones cast upon them. That when the report was made to King Richard, that his will was done, he gave Sir James Ttjrrdl great thanks, bnt took exception to the place of their burial, because too base for them that were King's children. "Whereupon another night, by the King's warrant renewed, their bodies were removed by the Priest of the Tuwer, and buried by him in some place, which (by means of the Priest's death soon after) could not be known" (" History, King Henry VH.," p. 123, 1622). If we now turn to the Life and Death of King Eichard HI. in the 1623 Folio, we find an extraordinary parallel in some of the details to this passage just cited. K. Fuch. Sliall we hear from tliee, Tyrrel, ere we sleep ? Tyr. Ye shall, my lord. [Exit. Scene III. Enter Tyrrel. Tyr. The tyrannous and bloody deed is done. The most arch act of piteous massacre That ever yet this land was guilty of. Dighton and Forrest, whom I did suborn To do this ruthless piece of butchery, Although they were flesh'd villains, bloody dogs, Melting with tenderness and kind compassion Wept like two children in their deaths' sad stories. " Lo, thus," quoth Dighton, "lay those tender babes :" "Thus, thus," (|Uoth Fon-est, "girdling one another "Within their innocent alalaaster arms : Their lips were four red roses on a stalk, "Which in their summer beauty kiss'd each other. A book of prayers on their pillow lay : AVhich once," quoth Forrest, "almost changed my mind ; But ! the devil " — there the villain stopp'd ; Whilst Dighton thus told on : " We smothered The most replenished sweet work of nature, That from the prime creation e'er she framed." Thus both are gone with conscience and remorse ; They could not speak ; and so I left them both, To bring this tidings to the bloody king. And here he comes. Enter King Richard. All hail, my sovereign liege ! K. Eich. Kind Tyrrel, am I hapjiy in thy news ? 4 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. Tyr. If to liave done the tiling you gave in cliarge Beget your happiness, be happy then, For it is done, my lord. K. Rich.. But didst thou see them dead ? Tyr. I did, my lord. K. Rich. And buried, gentle Tyrvel ? Tyr. The chaplain of the l^ower hath buried them ; But how or in what place I do not Jcnoiv. K. Rich. Come to me, Tyrrel, soon at after supper. And thou shalt tell the process of their death. Meantime, but think how I may do thee good, And be inheritor of thy desire. Farewell till soon. [Exit Tyrrel. Tyrrell, Dightov, Forrest, and the Chaplain of the Tower are all introdviced as by "Bacon in his history. Brackenbury is intro- duced in the play, but omitted from playing any privy part to the murders. Bacon's ^' Priest of the 2'oiver" is the ^^ Chaplain of the Toiver " in the play, and btmes the bodies of the Princes, as Bacon relates, but where (Bacon states again) " could not be known." The chaplain of the Tower hath buried them ; But hoiv or in what place I do not knw.v. This trifling parallel goes far to prove who wrote Richard III, But we have far more convincing evidence to adduce that this " History of Hing Henry the Seventh " was w^ritten by Bacon ex- pressly to furnish evidence of connection with the preceding reign of King Richard the Tliird, in its play form. Bacon writes : — " As for conquest notwithstanding Sir William Stanley, after some acclamations of the soldiers in the field, had put a crown of orna- ment (which Richard wore in the battle, and was found amongst the spoils) upon King Henry's head as if there were his chief title" (page 5, "History King Henry YH.," 1622, 1641). Now compare this scene at the conclusion of the battle of Bosworth ("King Richard IIL") and of the play : — ScKNE V. Another 2>art of tlic field. Alarum. Enter Richard and Richmond ; they fight. Richard is slain. Retreat and flourish. Re-enter Richmond, Dkruy hearing the croivn, with divers other Lords. Richm. God and youi' arms be pi-aised, victorious friends ; The day is ours, the bloody dog is dead. BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 5 Dcr. Courageous Kiclimond, well hast thou acc^uit thee. Lo, here, this loiig-usuriied royalty From the dead temples of this bloody wretch Have I pluck'd off, to grace thy brows withal : Wear it, enjoy it, and make much of it. The Earl of Derby * was called also Lord Stanley, and is so described in the list of Dramatis Persons attached to the play. It is remarkable that Racon's " History of King Henry the Seventh " takes up almost immediately the cue of the text con- cluding the play of " King Richard the Third " : — now, let Riclimond and EUzabethy The true succeeders of each Royal House, By God's fair ordinance conjoin together : And let their heirs (God if thy will be so) Enrich the time to come with smooth-fac'd peace. (End of Play.) Upon page 3, " The first the title of the Lady Elizabeth with whom by precedent ^jad with the party that brought him in he was to marry." This was one of Henry the Seventh's claims to the throne, through union to the House of Yorke. Bacon dwells page after i>age upon Lady Elizabeth, and finally upon page 16 gives us the marriage itself. Many historians would have commenced the history after the union of the two Roses. But Bacon betrays m every line of this work a familiarity with the history of the pre- ceding reigns, which every now and then gives as it were a thread out of the texture of the plays : — " About this time the King called unto his privy council John Morton and Pdchard Fox, the one bishop of Ely, the other bishop of Exeter, vigilant men, and secret." In the play of Richard the Third Ave meet with this Morton, Bishop of Ely. " They had been both versed in his affairs before be came to the Crown, and were partakers of his adverse fortune" (p. 16, " History of King Henry VIL"). " But whatsoever else was in the man, he deserveth a most happy memory, in that he was the principal mean of joining the two Roses" (p. 199). * The poet is not correct in calling Stanley Derby on the field of Bosworth. Stanley was not created Earl of Derby till some weeks after the battle, by Henry VIL, viz., upon 27th October 1485. 6 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI 1. Morton is fled to Rit-hiuoud. ("Richard III.," iv. 3.) And King Richard exclaims : — Ely with Riclimond troubles me more near. Than Buckingham and his rash levied strength. {Ih. ) Some writers consider that Cardinal Morton was the author of Richard III., written in Latin, and which was translated by Sir Thomas JNlore. It is from this work that the account of Richard has been taken by succeeding chroniclers, to whom the Poet seems indebted for his materials. In the fourth act the first news of the apj>earance of Richmond (afterwards Henry VII.) is brought by Ratcliffe and Lord Stanley : — Rat. Most mighty Sovereign on the western coast Rideth a puissant navy : to our shores Throng many doubtful hollow-hearted friends, Unarm'd and unresolv'd to beat them back, 'Tis thought that Richmond is their admiral. Stan. Stin-'d uj) by Dorset, BiKlcingJiam, and Morton He makes for England, here to claim the crown. (Act iv. sc. 4.) This is upon page 199 of the Folio, and upon page 199 also of Bacon's " History of King Henry the Seventh " is the passage cited about Morton, Bishop of Ely : " He had been by Richard the Third committed (as in custody) to the Duke of Buckingham, Avhom he did secretly incite to revolt from King lUchard. But after the Duke was engaged and thought the bishop should have been his chief pilot in the tempest, the bishop was gotten into the cock-boat, and fled over beyond seas. But whatsoever else was in the man, he deserveth a most happy memory, in that he tvas the principal mean of joining the two roses" (p. 199, "History of King Henry the Seventh," 1G22, first edition, and also p. 199, 1641). Ratcliffe and Catesl)y, who play a considcral)le part in the play, are mentioned by Bacon upon page 13, together with Lord Lovel BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL 7 and the Duke of Norfolk (also both characters in the Tragedy), as " attainted by parliament " as enemies to the King. Upon page 15 Bacon mentions Dorset. " The King sent forthwith money to redeem the Marquess of Dorset and Sir John Bourchier." All this, of course, is history, but history may be treated many ways, and it is striking to find Bacon, as it were, dwelling upon small points, and upon people introduced in the play. Bacon dwells a great deal upon the relations of the King to Brittany in this history : — I know the Brdagne-Riclimond aims. (''Richard III.," act iv. sc. 3.) Upon page 47 Bacon says : " All things were directed by the Duke of Orleans, who gave audience to the chaplain UrsAvick." If we look at the list of Dramatis Fersonce prefixed to the " Tragedy of King Richard the Third," we find one " Christopher Urswick, a priest." These are details which two writers not acting in collaboration (or not identical) would hardly both repeat in this way. The affairs of this Duke of Orleans are again men- tioned in the play of " King Henry the Eighth." Upon page 62 Bacon Avrites of a battle of Saint Alban fought in Brittany, Avhere " the Duke of Orleans and the Prince of Orange were taken prisoners." The play of " King Henry the Eighth " commences upon page 205 of the 1623 Folio (Histories). Upon page 205 also of this " History of King Henry the Seventh," Bacon "writes : " There was a doubt ripped up in the times following when the divorce of King Henry the Eighth from the Lady Katharine did so much busy the Avorld, whether Arthur was bedded with his lady or no, whereby that matter in fact (of airnal hioicledge) might be made part of the case." This is a hint-worthy note, because the play of King Henry the Eighth almost entirely revolves upon the divorce of Katharine of Arragon from the King. Even Wolsey's fall is involved in the secret opposition he set in motion wath regard to the King's marriage Avith Anne Boleyn. At the commencement of the " History of King Henry the 8 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. Seventh," Bacon reviews the life and cvimes of Eichard the Third. It is very striking to find almost everything repeated that we find in the "Tragedy of King Richard the Third." "The exe- cutioner of King Henry the Sixth (that innocent prince) with his oivn hands ; the contriver of the Duke of Clarence, his brother ; the murdei'er of his two nephews (one of them his lawful king in the present, the other in the future failing of him), and vehe- mently suspected to have been the importuner of his wife, therehij to make vacant his bed afore marriage within the degrees forbidden." Again, "He was not without secret trains and mines to turn Envy and Hatred upon his brother's government ; as having an expectation and a kind of Divination, that the King, by reason of h.is many disorders, could not be of long life, but was like to leave his sons of tender years ; and then he knew well how easy a step it was from the place of a Protector and first Prince of the Blood to the Crown." The words ^'^ degrees forbidden" are placed in italics. Now all these points are prominently brought forward in the play of " King Richard the Third." In the fourth act (scene 4) Richard j^roposes to Queen Elizabeth he should Aved her daughter, who was niece to King Richard, and therefore the union was ^'"within the degi-ees forbidden." Elizabeth was Queen to Edward the Fourth, the brother to Richard the Third, who there- fore stood as uncle to her issue. Queen Eliz. What were I best to say ? her father's brother, Would be her Lord ? or shall I say her uncle? (Act iv. sc. 4.) But we even find the same charge laid by the Queen against Richard as by Bacon, and for the same motive, viz., the making away of his wife Anne to make room for the daughter of Queen Elizabeth : — Tell her thou inadest away her uncle Clarence, Her uncle Rivers ; yea and_/br her sake, Maclcst quick conveyance with her good Aunt Anne. (Act iv. sc. 3. ) This parallel is not explained away by ascribing these facts to history. For how many Dramatists put to work to write a play BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 9 of King Richard the Third's life, would repeat exactly by chance what some Historian was writing upon the same reign ? It is evident Bacon introduces these points on purpose to present proofs of his authorship of the play in question, hy means ofidentitt/ of treatment. These points are only details of History, not important or leading events, and yet the parallelism is complete, and the play is treated in action, as the History of Richard's life is recorded by Bacon. I say again give out Tliat Anne my queen is sick, and like to die. About it, for it stands me mucli upon To stop all hopes, whose growth may damage me. I must be married to my brother's daughter, Or else my kingdom stands on brittle glass. (Act iv. sc. 2.) In the play of " King Henry the Eighth " we find the Duke of Buckingham on his way to execution speaking as follows : — Henry the Seventh succeeding truly ])itying. My father's loss ; like a most royal prince Hestor'd me to my honours : and out of ruins Made my name once more noble. (Act ii. sc. 1.) In Bacon's " History of King Heiuy the Seventh " : — " The King did also with great nobleness and bounty (which Vertues at that time had their turns in his nature) restore Edward Stafford (eldest son to Henry, Duke of Buckingham, attainted in the time of King Richard) not only to his dignities, but to his fortunes and possessions, which were great, to which he was moved also by a kind of gratitude, for that the Duke was the man that moved the first stone against the tyranny of King Richard, and, indeed, made the King a bridge to the Crown upon his own ruins" (p. 15). Compare Buckingham's words ("King Henry VIII.," act ii. sc. 1). My noble father Henry of Buckingham, Who first raised head against usurping Richard. In the play of " Richard the Third " we find Buckingham pre- sented playing exactly such a part as Bacon ascribes to him, — that is in the second scene of the fourth act — where, after learn 10 B A coirs HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII ing Dorset has fled to Richmond, and being threatened (on account of his Avife's son Stanley) by Richard the Third, exclaims ; — Buck. And is it thus ? repays he my deep service With such contempt ? made I him king for this ? let me think on Hastings and be gone To Brecknock, while my fearful head is on. Every point j^rominent in the play is prominently alluded to by Bacon, and it seems most palpably evident these parallels are pur- posely introduced to furnish proofs of authorship. Bacon Avrites that Richard, when Duke of Gloucester, " was not without secret trains and mines to turn envy and hatred upon his brother's government," and that he reflected upon the King's " vuluptuoiis life and mean marriage." . Glo^i. Ay, Edward will use women honouralily. "Would he were wasted, marrow, bones and all, That from his loins no hopeful branch may spring. (Act iii. sc. 2, Third "King Henry Sixth.") A postscript to a letter (dated September 5th, 1621) addressed to James the First by Bacon, runs as follows : — "Cardinal Wolsey said, that if he had pleased God as he pleased the King, he had not been ruined. My conscience saith no such thing j for I know not but in serving you, I have served God in one. But it may be, if I had pleased God, as I had pleased you, it Avould have been better with me." This is repeated in the play of " King Henry the Eighth," act the third, final scene, where Cardinal Wolsey* exclaims : — Cromwell, Cromwell ! Had I but served my God with half the zeal 1 served my king, he would not in mine age Have left me naked to mine enemies. One month later Bacon writes again to the King, this time mentioning his intention to write this " History of King Henry the Seventh " :— * Cardinal Wolsey held the revenues of several bishoprics and of the rich Abbey of St Albans. BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. ii " To the King. " It may please your most excellent Majesty, " I do very humbly thank your Majesty for yonr gracious re- mission of my fine. I can now, I thank God and you, die, and make a will. " I desire to do, for the little time God shall send me life, like the merchants of London, which, when they give over trade, lay out their money upon land. So, being freed from civil business, I lay forth my poor talent upon those things, which may be per- petual, still having relation to do you honour with those powers I have left. "I have therefore chosen to write the reign of King Henry the Vllth, who was in a sort your forerunner, and whose spirit, as well as his blood, is doubled upon your Majesty. " I durst not have presumed to intreat your Majesty to look over the book, and correct it, or at least to signify what you would have amended. But since you are pleased to send for the book, I will hope for it. " [God knoweth, whether ever I shall see you again ; but I pray for you to the last gasp, resting.] " The same, your true beadsman, "Fr. St Alban." "Octobers, 1621." " One day when King Henry the Sixth (whose innocence gave him holiness) was washing his hands at a great feast, and cast his eye upon King Henry, then a young youth, he said, ' Tim is the lad that shall possess quietly that that we now strive for ' " (p. 247, " History of King Henry the Seventh,' 1641). This is i^epeated in the essay of " Prophecies." And in the third part of the play of King Henry the Sixth, the King says to Eichmond : — Come hither England's hope. [Lmjs his hand on his head.] If secret powers Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts, This pretty lad will prove our country's bliss. His looks are full of peaceful majesty, His head by nature framed to wear a crown, 12 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI L His hand to wield a sceptre, and himself Likely in time to bless a regal throne. !Make much of him, my lords, for this is he Must help you more than you are hurt by me. (Act iv. sc. 6.) This parallel already has been noticed by some other Avriters ; but it cannot be omitted, seeing evidence of this kind is not worth much detached or single. In the play of " Richard the Third," the King says : — rdch. I do remember me Henry the Sixth Did -prophesy, that Richard should be king, "VVlien Richmond was a little peevish boy, A king perhaps. (Act iv. sc. 2.) It may be seen that Bacon places this prediction in his Essay of " Propliecies" as Richard terms it. Bacon says of King Henry VII. : " He resteth on the title of Lancaster in the main, using the marriage and victory as sup- porters." In the third part of " King Henry the Sixth," act iv. scene 6, the Earl of Richmond is introduced under the " tender care " of the Duke of Somerset, the last male of the Beauforts, the King's near kinsman, through whom Henry Tudor founded his claims to the throne. Henry VII. adopted for one of his chief badges the cognizance of the Beauforts, a portcullis, with the motto " Altera securitas."* This proves how exactly the study of minute points of History reflected in the plays are reflected again by Bacon. There was no need of introducing the Earl of Richmond in this play at all unless for the sake of the prophecy of King Henry VI. This prophecy, Bacon, as we have said, repeats in his Essay of " Prophecies." It is quite an out-of-the- way study. Dugdale, quoting from Polydore Virgil, says : " Finding Henry, Earl of Richmond, in the custody of William Herbert's widow, he brought him from her, and carried him to King Henry, who, looking upon him prophetically, said, ' This is he who shall quietly jposscss what we and our adversaries do now contend or. * See page 195, "Notes on the Characters in Shakespeare's Plays." (Trench, 18(59.) BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI I. 13 The received opinion that the supposed author of the plays drew his materials entirely and only from Holinshed, Stow, and Grafton is erroneous. The study devoted to the composition of these chronicle plays in by-paths of history is a powerful argu- ment against Shakespeare's authorship; that is, if we are to accept Avhat little we know of his life as correct. Because the more extensive the evidence of wide research and reading, the more difficult is it- to reconcile these facts with Shakespeare's life, which Avas more or less an active struggle for money. For ex- ample, the dream of Richard I IT. before the battle of Bos worth is recounted by the old writers Polydore Virgil, Croyland Chronicle, Hall, &c., that the night before the battle "he had a dreadful and terrible dream." The whole of the play of " King Henry the Eighth " may be said to comprise the rise of Anne Boleyn, and the divorce of Queen Katharine by the King. We mean, this is the epoch embraced. For in the third scene of the second act Anne Boleyn is created Marchioness, and the play terminates with the birth of Elizabeth, and Cranmer's prophecy of her future reign. The Divorce of Queen Katharine and the Coronation of her rival form not only distinguishing features of the play, but the fall of Wolsey really turns ujion his opposing secretly the advancement of Anne Boleyn. In Bacon's "History of King Henry the Seventh'' he writes: "The February following, Henry Duke of Yorke was created Prince of Wales and Earl of Chester and Flint. For the Dukedom of Cornwall devolved to him by statute. The King also being fast handed, and loath to part with a second dowry, but chiefly being affectionate both by his nature and out of politic considerations to continue the alliance with Spain, prevailed with the Prince (though not without some reluctation ; such as could be in those years, for he was not twelve years of age) to he contracted with the Princess Katharine. The secret providence of God ordaining that marriage to he the occasion of great events and changes." ("Hist., King Henry VII.," p. 207). It is evident the author of the play of " Henry the Eighth " 14 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. thought the same thing (the -words we place in italics), for although Cardinal Wolsey's rise and fall stand prominently out ia the play, nevertheless Queen Katherine and her divorce are really the springs and motives upon which the intriguing of parties and the pleasure and displeasure of the King revolves. Directly Henry the Eighth finds Wolsey opposing his marriage with Anne Boleyn, he disgraces him. The Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, both envious of Wolsey's power, thus converse : Nor. Believe it. this is true. In the Divorce, his contrary proceedings Are all unfolded ; wherein he ap[iears As I would wish mine enemy. Sur. How came His practices to light ? Snf. Most strangely. Sur. Oh how ? how ? Sxif. The Cardinal's letters to the Pope miscarried, And came to th' eye o' th' king, wherein was read' How that the Cardinal did entreat his Holiness To stay the judgment o' th' Divorce, &c. (Act iii. scene 2.) The foil of Wolsey almost immediately follows in this act. Upon page 227 Bacon introduces Wolsey into his history thus : "The same year likewise there proceeded a treaty of marriage between the King and the Lady Margaret, Duchess Dowager of Savoy, only daughter to Maximilian, and sister to the King of Castile, and therein was employed for his first piece the King's then Chaplain, and after the great Prelate, Thomas Wolsey." It is very curious Bacon should introduce Wolsey like this, and no more be found written upon his career. King Henry the Eighth is presented in the jjlay as questioning the kgitimacij of his daughter Mary (in scene 4, act ii.), and on the grounds that he had married his brother's wife Katharine : Now, wliat moved me I will he bold with time and your attention : Then mark the inducement. Thus it came ; give heed to 't : My conscience first received a tenderness, BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 15 Scniplo, and prick on ccvtaiii sjiccclios utter'd By the Bi.shop of Bayoiine, then Frencli ambassador : Who had been hither sent on the debating A marriage 'twixt tlie Duke of Orleans and Our danglitor Mary : i' tlic progress of this business, Ere a determinate resolution, he, I mean the bishop, did require a resjute : Wliereiu he might the king his lord advertise Whether our daughter were legitimate, Respecting this our marriage with the dowager, Sometimes our brother's wife. Bacon devotes an entire page to this subject, and writes npon page 205 (King Henry VIII. commences also page 205, "His- tories ") : " There Avas a donht ripped np in the times following, when the divorce of King Henry VIII. from the Lady Katharine did so much busy the world, whether Arthiu* was bedded with his lady or no, whereby that matter in fact (of carnal know- ledge) might be made part of the case. And it is true that the lady herself denied it, or at least her counsel stood upon it, and Avould not blanch that advantage, although the plenitude of the Pope's power of dispensing was the main question. And this doubt was kept long open, in respect of the two Queens that succeeded Mary and Elizabeth, whose legitimations were incompatible one with another, though their succession was settled by Act of Parliament" (p. 206). In a letter to James the First (dated Feb. 11, 1614, p. 72, "Letters," 1702) Bacon writes: — "And I put the Duke of Buckingham's case, who said, That if the King (Henry the Eighth) caused him to he arrested of treason he would stab him." This incident is introduced in the play of King Henry the Eighth. Surv. After " tlie Dtike his father," with " the knife," He stretched him, and with one hand on his dagger, Another spread on 's breast, mounting liis eyes, He did discharge a horrible oath ; whose tenor "Was, — were he evil used, he would outgo His fathei' by as much ais a performance Does an irresolute purpose. King There's his period, To sheathe his knife in us. He is attach'd 1 6 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VI 1. Call liini to present trial : if he may- Find mercy in the law, 'tis his ; if none, Let him not seek 't of us : by day and night, He's traitor to the height. \Excunt. ("Henry VIII.," act i. sc. 2.) It seems to us the reign of Henry the Seventh suggests some strong parallels to explain its fitness to play the part of evidence for the real authorship of Shakespeare's plays. In the first place, it follows the reign of Richard the Third, an umr]^e.r. And wq must concede the point, if Bacon wrote these plays, and holds a lawful claim to the crown of immortality connected with them, the example, or parallel, presented by the usurpation of the throne by Eichard the Third, and his deposition by Henry the Seventh, is a strong one. The impostors or pretenders, Lambert Simnel and Perkin Warbeclc, supply fresh samples of the same kind. And it is noteworthy this reign presents not only a remarkable moment in English history, as uniting the Roses, but in the discovery of America and voyages of Columbus is an epoch in the world's civilisation. The impression this event made on Bacon's mind may be estimated by the fact that he adopted the simile of this memorable voyage as an emblem of his own intel- lectual voyage of discovery. And let no one think it was a casual simile, for it dominates not onty the " De Augmentis " and "Novum Organum," but also the "New Atlantis" located across the ocean. The title page engravings of the two former works bear the ship emblem, the tw^o columns of Hercules, and the motto of the perlustration of the globe from Daniel. Bacon's admiration for Henry the Seventh is luibounded : — " For that Louis the Eleventh, Ferdinando, and Henry, may be esteemed for the Tre8 Magi of those ages." " He was a prince, sad, serious, and fxiU of tJunujlUs and secret obserrafions, and full of notes and rnemwials of his own hand, especially touching persons." Bacon resembled him in these details. The first edition of this "History of King Heiuy VH." (1622) contains a portrait of the King. In the edition of 1C41, Bacon's portrait (by Marshall) has taken its place. In his preface Bacon writes : BA CON'S niSTOR V OF KING HENR Y VI I. 1 7 " For he Avas a tvise man and an exceUod ki7ig. He was of an high mind — one that revered himself, and would reign indeed" (p. 238). " This king (to speak of him in terms equal to his deserv- ing) was one of the best sort of wonders, a wonder for wise men. He had parts (both in his virtues and his fortunes) not so fit for a common-place as for observation, Certjxinly he was religious, both in his aftection and observance. But as he could see clear (for those times) through superstition, so (now and then) ho would be blinded by human policy. He built and endowed many religious foundations, besides his memorable hosjjital of the Savoy. And yet was he a great almsgiver in secret, Avhich showed that his works in public were dedicated rather to God's glory than his own. He professed always to love and seek Peace ; and it was his usual preface in his treaties. That when Christ came into the world Peace was sung ; and when He went out of the world. Peace was bequeathed" ("Hist.," p. 233). The play of " Richard the Third " concludes with the prayer of Henry the Seventh for Peace : — now let Richmond and Elizabetli, Tlie true siTCceeders of each Royal House, By God's fair ordinance conjoin together : And let thy heirs (God if thy will be so) Enrich the time to come with smooth-faced Peace, With smiling plenty, and fair prosperous days. (" Richard III.," act v. sc. 3.) Bacon represents him exactly as he is here porti-ayed as a God- fearing king. " His works in public were dedicated rather to God's glory than his own " (p. 233, " Hist."). See Eichmond's prayer before the battle : — Thou ! whose captain I account myself, Look on my forces with a gracious eye ; Put in their hands thy bruising irons of wrath, That they may crush down with a heavy fall The usurping helmets of our adversaries ! !Make us thy ministers of chastisement, That we may praise Thee in thy victory ! To Thee I do commend my watchful soul, B i8 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VIL Ere I let fall the windows of mine eyes ; Sleeping and waking, defend me still ! ('' Richard III.," act v. sc. 3.) It was during the reign of King Henry the Seventh that the expedition to Naples under King Charles the Eighth took place, and England entered into a league with the Italian 2~)otentates against France. This league consisted of King Henry of England, Ferdinand and Isabella (King and Queen of Spain), the Duke of Venice, and Ludovko Sforza, Duke of Milan. Ferdinand of Naples was also included tacitly in this confederation. Bacon constantly refers to this period, which exercised some peculiar fascination or influence upon him. In the 1671 " Eesuscitatio " he frequently introduces this epoch as an example of the happiness of leagues. In the "Advertisement of a Holy War " he introduces Naples and Milan together, and it seems to me that it cannot he entirely accidental that the first play standing in the Folio 1623 (and probably the last Avritten) should point at Milan and Naples, Prospero being presented as the rightful Duke of Milan. It is very curious to find at the period we refer to the names of Prospero Colonna, Ludo\aco Sforza, Duke of Milan (who usurped, like Prospero's brother, the title), Alphonso H., King of Naples, Ferdinand, Sebastian King of Portugal (expedition to Africa)— heinrj names also in the play of " The Tempest." This is a ^oeriod in the History of Europe of extraordinary import, inasmuch as it embraced the Eeformation. The Papacy attained the ne plus ultra of its infamy under Pope Alexander the Sixth, and it was just at this midnight hour, so to speak, Savonarola began to preach at Florence and foreshadow Luther. This also is the great joeriod of discovery of America by Cabot, Columbus, and of the voyages of Vasco de Gama. It was the period of Lorenzo di Medici, of the revival of learning, and the recovery of the lost world of the classics. No period covild possibly better sitggest a starting point for modern history, and it is my humble belief the 1623 Folio commences, as it Averc, Avith this Aurora hour of light, reforma- tion, and letters. BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII. 19 In Bacon's "Felicities of Queen Elizabeth," which is to be re- found in the " Resuscitatio " (1671), we find him describing the advancement of Elizabeth's mother, Anne Boleyn, in these words : "For first, from the estate of a gentlewoman only, and no way pretending to noble titles, he (Henry VIII.) raised her to tJie honour of a marchioness." This is repeated in the play of "King Henry the Eighth." In the second act (scene 3) the Lord Chamberlain is introduced : — Cham. You bear a gentle mind, and heavenly blessings Follow such creatures. Tliat you may, fan' lady. Perceive I speak sincerely, and high note's Ta'en of your many virtues, the king's majesty Commends his good opinion -of you, and Does purpose honour to you no less flowing Than Marchioness of Pembroke ; to which title A thousand pound a year, annual support, Out of his grace he adds. How is it all these small historical trifles known to Bacon are prominent points also in the plays 1 And in the concluding passage spoken by Cranmer upon the birth of Queen Elizabeth we find a prophecy, and many points repeated by Bacon in his memoir uj)on the great Queen's life. We present the reader * witb a fcocsimile 'Copy of pages twenty- one and twenty- three of Lord Bacon's "History of King Henry the Seventh," published in 1622, the year preceding the Great Folio Shakespeare, 1623. It is for the expert and critic to decide whether the mathematical connection (or cipher) we are about to point out between these pages and page 53, " Merry Wives of Windsor" is accidental or the result of design. It will be seen that upon page 53 (col. 106), "Merry Wives of Windsor," we find the Avord "Bacon" the 268th word down the column from the top of the page, and the 95th up from the bottom. Directly we tiirn to page 21 of the "History of King Henry the Seventh," we find the words " stage-jplay " (in italics) are the 268th and 269th words (counting them as tAvo words) down the page, like- * See Appendix. 20 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII wise counted from the top. They are the 52nd and 53rd words counted up from the bottom of the page, and thus the word ^' stage" agrees with the paging of the "Merry Wives of "Wind- sor," 53, on which we find the word "Bacon" also the 268th word counted doAvn. I should hardly be at the trouble of wasting time and ink publishing this discovery if it was not certainly a remark- able coincidence of figures in more ways than one. Upon the Stratford monument to Shakespeare's memory, we read he died in his 53rd year (cetatis). And not only is it striking to find the word " Bacon " upon page 53, " Merry Wives of Windsor," but this word '^stage-play" giving us the figures 268, 269, 53, 52; Shakespeare being 52 years old (full years), and in his 53rd year, 1616, when he died. Page 21, "Hist. ( stage 268 down, 53 up. f Bacon, 268, page 53. K. H. VII." t play 269 down, 25 up. 1 /. 269, "M. W. W." If the reader will turn to the table of this page 21 of Bacon's " History of King Henry the Seventh," he will find the first column giving the figures 22, 23, which are the nimibers of the words in italics and Roman type down the page. Now, the play of " King Richard the Third " is the twenty-third play in the 1623 Folio, and does it not seem as if 22 and 23 refer to 1622, 1623, which are the dates of publication of this "History of King Henry the Seventh " and the Great Folio first collected edition 'I The play of "Richard the Thii'd" commences upon page 173 of the Folio Histories. Bacon, 268 down, 95 up, p. 53, "Merry Wives of Windsor." Deduct 268-95 = 173! Now the striking point has to come. Upon page 56, or column 107, of the "Histories" {that is the sequent column), the same number 268 gives heart, 268 down, 173 up. Which if we deduct 268-173 = 95! The reader will see how curious it is to find the deduction of the numbers in these two cases giving us the up number of the other, proving some cipher BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII 21 connection. It is worthy of note in 1595 the third part of the reign of King Henry the Sixth was written, and possibly 95 may stand for this date. At anyrate it is curious that the next play, "King Richard the Third," commences upon page 173 of the 1623 Folio, and is the 23rd play. Richard the Third was a usurper, and it is quite possible Bacon selected the reign of King Henry the Seventh to represent himself by analogy as the rightful successor to the usurper William Shakespeare. There is much to bear this theory out. Henry the Seventh's accession brought the wars of the Roses to an end. As a conqueror by might, and king by right of his Lancastrian claim, he supplanted the unlawful usurper Richard the Third. The reader may see that if we count the plays in succession, " Richard the Third " is the twenty-third play in order from the com- mencement of the catalogue. The reign of King Henry the Seventh, if it had been written, would have formed the twenty-fourth play, therefore there is something singularly striking to find upon page 23 of the " History of King Henry the Seventh," the intro- duction of the words " Stage Plays " and " Masks "/ Not only this, but (16)23 was the date of the first Folio edition of Shakespeare's supposed plays ; and as the omitted play of " King Henry the Seventh " would have followed had there been one the play of "Richard the Third," this introduction upon page 23 is very curious. Upon page 26 of Bacon's "History of King Henry the Seventh " we read of the Queen Dowager : " After her husband's death she was matter of Tragedy, having lived to see her brother beheaded, and her two sons deposed from the crown, bastarded in their blood, and cruelly murdered." Is there not reference here to the Tragedy play of "Richard the Third" in which all this is portrayed ? The word " Tragedy " is the twenty -second word in italics from the top of the page, and the play of the third part of " King Henry the Sixth," in which this Queen plays so large a part, is the twenty-second play in the Folio 1623. If we count the word " Hastings " (in Roman type), then the word " Tragedy " 2 2 BACOJSrS n IS TOR Y OF KING HENR Y VII is the twenty-third word from the top of page 26, in extra- ordinary letterpress, and the "Tragedy of Richard III." is the twenty-third play in order in the Folio. This word " Tragedy " is the 267th, 268th, 269th, or 270th word, all counted down from the tojD of the page, according as we count hyphenated words (" marriage-bed," " bachelor-king," " issue-male ") as single or double words. Upon page 53, "Merry Wives of Windsor," these numbers give " Fm' Bacon, I warrant." Upon page 36 of this "History of King Henry the Seventh" there are fifty-two or fifty- three words in italics {^^ Fore-fight" hyphenated), according as we count the hyphenated word singly or double. This was Shake- speare's age, 1616, Avhen he died. ^ 52 years old, and in his 53rd yeai\ \ 36 plays in the 1623 Folio. "A Tragedy" are the 225th and 224th words all counted up the page. Upon page 53, "Merry Wives of Windsor," the 225th, 224th words (up and down) are : — Page 53, j in 225 r the 224 "Merry Wives of Windsor" } nouns 224 \ pronoun 225. This "pronoun," or name standing in place of another name, is identified in the accusative case with the word Bacon. Hang hog is Latin for Bacon, I warrant you. Upon page 23, Bacon's "History of King Henry the Seventh," we read : — "But yet doubting that there would be too near look- ing and too much Perspective into his disguise, if he should show it here in England, he thought good (after the manner of scenes in Stage-Plays and Masks) to show it afar off." The words Stage-Plays are the 84th and 85th words down from the top of this page 23. Now the time of action comprehending the play of "King Richard in." is from A.D. 1471 to 1485, and if there had been a piny of King Richard VII. it would have commenced from the last date. The numbers of these words are as follows, and we give the cor- responding figures from page 53, " Merry Wives of Windsor " : — In 83 down 225 up Stage 84 )) 22-i „ Plays 85 jj 223 „ and 86 )j 990 Masques mi - 87 >> 221 1 ■ BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENR Y VII 23 P. 5 3, "M. \V. W.," pronoun 225 down. col. 106, the 224 „ of 223 „ borrowed 222 „ are 221 „ The ifironoim stands in the ^jlace of a }yi-oper name. And if we add the paging 23 to 83 and 84 ("In Stage "), we get 106 and 107, which are the numljers of the columns of page 53, " Merry Wives of Windsor," from which we take oiu" figures. Elizabeth^ Queen to King Edward IV. Fuller says of this lady: — "She got more greatness than joy, height than happiness, by her marriage, for she lived to see the death of her husband, murder of her two sons, and restraint of herself and rest of her children." This agrees with her foreboding language in the play : — Small joy have I in being England's queeu. Miss Strickland says of her : " There never was a woman who contrived to make more personal enemies." After Eichard's usiu-pation she was styled by him, " Dame Elizabeth Grey, late calling herself Queen of England." She retired to the IMonastery of Bermondsey, where she died in the reign of her son-in-law, much neglected by him, June 8, 1492. In only one instance has the compiler met with the time of Elizabeth Woodvile's death, and then it was merely stated to have occurred the Eriday before Whitsuntide. As Easter Day in 1492 fell on the 22nd of April, the exact date of her decease was the 8th of June. Her will, dated April 10, 1492, exhibits a touching picture of her maternal affection and her poverty, having nothing but her blessing to bequeath to her children, for " I have no worldly goods " is her mournful confession. She was buried in St George's Chapel, Windsor, where on a flat stone, at the foot of her royal husband's tomb, is inscribeo : — ^ing ^btDitrii xwxb his Qitcni Sli^iibith cSlilibiU. 24 BACON'S HISTORY OF KING HENRY VII Southey's lines "woiild form an appropriate epitaph : — Thou, Elizabeth, art here, Thou ! to whom all griefs were known, Who wert placed upon the bier, In happier hour than on a throne. This is the Queen Bivcon refers to as the Queen Doicagcr. We find her in the play urging the Marquis of Dorset to fly to Eichmond, and this agrees with Bacon's words, "And in her withdraAving chamber had the fortunate conspiracy for the King against Eichard the Third been hatched" (p. 21, "History of King Henry VU."). Compare — Queen. Dorset, speak not to me, get thee gone. Death and destruction dogs thee at thy heels. Thy mother's name is ominous to children. If thou wilt out-sti"ip death, go cross the seas, And live with Eichmond, from the reach of hell. ("Richard III.," act i. sc. 3.) " The Marquis of Dorset was Thomas Grey, eldest son of Elizabeth's first marriage. After the death of King Edward, Dorset, attainted by Eichard the Third, escaped to the Earl of Eichmond, and assisted in raising him to the throne " (" Notes on the Characters of Shakespeare's Plays," p. 224, by G. E. French, 1868). Tlie reader may see how exactly acquainted Bacon is with the details of the reign of King Eichard the Third as they are presented by the supposed Shakespeare. CHAPTER 11. AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. " He seems to have written the Essays with the pen of Shakespeare." — Alexander Smith. Professor Fowler writes : "In vol. i. p. 5 De Maistre makes what appears to me to be a very true criticism on Bacon — ' Rarement il resiste a I'envie d'etre poete '" (p. 137, Introduction, "Nov. Org."). Richard III. Let those who would trace Bacon's mind in the characters of the plays, carefully read his Essay on " Deformity," and then study the character of Richard III. as depicted in his self-exam- ining speech (at the opening of the play), and notice how exactly what Bacon remarks upon the compensations of Nature are illus- trated in this one poi'trait. "Deformed persons are commonly even with nature, for as nature hath done ill by them, so do they by nature, being for the most part (as the Scripture sayeth) void of natural affection, and so they have their revenge of nature ; certainly there he a consent between the body and the mind, and where nature erreth in the one, she ventiueth in the other. Whosoever hath anything fixed in his person that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn. Therefore all Deform.ed persons are extreme bold. First, as in their own defence as being exposed to scorn, but in process of time, by a general habit. So that in a great wit Deformity is an advantage to rising. Still the ground is they will, if they be of spirit, seek to free themselves from scorn ; which must be, either by virtue or malice " ("Deformity," 1625). 26 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. Richard. I, that am ciirtail'd of this fair proportion, Cheated of feature by dissembling nature, Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time Into this breathing rvorld, scarce half made tq), And that so lamely and unfashionable, That dogs bark at me as I halt by them. "Why I (in this weak piping time of peace) Have no delight to pass away the time, Unless to see my shadow in the sun. And descant on mine own Deformity. And therefore since I cannot prove a lover, To entertain these fair well-spoken days, I am determined to prove a villain. Let the reader next read the Essay on " Boldness," which Bacon has already declared is an attribute of deformed persons. And let us call to mind Richard III., as Duke of Gloucester, making love to Lady Anne over the coffin of her husband, killed by him. " Wonderful like is the case of boldness, in civil business ; what first 1 Boldness ; what second and third 1 Boldness. And yet Boldness is a child of ignorance, and baseness, far inferior to other parts. But nevertheless it doth fascinate, and bind hand and foot, those that are either shallow in judgment, or weak in courage, which are the greatest part ; yea, and prevaileth with Avise men at weak times. Therefore we see it hath done wonders in popular states, but with senates and princes less. And more even upon the first entrance of Bold Persons into Action than soon after ; fm- Boldness is an ill keeper of promise " ("Boldness"). We have already found Bacon writing upon Deformity: "Certainly there is a consent between the body and the mind." Richard III. says : — Then since the heavens have shaped my body so, Let Hell make crooked my mind to answer it. In Bacon's " Natiual History " he writes : " It is an usual observation, that if the hod// of one murdered be brought before the murderer, the wounds will bleed afresh " (Century x., Exp. 958). An illustration of this is given in the play of " King Richard the Third," in the celebrated second scene of the first act, where Richard (as Duke of Gloucester) stops the " corse " of King AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 27 Henry the Sixth, Avhom he murdered in order to court Lady Anne. Glouc. Stay you that bear the corse, and set it down. Anne. What black magician conjures up this fiend, To stop devoted charitable deeds \ If thou delight to view thy heinous deedSj Behold this pattern of thy butcheries. 0, gentlemen, see, see ! dead Henry's wounds- Open their congeaVd mouths, and bleed afresh. Blush, blush thou lump of foul deformity ; For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood From cold and emjdy veins, where no blood dwells ; Thy deed inhuman a7id unnatural, Provokes this deluge most unnatural. (" Richard III.," act i. sc. 2.) Thersites. Thersites is described in the list of ^'■Dramatis Personce" pre- fixed to the play of " Troilus and Cressida " as " A Deformed and scurrilous Grceclan." Once more we find him, as we have already found Eichard the Third, of an envious, discontented disposition. Achilles addresses him : — How now thou co7-e of envy ! And Patroclus exclaims : — Why, thou damnable box of envy ! Bacon concludes his Essay upon " Envy " with the words : — " It is also the vilest afiection, and the most depraved ; for which cause it is the proper attribute of the Devil, who is called the Envious Man that soweth tares amongst the wheat by night." Thersites, in a soliloquy following his quarrel with Ajax, ends : — I have said my prayers, and devil envy, say Amen. Bacon writes : — "A man that is husij, and inquisitive, is commonly envious : for to know much of other men's matters, cannot be, be- cause all that ado may concern his own estate ; therefore it must needs be, that he taJceth a kind of ■play pleasure in looking upon the fortunes of others; neither can he, that mindeth but his own business, 28 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. find much matter for envy." Hoav this is exactly reflected in the portrayal of the character of Thersites, may be seen by turning to the play. He is always looking on at others, spjang and criti- cising, full of other people's business and with none of his own, unless this is his especial vocation. He maintains this role to the very last of a looker cm or spectator, and at the conclusion of the play, whilst the Greeks and Trojans are fighting hard, exclaims : — Now they are clapper-clawing one another, ril go looke on. Thersites takes no interest in himself, but is for ever depressing others, abusing them, and implying they have no wit or brains ; and his curiositij is so great, we find him bent upon nothing (during the battle at the finale of the play) but seeing the meeting of Troilus and Diomede. He exclaims, " I would fain see them meet," and although his life is threatened by Hector, immediately the danger is past he recm\s to the objects of his insatiable curi- osity again in the words : — What's become of the wenching rogues ? I think they have swallowed one another. I would laugh at that miracle — yet in a sort lechery eats itself : I'll seeke them. Bacon remarks: "Nan est curiosus quin idem sit malevolus." That Thersites is malevolent to the backbone cannot be questioned. For malevolence (following a dictionary and not om' inspiration) means spiteful, bitter, rancorous, evil-minded, and Thersites is all these, describing himself to Hector as "a scurvy railing knave, a very filthy rogue." The last time we hear of Thersites in this play he is presented as brought to bay by a bastard, and confessing himself a bastard also in order to save his life (or escape combat), on the score of kindred. This is evidently a touch of Bacon's in harmony with his Essay on "Envy," where he says: "Deformed Persons, and Eunuchs, and old men, and Bastards are envious." Unter Margakelox. Afar, Turn, slave, and fight. Thcr. Wliat art thou ? AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 29 Mar. A bastard son of Priam's. TJier. I am a bastard too ; I love bastards : I am a bastard begot, bastard instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in everything illegitimate. One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard ? Take heed, the quarrel's most ominous to us : if the son of a whore fight for a whore, he temjits judgment : farewell, bastard. Mar. The devil take thee, coward ! \Ej:it. In Bacon's " Antitheta " upon " Beauty " we read : " Deformed Persons commonly have their revenge of Nature." Again, " De- formed Persons seek to rescue themselves from scorn by malice and boldness." The Bastard Edmund. ("King Lear.") Bacon in his Essay on "Envy": — "Deformed persons, and eunuchs, and old men, and bastards are envious : for he that cannot possibly mend his own case, will do what lie can to impair a7iother's." In the Tragedy of " King Lear " we have the Bastard Edmund, half brother to Edgar (sons of Gloucester), filled with envy of his brother's legitimate birth, forging a letter pm^posing to be from the latter, and letting his father see it with the express purpose of damaging his brother's fortune and inheritance. As we have already quoted, but must again repeat, "Again Envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man^s self ; and where there is no compari- son, no envy." In the case of Cassius in "Julius Ctesar" we shall presently find the text of the play introducing this effect of com- parison with wondrous art. And in the case of the bastard Edmund Ave refind once more a soliloquy of mortified and envious self-comparison with his legitimate brother Edgar : — - Unter Edmund, with a letter. Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess ; to thy law My services ai'e bound. Wherefore should I Stand in the plague of custom, and permit The curiosity of nations to deprive me. For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines Lag of a brother ? Why bastard ? wherefore base ? When my dimensions are as well compact, My mind as generous, and my shape as true, 30 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. As honest madam's issue % Why brand they us With base ? with baseness ? bastardy ? base, base ? Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take More composition and fierce quality Than doth, witliin a dull, stale, tired bed, Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops. Got 'tween sleep and wake ? Well, then, Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land : Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund As to the legitimate : fine word, — legitimate ! Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed. And my invention thrive, Edmund the base Shall top the legitimate. I grow ; I prosper : Now, gods, stand up for bastards ! Entca- Glotjcestek- Glou. Kent banish'd thus ! and France in choler parted ! And the king gone to-night ! subscribed his power ! Confined to exhibition ! All this done Upon the gad ! Edmund, how now ! wlmt news ? Edm. So please your lordship, none. [Putting up the letter. Glou. Why so earnestly seek you to j^nit up that letter ? Edm. I know no news, my lord. Glou. What paper were you reading 1 Edm. Nothing, my lord. Gtou. No? What needed, then, tliat terrible dispatch of it into your pocket ? the quality of nothing hatli not such need to hide itself. Let's see : come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles. Edin. I beseech you, sir, pardon me : it is a letter from my brother, that I have not all o'er-read ; and for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for your o'er-looking. Glou. Give me the letter, sir. Edm. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. Tlie contents, as in part I understand them, are to blame. Glou. Let's see, let's see. Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my virtue. Glou. [Heads] " This policy and reverence of age makes the world bitter to the best of our times ; keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the o})pression of aged tyranny ; who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me, that of this I may speak more. If otir father would sleep till I waked him, you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your brother, "Edgar." Hum — conspiracy! — "Sleep till I waked liim, — you should enjoy half his revenue," — My son Edgar ! Had he a hand to write this ? a heart and brain to breed it in ? — When came this to you ? who brought it ? AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 31 Edm. It was not l>roiight me, my lord ; there's the cunning of it ; I found it thrown in at the casement of my closet. Glou. You know the character to be your brother's ? Edm. If tlie matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his ; hut, in respect of that, I would fain think it were not. Glmi. It is his. Edm. It is his hand, my lord ; but I hope his heart is not in the contents. Glou. Hath he never heretofore sounded yon in this Inisiness ? Edm. Xever, my lord : but I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that, sons at jjcrfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as ward to the son, and the son manage his revenue. Glcm. villain, villain ! His very opinion in the letter ! AbhoiTed villain ! Unnatural, detested, brutisli villaisi ! worse than bratish ! Go, sirrah, seek liim ; I'll apprehend him : abominable villain ! Where is he ? (" King Lear," act i. sc. 2.) If we no^y turn to Bacon's Essay on " Cunning," we find the letter trick of Edmund exactly descril)ed : " Some p-ociire them- selves to he surp/ised at such times, as it is like the paiiy that they work upon, mil suddenly come upon them : and to he found vnth a letter in their hand, or doing somewhat which they are not accustomed with the end, they may he opposed of those things, which of themselves they are desirous to utter." This situation is pretty closely approxi- mated, for Edmund allows his father to surprise him with the forged letter expressly that it may "be read, and himself cate- chised as to the contents and bearing thereof. This example of " cunning " is very much after the manner of lago's practice upon Othello ; and Gloucester is, as Edmund exclaims, " a credu- lous father," -m'thout much suspicion. Bacon writes : " For some are begotten of old men, some of young men. Again, some in the fervency of the father's love (as it is commonly in hasfards) ; others after the cooling of it as in long married couples" ("Hist. Life and Death," Exp. 32), Bastard. Why "brand they ns With base ? -with baseness 1 bastcnxly 1 Imse, base ? Who in the lusty stealth of nature, take More composition and fierce qi;ality Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops, Got 'tween a sleep and wake ? (" Lear," act i. sc. 2.) 32 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. The Bastard "Don John." ("Much Ado al)Oi\t Nothing.") In the play of "Much Ado about Nothing" we are once more presented Avith a Bastard in the person of Boa John, half- brother to Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon. Here again (as in " King Lear ") the bastard is depicted as an en\aous, malevolent villain, who is at the liottom of all the mischief in the play. He is introduced in the first act and third scene with his two followers, Conrade and Borachio. These two men are employed as spies, and answer exactly to what Bacon Avrites in his Essay "Of Followers and Friends." "There is a kind of Followers likewise which* are dangerous, heing indeed espials; which inquire the secrets of the hmise, and hear tales of them to others. Yet such men many times are in great favour ; for they are officious, and commonly exchange tales." Almost with the first words Borachio utters and reports himself in the play, we find him fulfilling this role of an esjnal, and listening to the secrets of the Prince and Claudio, whilst secreted behind the arras. Bora. Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty room, comes me the prince and Claudio, hand in hand, in sad conference : I Avhipt me behind the arras : and there heard it agi-eed upon that the prince should woo Hero for himself, and having obtained her, give her to Count Claudio. • (Act i. sc. 3, " Much Ado about Xothing.") Don John is first introduced as a melancholy, discontented man, who (as Conrade says to him) " has of late stood out against his brother." Don John, in spite of restored favour (" hath taken vou newly into his grace "), is envious of Claudio, who has become Don Pedro's " right hand " or favourite. AVhen the Bastard hears of Claudio's engagement to Hero, he determines to cross it. Enter Don John and Borachio. I). Jo7m. It is so ; the Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato. Bora. Yea, my lord ; but I can cross it. I). John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be uk dieinable to nie ; I am sick in dis]ileasure to him, and whatsoever comes athwart his affection ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage ? AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 33 Bm'cu Not honestly, my lord ; but so covertly that no dishonesty shall appear in me. D. John. Show me briefly how. Bora. I think I told your lordship a year since, how much I am in the fovour of Margaret, the waiting gentlewoman to Hero. D. John. I remember. Bora. I can, at any unseasonable instant of the night, appoint her to look out at her lady's chamber window, " There are conceits that some men that are of an ill and melan- choly nature, do incline the company into which they come to he sad and ill-disposed" (" Sylva Sylvarum," Ex. 941), Leon. Was not Count John here at supper ? Ant. I saw him not. Brat. How tartly that gentleman looks ! I never can see him but I am heart-burned an hour after. Hero. He is of a very melancholy disposition. (" Much Ado about Nothing," act ii. sc. 1.) Philip the Bastard. (" King John.") In this play we have the Imstard Philip, who is half brother to Eobert Faulconbridge, son to Sir Robert Faulconbridge, Philip is the eldest son, but relinquishes his rights as heir in favoiu' of his younger brother, preferring to be knighted by the King, and to be 02:)enly reputed the bastard son of Richard Cceiu' de Lion. In the depicting of this character we see how faithful to his Essays Bacon has been. For we find Philip bitter in words, and, like Thersites, a railer. He finds fault, and abuses Austria and the Dauphin, and confesses in the following speech his complete character, which is to rail, out of envy, abuse what he does not possess : — And why rail I on this Commodity ? But for because he hath not woo'd me yet : Not that I have the power to clutch my hand, When his fair angels would salute my palm ; But for my hand, as unattempted yet, Like a poor beggar, raileth on the rich. Well, whiles I am a beggar, I will rail And say there is no sin but to be rich ; And being rich, my virtue then shall be C 34 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. To say there is no vice but beggary. Since kings break faitli upon commodity, Gain, be my lord, for I will worshijt thee. \Exil. (" King John," act ii.) Like Thersites his tongue is scurrilous and spiteful ; his de- scription of his half l)rother Robert is evidently coloiu:'ed with envy at his legitimacy of birth : — Bast. Madam, an if my brother had my shape, And I had his, sir Robert's his, like him ; And if my legs were two such riding-rods. My arms such eel-skins stuff'd, my face so thin That in mine ear I durst not stick a rose Lest men should say, " Look, where three farthings goes !" (Act i. sc. 1.) When the Dauphin makes love to Blanch of Spain, niece to King John, the bastard exclaims : — \\\ such a love, so vile a lout as he. And a fine touch is given in the scene laid before Anglers, where the bitterness most at his heart is roused in a moment by .the words ^^ breed," ^'urll-boru Moods," which reflect upon and remind him of the illegitimacy of his birth : — First at. In brief, we are the King of England's subjects : For him and in his right, we hold this town. K. John. Acknowledge then the king, and let me in. First Cit. That can we not ; but he that proves the king To him will we prove loyal : till that time Have we ramm'd up our gates against the world. K. John. Doth not the crown of England prove the king ? And if not that, I bring you witnesses. Twice fifteen tliousand hearts of England's breed, — Bast. Bastards, and else. K. John. To verify our title with their lives. K. Phil. As many and as well-born bloods as those, — Bast. Some bastards too. (Act ii. sc. 1.) This trifle shoAvs the exqiiisite dclicac}^ of the painting in this art. The l)astard Philip is proud of his father's blood (Richard Coeiw de Lion), which speaks in his fearless utterance and spirited renunciation of his claims to his brother's land, so much so that Queen Elinor exclaims : — AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 35 I like thee well : wilt thou forsake thy fortune, Bequeath thy land to him, and follow me ? (Act i. so. 1.) Nevertheless he never forgets that he is bastard, and it bespeaks a wonderful knowledge of the human heart, how in a moment he is stung by a word into bitter remembrance of what he is, which he seeks to discharge and relieve himself of, by challenging and bitter self-irony. Envy, Bacon, in his Essay upon " Envy," writes : " And it is also noted that Love and Envy do make a man pine, which other affections do not, because they are not so continual." In the tragedy of " Julius Csesar " nothing is drawn with greater art than the characters of Cassius, Brutus, and Casca. At the opening of the play we are presented with a scene in which Cassius begins the work of undermining and inflaming the mind of Brutus against Caesar. He describes how he saved Caesar's life from drowning in the Tiber, and exclaims : — I (as ^ncas, our great ancestor, Did from the flames of Troy, upon his shoulder, The old Anchiscs bear), so from the waves of Tiber Did I the tired Cccsar : and this man Is now become a God, and Cassius is A wretched creature, and must bend his body, If Ctcsar carelessly but nod on him. (Act i. sc. 2.) Apply Bacon's further remarks upon "Envy" in this passage : — " Again, Envy is ever joined with the comparing of a man's self; and tuhere there is no comparison no envy." Cassius saved Caesar's life by being a better swimmer, and it is a notable featiu'e in Envy (if not in a great deal of human nature) that if a man sm-prise others by showing talents or qualities he was not suspected of possessing, he will excite comparison in those points where he has proved him- self inferior to those who now envy him. For the mind is easily inclined to judge a man hy one thing, and from this Aveakness to claim superiority in other things. When therefore one with whom we have been on familiar and intimate terms, whom we have imagined 36 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. we have measured, and taken exhaustive stock of, all at once sui'prises us by going to the front, the mind receives a rude shock, and insulted self-comparison falls back at once upon those points where we have proved superior. Cassius continues about Ctesar : — He had a fever when he was in Spain, And when the fit was on him I did mark How he did shake : 'tis trne this God did shake, His coward lips did from their colour fly, And that same eye, whose bend doth awe the world, Did lose his lustre : I did hear him groan : I, and that tongue of his, that bade the Romans Mark him, and write his speeches in their books, Alas it cried, " Give me some drink, Titinius," As a sick girl : Ye gods it doth amaze me, A man of such a feeble temper should So get the start of the majestic world. And bear the palm alone. (Act i. sc. 2.) Familiarity breedeth contempt. And, as Bacon admirably re- marks : — "A man that hath no vertue in himself ever envietk vertue in others. For men's minds Avdll either feed upon their own good, or uj)on other's evil ; and icho wanteth the one will prey upon the other ; and who so is out of hope to attain to another's vertue, ivill seek to come at even hand, by depressing another's fortune." In the l^assage we are about to cite may be found an exact parallel to the words quoted from Bacon as to the pining or thinning effects of Envij, in the person of Cassius. Cccsar. Let me have men about me, that are fat, Sleek-headed men, and such as sleep o' nights : Yoiid Cassius has a lean and hungry look. He thinks too much : such men are dangerous. (Act i. sc. 2.) In Plutarch's life of Cassar we read : "Caesar too had some sus- picion of him (Cassius), and he even said one day to his friends, ' What think you of Cassius 1 I do not like his pale looks.' An- other time, Avhen Anthony and Dolabella were accused of some designs against his person and government, he said, ' I have no apprehensions from those fat and sleek men ; I rather fear the pale and lean ones' meaning Cassius and Brutus" ("Julius Csesar," Pint,, vol. iv., Langhonie's ed., 1774.) AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 37 It is evident Bacon borrowed from this passage. And we can only admire and respect the fidelity with which he has adhered in these particulars to history. Plutarch, in his life of Brutus, describes Cassius as " a man of violent passions, and an enemy to Csesar, rather from penonal than political hatred." And this is also implied or suggested in the passages from the play quoted. But here we find the expression itself : — With full as many signs of deadly hate, As lean-fac'd envy in her loathsome cave. ("2 King Hemy VL," act iii. sc. 2.) Caesar remarks of Cassius : — Such men as he be never at heart's ease, Whiles they behold a greater than themselves, And therefore are they very dangerous. (Act L sc. 1.) " The roots of the male-peony, dried, tied to the neck, doth help the Falling-dckness ; and likewise the Incubus, which we call the Mare" ("Sylva Sylvarum," Cent, x., Ex. 966). Cassi. But soft I pray you : what did Cccsar swoon ? Casca. He fell down in the market-place and foam'd at mouth, and was speechless. Brutus. 'Tis very like he hath the Falling-sickness. Cassi. No, Coisar hath it not ; but you and I And honest Casca, we have the Falling-sickness. ("Julius Csesar," act i. sc. 2.) "There was an ^Egyptian Soothsayer that made Antlwnius believe that his genius (which other^vise was brave aiul confident) was in the presence of Octavianus Ccesar, poor and cowardly; and therefore he advised him to absent himself (as much as he could) and remove far from him. This Soothsayer was thought to be suborned by Cleopatra, to make him live in Egypt, and other remote places from Eome. Howsoever, the conceit of a Predomi- nant or Mastering Spirit, of one man over another, is ancient and received still, even in vulgar opinion" ("Sylva Sylvarum," Cent. X., Ex. 939, 940). 190144 38 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. Now compare the following passage from the second act, third scene, of the Play of " Anthony and Cleopatra," and mark how thoroughly and entirely Bacon's prose is reproduced. Soothsayer. But yet hie you to Egypt again. Anthony. Say to me, wliose Fortunes shall rise higher, Ccesars or mine ? Soothsayer. Cccsar's. Therefore (Oh Anthony) stay not by his side. Tliy Daemon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is Koble, courageous, high, unniatchable, Where Ca'sar's is not. But near liim, thy angel Becomes a fear ; as being o'erpowered, therefore Make space enough between you. (Act ii. so. 3. ) The result of this advice is that Anthony exclaims, " / vill to Egypt," showing how exactly the play follows the passage we quote from Bacon. We see this in even little trifles like the adherence to the title " Suothsayer " and the sequence of narrative. Anthony's character is (apart from Caesar's) "brave and con- fident," " noble, com-ageous ; " in desar's company it turns "poor and cowardly," and his genius "becomes a fear." An expression of Bacon's is " Mastering Spirits," and we find it in these words of Anthony : — No place will please me so, no mean of death, As here by Caesar and by you cut off, The choice and master sjnrits of this age. (Act iii. sc. 1.) Macbeth, speaking of Banquo : — Macbeth. There is none but he, Whose being I do fear : and under him 3Iy genius is rebuk'd as it is said Mark Anthony's loas by Ca^ar. (" Macbeth," act iii. sc. 1.) Under " Fascination " Bacon wTites in the Foui'th Book of " The Advancement of Learning " (chapter iii.) : — " Whence the conceits have grown, made almost popular of the Mastering Spirit; of men ominous and unlucky ; of the strokes of love and envy ; and of others of like nature." Cas. But what of Cicero ? shall we sound him ? I think he will stand very strong with us. Cusca. Let us not leave him out. AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 39 Cin. No, by no means. Met. 0, let us have him, for his silver hairs Will purchase us a good opinion And buy men's voices to commend our deeds : It shall be said, his judgment ruled our hands ; Our youths and wildness shall no whit appear, But all be buried in his gravity. Bru. 0, name him not : let us not break with him ; For he will never follow any thing That other men begin. (" Julius Ctesar," act ii. sc. 1.) What careful and exact study of Cicero's life the author must have given ! For Cicero, enquiring of the Oracle of Delphi, by " what means he might rise to the greatest glory, the priestess bade him ' Follow nature, and not take the opinion of the multi- tude for the guide of his life.' " And Cicero had no share in the conspiracy against Caesar, though he was one of Brutus' particu- lar friends. Plutarch describes his vanity as disgusting, and no doubt he had too exalted an opinion of himself to follow anyone. Cassius. Did Cicero say anything ? Casca. I, he spoke Greek. Cass. To what effect ? Casca. N"ay, and I tell you that, I'll ne'er look you in the face again. But those that understood him smiled at one another, and shook their heads : but for mine own part, it was Greek to me. (" Julius Ccesar," act i. sc. 2.) This proves the author of this play was a thorough scholar. For Cicero, in fear of Sylla's resentment, retired to Greece, attend- ing the lectures of Antiochus at Athens, and is i-eported by Plutarch to have declaimed in Greek at Rhodes, where he studied under the rhetorician Apollonius, the son of Molo. The same ^vl*iter says at first he was called " a Greek and a scholastic " at Eome, and later on in life rendered the Greek terms of logic and natural philosophy into the Roman language. Plutarch affirms that Cicero gave Latin terms for these Greek words, pJianfasia, syncatathesis, epoche, &c., &c. (Vide FlutSLrch's "Cicero"). These exquisite studies of character and history, carried out to the minutest particulars, by the author of the plays, are all against 40 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. Shakespeare. For if we are to credit Mr Gladstone, Sliakespeare only wrote for the common jieople ; and what should the people care whether Cicero knew Greek or no, or Avhether he was a man who would not follow the leadership of others % Why should an author writing for bread, pressed for leisure and means, enter into all these artistic and exquisite finishing touches, Avhere all is truth ? " It hath been observed that in anger the eyes ivax red" (" Xat. Hist.," Exp. 872). And Cicero Looks with sucli ferret and such fiery eyes, As we have seen him in the Capitol, Being cross'd in conference by some senators. ("Julius Cresar," act i. sc. 2.) " Kings in ancient times (and at this present in some countries) were wont to put great trust in Eunuchs ; because they that are envious towards all, are more obnoxious and officious towards one. But yet their trust towards them hath rather been as to good Sjpials and good whisperers " (" Deformity "). In " Twelfth Night " we find Viola playing the part of an Eunuch, and becom- ing the trusted confidant, messenger, spy, and whisperer of Duke Orsino. Ca]). Be you his eunuch, and your mute I'll be. (Act i. sc. 2.) Duke. Ctiesario, Tliou know'st no less but all ; I have unclasp'd To thee the book even of my secret soiil. (Act i. sc. 3.) The Eunuch Mardian (in " Antony and Cleopatra ") is sent to Antony to whisper in his ear the pretended death of Cleopatra, and to play the part of a trusted spy to report the eftect : — Clro. To the monument ! Mardian, go tell him I have slain myself ; Say that the last I spoke was " Antony," And word it, prithee, piteously : hence Mardian A)id bring me how he takes my death. (Act iv. sc. Vi.) AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 41 " There is use also of Ambitious men in pulling down the great- ness of any subject that overtops " (" Ambition "). The part Cardinal Wolsey plays in " King Henry the Eighth " in j)ulling doAvn the Duke of Buckingham is a notable illustration of Bacon's words. He writes : " It is counted by some a Aveak- ness in Princes to have flivourites : hut it is of all others the best remedy against ambitious great ones." The Earl of Siurey exclaims to Cardinal "Wolsey : — Thy ambition (Thou scarlet sin) roblj'd this bewailing land Of noble Buckingham. (" Henry VIIL," act iii. so. 2.) In the same manner as Wolsey removed Buckingham, Norfolk and Suffolk succeed in pulling down Wolsey. Cromwell, I charge thee fling away ambition, By that sin fell the angels: how can man then (The Image of his maker) hope to win by it ? (" Henry VIIL," act iii. sc. 2.) Compare — " For the desire of iiotoer was the fall of angels, the desire of knowledge the fall of man " (Preface to the " Instau- ration," p. 19). " Men of Noble birth are noted to be envious towards new men when they rise. For the distance is altered " (" Envy "). Buck. This butcher's cur is venomed-mouthed, and I Have not the power to muzzle him, therefore best Not wake him in his slumber. A Beggar's book Out-'worths a Noble's blood. (Act i. sc. 1.) Cardinal Wolsey was a man of mean birth, and the envy his rise created amongst the nobility is well illustrated at the com- mencement of the play of " Henry the Eighth." We are pre- sented with Buckingham, Norfolk, and Abergavenny, each mad with envy and hatred of Wolsey's pride, power, and ambition. Buck. The devil speed him : no man's fire is freed From his ambitious fingers. CHAPTER III. bacon's essays applied to the plays. Suspicion, Malice, Cunning, Etc. That cuckold lives in bliss Who, certain of his fate, loves not his wronger ; But, oh, what damned minutes tells he o'er. Who dotes, yet doubts, suspects, yet strongly loves ! ("Othello," act iii. sc. 3.) Iago's villainy is chiefly caused hij disappointed ambition, for the play opens with his complaints against Othello's promotion of Cassio over his head : — Hod. Tliou told'st me thou didst hold him in thy hate. lago. Despise me, if I do not. Three great ones of the city, In j)ersonal suit to make me his lieutenant, Otf-capp'd to him : and, by the faith of man, I know my price, I am worth no worse a place : But he, as loving his own pride and purposes, Evades them, with a bombast circumstance Horribly stutfd with epithets of war ; And, in conclusion, Konsuits my mediators ; for, " Certes," says he, " I have already chose my officer." And what was he ? \ Forsooth, a great arithmetician, One Michael Cassio, a Florentine, A fellow almost damn'd in a fair wife ; That never set a squadron in the field. Nor the division of a battle knows More than a spinster ; unless the bookish theoric, Wherein the toged consuls can propose As masterly as he : mere prattle, without practice, Is all liLS soldiership. But he, sir, had the election : And I, of whom his eyes had seen the proof At Rhodes, at Cyprus, and on other grounds Christian and heathen, must be be-lee'd and calm'd By debitor and ci'editor : this counter-caster. SLSFICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 43 He, in good time, must his lieutenant be, And I — God bless the mark ! — his Moorship's ancient. (Act i. sc. 1.) Beacon's Essay upon "Ambition:" — ^^ Ambition is like choler ; which is an humour, that maketh men active, earnest, full of alacrity and stirring, if it he not stojjjml. But if it be stopped, and cannot have his way, it becometh adust, and thereby malign and venom- ous." How exactly this describes lago's checked ambition, changed into the poison of the serpent, which has crept into Othello's bosom in order only to sting him to his destruction. lago. Why, there's no remedy ; 'tis the curse of service, Preferment goes by letter and affection, And not by old gradation, where each second Stood heir to the first. Now, sir, be judge yourself, "Whether I in any just term am affined To love the Moor. Rod. I would not follow him then. lago. 0, sir, content you ; I follow him to serve my turn upon him : (Act i. sc. 1.) Bacon, in the passage quoted, is undoubtedly thinking of the serpent, and it is well worthy reflection that when all lago's villainy is disclosed at the end of the play, we find the following text in harmony with this idea : — Lod. Where is that Viper? Bring the villain forth, Othello. I look down towards his feet ; hut that' s a f able. (Act V.) How else are we to understand these words of Othello's except by reference to the fable of the serpent of Paradise, crawling in the dust (or " adust " as Bacon writes) at the feet ? Bacon's mind, as we know by his " Wisdom of the Ancients," was fond of rationalizing all fables. The way he interprets the Proverbs of Solomon in the " Advancement " proves this. And we venture to suggest that the vast amount of scriptural allusion, paraphrase, and application to be found in the plays called Shakespeare's may be refound re-echoed in the " Two Books of the Advancement " and the " De Augmentis." A little book called " Shakespeare and the Bible " calls attention to one side of the question. The theo- logical side of Bacon's writings has never really received the 44 SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. attention it deserves. Dr Abbot has certainly devoted a chapter to it in his edition of the Essays. But the extraoi-dinary study Bacon made of the Bible may be estimated from the fact that in the 1623 "De Augmentis" there are one hundred and fifty quota- tions, allusions, or refereiices to ike Old and New Testaments alone/ And in the Essays there are over seventy of such allusions. For the play of "Othello" the best commentary are Bacon's Essays on " Suspicion " and " Ambition " : — " There is nothing makes a man suspect much more than to know little : and therefore men should remedy suspicion by procuring to know more, and not to keej^ their sus- picions in smother." How exactly this fits the suspicions of Othello. And does not Bacon perhaps in this word " smother " point at the smothering of Desdemona 1 Othello knew little except what he gathered from lago, whose truth and honesty he ought to have held in suspense before his wife's. " What would men have ? Do they think those they employ and deal with are saints ? Do they not think they will have their own ends, and he truer to themselves, than to them ? Therefore there is no better way to moderate suspicions than to account upon such suspicions as true and yet to bridle them as false" ("Suspicion"). If Othello had only obeyed the letter of these injunctions he Avould have tarried for better evidence, and questioned the integrity of lago at the same time. " For so far a man ought to make use of suspicions as to provide, as if that should be true that he suspects yet it may do him no hurt. Suspicions that the mind of itself gathers are but buzzes ; but suspicions that are artificially nmirishcd, and put into men's heads, by the tales and whisper- ings of others have stings." This is just the case of Othello, whose suspicions are put into his head and nourished artificially by the tales and whisperings of lago. The entire moral of this tragedy might be comprised in the words — too much suspicion, too little suspicion. In the play of the " Winter's Tale," the jealousy of Leontes is grounded likewise upon suspicion, but of the mind itself, self-created by a suspicious nature. Othello is simple, credulous, passionate, violent. He neither represses his jealousy or ^^ guards" (as Bacon suggests in the first lines of his Essay) against the dangers of giving too easy ear to others. Bacon SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 45 writes : — " They dispose kings to tyranny, husbands to jealousy." These last words, as is also the final Italian proverh, " Sospdto licentia fecle," are both pretty direct hints for Othello, whose faith entirely departs with the first breath of suspicion. Ford, in the " Merry Wives of Windsor," is another example of suspicion. It is a fact that suspicious people are often the most credulous and unsuspecting where they ought to be the opposite, and this is no- where better illustrated than in Othello, who never suspects the one being who deserved it until too late. If this Essay does not apply exactly to the plays of the "Winter's Tale" and "Othello," as forming the ^^ interior"* of their action on which the plot revolves, we are indeed at fault. It is to be remarked the villainy of lago is likewise the outcome of suspicion. lago. I hate the Moor, And it is thotight abroad, that 'twixt my sheets He's done my office. / knoio not if 't be true, But I for mere suspicion in that kind, Will do as if for sui-ety. (Act i. sc. 3.) Tago's suspicions answer exactly to Bacon's words : " Sus- picions that the mind of itself gathers are but buzzes. But sus- picions that are artificialhj nourished and put into men's heads by the tales and whisperings of others Jiave stings " (" Suspicion "). Here is exactly the difference between Othello's suspicions and lago's. The former's are '■^put into his head " on account of the latter 's (which are " buzzes ") in order to be revenged for the susjDicion of a wrong. A fine touch is given when lago exclaims : — By Janus I think no. For Bacon describes Janus as bifrons — that is, doubled-faced. The next essay of Bacon's which throws a light upon this art is that on " Cunning." The wonderful way in which lago insinu- ates the poison of jealousy into the mind of Othello is reflected in this Essay, as we shall show. lago, after having aroused Othello's suspicions as to Cassio's interview with Desdemona, and his acquaintance with her before Othello's marriage, cautions * One of Bacon's titles for his Essays is " Intcrioria licrum," or the interior of things. 46 SUSPICION, MAIICE, CUNNING, ETC. him against jealousy, which transfers, as it were, the suspicion he is trying to fasten in Othello's mind from any appearance of showing what he is really trying to do. lago having kindled the first sparks of jealousy, turns the " cat in the pan," and strengthens his own ends by disclaiming and laying to Othello the implied charge he is hastily jealous : — Oh beware my lord of Jealousy It is the green-eyed monster which doth mock The meat it feeds on. (Act iii. sc. 3.) Bacon ^vrites : " There is a cunning, which we in England call the turning of the cat in the pan, which is Avhen that which a man says to another, he lays it as if another had said to him. And to say truth it is not easy, when such a matter passed between two, to make it appear from which of them it first moved and began." If we study the whole of this scene where lago first begins work- ing upon Othello's mind, we find this exactly illustrated. This caution against jealousy uttered by lago, reads as if Othello and not lago had first started the subject, and places the latter in the position of a friend endeavouring to disabuse a sus- picious mind of jealous fancies. The effect argues for honesty and good faith, and except in minds of great Avorldly experience and subtlety, produces a contrary result, strengthening the sus- picions already harboured. To caution others against what we are trying to insinuate, is a certain rule of cunning often to be remarked in life. Because in order to fix suspicions in another's mind, the first thing necessary is to disarm suspicion against the interestedness or good faith of our eAddence or motives. If we are suspected, our insinuations have no Aveight. And so it is with lago. His art is to appear frank, honest, cautious, not too certain of his OAvn suspicions, and in thus acting he goes far to undermine Othello's faith. The play of " Othello " might be briefly expressed as Sus- picion and disappointed AmUtion, employing Cunning as an instru- ment of Malice upon others. Nothing is so striking as the ex- haustive manner in which Bacon's Essays apply both in title and SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 47 in subject matter to the affections or passions of the human mind as portrayed in the plays falsely attributed to Shakespeare. Bacon concludes this Essay on " Cunning " thus : " Some build rather upon the ahuahig of oflwrs, and (as we now say) Putting tricks upon them, than upon soundness of their own proceedings." The trick of the handkerchief by which lago convinces Othello of Desdemona's infidelity pretty closely examples this quotation. Be it observed the verb Bacon employs, " Abusing " is frequently introduced in the play — OthcUo. I am ahus'd, and m.y relief !Must be to loath her. lago. As I confess it is my nature's plague To spy into abuses. (Act iii. sc. 3. ) Aldis "Wright in his Glossary (Essays) describes this word as meaning "Deception " "Mockery," and no doubt this is very near what Bacon intends to convey. Bacon writes in his Essay on "Love": " I know not how, hit martial men are given to love: I think it is, but as they are given to wine." This is well illustrated in the person of Cassio, who gets drunk, and whose amorous relations with Bianca assist to further lago's \allainous conspiracy. Then wc have Bertram, another "martial man," in "All's Well that Ends Well," pursuing an intrigue with Diana ; also Falstaffe and Doll Tear Sheet ; and each of these cases illustrate what Bacon means when he adds to this remark, "For perils commonly ask to be paid in pleasures." Vain-glory. In his Essay upon "Vain-glory," Bacon says: "In military commanders and soldiers, vain- glory is an essential jDoint; for as iron sharpens iron, so by glory one courage sharpeneth another." In " Troilus and Cressida " we find Ajax set up as champion of the Greeks against Achilles, on purpose to stimulate and whet the pride of the latter. Hector's challenge to single combat is aimed at Achilles : Ulysses. Tliis challenge that the gallant Hector sends, However it is spread in general name, Relates in purpose only to Achilles. (Act i. sc. 3. ) 48 SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. Ulysses and Nestor plot a device by which the result of the lottery is to fall upon Ajax, Avith the purpose of physicking the pride of the insolent Achilles. No, make a lottery, And by device let blockish Ajax draw The sort to fight with Hector : among ourselves, Give him allowance as the worthier man, For that will jihysic the great myrmidon "Who broils in loud applause, and make him fall His crest that prouder than blue Iris bends. (Act i. sc. 3.) In short, the vain-glory of each of these leaders of faction in the Gra3cian tents is employed to special pm-pose to stir and rouse the other, particularly Achilles, who sulks in his tent. Ajax is described : — Ajax is grown self-willed, and bears his head In such a rein, in full as proud a place As broad Achilles, and keeps his tent like him ; Makes faction feasts, rails on our state of war Bold as an Oracle, and sets Thersites, A slave, whose gall coins slanders like a mint. To match us in comj)arison with dirt. (Act i. sc. 3.) In these last lines describing Thersites, we find re-echoed Bacon's definition of envious persons : " A man that hath no virtue in himself, ever envicth virtue in others. For men's minds will either feed upon their own good, or iipon other's evil ; and who wanteth the one will prey upon the other. And who so is out of hope to attain to another's virtue, will seek to come at even hand by depressing another's fortune." The vain-glory of Ajax is thus pictured by Thersites : — Ther. A wonder ! ■ AcMl. What? Ther. Ajax goes up and down the field, asking for himself. Achil. How so ? Ther. He must fight singly to-morrow with Hector, and is so prophetically proud of an heroical cudgelling that ho raves in saying nothing. Achil. How can that be ? Ther. Why, he stalks up and down like a peacock, — a stride and a stand : ruminates like an hostess that hath no arithmetic but her brain to set down her reckoning : bites his lip with a politic regard, as Avho should say " There SUSPICION, MAIICE, CUNNING, ETC. 49 ■were wit in this head, an 'twould out ;" and so there is, but it lies as coldly in him as fire in a flint, which will not show without knocking. The man's undone for ever ; for if Hector break not his neck i' the combat, he'll break 't himself in vain-glory. (Act iii. so. 3. ) Boldness. The characters of Bardolph, Nym, Pistol, and Falstaffe might be each fairly epitomized m a mixture of boldness, imposture, awl impudence, which borders closely upon the ridiculous, and excites our laughter at their swashing words and weak performances. The first three are Mountebanks unqualified. In Bacon's Essay on "Boldness" he seems to be evidently writing with just such characters in his mind's eye. "Surely as there are Mountebanks for the natural body : so are there Mountebanks for the politic body. Certainly to men of great judgment Bold piersons are a sport to hehold ; nay and to the vulgar also. Boldness hath some- what of the ridiculous. For if absurdity be the subject of laughter, doubt you not, but great boldness is seldom without some absurdity. Especially, it is a sport to see, when a bold fellow is out of countenance ; for that puts his face into a most shrunken and wooden posture ; as needs it must ; for in bashful- ness, the spirits do a little go and come ; but with bold men upon like occasion, they stand at a stay, like a stale at chess, where it is no mate, but yet the game cannot stir" ("Boldness"). Can we not see all this with the visual eye, painted in Falstaffe, who, checkmated by the Prince and Poins in the recital of his exploits with the thieves, must have exhibited just such a countenance as Bacon describes, when discovered in his mountain of falsehoods ? The Hostess of the " Boar's Head " remarks when Falstaffe plays the king : — " the father, how he holds his countenance." (" 1 King Henry IV.," act ii. sc. 4.) Bacon opens his Essay upon " Boldness " by comj)aring it to Action. And this is a most profound observation. For the essence of boldness in the sense Bacon implies, is the impudence D 50 SUSPICION, MA lie E, CUNNING, ETC. of p^iii/ing a role, and assuming a part which, as in the case of Nym, Bardoli)h, and Pistol is thoroughly theatrical, full of affectation, and l)elonging to the stage rather than to life. The l)ravos of a transpontine theatre might be imagined to swagger, bully, and bluster as these mountebanks really do, and their repertory of fustian extravagance and bombast is the reproduc- tion off the stage, of what was once a characteristic of low theatres and poor actors. They are really stage rascals lightened Avith a touch of humour, but devoid of Falstaffe's good-fellowship and ready wit. In Bacon's "Antifhcta Iierum," under "Boldness" (xxxiii., Book vi., "Advancement of Learning," 1640, p. 316), we find : — " What action is to an Orator, the same is boldness to a politic; the first, the second, the third virtue. Impudence is good for nothing but impostui-e." Parasites and Sycophants. Bacon wi'ites : — " Such were those freiocher philosophers which in the later age of the Eoman state were usually in the houses of great persons Avhom not improperly you may call solemn parasites, of Avhich kind Lucian makes a meriy description of the Philosopher that the great lady took to ride with her in the coach, and would needs have him carry her little dog Melitceus, which he doing officiously, and yet uncomely, the page scoffing said, ' / dovht our philosopher of a stoic will turn cynic'" (page 24, Book i., "Advancement of Learning "). The play of " Timon of Athens " is in great measure taken from the Greek of Lucian''' (Holme's "Authorship of Shakespeare," p. 57). Apemantus in that play is the philosopher and stoic, Bacon de- scribes. And can we not see in the contexts of the words "para- sites," " trencher-friends " in the passage we noAV quote, Bacon's pen reflected ? * " Warlnirton discovered that tlie whole of the first speech of Autolycus ("Winter's Tah; ") is taken from Lucian 's book upon astrology" (Ward's " History of Dramatic Literature "). SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 51 IHmon. Live loathed and long, Most smiling, smooth, daU'tiiciJL parasites, Courteous destroyers, ail'ablc wolves, meek bears, You fools of fortune, trencher-friends, time's flies, Cap and knee slaves, vapours, and minute jacks. ("Timon of Athens," act iii. sc. 5.) But what further strengthens the parallel, Apeniiintus is as much cynic as stoic: — AjJcmantus' grace. Immortal gods, I crave no pelf; I i)ray for no man but myself : Grant I may never prove so fond^ To ti'ust man on his oath or bond ; Or a harlot, for her weeping ; Or a dog that seems a-sleepiiig ; Or a keeper witli my freedom ; Or my friends, if I should need 'em. Amen. So fall to't : Rich men sin, and I eat root. (Act i. sc. 2.) The fine distinction of characters drawn between Timon and Apemantus is well worthy study. Apemantus is stoic and cynic, but without being misanthrope. He does not shun mankind, though he perfectly penetrates the motives of the flatterers, who, calling themselves Timon 's friends, eat him. It is this knowledge of character which makes him cynical. It is Timon's ignorance of the world which upsets his balance with the load of the dis- covery made too late. Apemantus may be churlish and sour, but like medicine unpalatable to the taste, his physic, if taken in time, would have saved Timon. There can be little doubt Apemantus is introduced as a foil to contrast a stoic and cynic with an epi- curean. Timon, with his painters, poets, parasites, jewellers, banquets, and presents, undoubtedly belongs to the latter class of pleasure-seekers. Directly he finds he has been victimized by his flattering friends and trencher companions, he falls into the opposite extreme of misanthropy, and like an overloaded ship capsizes. He becomes, too late, ten times more cynical than Ape- mantus, who not only had the wisdom to make use of his knowlede;e of the world, but would not punish himself on account of it. One extreme leads to the other extreme. It is to be remarked that no 52 SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. one unacquainted with the philosophy of the different schools of classical philosophical thought, could have drawn this nice dis- tinction between cynic and epicurean, stoic and misanthrope. The greater part of the Greek of Lucian from which the play is taken would not furnish a sciolist with the necessary distinctions. Plutarch introduces Timon in his lines of Antony and Alcibiades. Alcihiadcs. I never did thee harm. Timon. Yes, thou s]iok'st well of me. Alcibiades. Call'st thou that harm ? Timon. Men daily find it. (" Timon af Athens," act iv. sc. 3.) " Some men Rrep-aised maliciously to their hurt, thereby to stir envy and jealousy towards them; Pessimum genus inimicoi'um laudan- tium; in so much as it was a proverb amongst the Grsecians; that he that was praised to his hurt, should have a push rise upon his nose" ("Of Praise," 1625). Aj^eviantus. Heavens ! that I were a Lord. Timon. What wouldst do then, AiKmantus ? Apemanttts. E'en as Apcmantus does now, hate a Lord with my heart. Timon. What, thyself? Apcmantus. L ( "Timon," act i. sc. 1.) "Pride if it ascend from, contempt of others to a eontempt of itself, at last is chang'd into Philosophy" {Antitheta, " Pride," xiv.). " He that seeks his OAvn praise, withal seeks the profit of others" {Antitheta, "Vain-Glory," xix.). This is very nearly the text of the sermon embraced in the play of " Timon of Athens " : — A2)em. What a coiFs here T Serving of becks and jutting-out of bums ! I doubt whether their legs be worth the sums That are given for 'em. Friendship's full of dregs : Methmks, false hearts should never have sound legs. Thus honest foals lay out their wealth on court'sies, Tim. Now, Apcmantus, if thou wert not sullen, I would be good to thee. Apem. No, 111 nothing : for if I should be bribed too, there would be none left to rail upon thee, and then thou wouldst sm tlie faster. Thou givest so long, Timon, I fear me tliou wilt give away thyself in i)aper shortly : what need these feasts, pomps, and vain-glories 1 SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 53 Tim. Nay, an you begin to rail on society once, I am sworn not to give regard to you. Farewell ; and come with better music. [Exit. Apem. So : Tliou wilt not hear me now ; thou shalt not then : I'll lock thy heaven from thee. 0, that men's ears should be To counsel deaf, but not to flattery ! (" Timon," act i. sc. 2.) " The deformity of flattery is comical, hid the damage tragical " ("Flattery," Antitheta, xxxviii.). " He that is flexible comes nearest the nature of Gold " (" Facility," xxix., Ih.). The contrast between Apcmantus and Timon of Athens is a very fine study of character. Timon is best summed up in the words of Apemantus : — The middle of Humanity thou never knew'st, but the extremity of both ends. The character of Apemantus is pretty well indicated by Bacon. " The lighter sort of malignity turneth but to a crossness or f rowardness, or aptness to oppose, or diflficileness or the like ; but the deeper sort to envy and mere mischief. Such men in other calamities are, as it were, in season, and are ever on the loading part (easque semper aggravant) ; not so good as the dogs that licked Lazarus' sores, hut like flies that are still huzzing upon anything that is raw" ("Goodness and Goodness of Nature"), The hint Bacon gives us in the word '^ dogs'" seems to indicate the school of cynics to which class Apemantus belongs, visiting Timon in his misery only to indulge in the pleasui-e of telling him the truth, and to lick his sores with "I told you so." 2. Away, unpeaceable dog, Or I'll spurn thee hence. Ape. I will fly like a dog, the heels of the ass. 1. He's opposite to humanity. ("Timon," act i. se. 1.) Timon is epicurean, Apemantus stoical and cynical at the same time. Happy are they that hear their detractions, and can put them to mending. (" Much Ado about Nothing," act ii. sc. 3.) 54 SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. " For there is no such flatterer as a man's self, and there is no such remedy against flattery of a man's self as the liberty of a friend " {" Friendship "). Apemantus is such a friend to Timon of Athens, but without effect. The learned jmte Ducks to the Golden Fool. All's oblique. ("Timon," act iv. sc. 3.) Wise men follow fooLs. (Essay of " Superstition.") I am Misanthropes, and hate mankind. ("Timon," act iv. sc. 3.) " Misanthropi, that make it their practice to bring men to the boughs, and yet have never a tree for the purpose in their gardens as Timon had" (" Goodness and Goodness of Nature"). Compai^e — I have a tree which gi'ows here in my close. ("Timon," act v. sc. 2.) Now both Bacon's quotation and Shakespeare's are taken from Plutaixh — " My Lords of Athens, I have a little yard in my house where there groweth a fig tree, on the which many citizens have hanged themselves ; and because I mean to make some building on the place, I thought good to let you all understand it, that before the fig-tree be cut dowoi if any of you be desperate, you may there in time go hang yourselves" (North's Plutarch, "Antonius," p. 100, 2nd ed., 1595). Men shut their doors against a setting stcn. (" Timon," act i. sc. 2.) " Pompey turned upon again, and in eff"ect bade him be quiet. For that more men adored the sun rising, than the sun setting " (Essay on " Friendship," 1625). This is borrowed from Plutarch's "Pompey" (xiv.). It is well worthy deep attention that this pas- sage does not occur in the same Essay, edition 1607-12, or edition 1612. Bacon was evidently rewriting the Essays with a view to the insertion of just those touches in contact with the plays, SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC 55 which so justify the title he gives to them, "/)e Literiom Rerum," or the '^ Inferior of Things" (Fide "De Augmentis," Satyra Seria, Liber vii.). In this same Essay we find another quotation from Plutarch's lines, touching Calphurnia's dream and Decimus Brutus, illustrated by us, to be refound in the play of " Julius Caesar." Every moment we come across Plutarch. For examj^le, in this Essay : " The parable of Pythagoras is dark ])ut true ; ' Cor ne edito : eat not the heart.'" This is quoted by Plutarch (" De Educ. Puer.," xvii.). Again (Essay on "Friendship"): ''It was well said hy Themistocles to the King of Persia ; that speech was like cloth of Arras, opened and put abroad, whereby the imagery doth ap- p)car in figure ; whereas in thoughts they lie but as in jxicks" (1625). This is repeated by Plutarch, " Themistocles " (xxix. 4). " Plutarch saith well to that purpose, ' Surely I had rather a great deal, men should say, there was no such man at all as Plutarch, than that they should say, that there was one Plutarch that would eat his children as soon as they were born, as the poets speak of Saturn " (Essay on "Superstition," 1625, Brit. Museum copy). Plutarch, " De Super stitione," x., Essay on " Fortune," " Ceesarem portas et Fmimiam ejus," " So Sylla chose the name of Felix, and not of Magnus " (Plutarch, " Csesar," xxxviii. ; Plutarch, " Sylla," xxxiv.).* Plutarch is cjuoted five times in this Essay (" Timoleon," xxxv. 1 ; " Sylla," vi. 5). Usury, Revenge. That it is against Nature, for money to beget moiiey. ("Usury.") This idea is repeated in the " Merchant of Venice " : — Antonio. Or is your gold and silver ewes and rams. Shylock. I cannot tell, I make it breed as fast. (Act i. sc. 3. " As for Mortgaging or Pawning, it will little mend the matter ; for either men will not take pawns without use; or if they do, * Bacon is as familiar with Plutarch as Shakespeare, — who took Julius Cresar, Coriolanus, Antony and Cleopatra almost entirely from North's Plutarch. 56 SUSPICION, MAIICE, CUNNING, ETC. they will UhiJc j)^'cchely for the Forfeiture. I rememher a cruel moneyed man in the country that would say, ' The Devil take this usury, it keeps us from forfeitures of mortgages and bonds" ("Usury "). The use of the words " Forfeiture," * " bond," is frequent in the r" Merchant of Venice" in connection with Shy lock. If any one seemed qualified to write this play it was Bacon. He had exten- sive dealings in his life with the Jews in borrowing money, and Avas once arrested on his return from the Tower, and thrown into a sponging-house, of Avhich indignity he bitterly complained. Out of these difficulties arising from debts he was assisted by the liberality of his brother Anthony, whose name in Italian (Antonio) appears in this j^lay, acting just such a part towards Bassanio. Mr Donnelly has already drawn attention to this. Shylock, in- deed, is one who, in Bacon's words, "will look jyecisely for the For- feiture," and as a " o'uel moneyed man" is represented in the play looking rather to his "Forfeiture of mortgage" and his "bond" in the pound of flesh to be cut from Antonio's body, than to rejDayment of the capital : — Shy. My deeds upon my head, I crave the law, The ])enalty and forfeit of my bo7id. Portia. Is he not able to discharge the money ? Bassanio. Yes, here I tender it for him in the Court ; Yea, twice the sum, if that will not suffice, I will be bound to pay it ten times o'er. On forfeit of my hands, my head, my heart : If this will not suffice, it must appear That malice bears down truth. And I beseech you Wrest once the law to your authority. To do a great right, do a little wrong, And curb this cruel devil of his will. (" Merchant of Venice," act iv. sc. 1.) Note how we find in this passage the words "forfeit," "bond," "crweZ," as we find them in the passage quoted from "Usury." The three Essays, " Usury," "Revenge," "Friendship," illustrate in their titles the "Merchant of Venice," which play idealises * Bacon writes :— " And tiiat which heightens their fear is that they know they are in danger to forfeit their flesli, but are not wise of the payment day " ("Of Death"). SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 57 " Friendship " and "Revenge," the action of the plot revolving upon " Usury," inasmuch as the friendship of Antonio for Bas- sanio causes him to fall into Shylock's power. Bacon writes : — "Amongst which that of all others is the most frequent, where the question is of a great deal of good to ensue of a small injustice " (" Advt.," Book 11., xxi., ii.). Compare the lines already quoted : — To do a great right, do a little wrong. " But then let a man take heed, the Revenge he such, as there is no laiv to punish : else a man's enemy is still beforehand, and it is two for one " ("Eevenge "). How exactly the spirit of these words finds reflection in the Revenge Shylock seeks upon Antonio in the " Merchant of Venice !" For the laAv steps in, through the reading of Portia, to punish Shylock's revenge. Portia. The law hath yet another hold on you. It is enacted in the laws of Venice, If it be proved against an alien, That by direct or indirect attempts He seek the life of any citizen, The party 'gainst tlie which he doth contrive, Shall seize one-half his goods, the other half Comes to the prize coti'er of the State. (" Merchant of Venice," act iv. sc. 1.) " Certainly in taking Eevenge a man is but even with his enemies ; but in jMssing it over he is superior : for it is a Prince's part to pardon " (" Revenge "). Duke. That thou shalt see the difference of our spirit, 1 2>aTdon thee thy life before Ihou ask it. ("Merchant of Venice," act iv. sc. 1.) The whole of this Essay upon Revenge breeds the same spirit of mercy we refind in the play. The quality of mercy is not strain'd. It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven Upon the place beneath. (" Merchant of Venice," activ. sc. 1.) " And Solomon, I am sure, saith. It is the glory of a man to pass hy an offence " (" Revenge "). 58 SUSPICION, MAIICE, CUNNING, ETC. It is twice blest, It blessetli him that gives and him that takes ; 'Tis mightiest in the mightiest, it becomes The throned monarch better than his crown. (Act iv. sc. 1.) In the Essay on "Usnry" we read: — "That Usurers should have Orange-tawney Bonnets, because they do Judaize." It is curious in a note upon this word " orange-tawney " (Glossary, "Essays," Aldis Wright), to find ourselves brought (through Mr Knight) into contact with Shakespeare and with the Venetians. " Orange-tawney, adj. Of a dark orange colour. In Knight's ' Shakespeare ' (ii. p. 250) it is said, Vecellio, a Venetian, ' expressly informs us that the Jews differed in nothing, as far as regarded dress, from Venetians of the same j^rofessions, whether merchants, artisans, &c., with the exception of a yellow bonnet, which they were compelled to wear by order of the government.' See also Sir W. Scott's description of Isaac of York in ' Ivanhoe,' c. 5 : ' He wore a high square yellow cap of a peculiar fashion, assigned to his nation to distinguish them from Christians ' (E. xli. p. 168)." Does Bacon introduce this trifle about the coloiu* of the Jew Usurers' Bonnets to give us a hint for Shylock and Venice I Orange-tawney was the coloiir assigned to the Jews by law. And Mr Wright quotes Vecellio to show that the ^^ yellow bonnet" was compulsory hi Venice. Etches. Both in St Matthew's and St Mark's Gospel reference is made to " the deceitfidness of riches." Bacon repeats this in his Essay upon " Riches : " " For certainly great riches have sold more men than they have bought out." We may see this reflected in the play of " Timon of Athens," and in the parable of the three Caskets, exemplified in the "Merchant of Venice". In the parable of the " Pearl of Great Price " we have something akin to the parable of these caskets. This parable teaches us that SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 59 prior to finding this pearl of great price, men are industriously engaged in the pursuit of objects whose value is deceptive and inferior. Like the Princes of Morocco and Arragon they are seeking "goodly," or as it is expressed in the original "beauti- ful pearls." Every object which they consider valuable and which promises to yield them felicity, is eagerly sought after. Their views, however, are confined Avathin the narrow limits of this life, and have no reference to the invisible world, or the heavenly judgment of Portia. For to select that, they must give and hazard all they have, deny the lust of the flesh and pride of the eye, and seek that which doth rather threaten than promise aught. It is significant that the following speech is put into the mouth of Bassanio, toho makes the right choice of the Caskets. In our opinion it touches to the heart the entire ethical tendency and promise of this art when thoroughly revealed. Bass. So may the outward shows be least themselves. The world is still deceiv'd with orna7nent. In Law, what plea so tainted and cornipt But being season'd with a gracious voice, Obscures the show of evil ? In Religion, "VVliat danuied error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text. Hiding the gi-ossness with fair ornament ; There is no vice so simple but assumes Some marks of virtue on his oicticard iJarts. ("Merchant of Venice," act iii. sc. 2.) Inasmuch as Bassanio wins Portia with this speech, we may infer these lines have a profound application to ethics. The entire action of the play and the after judgment of Portia revolves upon this right choice of Bassanio, summed up in this speech, which really is a reflection upon the deceit/ulness of Pdches, inasmuch as the Princes who chose the Casket of Gold and Silver were deceived and chose wrongly. Nor can it be allowed this incident of the Caskets is but a device and no emblem of some- thing deeper. For that Gold is pointed at as Riches cannot be mistaken : — Bassanio. Therefore then thou gaudy gold. Hard food for Midas, I will noue of thee, 6o SUSPICION, MAIICE, CUNNING, ETC. Nor none of thee, thou pale and common drudge 'Tween man and man : but thou, tliou meagre lead, Which rather threat' nest than doth })romise aught, Thy jmleness moves me more than eloqiience. And here choose I, joy be the consequence. (Act iii. sc. 2.) Portia is undoubtedly an emblem of the right life, that is of the inward and true or unworldly life. We are not at all siu-e the author in the following lines was not suggesting the terms upon which such a life could only be purchased when he "v^a'ote, and perhaps hinting at such men as Bruno, Campanella, Galileo, Avhose devotion to truth was paid down upon the rack, at the stake, or expiated in prison. Bass. Let me choose ; For as I am, I live upon the rack. For. Upon the rack, Bassanio ! then confess "What treason there is mingled with your love. Bass. None but that ugly treason of mistrust, Which makes me fear the enjoying of my love : There may as well be amity and life 'Tween snow and fire, as treason and my love. For. Ay, but I fear you speak upon the rack. Where men enforced do sjicak anything. (Act iii. sc. 2.) How all this is re-echoed in Bacon's Essay upon " Riches " ! " Hearken also to Solomon, and beware of hasty gathering of riches, qui festinat ad Divitias noii erit insons." Again : " Of great riches there is no real use, except it be in the distribution ; the rest is but conceit. So saith Solomon. Where there is much there are many to consume it ; and what hath the owner but the sight of it with his eyes 1 The personal fruition in any man cannot reach to feel great riches. There is a custody of them, or a power of dole and donative of them ; or a fame of them, but no solid use to the owner. Do you not see what feigned prices are set upon little stones and rarities 1 And what works of ostentation are undertaken because there might seem to be some use of gi-eat riches 1 For certainly great riches have sold more men than they have bought out " (" Riches '). SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 6i How many will subscribe to this doctrine in the present day ? Or how many who regard the massing of a vast fortune together as the one thing needful, refrain condemning Bacon as a visionary ] These however were the real doctrines of the Rosicruciaus. Mr Donnelly, quoting the Rev. Charles Wordsworth, writes : " Take the entire range of English literature, put together our best authors who have Avritten upon subjects professedly not religious or theological, and we shall not find, I believe, in all united, so much evidence of the Bible having been read and used as Ave have foiuid in Shakespeare alone " (" Great Cryptogram," ch. v., p. 436, vol. i.). James Brown, in his " Bible Truths," writes : " In Bacon's Essays, the especial favourites of the author, which he so carefully revised and re-wrote in the ripeness of his age and experience, and which therefore may be considered the very cream and essence of his wonderful genius, this characteristic element obtains a prominence that cannot fail to have struck his most cursory reader. Out of these fifty- eight short essays I have found, in twenty-four of them that treat more exclusively of moral subjects, more than seventy allusions to Scripture" (preface to first edition, p. 4). The enormous quantity of parallels and applications from the Scriptures to be found in the plays has created a special literature of its own (Wordsworth's, Brown's, Selkirk's, &c.), to illustrate it. Brown writes, ^^ that one of his (the author of the plays) great teachers indeed was tJie Bible." Bacon's favoiurite writer, Solomon, finds endless application in the plays. Solomon is alluded to in " Love's Labour Lost" (act i, sc. 2, and act iv. sc. 3), the Queen of Sheba in " King Henry VIH." (act v. sc. 4). Brown illus- trates the plays by hundreds of quotations from the Old and New Testaments. Proverbs, the Psalms, Ecclesiastes, the Book of Wisdom, are especially frequent amonst his citations, and these were also favourite books with Bacon. It is impossible to quote them here, for they fill a volume. 62 SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. Friendship. "That a friend is another himself : for that a friend is far more than himself" (Essay of "Friendship"). " A principal fruit of Friendship is the ease and discharge of the fulness and swellings of the heart, which passions of all kinds do cause and induce. We know diseases of stoppings and suffoca- tions are the most dangerous in the body ; and it is not much other'wase in the mind. You may take Sarza to open the liver ; Steele to open the spleen ; Flower of Sulphur for the lungs ; Cas- toreum for the brain. But no receij^t openeth the heart but a true friend, to whom you may impart griefs, joys, fears, hopes, suspi- cions, counsels, and whatsoever lieth upon the heart, to oppress it in a kind of civil shrift or confession." How this high value set upon friendship finds its reflection in the plays over and over again, — Hamlet and Horatio, — Bassanio and Antonio, — Valentine and Proteus ! Study how Hamlet unhurthcns his heart to Horatio, and how Bassanio does the same to Antonio : — • Bassanio. To you, Antonio, I owe the most in money and in love, And from your love I have a warrant}', To unburthen all my 2'>lots and purposes. (" Merchant of Venice," act i. so. 1.) Hamlet. Dost thou hear. Since my dear soul Avas mistress of my choice, And could of men distinguish, her election Hath sealed thee for herself. For thou hast been As one in suffering all, that suffers nothing. Give me that man That is not jiassion's slave, and I will wear him In my heart's core : in my heart of hearts, As I do thee. ("Hamlet," act iii. sc. 2.) Parents and Children. "The illiheraliiy of parents in allowance totuards their children is a harmful error, makes them base, acquaints them with shifts, makes them sort ivith mean company, and makes them surfeit more when they come to plenty " (" Parents and Children "). SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 63 This seems reflected in "As You Like It," where we find Oiiandu opening the play with these words : — Orl. As I remember, Adam, it was uiwii this fasliioii, be(iucatlied mc l)y will, hut jwor a thousand crowns, and, as thou sayest, charged my brother on his blessing to breed me well, and there begins my sadness. ... He lets me feed with his hinds, bars me the place of a brother, and as much as in him lies viines my gentility tvith my education. The elder brother Oliver enters, and a scene ensues between the two : — OIL Let me go, I say. Orl. I will not, till I please : you shall hear me. My father charged you in his will to give me good education : you have trained me like a peasant, obscuring and hiding from me all gentleman-like qualities. The spirit of my father grows strong in me, and I will no longer endure it : therefore allow me such exercises as may become a gentleman, or give me the poor allottery my father left me by testament. Bacon writes in his Essay on " Envy " : — " Lastly, near kimfolk and fellows in office, and those that are bred together, are more apt to envy their equals when they are raised." Again : " Cain's eiivy was the more vile and malignant towards his brother Abel because when sacrifice tvas better accepted there was nobody to look on " ("Envy "). " Whoso is out of Itope to attain another's virtue will seek to come at even hand by depressing another's fortune" ("Envy"). "There be times when a man's virtues may be his ruin." Compare this passage : — Scene III. Before Oliver's ho^ise. Enter Orlando and Adam, meeting. Orl. Who's there ? Adam. What, my young master? my gentle master ! my sweet master ! you memory Of old Sir Rowland ! why, what make you here ? AVhy are you virtuous ? why do people love you ? And wherefore are yovx gentle, strong and valiant ? Why would you be so fond to overcome The bonny priser of the humorous duke 1 Your praise is come too swiftly home before you. Know you not, master, to some kind of men Their graces serve them but as enemies ? No more do yours : your virtues, gentle mctstcr. Arc sanctified, and holy traitors to you. 64 SUSFICIO^^, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 0, wliat a world is tliis, when what is comely Envenoms him that bears it ! Orl. AVhy, what's the matter ? Adam. 0, unhappy youth ! Come not within these doors ; within this roof The enemy of all your graces lives ; Yoxir brother — no, no brother ; yet the son — Yet not the son, I will not call him son Of him I was about to call his father — Hath heard your praises, and this night he means To burn the lodging where you use to lie And you within it ; if he fail of that, He will have other means to cut you off. I overheard him and his practices. (Act ii. sc. 3.) "Followers and Friends," "Suiroiis," "Factions." Bacon's two Essays upon " Followers and Friends " and upon " Suitors " follow each other in succession, as if some connection existed between them. The play of " Titus Andronicus " is re- markable for the divisions and ^^ factions" of the ^^ followers" oi Saturninus and of Titus Andronicus. The play opens with the respective claim and appeal of each of the two sons of the late Emperor of Rome to the throne. Saturnine. Noble Patricians, Patrons of my riglit, Defend the justice of my cause with arms, And countrymen my loving folloivers Plead my successive title with your swords. Bassianus. Romans, Friends, Folloicers, Favourers of my Right. ... (Act i. sc. 1.) Marcus Andronicus (brother to Titus) enters with a crown, and cries — Princes that strive by Factions and by Friends, Ambitiously for rule and empery ; Dismiss your Followers, and as Suitors should Plead your deserts in Y^ace and humbleness. (Act i. sc. 1.) We quote this to illustrate the introduction of the expressions " Followers and Friends," coupled as by Bacon (with ^^ Followers") in close context with "Suitors." Bacon's Essay upon "Faction" follows (next to one) the Essay upon "Suitors." Consider how SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 65 largely these matters enter into the historical plays like the one we cite. For the three chronicle plays of " Henry the Sixth " largely deal Avith the factions of the Eoses, Yorke and Lan- caster. " Troilus and Cressida " also present the factions of Ajax and Achilles and their rival quarrels. So that we may perceive Bacon had some good reasons in presenting us with the Essays upon "Faction," "Followers and Friends," "Seditions and Troubles," "Empire," &c., touching as they do a vast deal of the action of these plays. Bacon Avrites in this Essay on "Faction": — "The faction, or party, of Antonius and Octavianus Caesar, against Brutus and Cassius, held out likewise for a time : hut when Brutus and Cassius were overthrown, then soon after Antoniu.s and Octavianus brake and subdivided." How exactly and faithfully all this is represented and set forth in the plays of "Julius C2esar"and " Antony and Cleopatra " ! For example, immediately after Mark Antony's funeral oration over the body of Csesar, and the reading of the will, by which Antony sets the people of Rome into infinite uproar against the murderers, we find Octavius inti'oduced : — 2 Pie. Go, fetch fire. 3 Pic. Pluck down benches. 4 Pic. Phick down forms. Enter Servant. Servant. Su', Octavius is ah'eady come to Rome. Ant. Where is he ? Servant. He and Le[)idus are at Cresar's house. Ant. And thither ^^•ill I straight to visit them. (Act iii. ) This is at the conclusion of the third act. The next act opens Avith the introduction of Antony, Octavius, and Lepidus sitting in council as a faction or triumvirate, and the play ends with the overthrow of the other faction of Brutus and his death at Philippi. Bacon writes in his Essay on " Prophecies " : "A phantasm that appeared to M. Brutus in his tent said to him. Philippic iter am me videhis ('Thou shalt see me again at Philippi ')." E 66 SUSPICION, MAIICE, CUNNING, ETC. This is introduced at the end of the fourth act, "Julius Caesar" (scene 3) : — Enter the Ghost of C^sar. Brutus. How ill this taper burns ! Ha ! who comes here ? I think it is the weakness of mine eyes That shapes this monstrous apparition. It comes upon me. Art thou anything ? Art thou some god, some angel, or some devil, That makest my blood cold and my hair to stare ? Speak to me what thou art. Ghost. Thy evil spirit, Brutus. Brit. Why comest thou ? Ghost. To tell thee thou shalt see me at Philippi. Bru. Well ; then I shall see thee again ? Ghost. Ay, at Philipju. Bru. Why, I will see thee at Philippi, then. [Exit Ghost. If we now turn to the play of " Antony and Cleopatra," we find Bacon's remarks about the breaking \\^ of the faction between Antony and Octavias, prominently depicted in the sixth scene of the third act, where Octavius Csesar is introduced (with Agrippa and Maecenas), complaining of Antony's conduct at Alexandria with Cleopatra. The rest of the play is but the history of the dismemberment of the Triumvirate, and final war between Csesar and Antony, resulting in the battle of Actium. In context Avith the passage quoted on "faction" by Bacon, we read as if a hint for Lepidus : — "And therefore those that are seconds in factions, do many times, when the faction subdivideth, prove principals : hut many times also they |:»ro^^e cyphers and cashiered." This was the fate of Lepidus, and in the play Ave find Csesar saying of Antony : — • Lastly he frets, That Lepidus of the triumvirate should be deposed, And being that, we detain all his revenue. (Act iii. sc, 6.) Lepidus is presented throughout the play as a complete cipher. Antony, in an interview with Csesar, thus speaks of him : — Let this fellow Be nothing of our strife ; if we contend. Out of our question wipe him. ("Antony and Cleopatra," act ii. sc. 2.) SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 67 Antony again alludes to Lepidus, who has just been despatched to fetch Caesar's will : — Ant. This is a slight unmcritahU vian, Meet to be sent on errands : is it fit The three-fold world divided, ho should stand, One of the three to share it ? Oct. So you thought him. And took liis voice who should be prickt to die In our black sentence and proscription. Ant. Octavius, I have seen more days than you, And though we lay these honours on this man. To case ourselves of clivers slniul'rous loads, He shall but bear them as the ass bears gold To groan and sweat under the business, Either led or driven as we point the way. (Act iv. so. 1.) " In order to divert Envy from themselves," Bacon writes : — " the wiser sort of great person, bring in ever upon the stage, somehodij, iipon wJiom to derive the envij, that would come upon themselves; sometimes upon ministers and servants ; sometimes upon colleagues and associates " (" Envy "). It is true that " slanderous loads " is not exactly envy, but envy begets slander, and there is generally very little slander where there is absence of envy. Bacon further explains it : " This envy being in the Latin word Inindia, goeth in the modern languages by the name of discontentment, of which Ave shall speak in handling of sedition. It is a disease in a state, like to infection." In Bacon's Essay on "Love": — "You must except neverthe- less Marcus Antonius, the half partner of the Empire of Eome 3 and Appius Claudius, the Decemvir and Law-giver : whereof the former was indeed a voluptuous man and inordinate." This is as he is represented in the play of " Antony and Cleopatra," and as he is depicted by Plutarch, from whom so much is borrowed. "And it is not amiss to observe also how small and mean faculties gotten by education, yet when they fall into great men or great matters, do work great and important effects : whereof we see a notable example in Tacitus of two stage players. Per- 68 SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. cennius and Yilmlenus, Avho l)y their faculty of playing, put the Pannonian armies into an extreme tumult and combustion. For there arising a mutiny amongst them upon the death of Augustus Caesar, Blaesus the lieutenant had committed some of the mutiners, which were suddenly rescued ; whereupon Vibulenus got to be heard speak, which he did in this manner : These poor innocent uretches appointed to cruel death, you Jmve restored to behold the light : hut ivho shall restoj-e my brother to me, or life unto my brother, that was sent hither in message from the legions of Germany, to treat of the common cause ? And he hath murdered him this last night by some of his fencers and ruffians, that he hath about him for his executioners upon soldiers. Answer, Blcesus, what is done with his body ? The mortalest enemies do not deny burial. Wlien I perform my last duties to the corpse with kisses, with tears, command me to be slain besides him ; so that these my fellows, for our good meaning and our true hearts to the legions, may have leave to bury us. With which speech he put the army into an infinite fury and uproar : whereas truth was he had no brother, neither was there any such matter ; but he played it merely as if he had been upon the stage " (Book 11. xix. 3, " Advancement of Learning," 1605). This is another example of how everything connected with the stage or with the art of acting drew Bacon's attention, and held fast his mind, so that what he read in Tacitus of these two stage players, Percennius and Vibulenus, he treasures up in his memory and cites here. But what is really far more pertinent than this simple observation of ours, is the extraordinary parallel furnished by the "speech" of Antony, over the body of Caesar, in "Julius Caesar," where the arts of the actor are so excellently combined with the arts of oratory : — I come to Ijury Ctesar, not to praise him, I know not, gentlemen, what you intend, Who else must be let blood, who else is rank : If I myself there is no hour so fit As Caesar's death hour ; nor no instrument Of half that worth, as those your swords ; made rich SUSPICION, MALICE, CUNNING, ETC. 69 With the most noble blood of all this world. I do beseech you, if yoii bear me hard, Now whilst your purple hands do reek and smoke Fulfil your pleasure. Live a thousand years, I shall not find myself so apt to die, No }>lace will please me so, no mean of death, As here by Cresar, and by you cut off, The choice and master spirits of this age. (" Julius Cresar.") The entire speech of Mark Antony is too long to quote here. But the end of his oration over Csesar's body has the same result as the speech of Vibulenus Bacon quotes. Antony sets the people of Rome into a state of " infinite fury and uproar " by his skill in the art of acting, for whilst disclaiming any direct charge against Brutus with the iterated Avords, " For Brutus is an honour- able man, so are they all ; all honourable men," he so depicts the virtues of the dead CiBsar, and works upon the feelings of his audience, that a direct denunciation of the murderers could hardly have attained its end better. In the play of " Hamlet," we see the same effect produced by the introduction of the players and Interlude. The art of dissimulation for ends was never more exquisitely illustrated. In Bacon's Essays upon "Dissimu- lation " and " Cunning " may be refound the arts of which Antony makes use. "For if a man have that penetration of judgment, as he can discern Avhat things are to be laid ojjcn, and what to be secreted, and what to be shown at half lights, and to whom and when (which indeed are arts of state and arts of life, as Tacitus well calleth them)," &c. Is it not monstrous that this player here, But in a fiction, in a dream of passion, Could force his soul so to his own conceit, That from her working all his visage warm'd. Tears in his eyes, distraction in's aspect, A broken voice, and his whole function suiting With forms to his conceit ? And all for nothing ! For Hecuba ! What's Hecuba to him or he to Hecuba, That he should weep for her ? ("Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) CHAPTER lY. DIVINATION AND PREDICTION. Upon Divination or Prediction (Book II. ch. xi. "Advance- ment of Learning ") — that is, Prophecy, Bacon -s^-rites : " But the divination which springeth from the internal natui'e of the soul, is that which we now speak of ; which hath been made to be of two sorts, primitive and by influxion. Primitive is grounded upon the supposition, that the mind, when it is withdrawn and collected into itself, and not diffused into the organs of the body, hath some extent and latitude of prenotion ; which therefore ajpj^eareth most in sleep, ill ecstasies, and near death, and more rarely in waking ap- prehensions ; and is induced and furthered by those abstinences and observances which make the mind most to consist in itself." Now I wish to draw attention to the striking parallel, that throughout what is miscalled Shakespeare's art, we refind this prenotion of the mind, introduced either in sleep or before death : — Methinks I am a prophet new inspired, And thus expiring do foretell of him. (" Richard II.," act ii. sc. 1, 31, 32.) Let the readers recall the vision of Richard the Third just before his death, or of Brutus before Philippi, in "Julius Csesar," or of Juliet's presentiment and Romeo's dream : — Jul. God, I have an ill-divining soul ! Methinks I see thee, now thou art below, As one dead in the bottom of a tomb : Either my eyesight fails, or thon look'st pale. Mom. If I may trust the flattering truth of sleep My dreams presage some joyful news at hand : My bosom's lord sits lightly in his throne ; And all this day an unaccustom'd spirit . DIVINATION AND PREDICTION. 71 Lifts me above the ground with clieerful thoughts. I dreamt my lady came and found me dead. (Act V. so. 1.) Of Clarence's dream just before his death : — Clarence. 0, I have passed a miserable night, So full of fearful dreams of ugly sights. Oh then began the Tempest to my soul Then came wand'ring by A shadow like an angel, with bright hair, Dabbl'd in blood, and he shriek'd out aloud, " Clarence is come, false fleeting, perjur'd Clarence, That stabb'd me in the field by Tewkesbury : Seize on him, Furies, take him unto torment." (" Richard III.," act i. sc. 4.) Immediately following the relation of this Dream, the two murderers enter. So that we find Bacon's connection of dreams of a prophetic character, with nearness of death, to be strictly carried out in the plays. Hamlet, just before his death, ex- claims : — Hamlet. But thou would'st not think how ill all's here about my heart : but it is no matter. Horatio. Nay good, my Lord. Ham. It is but foolery ; but it is such a kind of gain-giving as would perhaps trouble a woman. Hot. If your mind dislike anything, obey it. I will forestall their repair hither, and say you are not fit. Ham.. Not a whit, we defy Augunj, there's a special Providence in the fall of a sparrow. If it be now, 'tis not to come ; if it be not to come, it will be now ; if it be not now, yet it will come ; the readiness is all. (" Hamlet," act v., last scene.) Upon the same page Bacon discusses Divination he introduces Augury : " Divination hath been anciently and fitly divided into two parts, artificial and natural. Artificial is of two sorts, one argueth from causes, the other from experiments only, by a blind way of authority ; which latter is for the most part super- stitious, such was the heathen discipline upon the inspection of the entrails of beasts, the flight of birds, and the like " (ch. iii. Book IV. " De Augmentis "). 72 DIVINATION AND PREDICTION. The reader will see Bacon has Augury associated in his mind in context with divination, and we refind Hamlet terming his presentiment Augury also. The dream of Calphurnia, just prior to Csesar's assassination, is another example in point : — Cas. Nor heaven nor earth have been at peace to-night : Thrice hath Calpurnia in her sleep cried out, "Help, ho ! they murder Cresar ! " Who's within ? (" Julius Csesar," act ii. sc. 2.) Here again augury is introduced in context, with prophetic dreams : — Cces. Cowards die many times before their deaths : The valiant never taste of death but once. Of all the wonders that I yet have heard, It seems to me most strange that men should fear : Seeing that death, a necessary end, Will come when it will come. Re-enter Servant. What say the augurers ? Serv. They would not have you to stir forth to-day. Plucking the entrails of an offering forth. They could not find a heart* within the beast. Cccs, The gods do this in shame of cowardice : Cresar should be a beast without a heart, If he should stay at home to-day for fear. No, Ctesar shall not : danger knows full well That Cresar is more dangerous than he : We are two lions litter'd in one day. And I the elder and more terrible : And Csesar shall go forth. (" Julius Cnesar," M).) In "Titus Andronicus " we find Augury introduced, and a soothsayer in " Cymbeline." These points reveal profound study of the classics, and it is most improbable Shakespeare had either the leisure or learning to acquaint himself with such niceties. We are now about to point out how well the author Avas * The absence of the heart was considered a prodigy of extraordinary omen. It was accounted amongst the Pcstifcra auspicia cum cor in extis aid caput in jocinore non fuisset ("Paul," s. v. p. 244). Cicero mentions how Cresar was in this manner forewarned that his purple robe and golden throne would bring about his death (Cic, " Divin.," ii. 16 ; Plin., Ibid.). DIVINATION AND PREDICTION 73 acquainted with Cicero's writings, and with his peculiar scepti- cism, as to the validity of these following unnatural events, introduced as foreshadowing Ctesar's death : — Casta. A common slave — yen know liim well by sight — Held up his left hand, which did flame and burn Like twenty torches join'd, and yet his hand, Not sensible of fire, remain'd unscorch'd. Besides — I ha' not since put up my sword — Against the Capitol I met a lion, AVho glared upon me, and went surly by, "Without annoying me : and there were drawn Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women, Transformed with their fear ; who swore they saw Men all in fire walk up and down the streets. And yesterday the bird of night did sit Even at noon-day upon the market-place, Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies Do so conjointly meet, let not men say "These are their reasons ; they are natural ; " For, I believe, they are portentous things Unto the climate that they point upon. Gic. Indeed, it is a strange-dispos'd time : Bid men tiuty construe things, after their fashion. Clean from the purpose of the things themselves. Comes Cfesar to the Capitol to-mon-ow ? Casca. He doth ; for he did bid Antonius Send word to you he would be there to-morrow. Cic. Good night, then, Casca ; this disturbed sky Is not to walk in. Casca. Farewell, Cicero. (" Julius Cfesar," act i. so. 3.) There can be no doubt from the words put in the mouth of Cicero, the author of the plays was well acquainted with Cicero's ■writings and Cicero's sceptical mind. Cicero belonged to a sect that professed to hold nothing for certain, as to Divine matters especially. Saint Augustine is severe upon Cicero for denying the prescience of Providence, whilst allowing the existence of Deity. Almost throughout the entire ninth chapter of his " City of God," he attacks Cicero upon this point. In the person of Cotta (First Book, " Touching the Natui'e of the Gods "), " I wish I could but as easily find out what's true, as I can confute that 74 DIVINATION AND PREDICTION. which is false." It is just in regard to these omens or portents introduced by Bacon in "Julius Csesar," that Cicero is made to question their prescience, that is, their connection with a fore- knowledge of things to come, as tokens of Deity (see Second Book " Divination "). Bacon's predilection for Cicero throughout his " Essays " and " Advancement of Learning " is marked, quoting him almost every dozen pages or oftener. In the "De Augmentis" Cicero is cited thirty-one times. In a letter addressed to Andrews, Lord Bishop of Winchester, written after his disgrace, and prefixed to "An Advertisement touching an Holy War," Bacon compares his fall to Cicero's and Seneca's. This is a hint of the greatest possible importance, implying that Bacon resembled these illustrious men in persecution, as being the victims of their times and the sacrifices of faction. But what study and reflection the passage from " Julius Csesar " illustrates ! A trifle like this is akin to a revelation, for the more we discover the learning of the winter of these plays, the more difficult becomes the Shakespeare myth to believe. In concluding his Book upon "Divination," Cicero parallels in some measure Lucretius: — "Let us end" (he writes) "with this Divination by Dreams, as with the rest. For, to speak truly, Superstition spread amongst people, has weighed with its yoke upon almost all mankind, and taken by storm the imbecility of humanity. We have already declared so in our books upon the * Nature of the Gods,' and we there have insisted upon it in the discussions introduced ; for we believe we are rendering a great service to ourselves, and to our fellow-citizens, in suppressing it altogether " (Cicero's " Divination," ii. 72, 2). Again : — " If some dreams are true and some false, I should like to learn how we are to distinguish them. If there is no method, wherefore listen to these interpreters 1 If there is one I am curious to know Avhat it is ; but they will be embarrassed to disclose it " (Cicero's " Divination," ii. 62). The Latin expressions for these sorts of omens were prodigium, vai'tentum, ostentum, monstrum. DIVINA TION A ND PREDICTION. 7 5 In "Cymbelino" (last act) we have Jupiter introduced "sitting upon an eagle," with a soothsayer who divines in quite a classic- ally inspired sense. The eagle {airoi) Avas the special messenger of Jupiter, and, according to Homer, was "the most accomplished of birds " ("Iliad," viii. 247 ; xxiv. 310. Cf. Find., " Isthm.," vi. (v.) 50 ; Xenoph., " Anab.," vi. 1, 23). Theocritus styles this bird •par excellence the bird of Divination, a distinction which later on was disputed by the vulture (Theoc, "Idyll," xxvi. 31; "Etymol. Magn.," p. 619, 39). Soothsayer. For the Roman eagle From South to West on wing soaring aloft Lessen'd herself, and in the beams of the s;in So vanish'd ; vi\\\q\\ foreshacloivccl our Princely eagle, The imperial C?esar should again unite His favour with the radiant Cymbeline, Which shines here in the West. ("Cymbeline," act v.) This shows the writer Avas well versed in the art of Divination, for the Eagle, the Vulture, and the Crow were the three chief bii'ds of Eoman Vaticination. During sleep, Posthumus Leonatus has a vision of the descent of Jupiter, and finds himself in pos- session of a book — "a rare one." Now this shows the extraordi- nary classical erudition of the author, for there were held to be messenger dreams sent by Jupiter or Zeus, as we shall show, amongst the ancients. With Homer dreams are serial shadows or images (u'duXa), Avhich take the shape of forms. Thus the one that appeared to Agamemnon took the likeness of Nestor (" Iliad," ii. 5). Athene appears in a dream to Nausicaa and to Telemachus, and Patroclus thus demanded Achilles to hasten his funeral. (Hom., "Odyss.," vi. 13; xv. 10; " Iliad," xxiii. 65). With Homer dreams are sent by Zeus (" Iliad," i. 63). Zeus alone 2)ossesses the power to summon dreams from afar off. The Pytha- gorean mysticism considered dreams as the sons of night and the messengers of the moon, of that moon which crept into the grotto of Latmos, close to Endymion asleep, or which unsealed the pro- phetic soul of the Sybil. Bacon slyly hints at this when he 76 DIVINATION AND PREDICTION writes : — " It is said that Luna was in love Avith the shepherd Endymion, and in a strange and umvonted manner betrayed her affection ; for he, lying in a cave framed by nature under the mountain Latmos, she sometimes descended from her sphere to enjoy his company as he slept; and after she had kissed him ascended up again" (Endymion, "Wisdom of the Ancients"). Peace, liow the Moon sleeps with Endymion, And wonld not be awak'd. (" Merchant of Venice," act v.) And mark what Bacon quotes (from Philo Jud.) : — "For sense, like the Sun, opens and reveals the face of the terrestrial Globe, hut shuts uj) and conceals the face of the Celestial " (Preface to the " Instauration "). This is as much as to say it is at night only Ave discover the depths of the stars, and intellect must shut out sense, be blind to externals, to perceive by the mind's eye super- natural truths. The sense's night being the opener of the mind's truths. There is no doubt Bacon introduces the incident of Posthumus' dream, with the strange oracle and "rare book," in " Cymbeline " as an act symbolic of Divination in the full classic sense of inspired truth. I cannot allow it is fiction, or without relationship to some as yet-to-be-discovered reality. The title Posthumus points to an after birth, and is wholly in keep- ing with all we have to expect of this art, as full of revelatory matter. It is strange to find Sir Toby Matthew aflfixing his seal to a curious document entitled "Posthumus, or the Survivor," in 1640, the date of the first edition of the translation of the "De Augmentis." (See Doctor Neligan's strange manu- script, published by Mr Smith in the little Avork, Avhich first seriously started the Baconian theory.) The introduction of Jupiter can surprise no one Avho remembers hoAv Bacon declares, he is going with the ancients usque ad aras. " But I going the same road as the ancients." Bacon once more shoAVS he possessed the knoAvledge Ave have refound in the plays, both in "Julius Csesar" and in "Cymbeline," upon augury. DIVINATION AND PREDICTION. 77 Scarus. Swallows have built In Cleopatra's sails their nests : the augurers Say they know not, they cannot tell ; look grimly, And dare not speak their knowledge. ("Antony and Cleopatra," act iv. sc. 12.) Bacon's Essay upon " Friendship : — " With Julius Ccesar, Decirmis Brutus had obtained that interest as he set him down in his testament, for heir in remainder after his nephew. And this was the man that had power "wdth him, to clraiv him forth to his death. For when Ccesar would have discharged the Senate, in regard of some ill presages, and specially a dream of Calphimiia, this man lifted him gently by the arm out of his chair, telling him he hoped he would not dismiss the Senate till his wife had dreamt a better dream." The whole of this is exactly reproduced in the play of " Julius Caesar" (act ii.) : — Deci. Brutus. Cajsar, all hail ; good morrow, worthy Ctesar, I come to fetch you to the Senate house. Ccesar. And you are come in very happy time. To bear my greeting to the Senators, And tell them that I will not come to-day. DccL Brutus. Most mighty Ccesar, let me know some cause, Lest I be laught at when I tell them so. Cxsar. The cause is in my Will, I will not come. That is enough to satisfy the Senate, But for your private satisfaction. Because I love you, I will let you know. Calpliurnia here, my wife, stays me at home ; She clrectmt to-night she saw my statue, Which like a fountain with an hundred spouts Did run pure blood ; and many lusty Romans Came smiling and did bathe their hands in it. To all this D. Brutus replies : — When Ccesar s wife shall meet with better dreams, If Ccesar hide himself, shall they not whisper, Lo, Ccesar is afraid 1 This is exactly as Bacon writes, and the dream is given in the play in detail by Calphurnia. 78 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. Perspective, Reflection, Glass-Mirror. " Praise is the rejledion of lyirtue. But it is glans or body which (jiveth the reflection " (" Praise "). Bacon means here (as he points out in " Troihis and Cressida ") we cannot obtain fame, praise, or glory until it is seen reflected hij others. This is endlessly repeated in the plays. When Richard the Second sends for a glass or mirror and beholds himself, he exclaims : — O flattering glass, Like to myfolloicers in prosperity, Thoii dost beguile me! (Act iv. sc. i.) He was the mark and glass, copy and book That fashion'd others. (" 2 Henry VI.," act ii. sc. 3.) This is a very profound simile. Because we can never see our- selves at all hi life, as others see us, and a glass is not the same thing us sight. Tell me, good Bnitus, can you see your face ? Bru. No, Cassius ; for the eye sees not itself, But by reflection, by some other things. Cas. 'Tis just ; And it is very much lamented, Brutus, And you have no such mirrors as will tuna Your hidden worthiness into your eye That you might see your shadow. Therefore, good Brutus, be prepared to hear : And since you know you cannot see yourself So well as by reflection, I, your glass, Will modestly discover to yourself That of yourself which you yet know not of. ("Julius Cffisar," act i. sc. 1.) " That window which Momus once requited. He when he saw in the frame of man's heart so many angles and recesses, found fault there ivas not a window, through which a man might look into those obscure and crooJced windings" (Lib. VIII. , p. 401, "Advance- ment of Learning," 1640). PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 79 Now see wliat good turns eyes for eyes have done : Mine eyes have drawn my sliajie, and thine for mc Arc windous to my breast, where through the sun Delights to peeji, to gaze tlierein on thee. (Sonnet xxiv.) " Like a true friend to show you your true shape in a glass, and that not in a false one to flatter you, nor yet in one that should make you seem worse than you are, and so offend you ; but in one made by the reflection of your oioii words and actions" ("Letter Ixx. to Lord Chief Justice Coke," 1702.) " And the more aptly is the mind of a wise man compar'd to a glass or mirror, because in a glass his own image may be seen together with the images of others, which the eyes cannot do of themselves without a glass" (Parable xxxiv.. Lib. VIIL, " Advancement of Learning," p. 397). It may do good, pride hath no other glass To show itself but pride. ("Troilus and Cressida," act iii. sc. 3.) Methinks you are my glass, and not my brother ; I see by you I am a sweet-faced youth. (" Comedy of Errors," act v. sc. 1.) Come, come, and sit you down ; you shall not budge ; You go not till I set you iij) a glass, TFhcre you may see the inmost part of you. (" Hamlet," act iii. sc. 4.) Your mind is the clearer, Ajax, and your virtues the fairer ; he that is proud eats up himself. Pride is his own glass, his own trumpet, his own chronicle, and whatever praises itself but in the deed, devours the deed in the praise. ( " Troilus and Cressida. ") " Grounded upon the conceit, that the mind as a mirror or glass, should take illumination from the foreknowledge of God and spirits" (Book 11., "Advancement of Learning," p. 46, 1605). " God hath framed the mind of man as a mirror or glass capable of the image of the universal world" (Book I. p. 6, "Advance- ment of Learning," 1640). " The more shame for learned men, if they be for knowledge like icinged angels ; for base desires they be like serpents which 8o PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. crawl in the dust, carrying indeed about them Minds like a mirror or glass, but menstruous and distain'd " (Book V., p. 217, "Ad- vancement of Learning," 1640). "Praises are the reflexed beams of virtue" (" Antitheta," p. 304). Yea from the (jlass-faced flatterer To Apemantu.s. (" Timon of Athens," act i. sc. 1.) Here again is the perfect and original philosophy of Bacon's, that we see ourselves in other's faces, and it is a far profounder simile than at first sight strikes us. For do we not see hy others whether it goes ill or well with us 1 And as oiu* own image in a mirror pleases us or no, so does the reflection react upon our self- consciousness. 'Tis not her glass but you that flatters her, And out of you she sees herself more proper Than any of her lineatnents can show her. ("As you Like it," act iii. sc. 5.) Essay on " Friendship : — " For as S. James saith, they are as men, that look sometimes into a glass, and presently forget their own shape and favour." * Compare " Richard the Second " (act iv. sc. 3) : — Richard. Give me that glass, and therein will I read, "Was this the face, the face That every day, under his household roof, Did keep ten thousand men ? Was this the face, That like the sun, did make beholders wink ? Is this the face, which fac'd so many follies. That was at last out-fac'd by Bolingbroke ? Hoiu soon my sorrow hath dcstroi/d my face? * ' ' The second precept concerning this knowledge is, for men to take good information touching their own person, and well to understand themselves : knowing that, as S. James saitli, though men look oft in a glass, yet they do suddenly forget themselves ; wherein as the divine glass is the word of God, so the politic glass is the state of the world, or times wherein we live, in the which we are to behold ourselves " (Two Books of "Advancement of Learn- ing," p. 23-1). PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 8i Bolmghrokc. The shadow of your sorrow hath dcstroy'd The shadow of your face. Itkhard. Say that again. The shadow of my sorrow ; ha, let's see, 'Tis very true, my grief lies all within, And these external manner of laments Are merely shadows to the unseen gi'ief, That swells with silenee in the tortur'd soul. (Act iv. sc. 1.) " For the mind of man is far from the nature of a clear and equal glass, wherein the heams of things should reflect according to their true incidence" ("Advancement of Learning," Bk. 11. p. 55). May never glorious sun reflex his beams. ("1 King Henry VI.," act v. sc. 4.) " I believe well that this your Lordship's absence will rather he a glass unto you, to show you many things, whereof you may make use hereafter " (" Letter to the Marquis of Buckingham," March 10, 1622). " Organa sensuum cum wganis reflectionum conveniunt. This hath place in Perspective Art ; for the eye is like to a glass, or to waters " (Lib. III., p. 135, " De Augmentis," 1640). From the note in the margin. Bacon has taken this from the Arabian writer Alhazen * (" Optics," Vitello). Alhazen was a Spanish Moor who discovered atmospheric * It is very striking to find Bacon had been studying the works of this extraordinary man, particularly as he makes no further mention of him else- where. It shows Bacon's knowledge of the most advanced discoveries and thought, was far deeper than we have any idea of. Draper maintains our debt to the Arabians and Sjianish Moors in scientific discoveries to have been enormous and as yet half recognised. In Bacon's "Holy War" there is a curious and suspicious reference to these Moors : — Pollio. " What say you to the Extirpation of the Moors of Valentia ? " At which sudden question Martins was a little at a stop, and Gamaliel prevented him and said, "I think Martins did well in omitting that action, fori, for my part, never approved of it ; and it seems God ivas not well pleased with that deed." It is to the Arabians Alchemy owes its origin, particularly to Geber. Friar Bacon was another writer upon this subject, and we may observe in him the use of induction and observation of facts in nature quite after the Baconian method. F 82 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. refraction. His date was about a.d. 1100. "He was the first to correct the Greek misconception as to the nature of vision, shoAving that the rays of light come from external objects to the eye, and do not issue forth from the eye and impinge on external things, as up to his time had been supposed. He determined that the retina is the seat of vision, and that impres- sions made by light upon it are conveyed along the optic nerve to the brain. With extraordinary acuteness, he applies the principles with which he is dealing to the determination of the height of the atmosphere, deciding its limit as nearly 58|^ miles. One of his works is entitled, 'The Book of the Balance of Wisdom.' In this book the weight of the atmosphere is set forth, and he further explains the theory of the balance and steel- yards, showing the relations between the centre of gravity and the centre of suspension — when those instruments "wall set and when they will vibrate. He recognises gravity as a force ; asserts that it diminishes Avith the distance. He knows the relation between the velocities, spaces and times of falling bodies, and has very distinct ideas of capillary attraction. He improves the construction of that old Alexandrian invention the Hydro- metus. The determination of the densities of bodies, as given by Alhazen, approach very closely to our own ; in the case of mercury they are even more exact than some of those of the last century. I join, as, doubtless, all natural philosophers will do, in the pious pra3''er of Alhazen, that in the day of judgment, the All-Merciful will take pity on the soul of Abur-Eachan, because he Avas the first of the race of men to construct a table of specific gravities ; and I will ask the same for Alhazen himself, since he was the first to trace the curvilinear path of a ray of light through the air. Though more than seven centuries part him from our times, the physiologists of this age may accept him as their compeer, since he received and defended the doctrine now forcing its way of the progressive development of animal forms " (Draper's "Intellectual Development of Europe," vol. ii. pages 45, 46, 47, 48). PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 83 The Fable of Narcissus or Self-Love in " The Wisdom of the Ancients " should be read in connection with this subject. Bacon Avi^ites that Narcissus, " having espied the shadow of his own face in the w^ater, was so besotted and ravished with the contempla- tion and admiration thereof, that he by no means possible could be drawn from beholding his image in this (jla$s ; insomuch, that by continual gazing thereupon, he pined away to nothing, and was at last tui'ned into a flower of his own name, which appears in the beginning of the spring, and is sacred to the infernal powers Vluto, Proserpine, and the Furies." In the following Sonnet may be found " Perspective " introduced as illusion : — Mine eye hath play'd the painter and hath stell'd Thy beauty's form in table of my heart ; My body is the frame wherein 'tis held, And perspective it is best painter's art. For through the painter must you see his skill, To find where your true image pictured lies ; Which in my bosom's shop is hanging still, That hath his windows glazed witli thine eyes. Now see what good turns eyes for eyes have done : Mine eyes have drawn thy shape, and thine for me Are windows to my breast, where-through the sun Delights to peep, to gaze therein on thee ; Yet eyes this cunning want to grace their art : They draw but what they see, know not the lieart. Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon Show nothing but confusion — ey'd a\vry, Distinguish form. (" Richard II.," act ii. sc. 2.) A natural perspective that is and is not. ("Twelfth Night.") ^^ Like perspectives which show things inwards when they are hut paintings " (Bacon, " Natural History," Cent. i. 98). "Poesy, in the sense in which I have defined the word, is also concerned with individwds ; that is, with individuals invented in imitation of those which are the subject of true history • yet with 84 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. this difference, that it commonly exceeds the measure of nature, joining at pleasure things "vvhich in nature Avould never have come together, and introducing things "which in nature would never have come to pass; just as 'Painting likeAvise does. This is the work of Imagination." It is most important to observe that Bacon compares Toe^y to Painting, not only in this passage, but abiindantly elsewhere, in exactly the same way Ave find in the Sonnets attributed to Shakespeare. " Poesy composeth and introduceth at pleasure, even as Painting doth ; Avhich indeed is the work of imagination " (Lib. II. chap. lxx\ai. "Advancement of Learning"). "As faces shine in waters, so men's hearts are manifest to the wise " (" Advancement of Learning," Parable xxxiv. j Proverbs xxvii. 19). " This parable distinguishes between the hearts of wise men and of other men, comparing those to waters or mirrors which reflect the forms and images of things, those to earth or rude stone which reflect nothing. The mind of a wise man is aptly compared to a mirror, because in it he sees his own image along A^dth those of others, and he endeavours to be no less varied in application than in observation " (Book VIII. " De Augmentis "). It may be remarked here that the mind, like the surface of a lake, or of Avater, must he calm and tranquil to reflect truly. Directly we are influenced by passions or affections, not only does the mind refuse to reflect clearly, but it refracts, that is, disproi3or- tions and is prejudiced, even as objects are refracted by AA^ater. In the folloAving citations from the Sonnets may be found both " Glass " and " Perspective " introduced again. It is my belief these are not casual or surface similes, but are very profoundly connected with some very important natural laAvs ai^plied to art and lying closely at the root of the 1623 Theatre. "Thus have we now dwelt with two of the three beams of mfin's knoAvledge, that is, radius directus, Avhich is referred to nature, radius refractus, which is referred to God, and cannot report PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 85 truly, because of the inequality of the medium" ("Two Books of the Advancement," p. 129). My glass sliall not persuade me I am old, So long as youth and thou are of one date ; But when in thee time's furrows I behold, Then look I death my days should expiate. The MTinkles which thy glass will truly show, Of mouthed gi-aves wUl give thee memory. (Sonnet Ixxvii.) I do not think an hour-glass of Time is here implied, because " wrinkles " are to he shown or reflected, and it seems to us by " thy glass," is meant the generations of men (in the sense that the plays are reflected by others), who pass away praising these works, man being here collectively personified as growing old and wrinkled, for this is one of Bacon's especial ideas, that the past is the youth of the world and the present its old age. " As for antiquity, the opinion touching it which men entertain is quite a negligent one, and scarcely consonant with the world itself. For the old age of the world is to he accounted the true antiquity ; and this is the trihute of our own times, not of that earlier age of the world in which the ancients lived ; and which though in respect of us it was the elder, yet in respect of the world it was the younger" (Book I., " Advancement of Learning ") If that the World and Love were young, And truth in every Shepheard's tongue, These pretty pleasures might me move, To live with thee and be thy Love. (" Passionate Pilgi'im.") " That man is, as it were, the common measure and mirror or glass of nature" (Paracelsus, Fludd, j^assim / p. 250, "Advancement of Learning," 1640.) " It seemeth both in ear and eye, the instrument of sense hath a sympathy or similitude Avith that which giveth the reflection " (" Natural History," Exp. 282). 86 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. In the Fourth Book of the " De Augmentis," Bacon writes in the following reserved and suspicious manner concerning Perspec- tive, curiously connecting it with Sense and ScnsihiliUj. This is be found under the 28th Deficient or Stai-, entitled " DeNixlbus Spiritus in motu voluntario," Avhich is rendered " Of the Difference between Perception and Sense" (" Catalogue Deficients "). The subject belongs to the third section of the third chapter. " The Distribution of the faculties of the sensible Soul. § Into motion. § Into Sense." We read, " But of Sense and Sensibility there hath been made a far more plentiful and diligent enquiry, both in general treatises about them, and in particular sciences ; as in Perspective and Music ; how trulij is not to our purpose to deliver. "Wherefore we cannot set them down as deficients. Notwithstanding there are two noble and remarkable parts, which in this hnoidedge we assign to be Deficient ; the one concerning the difference of perception cmd sense ; the other concerning the form of Light " (p. 212, " Advance- ment of Learning," 1640). It may be seen Bacon reserves "Perspective," and "Music," as " not to ourpmpose to deliver," showing by the language he uses that he held some special knowledge upon the subjects, which he mys- teriously -withholds. It is my opinion, founded upon some very profound reflections in connection with the " Natural Histor}^," (where we refind Music treated at great length) that like the " History of the Winds," these subjects belong to the machinery of the foui^th part of the " Instauration," — the plays. " Are not the organs of the senses of one kind Anth the organs of reflection, the eye uifh a glass, the ear -with a cave or sti-ait, determined and bounded 1 Neither are these only similitiules, as men of narrow observation may conceive them to be, but the same footsteps of nature, treading or printing upon several sub- jects or matters. ("Two Books of the Advancement," ii. 108.) In the " Novum Organum," ii. 27, the same illustrations are given of what Bacon calls " conformable instances " or " physical simili- tudes." From these he deduces the principle " organa sensuum et corpora, cpice piariunt rejiexiones ad sensus esse similis naturcn." PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 87 Bacon, when compainng the eye with a glass, means a looldng- (jlass. This is a highly important point to note. Because if the Latin passage did not run " oculiis enim similis, sjjeado," it might be open to doubt whether he did not mean transparent or common glass, which is a very different simile altogether. We see at once that the entire force of Bacon's simile, and the similes extracted from the plays, revolve upon refiedion. Bacon evidently was in possession of some important and extraordinary law with regard to the senses and reflecting bodies, which he intentionally ^\athholds. He calls this consent or respondency in the Architectures and fabrics of things Natural and things civil — Persian Magic * (" De Augmentis," III. i.). In the " Two Books of the Advancement " he calls this particular branch of knowledge ^' Philosophia 2^^"^''^^'', sive de fontihus scientiarum," and Avrites against this head : — " This science, therefore (as I understand it), I may justly report as deficient : for I see some- times the profounder sort of ■vvits in handling some particular argument will now and then draw a bucket of water out of this well for their present use : but the spring-head thereof seemeth to me not to have been visited ; being of so excellent use, loth for the disclosing of nature, and the abridgement of art" (Book II. p. 108). He calls this science "a common iKirent." "This science being therefore first placed as a common parent like unto Bere- cynthia which had so much heavenly issue, omnes ccdlcolas omnes supera cdta tenentes" {Ih.). In the "Novum Organum " he exemplifies as conformable instances : — " Speculum et oculus ; et similiter fabrica aiuns, et loca reddentia echo " (Book ii. 27). There can be no doubt the theory of reflection, or of beams of reflection, hold a most important position in the Baconian primary Philosophy, for in context with all this quoted, and as it were at the opening of the subject of the partition of philo- * By the " Persian Maxjic" Bacon probably alludes to the Magian system wliicli was the source of the philosophy of the Ionian Heraclitus, whose in- fluence upon Plato is so conspicuous. The " Thtetetus " is entirely devoted to the development of the doctrines of Heraclitus, and its consequences, so well summed up by Plato, "Nothing is, but all becomes." 88 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. sophy (Book III. " De Augmentis "), Bacon Amtes : — " The object of Philosophy is of three sorts — God, Nature, Man ; so likeAvise there is a triple Beam of Things ; for Nature darts upon the understanding with a direct beam ; God because of the inequality of the medium, which is the Creature, Avith a refract beam ; and man represented and exhibited to himself \a\h. a beam reflex " (Book III. ch. i. § " De Augmentis "). There is some special philosophy in all this, inasmuch as we have found in the plays the last or third of these partitions, viz., the reflex' d beam repre- sented as man seen by others. The profound thinker must perceive, that the theory of the eye as a looking-glass, — that is as a reflecting and refracting medium,^may be involved in this question. In the Second Book of " The Advancement of Learn ing" this quotation from the "De Aug-mentis" is omitted, but finds its parallel, or echo, in these words : — " Thus have we now dealt with tAVO of the three beams of man's knoAvledge ; that is, radius directus, Avhich is referred to Nature, radius refractiis, which is referred to God, and cannot report truly because of the inequality of the medium. There resteth radius reflexus whereby man beholdeth and contemfplateth himself" (Book II. p. 129). HoAv fond Bacon is of this simile of the Loohing-Glass / He writes that man may not inquire the nature of God. But of Angels and Spirits he may. " But the sober inquiry touching them, Avhich by the gradation of things corporal may ascend to the nature of them, or Avhich may be seen in the soul of man, as in a looking-glass, is in no icise restrainkl" (" De Augmentis," Lib. III. ii.). And this at once agrees with Bacon's theory of Divination by Influxion: — "That the mind as a mirror or glass should take a secondary kind of illumination from the foreknowledge of Gods and Spirits, unto Avhich the same state and i-egiment of the body which Avas to the first doth likeAvise conduce " (Lib. IV. ch. iii. " De Augmentis "). This and the next paragraph particularly upon " Fascination " are undoubtedly Rosicrucian doctrin es. Bacon quotes Paracelsus and Crollius, l)oth Rosicrucians, in PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. 89 context Avith the last subject. The great English Rosicrucian, Thomas Vaughan, AVTites : — " God in love ■wdth his own beauty frames a glass to view it by reflection "(" The Author to the Reader," " Anthroposophia Theomagica," Thomas Vaughan, Waites' edition). "Truly Nature is much of this strain, for she hath infinite beauteous patterns in herself, and all these she would gladly see beyond herself, which she cannot do withoid the matter, for that is her glass " (" Coelum Terrae ; or the Magician's Heavenly Chaos and First Matter of all Things," Thomas Vaughan, p. 131, Waite). We find Robert Fludd writing in his " Mosaicall Philosophy " (Book II., p. 172, 1659):— "St Dionysius saith 'That an angel is the image of God, and the shining forth of his hidden light, a mirror pure and most bright, Avithout spot, without wemm, and without defiling. And for this cause he calleth the angels, Alga- riuitha, that is most clean mirrors, receiving the light of God ; argue- ing truely that they are the images of the Catholic emanation, from whence they spring. For scriptures say, that the spirit of wisdom is the brightness of the eternal light, a glass or mirror of the majesty of God, ^Aathout spot, and the image of his goodness.' " " The quavering upon a stop in music, gives the same delight to the ear that the playing of light upon the water, or the sparkling of a diamond gives to the eye — Splendet tremulo sub lumine pontus." ("Advancement of Learning," Book III., 135.) This splendid comparison of one sense with another (Jiearing with sight) is as striking as it is poetical and beautiful. The quotation from Virgil and its application to Avaves of sound reveals the philosopher-poet finding analogies and parallels the most apparently remote, and illustrating them by a line from another poet in a moment. Compare — That strain again, it had a dying fall ; 0, it came o'er my ear, like the sweet sound 90 PERSPECTIVE, REFLECTION, GLASS-MIRROR. That l)veathes upon a bank of violets ; Stealing and giving odour. ("Twelftli Night," act i. so. 1.) Mark how w\md and mxcll are brou2;ht in to illusti'ate each other, the effort of the poet being to pile up delight by iden- tifying or multiplying one pleasurable sense with another. But nevertheless it is a comparison, and the same philosophic spirit is apparent as in Bacon. In the " Natural History " we find Bacon studying profoundly the Consent of Visibles and. Audibles, that is seeking a scientific basis in experience, for the relationship of one sense to another — sight to hearing. Of odours he \\Tites : — " That, which above all others, yields the sweetest smell in the air is the violet " (Essay on " Gardens "). In the passage quoted from " Twelfth Night," we find the simile of flowers giving forth odours compared to breath — That breathes upon a bank of violets. Compare, "And because the breath of flowers is far sweeter in the air (where it comes and goes like the warhling of music) " (Essay on " Gardens "). Here we have the parallel complete of scent and sound brought together as in the play. In the " Sylva Syl varum " (Century ii. 113) — "There be in music certain figures or tropes; almost agreeing with the figures of rhetoric, and Avith the affec- tions of tJie mind and other senses. First, the division and quaver- ing which please so much in music, have an agreement with the glittering of light; as the moon-beams playing upon a Avave. Again, t\iQ falling from, a discord to a concord, Avhich maketh great sweetness in music, hath an agreement with the affections, which are reintegrated to the better after some dislikes ; it agreeth also with the taste ivhich is soon glutted with that which is sAveet alone. The sliding from the close or cadence, hath an agreement with the figure in rhetoric, which they call prceter expectatum. ; for there is a pleasiti'e even in being deceived." Love is an affection of the mind, and Ave may see hoAv completely this passage applies to the passage already (|uoted from "TAvelfth THE WORLD AS THEATRE. 91 Night," even to the ''dy'mg fall" and to the word ''glutted" (which finds its fellow in " surfeiting ") : — If music be the food of Love, play on Give me excess of it : that surfeiting, The ajJpetite inay sicken, and so die. 0, learn to read what silent love hath writ : To hear with eyes belongs to love's fine wit. (Sonnet xxiii.) " To hear with eyes " — this is a strange simile. Yet directly we turn to Bacon's " Natural History " we find him very seriously and at great length studying the "Consent" and ''Dissent" of " Visibles and Audibles." So much attention does he give to this subject, we believe it touches far more deeply the interpretation of his art than Ave can as yet even faintly conjecture — " It seem- eth both in ear and eye, the instrument of sense, hath a sympathy or similitude with that which giveth the reflection ; as hath been touched before. For as the sight of the eye is like a Christal, or glass, or water ; so is the ear a sinuous cane with a hard bone to stop and reverberate the sound " (Exp. 282). Again, " As Visibles work upon a looking-glass, which is like the pupil of the eye ; and Audibles upon the plane of echo, which resemble in some sort, the cavern and structure of the ear " (Exp. 263). The World as Theatre — The Theatre as Nature. The extreme fondness Bacon has for contemplating the world and Nature in the sj)irit of the lines, "All the world's a stage, and all the men and women merely players" ("As you like it"), is striking. " That it is one of the aptest particulars that hath come or can come upon the Stage for your Lordship to purchase honoiu' upon " (" Letter of Advice to Essex "). Lord thon art our home to whom we fly, And so hast always been from age to age. 92 THE WORLD AS THEATRE. Before tlie hills did intercept the eye, Or that the frame was up of Earthly Stage. (Translation, 90th Psalm.) " But men must know that in this Theatre of man's life, it is reserved only for God and Angels to be lookers on" (p. 339, Book VII., "Advancement of Learning"). "It is the speech of a lover, not of a wise man, Satis magnum alter alteri Theatrum sumus" (p. 23, Book I., "Advancement of Learning "). " God hath of late raised an occasion, and erected as it were a stage or theatre " (Charge against Mr S. W. and H. I. for Scandal, &c.. Part I., p. 59, " Resuscitatio," 1671). "For if a man can be partaker of God's Theatre, he shall likewise be partaker of God's rest" (Essay xi., "Of Great Place"). In the Essay upon " Friendship " (1607-12, Harleian MS. 5, 106 ; also 1612 edition, but omitted in edition of 1625) we read: — "There be some whose lines are, as if they perpetually played upon a stage, disguised to all others, open only to themselves ; but perpetual dis- simulation is painful, and he that is all fortune and no nature is an exquisite hii'eling." This is a possible hint for " lines " in the sense of verses (as a play of Avords), and perhaps refers to the plays. It is striking this passage is omitted from the edition of 1625, as if too dangerous. This quotation finds a parallel in this other hint, " Certainly, there he whose Fortunes are like Horner's Verses, that have a slide ami easiness more than the verses of other poets" (Essay on "Fortune," 1625). " But to enumerate these things were endless : I have given the riile where a man cannot fitly play his own part : if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage" ("Friendship"). Antonio. I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano, A stage where every 'man must play a 2Kcrt. ("Merchant of Venice," act i. sc. 1.) .The motto to the Globe Theatre Avas " Totm Mundiis agit his- THE WORLD AS THEATRE. 93 trionem." It is well worthy note that Bacon's " Dc Augmcntis " is called by him "The Intellectual Globe." There are two ways of understanding these comparisons of the world to a stage, and man's life with that of an actor's. The one is as a poetical and fanciful simile, the other is as aphilosophiad truth. I venture to maintain the belief the idea is applied by Bacon to the Inlays in a far deeper sense than perhaps has been yet con- ceived. And one of the reasons for our so doing, is the profound reflection of the Platonic Philosophy in the Sonnets, and in such plays as the "Midsummer's Night's Dream." This has been universally acknowledged by all students of this art. Now Plato's philosophy is essentially one that contemplates everything as illusive and false, which does not pertain to the realities of mind. Phenomena Avith him are idols, inmges, counterfeits, shadows, imita- tions — and he uses these actual words to express the relationship of form to matter. One of these words is mimesis, or mimetic, which is the players' art. In fact with Plato, all we see in this great world are but shows, it is a stage, on which we act before the ages. If the difference obtaining between what we call reality and unreality consists in endurance, then it is certain there is no more reality in life outside mind, memory, and works than in the actor's art, which has no reality outside the theatre or stage he plays on. Everything which is not real, but related to something else, carries the character of illusion and imitation about it. A man looking back to his past life, with the exception of what he holds in his hand of it, either of wealth, works, or writings, must feel there is a curious element of the theatre about it. We have acted, looked on at others, gone through infinite scenes, all of which at the time gave the impression of reality even as the present moment ; yet, except in memory, nothing substantial remains, and the eternal now is but a series of scenes in which we are both actors and spectators at the same time. The invis- ible mind outlives the visible body. The characters of the plays of Francis Bacon have more reality about them, than even the lives of their originals, such as Julius Csesar, Anthony, or Brutus. 94 THE WORLD AS THEATRE. It is evident from the fifteenth Sonnet the author of the plays took this vieAV seriously and profoundly : — When I consider everything that grows Holds in 2)crfection hut a little ''moment, That this huge stage prcsentcth nought but shows Whereon the stars in secret influence comment. ("Sonnet XV.") This comparison of the world to "shows" or "plays" is re- peated exactly by Bacon : " And therefore Velleius the Epicurean, needed not to have asked, why God should have adorned the Heavens with stars, as if he had been an ^dilis : one that should have set forth some magnificent shows w^/(i?/s" ("Advancement of Learning," Book II., p. 162, Wright). The identification of Nature with the character of "God's Theatre" is very striking in this passage, and I think it most essential to point out. Bacon identifies Nature with Art, as we refind in the " Winter's Tale." I allude to this because I feel convinced beyond doubt in my own mind, Bacon looked upon the whole world as a oiatural theatre, and therefore it is just as likely when he uses the words " Nature " or " Interpretation of Nature " he is alluding to the 1623 Folio as to real nature. He almost always wi-ites of public life as a stage : — "First, if your Majesty do at any time think it fit for your affairs to employ me again publicly upon the stage," &c. ("Memorial of Access to King James," Nov. 13, 1622). Life's but a walking shadow, a poor player That struts and frets liis hour upon the stage And tlien is heard no more : it is a tale Told by an idiot, full of sound and fury, Signifying nothing. (" Macbeth," act v. sc. 5.) " Neither can any man marvel at the play of puppets, that goeth behind the curtain, and adviseth well of the motion" (Book I., p. 67, " Advancement of Learning," Wight). This is the remark of a man who had thoroughly sifted and seen through the clothes philosophy, and penetrated to the THE WORLD AS THEATRE. 95 secret motives of the human breast. It is the ironical summing up of one who had anatomized Society, and who found it pulled by the mechanical wires of custom and selfishness. The whole of the plays, particularly those pieces which we learn by heart, are pregnant Avith just this extraordinary side-piercing sight, which lays Imre the nakedness of the mind, and the vast difference between reality and appearance. The importance of this subject cannot lie over-estimated when we reflect hoAV largely Ethics revolve upon the correspondence of ajDpearance to reality — that is, of the outward man to the inward man ! Bacon gives us a touch of his mind when he writes upon the Will and the Understanding (in the Fifth Book " De Augmentis ") : — " That this Janus is bifronted, and turns faces. For the face towards reason hath the print of truth, but the face towards action hath the print of goodness, Avhich nevertheless are faces " (ch. i.. Book V.). In this case he seems to be alluding to his oiun Art. For he places Inmgination (identified everywhere with poetry) as the common attorney or nuncius between the Will (Action or external) and the Understanding (Logic or rationalism of the plays). They have faces, but only in appearance. He writes : — " Truth and goodness diff'er but as the seal and the stamp." " Your life is nothing but a continual acting on the stage " (" Mask for Essex ")._ Tlie wide and universal theatre Presents more woeful pageants than the scene Wherein we play. ("As you like it," act ii. sc. 6.) This is evidence that the wiiter of the pla//s regarded the Avorld as a theatre. " God sends men into this wretched thecttre, where being arrived, their first language is that of mourning " (Bacon). When we are born we cry that we are come To this great stage of fools. (" Lear," act iv. sc. 6.) " In the meantime I think myself, howsoever it hath pleased God otherwise to bless me, a most unfortunate man, to be de- 96 MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. prived of two, a great number in true friendship, of those friends, Avhom I accounted as no stage friends, hit private friends, &c." (" Letter to Toby Iklatthew," ex.). Music of the Spheres. " Si Platonis et Cardani opinionibus fidem aliquam adhibeamus, optima harmonia ex sphserarum conglomeratione generatiu', quae auribus nostris propter distantise magnitudinem percipi non potest" (ch. vi. "De Naturae Arcanis Tractatus ApoL," 1617, R. Fludd). " If we place any belief in the opinions of Plato and Cardan, a divine harmony is generated from the intercourse of the spheres, which we cannot hear on account of the gi^eatness of the distance." How exactly this idea is repeated in the " Merchant of Venice." There's not the smallest orb which thou behold'st But in his motion like an angel sings, Still qniring to the young eyed cherubims : Such harmony is in immortal souls ; But ■whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth gi'ossly clothe it in, 7ve cannot hear it. (Act V. sc. 1.) " The names of sounds in all probability were derived from the seven stars, which move circularly in the heavens, and compass the earth " (" Nicom, Harm.," c. 3). " The circum- agitation of these bodies must of necessity cause a sound" (Macrobius in " Somn. Scip.," ii. p. 82). "Pythagoras first of all the Greeks conceived in his mind, and understood that the spheres sounded something concordant, because of the necessity of proportion, which never forsakes coelestial beings" (Macrobius). "Those sounds which the seven Planets and the sphere of fixed stars, and that which is above us, termed by them Antichthon make, Pythagoras affirmed to be the nine Muses : but the composition and symphony, and, as it were, connexion of them all, Avhereof as being eternal and unbegotten, each is a part and portion, he named Mnemosyne " (" Porphyry," p. 21). " Pythagoras, by musical proportion, calleth that a tone MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. 97 by how much the moon is distant from the earth, &c." (vide, " Pliny," 1. ii. c. 22). Continuing the passage from Fhidd : " Cum tamen ab effectu, in his inferioribus non modo hujus musicse consonantiae sym- phoniacae cognoscantm', sed etiam dissonantiae ; nam illae amorem, symphoniam, et appetentiam amabilem in rebus excitant, hse odium, discordiam, et exitialem contemptum." This is the doctrine of Pythagoras, le., " The Pythagoreans define music as an apt composition of contraries, and an union of many, and con- sent of difterents. Its end is to unite, and aptly conjoin. God is the reconciler of things discordant, and this is his chief work accoi'ding to music and medicine to reconcile enmities. In music consists the agreement of all things, and aristocracy of the universe ; jor what is harmony in the world, in the city is good govern- ment, in a family temperance" (" Theon. Smyr. Matth.," c. i.). This is endlessly repeated in the plays : — Music do I hear ? Ha ! Ha ! keep time : how sour sweet music is, When time is broke and no proportion kept ! So is it in the mtisic of mens lives. And here have I the daintiness of ear To check time broke in a disorder'd string ; But for tlie concord of my state and time Had not an car to hear my true time broke. (" Richard II.," act v. sc. 5.) Bacon evidently believed in the music of the Spheres. In his Parable of the Universe, according to the fable of Pan, he writes : " The two engines which Pan bears in his hands, do point the one at Harmony, the other at Empire; for the pipe of seven reeds doth evidently demonstrate the consent and harmony ; or discordant concord of Nature, which is caused by the motion of the seven loandering stars"* ("De Augmentis," chap. xiii. Book JL). * " Examinemus diligenter fabulas poetarum et ingentia arcana sub iis inveniemus. Cur Pan (per queni universa natura significatur) e.r. septcm syringihus seit, calamis fistulam com2)osuit, per quam harmoniam dulcem edidit, nisi quia spiritus iatelleetualis, qui movet ccelos, facit mtcs-icavi corrc- spoiidentcm in his inferioribus, Nam per compositione ex septem fistulis G 98 MUSIC OF THE SPHERES. Compare " Midsummer Night's Dream," — How shall we find the concord of this discord? (Act V. sc. 1). Compare First Part " King Henry IV." (act i. sc. 2) — For we that take purses, go by the moon and seven stars. This music of the Spheres, which is to be refound in Cicero's "Vision of Scipio," is an especial subject of the Rosicrucians. So much is this the case, that Spedding, in a footnote to the above passage cited from Bacon, adds : — " For dreams about the music of the Spheres, see Robert Fludd's work Utriusque Cosmi majoris scilicet et minoris, tmtaphysica, j,)/M/sicft et technica Historia, 1617. The third book of the first tract is wholly De Musicd mundana, and is ilhistrated by an engraving of a bass viol, of which the dimensions extend through the solar system." "In 'Antony and Cleopatra,' Cleopatra, bewailing Antony's death, compares his voice to the ' tuned spheres ' (act v. sc. 2) ; and in ' Twelfth Night ' Olivia pays the same compliment to the page in disguise, with whom she is in love. Pericles, prince of Tyre, in his ecstasy at finding his daughter Marina, suddenly hears sounds of music unheard by the others, which he calls the music of the spheres " (Paul Stapfer, " Shakespeare and Classical Antiquity," p. 92). significatur congrcgatio sej^tem erbium phinetartim et mirahiU ipsoriim har- monia in ccelo et in tcrris, hoc est, ubicunque natura ilia universalis se extendit " (Tractatus Apol. , Pars iii. , De Occultis et admirandis Musices arcana efifectibus, p. 178, 1617. Robert Fludd). CHAPTER V. bacon's " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." ' ' But to sjKcih the truth, the best Doctors of this knowledge arc the Poets, aud rcr iters of Histories, where we may find painted and dissected to the life, how affections are to be stirred up and kindled, how still'd aud laid asleep ; how again contain'd and refrain 'd that they break uot forth into act" (Book VII., " De Augmentis "). " Another parable put He forth unto them, saying, The kingdom of heaven is likened unto a man which sowed good seed in his field ; but while men slept, his enemy came and sowed tares among the wheat, and went his way. But when the blade was sprung up, and brought forth fruit, then appeared the tares also. So the servants of the householder came and said unto him, Sir, didst not thou sow good seed in thy field ? from whence then hath it tares ? He said unto them, An enemy hath done this. The servants said unto him. Wilt thou then that we go aud gather them up ? But he said, Nay ; lest while ye gather up the tares, ye root up also the wheat with them. Let both grow together until the harvest : and in the time of harvest I will say to the reapers. Gather ye together first the tares, and bind them in bundles to burn them : but gather the wheat into my barn " (Matthew xiii. 24-30). " And therefore, as Plato said elegantly, That virtue, if she could he seen, tvould move great love and affection ; so seeing that she cannot be showed to the sense by corporal shape, the next degree is to show her to the imagination in lively representation : for to show her to reason only in subtilty of argu- ment was a thing ever derided in Chrysippus and many of the Stoics, who thought to thrust virtue upon men by sharp disputations and conclusions, which have no sympathy with the will of man" ("Advancement of Learn- ing," ii, 178). " Nos docet apostolus ad mysterii perfectionem vel sub Agricolse, vel arclii- teeti typo pertingere." — Robert Fludd. "A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds; therefore let him seasonably water the one, and destroy the other " (" Of Nature in Men "). loo BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr lago. Virtue ! a fig ! 'tis in ourselves tliat we are thus oi' tlius. Our bodies are our gardens, to the which our wills are gardencjs : so that if we will plant nettles, or sow lettuce, set hyssop and weed up thyme, supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many, either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry, why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills. ("Othello," act i. sc. 3.) In scene ii. act 5, Othello exclaims to Desdemona: — Oh thou 2vecd : "Who art so lovely fair, and smell'st so sweet, That the sense aches at thee. Oh fie, fie, 'tis an umvccded garden, That grows to seed : things rank and gross in nature Possess it merely. (" Hamlet," act i. sc. 2.) He's a rank weed, Sir Thomas, And we must root him out. (" King Henry VIII.," act v. sc. 1.) There can be very little doubt Bacon has chosen this simile of " Weeds " to express Human Nature in a state of backwardness and vice. In the " De Augmentis " he calls poetry a luxuriant weed, and in a prayer ("Resuscitatio," p. 17, 1671) writes: — "I have (though in a despised weed) procured the good of all men." " As for poesy (whether we speak of fables or metre, it is, as we have said before, as a Luxuriant Herh t {weed ?) brought forth without seed, and springs up from the strength and rankness of the soil " (p. 264, Book VI., " Advancement of Learning "). Note the coupling of the words " raoiJc weed," " unweeded garden," " things rank " (in the quotations from the plays), poesy being a plant coming, as it Avere, from the lust of a rank soil" (p. 109, Book II., " Advancement of Learning "). " All flesh is grass " is' not only metaphorically but literally true ; for "all those creatures we behold are but the herbs of the field digested into flesh in them, or more remotely carnified in ourselves " (" Religio Medici," Browne, 70). * lago in this passage asserts the complete liberty of the will, and this makes his villainy so much the more villainous and detestable. Bacon writes : " For the purity of Illumination and the Liberty of Will began together, fell together" (Fifth Book, " De Augmentis," chap. i. ). t " Luxurians hcrba " (" Dc Augmentis," 1623). Herba in Latin means weed as well as Herb — also 'Hlic blade of any corn" (Ainsworth's Latin Dictionary), BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE AIIND" loi The only light wc can throw upon this is the suggestion, Bacon's purpose was ethical instruction iov \^mie good of all men;" his theatre has the aim of holding up the vices and passions of men to scorn, as a warning and as a means of eradicating the tares. He writes of the passion "Envy":— "The envious man that soweth tares amongst the wheat by night." And we have presented to us the jiortrait of Lear : — Crown'd with rankfumitor, and furrow weeds, "With biir-docks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo flowers, Darnel * and all the idle weeds that grow In our sustaining corn. (Act iv. sc. 4. ) Why have these especial weeds, found ever in the corn, been selected ? I hope it will not be deemed impertinence to suggest what is possibly intended by this awful picture ? Lear's madness is the result of the wickedness of his daughters. He may have been generous, credulous, weak, and simple, but, like Othello, he was " great of heart," and his misery is the result of ingratitude — the inhumanity of his own flesh and blood. He is crowned with the tares and with the weeds of degenerate nature, and like some ruined and abandoned piece of ground, is an emblem of what neglect by others caA produce. He carries on his shoulders and on his head the burthen and crown of a ruined nature, neglected, cast out, and is the most terrible pictiu'e of what inhumanity and envy can effect in this world or in literature ! Nature alone sympathises with him — the storm, the lightning, the rage, are * There can be very little doubt Bacon had in his mind the Parable of the Tares (Matt. xiii. 24-30) in this portrait of Lear crowned with weeds that grow in corn. The })lant representative of tares is Darnel. "From the ac- counts of modern enquirers competent to form an opinion on this point, the reference is (in the Biblical Parable of the Tares) to a kind of weed or poison- ous grass called ' darnel ' {Lolium temulcntum), which is in all respects so like the wheat that before it comes into ear it is hardly possible to observe any distinction between the two plants" ("Picture Lessons," by Peter Grant, p. 30). Interque nitentia culta Infelix Lolium et steriles dominantur avente. (Virgil's ' ' First Georgic. ") I02 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINI)." reflected in himself and in his heart. AVe are not only gardeners for ourselves, but alike gardeners to and for others. The Avords duty, charity, temperance, incidcate this. For we do not stand alone, and we can hardly move in this life without either nourishing tares in others, or helping to eradicate them. A man's life will generally yield on retrospection the dismal record, that he might have been better — if others had been better. The inculcation of the necessity for occupation and work to escape evil is most prominent in the plays : — We bring forth tveeds, When our quick minds lie still. ("Anthony and Cleopatra," act i. sc. 2.) Still better is evil and its poisonous effects painted in these lines — Here is your husband ; like a mildeidd ear Blasting his wholesome brother. (Act iii. sc. 4.) In this image we have the corn and the tares again suggested. Confess yourself to heaven ; Repent what's past ; avoid what is to come ; And do not spread the comijost on the v:eeds To make them ranker. ("Hamlet," act iii. sc. 4.) In the folloAving lines Ave have idleness and sloth compared to a fat weed :— And duller should'st thou be than the/ai xoeed, That rots itself in ease on Lethe Wharf, Would'st thou not stir in this. , ("Hamlet," act i. sc. 3.) I.XIX. Those parts of thee that the world's eye doth view Want nothing that the thought of hearts can mend ; All tongues, the voice of souls, give thee that due, Uttering bare truth, even so as foes commend. Thy outward thus with outward praise is crown'd ; But those same tongiies that give thee so thine own In other accents do this praise confound By seeing farther than the eye hath shown. BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." 103 They look into the beauty of thy mind, And that, in guess, they measure by thy deeds ; Then, churls, their thoughts, although their eyes were kind, To thy fair flower add the rank smell of weeds : But -why thy odour matelieth not thy show, The solve is this, that thou dost common grow. It is evident from this Sonnet the author held ''culture of the mind " not only in high estimation, but the imagery of flowers for virtues and weeds for vices is prominent from first to last in the quotations adduced. The world abandoned to evil and wicked- ness is "((/i unweeded garden, things rank and gross possess it merely." " Our bodies are our gardens, to the ^vhich our wills are gardeners." Now it is very striking — perhaps startling for sceptics of the Baconian theory of the Plays — to find Bacon enti- tling his Ethics, " Georgics of the Mind," which title he borrows from Virgil's "Observations upon Husbandry." "We will therefore divide Moral Philosophy into two main and principal knowledges ; the one concerning the exemplar or image of Good ; the other concerning the Regiment and Culture of the Mind, which we are wont to call the Georgics of the Mind" (p. 335, Book VII., "Advancement of Learning," 1640). In the following passage from the play of " Richard the Third," we find the young Duke of York presented, quoting his wicked uncle : — I, quoth my uncle Gloucester, Small herbs have grace, great weeds do grow apace. And since methinks I would not grow so fast, Because sweet flowers are slow, and^ weeds make haste. I could have given my uncle's Grace a flout. To touch his growth nearer than he toucKt me. ("Richard III.," act. ii. sc. 4.) Now is the spring, and weeds are shallow rooted, Suffer them now, and they'll o'ergrow the garden, And choke the herbs for want of husbandry. ("2 King Henry VI.," act i. sc. 1.) Compare the above with " A man's nature runs either to herbs or weeds" and see how the same words are employed in context — I04 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." "herbs" — "iveeds" — in both quotations, one from the phantom captain Shakespeare, — the other from Bacon. Two such opposed kings encamp them still, In 7)ian as well as herbs, grace and rude xvill ; And where the worser is predominant, Full soon the canker doth eat ujj that plant. ("Romeo and Juliet," act ii. sc. 3.) It is remai'kable how fond the author of the plays is of comparing plants and flowers with human nature, and of cankers to illustrate vice. It cannot be called a casual metaphor because so often repeated : — Pro. Yet -vn'iters say, as in the sweetest bud The eating canker dwells, so eating love Inhabits in the finest wits of all. Val. And -writers say, as the most forward bud Is eaten by the canker ere it blow, Even so by love the young and tender wit Is turn'd to folly, blasting in the bud. Losing his verdure even in the prime And all the fair effects of future hopes. ("Two Gentlemen of Verona," act i. sc. 1.) Virtue itself 'scapes not calumnious strokes : The canker galls the infants of the spring. Too oft before their buttons be disclosed, And in the morn and liquid dew of youth Contagious blastments are most imminent. ("Hamlet," act i. sc. 3.) That weeds are applied as a metaphor for vices is certain : — We have strict statutes and most biting laws, The needful bits and curbs to headstrong iveeds. (" Measure for Measure," act i. sc. 2.) Twice treble shame on Angelo, To weed my vice and let his grow ("Measure for Measure," act iii. sc. 2.) lids is the idea of husbandry, or self-culture applied to the garden of our bodies and minds, as Georgics. Bacon writes, " God Almighty first planted a garden," and there may be in this remark some implied thought of Man before the fall, of jjuiity before sin entered the woiid, and the devil sowed the tares of vice. BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIXD." 105 " The primeval curse pronounced upon the earth in consequence of man's sin, was ' Thorns also and thistles shall it hring forth to thee ;^ and what the earth then became in a physical sense, that the soul of man became in a spiritual — a Avilderness of rank and noxious thorns, and we might add iceeds " {" Picture Lessons," by Peter Grant), " The field on which the good seed is sown by Christ, is the world. In the parable it is called His field ; and the world is His, though not hij possession yet hij right. Meanwhile it is usurped by a rival power — even hy the arch-spirit of evil * — but when Christ comes to take possession of it. He comes whose right it is to reign. The tares which were soAvn in this field along with the wheat, are the children of the wicked one. ' Ye are,' saitli the Lord, ' of your father the devil ; and the lusts of your father ye will do.' Both in the world and in the Church they are like darnel, unpro- fitable in themselves, and positively injurious to the good seed by temptation and by persecution. Even though they may enjoy the benefit of the same soil, and sunshine, and showers, as the good plants, they are hut as noxious weeds in the field, whose end is to be burned" ("Picture Lessons," p. 32, Parable of the Tares, Peter Grant). He entered into due consideration how to weed out the partakei's of the former rebellion. (" History of King Henry VII.") We find Bacon in his Essays using the same simile to illustrate the extirpation of \dce by laAV. " Eevenge is a kind of wild justice, which, the more man's nature runs to, the more ought law to weed it out" (" Of Eevenge "). And in the following passage, " Fride " is expressed as " seeded " with the words " rank," " nursery," used by Bacon to express Poetry. The seeded pride That hath to this maturity blown up In rank Achilles, must or now be cropt, * The play of " Hamlet " presents strong parallels to this parable. Prince Hamlet is the rigldfal heir to a throne usurped by a king who is the incarna- tion of evil. io6 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr Or shedding breed a nursery of like evil To over-bulk us all. (" Troilus and Cressida," act i. sc. 3.) One of the " Antitheta " in the Sixth Book of the " De A^^gme]ltis " is entitled " Pride." It is these " Antitheta " Bacon introduces Avith the preliminary Avords that they are seeds, not flowers. " Afflictions only level those mole-hills of pide. Plough the heart and make it fit for wisdom to soio her seed,- and for grace to bring forth her increase. Happy is that man, therefore, both in regard of heavenly and earthly wisdom, that is thus wounded to be cured; thus broken to be made straight; thus made acquainted with his own imperfections to be made straight " (" Letter Ixx. to Lord Chief Justice Coke," 1702). " Cast their seeds in the minds of others " (" Advancement of Learning," Book I.). Why your herb-woman ; she that sets seeds and roots of shame and iniquity. (" Pericles," act iv. sc. 6.) " After the knowledge of characters follows the knowledge of Affections and passions, which are the diseases of the mind, as hath Ijeen said. For as the ancient Politiques in popular states were wont to say, That the people were like the sea, and the orators like the loinds, because as the sea would of itself be calm and quiet, if the winds did not move and trouble it, so the people of their nature would be peaceable and tractable if the seditious orators did nob set them in working and agitation. So it may be truly affirmed, that mans mind, in the nature thereof, would be temperate and staid, if the affections as winds did not put it into tumult and perturba- tion" (Book VIL, " De Augmentis," Trans. 1640, p. 354). How this is applied in the plays may be seen in a few { [notations : — Oh no, my dream A\-as lengthened after life ; Oh then began the tcmjiest to viy soul. ("Richard III.," act. i. sc. 4.) BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 107 Tlirow up thine eye ! see, see what showers arise, Blown with the windy tempest of my heart. ("3 Henry VI.," act ii. sc. 5.) But tliis effusion of such manly drops, Tliis shower bloini up by tempicst of the soul, Startles mine eyes. (" King John," act v. sc. 2.) Belike for want of rain which I could well Beteem them/;wrt the tempest of my eyes. ("Midsummer's Night's Dream," act i. sc. 1.) The identification of the microcosm of man's soul with the macro- cosm, of Nature is very apparent throughout this wondrous art, but particularly in the case of King Lear, Avhere the storm out- side is the deep bass counterpoint to the tempest in Lear's heart, forlorn as the desolate heath o'er which the wind blows. Notice also that the affection of Lear's soul is described as a malady or disease, which is in keeping with Bacon. Scene IV, The heath. Before cc hovel. Enter Lear, Kext, ccnd Fool. Kent. Here is the place, my lord ; good my lord, enter ; The tj'ranny of the open night's too rough For nature to endure. [Storm still. Lear. Let me alone. Xe7it. Good my lord, enter here. Lear. Wilt break my heart ? Kent. I had rather break mine own. Good my lord, enter. Lear. Thou think'st 'tis much that this contentious storm Invades us to the skin : so 'tis to thee ; But where the greater malady is fix'd. The lesser is scarce felt. Thou'ldst shun a bear ; But if thy flight lay toward the raging sea, Thou'ldst meet the bear i' the mouth. AVhen the mind's free. The body's delicate : the tempest in my mind Doth from my senses take all feeling else Save what beats there. (" King Lear," act iii. sc. 3.) I venture to suggest the play of the " Tempest " borrows its title from the affinity of its subject matter to the creative power or soul power of the poet author, as breath, life, air, wind in motion. And the word " Tempest " is allied to the word io8 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." Soul. ^D/io's — the soul, is derived by Plato (" Cratyl" 419) from ^■jw, which means to ^' rush on" or "along," as of a mighty rushing wind, and signifies also to storm, rage, also passion and affection in its kindred forms. In Latin ajiimns (the soul) is the seat of anger, Avrath, the feelings. How applicable to one who has stirred the entire breast of man ! Upon the same page the piece quoted from Bacon by us already is found ; we come upon this in context with, it, as a pretty direct hint. " So, likewise, I find some elegant books of some affedions, as of anger, of tenderness of countenance, and some few others. But to speak the truth, the best doctors of this biowledge are the poets and writers of histories, where we may find painted and dissected to the life how affections are to he stirred up and kindled, how still'd and laid asleep ; how again contained and refrained that they break not forth into Act?" (Book VII., Ethic, "De Augmentis," Trans. 1640, p. 355.) Why this sentence ends with a note of interrogation we cannot explain, unless it be to invite us to ask what particular poet is pointed at ! We find in "Macbeth" the same treatment of sin as a disease, an infection : — Canst tliou not minister to a m ind diseased Pluck from the memory a rooted sorrow: — Raze out the written troubles of the brain. (Act V. so. 3. ) And the Doctor exclaims : — Infected minds To their deaf pillows will discharge their secrets. ("Macbeth," act v. sc. 1.) This is all in perfect keeping A\dth what Bacon "svTites : — " Affections and passions which are the diseases of the mind," already quoted. Again : — " First, therefore, in this as in all things which are practical, we ought to cast up our account, wJiat is in our power and what not : for the one may be dealt with by way of alteration. Now in the culture of the mind of man, and the cure of the diseases thereof, three things fall into consideration : the diverse characters of dispositions, the affections, and the remedies" BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND:' 109 {" Georgics of the Mind, or the Culture of Morals," Book VII., chap. iii.). In the pliiys we repeatedly find Love described as an "z«- fedion : " — Boyct. If my observation, wliicli very seldom lies, By the heart's still rhetoric disclosed with eyes, Deceive me not now Navarre is infected. Princess. With what ? Boyet. With that which we lovers entitle affected. Princess. Your reason ? Boyet. Why, all his behaviour did make them retire To th€ court of his eye j)ecping through desire. ("Love's Labour Lost," act ii. sc. 1.) Now compare this by Bacon : — " There be none of the affec- tions which have been noted to fascinate or bewitch, hut love and envy. They both have vehement wishes ; they frame themselves readily into imaginations and suggestions; and they come easily into the eye ; especially upon the presence of the objects, which are the points that conduce to fascination" ("Of Envy"). In Bacon's " Natural History " he writes : — " Lust causeth a flagi-ancy in the eyes " (Exp. 722). " The cause of both these is, for that in lust the sight and the touch are the things desired, and therefore the Spirits resort to those parts which are most effected " (Ih.). for beauty is a witch Against whose charms faith melteth into blood. This is an accident of hourly proof. (" Much Ado about Nothing," act ii. sc. 1. " The affections (no doubt) do make the Spirits more powerful and active ; and especially those affections tvhich draw the Spirits into the eyes: which are two, Love and Envy. And fascinatioji is ever by the eye " ("Natural History," Ex. 944, Cent. x.). Methinks I feel this youth's perfections. With an invisible and subtle stealth, To creep in at mine eyes. (" Twelfth Night," act i. sc. 5.) Bacon terms vices and sins diseases of the mind. In the plays we find the expression ^^ Infection." no BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." Anne. Vouchsafe defined infection of a man, For these known evils but to give me leave, By circumstance to curse, thy cursed self. (" King Richard III.," act i. sc. 2.) Anne. Out of my sight ! thou dost infect my eyes. Glou. Thine eyes, sweet Lady, have infected mine. {lb.) The use of the expressions " purge," " purging," " piugation," are very frequent in the plays, and betray familiarity with medicine. We refind Bacon frequently using these words in the same sense, viz., as a cathartic. " Yet in our judgment it (Astrology) should rather be purged than clean cast away" ("Advancement of Learning," p. 147). Till the foul crimes done in my days of nature Are burnt and purged axvay. ("Hamlet," act i. sc. 4.) To take him in the purging of his soul. (" Hamlet," act iii. sc. 3.) " The next, that after this example, it is like that judges will fly from anything in the likeness of corruption (though it were at a great distance) as from a serpent, which tendeth to the purging of the Courts of Justice " (" Lord Chancellor Bacon to the Lords," Cabala, p. 5, 1654). Eos. You must be 2)urgcd too, your sins are rack'd, You are attaint with faults and jierjury. ("Love's Labour Lost," act i. sc. 2.) " I would only ask why the Civil State should be 2^urged and restored by good and wholesome laws" ("Life," vol. iii. p. 105). " Therefore care would be had that (as it fareth in ill purgings) the good be not taken away with the bad, which commonly is done when the people is the reformer " (" Superstition "). " And here I will make a request, that for the latter (or at least for a part thereof) I may revive and reintegrate the mis- applied and abused name of natural magic; which in the true sense is but natui^al Avisdom, or natural prudence, taken accord- BACOJSrS " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." in ing to the ancient acception 'purged from vanity and superstition" ("Advancement of Learning," Book II. p. 111). In continuation of the passage cited from Bacon's "Ethics," touching his assertion that " the best Doctors of this hwvdedge are the poeh, Avhere we may find painted and dissected to the life, how affections are to be stirred up and kindled; how still'd and laid asleep ; how again contain'd and refrain'd, that they break not forth into act 1 LikcAvise how they disclose them- selves, though repressed and secreted? What operations they produce ? What turns they take ? How they are enwrapt one within another ? How they fight and encounter one with another ? And other the like particularities. Amongst the which, this last is of special use in Moral and Civil matters. How I say to set Affection against Affection, and by the help of one to master and reclaim another ? After the rminner of Hunters and Fowlers, who hunt beast ^dfh least,* and fly bird icith bird" (Book VII., p. 355, "De Augmentis," Trans. 1640). The setting of affection against affection in this manner is abundantly portrayed in the plays. In the play of " Troilus and Cressida," the pride of Ajax is set against the pride of Achilles in exactly the Avay inculcated by Bacon — that is, as preying upon each other : — How one man eats into another's pride, f While pride is fasting in his wantonness. (" Troilus and Cressida," act ii. sc, 3.) Two cnrs shall tame each other : pride alone Must tarre the mastiffs on, as 'twere their bone. {lb., act i. sc. 3.) Space forbids us to illustrate what is really one of the leading motives of this play, viz., the contrast afforded by Ajax and * Give him allowance as the worthier man, For that wiW 2Jliy sic the great Myrmidon. ("Troilus and Cressida.") t Humanity must perforce prey on itself, Like monsters of the deep. (" King Lear," act iv. sc. 2.) 112 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDT Achilles, the former egged on by the plot of Ulysses and Nestor to humble the pride of the latter, and put him into motion. Or take the " Taming of the Shrew," where one had temper is (in Bacon's words) master' d and reclaim' d hy another had teviper — a she-devil by a he-devil. Grcmio. A bridegi'Oom say you ? 'Tis a groom indeed, A grumbling groom, and that the giii shall find. Tranio. Curster than she ? Why 'tis imjiossihle. Grcmio. "Why he's a devil, a devil, a very iiend. Tranio, "Why, she's a devil, a devil, the devil's dam. Grcmio. Tut, she's a lamb, a dove, a fool to him. (" Taming of the Shrew," act iii. sc. 2). Pet. Thus have I politicly begun my reign, And 'tis my hope to end successfully. My falcon now is sharp, and passing empty ; And till she stoop she must not be full gorged, For then she never looks upon her lure. Another way I have to man my haggard, To make her come and know her keeper's call. That is, to watch her, as we M'atch these kites That bate and beat and will not be obedient. ("Taming of the Shrew," act iv. sc. 1.) This is exactly an example of what Bacon writes in his book of Ethics in the "De Augmentis." "But to speak truth, the best Doctors of tJiis knowledge are the Poets. . . . How I say to set affection against affection, and hy the help of one to master and reclaim another.^ After the manner of Hunters and Fowlers, who hunt beast Avith beast, and/y hird with bird" ("Advancement of Learning," 1640, p. 355). " In Much Ado About Nothing," we find Benedict and Beatrice brought into a mountain of affection for each other by a trick which might be called a " foAvler's," viz. — imitation. Each overhears that the one is madly in love with the other, and just as wild birds are caught b)' a call bird, find themselves limed in reality in the end. It is characteristic of this entire art that character is set against character, as shadow or contrast, and that Ethic is predominant from first to last in the treatment. In the " Tavo Books of the Advancement," 1605, we read: BACON'S '' GEORGICS OF THE MIND." 113 — "It were too long to go over the particular remedies Avhich learning doth niiiiider to, all the diseases of the mind ; sometimes purging the ill humours, sometimes opening the obstructions, sometimes helping digestion, sometimes increasing appetite, sometimes healing the Avounds and exulcerations thereof, and the like ; and therefore I will conclude with that which hath rationem corrupt the state thereof. For the mind of man is far from the nature of a clear and equal glass, wherein the beams of things should reflect according to their true incidence ; nay, it is rather like an enchanted glass, full of superstition and imposture, if it be not delivered and reduced." Note the words Ave place in italics, where we refind the three chief words of the line already quoted from " Macbeth " : — Canst tliou not minister to a mind diseased? Bacon no doubt borrowed this image from Cicero : " But if the joy of living is interrupted by the afflicting maladies of the body, how much greater must its interruption be from the Diseases of the Mind ? Noav the Diseases of the Mind consist in insatiable and superfluous appetites after Eiches, Glory, Power, and even sensual pleasures ; add to these disquiet, uneasiness, and melancholy ; all of Avhich prey upon and consume with anxiety the spirits of those who are ignorant that the mind ought to have no sensation of pain, for anything that is distinct from the pain of the body, either present or to come. And now I must observe, that there is not a fool in the world who is not sick of some one or other of these diseases ; and therefore there is not a fool who is not unhappy " {" De Finibus "). Cicero's in- fluence upon Bacon in the matter of morals divides honours Avith Seneca. Both inculcated doctrines of the noblest morality or un- selfishness, and Ave may guess that the Avriter who penned the folloAving Avords, would hold a high place vdth. the author of such plays as " Measure for Measure" and the " Merchant of Venice." " Let me ask you Avhether you think I Avon't say an Homer, an Archilochus, a Pindar, even a Phidias, a Polycletus, a Zeuxis, H 114 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND^ directed their arts to the purposes of sensual pleasures % " (" De Finibus," ii. x.). " For to this end shall truth be delivered as naked as if your- self were to be anatomized" ("Letter to Chief-Justice Coke," Ixx. 1702). The wise man's folly is anatomized. ("As you Like It," act. ii. sc. 7.) Let them anatomize Regan. (" Lear," act iii. sc. 6.) There are eleven entries of the words "anatomy" "anatomized" in the plays (see Cowden Clarke's "Concordance"). And it is used in the sense of discovering disease of the soul, and also in the sense of a skeleton : — A mere anatomy, a mountebank. (" Comedy of Errors," act v. sc. 1.) Directly we open the Seventh Book of Bacon's " De Aug- mentis," we find ourselves in contact Avith the subject of " Morals," or " Ethic," which rightly employed is really the basis of Drama and all Stage Plays. In the Second Book of the " Advancement " (1605), Bacon writes: "And therefore, as Plato said elegantly, That virtue, if she could he seen, would move great affection and love : so seeing that she cannot be shewed to the Sense, hy corporal shape the next degree is to show her to the Imagination in lively repre- sentation : for to show her to Reason, only in subtilty of argument, was a thing ever derided in Chrysippus and many of the Stoics, who thought to thrust virtue upon men by sharp disputations and conclusions, which have no sympathy Avith the will of Man " ("Advancement of Learning," Book IL, p. 67, 1605). This is such an unmistakable allusion or hint for the use of Eepresentative Poetry (the Drama) as means of ethical instruction, that it hardly needs our apology. Bacon is plainly referring to " Virtue " seen or represented upon the Stage in Stage Plays, and we have only to think of Isabella in " Measure for Measure," or of Desdemona, to realise all Bacon Avrites. We see Bacon is not alluding to Virtue in daily life, for he declares. BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 115 " she cannot be shewed to the sense, by corporal shape." And he condemns argument and persuasions by means of Reason, as of no use and eflfect. Inuujination is the faculty of the mind, producing and answering with Bacon to Poetry. " The parts of humane learning have reference to the three parts of Man's un- derstanding, Avhich is the seat of learning : History to his Memory, Poesie to his Imagination, Philosophy to his Reason " (p. 7, Book II., "Advancement of Learning," 1605). ^^Representa- tive {Poesy) is as a visible history, and is an image of actions as if they were present" (p. 18, "Advancement of Learning," Bk. II., 1605). " Dramatical or Representative (Poetry) is as it were visible his- tory" ("Advancement of Learning," p. 106, 1640). And that Bacon in the passage quoted (about the representation of iirtue to the Imagination) is alluding to the value of a right use of the Drama, for purposes of ethical teaching, may be seen in his use of the words " lively representation " and " Imagination." In Book II. of the " De Augmentis " (the only page upon which he directly discusses, or alludes to the use and abuse of the Drama) : " Dramatical or Representative Poesy, which brings the World upon the Stages, is of excellent use if it were not abused. For the instructions and corruptions of the Stage may be great, but the corruptions in this kind abound, the discipline is altogether neglected in om: times. For although in modern Common-wealths, Stage Plays be but esteemed a sport or pastime unless it draw from the satyr, and be mordant, yet the care of the Ancients was that it should instruct the minds of men unto virtue" (p. 107, "Ad- vancement of Learning," 1640). If we now return to Bacon's " Ethics " (Seventh Book) in his " De Augmentis" (1623, 1640), we find him again hiviing at the value of Piepresentation of Character, and ^^the uselessness of j^re- cepts, arguments, and dry lessons, as instruments of instruction and example in morality. "It is not the disputing that moral virtues are in the mind of man by habit, and not by nature ; or formally distinguishing between generous spirits and the obscure vulgar ; that those are won by the weight of Reasons ; these by ii6 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." reAvard and punishment ; or the "\\itty precept, that to rectify the mind of man, it must like a staff be boAved the contrary Avay to its inclination, and the like glances scattered here and there. These and the like are far short of being a just excuse of t]\e Deficience of that thinrj which now we seek" (Book VII., p. 334). For a moment we halt in the quotation of the passage to call attention to the fact, that Bacon is propounding a Deficience, and seeking something which is to take the place, and better dry rules and arguments, for the instruction of virtue and morality. What can this be 1 He then continues : " For Avritings should be such as should MAKE MEN IN LOVE WITH THE Lessons, and not ynth. the teachers." How thoroughly this agrees vdlh. the lessons of the Theatre, known as SJiakes2)eare's plays ! And is it not in these plays that we can exclaim. Virtue is seen and does move great affection and love? But it is evident to a close student of Bacon's obscure and private language (the Seventh Book, "De Aug- mentis "), he is really driving at portrayal or poiiraits of character and characters I " In handling of this Science, those which have ■\\Titten thereof, seem to me to have done, as if a man that 2yrofessed the art of writing should only exhibit fair copies of Alphabets and letters joined, without giving any p7'ecepts fm- the carriage of the hand and framing of the cJiaracters " (Book VII., " Advancement of Learn- ing," p. 333, 1640). The prominency of the ethical in the construction of the plays is a point which always gathers strength with deeper study. I am myself convinced, although I cannot pretend to furnish evi- dence of my belief, that the Ethical in these Avorks amounts to philosophical piinciple, which will some day be revealed by Bacon himself, and astonish us by its laying bare the mechanism of morality, as a result of law. No anticipation or bare study of the text Avill ever bring us to the solution of this problem, ex- cept through the application of the " De Augmentis," as a great key book to unriddle this problem, with the assistance of Bacon himself. This work is initiatory and magistral. It is the i^rose text, \\v\ttQn in private and obscure language, of the plays, which BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND:' 117 grew up side l>y side with it, as Avorks and keys, or what he terms " Interpi-etatiun of Nature:' And Ave can see this in the fact, that as Bacon continued to write j^lays after 1605, he found it necessary to rewrite and enlarge the " Two Books of the Advance- ment of Learning " into the stately " De Augmentis," Avhich appears side hy side with the first collected edition of the plays the same year, 1623. Everything in the "De Augmentis" of 1623, may be refound in germ in the 1605 "Two Books of the Advancement of Learning.' The fact Bacon repeats the same subjects (only developed and enlarged) in the " De Augmentis " as are to be found in the " Two Books of the Advancement " is proof he was Avriting with a distinct object in view, and not for the sake of variety or present fame. But the slightest study of the two Avorks reveals their characters at a glance. Setting the ciphers and great book of " Deliver// of Secret Knowledge " aside, Avith its methods and distinct affiliation Avith the Essays (through the " Colours of Good and Evil," " Antitheta," and " Minor For- mulae"), the chapters and sections upon ''Places of suggestion" or " Topic" " Literate Experience" " Promptuary Place of Prepara- tion" cannot be explained upon any theory at all except as finger- posts of direction, for something literanj in some hook and not in nature. I knoAV hoAv this statement Avill arouse scepticism and incredulity, but let those Avho so feel, first rub their eyes a little, and read the third chapter of the Fifth Book of the " De Aug- mentis " in Latin, or in the English translation by AVats of 1640. Let them suppose themselves to have the question put them, to what does (dl this apply, or, indeed, what does it mean? I venture to think their replies Avould be ciu-ious, and their A\Titten statements interesting. I entirely put aside for the moment the leading or basic part History and Poetry play in this Avork, disguised under the terms " Feign'd History," "Imagination," and "Elocution." I Avant to knoAv Avhy Khetoric is part of the " Wisdom of Private Speech " and of " Promptuary," or Suggestive ? And Avhy the examples of this Rhetoric are the kernels, or pros and cons, of the Essays 1 Fiu'ther, Avhy all this ii8 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." belongs to the art Traditive, or " Delivery of the things Invented " .? All this we assert deals vnth Art. For Bacon distinctly writes : — " Invention (Discovery) is of two kinds, much differing, the one of Art^ and Sciences, the other of arguments and speeches. The fminer of these (Arts) I report to be wholly Deficient, which seems to me such a deficience, as if in the making of an inventory tondiing the estate of a Defund, it shoidd he set down, of ready money nothing ; for as money will fetch all other commodities ; so all other arts are purchased by this art." This is a pretty clear hint for the plays. And in the " Two Books of the Advance- ment " of 1605, the same subject is varied thus : — " To procure this ready use of knowledge there are two courses, preparation and suggestion. The former of these seemeth scarcely a jiart of knowledge, consisting rather of dili- gence than of any artificial erudition. And herein Aristotle ■\nttily, but hurtfully, doth deride the Sophists near his time, saying, They did as if one that jiTofessed the art of shoe-making should not teach hoto to make up a shoe, hut only exhibit in a readiness a number of shoes of all fashions and sizes. But yet a man might reply, that if a shoemaker should have no shoes in his shop, but only Avork as he is bespoken, he should be Aveakly customed. But our Saviour, speaking of divine knowledge, saith. That the kingdom of heaven is like a good householder, that bringeth forth both new and old store: and Ave see the ancient writers of rhetoric do give it precept, that pleaders should have the places, Avhereof they have most continual use, ready handled in all the variety that may be ; as that, to speak for the literal interpretation of the law against equity, and contrary ; and to speak for presump- tions and inferences against testimony, and contrary. And Cicero himself, being broken unto it by great exiierience, de- livereth it plainly, that Avhatsoever a man shall have occasion to speak of (if he will take the pains), he may have it in effect premeditate and handled in thesi." It seems to us Bacon is pretty clearly alluding to the jrros and cons, or places of " persuasion and dissuasion," of the Essays, BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 119 as implied in the " Colours of Good and Evil." And we are not at all sure by the word " sliue^" he is not playing upon the word " shows" or plays. In the " De Augmentis " this same passage is varied thus : — " To procure this ready Provision for discourse there are two ways ; either that it may be designed or pointed out, as it were, hy an index, under wliat heads the matter is to be sought; and this is what we call topic; 0?' else that arguments may he beforehand framed and stored up about such thing as are frequently incident and come into discepfation, and this we will mil jjroniptaary art or of prepiaration." The passage continues from this moment just as the passage quoted from the " Two Books of the Advancement." Bacon is evidently hinting that examples are necessary before arguments, and that Shoes are part of the estate of a shoemaker, and more to the point as the things themselves than mere arguments. All this points, we think, to the Anti- theta as promptuary to the plays. Bacon calls this part "PromptUr ary Preparation," belonging to '^Inventive Arts" as ^^ Places of Suggestion," being a branch of Logic, of which this Book V. treats. In the " Platform of the Design," we find this Art of Discovery (Invention) divided into Arts and Arguments. [ Arts into Inquisition or J Invention Arguments into Literate Experience. Interpretation of Nature. In the "Two Books of the Advancement," 1605, " De Cultura anirni" is the germ of the "Georgics of the Mind" in the 1623 "De Augmentis." And we find this " husbandry of character" (upon page 202, sec. xxii.. Book II. "Wright), discussing " men's natures" or characters, page 206, with hints for the Essays, inasmuch as the subjects we place in italics are the titles of some of Bacon's Essays : — ■ " A man shall find in the traditions of astrology some pretty and apt divisions of men's natures, according to the predominances I20 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND:' of the planets ; lovers of quiet, lovers of action, lovers of victory, lovers of honour, lovers of pleasure, lovers of arts, lovers of change, and so forth. A man shall find in the basest sort of these relations which the Italians make touching conclaves, the natures of the several cardinals handsomely and lively painted forth. A man shall meet with in every day's conference the denominations of sensitive, dry, formal, real, humorous, cei'tain, Imomo di piima impresdone, huomo di ultima impressione, and the like : and yet nevertheless this kind of observations wandereth in Avords, but is not fixed in inquiry. For the distinctions are found (many of them), but we conclude no precepts upon them : wherein our fault is the greater ; because both history, poesy, and daily experience are as goodly fields where these observations grow ; Avhereof we make a few posies to hold in our hands, but no man bringeth them to the confectionery, that receipts might be made of them for use of life. " Of much like kind are those impressions of nature, Avhich are imposed upon the mind by the sex, by the age, by the region, by health and sickness, by beauty and deformity,'*' and the like, Avhich are inherent and not extern ; and again, those which are caused by extern fortune ; as sovereignty, nobility, obscure birth, riches, want, magistracy, privateness, prosperity, adversity, constant fortune, variable fortune, rising pier salturn, j^er gradus, and the like." Mark the hint Bacon gives us as to "history" and ''poesy" for the fields where these observations grow. Amongst Bacon's "Essays" and " Antitheta," we find the subjects "Nobility," " Riches," " Adversity," and " Fortune," and it seems to us Bacon gives us these same titles as hints, fearing to say more in context with poetry. " Sovereignty " is much the same as " Empire," which is one of the essays. It is the context of all this that gives force to our evidence. For Bacon introduces the affections as part of Ethics, and Ijlames Aristotle for his omission to do the same : — " Another article of this knowledge is the inquiry touching * There are two Essays by Bacon, entitled " Beauty," and " Deformity." BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 121 the nffections ; for us in mediciuing of the l)ody, it is in onler first to know the divers complexions and constitutions ; secondly, the diseases ; and lastly, the cures : so in medicining of the mind, after knowledge of the divers characters of men's natures, it followeth in order to know the diseases and infirmities of the mind, which are no other than the perturbations and dis- tempers of the affections. For as the ancient politiques in popular estates were wont to compare the people to the sea, and the orators to the winds ; because as the sea would of itself be calm and quiet, if the winds did not move and trouble it ; so the people would be peaceable and tractable, if the seditious orators did not set them in working and agitation : so it may be fitly said, that the mind in the nature thereof would be temperate and stayed, if the affections, as Avinds, did not put it into tumult and perturbation. And here again I find strange, as before, that Aristotle should have written divers volumes of Ethics, mid never handled the affections^ which is the princijjal subject thereof; and yet in his Rhetorics, where they are con- sidered but collaterally and in a second degree (as they may be moved by speech), he findeth place for them, and handleth them well for the quantity ; but where their true place is, he pretermitteth them. For it is not his disputations about pleasure and pain than can satisfy this inquiry, no more than he that should generally handle the nature of light can be said to handle the nature of colours ; for pleasure and pain are to the particular affections, as light is to particidar colours" (Book II. "Advancement of Learning," 1605). Have Ave not here a hint for the title and subject emitter, " The Colours of Good and Evil," Avhich are attached to the Essays, and Avere published 1597 Avith them ? — " ISTothing more variable than faces and countenances : yet men can bear in memory the infinite distinctions of them ; nay, a painter Avith a few shells of colours, and the benefit of his eye, and habit of his inuigi nation, can imitate them all that ever have been, are, or may be, if they Avere brought before him" ("Ad- vancement of Learning," 1605, Book II., p. 136). 122 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." Ill this same work Bacon tells us Poesij is referred to imagina- tion ; — " The jmrts of human learning have reference to the three l)arts of man's understanding, which is the seat of learning : history to his memory, poesy to his imagination, and philosophy to his I'eason " (p. 85). And here let us remark, the " Antitheta," given in the Sixth Book " De Avigmentis," are affiliated to the " Colours of Good and Evil," and there is a gradus of descent evidently, from the " Essays " to the " Colours," " Antitheta," and " Minor Eormulse." What we are suggesting is that the colours (in the painter's sense) of the characters of the 1623 theatre, are the "Antitheta" viz.: — the affections, passions, whose titles are Pride, Ingratitude, Envy, Vainglory, Constancy, Fortitude, Temperance, Dissimulation, Boldness, Flattery, Love, Friendship, with their conditions, Nobility, Beauty, Youth, Health, Riches, Honours, Praise, &c. These, we say, are the Colours of the Theatre, and the particular treatise " On the Colours of Good and Evil " merely instructions for our unravelling of these colours in the plays, the -pros and cons to instruct us to guard against sophisms, and to show how the same thing may be obscured in the Essays. The strong points are that we find the " Essays " connected with the " Antitheta," or really identified with them as fruit and seed. And these "Antitheta " are given as promptuary, text, or cues, and part of the " Wisdom of Private Speech," embraced under the title of Book VI. as Tradition or Elocution. It is our conviction all this is only 2)er gradus ad Theatrum. In the " Platform of the Design " of the Sixth Book we find (" Advancement of Learning," 1640) : — /Of the dictates of Reason to / The use. Imagination. office, and Of Speech respectively to particu- Illustration OF Speech oil Rhetoric. appliaition. lars, or the Wisdom of Private Speech. Colours of Good and Evil. ^ Appendices. -I Antitheta Rerum. I Lesser styles and forms of Speech. BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 123 It may be seen how the last three are bracketed together as illustrations of Rhetoric, un(loul)tc(lly pointing to the Essays. Nobody can question that, inasmuch as the two first, viz., " Colours of Good and Evil," were published with the Essays, and are only ways of showing us how the same thing may be said many ways, with the sophisms of rhetoric, so to speak, argued, and their fallacies exposed. We say Bacon wrote this expressly to caution us against literal interpretation of the letter* of the Essays, and to give lis a hint as to the Theatre also through the Essays applied in the spirit. The " Antitheta " are the kernels of the Essays, or affections and passions of the char- acters, of which the plays are composed. Archbishop Whately declares the " Antitheta " are identical with the Essays — at least many of them, and Doctor Abbott has followed in the same footsteps, attaching many of the " Antitheta " (if not all) to their respective subjects in the Essays. Therefore this being acknow- ledged, it behoves the critic to explain why these kernels, or cues of the Essays, are to be found under the all-embracing title of the Sixth Book (where they are introduced) of " Tradition or Elocution." Because "Tradition" is explained by Bacon in these words : " N(m Id us come unto the Art of Delivery, or of expressing and transferring those things which are invented, judged, and laid up in the Memory, which by a general name we will call Tradition " (Book VI., "De Augmentis," p. 258, 1640). Reference to the Platform or Design of this Book will show this title embraces the entire Sixth Book. Besides, these " Colours of Good and Evil," " Antitheta," and " Minor Formulaj " come under " The Wisdom of Private Speech," and I defy anyone to explain this except as an esoteric doctrine for those Avho can pierce the veil, and see what * This is attached to the opening of the "Antitheta " — Fro verbis lerjis. Non est interpretatio, sed divinatio, quffi recedit a litera : Cum receditur a litera, judex transit in legislatorem. Pro scntentia legis. Ex omnibus verbis est eliciendus sensus qui interpretatur singula. 124 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND:' Bacon really implies l)y it. Why should the simple pros and cons of Rhetoric be thus attributed to a secret or reserved method ? Directly we study their titles, our suspicions are doubly aroused, for Pride, Revenge, Envy, Love, Ingratitude, Vain-Glory, Dis- simulation, Boldness, Flattery, Friendship, Suspicion, are not only to l)e refound as Essays, liut common-sense tells us are the Colours, Passions, or Affections at the hutUnii of Comedij and Tragedy. They are the paints in which the Dramatic Artist dips his brush or pen. And if Bacon wanted to point at the Theatre, either indirectly through the Essays, or directly Avithout them, what indeed could be a deeper hint for the plays called Shake- speare's? It is suspicious enough Bacon selects just these subjects for examples. And it is far more suspicious he calls them "seeds" or " skeins," to be unravelled as Promptiuiry Places of Suggestion. (Book VI., p. 300, "Advancement of Learning," 1640.) We have elsewhere, in a brief manner, drawn attention to a few of the prominent texts of the Essays, to be refound in the sermons of the plays. No doubt with patience and industry the entire Essays and their cues, the " Antitheta," are to be thus vnira veiled and applied to characters of the Folio Plays, 1623, Lamartine A\Tites : " It is as a moralist that Shakespeare excels. . . . His works cannot fail to elevate the mind by the purity of the morals they inculcate. They breathe so strong a belief in virtue, so steady an adherence to good principles, united to such a vigorous tone of honour, as testifies to the author's excellence as a moralist ; nay, as a Christian." (Quoted in Donnelly's " Great Cryptogram.") It is as a moralist that Bacon is pre-eminent in the "De Aug- mentis," the seventh book treating of morality, the eighth l)Ook containing no less than Thirty-Four Parables from the Proverbs of Solomon, with their explications, and the ninth book dealing with Inspired Divinity. The work opens with the idea of sacri- fice, springing out of " devout checi'fulness," the work ends with the' same spirit of sacrifice and a prayer to God. The " Two Books of the Advancement of Learning " conclude with Divine BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr 125 Learning — " The matter revealed" " The nature of the revelation" And in both these works the Theological element is most evi- dent, and predominates over the profane matter treated therein. Solomon is Bacon's inspired prototype, and we are not at all cer- tain he did not identify himself to some degree with him. For in certain philosophical tracts he repeatedly introduces the ex-, pression " my son," which, as he had no sons of his own, must be understood philosophically, or from the standpoint of a brother- hood or craft. He calls his Thirty-seventh Deficient, " The method bequeathed to the sons of Sapience." This at once recalls the Proverbs and language of Solomon : — 1. My son, if thou wilt receive my words ; and hide my com- mandments Avith thee, 2. So that thou incline thine ear unto tvisdom, and apply thine heart to understanding (Proverbs ii. 1, 2). The resemblance of some of the plays in plot and incidents to parables of Scripture must have struck every thoughtful reader. The introduction of the three caskets in the " Merchant of Venice " closely resembles the parable of " The Pearl of Great Price " (Matthew xiii. 45, 46). " Measure for Measure " holds some parallel to the Parable of " The Talents." " For the king- dom of heaven is as a man travelling into a far comitry, who called his own servants and delivered unto them his goods. And unto one he gave five talents, to another two, and to another one, to every man according to his several ability ; and straightway took his jour- ney." We find the Duke in the play doing exactly this with re- gard to Angelo — delivering unto him his goods or government — and straightway pretending to take his journey into a far country . And this idea is borne out by the interpretation of the parable, which of course is that we must turn our talents and gifts to account. See how this key-note is struck by the Duke in almost the first lines of the play : — Thyself and thy belongings Are not thine own so proper, as to waste Thyself upon thy virtues ; they on thee : Heaven doth with us, as we with torches do, 126 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MINDr Not light thcnifor themselves : fm- if our virtues Did not go f 07-th of ics, 'twere all alike As if we had them not: Spirits are not finely touch'd But to fine issues : nor nature never lends The smallest scruple of her excellence, But like a thrifty goddess she determinee Herself the glory of a creditor Both thanks and use. (" Measure for Measure," act i. so. 1.) Is not the parable further hinted at in Angelo's reply — we mean the talent as a piece of money or a coin ? Angela. 'Now good my Lord, Let there be some more test made of my mettle, Before so noble and so great a figure Be stam2j't ^cpon it. (Act i. sc. 1.) The author seems to have had a piece of money in his mind — perhaps an angel ! But there is the parable both in the text and in the main idea of the plot construction, with the alteration that the Duke, instead of actually going on his journey, plays the part of an invisible, ubiquitous, and all-seeing Providence, who searches out the thoughts and wicked acts of his servants, whilst they imagine him absent ; the end being to punish the wicked servant who has misused the trust committed to him, and to reward the good. There can be little doubt the ethical motive of this play, is to teach, that to the all-seeing eye of Providence nothing can be hid. And see how Bacon repeats all this in other forms in his Essays, particularly condemning Selfishness or "Wisdom for a man's self." In this Essay he writes: — " An ant is a wise creature for itself ; but it is a shrewd thing in an orchard or garden. And certainly men that are great lovers of themselves waste the finbUc. It is a poor centre of a man's actions Himself. It is right earth. For that only stands fast upon his own centre ; Avhereas all things that have affinity with the heavens move itpon the centre of another, wJdch they benefit." Bacon's irony with regard to the ant is pretty severe. The nut makes sad havoc iu the garden, Avhilst seeking only its own BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." 127 ends. And we may guess what Bacon infers Avith regard to himself, when he says, " It is a blessed thing to have a mind concentric Avith the orb of the universe." Again, " But the corrupter sort of politics, that have not their minds instituted and established in the true apprehension of duties, and the con- templation of good in the universality, refer all things to them- selves as if they were the world's centre, and that the concurrence of all lines should touch in them and their fortunes; never caring in all tempest what becomes of the ship, so they may retire and save themselves in the cockboat of their own fortune " (" De Augmentis," p. 23, 1640). I would observe that the doctrine of Good being derived out of Evil, and that man's ends are invisibly directed by supreme Providence, seems prefigured in the substitution of Mariana for Isabella, by which the purposed sin of Angelo becomes an instrument of restitution and right. In " All's Well that Ends Well" we find a parallel — Helena (like Mariana) exchanging role with Diana in order to regain her husband. There can be little doubt in the character of Diana (and in her name), the author intended to picture Chastity and Virtue, just as we refind it in the character of Isabella. Virtue and Vice are made, in short, to change parts in both these cases. Sin or the intention to sin, bringing good out of evil, man's individual selfish ends being changed to serve the supreme imrposes of the Al- mighty, as we perceive in the secret agency of the Duke in " Mea- sure for Measure." Bacon gives us a hint when he AVTites : — " Also the question controverted with such heat between the schools of Zeno and Socrates, on the one side, who placed Felicity in Virtue simple or attended, which hath a great share in the Duties of Life: and on the other side, other sects and professions, as the schools of the Cirenaics and Epicureans, who placed it in pleasure, and made Virtue — as it is used in some Comedies where the mistress and the maid change habits — to be but as a handmaid, without which pleasure cannot be well waited and attended upon" (Lib. VII. " De Augmentis," p. 339, 1640). 128 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MJND." In the "Two Books of the Advancement" (1605) we read — " Some Comedies of Errors." This simile we refind in Cicei'o's "De Finibus" ("Concerning the Ends of Things Good and Evil"). " In the next place, by the concurrence of the Virtues which reason terms the Mistress of all (though you contend they are l)ut the pages and handmaids of pleasxire") ("De Finibus," Book II. ch. v.). Bacon writes : " Vice itself assumes the shape and shadow of virtue." Sfepe latet vitiuin proximitate boiii. . (" Colours of Good and Evil," 4.) In " Much Ado about Nothing " we have the handmaid (Mar- garet) of Hero changing places with her — that is, acting her mistress. The residt is that Hero appears in the eyes of her father, Claudio, as tainted. Virtue has changed places with vice. This play may rightly be entitled a " Comedy of Errors." I venture to think there is something in this idea, which might be further worked out. For by this simple and clever artifice we discover the full workings and effects of aj^pearance, or of acting, and the disastrous consequences of \\ce when it takes the place of virtue. Bacon has reversed the process he quotes. Instead of virtue being the handmaid of vice, he has in this Comedy, made vice the handmaid of virtue, to show how supreme and beautiful virtue is if imattended. There is another moral seemingly embraced in this change of characters. In this woi'ld it is very easy for not only vice to appear virtuous, Imt easier for virtue to appear vicious. For appearances go often further than realities, seeing people have neither time, leisure, nor sufficient penetration to always rightly gauge character or motive. An honest character is far more likely to lay itself open to censure and its enemies, than a crafty man of the world who plays his cards well. * King Lear is entirely deceived by the acting of Regan and Goneril, and the silence of Cordelia is con- * Poor honest Lord, brought low by his own heart, Undone by goodness. (" Timon of Athens, " act iv. sc. 2.) BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." 129 strued the opposite way. Othello and Desdemona are the victims of lago's acting in the same way. Timon of Athens is the victim of the flattery of his friends, imagining they possess as generous a nature as his own. The whole of Ethic turns upon the correspondence of the internal to the external — leing and appearance. Dowden describes the art of the plays thus : — " An indifl'erence to externals in comparison with that which is of the invisible life " (" Shakespeare's Mind," p. 34). It is just this preference or predominance of the invisible, interior life and reality, which constitutes the splendour and glory of these plays. It is this Avhich establishes these works in our hearts as household words — a second Bible, where those who are in sorrow or distress may find themselves. The acting is the world, but the reality is anatomized, and we may be sure Bacon has carried this print of truth and goodness (for he says, " they are one ") very much fiu^ther than we as yet can have the faintest idea. The rationalism of these plays, which is only a question of time, and of the application of the Baconian philosophy to them, will reveal the voice of the Dead, speaking to us in no uncertain tones. How fatal the deceitfulness of externals, pro- testations, and acting are in life, is summed up in the play of " King Lear," who is not the only fool in the world who believes all he hears or what he sees alone. Cord, ^yhat shall Cordelia do ? Love and be silent. Lear. Let it be so ; thy truth then be thy doiver. (" King Lear," act i. sc. 1.) Bacon, under the heading " Loquacity," * argues the pro and contra of Silence. The play of " King Lear " may almost be called a tragic sermon on this text. For nothing is more in contrast than the loquacity and protestations of love (towards their father) of Began and Goneril, with the silence of Cordelia. See what Bacon writes of " Ingratitude " (and it may be recalled Goneril poisons her sister and commits suicide). " The crime of * ^'Silence is a candidate for Truth " (xxxi. ). I I30 BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." ingi'atitude is not to be repressed by punishments, hut to he referred over to the Furies " (Ingi-atitude, " Antitheta," XV.). From an early age Bacon seems to have been imbued with these ethical ideas joointing to the common welfare of men. For in one of his earliest compositions we find " Phikmtia" or Selfish- ness, introduced in a by no means favourable aspect. Bacon's own life "svith regard to all this has yet to be Avritten — hy him- self. We are convinced he sought power in order to command Avdts and means * for his literary and philosophical ends rather than for itself or himself. He says in the " Advancement," that the society self or external self is apart and another thing altogether from the interior (or true) man. And in this remark we can see he re- garded the World of Action as a Stage where every man must play a part. And is this not true 1 If we refuse to play a jDart in life {or suppress say a part), we very soon find ourselves only lookers- on. For as long as men are men, and life is what it is, to meet those on equal terms who are not better, and perhaps even worse than om^selves, we must carry a mask of reserve, and conform to the Avorld's ways. Bacon, we venture to suggest, conformed to the universal insanity of his age. He tried plain-speaking and honest speech, and found no road to preferment that way. He saw flattery and servility and intrigue were the only paths to honour. He saw a great good might come of a little wrong, and he chose this Avay. In reflecting upon Bacon's political life and character, critics have written as if he lived in a Palace of Truth. They forget Elizabeth's Court and her successors was full of intrigue, crooked ways, and honesty carried on the sleeve a disqualifier for advancement. Bacon who writes is quite another man from the Bacon who acts. In the former we have the real man, in the latter the man of the world playing his part, where all is acting. He probably saw no more immo- * " For good thoughts (tliough God accept them), yet towards men are little better than good dreams, except tliey be put in act, and that cannot he without jMwcr and 2^1^06, as the vantage and commanding ground" ("Of Great Place "). BACON'S " GEORGICS OF THE MIND." 131 rality in this double life than most men do who do not carry windows in their breasts, the question of morality being often more matter of degree than principle. The man of honest heart who finds himself fallen amongst dishonest people or thieves, may be well pardoned playing a role to be on fair terms with them. It seems to us in " Measure for Measm^e " we have reflected in the person of Angelo, and in the incident of the sub- stitution of Mariana for Isabella, a lesson of extraordinary suggestion and ethical instruction. For it is in the power of Providence to shape " our ends, rough hew them how we will." Evil often is followed by good, even as day follows night, and spring winter. The supreme good is undoubtedly extracted out of things evil, the evil of the present moment being the progenitor of good future. Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied ; And vice sometimes by action dignified. (" Romeo and Juliet," act ii. sc. 3.) There is no vice so simple but assumes Some mask of virtue on liis outward part. (" Merchant of Venice," act iii. sc. 2.) CHAPTER VI. BACON AND SENECA. I^hcrma© |)otocU to IBacott. To Trve Nobility and Tryde Learning- Beholden Francis, Lord Verulam, and Viscount St Al1)anes. giue me leaiie to pull the curtaine by, That clouds thy Worth in such obscurity ; Good Seneca, stay but a while thy bleeding, T'accept what I receiiied at thy Reading : Here I i)reseut it in a solemne strayne : And thus I plucke this curtayne backe againe. (From " The Attovrney's Academy," by Thomas Powell : 3rd edition, 1630.) It seems to us these lines were indited, by a hiower of Bacon's real dramatic disgnise and concealment, behind the curtain of the Shakespeare Theatre. The reference to Seneca is striking. Be- cause Gervinus affirms the author of the plays was thoroughly acquainted, and profoundly imbued, with the writings of both Seneca and Plautus. Gervinus maintains Plautus and Seneca Avere Shakespeare's ideals. " If Shakespeare had had occasion at any time to name his ideal, and to denote the highest examples of dramatic art which lay before him, he would have named noiie hut Plautus and Senem." The line — Let me lodge Liohas on the horns o' the moon, (" Antony and Cleopatra," act iv. sc. 10), BACON AND SENECA. 133 was supposed by Warburton to be taken from Seneca's " Her- cules." Certain it is, Seneca's works were an especial study of Bacon's, and it is just in the Seventh Book of the " De Augmentis," which treats of Eiliic, that he frequently cites from him. For example : — " Vere magnum habere fragilitatem hominis secm"itatem Dei." "Vita sine proposito languida et vaga est" (" Senec. in Epistles"). " De Partibus vitse quisque de- liberat, de summa nemo " (" De Brev. vitse ") (pages 336, 343, 351, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). In the Sixth Book of the "Advancement of Learning" (1623 and 1640), we find Bacon giving us a collection of " Antitheta," which are forty-seven in number, with each a " pro " and " contra." Bacon writes : " A collection of this nature we find in Seneca, but in Suppositions only or Cases of this sort (in regard we have many ready prepared), we thought good to set doAvn some of them for example ; these we call AntitJieta Eerum" (Book VL, p. 300, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). In a collection of the third group of Essays, published 1612, we find one "Of Love," which was altered in the 1625 (British Museum copy) edition. The 1612 Essay opens, "Love is the argument always of Comedies, and many times of Tragedies." In the 1625 Edition this is changed into, "The Stage is more beholding to Love than the life of man. For as to the Stage, Love is ever matter of Comedies and now and then of Tragedies." In this Essay Ave read : "It is a poor saying of Epicurus, ' Satis magtium alter alteri Theatrum siimus ' " (we are a sufficiently great Theatre, the one to the other). Seneca quotes this in his Epistle (i. 7), ascribing it to Epicurus. Seneca is repeatedly quoted by Bacon in the " Essays," and thirteen times in the 1640 "Advancement of Learning" (see Index). Directly we recall the Comedies of the Folio, we find them dealing mostly with Love, but it is not so apparent in the Tragedies except in " Othello," " Troilus and Cressida," and " Antony and Cleopatra." It is the main theme of the " Two Gentlemen of Verona," of the " Merry Wives," of " Measure for Measure," 1 34 BA CON AND SENE CA. of " Much Ado about Nothing," of " Love's Labour's Lost," of "A Midsummer Night's Dream," of "The Merchant of Venice," of " As You Like It," of " The Taming of the Shrew," of " All's Well that Ends Well," of " Twelfth Night," and of " The Winter's Tale," but in the chronicle plays it is only incidentally introduced. In " Timon of Athens," " Julius Caesar," "Macbeth," "Hamlet," "Lear," it plays hardly any role at all, so that Bacon's distinction is pretty correct, and where he studied the differences between Comedy and Tragedy in this respect we should like to know % In " Hamlet " Polonius makes the speech : — " The best actors in the world, either for Tragedy, Comedy, History, Pastoral, Pastoral-Comical, Historical-Pastoral, Tragical-Historical, Tragi- cal-Comical-Historical-Pastoral, scene indivisible, or Poem un- limited. Seneca cannot be too heavy, nor Plautus too light." In the Seventh Book of the " De Augmentis " (translation by Gilbert Wats, 1640), Avhich (mark it) treats of Ethic, and the " diverse characters of men's imtures or dispositions " (p. 352), we find a decided parallel to this passage : — " So among the Poets, Heroical, Satyrical, Tragedians, Comedians, you shall find everywhere the images of wits, although commonly xvith excess, and heyond the bounds of truth " (p. 352). On the next page (353), " For we see Plautus makes it a Avonder to see an old man beneficent, Benignitas quidem hujus oppido ut adolescentuli est" {''Mil Glo."). Bacon e\ndently was studying character in Plautus pretty closely. How Bacon's observation upon excess finds its parallel in Hamlet's speech to the Players : — " Be not too tame neither, but let your own discretion be your tutor. Suit the action to the Avord, the Avord to the action, with this special observance : that you o'erstep not the modesty of nature." The spirit of Seneca's " morals " is to be refound in Bacon's " Advancement of Learning," " De Augmentis " (Book VII.), and in the Essays. Seneca gives a series of Essays upon " Anger," consisting of twelve chai:>ters, and Bacon gives us an BACON AND SENECA. 135 Essay also upon " Anger." How much Bacon was indebted to Seneca's " Epistles " is evident from the identity of subjects and even terms which he reproduces. For example, one of Seneca's epistles is upon " Custom." Another is " Every Man is the Artificer of his Own Fortune." Bacon's treatment of " Custom," both in his Essay and in the Seventh Book " De Augmentis," shoAvs he had deeply taken to heart Seneca's writings. Another Essay (also introduced in the " De Aug- mentis ") is upon " Fortune," and it seems Sir Nicholas Bacon was fond of quoting the following line : — " Faber quisque fortune propriiB " ("Advancement of Learning," Book II., p. 93, 1605). For in " Fragmenta Regalia," by Naunton, we read (under Sir Nicholas Bacon) he was fond of saying : — " Unus quisque sufe fortun.^ faber." Seneca's " Epistles " are wonderfully close to the spirit, if not even the style, of much of Bacon's wisdom, and Seneca's entire teaching is self-sacrifice and philanthropy, inculcated in just the same religious and philosojihical way by Bacon. "It is often objected to me, that I advise people to quit the world, to retire and content themselves with a good conscience. But what becomes of yoiu- precepts then (say they) that enjoin us to die in action ? To whom I must answer. That I am never more in action than when I am alone in my study ; where I have only lock'd up myself in private, to attend the business of the public. I do not lose so much as one day ; nay, and part of the night too I borrow for my book. When my eyes will serve me no longer, I fall asleep, and till then I work. I have retired myself, not only from men, but from business also : And my own in the first, to attend the service of Posterity, in hope that what I now write may, in some measure, he profitable to future generations " (Epistle VI., "The Blessings of a Virtuous Eetirement." "How Ave come to the Knowledge of Virtue." Seneca's "Morals," 1678). Every- one acquainted with Bacon's writings must recognise in these last 136 BA CON AND SENE CA. words what Bacon is perpetually repeating for himself. " Born for the service of mankind," Avi'ites Bacon. And it is always for " After Ages," " Posterity," he writes. In his preface to the " Instauration " : — " Some demonstration of his sincere and pre- pense affection to promote the good of mankind" (p. 3, "Advance- ment of Learning," 1640). " Truly he esteemed other ambition whatsoever inferior to the business he had in hand : for either the matter in consultation, and thus far prosecuted, is nothing, or so much as the conscience of the merit itself, ought to give him con- tentment, without seeking a recompense from abroad" (p. 3, "Advance- ment of Learning," 1640). This is thoroughly in the style of Seneca. Bacon writes : — " I take Goodness in this sense the affect- ing of the weal of men, which is that the Graecians called PJiilanthropia ; and the word Humanity (as it is used) is a little too light to express it. Goodness I call the habit, and Goodness of Nature the inclination. This, of all virtues and dignities of the mind, is the greatest, being the character of the Deity.'*' And without it Man is a busy, mischievous, wretched thing, no better than a kind of vermin " ("Of Goodness and Goodness of Natiu'e "). Again, " The inclination to Goodness is imprinted deeply in the nature of man, insomuch that, if it issue not towards men, it will take unto other living creatures : as it is seen in the Turks, a cruel people, who, nevertheless, are kind to beasts, and give alms to dogs and birds : insomuch as Busbechius reporteth, a Christian boy in Constantinople had like to have been stoned, for gagging in a waggishness a long-billed fowl " (" Goodness and Goodness of Nature "). See how all this is re-echoed in "Titus Andronicus": — Wilt thou draw near the nature of the Gods ? Draw near them in being merciful. Sweet mercy is nobility's true badge. (Act i. sc. 1.) Seneca's letters upon " Cruelty " and upon " Clemency " (or Mercy) are re-echoes of all this. Seneca writes : — " Though * Earthly power doth then show likest God's When mercy seasons justice. (" Merchant of Venice," act iv. sc. 1.) BA CON AND SENE CA. 137 Mercy and Gentleness of Nature keeps all in peace and tran- quillity, even in a cottage, yet is it much more beneficial and conspicuous in a palace. Clemency does well Avith all, hut best with Princes." Compare with this the clemency of the Prince to Shylock, and the lines : — The (quality of mercy is not strained, &c. In 1591, Avhen Bacon was thirty-one, he writes to Lord Bur- leigh : " This, whether it be curiosity or vain glory, or nature, or if one take it favourably, Philanthropia is so fixed in my mind as it cannot he removed" ("Letters"). With this should be coupled Bacon's deeply religious s2:)irit, as evinced in his writings and the testimony of Doctor Rawlcy (" this lord was religious ") to the same effect. Bacon's life had (we suggest) two distinct ends and two distinct phases. One was the real Bacon himself (as Dr Abbott puts it), alone like Seneca in his study, writing for Posterity and the service of mankind. This was the contem- plative looker on, the true man. The other phase was the man of action, playing a part as means to his great ends. Bacon in his dedicatory epistle to Andrews (Bishop of Win- chester) accompanying his " Holy War," compares himself to Demosthenes, Cicero, and Seneca. Bacon Avas the first Orator of his age, as Ben Jonson testifies. " The fear of every man that heard him was, lest he should make an end." And so the comparison with Demosthenes is exact. Cicero was a great Orator also, and a great lawyer like Bacon, also a ■\\Titer and Philosopher ; but Seneca was a great Dramatist, and it is not so easy to see the parallel except in the point of Fortune. " Only one specimen of the talents of the Romans for Tragedy has come down to us. These are the ten tragedies which pass under the name of Seneca " (Donaldson's, ' Theatre of the Greeks," p. 357). It is Avell worthy study to ask ourselves if Bacon in this comparison of himself Avith Seneca does not give us a profound hint as to his dramatic side. Gervinus (as already quoted by us) declares Seneca to have inspired Shakespeare. And here is the 138 BA CON AND SENE CA. alter ego of Shakespeare confessing to self-comparison Avith this Latin author. " Seneca, indeed, who Avas condemned for many corruptions and crimes, and banished into a solitary island kept a mean ; and though his pen did not freeze, yet he abstained from intruding into matters of business ; but spent his time in writing IxinJcs of excellent argumeid and use for all ages ; though he might have made better choice (sometimes) of his dedications. These examples confirmed me much in a resolution to spend my time ^vholly in wnting, and so to put forth that poor talent, or half talent, or what it is, that God luith given me, not as heretofore to particular exchanges, hut to banks or mounts of perpetuity which will not breaJc." There is a vast deal in Seneca's morals that we refind in Bacon's Avorks in more Avays than one. Seneca : " I could never hear Attains upon the vices of the age, and the errors of life tvWwiit a comparison for mankind " (ch. v. " Of a Happy Life "). In the " NeAv Atlantis " Ave read of the Tirsan, " Avho had an aspect as if he pitied men." " For Ave ourselves are our own greatest flatterers " (ch. vi. " Of a Happy Life," Seneca). " It hath been Avell said, that the Arch-flatterer Avith Avhom all the petty flatterers have intelligence, is a man's self " (Essay, " Love "). " It is every man's duty to make himself profitable to man- kind " (ch. vii. " Happy Life »). " The passage to virtue is fair, but the way to greatness is craggy, and it stands not only upon a precipice, but upon ice too : and yet it is a hard matter to convince a great man that his station is slippery " (ch. xii. " Happy Life "). The art o' the court, As liard to leave as keep ; whose top to climb Is certain falliug, or so s/ijypenj that The fear 's as bad as falling. ("Cymbeliiie," act iii. sc. 3.) CHAPTER VII. " ANTITHETA " IN BACON, ETC. "For who knows not that the doctrine of contraries are the same, tliough they be opposite in use" (Book VI., p. 209, "Advancement of Learning"). "They that endeavour to abolish vice destroy also virtue, for contraries, though they destroy one another, are yet in life of one another" ("Religio Medici," Browne, p. 113). Hegel, in his logic, affirms " everything is at once that which it is, and the contrary of that which it is." Bacon has in his Rhetoric drawn up a collection of ^' Antitheta," or pros and cons, that give, as it were, the Sophisms of each side of a question or proposition. Most of these subjects are identical with, or touch very nearly the arguments of the Essays. Nothing is so remarkable in the plays as the antithetical style, which gives the sujjposed Shakespeare at once his depth and peculiar hall mark of distinction from every other writer ancient or modern. JFJiether philosojihising or illustrating, nothing the author delights in more than antithesis m' paradox. It enters so largely into the text of his Theatre, we must conclude the author's mind was so constituted, so impersonal and universal, that he could contemplate no subject without at once embracing its negative. Here are a few examples. In poison there is physic. (" 2 King Henry IV.," act i. sc. 1.) These sentences to sugar, or to gall. Being strong on both sides are equivocal. ("Othello," acti. sc. 3.) And do but see his vice, 'Tis to his vertue a just equinox. The one's as long as t'othc?: ("Othello," act ii. sc. 2.) 1 40 " ANTITHE TA " IN BA CON, E TC. Merry and tragical ! Tedious and brief ! That is hot ice, and wondrous strange snow, How sliall we lind the concord of this discord ? (" Midsummer Niglit's Dream," act v. sc. 1.) The better act of purposes mistook, Is tp mistake again, tliougli indirect, Yet indirection thereby grows direct. ("King John," act i. sc. 1.) His liumble ambition, proud humility : His jarring concord : and his discord dulcet, His faith, his sweet disaster. ("All's Well that Ends Well, act i. sc. 1.) brawling love ! loving hate ! anything of nothing first create ! O heavy lightness. Serious vanity 1 Misshapen chaos of well-seeming forms ! Feather of lead, bright smoke, cold fire, sick health. Still waking sleeji, that is not what it is : This love feel I, that feel no love in this. ("Romeo and Juliet," act. i. sc. 1.) To quote them all would be to quote a greater part of the 1623 Folio, for we venture to maintain the style of the works known as Shakespeare's, is characterised by profundity of ex- pression, the result of a perfectly-trained mind, holding a peculiar philosophy, and applying it to everything as explanation. What we mean is, that in this iterated Antithesis we hold a powerful key for the locked wards of the mind of whoever Avi^ote these plays. This delight in Antithesis is at once a proof of an intellect matui'ed in the schools, familiar with Aristotle (as Bacon confesses in his letter to Mountjoye), and of a mind always clear, estimating philosophy as master of poetry, not servant. Buffon has declared that "the style is the man" in writing. Style is the outcome of thought. If the thoughts are profound, clear, and philosophic, the style Avill reveal it. Nothing is more certain, we venture to suggest, than that the mind of the author of this style known as Shakespeare's, delighted in embracing the idea of the contrary or negative of a thing, at the same time as its positive. Excess always brings (in " ANTITHETA " IN BA CON, ETC. 141 the philosophy of the plays), its direct opposite. Loss brings want, plenty satiety and disgust ; excessive generosity and faith in humanity, produces excessive misanthrojjy and cynicism, as in the cases of "Timon of Athens," and "King Lear." There is in the plays evidence (both in style and in construction of plot and character), of a mind bent upon illustrating the dangers of excess in anything, and we find it revealed in such passages as the following : — The violence of either grief or joy Their own enaetures with themselves desti'oy. ("Hamlet," act iii. so. 2.) " For aught I see, they are as sick that surfeit v:ith too much as they tliat starve with nothing ; it is no small ha2)piness, therefore, to be seated in the mean. Superfluity comes sooner by white hairs, but competence lives longer." (" Merchant of Venice," act i.) Under such passages we may perceive the doctrine pointed, that ^j?-opo?'^iOTi ar hcdance is as much an ingi^edient in happiness as in Art or Nature. In the Sonnets we find evidence once more of this philosophy of contraries at war, and yet in union or love. Evil with Bacon is not an affirmative, but only a negative, and we find the plays reiterating the words of Goethe in Faust, that the Devil is he, "who constantly denies," and yet "brings forth the good." God Almighty ! There is some soul of goodness in things evil, "Would men observingly distil it out ; Thus may we gather honey from the weed, And make a moral of the devil himself. (" King Henry V.," act iv. sc. 1.) Amongst Bacon's "Colours of Good and Evil," we find him almost enunciating the same doctrine : — " That which draws near to Good or Evil, the same is likewise Good or Evil ; hut that which is removed from Good is Evil, from. Evil is Good." In the Reprehen- sion of this Colour Bacon writes: — "But the colour deceives three ways ; first, in respect of Destitution ; secondly, in respect of Obscwration : thirdly, in respect of Protection. In regard of 142 '' ANTITHETA' IN BACON, ETC. Protection, for things approach and congi^egate not only for consort and similitude of nature, but even that which is evil (especially in Civil matters) approacheth to Good for conceahnent and Protection ; so ^vicked persons betake themselves to the sanctuary of the Gods, and rice itself assumes the shape and shadow of rirtxie. Sccpe latct vitium 2yroxi')nitatc honi." (P. 214, Lib. VI., "Advancement of Learning," 1640.) There is no vice so simj^le hut assumes Some onark of virtue on his outward parts : How many cowards, whose liearts are all as false As stairs of sand, wear yet upon their chins The beards of Hercules, and frowning Mars, Who inward search'd have livers white as milk, t And these assume but valours excrement To render them redoubted. ("Merchant of Venice," act iii. sc. 2.) Now these repeated " Antitheta" cannot be explained upon any ordinary grounds as casual indulgences of thought, and if they were even so, they would remain unexplained. They are so frequent, and play such a profound part in the style of the text, we must conclude not only are they introduced with reference to some philosophical principles underlying the construction and rationalism of these plays, as yet unrevealed to us, but that the author had arrived at some definite and accepted explanation of life as the result of Opposites or Contraries, in some such sense as expounded in the philosophy of Heraclitus. The remarkable point is, we find Bacon re-echoing all this in his Essays, and " Antitheta,," and " Colours of Good and Evil." In a letter to Lord Mountjoye prefixed to these colours, or pros and cons, he confesses he has borrowed them from Aristotle's " Ehetoric." So that we see his mind was perfectly trained and versed in these sophisms, for and against, which he examples as places of per- siuision and dissuasion. These "Antitheta" are applicable to the Essays. If we read the Essay on Truth (for example) we find two contradictory or antithetical propositions, — one setting forth and inclining to a life of study, and the other a life of active ''ANTITHETA" IN BACON, ETC. 143 politics. It is this that gives the Essays an impersonality and an impossibility of arriving at any particular teaching, except for good in the main. Dissimulation is praised as joolitic, yet Bacon elsewhere declares himself " vanquished with an immortal love of truth." Presently he declares " Nakedness of the mind to be as uncomely as nakedness of the body." We desire to point out the parallel that Bacon is universal, impersonal, all-sided, impartial, and we refind exactly the same myriad-minded impassiveness and philosophical treatment in the plays. From Bacon's Essay upon " Cupid, or the Origins and Principles of Things," we are inclined to believe he had adopted some sort of philosophy, founded on what may be permitted us to briefly term. Affirmatives and Nega- tives, otherwise rendered in such synonyms as Light and Dark- ness, Love and Hate, Heat and Cold, Attraction and Repulsion, in connection with the philosophy of Participation of Parmenides, and the Atomic theory of Democritus. We find in the Sonnets this philosophy of Opposites very strongly hinted and delivered in the form of paradox. The philosophy of the plays frequently tui'ns upon profound paradox. Everything runs to its oppo- site,* like an over-loaded ship. Directly we lose a thing we feel its loss, though not before. Excess produces its direct opposite in want. Discord prepares for Concord. Too much sweetness produces bitterness, and so applied to everything in morality and life. I think the reader will grant this is a great characteristic of what is known as Shakespeare's writings. And being so, we are certain it amounted in the writer's mind to something more than chance reflection. It infects the language and com- pacts it into that condensed form of pithy philosophy and para- dox so often hard to follow. Virtue and Vice are treated from this point of view as laws of attraction and repulsion, as effects of light and shadow. If Ave were asked to characterise the peculiar style of the writing of the plays (apart from plot or * The present pleasure, By revolution lowering does become The opposite of itself. ( ' ' Antony and Cleopatra, " act i. so. 2. ) 144 ''ANTITHETA" IN BACON, ETC. character), we should say that it abounded and revelled in anti- thetical expression and paradox. The writer has always the affirmative and the negative of a proposition in his mind at the same time, and frequently involves one Avith the other. P]ven in portrayal of character the same great law is observed. The fools in the plays are really the "wise men, and are intro- duced, as in Lear, always to lighten some dark background. Timon becomes cynic like Apemantus, Avhom he had never listened to in prosperity. Lear's real madness is set side by side with Edgar's feigned madness. The real and the false are introduced as light and shadow to illustrate each other. We see this again in Hamlet's feigned and Ophelia's real madness. It is particularly prominent in the contrast afforded by Ape- mantus the cynic, and Timon the misanthrope, the latter becoming a hundredfold more cynical than the former when too late. Archbishop Tenison in "Baconiana" {pub. 1679) thus alludes to the Essays : — " His Lordship wTote them in the English tongue, and enlarged them as occasion served, and at last added to them the ' Colours of Good and Evil,' which are likeAvase found in his book 'Be Augmentis.'" This is a very important point for us to consider, because it at once shows Bacon wrote these Essays with an eye upon Aristotle's Rhetoric, and that he intended to write in an impersonal and philosophic spirit — for the " Colours of Good and Eiil " are pros and cons of both sides of every proposition. But what is far more important, and I think a discovery of some Aveight, is that in the "De Aug- mentis," 1623 (and 1640 translation by Wats), we find these " Colours " introduced as part of " The Wisdom of Pnvate Speech" " Surely it will not be amiss to recommend this whereof we now speak to a new Inquiry, and to call it by name ' The Wisdom OF Private Speech,' and to refer it to Deficients; a thing certainly which the more seriously a man shall think on, the more highly he shall value ; and whether this kind of Prudence should be placed between Rhetoric and the Politics is a matter of no great consequence. Now let us descend to the Deficients ''ANTITHETA" IN BACON, ETC. 145 in this Art, which (as tve luive said he fore) are of such nature as may be esteemed rather Appendices^ than portions of the art itself, and pertain all to the promptuary part of Rhetoric. "First, we do not find that any man hath well pursued or supplied the wisdom and the diligence also of Aristotle ; for he began to make a collection of the Popular signs and colours of Good and Eril in appearance, both simple and comparative, which are indeed the Sophisms of Rhetoric : they are of excellent use, specially referred to business and the tdsdom of private speech" (Book VI., p. 210, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). Upon this follow twelve examples of the "Colours of Good and Evil." Then follow immediately ^' Antitheta Berum" (or the counterpoint of things, see platform) which Bacon has imitated from Seneca, and which he calls "a second Provision or Preparatory Store," which are places of Persuasion and Dissuasion. These are forty-seven in number. The first point to note is the place these subjects hold in the "De Augmentis," viz.: — '■^ Illustrations of Speech or Bhetoric," which last (mark) is but one of the three great Divisions of Elocution or of Tradition (see table). But the final words of the Fifth Book (introducing us to the Sixth Book) conclude, "Now we descend in order to the fourth member of Logic, which handles Tradition and Elocution." In the platform of the design may be seen the heading and the divisions and sub- divisions of the Sixth Book, falling or embraced under the chief heading : — The Partition or the Art of Elocution or of Tradition INTO : — (And under this falls) " Illustration of Speech or Bhetoric." So that these "Colours of Good and Evil" belong to the Art of Delivery (Tradition) of things (?) invented, and (as we have heard already) Promptuary and Appendices of " The JFisdom of Private Speech," but why it should be private speech or what it should prompt to, we have no instructions except our wits or guesses to assist us ! It is plain all this refers to something else, K 146 '' ANTITHETA" IN BACON, ETC. which Bacon has to veil in obscure and private language. Our theory is that he here suggests tlte Esmi/s in context uifh the Plays. And we have already discovered some of the examples Bacon gives, evidently in contact \vith the Plays. In a letter to Prince Henry, dedicating his fourth edition of the Essays 1612 to him, Bacon Avrites : — " Which I have called Essays. The word is late, but the thing is ancient ; for Senecah Epistle to Lucilius, if you mark them well, are hut Essays, that is dispersed meditations, though conveyed in the form of epistles." This is important, because we find Bacon introducing his "Forty-seven Examples of Antitheta I-verum"with the words : — "A collection of this nature we find in Seneca, but in suppositions only or cases. Of this sort (in regard we have many ready prepared) we thought good to set down some of them for example ; these we call Antitheta Rerum " (p. 300, Book VI., "Advancement of Learning," 1640). Now Gervinus asserts Seneca to have been Shakespeare's (save the mark !) ideal, and that the author of the Plays studied this ancient tragedian more than any other Avriter. So that to find Bacon alluding to Seneca's Epistles in context with, his own Essays is highly suspicious, pointing to the Plays, seeing the subjects of these Essays are for a large part devoted to analysis of human character, passions, or affections of the mind which constitute the motives of Comedy and Tragedy, viz.: — Love, Anger, Envy, Suspicion, Beauty, Deformity, Ambition, Friendship, Vain-Glory, Cunning, Revenge, Simulation and Dissimulation, Boldness, Seditions, Faction, Empire, Fortune, Usury, all of which enter, in an extraordinary degree, into the composition of the Dramatis Personce and text of the 1623 Theatre attributed to Shakespeare. Each of these titles is the subject of an Essay by Bacon, and we cannot imagine an analysis of the plays re- solving itself into anything less than a study of these affections, attributes, and their relationships. The colours of the 'Theatre are given us in these Essays, as on the palette of a dramatic artist waiting to use them. By examining the (1605) " Two Books of the Advancement of Learning," and collating the Second Book with the 1623 "De " ANTITHETA " IN BACON, ETC. 147 Augmentis," which grew out of it, we can trace the germs or early sketch of what Bacon afterwards developed into eight separate books. In seeking this particular point in the Sixth Book, Ave find in the 1605 "Advancement" this: — "Now we descend to that part which concerneth the Illustration of Tradition compreliended in tluit science, which we call Rhetoric or art of Eloquence." This is confirmation of what we already have suggested. "The duty and office of lihetoric is To apply Reason to Iinaf/imiiion for the better moving of the will ; for we see Reason is disturbed in the administration thereof by three means ; by illaqueation, or sopJdsni, which pertains to Logic ; by iimujination or impression, which pertains to Rheforic ; and by Passion or Affection, which pertains to Morality" (p. 66, Book IL, 1605). Now Bacon has laid it down in this work that by imagination he means poetry.* One of the most remarkable features of the " De Augmentis " of 1623 are the prsetermitted parts, or ^^ Deficients," which are fifty in number. Now it is very curious to find some of these " Deficients," are works already completed hy Bacon. For example, the Sixth Deficient is " Sapientia Vetermn," or Bacon's " Wisdom of the Ancients." Although it does not openly say so, the title is sufficient. And here is a still more pertinent hint for the 1623 Folio, that it is in context with "Parabolical Poesy," for he introduces this Deficient upon page 108, following the discussion of the drama and stage plays. The thirty-first Deficient is the " Organum Novum," or true directions for the Interpretation of Nature. And the reader is begged to mark a strange thing, worthy profound reflection, — that in the 1640 translation of the " De Augmentis," by Gilbert Wats, we find most of these De- ficients marked by an asterisk in the margin. But these par- ticular subjects are not so marked, but passed over. The twenty- fifth Deficient is entitled " Prolongando Curnculo Vitce," and is evidently a finger-post for Bacon's "History of Life and Death." * ' ' Tliat is the truest partition of liumane learning, wliicli hath reference to tlie three faculties of Man's soul, wliich is the seat of learning. History is referred to Memory, Poesy to the Imagination, Philosophy to Reason " (Lib. II., "Advancement of Learning"). 148 '' ANTITHETA" IN BACON, ETC. In the Catalogue of these "Deficients" (at the end of both the 1623 "De Augmentis" and 1640 translation), we find one entitled "Saf>/ra, Seria," which we re-find in the Seventh Book (p. 351), and called " De Interiorihus Rerum." This Deficient is also omitted from the margin of the paging. Now there is a very strong parallel (we are about to endeavour to maintain), this Deficient alludes to the Essays, because Bacon calls them " The Interim- of Things," and to the final edition (published in " Operum Moralium et Cidlium," by Rawley, 1638) we find this actual title heading them, " Interionim Berum ." The Essays are undoubtedly ethical, and this Seventh Book deals also with the "Will of Man, which Bacon calls Moral Knowledge. The Essays are, moreover, satirical, inasmuch as they censure and lay bare the vices, follies, impostures, and subtle reaches of human character, j^assions, and appetites. Such of the Essays as "Revenge," "Simulation and Dissimulation," "Envy," "Boldness," "Super- stition," "Atheism," "Cunning," "Of Seeming Wise," "Sus- picion," "Ambition," "Usury," "Deformity," "Vain Glory," "Anger," "Riches," "Fortune," "Of Nature in Men," "Of AVisdom for a man's self," &c., are really a keen analysis of the impostures, frauds, vices, and passions in human natiu'e. And we must be careful not to rely too much on the bare titles of these Essays, which are mingled and obscured with others (Prophecies, Plantations, Expense, Judicature, Faction, &c.), purposely to veil by art their close approximation to the characters of the Drama, inasmuch as Ave find their " Antifheta" (which are connected with them) in the Sixth Book of the " De Augmentis," as Appendices (see Platform) to Rhetoric (or illustra- tion of Speech), giving us further the titles "Pride," "Ingratitude," "Cruelty," "Loquacity," "Flattery," "Silence," "Violent Coun- sels," "Incontinence," Avith other subjects already existing as Essays ("Beauty," "Youth," "Health," "Riches," "Fortune," "Empire," "Nature," "Superstition," &c.). We find these " Antitheta " have each a i)articular Essay to which they belong. This has been already pointed out l)y AVhately (Essays) and '' ANTITHETA" IN BACON, ETC. 149 by Di- Abbott (Essays). What we ideally are striving to draw attention to, is first, that the "De Augmentis," is a "jrrepara- iive or hey for the better opening of the Instauration" and that these introductions or sketches and titles in connection with other works of Bacon's, are so placed as to show us the use they are intended to serve. Thus all these " Antitheta" (following the "Colours of Good and Evil") are part of Bacon's system of Delivery, and come under the great heading of Tradition or Elocution, ivhich latter Bacon terms Poetry (See Platform of Book VI., "Advancement of Learning," 1640). Archbishop Whately, in the Preface to the Essays (1860), remarks : — ■" He is throughout, and especially in his Essays, one of the most suggestive authors that ever wrote. And it is re- markable that, compressed and pithy as the Essays are, and consisting chiefly of brief hints, he has elsewhere condensed into a still smaller compass the matter of most of them. In his Rhetoric (Sixth Book ' De Augmentis') he has drawn up what he calls ' Antitheta,' or common-places, 'locos,' i.e., pros and cons, opposite sentiments and reasons on various points, most of them the .^ame that are discussed in the Essays. It is a compendious and clear mode of bringing before the mind the most important points in any question, to place in parallel columns, as Bacon has done, whatever can be plausibly urged, fairly or unfairly, on opposite sides; and then you are in the condition of a judge who has to decide some muse after having heard all the pleadings. I have accordingly appended to most of the Essays some of Bacon's ' Antitheta ' on the same subjects " (page v.). The important point is, Bacon introduces these ^^ Antitheta" as " Pronqjtaary part of Rhetoric" (following the "Colours of Good and Evil"), or as "a second collection or preparatory store"; and in "The Two Books of the Advancement" (1605) we find the early sketch of this now more developed germ entitled, '^Preparation and Suggestion," coming under "Literate Experience and Interpretation of Nature" (pages 51, 52). "And we see the ancient -writers of Rhetoric do give it in precept: 15° " ANTITBETA" IN BACON, ETC. That Pleaders should hare the places ivherenf theij have most cmitiunal use,. ready handled hi all the varieties that mmj he, as that to speak for the literal interpretation of the law against equiti/ and contrary ; and to speak fry)- p-esumptions and inferences against testimony and contrary." Archbishop Whately remarks : — " Several of these ' Antitheta ' were either adopted by Bacon from proverbial use, or have (through him) become proverbs." This is perfectly true, for a vast number of them do come from the proverbs of Solomon, a collection of which is one of the curious features of the " Ad- vancement of Learning." Whately continues : " Proverbs accord- ingly are somewhat analogous to those medical formulas which being in frequent use, are kept ready made up in the chemists' shops, and which often save the framing of a distinct proposi- tion " (page vi., Preface, " Essays "). Now this is exactly what Bacon saj's of his "Antitheta," though in other words. He calls them ^^ seeds," ^^ store," "skeins, or bottoms of thread to be draion out and imwvnded into larger discourse as occasion should be pre- sented." And he concludes : " Seeing they are seeds and not floimrs." Our conviction is they are the seeds of tlie Shake- speare {so called) Theatre ; being the pithy abstract of certain virtues and vices, passions and affections, or attributes of human characters portrayed in action in the plays. And we are to unwind these "skeins of thread," develop these seeds by analysing the plots and the motives of each particular play. They seem to us texts for and against. The headings alone of these " Antitheta " do a tale unfold, inasmuch as they constitute not only a supple- ment to the subjects of the Essays, but speak loudly enough for themselves, as the colours of the dramatic artist, viz. : " F/ide," "Envy," " Berenge," "Boldness," "Ingratitude," "Incontinence," "Vain-Glory," ^^ Cruelty," which we may term vices. Then we also find these headings : " Braise," " Fortitude," " Temperance," " Constancy," " Blagnanimity," " Learning," " Love," " Fiiendship," "Beauty," "Youth," "Nobility;' " Biches," "Honours," "Fortune," " Empire." These are connected with the Essays — at least most of them. And there seems to be a probability Bacon disguised ' ' A NT I THE TA " IN BA CON, ETC. 151 the titles of some of the Essays, and mixed them up with sul)jects not coimected with the Theatre at first sight. For exam})le, Bacon Avrites in a letter to Bishop Andrews: "And again for that my Book of Advancement of Learning, may be some 2) reparative or key for the letter opening of the Instauration ; because it exhibits a mixture of new conceits and old " (Pre- fixed to the Advertisement of the "Holy War"). Again, evi- dently alluding to this particular work, which he considered his favourite writing: "Therefore, having not long since set forth a j)art of my Instauration, which is the work that in mine own judgment (Si niunquam fallit imago) I do most esteem Yet, nevertheless, I have just cause to doubt that it flies too high over 77ie)i's heads" (Ibid.). In a letter to Dr Playfer on this same work : " And therefore the j^nvatmess of the langimge considered, wherein it is written, excluding so many readers ; as on the other side the obscurity of the argument, in many parts of it, excludeth many others, &c." (Part I., "Resus.," p. 28). It appears as if Bacon associated himself personally with this particular work. For in a letter to Sir Thomas Bodley, upon sending his book of "Advancement of Learning," we read : "And the second copy I have sent unto you, not only in good affection, but in a kind of congruify, in regard of your great and rare desert of learning. For Books are the shrines where the Saint is or believed to be. And you having built an Ark to save learning from deluge, deserve propriety in any new instrument or engine whereby learning should be improved or advanced." It is very difficult to com- prehend in what sense Bacon signifies the " Advancement " to be a ^^preparative or key for the better opening of the Instauration " 1 Dr Abbott, in his scholarly introduction to Bacon's "Essays," writes that the latter "embody the Antitheta " (page xvii.). Now this is well worthy attention, because it shows these Essays were written without any particular bias, but embrace both sides of their subjects in pro and contra. And therefore the attempt to extract any opinion as to Bacon's particular subjectivity out of them is as absurd as the laying of weight upon selections out of 152 '' ANTITHETA" IN BACON, ETC. the plays, to illustrate their author. Why were these " Antitheta" not pul)lished with the Essays % Why are they to be found in the "De Augmentis," and particularly in the Sixth Book handling Traditive Art, that is the " Deliveiij of Secret Knouiedge " to Pos- terity 1 The " Colours of Good and Evil " were published with the Essays in 1597 (first edition). And we refind them in this Sixth Book of the " De Augmentis " entitled " Prowftuary part of Rhetoric,'^ and appendices of the " JFisduiii of Private Speech,'' so that they are evidently introduced here as helps, aids, or cues to something else that is "prirafe " (or obscure) and traditive ! I take the entire Sixth Book of the "De Augmentis," to consist of nothing but the different methods and ways, by which Bacon has determined to hand on to us, the problem of the authorship of the plays. Upon page 209, Book IV., of the "Advancement of Learning," 1640, we find Bacon writing of "Divination " and of the "Facul- ties of the Soul." Very strangely the paging proceeds correctly to page 280, when it suddenly hecomes 209, falsely mispaged, and continues for eight pages, Avhen once more it takes up the correct paging, 289, as if there had been no lapses. Now it is very remarkable this false page, 209 (Ins), Book VI., introduces us to the relationship of Logic to Ethic, and upon page 210* to the " Wisdom of Private Speech," embracing the " Colours of Good and Evil." There can be, no doid^t, the last point to the Essays, for they were pul)lished together in 1597. And this is corroborated by the '■^ Antitheta" (which follow iipon the " Colours of Good and Evil "), being the kernels or pith of the Essays placed pro and con. This needs no apology as a state- ment, for it has not only been recognised by Whately and Dr Abbott, but the ^^ Antitheta" speak loudly enough for themselves as to their origins. The " Colours of Good and Evil " are examples of the working of these " Antitheta," that is, with the sophisms, re-argued by Bacon. * This page 210 is exactly the double of page 10.5, ujmn loMch latter Poetry is first discussed. It is striking to find that 105 is the sum of tJie two first false pagings 52 aiid 53, Shalxspmres age 1616, full years and year he had just entered. CHAPTER VIIl. HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. In the relationship of History to Poetry may be refound some profound study by Bacon of Aristotle (" De Augmentis "). Aris- totle writes : — " The difference between the liidoriiui and the poet is not that one speaks in verse and the other in prose. The real distinction is, that the one relates what has been, the other what might have been. On this account Poetry is more philosophical and a more excellent thing than history, for poetry is conversant with the universal, history with the particular." How frequently Bacon implies the same thing may be seen in the following- passages : — -" By Poesy in this place, we understand nothing l)ut feigned Histoi'ij or fables." " Historij is properhj uf individuals circmn- scribed within time and place." "Poesy in that sense we have expounded it, is likewise of individiuds, fancied to the similitude of those things which in true history are recorded, yet so as often it exceeds measure ; and those things which in nature would never meet, nor come to pass, Poes;/ composeth and introduceth at pleasure, even as Painting doth" (p. 77, Book H., "Advance- ment," 1640). There is a relationship implied here between History and Poetry, the one being circumscribed to time and place, the other not so. Again, " for a true narration may be composed in verse, and a feigned in prose. In the latter sense Ave have already determined it a principal member of learning, and have placed it next unto history, seeing it is nothing else than imitation (f historg at pleasure" (Poetry, Book II. p. 105, "Ad- vancement," 1640). Again, ^^ Dramatical or Pepresentative (Poetry) is, as it Avere, a visible history" (p. 106). AVe may perceive how determined Bacon is to class History and Poetry together, as particular and universal aspects of past and present history. 154 HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. Let us consider that out of the thirty-six plays of the 1623 Folio, no less than ten are entitled " Histories," and are nothing Ijut ^^ feigned histories," or "iinitatioii of history at ])leaswe," in exactly the sense Bacon inculcates in the passage quoted. If we add to the Chronicle plays, the historical j^lays of " Coriolanus," "Julius Csesar," "Timon of Athens," "Titus Andronicus," "Antony and Cleopatra," " Macbeth," how great is the number of these ^^ feigned histmies" treated poetically, and ^^ fancied to the similitude of those things which in true history are recorded " / Indeed, almost the entire Folio consists of plays of this character. For " Hamlet," " Lear," " Othello," " Cymbeline," though not so strictly in accord Avith history as the chronicles and classical plays, are nevertheless each founded upon, and Avoven round certain historical figures, traditions, or myths the dramatist borrowed from. " Hamlet," taken from Saxo-Grammaticus, has an historical basis for facts. Cymbeline really lived ; his uncle, Cassibulan, holding for chief town Verolaninm (or Verulam), the site of St Albans, Bacon's home. " Othello " (borroAved from Cinthio's novel) has probably some origin in fact. In short, the only plays not of this character of ^^ feigned history " are the Comedies, if even certain pieces like the " Comedy of Errors " borroAved from Plautus, do not belong to " Dramatic history " redressed 1 Only thirteen plays out of thirty-six do not belong to Avhat, strictly speaking, is only "feigned history," as Bacon calls poetry. Therefore, in classing History and Poetry together, in an interchangeable sense of past made present, and calling dramatical poetry "visible history," Bacon is perfectly logical, and at the same time presents us Avith a hint for the greater part of the character of the 1623 Folio. We are bound to alloAv the possible truth of the theory we postulate in connection with this cipher problem, that the plays may contain a great deal more " true narration " though Avritten "in verse," than Ave imagine. So likeAvise this actual book of " De Augmentis " Ave quote from, may contain a great deal "feigned in prose," seeing it is "obscurely" written and the " ptivate- ness (f the langimge excludeth so rimny remiers " as Bacon Avrites. HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. 155 Much of Bacon's poetry or "feigned hisfori/," may cOMtain real history of " /i/v'.s'," and " relafinns," and "times," as yet hidden in UTidiscovered cipher. But be this true or no, Poetry is nothing but Memory or feigned History, and it seems to us almost evident. Bacon introduces History with regard to Poetry and with regard to Memory or Cudody (chap. v. Book V.), which we find immediately followed by the great book of Delivery or Ciphers. Indeed it is not going too far to suggest, it is impossible to imagine three more perfect foundations than Memory, Imagina- tion, and Reason, emanating into History, Poetry, and Philo- sophy, as three great principles (imj^lying faculties of the mind), underlying a philosophical Drama, intended for revelation or discovery. In the light of a great Cipher Key work, pointing to the plays, this book of "De Augmentis," is sufficiently pregnant in these tripartite divisions (bracketed together in the table or platform of the design) to suggest all we claim for the character of this work. If Bacon had been no poet, we suggest he would not have thus brought poetry into prominence and classed it amongst the sciences. The Avork is the basement, door, and access to a structure of literature, and nobody we maintain knew this better than the writer. "Poetry is not a hwivledge," he writes, "hut a play of ivit," * and the scientific air with which he disguises all this Avas only part of his design. What Ave ask has the Instauration, of which this is the first pto-Tt (called a preparative or key for the better opening of it) to do Avith Poetry and History 1 Let those who would reply " the Avork is only an enumeration and review of the chief divisions of learning " study the prefaces. They will see the Great Instauration is an entire tvhole, and, moreover, a creative whole (compared to the six days), one part to be applied to another part, and embracing types of invention as examples of illustration to the Baconian logic or inductive system. In the "Advancement and Proficience of Learning," 1605 * In spite of this statement, Bacon makes Poetry one of the Foundations of his "Advancement of Learning " ! The fact that his third faculty, " Reason," should consist of "Ciphers" and "Delivery of Secret Knowledge" is suspicious. 156 HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. {which may be considei^ed the fird hiiili of the 1623 " De Augmentis ") we read : — " It (Poetry) is taken in two senses in respect of words or matter." " In the first sense it is but a char- acter of style and belongeth to arts of speech, and is not pertinent for the present. In the latter it is (as hath been said) one of the princijcial ])ortions of learning, and is nothing else but feigned history, which may be styled as well in prose as verse" (Book II., iii. 4). It is most important to note the distinction Bacon makes between woixls and riuitter Avith regard to poetry. For he evidently must have had some reason for so doing. And we get a hint in the words, " So as theology consisteth also of history of the Church, of parables, which is divine poesy." This thoroughly is in keeping with his statement that Poetry is "feigned history," which may be styled as Avell in prose as in verse. In the "Advancement of Learning," 1640, he writes: — "As for Narrative Poesy, or, if you please, Heroical (so you understand it of the matter, not of the verse), it seems to be raised altogether from a noble foundation " (p. 106). Again, " Representative (Poe/ry Draimitical) is as a visible history, and is an image of actions as if they were present, as history is of actions in nature as they are (that is) past" (1605, Book II., iv. 3). Bacon's two great divisions (or emanations of memory and imagination). History and Poetry, become really two aspects of History, viz., "Beal History" and "Feigned History," the former past, the latter present in the Chronicle historical plays, and perhaps more real in the sense of immortality, than the dead personages of the past they are copied from. If we now tvirn to Bacon's third faculty of the mind — Reason — we find it interpreted as Philosophy. When we come to study it in the " De Augmentis " critically, we are surprised to find what prominence Bacon has given, in part of an entire book, to " Ciphers," "Handing mi the lamp for posterity," and " Tlie JFisdom of Private Speech." For these subjects are not concerned with philosophy or science in the accepted sense, or in the spirit of Bacon's inductive inquiries into " Cold and Heat," " Motion," "Heavy and Light," and kindred subjects. These subjects do HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. 157 not stand singly in the Sixth Book, but are affiliated to the art of judging or logic, and are really part of Bacon's first faculty, Memory or History as Custody. To the profound thinker (who studies these things in the work) there is palpal)lc method and sequence throughout all this. The glaring j^oint is that all this applies to Literature, and not to Nature at all. For example, how are Ave to explain what Bacon calls " Expenentia Literata sive Venatis Panis" ? (Lib. v., p. 226). He calls this "Literate Experi- ence," and an "Art of Discovery'' at the same time. He distinctly separates this from " Interpretatio Naturce or Novum Organnm." But why it should have this name, "Literate Experience," is a mystery, unless it refers, as we believe, to some other of Bacon's writings 1 In the " Platform of the Design " (Table of divisions of the work) we find ^^^ ^ ,_ / Helps to memory. JFriting. HI. Custody or Memory ^ -^ r. ,. ^ T^ ■\ HT •, 7/-7 { Frenotion. into Chapter V. Blemory itself b 11 1 ^ ,, ^ ' ' ( Emblem. The reader who turns to page 255 and reads what is discussed vuider these last sub-divisions, will find all this is applied to " Invention," and not to nature or science. He Avill find the next page introducing the Sixth Book a great system of Mnemonics in the w^ords commencing the subject (p. 258). "Now let us come unto the Art of Delivery, or of expressing, and transferring those things which are invented, judged and laid up in the Memory, which, by a general name, we will call Tradition." This estab- lishes the connection or affiliation we postulate, betAveen this Cipher system, and Custody, Memory, or HisUmj. We must remember that Bacon has called Poetry "feigned History," and declared a "true history" may be written in Poetry, and a "feigned in 2'>i'ose." Truly considered, the plays of the Shake- speare so-called Theatre are nearly all Histories, and are just as entitled to the title as Holinshed's Chronicles, from Avliich in great measure some are borrowed. They are living, speaking histories of action, and are " true histories," in the sense they are not circumscribed to any time, and are representative of the past 15S HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. made present. But waiving even this claim for the title we beg for them, they may contain cij^her records that are of amaz- ing interest and truth for hvmianity, in the sense of history of quite another sort. And it is in this belief we point to these Mnemonics as an art of Delivery from Custody or Memory, to ■\vit, recollection or remetuhrance /* The student will find all this deals with writing, literate experience, and not with Science or Nature at all. Bacon has given us outlines, hints, sketches of a great method of Ciphers of signs and emblems for Something outside the work itself, yet affiliated to things invented, which are connected with History and Poetry. Is it nothing that we have these outside things invented, described as "types and platforms of Invention," upon pages 35, 36 of the Distribution Preface, and re-find the great system of " Delivery," giving us luider the Thirty-fifth and Thirty-sixth Stars, ^^ gestures by congruity," ^^ characters reed" or '■^ dead figures," " Ciphers," and that the plays are thirty-five in the Catalogue and thirty -six in the (body of the work) 1623 Folio? Side by side these two works (the plays and the " De Augmentis)" are published the same year ! The proof that Bacon's " Literate Experience " or " Hunting of Pan," is purely connected vnth. the plays, may be seen in the fable of Pan, which is introduced on the heels of the Drama and Poetry, and is embraced in the Theatre (page 109) ! In studying this problem, it is highly indispensable to collate the 1605 " Two Books of the Advancement of Learning " with the 1623 " De Augmentis " and its translation, 1640, by Gilbert Wats. If the student will study the two last as a development out of the second book of the first, he Avill arrive at the conclusion Bacon was maturing some j^lan, repeating the same thing in 1623, viz., reproducing the first book or " Dignity of Learning " entirely, which is curious, seeing it already existed. In 1605 Bacon * Upon page 53, "Merry Wives of Windsor" (Shakespeare's moniunental age, 1616), we find the 107th, 106th words counted icp from the bottom of the coluriDi (106) to be " Your licmcmbranc-c." Upon jmgcs 107, 106 of tlie 1640 ^^Advancement " Stcijc Flays and the Drama arc discussed. HISTORY, POETRY, AND PIIILOSOPFIY. 159 published "The Two Books of the Advancement and Pro- ficiency of Learning," dedicated to the King. This work con- tains the three fundamental faculties of the mind, Memory, Imagination, Reason, corresponding to History, Poetry, Philo- sophy, as in the "De Augmentis," 1623. In 1612 Bacon writes , et victum Dodona negaret, (Virgil, " Georgics, " i. 147.) There is an allusioii to these lines in the third Sophism of Bacon's " Colours of Good and Evil. " " Propter comparationem ; si bonum fueiit generi humaiio privari esu glandiuni, non sequitur (|uod mains illc erat ; sed Dodona bona, Ceres melior." (Spedding, i. 676.) TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY. 187 Ceres, most bounteous Lady, thy rich leas Of Wheat, Rye, Barley, Vetches, Oats, and Peas. (Act iii. sc. 3.) It was Ceres, as represented in the painting, who first taught men agriculture and a civil life. And it was round her worship that the Greek Drama took its origin. " The religion which pro- duced the Drama, is essentially connected with the worship of the elements, and that the Greek Drama in particular manifests itself in the cognate worship of Apollo, Demeter {Ceres), and Dionysus " (Donaldson's "Greek Theatre," p. 10). "It Avas as a Phallic God, and as the giver of wine, that Dionysus retained his place in the worship of ancient Greece. And in this capacity his worship connects itself indissolubly with the mysteries of Demeter and her daughter, the goddesses of the earth and under-world. Generally the productiveness of the earth is regarded as the result of a mai-riage between the God of the sky — whether he appears as the genial sun or as the refreshing rain — and the goddess Avho represents the teeming earth and weds her daughter to Plutus, the owner of the treasure hidden below the surface of the ground, either actually as metallic riches, or potentially as the germs of vegetable growth " {Ihid. 1 9). So it seems Bacon, as a boy, must have early been made acquainted with this subject, seeing in his "Wisdom of the Ancients," he so thoroughly apprehends the meaning of Pro- serpine who was the daughter of Ceres. Bacon's father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, is described by Naunton in his "Fragmenta Regalia" as "an arch-piece of wit and Avisdom." Again, "Those that lived in his age, and from Avhence I have taken this little model of him, give him a lively character, and they decipher him to be another Solon, and the Simon of those times, such an one as CEdipus was in dissolving riddles." In the garden close to the house was a statue of Orpheus, another supposed founder of the mysteries, and in a niche in a l^roken wall, a full length statue of Henry VIII. in gilt armour, but greatly defaced and mutilated. So that Bacon had enough around him to stimulate 1 88 TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY. his poetical, classical, and historical genius into thought. This wall, in -which the fragment of Henr}' YIII. stands, formed part of a noble piazza or porticus, Avhich, according to Aubrey, was built by the Lord Chancellor Bacon, and is described by Pennant as having a range of pillars of the Tuscan order in front. " Opposite to every arch of this portico," Avrites A^ibrey, " and as big as the arch, are drawn liy an excellent hand (but the mischief of it is, in water-colom-s) curious pictures, all emblemati- cal, with mottoes under each : for example, one, I remember, is a ship tossed in a storm, the motto. Alter eritiim Typhys. (This is an allusion to the Pilot of the Argonautic expedition). Over this portico is a stately gallery, whose glass Avindows are all painted ; and every pane Avith several figures of beast, bird, or fioAver : perhaps his Lordship might use them as topics of local use. The AvindoAvs look into the garden : the side oppo- .site them has no AvindoAvs, but is hung all Avith pictures at length, as of King James, his Lordship, and several illustrious persons of his time. At the end you enter is no AA-indow, but there is a very large picture thus : in the middle, on a rock in the sea, stands King James in armour, Avith his regal ornaments ; on his right hand stands (but Avhether or no on a rock, I have forgot) Henry IV. of France, in armour ; and on his left hand, the King of Spain in like armour. These figures are, at least, as big as life ; they are done only Avith umbre and shell gold ; all the heightening and illuminated part being burnished gold, and the shadow umljre. The roof of this galler}^ is semicylindriquc, and painted Ity the same hand, and same manner, Avith heads and busts of Greek and Roman emjDerors and heroes." In an orchard connected Avith the old mansion Avas a small banquetting or summer-house, the Avails of Avhich Avere curiously painted alfresco, AAdth representations of the liberal arts, having approi)riatc mottoes under them, and above them, the heads of the most illustrious of those Avho had excelled in each art, Avhether ancient or modern. The mottoes are preserved in Weever (p. 584), and also in the " Biographica Britannica," TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY. 189 vol. i. p. 446, where they are given with translations. This mansion was reduced to its present ruinous state when the house of the Lords Grimston was built in the years 1778-1785. Bacon also erected a house within the walls of ancient Verulam, which, according to Aubrey, " he had a great mind to have made a city again ; and he had designed it to be built with great uniformity." Verulam House, continues the writer, " was the most ingeniously contrived little pile that I ever saw. No ciuestion but his Lordship was the chief est architect ; but he had for his assistant a favourite of his, a St Albans man, Mr Dobson (father of Dobson, the celebrated portrait painter), who was his Lordship's right hand. " This house did cost nine or ten thousand (pounds) the build- ing, and was sold about 1665 or 6, by Sir Harbottle Grimston, Bart, (now Master of the Eolls), to two carpenters, for four hundred pounds, of Avhich they made eight hundred pounds ; there were good chimney-pieces ; the rooms very lofty, and very well wainscotted ; there were two bathing rooms, or stufFes, whither his Lordship retired afternoons as he saw cause : all the tunnels of the chimneys were carried into the middle of the house, and round about them were seats. From the leads w.*s a lovely prospect to the ponds, which were opposite to the east side of the house, and were on the other side of a stately walk of trees that leads to Gorhambury House, and also over that long walk of trees, whose tops afford a most pleasant variegated verdure, resembling the works in Irish stiches. In the middle of the house was a delicate stair'^ase of wood, which was curiously carved ; and on the post of every interstice was some pretty figure, as of a grave divine with his book and spectacles, a mendi- cant friar, &c., not one thing twice : on the doors of the upper storey on the outside, which were painted dark umbre, were figures of the Gods of the Gentiles ; viz., on the South door, second storey, was Apollo ; on another Jupiter, with his thunder- holt, bigger than the life, and done by an excellent hand; the lightnings were of hatchings of gold, which when the sun shone on them, made a I90 TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY. wost glorious shoii'. This was his Lordship's summer house ; for he said one should have scats for summer and winter, as well as clothes. The kitchen, larder, cellars, &c., are under ground." In these trifles we see reflected Bacon's classical tastes and predilections. This pictorial Jupiter seems to find reflection in the play of " Cymbeline," where in the last act Jupiter is introduced throning a tkunderhoU. Jupiter descends in thunder and lightning, sitting upon an eagle : he throvjs a thunder-holt. (Act. v.) When this play Avas written Verulam House had l)een built, and these decorations existed. "The Tempest" — another of the final plays — also presents us Avith Jupiter. We consider these points shoAV strong parallel evidence that Bacon Avas suirounding himself Avith paintings of subjects Ave refind in the last plays. Apollo, the God of poetry and song, Jupiter, the protagonist of classical mythology, hoAV often do Ave refind all this in the book of books 1 And the fire-rob'd God Golden Apollo, a poor humble swain As I seem now. ("Winter's Tale," act iv. sc. 4.) To the dread rattling tluuider Have I given fire, and rifted Jove's stout oak "With his own bolt. (" Tempest.") " From hence to Gorhambury is about 2 little miles ; the Avay ascending hardly so acclive as a desk : three parallel Avalkes leade to Gorhambmy in a straight line ; in the middlemost, three coaches may pass abreast ; in the Aving Avalkes, tAvo : they consist of severall stately trees of the like groAvth and height, elme, chesnut, beach, horn-beam, Spanish ash, Cervice-tree, itc. whose tops, as aforesaid, doe afford from the Avalke on the hoAvse, the finest shcAv that I have seen. The figures of the ponds were thus : they Avere pitched at the bottomes Avith pebbles of severall colours, which were workt into severall figures, as of fishes, &c. Avhich in his Lordship's time Avere })lainly to l^e seen through the TEMPLE HOUSE, GORHAMBURY. 191 clere water, (though) now overgrown with flagges and rushes. If a poor bodie had brought his lordship halfe a dozen pebbles of curious colour, he would give them a shilling, so curious M^as he in perfecting his fish ponds, which I guess doe containe four acres. In the middle of the middlemost pond in the island is a curious banquetting house of Roman architecture, paved with black and white marble, covered with Cornish slate, and neatly wainscotted " ("History of Verulam and St Albans." F. L. Williams, p. 140^ 1822). CHAPTER XL PARALLELS. "For it is a rule of TrcuUtive Art* that whatsoever science is not con- sonant to anticipations or presuppositions viust pray in aid of similitudes and com]Mirisons " (Book VI., page 276, " Advancement of Learning "). " For many forms of speaking are equal in signification which are different in impression" (Book VI., page 211, "Advancement of Learning"). " Pro Verbis legis Non est interpretatio, scd divinatio, qure recedit a litera : Cum receditur a litera, judex transit in legislatorem. Pro sententia legis. Ex omnibus verbis est eliciendus sensus qui inter^n-etatur singula." (" Advancement," Book II.) " For, as the fable goeth of the basilisk, that if he see you first you die for it; but if you sec him first, he dieth" ("Advance- ment," Book II., xxxi. 9). It is a basilisk unto mine eye, Kills me to look on't. (" Cymbeline," act ii. sc. 4, 107.) "There is an ancient received tradition of the Salamander, that it liveth in the fire, and hath force also to extinguish the fire" (Exp. 860, " Natimil History "). I have maintained that Salamander of yoiU'S with fire Any time this two and thirty years. ("1 King Henry IV.," act iii. sc. 3.) "Affliction only level those mole-hills of pride" ("Letter LXX. to Lord Chief Justice Coke," 1702). * The fact Bacon makes these remarks in connection with Tradition, which he calls ' ' The Art of Delivery, or of expressing, and transferring those things which are invented," is a significant hint of itself. PARALLELS. 193 Tlie blind inole casts Copjj'd liills towards heaven, to tell the earth is throng'd By man's oppression. ("Pericles," act i. sc. 1.) " But as for imitation, it is certain that there is in men and other creatures a predisposition to imitate. We see how ready apes and monkeys are to imitate all motions of man. And besides you shall have imrrots that will not only imitate voices hut laughing" ("Sylva Sylvarum," Cent. Ill, Exp. 236, 237). Now by two-headed Janus, Nature hath framed strange fellows in her time : Some that will evermore peep through their eyes, And laugh like Pari'ots at a bagpiper. ( ' ' Merchant of Venice, " act i. sc. 1. ) Imitari is nothing : so doth the hound his master, the Ajjc his Keeper. (" Love's Labour's Lost," act iv. sc. 2.) Cleopatra. Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there. That kills and pains not? ("Antony and Cleopatra," act v. sc. 2.) " The death that is most without pain, hath been noted to be upon the taking of the potion of hemlock, which, in humanity, was the form of execution of capital offenders in Athens. The poison of the asp that Cleopatra used hath some affinity with it" ("Natui'al History," Exp. 643, Cent. VII.). " That the note of a thing chosen for Opinion, and not for truth, is this, that if a man thought that what he doth should never come to light, he would never have done it " (" Coloiu^s of Good and Evil," 10). A plague of Opinion, a man may wear it on both sides like a leather jerkin. ( ' ' Troilus and Crcssida. ") This fool's gudgeon, this ojnnion. ("Merchant of Venice," act i. sc. 1.) Be cured of this diseased ojnnion. (" Winter's Tale," act i. sc. 2.) " So in like manner, although our persons live in the view of heaven, yet our spirits are included in the caves of our own com- N 194 PARALLELS. plexions and customs, which minister luito us infinite errors and vain opinions, if they be not recalled to examination" ("Advance- ment of Learning," Book II., p. 56). "And fhe opinion of Epicurus, answerable to the same in Heathenism who supposed the gods to be of human shape" (" Advancement of Learning," Book IL, p. 56). Casshts, You know that I held Epicurus strong, And his opinion. ("Julius Ca'sar," act v. sc, 1.) " The deformity of flattery is comical, but the damage tragical " (Flattery, XXXVIIL, " Antitheta "). How exactly this is reflected in " Timon of Athens," where the flattery of his friends is comically transparent, the end being so tragical ! " The first precept may be that whereof wc have admonished already ; let the greater revolutions be retain'd ; the lesser horoscopes and houses CAisheer'd" ("Advancement of Learning," 1640, p. 149). For naught hut provender, and when he's old crtsheer'd. (" Othello," act i. sc. 1.) "For it was both j^leasantly and wisely said by a nvuicio of the Pope, returning from a certain nation where he served as leiger" ("Advancement of Learning," Book IL, xxiii. 19). Lord Angelo, having affairs to heaven, Intends you for his swift aiuhassador, Where you shall be an everlasting leiger. (" Measure for Measure," act iii. sc. 1, 59.) "The blessing of Judah and Issachar will never meet: That the same people or nation should be both the Lion's JFhelp and the ass between burdens " (" Greatness of Kingdoms"). Compare soothsayer's prediction (" Cymbeline," act v.) : — When as a Lion's AVlielji, &c. PARALLELS. 195 Good friend, for Jesus' sake, forbeare To dig the dust enclosed here : Blest be the man that spares these stones, And curst be he that moves my bones. (Shakespeare's Epitaph.) Blest be the hearts that wish my sovereign well ! Curst be the soul that thinks her any wrong ! (Bacon's "Retired Courtier.") One of Bacon's similes for nature is that of a vuluTne or book. In the "De Augnientis" he writes of Aristotle's "Book of Natiu-e " : " The world is a volume of God, a kind of Second Scriptures, and as the words or terms of all languages in an immense variety, are composed of a few simple letters, so all the actions and powers of things, are formed by a few natures and original elements of simple motions" ("Works," vol. v., p. 426). Again : " Heraclitus gave a just censure, saying men sought wisdom in their own little worlds, and not in the great and common Avorld : for they disdain to spell, and so by degrees to read in the volume of God's works." The thoughtful student may perhaps be inclined to think Bacon is hinting at the " volume of Nature " of the so-called Shakespeare plays. It is worthy notice, we find in "As You Like It," Nature identified with a book — Find tongues in trees, books * in the running brooks, Sermons in stones, and good in everything. ("As You Like It.") In nature's injinite look of secrecy, A little I can read. ("Antony and Cleo}iatra," act i. sc. 2.) The sympathies of the author of the plays for the Trojans rather than the Greeks, is very marked in "Troilus and Cressida." * This idea is entirely Rosicrucian. "All herbs, flowers, trees, and all the fruits of the earth," says the author in his treatise on Signatures, "are books and magic signs given us by the mercy of God" ("Signaturis Reruni Internis," Oswald Crollius, 1609). "If thou hast but leisure, run over the Alphabet of Nature, examine every letter, Ivican every particiilar creature in her book — what becomes of her grass, her corn, her herbs, her flowers?" (" Ccelum Terife ; or the Magician's Heavenly Chaos," p. 128, Thomas Vaughan Waite). 196 PARALLELS. Hector is the real hero, modest, and a great contrast to the proud insulting Achilles, by whom he is killed when defenceless and unarmed. Bacon shows a similar sympathy for ^neas, and quotes the lines of Yii'gil — At domus ^iicK cuiictis dominabitur oris Et iiati iiatorum, et (|ui uascentur ab illis. (" Proiihecies.") This sympathy very likely is liorrowed from Virgil. " A man may destroy the force of his words with his counten- ance " ("Advancement of Learning," Book II., p. 78). Fie treacherous hue, that will betray witli blushing The close euacts and counsels of the heart. ("Titus Andronicus," act iv. sc. 2.) " For I know Fame hath swift wings ; specially that vMch hath black feathers " (Letter to Sir George Villiers, 19th Feh. 1615). That thou are blam'd shall not be thy defect, For slander's mark was ever yet the fair ; The ornament of beauty is suspect, A crow that flics in heaven's sweetest air. (Sonnets.) " And there has insinuated into men's minds a still subtler error — namely this, that art is conceiv'd to he a sort of addition to nature" ("Advancement of Learning"). So over that art Which you say adds to nature, is an art That nature makes. You see, sweet maid, we marry A gentle scion to the wildest stock, And make conceive a bark of baser kind By Ijud of nobler race : this is an art Wliich does mend nature, change it rather ; hid The art itself is nature. ("Winter's Tale.") "For high Treason is not written in ice, that ivhen the body relenteth, the impression should go atcaij " (Charge of Owen indicted of High Treason in the King's Bench, by Sir Francis Bacon, p. 55, Part I., " Resuscitatio," 1671). PARALLELS. 197 Compare — Duke. This weak impress of Love is a figure Trenched in ice, -whicli with an hour's heat Dissolves in water, and doth lose his form : A little time will melt her frozen thoughts. (" Two Gentlemen of Verona," act iii. so. 1.) Half won is match well made ; match and well make it. (" All's AVell that Ends Well," act iv. sc. 3.) "Dimidium facti qui bene caepit habet" ("Colours of Good and Evil," 9). Seneca saith well ; " That aiujer is like ruin, whicli breaks itself upon wluit it falls " (" Anger "). Cardinal JFoIscij. What should this mean ? What sudden anger this ? How have I reap'd it ? He i^avtedfroicningfrom me, as if ruin Leajidfrovi his eyes. (" Henry VIII.," act iii. sc. 2.) They say, my Lords, Ira furor brcvis est, But yond man is very angiy. (" Timon of Athens," act i. sc. 1.) "The third is, where a man is killed upon a sudden heat or affray, whereunto the Law gives some little favour, because a man in fury is not himself. Ira furor hrevis, \ATath is a short madness " (Sir Francis Bacon's Charge, " At a Session of the Verge "). " Sure I am, it was like a Tartar's or Parthian' s how, which shooteth backward " (Speech upon Subsidy, p. 4, " Resuscitatio," 1671). Arm me audacity from head to foot ! Or, like the Parthian, I shall fl^jing fight. (" Cymbeline," act i. sc. 7.) Now am I like that proud insulting ship, Which Ccesar and his fortune hare at once. ("1 King Henry VI.," act i. sc. 2.) 198 PARALLELS. "So Caesar said to the Pilot in the Tempest, Ccvsarem 2wrf(i$ et fortunam ejus " (" Of Fortune "). " So when the four pV/rf?-,-^ of government are mainly shaken or weakened (which are Religion, Justice, Counsell, and Treasure) men had need to pray for fair weather " (" Seditions and Troubles "). Brave peers of England, fj(7/rt?'A- of the State. (" 2 Henry YL," act i. so. 1.) " There be that can i^c^ck the cards, and yet cannot play well " (" Cunning "). She Eros has Pack'd cards with Ca?sar, and false play'd my glorj' Unto an enemy's triumph. (" Antony and Cleopatra," act iv. sc. 14.) Where like Arion on the Dolphins back, I saw him hold acquaintance witli the waves So long as I could see. ("Twelfth Night," act i. sc. 2.) Orpheus in sylvis, inter delphinas Arion. (Virgil, "Eclogue YIIL," 56.) ("Two Books Advancement of Learning," Book II., p. 179.) " The tongue speaks to the ear, but the gesture speaks to the eye" ("Advancement of Learning," 1640, p. 182, Book IIL). A jest's propriety lies in the ear. (" Love's Labour's Lost," act v. sc. 2.) " It was a sparing speech of the ancients to say That a Friend is another himself: for that a friend is far more than himself" (" Friendship "). Make thee another self, for Love of me. (" Sonnets.") 'Tis thee (myself) that for myself I praise, Painting my age with beauty of thy days. (" Sonnets.") 15ut liere's the joy — my friend and I arc one ; ("Sonnets.") PARALLELS. 199 The parallel is all the more striking, inasmuch as these Sonnets are addressed to a friend. And Bacon continues in this Essay : — " If a man have a true Friend he may rest almost secure that the care of those things will continue after him. So that a man hath, as it were, two lives in his desire" ("Friendship"). This idea of a second life through friendship is repeated in the Sonnets : — Yoii should live ticice ; in it and in my rhyme. ("Sonnets.") " They perfect Nature, and are perfected by Experience " (Essay on " Studies "). Experience is by industry achieved, And perfected by the swift course of time. ("Two Gentlemen of Verona," act i. so. 3.) "And yet that is the case of bad officers, treasurers, ambas- sadors, generals, and other false and corrupt servants, which set a bias upon their hoivl, of their own petty ends and envies, to the overthrow of their master's great and important affairs" ("Of Wisdom for a Man's Self," 1625). Pet. AVell, forward, forward ! thus the bowl should run, Aiul. not unluckily against the bias.* ("Taming of the Shrew," act iv. so. 5.) " Wisdom for a man's self is, in many branches thereof, a depraved thing. It is the JFisdom of Eats, that will be sure to leave a house before it fall " (" Of Wisdom for a Man's Self"). A rotten carcass of a boat, not rigg'd, Kor tackle, sail, or mast ; the very rats Instinctively have quit it. ("Tempest," act i. sc. 2.) * You bowl well, if you do not horse the bowl an hand too much. You know the fine bowler is knee almost to gi'ound in the delivery of the cast. (Conf. 13th June 1623, p. 353, Birch's Letters.) 200 PARALLELS. "It is the Avisdom of crocodiles that shed tears when they would devour " (""Wisdom for a Man's Self"). If that the earth could teem with woman's tears, Each drop she falls would prove a Crocodile. ("Othello," act iv. sc. 1.) Of all the myriad minded characters of the plays, Cardinal Wolsey represents and embodies best the dangers and the glories of amhition. In Bacon's Essay upon "Xature in Men," he Avrites : — " And at the first, let him practise with helps, a& sicimmers do with bladders." I have ventured, Like little wanton boys that swim on bladders, This many summers in a sea of glory. (" Henry VIII.," act iii. sc. 2.) " What a man hath contracted through his own default, is a greater evil; what is imposed from Avithout, is a less evil. Where the evil is derived from a man's oAvn fault, there the grief strikes inward, and does more deeply wound and pierce the heart" (8, "Colours of Good and Evil," p. 289, "Advancement of Learning "). Those wounds heal ill that men do give themselves. ("Troilus and Cressida," act iii. sc. 3.) "The stairs to honours are steep, the standing slippery, the regresse a downfall" (Antitheta Eerum, Honour, vii. p. 303, " Advancement of Learning "). The art o' the court, As hard to leave as keep ; whose top to climb Is certain falling, or so slijj]>ci-y tliat The fear's as bad as falling. (" Cymbeline," act iii. sc. 3.) Ccesar. But I am constant as the Northern star, Of whose true fixt and resting quality There is no fellow in the firmament. ("Julius CcTsar," act iii. sc. 1.) PARALLELS. 201 "If it were not for two things, that are constant ; the one is that the fixed stars ever stand at like distance one from another " (Essay 58, "Vicissitude of Things"). " To conclude tJie irregularities of Mars, the expiations of Venus, the Avondrous labours or passions, which are often found in the sun or in Fenus" (Book III, " De Augmentis," p. 152, 1640). 3Iars his true moving, even as in the heavens So in the earth to this day is not known. ("1 King Henry VI.," act i. sc. 2.) Fair Diomed, you do as Chapmen do, Dispraise the thing that you desire to buy. ("Troilus and Cressida," act iv. sc. 1.) " Out of fraud, and circumventive cunning, for Praisers e his undoing" (lb.). " Errors indeed in this virtue of goodness or charity may be committed. The Italians have an ungracious proverb, Tanto buon che vol niente : So good that he is good for nothing" ("Goodness of Nature "). 2o6 PARALLELS. Poor lionest Lord, brought low by his own lieart, Undone by goodness. (" Timon of Athens," act iv. sc. 2.) " Guicciardine maketh the same judgment (not of a particular person, but of the Avisest state of Europe, the Senate of Venice, when he saycth their 2^>'os])eriti/ had made them secure, and under weighers of perils" (Bacon to King James I., July 31, 1617, Cabala, Birch, 1G54). All know security Is mortaVs chiefcst enemy. ("Macbeth," act iii. sc. 5.) The wound of peace is surety Surety secure. (" Troilus and Cressida," act ii. sc. 2.) In a letter to King James I., Bacon writes of England : — " The fields growing every day by the improvement of grounds, from the desert to the garden; the city grown from wood to brick, your sea-walls or Pomerium of your island surveyed, &c." (Letter, 2nd Jan. 1618, Cabala, Birch, 1654). Compare : — Serv. Why sliould we in the compass of a pale Keep law and form and due proportion, Showing, as in a model, our firm estate, AVhen our sca-%vallcd garden, the whole land, Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers choked up. Her fruit-trees all unpruned, her hedges ruin'd, Her knots disorder'd and her wholesome herbs Swarming \\\i\\ caterpillars ? ("Richard II.," act iii. sc. 4.) Note the expressions " sea-walled," " sea-Avalls." Like one Who having unto truth, by telling of it, Made such a sinner of his memory To credit his own lie. (" Tempest," act i. sc. 2.) This idea is repeated (page 32, Book I., "Advancement of Learning," 1640) thus: — "An inquisitive man is a prattler; so PARALLELS. 207 upon the like reason, a credulous man is a deceiver. As we see it in Fame and Kumours, that he that will easily believe Rumours, will as easily augment rumours; which Tacitus -wdsely notes in these words, Fingunt simid creduntcpie (" They invent and at the same time believe their own inventions ") ; such affinity there is between a propensity to deceive and a facility to believe." But curst the gentle gusts, And he that loos' d them forth their brazen caves, And bid them blow towards England's blessed shore, Or turn our stern upon a dreadful rock : Yet Mollis would not be a murderer. ("2 King Henry YL," act iii. sc. 2.) "The Poets feigned ^olus his kingdom to be placed under ground in dens and aives, where the Avind's prison was, out of which they were at times let forth" {"'^a.tnral History of "Winds," p. 17, " Resuscitatio "). " And all this while I have been a little imperfect in my foot. But I have taken pains more like the beast idth four legs than like a man with scarce two legs" (Letter to Buckingham, 8th June 1617, Birch, 1654). This is some monster of the island v:ith four legs. (" Tempest," act ii. sc. 2.) \st Gent. "Well : there went but a pair of sheares between us. I/uc. I grant : as there may between the lists and the velvet, Thou art the list. 1st Gent. And thou the velvet. (" Measure for Measure.") "All Avhich authorities and presidents may overweigh Aris- totle's opinion that would have us change a rich wardrobe for a pair of sheares" ("Advancement of Learning," Book IL, p. 52, 1605). " He had gotten for his purpose, or beyond his purpose, two instruments, Empson and Dudley (whom the people esteemed as 2o8 PARALLELS. his hi)rse-leeckes and shearers" ("History of King Henry VHI.," p. 209). Let us to Franco ; like Jwrsc-lccches, my boys, To suck, to suck, the very blood to suck. (" King Henry V.," act ii. so. 3.) In memory of lier when she is dead. Her ashes in an urn more precious Tliuii the richjeiccU'd coffer of Darius, Transported shall be at high festivals. ("1 King Henry VI.," act i. sc. 6.) " Secondly, in the judgment or solution he gave touching that jrrec'mis cabinet of Darius, which was found amongst his jewels " ("Two Books of Advancement of Learning," Book I, p. 59, Wright). This is an allusion to the finding amongst the spoils taken by Alexander the Great from Darius, of a richly jewelled cabinet. Pliny describes it in these words (L. vii. c. 29) : — " Itaque Alexander magnns inter spolia iJarii Persarum JRegis unguentorum scrinio aipto, dc" Strabo also mentions this coffer (L. xiii.). Alexander placed Homer's loorks in it, as alone wmihy of such a chest. It was covered with precious stones and pearls. (Quintus Curtius, Freinshemii, Supplem., 1, 4, 3, 1724.) This coffer had been used as a receptacle for unguents and incense by the Persian king, and on this account the rare edition of Homer's works preserved in it by Alexander was called "^ varthecio." Bacon introduces this story upon page 52 of the "Advancement of Learning," 1640, with, we are convinced, allusion to Shakespeare by analogy. " The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion (as we said) must ever be well weighed" (" Delays "). That we would do, We should do when we would ; for this " would" changes, And hath abatements and delays as many As there are tongues, are bauds, are accidents. (" Hamlet," act iv. sc. 7.) PARALLELS, 209 " Affected dispatch is one of the most dangerous things to busi- ness that can be. It is like that which the Physicians call Pre- digestion, or hasty digestion ; which is sure to fill the body full of crudities and secret seeds of disease. Therefore, measure no dis- patch by the times of sitting, but by the advancement of the busi- ness. And as in races, it is not the large stride, or high lift, that makes the speed, so in business, the keeping close to the matter, and not taking too much of it at once, procureth Dispatch. I knew a wise man that had it for a by-word, when he saw men hasten to a conclusion : Stay a little, that tve rimy make an end the sooner" ("Dispatch "). We may outrun, By violent swiftness, that which we run at, And lose by over-running. Know you not, The fire, that mounts the liquor till it run o'er, In seeming to augment it, wastes it ? ("Henry VIIL," act i. sc. 1.) Too swift arrives as tardy as too slow. (" Romeo and Juliet," act ii. sc. 6.) " Perfectly wicked and desjierately impious persons do not corrupt public manners so much as they do who seem to have some soundness and goodness in them, and are diseased but in part " ("Advancement of Learning," Book III., p. 134, 1640). An evil soul producing holy witness Is like a villain with a smiling cheek, A goodly api^lc rotten at the core. ("Merchant of Venice," act i. sc. 3.) But here upon this hanh and school of time We'd jump the life to come. (" Macbeth," act i. sc. 7.) This expression hank, as applied to time, is peculiar, and only to be refound in Bacon's works : — Compare : — " These examples confirmed me much in a resolu- tion to spend my time wholly in writing ; and to put forth that poor talent, or half talent, or what it is, that God hath given 2IO PARALLELS. me, not as heretofore to particular exchanges, l)ut to 'ban'k& cdant o'er the boy. ("Love's Labour's Lost," act iii. sc. 1.) I tell thee what, Antonio — I love thee, and it is my love that speaks — There are a sort of men whose visages Do cream and mantle like a standing pond, And do a wilful stillness entertain. With purpose to be dress'd in an opinion Of wisdom, gravity, profound conceit, As who should say, " I am Sir Oracle, And when I ope my Hjjs let no dog bark ! " my Antonio, I do know of these That therefore only are reputed wise For saying nothing, Avhen, I am very sure, If they should sjieak, would almost damn those ears Which, hearing them, would call their lirothers fools. (" Merchant of Venice," act i. sc. 1.) The whole of Bacon's Essay upon ^^ Seeming Wise" is but a prose paraphrase or sermon \\\)(n\. this text. " So certainly there PARALLELS. 213 ai'e in point of wisdom and sufficiency, that do nothing or little very solemnly ; Magno conatu nugas. Some are so close and reserved as they will not show their wares but by a dark light, and seem always to keep back somewhat. Some help themselves with countenance and gesture, and are "vvise by signs " (" Seeming Wise"). "It is more j)leasing to have a lively wcyrh upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a light- some ground ; judge therefore of the pleasure of the heart by the pleasure of the eye " (" Adversity"). Aiul like bright metal on a sullen (fround : My reformation glittering o'er my fault, Shall show more goodly, and attract more eyes, Than that which hath no foil to set it off. (" Henry IV.," act i. sc. 2.) " In third place I set down reputation, because of the peremp- tory tides and currents it hath, which if they he not taken in their due time are seldom recovered, it being extreme hard to play an after-game of reputation " (Book II., page 304, " Proficience and Advancement "). There is a tide in the affairs of men, Which taken at the Flood, leads on to Fortune. And we must take the current when it serves. (" Julius Cffisar," act iv. sc. 3.) "Fortune began to take place in the king (as with a strong tide), his affections and thoughts unto the gathering and heaping up of treasure " (" King Henry VIL," p. 209). Tiinon. My Lord in heart ; and let the health go round. Sec. Lord. Let it flow this way, my good Lord. Apem. Flow this way ! A brave fellow ! He keeps his tides 2vcll. (" Timon of Athens," act i. sc. 2.) " And therefore, as secretaries and spials of princes and states bring in bills for intelligence, so you must allow the spicds and 214 PARALLELS. intelligencers of nature to bring in their bills ; or else you shall be ill advertised" ("Advancement of Learning," Book II., p. 10). This word "intelligencers" is very rare, used in the sense of an informer or spial (that is a spy) : — Richard yet lives, hell's black intelligencer. ("Richard III.," act iv. sc. 4, 71.) " But yet their trust towards them, had rather been as to good Sjpials, and good whisperers ; than good magistrates and officers " (Essay, " Of Deformity "). But will the King Digest this letter of the Cardinals ? (" Henry VIII.," act iii. sc. 2.) "Some books are to be tasted, others to be swallowed, and some few to be chewed and digested" (" Studies "). Heaven in my month, As if I did but only chetv his name. ("Measure for Measure," act ii. sc. 4.) " Suspicions that the mind of itself gathers are but buzzes ; but suspicions that are artificially nourished, and p)ut into men's heads by the tales and whisperings of others have stings " (" Suspicion "). There be moe waspR that hu~z al)Out his nose Will make this sting the sooner. ("Henry VIII.," act iii. sc. 2.) " For he that turneth the humours hack, and maJceth the wound bleed inwards, endangereth malign ulcers and pernicious Impos- thunuiti'ins " (" Seditions and Troubles "). This is the imjwsthume of much wealth and peace, That inv:ard hreaTcs, and shows no cause without Why the man dies. (" Hamlet," act iv. sc. 3.) " Titus Manlius took his son's life for giving l)attle against the PARALLELS. 215 })rohibition of his General " (Letters to the Lords, Cabala, 1G17). In the play of " Titus Andronicus," Titm takes his son's life (act i. sc. 1). Mutius. My Lord, you pass not here. Titus. What villain boy ! Barr'st me my way in Rome ? [Stabbing Mutius.] Mutius. Help, Lucius, help ! [Dies.] Lucius. My Lord, you are unjust, and more than so In wrongful quarrel you have slain yaur son. " Secondly, that you beware of delaying and putting off a busi- ness" (Lib. VIIL, p. 373, "De Augmentis," translation 1640). The flighty purpose never is o'ertook Unless the deed go with it. ("Macbeth," act iv. sc. 1.) In Bacon's translation of the 104th Psalm Ave find these two lines : — But who can blaze thy beaiities, Lord, aright 1 They turn the brittle beams of mortal sight. The alliteration here is remarkable, and shows the author was no novice in the art of poetry. This " affecting of the letter " is most conspicuous in the versification of the plays : — The i)raiseful Princess pierc'd and prick'd A pretty pleasing Pricket ; Some say a sore, but not a sore. Till now made sore with shooting. ( ' ' Love's Labour's Lost. ) The blind cow-boy's butt-shaft. ("Romeo and Juliet," act ii. sc. 4.) " But even, without that, a man learneth of himself, and bringeth his own thoughts to light, and loheUeth his wits as against a stone " (Essay on " Friendship "). Compare — Peradventure this is not Fortune's work neither, but Nature's, who per- 2i6 PARALLELS. ceiveth our natural wits too dull to reason of such a Goddess, liatli sent this Natural for our tchetstone, for always the dulness of the fool is the whetstone of the wits. ("As You Like It," act i. sc. 1.) " The Muses are seen in the company of Passion : and there is almost no affection so depraved and vile which is not soothed by some kind of learning" ("Do Augmentis," II. xiii.; "Wisdom," A 24). In Law what plea so tainted and corrupt, But being seasoned with a gi'acious voice, Obscures the show of evil ? In Religion, "^.Vliat damned error, but some sober brow Will bless it, and approve it with a text ? (" Merchant of Venice," aet iii. sc. 2, 75.) The two lines from the Psalm reveal the hand that wrote Macbeth. The " walking woods " remind us of " Great Birnara wood that moves to Dunsinane." In the plays we repeatedly find use of the Avord ^^ floods" in context with ^' skips" : — There do the stately ships plough up the floods, The Greater Navies look like walking woods. (Psalm civ.) Our great navtjs rigged. ("Antony and Cleopatra," act iii. sc. 5, 20.) Rich burghers of the flood. (" Merchant of Venice," act i. sc. 1, 10.) The embarked traders on the flood. (" Midsummer Night's Dream," aet ii. sc. 1, 127.) " And whereas Pan is reported to have called the Moon aside into a high shadowed wood, seems to appertain to the convention between sense and heavenly or divine things. For the case of Endy- mion and Pan are different ; the moon of her own accm-d came to Endymion as he was asleep" (" De Augmentis," II. xiii.). Peace, ho ! the moon sleeps with Endymion, And would not be aicakcned. (" Mercliant of Venice," act v. sc. 1, 109.) PARALLELS. 217 The moon sleeps with Eiidymioii every day. (Marlowe's "Ovid," act i. sc. 13, 43.) " There is iio man of judgment that looketh into the nature of these times, luit Avill easily descry that the Avits of these days are too much refined for any man to walk iuvidhle " (" Obs. on a Libel "). We steal as in a castle, cocksure : we have the receipt of fernseed : vje icalk iiivisiblc. ("1 Henry IV.," act ii. se. 1, 95.) "And knowing for the other point that envy ever accompanieth greatmss, though never so well deserved " (" Envy "). As full of cniy at Ms greatness. ("Troilus and Cressida," act ii. sc. 1.) "The moon so constant in inconstancy" (Trans. 104th Psalm). " I will preserve, therefore, even as the heavenly bodies them- selves do, a variable constancy" ("Thema Cseli"). Oil, swear not by the moon, the incoiistant vioon, That monthly changes in her circled orb. Lest that thy love prove likewise variable. (" Romeo and Juliet," act ii. sc. 2, 109.) " Now for the evidence against this Lady, I am sorry I must rip up. I shall first show you the purveyance or provision of the poisons ; that they were seven in number, brought to this Lady and by her billetted and laid up till they might be used ; and this done with an oath or vow of secrecy which is like the Egyptian darkness, a gross and palpable darkness that may be felt" ("Speech against Somerset," 1616). There is no darkness but ignorance, in which thou art more puzzled than the Egyptians in their fog. (" Twelfth Night," act iv. sc. 2, 46.) * * The preceding seven parallels have already appeared in the Bacon Journal under the author's name. 2i8 PARALLELS. "Amongst Avhich that of all others is the most frequent, where the question is, of a great deal of good to ensue of a small injustice " ("Advancement of Learning," Book II., xxi. 2), To do a gi-eat right, do a little wrong. (" Merchant of Venice," act iv. sc. 1, 216.) " Xevertheless, since I perceive that this cloud still hangs over the hmise" ("Resuscitatio," 1671, Part I., p. 40. "Speech delivered by Sir Francis Bacon in the Lower House about the L^ndei-takers. Parliament," 12th Tac). Now is the winter of onr discontent Made glorious summer by this son of York : And all the clouds that loured tqMU our house In the deep bosom of the ocean Iniried. ("Richard III.") " It is certain that the best governments, yea, and the best of men, are like the best precious stones, wherein every flaw or icicle or grain, are seen and noted more than in those that are generally foul and corrupted" ("Resuscitatio," 1671, Part I., p. 79. His Lordship's Speech in the Parliament, being Lord Chan- cellor, to the Speaker's excuse). Thou art a traitor and a miscreant ; Too good to be so, and too bad to live, Since the more fair and christal is the sky, The uglier seem the clouds that in it fly. ("Richard II.," sc. 1.) " Sir Fulko Grevill had much private access to Queen Elizabeth, which he used honourably, and did many men good; yet he would say merrily of himself, That he tvas like RoBiN GoODFELLOW, for ivhen maids sjnlt the milk-ca)/, or kept any racket, they zvoidd lay it upon Robin, so what tales the ladies about the Queen told her, or other bad offices that they did, they Avould put it upon him " (235, p. 172, Blackbourne's Works, vol. i.). Fai. Either I mistake your shape and making quite. Or else you are that shrewd and knavish sprite PARALLELS. 219 CalVd Rohin Ooodfcllow : arc not yoiv he That frights the maidens of the villa/icry ; Skim milk, and sometimes lahour in the quern And bootless make the breathless housewife churn And sometime make the drink to bear no barm ; Mislead night-wanderers, laughing at their harm ? Those that Hobgoblin call you and sweet Puck, You do their work, and they shall have good luck : Are not you he 'I Puck. Tliou speak'st aright ; I am that merry wanilerer of the night. I jest to Oberon and make him smile When I a fat and bean-fed horse beguile, Neighing in likeness of a filly foal : And sometime lurk I in a gossip's bowl. In very likeness of a roasted crab. And when she drinks, against her lips I bob And on her wither d dewla}) four the ale. The wisest aunt, telling the saddest tale, Sometime for three-foot stool mistaketh me ; Then slip I from her bum, down topples she, And "tailor" cries, and falls into a cough ; And then the whole quire hold their hips and laugh, And waxen in their mirth and neeze and swear, A merrier hour was never wasted there. But, room, fairy ! here comes Oberon. (" Midsummer Night's Dream," act ii. sc. 1.) The entire characters of the Fairy mythology introduced into the " Midsummer Night's Dream," are borrowed from Hugh de Bordeaux {Huon de Bonrdemix), and are given by Hazlitt under the title, "Fairy Mythology of Shakespeare." Oberon, Titania, and Puck deal in a species of magic closely allied to Nature, for the former two call themselves ^^ parents and original " of Nature. Indeed, it is hardly asking too much to assume that there is something suspiciously near the subject, to find Bacon introducing this book of Hiwn de Bourdeanx, in context with " Natural Magic." "As for the Natural Magic (which flies abroad in many men's books) containing certain credulous and superstitious traditions and observations of synipatliies and antipathies, and of hidden and specific properties, with some experiments commonly frivolous, — strange, rather, for the art of conveyance and disprisement than the 2 20 PARALLELS. thing itself ; surely he shall not much err who shall say that this sort of magic is as far diftering in truth of nature from such a knowledge as we require, as the Books of the Jests of Arthur of Britain or of Huon of Bourdeaux differ from Csesar's Commentaries, in truth of story" ("De Augmentis," III. v.). Here then Ave have proof positive that Bacon was acquainted with the source from which Oberon and Puck are drawn. It is another link in the interminable chain of evidence to find him familiar with this poetical and magical class of literature, belong- ing to the Arthurian romance cycle. It is just in the character of " Natural Magic " that Puck, Obei'on, and Titania are intro- duced. Bacon goes on to say "the operation of this superficial and degenerate Natural Magic upon men is like some soporiferous drugs, which procure sleep, and withal exhale into the fancy, merry, and pleasant dreams in sleep." Observe that the title of the play in which Oberon and Puck are introdviced is " A Mid- summer Night's Dream," which concludes with these words — Puck. If we shadows liave ott'ended, Think but this and all is mended, That you liave but slumber'd here, AVhile these visions did appear. • And this weak and idle theme, No more yielding l)ut a dream. So that we have the reprehension of the play as merely a dream insisted upon in the same way by Shakespeare. " So as a vertuous man will be vertuous in solitudine and not only in theatre, though percase it will be more strong by glory and fame, as an heat tvhich is doubled hy reflexion" ("Colours of Good and Evil," 3). Ulyss. A strange fellow here Writes me : "That man, how dearly ever parted, How much in having, or without or in, Cannot make boast to have that which he hath. Nor feels not what he owes, but by reflection ; As when his virtues shining upon others PARALLELS. 221 Heat them and they retort that heat again To the first giver." Achil. Tliis is not strange, Ulysses. The beauty that is borne here in the face The bearer knows not, but connnends itself To others' eyes ; nor doth the eye itself. That most pure spirit of sense, behold itself, Not going from itself ; but eye to eye opposed Salutes each other with each other's form ; For speculation turns not to itself. Till it hath travell'd and is mirror'd there Where it may see itself. This is not strange at all. Ulyss. I do not strain at the position, — It is familiar, — but at the author's drift ; "Who, in his circumstance, expressly proves That no man is the lord of any thing. Though in and of him there be much consisting. Till he communicate his parts to others ; Nor doth he of himself know them for aught Till he behold them form'd in the applause Where they're extended ; who, like an arch, reverberates The voice again, or, like a gate of steel Fronting the sun, receives and renders back His figure and his heat. ("Troilus and Cressida.") Note the complete panillel of the word "heat," twice used, and the metaphor of the sun, as producing " light," " glory," " fame." We may refind in this passage Bacon's study of " Echoes and their Reflections," in the " Sylva Sylvarum," Who like an arch reverberates, The voice again. Bacon, in one of the subtlest analogies between "Visi])les and Audibles " (sight and sound) ever made, describes the cause of a repeated echo, and its gradual extinction, by the splendid simile of two opposite mirrors in a room, reflecting the apart- ment and each other over and over again, each image becoming in perspective fainter and fainter. Thus an " echo," he AVTites, " in a chapel or vaulted place, is tossed like a ball, backwards and forwards, from wall to Avail, getting weaker and tueaher at each reflection." The mind capable of this striking and beautiful illustration of two senses (so unlike as sight and hearing) by each 222 PARALLELS. other, must indeed have been a very marvellous one, and we may see in the above passage the influence of these studies of " Reflec- tion" introduced to bear upon Fame and Glory. " For the motions of the greatest persons in a government ought to be as the motions of the Planets, under Frimum Mobile, according to the old opinion, which is that everyone of them is carried swiftly by the highest motion, and softly in their own motion. And therefore, when great ones in their own particular motion, move violently, and as Tacitus expresseth it well, ' Liberias, quam ut iTnperantium meminissent,' it is a sign the orbs are out of frame" (" Seditions and Troubles "). This comparison of well-ordered government to the motions of the planets, is to be refound in "Troilus and Cressida." The ^^ hollow factions," reigning in the "Grtecian tents," Ulysses de- clares are owing to want of sul)ordination, or of a head to govern : — Degree being vizarded The uuwoithiest shows as fairly in the mask. The heavens themselves, the planets and this centre Observe degree, priority and place, Insisture, course, proportion, season, form. Office and custom, in all line of order ; And therefore is the glorious planet Sol In noble eminence enthroned and s[)hered Amidst the other ; whose medicinable eye Connects the ill aspects of planets evil. And posts, like the commandment of a king, Sans check to good and bad : but when the planets In evil mixture to disorder wander. What plagues and what portents ! what mutiny ! What raging of the sea ! shaking of earth ! Commotion in the winds ! frights, changes, liorrors, Divert and crack, rend and deracinate The unity and married calm of states Quite from their fixure ! ("Troilus and Cressida," act i. sc. 3.) " So when any of the four pillars of government are shaken or weakened (which are Religion, Justice, Counsel, and Treasure) PARALLELS. 223 men had need to px'ay for ftd>- wc.aiker^'' ("Seditions and Troubles "). when tlegi'ee is shakcd, Which is the ladder to all high designs Then enterprise is sick. (Acti. so. 3.) "Also when discords, and quarrels, iind fadiom are carried openly and audaciously, it is a sign the reverence of government is lost " (" Seditions and Troubles "). Nest. ;Most wisely hath Ulysses here discover'd The fever whereof all our power is sick. Ulysses. And look, how many Grtecian tents do stand Hollow upon this plain, so many hollow factions. Bacon's Essays upon " Faction " and " Seditions and Troubles," are full of direct applications to passages in such plays, as " Coriolanus," " Troilus and Cressida," " Julius Csesar " (where we have the factions of Brutus and Cassius), " Antony and Cleopatra" (factions of Pompey, and finally of Csesar against Antony, &c.). In his Essay upon " Faction," he again repeats : " The motions of Factions under kings ought to be like the motions (as the astronomers si:)eak) of the inferior orbs ; which may have their proper motions, hut yd still are quietly carried htj the higher motion of Primum Mobile " (" Faction "). This is a magnificent and striking application, of the particular dependence and independence of the several degrees of well- ordered government, to the laws of the solar system. Bacon's comprehension of the balance of power in Kingcraft may be illustrated from his Essay on " Empire " : — " The answer of Apollonius to Vespasian is full of excellent instruction ; Vespasian asked him, ' IVliat tvas Nero's overthrow ? ' He answered, ' Nero could touch and tune the harp well ; but in government sometimes he ^(,sed to vnnd the pins too high, sometimes to let them down too low.' And certain it is, that nothing destroyeth an- 2 24 PARALLELS. thority so much as the unequal and untimely enterchange of power pressed too far, and relaxed too much " (" Emj^ire "). By ^^enterchange" Bacon seems to mean " m^enmssio?^," that is "pressing too far," and "relaxing too much," from one exti'eme to the other. " To speak now of the true temi^er of empire ; it is a thing rare and hard to keep : for both temj)er and distemper consist of contraries. But it is one thing to mingle contraiies, another to enterchange them " (" Empire "). " To mingle contraries " signifies balance, temperance, and evi- dently Bacon had applied this law of opposites to almost every- thing, to appetites, passions, affections, as Ave refind in the plays. He had evidently worked this idea out as a great moral law, far deeper than it is possible as yet to apprehend in its full force, and is applied as a law to the play of passion against passion, affection against affection in the plays. " For who knows not that the doctrine of contraries are the same, though they be opposite in use ? " (Book VL, p. 209, " Advancement of Learning "). Ulysses. Fie, fie upon her ! There's language in her eye, her cheek, her lip, Nay, her foot speaks ; her wanton spirits look out At every joint and motive of her body. ("Troilus and Cressida.") One of Bacon's studies, which he introduces in the Foiu-th Book of the " Advancement of Learning," is " The relationship of the mind to the body" " How these two, namely, the mind and the body, disclose one the other ; and how one worketh iipo^i the other, by discovery or indication, and by impression" (Lib. IV., p. 181, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). Again, " The first is Physiognomy, which discovers the disposi- tions of the mind by the lineaments of the body." " Aristotle hath very ingeniously and diligently handled the postures of the body, while it is at rest, hut not the gestures of the body ivhen it is in motion ; which are no less comprehensible by art, and of greater use" (Physiognomta Corporis in Motu, Cap. L, Sec. 3, § 1, "Advancement of Learning." 1G40). PARALLELS. 225 The passage from "Troilus and Cressida" leaves the impression Ulysses reflects upon Crcssida's motions or movements. At every joint and motive of her body. That Bacon should have proposed to make a study of such a sul)ject is excessively curious, and sj^eaks for his extraordinary observing powers, showing he was a keen student of human nature externally, as well as internally. " So in all physiognomy the lineaments of the body will discover those natural indications of the mind which dissimulation will conceal or discipline will suppress " (" Natural History," Book IX., Ex. 800). " For it is a rule that whatsoever science is not consonant to presuppositions, vaxxBt pray in aid of similitudes" ("Advancement of Learning," Book II., p. 174). A coiK^ieror that will 2>ray in aid for kindness, Where he for grace is kneel'd to. ("Antony and Cleopatra," act v. so. 2, 27.) Mr Aldis Wright remarks : — Sir T. Hanmer in his note on this passages says : " Praying in aid is a term used for a petition, made in a court of justice, for the calling in of help from another, that hath an interest in the cause in question " (Glossary, " Advancement of Learning "). Bacon always uses the archaic form '' statua" for statue : — "Encompassed also with fine rails of low statuas" ("Gardens"). Even at the base of Pompey's statua. ("Julius Cfesar," act iii. sc. 2.) "Let the songs be loud and cheerful, and not chirpings or pulings" (" Masques and Triumphs"). To speak puling like a beggar at Halloivmass. (" Two Gentlemen of Verona," act ii. sc. 1.) P 2 26 PARALLELS. " A servant or a favourite, if he be inward, and no other ap- parent cause of esteem, is commonly thought but a by-Avay to close corruption" ("Great Place"). Who is most inivard with the noble duke. (" Richard III.," act iii. so. 4.) " I knew two that were competitors for the secretary's place in Queen Elizabeth's time, and yet kept good quarter between themselves" (" Cunning"), Friend all but now In quarter. " Some build rather upon the uhusiwj of others " (" Cunning "). The Moors abused by some most villianous knave. (" Othello," act iv. sc. 2.) " Yet the more subtile sort of them doth not only put a man besides his answer, but doth many times abuse his judgment" (" Advancement of Learning," Book II., ch. xiv. 3). Whether thou bee'st he or no, Or some enchanted trifle to ubuse me. (" Tempest, " act V. sc. 1, 112.) " So in most things men are ready to abuse themselves in thinking the greatest means to be best, when it should be the fittest." The employment of this word " abuse " by Bacon is in the sense of deception or falsity. " Here is observed that in all causes the first tale possesseth much ; in short, that the prejudice thorel)y wrought will be hardly removed, except some abuse or falsity in the information be detected " (" Advancement of Learning," Book II., ch. xxiii. p. 6). " But you are much abused if you think your virtue can with- stand the King's power" ("Advancement of Learning," Book I., ch. vii. p. 30). ' • PARALLELS. 227 " In which error it seemeth Pompcy was, of whom Cicero saith, that he was wont often to say, Sijllainihdt, ego non pofcm? Wherein he was much abused" &c. (" Advancement of Learning," Book II., ch. xxiii. p. 26). It is perfectly plain Bacon uses this word just in the place where we should employ the word ^^ deceived" and if the reader now Avill turn to the citations from "Othello" and "The Tempest," he will find how truly this applies to the sense of the context. I am abused, and my relief Must be to loath her. ("Othello," act iii. sc. 3.) " Know you not of many which have made provision of laurel for the victoiy, and have been fain to exchange it with cypress for the funeral ? " (" Squire's Sjaeech "). Come away, come away, death, And in sad Cyjnrss let me he laid. (Song, "Twelfth Night," act ii. sc. 4.) "Some men are praised maliciously to their hurt, thereby to stir envy and jealousy towards them ; Fessimum Genus inimicorum lavdantium ; insomuch as it was a proverb, amongst the Grsecians, that He that was praised to his hurt should have a push rise upon his nose : as we say : That a blister will rise upon 07ie's tongue that tells a lie " (" Praise "). Paulina. I'll take't upon me : If I prove honey mouth'd, let my tongue blister. ("Winter's Tale," act ii. sc. 2.) " Concerning the materials of seditions, the matter of seditions is of two kinds ; much poverty and much discontentment. It is certain so many overthrown estates, so many votes for troubles. Lucan noteth well the state of Rome before the civil war. . . . And if this poverty and broken estate in the better sort, be joined with a want and necessity in the mean people, the danger is imminent 2 28 PARALLELS. and great. For the rebellions of the Belly are the worst " (" Of Sedi- tions and Troubles "). The tragedy of "Coriolanus" opens with a sedition of tlie people caused by poverty and want. 1st Citizen. You are all resolv'd rather to die than to famish ? 1st Citizen. For the Gods know I speak this in hunger for bread, not in thirst for revenge. 1st Citizen. First, you know Caius Martins is cliief enemy to the people. All. We know't, we know't. 1st Citizen. Let us kill him, anfl we'll have corn at bur own price. Is't a verdict ? All. No more talking on't ; let it be done : away, away. (" Coriolanus," act i. sc. 1.) Upon this enters Menenius Agrippa, who endeavours to assuage the people by the fable of the Belly and the Members. Men. There was a time when all the bodij's members RebelVcl against the belly. Let the reader note the sedition caused by poverty and want (in the play) and this fable, all occur upon the first page of the tragedy (Folio 1623), and see how the prose poiirait or analysis of all this, even to the fable of the Rebellion of the Belly, is given by Bacon in the Essay quoted. " For the wit and mind of man, if it work upon matter, which is the contemplation of the creatures of God, worketh accoi'ding to the stuff, and is limited thereby ; but if it work upon itself, as the spider worketh his web, then it is endless " (" Advancement of Learning," Book I. p. 20). But spider-like, Out of his self-drauing web he gives us note. ("Henry VIII.," act i. sc. 1.) " Iterations are commonly loss of time" (" Of Dispatch "). What means this iteration, woman ? ("Othello," act V. sc. 2.) PARALLELS. 229 " 111 ;i word, a man were better relate himself to a statue or picture, than to sufter his thoughts to pass in siiwther" ("Of Friendship "). Tlien must I from the smoke into the smother, From tyrant duke unto a tyrant brother. ("As You Like It," act i. sc. 2.) "For it is a dull thing to tire, and, as we say now, to jade any- thing too far " (" Of Discourse "). I do not now fool myself to let imagination j'rtfZe me. ("Twelfth Night," act ii. sc. 5.) ".Tell truly, was there never -a flout or dry hloio given .?" ("Dis- course "). Full of comparisons and \\o\\m\mg fiouts. (" Love's Labour's Lost," act v. sc. 2.) But what's your jest ? A dry jest, sir. (" Twelfth Kight," act i. sc. 3.) The use of the word " augmented " is so peculiarly Baconian, and refound under the expressions " augmentation of sciences " (see preface to " Instauration "), that to find it in Shakespeare is not astonishing : — And since the quarrel Will bear no colour, for the thing he is. Fashion it thus : that what he is augmented. ("Julius Cfesar," act ii. sc, 2.) " For it is reported that at the celebration of his orgies, two famous worthies, Pentheus and Orpheus, were torn in pieces by certain mad-enraged women " (" Fable of Dionysus "). Compare — The riot of the tipsy Bachanals Tearing the Thracian singer in their rage ? ("Midsummer Night's Dream," act v. sc. 1.) 230 PARALLELS. Mark the perfect parallelism of language and subject matter, inasmuch as the " Thradan singer " was Orpheus ; and Bacon introduces this in context with the history of Bacchus. Only- three lines before the passage quoted we read : — " He took to wife Ariadne, forsaken and left by Theseus." Considering Theseus is the leading or chief character in the " Midsummer Night's Dream," how convincing is this context, which finds a further parallel in the lines : — And make him with fair M^\q break his faitli, With Ariadne and Antiopa ? ("Midsummer Night's Dream," act ii. sc. 1.) For I did play a lamentable part, (Madam) 'twas Ariadne passioning For Theseus' perjury, and unjust flight. (" Two Gentlemen of Verona," act iv. sc. 4.) " An ill man is always ill ; but he is then worst of all when he pretends to be a saint " (Bacon). Oh what may man within him hide, Though angel on the outward side. ("Measure for Measure," act iii. sc. 2.) What is't I dream on ? cunning enemy, that to catch a saint, With saints doth bait thy hook ! ("Measure for Measure," act ii. sc. 2.) " Of this, however, I shall speak presently upon the question whether the stars are real fires" ("Description of the Intellectual Globe," p. 533). "Another question is, are the stars true fires?" (Ihid., p. 538). Doubt thou the stars are fire, Doubt that the sun doth move, Doubt truth to be a liar. But never douljt I love. (" Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) The skies are painted with unnumbered sparks. They are all fire, and every one doth shine. ("Julius Cresar," act iii. sc. 1.) PARALLELS. 231 " For the fire of the dar^ is pure, perfect, and native, whereas our fire is degenerate, like Vulcan thrown from heaven and halting with the fall " (" Description of the Intellectual Globe," p. 538). Bacon's view of young and old men, repeats itself in phantom Captain Shakespeare's supposed works. Essay 43, upon " Youth and Age," Dr Abbott sums up thus : " Youth is frank and sincere, old age cautious and reserved. Youth is inclined to religion and devotion by reason of its fervency, in old age piety cools." Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care ; Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather ; Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare. Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short ; Youth is nimble, age is lame ; Youth is hot and bold, age is weak and cold ; Youth is wild, and age is tame. Age, I do abhor thee ; youth, I do adore thee ; ("Passionate Pilgrim.") " There is no greater impedient of action than an over-curious observance of decency, which is time and season. For as Solomon says, ' He that observeth the Avind shall not sow, and he that regardeth the clouds shall not reap.' A man must make his opportunity as oft as find it " (Bacon). Let's take the instant by the forward top ; For we are old, and on our (juick'st decrees The inaudible and noiseless foot of time Steals ere we can effect them. ("All's Well that Ends AVell," act v. sc. 2.) 232 PARALLELS. Hamlet. Sil. "What, angi-y, Sir Tliuiio ! do you change colour? Vol. Give him leave, madam, he is a kind of Chameleon. (" Two Gentlemen of Verona," act ii. sc. 3.) I can add colours to the Chameleon, Change shapes with Proteus for advantages. ("3 King Henry YI.," act iii. sc. 2.) In Bacon's " Wisdom of the Ancients " he describes Proteus as one Avho could, "turn himself into all manner of forms and wonders of Nature ; sometimes into fire, sometimes into Avater, sometimes into the shape of beasts and the like." In the " Sylva Sylvarum " (16, 360) we find Bacon writing : " A Chameleon is a creature about the bigness of an ordinary lizard, his head unproportionately big, his eyes great. He moveth his head without the writhing of his neck (which is inflexible), as a Hog doth." Bacon continues to tell us the Chameleon " cJianges i/.s colours : " " If he laid upon gi'een, the green predominateth ; if upon yellow, the yellow ; laid upon black, he looketh all black." Is it not possible in thus introducing the parallel of a Hog, in context with the changes of colours in the Chameleon, Bacon is slyly alluding to his own disguise and change of colours under the name of Hog 1 It is evident the Chameleon is thus pictin-ed by Bacon, as an animal that can disguise its true character. " He feedeth not only upon air, though that be his principal susten- ance, for sometimes he taketh flies, as was said ; yet some that have kept Chameleons a whole year together, could never perceive that ever they fed ujjon anything else hut air" ("Natural History," Ex. 360). King. How fares our cousin Hamlet ? Hcthi. Excellent, i'faith, of the Chameleon's dish : I eat the air promis'd cranim'd, you cannot feed capons so. (" Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) " Lucretius the Poet, when he beheld the act of Agamemnon, that could endure the sacrificing of his own daughter, exclaimed — PARALLELS. 233 Tautuni Rclij,ao potuit suaileru maloruni. What would he have said if he had known of the Alassacre in France, or the Powder Treason of England ? He would have been seven times more epicure and atheist than he was" (" Of Unity in Religion "). This Essay is an example of Bacon's cautiousness in discussing religious questions. There are certain historical events which happened during Bacon's childhood, which must have had an ex- traordinary effect upon his young mind. We allude to the Revolt of the Netherlands (156G-7), the defeat of the Turks off Lepanto (1571), the Massacre of St Bartholomew, 1572. Just at an age when precocious children are beginning to im])ibe knowledge, that is, at the ages of six, seven, eleven, and twelve years. Bacon was hearing of these stirring events, at the bottom of which were questions of religion. Well indeed must the reflection have been drawn from him, " Alas ! Religion how powerfully couldst thou prompt to evil!" And in the same Essay, 1612, we read: — " The quarrels and divisions for religion were evils unknown to the Heathen : and no marvel ; for it is the true God that is the zealous God, and the Gods of the Heathen were good fellows." Bacon seems to us here, to forget for a moment his caution, and to show us the " nakedness of his mind." It is plain he contrasts Anti- quity with his own times, to the evident disadvantage of the latter. And it is well to notice the large classic element entering into the plays, particularly the first and last of the Folio, viz., "The Tempest" and " Cymbeline," in each of which Jupiter is introduced as some Deus ex nuicliind. In the Essay of 1612 Bacon continues : " Neither is there such a sin against the Holy Ghost (if one should take it literally), as instead of the likeness of a dove, to bring him down in the likeness of a Vulture or Puvven ; nor such a scandal to their Church as out of the bark of St Peter to set forth the fag of a large of Pirates and Assassins." * In pass- * Compare how Hamlet falls into the hands of Pirates (act iv. sc. 6) : "Ere we were two days old at sea, a j^iratc of very warlike appointment Rave us chase," &c. 2 34 PARALLELS. iiig, let us notice Ave repeatedly find this " Raven,^^ introduced in Kosicrucian literature, in some symbolical sense connected appar- ently with ])ersecution or clanger. In the " Chymical I^uptials of Christian Rosy Cross " (published in Mr E. "Waite's " Real History of the Rosicrucians "), this Rjiven is prominenth^ introduced. AYe should like here to point out a parallel (in the play of " Hamlet") to the line quoted by Bacon from " Lucretius " (" De Rerum Natura," I. 95) as to the sacrificing of Agamemnon's daughter : — Ham. Jeplithah, judge of Israel, what a treasure hadst tliou! Pol. What a treasure had he, my lord ? Ham. Why, " One fair daughter, and no more. The which he loved passing well." Pol. [Aside\ Still on my daughter. Ham. Am I not 1' the right, old Jeplithah 1 Pol. If you call me Jeplithah, my lord, I have a daughter that I love passing well. Ham. Nay, that follows not. Pol. What follows, then, my lord ? Ham. Why, "As by lot, God wot," and then, you know, '■ It came to ])ass, as most like it was," — the first row of the pious chanson will show you more ; for look, where ni)'' abridgement comes. ("Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) There is di dogmatic element of certainty about Polonius' character which must have struck all students of " Hamlet." Are we sure the references to Wittenberg (thrice) in this play do not refer to the Reformation and Luther 1 Polonius answers to what is summed up l^y Hamlet, as " Words, Words, Words." He thus presents a parallel to the infallibility and endless verbal dogmas of the Papacy, as it existed about this time. Bacon A\Tites upon authority : — " Now, of all the enemies that have contributed to the divorce between the intellect and the world, anthority is the most formid- able. Authority has substituted the little world of this or that philosopher for the great and common world ; it has encouraged PARALLELS. 235 indolence and suppressed inquiry. Authority must therefore l)e first pulled down from her throne before truth can reign supreme in the realm of philosophy" ("Introd. Essays," LXX., Abbott). " Martin Luther, conducted (no doubt) by an higher providence, hnt in discourse of reason, &c." ("Advancement of Learning," Book I., iv. 2). A beast that wants discourse of reason "Would have mouni'd longer. (" Hamlet," act i. sc. 2.) Or is your blood So madly hot, that no discourse of reason Nor fear of bad success, in a bad cause, Can qualify the same ? (" Troilus and Cressida," act ii. sc. 2.) Upon the same column and page, the quotation from the tragedy of "Hamlet" appears, we find Wittenberg introduced three times : — For 3'our intent In going back to school in IVitteiiberrj, It is most retrograde to our desire. (Act i. sc. 2.) And what make you from Wittenberg, Horatio ? (Acti. sc. 2.) Considering Wittenberg was where Martin Luther burnt the Pope's Bull, it may, indeed, be taken as an emblem of the Refor- mation movement. Therefore, to find Bacon coupling Martin Luther ^vith a parallel expression which we refind in the play of "Hamlet" ("discourse of reason") uj)on the same column, and only a few lines separated from Wittenberg, is a curious connec- tion of mind which, I do not doubt, will be perceived. An association of ideas, and a connotation of thought, may almost be traced here, viz., " Martin Luther,^' " discourse of reason," " Wit- tenberg. " The first two we find Bacon connoting, the last two Shakespeare. The middle term is common to both Bacon and the author of the plays. 236 PARALLELS. Of divination of the soul, Bacon writes : . . . " Whicli there- fore appeareth most in sleep, in ecstasies, and near death" (" Advancement of Learning," Book V., xi. 2). Tliis is the very coinage of your brain, This bodiless creation ecstasy is very cunning in. ("Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) Othello (act v. sc. 1) falls in a trance, produced by Ligo work- ing upon his jealousy. lago says to Othello : — I shifted him away, ■ And laid good excuses upon your ecstasy. (Act iv. sc. 1.) " The passions of the mind work upon the body, the impressions following. Fear causeth paleness ; trembling ; the standing of the hair upright; starting" ("Sylva Sylvarum," Exp. 713). Thy knotted and combined locks to part, And each particular hair to stand on end, Like quills upon the fretful porpentine. (" Hamlet," act i. sc. 4.) Your tedded hair like life in excrements Start xbp and staml on end. (" Hamlet," act iii. sc. 4.) " Grief and pain cause sighing, sobbing, groaning, screaming, and roaring" ("Sylva Sylvarum," Exp. 714). He cried almost to roaring. ( ' ' Antony and Cleopatra, " act iii. sc. 2. ) " Laughing causeth . . . shaking of the breast and sides " (" Sylva Sylvarum," 721). Your Lord, I mean — laughs from free lungs, cries Oh, Can my sides hold. (" Cymbeline," act i. sc. .'5. ) Bacon was evidently a deep student of the Passions of the Mind, and this is just what we should expect of a Dramatic Artist, observing closely human nature, in order to create truthfully. PARALLELS. 237 " It is manifest that flies, spiders, ants, or the like small crea- tures falling Ijy chance into amher or the gum of trees " (" Life and Death," 21). Their eyes pui-giiig thick amber and plum-tree gum. ("Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) " It is an observation amongst country people, that years of store of Uaics and Hips do commonly portend cold winters, and they ascribe it to GocVs Providence, that (as the Scripture saith) reacheth even to the falling of a sparroiv" ("Sylva Sylvarum," Exp. 737). Hamlet. Not a whit, we defy augury : there's a special in-ovidencc in the fall of a sparrow. (" Hamlet," act v. sc. 2.) " But I find in Plutarch and others, that when Augustus Ccesar visited the sepulchre of Alexander the Great, in Alexandria, he found the body to keep his dimension " (" Sylva Sylvarum," Ex. 771). Ham. Dost thou think Alexander looked o' this fashion i' the earth ? Hor. E'en so. Ham. And smelt so ? pah ! [Puts down the skull. Hor. E'en so, my lord. Ham. To what base uses we may return, Horatio? Why may not imagi- nation trace the noble dust of Alexander, till he find it stopping a bung-hole? Hor. 'Twere to consider too curiously, to consider so. Ham. No, faith, not a jot ; but to follow him thither with modesty enough, and likelihood to lead it : as thus : Alexander died, Alexander was buried, Alexander returneth into dust ; the dust is earth ; of earth we make loam ; and wliy of that loam, whereto he was converted, might they not stop a beer- barrel ? Imperial Ciesar, dead and turn'd to clay, ]\Iight stop a hole to keep the wind away : 0, that that earth, which kept the world in awe, Should patch a wall to expel the winter's flaw ! (" Hamlet," act v. sc. 1.) Note the subject is identical, viz., Alexander's dead body and Augustus Ccesar (that is. Imperial Ceesar) in both quotations. Hamlet puts the question to the gravedigger : — 238 PARALLELS. Ham. How long will a man lie i' the earth ere he rot ? First Clo. V faith, if he be not rotten before he die — as we have many pocky corses now-a-days, that will scarce hold the laying in — he will last you some eight year or nine year : a tanner will last yon nine year. Ham. Why he more than another ? First Clo. Why, sir, his hide is so tanned with his trade, that lie will keep out water a great while ; and your icatcr is a soi-c decaycr of your whoreson dccul body. (Act v. sc. 1.) "The means to induce and accelerate putrefaction are first by addinc/ some crude or watery moisture " (Ex. 329, " Natural History "). " That a Satyr may he a truer table of a man's life than many svich histories" (Lib. II., p. 93, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). So excellent a king ; that was, to this, Hyperion to a Satyr. (" Hamlet," act i. sc. 2.) " The two last acts, which you did for me, in procuring the releasement of ray fine and my Quietus est" (Letter CXXXIX., 1702). When he himself might his qidetus make With a bare bodkin. ("Hamlet," act iii. sc. 1.) " It is the life of an ox or beast always to eat, and never to exercise ; but men are born (especially Christian men) not to cram in their fortunes, but to exercise their virtues" (Letter LXXXL, 1702). "What is a man, If his chief good and market of his time Be but to sleep and feed? A beast, no more. Sure, he that made us with such large discourse, Looking before and after, gave us not That capability and God-like reason To fust in us umised. (" Hamlet," act iv. sc. 4.) " We see the Switzers last well notwithstanding their diversity of religion " ("Nobility"). Where are my Switzers ? ("Hamlet," act iv. sc. 5.) PARALLELS. 239 " And let a man heioare how he keepeth company with choleric and qmirrelsome jjersons ; fur they will engage him into their own quarrels " (" Travel "). Bcicarc of entrance to a quarrel. ("Hamlet," act i. su. 3.) " And in his discourse let him he rather advised in his answers than forward to tell stories" ("Advice on Travel"). Give every man thine ear ; but few thy voice. ("Hamlet," Ih.) " For the common people understand not many excellent virtues ; the lowest virtues draw praise from them, the middle virtues work in them astonishment or admiration ; but of the highest virtues they have no sense or perceiving at all. But Shows and Species mrtutihus similes serve best with them" (" Praise "). To split the ears of the fjrouiulUngs ; who for the most part are capahle of nothing but inexiJlicahle dumh shotvs and noise. (" Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) " Certainly he that hath a Satirical vein, as he maketh others afraid of his wit, so he had need be afraid of other's memory " ("Of Discoui'se"). Slanders, sir, for the satirical rogue says here that old men have gi-ey beards, that their faces are wTinkled. (" Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) " The expectation [of death] brings terror, and that exceeds the evil " (" Death "). But that the dread of something after death, The iindiscover'd country from whose bourne No traveller returns, puzzles the will. (" Hamlet," act iii. sc. 1.) " He had such Moles perpetually working and casting to under- mine him" ("History King Henry VH.," p. 240, 1641). Well said old Mole, can'st work in the ground so fast ? A worthy Pioneer. (" Hamlet," act i. sc. 5.) 240 PARALLELS. " Why then may we not divide philosophy into two parts, the mine and the furnace, and make two professions or occupations of Natural Philoso[)hers, pioneers or ivorkers in the mine and smiths or refiners?" (Book III., "De Augmentis," chap, iii., p. 140). It is very well worthy note the above quotation is from Bacon upon " Sjnrits," because the Ghost of Hamlet's Father is a Sjnrit, and is introduced as working secretly in the ground as a pioneer or mole in the mine of the earth. " But these three be the true Stages of Sciences, and are to men swelled up with their own knowledge, and a daring insolence, to invade Heaven, like the three hills of the giants. Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam, Scilicet atque Ossre frondosum involvere Olyinpuin." (" Two Books Advancement of Learning," II., p. 7). Compare : — Lccrtcs. Now pile your dust upon the quicke and dead, Till of this flat a mountain you have made, To o'erto]) old Pelion, or the skyish head Of blue Olymjnis. Hamlet. Let them throw Millions of acres on us ; till our ground, Singeing his pate against the burning zone, Make Ossa like a wart. ("Hamlet," act v. sc. 1.) It is well worthy noting that Pelion, Ossa, and Ohjmpus are brought in together in context, and it can hardly be doubtful that the author of the passage from " Hamlet " had the quota- tion from the 1st Georgic of Virgil in his mind which Bacon gives. "And, therefore, it is good a little to he familiar" ("Ceremonies and Respects "). Be thou familiar but by no means vulgar. ("Hamlet," act i. sc. 3.) This is qualified by what precedes it : — " And, therefore, it is good a little to keep state " {Ih.). PARALLELS. 241 " 'Keprime to paululum, et dignitatem tucm,' keep state — repress yourself a little and keep your dignity (The Latin edition 1638, "Operum Moralium et Civilium"). (This 1638 Latin edition differs from all the preceding editions of Bacon's Essays, and proves he Avas emendating works wliicli were, to be posthainousl)/ puhliahcd.) " And, it may he, you shall do posterity good, if out of the car- case of dead and rotten greatness (as out of Samson's lion) there may be honey gathered for the use of future times " (Bacon). 'Tis seldom when the hec doth leave lier comb III the dead carrion. ("2 Henry IV.," act iv. sc. 4.) For if the snn breed maggots in a dead dog, being a God-kissing carrion.* (•'Hamlet.") "Demonax, the philosopher, when he died, was asked touching his burial. He answered. Never take care for burying me, for stink will bury me " (Blackbourne's Works, V. i. p. 170). But indeed, if you find him not Avithin this month, you shall nose him as you go up the stairs into the lobby. (" Hamlet," act iv. sc. 3.) " And as Avholesome meat corrupteth to little Avorms ; so good forms and orders corrupt into a number of petty observances " (" Superstition "). King. Now, Hamlet, where's Polonius ? Ham. At supper. King. At supper ? Where ? Sam. Not where he eats, but Avhere he is eaten, a certain convocation of Avorms are e'en at him. Your worm is your only Emperor for diet. (" Hamlet," act iv. sc. 3.) "The history of providence containeth that excellent corre- spondence which is betAveen God's revealed Avill and His secret Avill, Avhich though it be so obscure as, for the most j^art, it is not * ' ' For corruption is a reciprocal to generation. And they tAvo are as nature's two terms, or boundaries ; and the guides to life and death " ( ' ' Natural History "). Q 242 PARALLELS. legible to the natural man, — no nor many times to those who behold it from the tabernacle, — 3'et at some times it pleaseth God, for our better estal)lishment, and the confuting of those which are as without God in the world, to write it in such text and capital letters that as the prophet says, ' He that runneth may read it'" ("Advancement of Learning," Book II., iii. 2). There's a divinity that shapes our ends, Rougli hew them how we wilL (" Hamlet," act v. sc. 2.) We are in God's hands. (" King Henry Y. ," act iii. sc. 6.) " I might say much of the commodities that death can sell a man, but briefly death is a friend of ours, and he that is not ready to entertain him is not at home " (" Death "). If it be now, 'tis not to come : if it be not to come, it will be now ; if it be not now, yet it will come : the readiness is all. ("Hamlet," act v. sc. 2. ) Men must endure Their going hence, even as their coming hither ; Ripeness is all. ("King Lear," act v. sc. 2.) In a letter to King James (concerning Peacham's trial) Bacon writes : — " I hold it fit that myself and my fellows go to the Tower, and so I purpose to examine him upon these points and some others. I think also, it were not amiss to make a false fire^ as if all things Avere ready for his going down to his trial," &c. ("AVorks," V. 354). Ophelia. The King rises. Samlet. "What, frighted with /«?sc /re' (" Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) " And therefore we see that voluptuous men turn friars, and ambitious Princes turn melancholy" (Book I., p. 71, "Advancement of Learning," Wright). PARALLELS. 243 King, There's something in his soul, O'er which his melancholy sits on brood. Hamlet. Sir, I lack advancement. (" Hamlet," act iii. so. 2.) " My letters out of the Tower were De Profundis ; and the world is a prison" (Letter to Buckingham, 22ndJune 1621). Gttil. Prison, my Lord ? Ham. Denmark's a prison. Eosin. Then is the world one. Ham. A goodly one, in which there are many confines, wards, and dungeons. ("Hamlet," act ii. sc. 2.) "This kind of oppression was wont also to be resembled to sponges, which being dry suck in strongly; not so being moist" (Parable xxiv., Book YIIL, p. 390, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). Hamlet. Besides to be demanded of a simngc, what replication should be made by the son of a king ? Eosencrantz. Take you me for a sponge, my Lord ? Hamlet. I, sii", that soaks uj) the King's countenance, his rewards, his authorities (but such officers do the King best service in the end). When he needs what you have gleaned, it is but squeezing you and sponge ymh shall he dry again. (Act ii. sc. 2.) " The modern languages give unto such persons, the name of Favourites or Privadoes" ("Friendship"). In "Hamlet" we have the Corn-tiers Rosencrantz and Ghiildenstern, who are undoubtedly the King's "favourites." Ham. Guildenstern ? Ah, Rosencrantz ! Good lads, how do ye both ? Eos. As the iudifterent children of the earth. Gicil. Hapjiy, in that we are not over happy ; On fortune's cap we are not the very button. Ham. Nor the soles of her shoe ? Eos. Neither, my lord. Ham. Then you live about her waist, or iu the middle of her favour. Gtcil. Faith her privates we. (Act ii. sc. 2.) 244 PARALLELS. In the Latin version of the Essays, the word " Privadoes" is rendered " Amicomm Regis " (friends of the King), just what the courtiers Kosencrantz and Guildenstern really are. And we want to know why Bacon was continually altering the successive editions of the Essays, putting in just these fine touches which seem to corroborate contact with the plays ? Was this one of his designs ? * Spur, Spurred, &c. An expression common and peculiar to both Bacon and the plays is the simile of the word ''sjmr, spurs," as prides and incen- tives to action. "It is an offence (my Lords) that hath the two spurs of offending: spes perficiendi a,nd spescelandi" (p. 59, Part I., "Resus- citatio "). Each man to liis stool, with tliat spur as he would to the li}) of his mistress. ("Timon of Athens.") But love will not be spurred to what it loathes. ("Two Gentlemen of Verona," act v. so. 2.) "What need we any spur, bnt onr own cause, To prick us to redress ? ("■lulius C:esar," act ii. so. 1.) The venom 'd vengeance ride u^ton our swords. Spur them to ruthful work, rein them from ruth. ("Troilus and Cressida," act v. sc. 3.) "As if there were two horses, and the one would do better without the spur than the other ; but again, the other with the spur would far exceed the doing of the former, giving him the spur also ; yet the latter will be judged to be the better horse, * "The composition, correction, and augmentation of these Essays stretched over a period of thirty years. Mr Martin has noted and translated all the important variations in the fifty-six Essays common to the two editions ; these amount to over 1900 in number " (Introd., Arber's "Harmony of the Essays"). PARALLELS. 245 and the form as to say, T'f/.s/i, the life of fliis Jiorse is but in tlie spur " ("Colours of Good and Evil," 3). " Glory and honour are the goads and sjittrs to virtue " (" Colours of Good and Evil," 10). She is a tlieiiie of honour and renown A spin- to valiant and magnanimous deeds. (" Troihis and Cressida," act ii. sc. 2.) Finds brotherhood in thee no sliarjjcr spur? (" Richard II.," act i. sc. 2.) He tires betimes, that sjmrs too fast betimes. (" Richard II.," act ii. sc. 1.) From giving reins and spurs to my free speech. ('•Richard II.," act i. sc. 1.) " Whosoever hath anything fixed in his person that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn " {" Deformity "). I have no sjmr To prick the sides of my intent, but only Vaulting ambition, which o'er-leaps itself, And falls on th' other. ("Macbeth," act i. sc. 7.) " But yet, nevertheless, it did take off from his party, that great tie and spur of necessity to fight, and go victors out of the field " ("History of King Henry VH.," page 145, ed. 1641.) " But yet, nevertheless, these positions Faber quisquce foiiuncB sua', sapiens dominahitur astris ; invia virhiti nulla est via, and the like being taken and used as spurs to industry" ("Advancement of Learning," Book H., p. 93, 1605). "Secondly, it deceives because necessity, and this same yac/a est alea, awakens the powers of the Mind, a7id puts the spurs to any enterprise" ("Colours of Good and Evil," Lib. VI., p. 289, "Advancement of Learning"). " As for the times succeeding (I mean after the thirtieth year of her reign), though indeed our fear of Spain, which had been 246 PARALLELS. the sjgwr to this rigoiu'" (Elizabeth, p. 150, " Resuscitatio," 1671). She's tickled now, her fume needs no spurs, She'll gallop far enough to her destruction. ("2 King Henry VI.," act i. sc. 3.) " Besides, such excesses do excite and spur nature, which there- upon riseth more forcibly against the disease" (" Sylva Sylvarum," Ex. 62). How all occasions do inform against me, And sp^^r my dull revenge ? ("Hamlet," act iv. sc. 4.) Bacon's " Wisdom of the Ancients." Cassandra. • The first piece in Bacon's " Wisdom of the Ancients " is Cassandra : — " The Poet's Fable that Apollo, being enamoiu-ed of Cassandra, was by her many shifts and cunning sleights still deluded in his desire, but yet fed on with hope, until such time as she had drawn from him the Gift of Prophesying, and having by such her dissimulation in the end, attained to that which from the beginning she sought after, at last flatly rejected his suit. Who finding himself so far engaged in his promise as that he could not by any means revoke again his rash gift, and yet inflamed with an earnest desire of revenge, highly disdaining to be made the scorn of a crafty wench, annexed a penalty to his promise, viz., that she should ever foretell the Truth, but never be believed. So were her divinatimis always faithful, hut at no time regarded, whereof she still found the experience, yea even in the ruin of her own country, which she had often forewarned them of; but they neither gave credit nor ear to her words." The following splendid piece from " Troilus and Cressida " repeats all this in action : — PARALLELS. 247 Cos. [ Within] Cry, Trojans, cry ! Fri, Wliat noise ? what shriek is this ? Tro. 'Tis our mad sister, I do know her voice. Cas. [JFifhiii] Cry, Trojans ! Ifcd. It is Cassandra. Enter Cassaxdua, raving, Cas. Cry, Trojans, cry ! lend me ten thousand eyes. And I will till them with prophetic tears. ffcct. Peace, sister, peace ! Cas. Virgins and hoys, mid-age and wrinkled eld, Soft infancy, that nothing canst but cry, Add to my clamours ! let us pay betimes A moiety of that mass of moan to come. Cry, Trojans, cry ! i)ractise your eyes with tears ! Troy must not be, nor goodly Ilion stand ; Our fire-brand brother, Paris, burns us all. Cry, Trojans, cry ! a Helen and a woe : Cry, cry ! Troy burns, or else let Helen go. [Exit.] Sect. Now, youthful Troilus, do not these high strains Of divination in our sister work Some touches of remorse ? or is your blood So madly hot that no discourse of reason, Nor fear of bad success in a bad cause. Can (jualify the same ? Tro. Why, brother Hector, We may not think the justness of each act Such and no other than event doth form it. Nor once deject the courage of our minds, Because Cassandra's mad : her brain-sick raptures Cannot distaste the goodness of a (juarrel Which hath our several honours all engaged To make it gracious. (Act ii. sc. 2.) Mark that Bacon terms Cassandra's gift '' Divination," and Hector in the above passage. Do not these high strains Of divination in our sister work Some touches of remorse ? Enter Cassandka. Cas, Where is my brother Hector A/uh Here, sister ; arm'd and bloody in intent. Consort with me in loud and dear petition, 248 PARALLELS. Pursue we him on knees ; for I have dream'd Of bloody turbulence, and this whole night Hath nothing been but shapes and forms of slaughter. (Act V. sc. 3. ) Directly we turn to Bacon's Fourth Book of the "Advance- ment of Learning" (" De Augmentis," 1623), we find under Divination, this : — " But the Divination nntural, which springeth from the internal poAver of the soul, is that which we now speak of. This is of two sorts, the one native, the other by influxion. Native is grounded upon this supposition, that the mind when it is withdrawn and collected into itself, and not diffus'd into organs of the body, hath from the natvu'al power of its own essence, some prenotion of things future. And this af)pears most in sleep; ecstacies, propinquity of death ; more rare in waking, or when the body is healthful and strong" (p. 210, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). It may be seen that Andromache is presented as having dreamt of the disasters awaiting Troy. Prometheus. " Prometheus, by Jupiter's command, was brought to the mountain Caucasus, and there bound fast to a frillar that he could not stir " (Prometheus). Fetter'd in amorous chains And faster bound to Aaron's charming eyes Than is Prometheus tied to Caucasus. ("Titus Andronicus " act ii. sc. 1.) Actceon. " In his fable of Action Bacon writes : " Actseon having un- awares, and as it were l)y chance, beheld Diana naked, was turned into a stag, and devoured by his oion dogs " (X. Actaeon, " "Wisdom the Ancients "). Oh when mine eyes did see 01i\ia first, Methought she purg'd the air of pestilence ; That instant was I turned into a hart, PARALLELS. 249 And my desires like fell and cruel homids Ere since })ursue me. ("Twelfth Night," act i. so. 1.) Had I the power that some say Dian had, Thy temples should l)e planted presently TFith horns, as teas Acta^on's ; and the hounds Should drive uiwii thy new-transformed limbs. C' Titus Andronicus," act ii. sc. 3.) Junos Suitor. " The Poets say that Jupiter, to enjoy his lustful delights, took upon him the shape of sundry creatures, as of a hull, of an eagle, of a swan, and of a golden shower" ("Wisdom of the Ancients," Juno's Suitor). The gods themselves, Humbling their deities to love, liave taken The shapes of beasts upon them : Jupiter Became a bull, and bellow'd. ("Winter's Tale," act iv. sc. 3.) Remember, Jove, thou wast a bull for thy Europa ; love set on thy horns. You were also Jupiter, a sivan, for the love of Leda. ("Merry Wives of Windsor," act v. sc. 5.) Great Jupiter upon his eagle backed. (" Cymbeline," act v. sc. 5.) Lcedalus. "This Dcedalus was persecuted by Minos with great severity, diligence, and inquiry, but he always found the means to avoid and escape his tyranny. Lastly, he taught his son Icarus to fly, but the office, in ostentation of this art, soaring too high, fell into the sea and was drowned " (Daedalus or Mechanic, " Wisdom of the Ancients," XIX.). Glou. Why, what a peevish fool was that of Crete, That taught his son the office of a fowl ! And yet, for all his wings, the fool was drown'd. K. Ren. I, Dcedalus ; my jjoor boy Icarus ; Thy father Minos, that denied our course ; The sun that sear'd the wings of my sweet boy, &c. ("3 King Henry VI.," act v. sc. 6.) 250 PARALLELS. Orplieus. " And this kind of merit Avas lively set forth in that feigned relation of Orpheus Theatre, where all beasts and birds assembled,, which, forgetting their proper natural appetites of prey, of game, of quarrels, stood all sociably and lovingly together, listening unto the airs and the accords of the harp " (" Advancement of Learning," Book I., p. 49). Orplicus with his hite made trees And the mountain tops that freeze Bow themselves when he did sing To his music, jilants and flowers Even sprang, at sun and sliowers These had made a lasting spring. Everything that heard him play, Even the billows of the sea Hung their heads and then lay by. In sweet music is such art, Killing care and grief of heart, Fall asleep, or hearing die. (" King Henry VIII.," act iii. sc. 1.) " For the poets feigned that Orpheus, by the vertue and sweet- ness of his harp, did call and assemble the beasts and birds of their nature wild and savage, to stand about him as in a Theatre" ("Considerations touching the Plantation in Ireland," 1606. ^' Kesuscitatio," Part I., p. 191, 1671).* For Orpheus' lute was strung with poets' sinews, "Whose golden touch could soften steel and stones ; Make tigers tame, and huge leviathans Forsake unsounded deeps to dance on sands. ("Two Gentlemen of Verona," act iii. sc. 2.) * Compare Robert Fludd : — "Qualis denique erat philosophica ilia Orphei musica admirabilis, cujus melodia Poetfe saxa etiam saltavisse finxerunt ? Aut ilia Arionis cujus vigore et etticacia compassio et admiratio etiam piscibus inipressa erat : credo e.quidem hoc a viventibus in occulto latere, aut saltern perpaucissimis notum esse" (" Tractatus Apol.," Pars, ii., p. 112, 1617). PARALLELS. 251 Horticultural Parali-els. " For Ave see a scion or young slip grafted upon the trunk of a tree, to shoot forth more prosperously, than if it had been set in earth" (Book V., "Advancement of Learning," 1640, p. 227). Pcrdita. I care not To get slips of tliem. Polix: We many A gentle scion to the wildest stock. (" "Winter's Tale," act iii. sc. 4.) It may be seen that the words, ^^ scion" and "slips," are found in close context in both quotations. " For though we principally pui-sue operation and the active part of sciences ; yet ice attend the due season of harvest ; nor go about to reap the green herb of the blade " (Distribution Preface, p. 32, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). Compare : — Birmi. Well, say I am, why should proud summer boast, ■Before the birds have any cause to slug ? Why should I joy in any abortive birth ? At Christmas I no more desire a rose, Than wish a snow in May's new-fangled shows. ("Love's Labour's Lost," act i. sc. 1.) " Nay, it were better to meet some dangers half way, though they come nothing near, than to keep too long a watch upon their approaches" ("Delays"). Out of this nettle danger, we pluck tliis flower safety. ("1 Henry IV.," act ii. sc. 3.) "The caterpillar is one of the most general of worms, and breedeth of dew and leaves ; for we see infinite number of cater- pillars which breed upon trees and hedges, by which the leaves of the trees or hedges are in great part consumed ; as well by their 252 PARALLELS. breeding out of the leaf, as, hy their feeding upon the leaf" (" Sylv. Sylv.," Ex. 728). Thus are my blossoms blasted in the bud, Aud caterpillars eat my leaves away. (2 " King Henry VI.," act iii. sc. 1.) Which tlie hot tyrant stains and soon bereaves. As caterpillars do the tender leaves. (" Venus and Adonis.") In Bacon's " Natural History " (Ex. 464, Century V.) he writes : — " As Terebration doth meliorate fruit, so upon the like reason doth letting of plants blood; as pricking vines or other trees after they be of some growth ; and thereby letting forth gums or tears. ^' This is curious horticultural lore, yet it is repeated in the fol- lowing passage from (act iii. sc. 4) "Eichard the Second" : — Gardener. And wound the bark the skhi of our fruit-trees, Lest being overproud with sap and blood, "With too much riches it confound itself? " There are many ancient and received traditions and obser- vations touching the sympathy and antipathy of plants : for that some will thrive best growing near others " (" Sylva Syl varum," Century V., 479-480, pp. 121, 122). Bacon gives examples, and almost always (as in the quotation), of a baser plant in contact with a higher class. " Take common-brier, and set it amongst violets or wall-floAvers, and see whether it will not make the violets or wall-floAvers sweeter " (488, " Experiment "). So also he cites examples of the corn-flower, poppy, and fumitory growing in corn. The strawberry grows underneath the nettle. And wholesome berries thrive and ri))en best, Ncighbour'd by fruit of baser quality. (" King Henry V.," act i. sc. 1.) " After these two noble fruits of friendship (peace in the affec- PARALLELS. 253 tions and support of the judgment) followeth the last fruit ; Avhich is like the pomegmmU full of mmy Tcemeh " (" Friendship "). Lafcn. Go to, sir, you were beaten in Italy for picking A kernel out of a j)omegranate. (All's Well that Ends Well," act ii. sc. 3.) " Periander, being consulted with how to preserve a tyrainiy, l)id the messenger stand still, and he walking in a garden topp'd all the highest flowers, signifying the cutting off and the keeping low of the nol^ility " (" De Augmentis," VI. i.). Go tliou, and like an executioner^ Cut off the heads of too fast-growing sprays, That look too lofty in our coninionwealth ; All must be even in our government. (" Richard II.," act iii. sc. 4, 33.) "There is use also of amlntious men in 7J?(//w?^ down the greatness of any subject that overtops " ("Ambition"). Prospcro. Being once perfected how to grant suits. How to deny them : who t'advance, and who To trash for over-topping ; new created The creatures that were mine, I say, or chang'd 'em, Or else new found them ; having both the key. Of officer and office, set all hearts i' th' state. To what tune pleas'd his ear, that now he was The ivy which had hid my princely trunk And suck't mj' verdure out on't. ("Tempest," act i. sc. 1.) " But it Avas ordained that this winding ivy of a Plantagenet shoidd Jdll the tree itself" * (Bacon's " History of King Henry VII."). Dr Abbott Avrites : — " The cautious, jealous Cecils, in whose time able men were suppressed of purpose " (Introduction, " What Bacon Avas Himself," p. xxviii., Bacon's Essays). * Ut hed(5ra serpens vires arboreds necat, Ita m6 vetustas amplexu aunorum enecat. (" Frag. Laberius.") 254 PARALLELS. " A mail that is young in years i)iay be old in hours, if he have lost no time " ("Youth and Age"). " For the experience of age in things that fall within the compass of it directeth it." Yet hath Sir Proteus, for that's his name, Made use and fair advantage of his days : His years but young, hut his experience old. ("Two Gentlemen of Verona," act ii. sc. 4.) " Neither can justice yield her fruit wdth sweetness amongst the briars and brambles of catching and polling" ("Indicature," 1625). Oh, how full of briers is this working-day world. ("As You Like It," act i. sc. 3.) " And if any man should do wrong out of ill-nature, why, yet it is but like the thorn or brier, which prick and scratch because they can do no other" ("Eevenge"). Gloucester. And I — like one lost in a thorny wood, That rends the thorns, and is rent with the thorns, Seeking a way, and straying from the way. ("3 King Henry VI.," act iii. sc. 2.) Custom, Habit, Use. In Bacon's Seventh Book of the " Advancement of Learning," we find him discussing morality, touching the "power and energy of custom, exercise, hahif," &c., exactly as Ave find so often incul- cated in the plays. " We will therefore insinuate a few i:)oints touching custom and habit. That opinion of Aristotle seemeth to me to favour of negligence and a narrow contemplation Avhere he asserts, that those Actions which are natural cannot be changed by custom." Again : " But howsoever this case be determined, by how much the more true it is, that both Virtues and Vices consist in habit" {])]). 356, 357; 1640). PARALLELS. 255 That monster custom who all sense doth eat Of habits devil is angel yet in this, That to the use of actions fair and good He likewise gives a frock or livery That aptly is put on. ("Hamlet," act iii. sc. 4.) Compare again : " For custom, if it ))e wisely and skilfully induced, proves (as it is commonly said) another nature " ("Advancement of Learning," p. 358, Book VII.). If damned custom have not biass'd it so. (" Hamlet," act. iii. sc. 4.) "But custom only doth alter and subdue Nature" ("Of Nature in Man "). "We see also the reign or tyranny of custom" ("Of Custom and Education "). How %isc doth breed a habit in a man. (" Two Gentlemen of Verona," act v. sc. 4.) In Bacon's Essay upon " Custom and Education," he writes : — " Many examples may be put of the force of custom, 1)oth upon mind and body : therefore, since custom is the principal magis- trate of man's life, let men by all means endeavour to obtain good customs. Certainly custom is most perfect when it be- ginneth in young years : this we call education, which is in effect but an early custom." Again: "There is no trusting to the force of nature, nor to the bravery of words, except it be corroborate by custom.'^ For use almost can change the stamp of nature, And either (master ?) the devil, or throw him out With wondrous potency. (" Hamlet," act iii. sc. 4.) The tyrant custom Hath made the flinty and steel couch of war My thrice driven bed of down. ("Othello," act i. sc. 3.) Naught so vile that on the earth doth live, But to the earth some special good doth give ; 256 PARALLELS. Kor naught so good, but strained from that fair use, Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse : Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied ; And vice sometimes by action dignified. ("Romeo and Juliet," act ii. sc. 3.) Love. " Both which times kindle Love, and make it more fervent, and therefore show it to be the child of folly " (" Of Love "). Valentine. To be in love where scorn is bought with coy looks. With heart-sore sighs : one fading moment's mirth If hap'ly won, perhaps a hapless gain ; If lost, why then a grievous laliour won ; However : but & folly bought with wit, Or else a wit hy folly vanquished. ("Two Gentlemen of Verona," act i. se. 1.) " One of the Fathers, in great severity, called Poesie Vinum. Dcumonum, because it filleth the imagination, and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie" ("Truth "). " Did not one of the Fathers, in great indignation, call Poesy Vinum Bcemonum, because it increaseth temptation, perturbations, and vain opinions" (" Advancement of Learning," ii. 22, § 13). The Father Bacon probably alludes to is St Augustine, and the quotation occurs in the " Confession," i. 16, " Vinum erroris ah ebriis doctorihus propinatum." This is referred to in Burton's "Anatomy of Melancholy " ("Democritus to the Reader," p. 103, 1813), and is introduced in these words : — " Frascatorius, a famous poet, freely grants all poets to he 7imd ; so doth Scaliger ; and who doth not? {Aut insanit homo, aut versus facit, Hor., 'Sat.' 7, 1. 2.) Insanire luhet, i.e., versus componere, Virg., ' Eel.' 3. So Servius in- terprets all poets are mad, a company of bitter satyrists, detractors, or else parasitical api:)lauders ; and what is poetry itself, but (as Austin holds) vinum erroris ah' ehriis doctorihus pivpinatum ? " PARALLELS. 257 Rosalind. Love is nicvcly a ttiadncss, and I tell you deserves as well a dark house and a whip as madmen do; and the reason why they are not so pun- ished and cured is, that the lunacy is so ordinary, that the whiiij)ers are in love too. ("As You Like It," act iii. so. 2.) Tlie lunatic, the lover, and the poet Are of imagination all compact. One sees more devils tlian vast hell can hold ; That is the madman. The lover, all as frantic. Sees Helen's beauty in a brow of Egy}it ; The poet's eye in a fine frenzy rolling doth glance From heaven to earth, from eai-th to heaven. And as imagination bodies forth the form of things Unknown ; the poet's pen turns them to shajies And gives to airy nothing a local habitation And a name. — Such tricks hath strong imagination. (" Midsummer Night's Dream.") We find Bacon attributing Poetry in similar way to Imagina- tion. He \vi'ites : " For Poesij which hath ever been attributed to the imagination, is to be esteemed rather a play of the wit than a knowledge " (Book V., p. 219, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). In his Essay upon "Love," he writes: "You may ob- serve, that amongst all the great and worthy persons Avhereof the memory remaineth, either ancient or recent, there is not one that hath been transported to the mad degree of love, and which shows that great spirits and great business do keejD out of this' weak passion." Here we find Bacon identifying Love with madness, as in the above passage from the "Dream." " It is the speech of a lover, not of a -wise man, Satis magnum Alter alteri Theatriim sumus " (p. 23, Book I., " Advancement of Learning," 1640). " I may obtain the excuse of affection, for that it is not granted to man to love and to he idse" (p. 76, Book II., "Advancement of Learning," 1640). The Latin quotation is from Ejncwiis, quoted by Seneca, and this Latin author is to be traced in the plays. In " Troilus and Cressida " we read : — For to he wise and love, Exceeds man's might, that dwells with Gods above, (Act iii. so. 2.) R 258 PARALLELS. " And thei'efore it was well said, That it is impossible to love and fo he wise " (Essay on " Love "). This is possibly taken from " Publius Syrus " :— 'Eipdu d/jia (ppovilv re kov OeQ Trdpa. Amare et Sajiere vix Deo conceditur. (Seutentiffi.) " That he that preferred Helena quitted the gifts of Juno and Pallas. For whosoever esteemeth too much of amorous affection, quitteth both riches and wisdom " (" Love "). " Non est ejusdem amare et sanse mentis esse " (Erasmus). " I know not how, but martial men are given to love ; I think it is hut as they are given to wine" ("Love"). But we are soldiers, And may that soldier a mere recreant prove That means not, hath not, or is not in love. ("Troilus and Cressida," act i. sc. 3.) " For it is a true rule that Love is ever rewarded either with the reciproque or with, an inward and secret contempt " (" Of Love," 1625). For in revenge of my contein2)t of love, Love hath chased sleep from my enthralled eyes. (" Two Gentlemen of Verona," act ii. sc. 4.) "There be none of the affections which have been noted to fascinate or bewitch but Love and Envy" (" Envy "). Now Romeo is beloved, and loves again, Alike bewitch' d by the charm of looks. (" Romeo and Juliet," act i. sc. 5.) Falconry, Swans, &c. Bacon's knowledge of hcnvks and hawking is not only re- vealed in his writings, but Francis Osborne, a contemporary writer, testifies to Bacon's ability to discuss upon hawks with PARALLELS. 259 a Lord in these words : "So as I have heard him entertain a country Lord in the proper terms, relating to Hawks and Dogs; and at another time out-cant a London chyrurgeon" (Second Part of his " Advice to his Son "). "For no man Avill take that part except he be like a seeled, dove, thai mounis and mounts, hecuuse he cannot see about him" ("Ambition"). This word " seeled " is a term of falconry, and means covered up, hoodwinked ; we refind it in the plays : — To seel her father's eyes up, close as oak. ("Othello," act iii. sc. 3.) Compare the following scene from the Second Part of " King Henry the Sixth," and ver}' curiously laid at Saint Allan's,* Bacon's home : — ACT II. Scene I. Saint Alhan's. Enter the King, Queen, Gloucester, Cakdinal, and Suffolk, vnth Falconers halloing. Queen. Believe me, lords, for flying at the brook, I saw not better sport these seven years' day : Yet, by your kave, the wind was very high : And, ten to one, old Joan had not gone out. King. But what a point, my lord, your falcon made. And what a pitch she flew above the rest ! To see how God in all his creatures works ! Yea, man and birds are fain of climbing high. Suf. No marvel, an it like your majesty, My lord protector's hawks do tower so well ; They knoio their master loves to be aloft And bears his thoughts above his falcon's pitch. Glou. My lord, 'tis hut a base ignoble mind, TJuit mounts no higher than a bird can soar. Car. I thought as much ; he would be above the clouds. Glo%i. Ay, my lord cardinal ? how think you by that ? Were it not good your grace could fly to heaven ? Both Bacon and the author of the plays borrow from the soaring of birds (or " mounting "), in order to illustrate ambition in * The first treatise on hunting and hawking which issued from the press was printed at St Albans, by Dame Juliana Berners. 26o PARALLELS. lising men. Perfect knowledge of hawking is conspicuous in the plays : — And like tlic Haggard check * at every featlier That conies before his eye, ("Twelfth Night," act iii. sc. 1.) If I do prove her Haggard, Tlioiigh that her Jesse's were my dear heartstrings, I'd wliistle lier olf, and let her down tlie wind To ]>rey at Fortune. ("Othello," act iii. sc. 3.) " The Heron when she soareth high (so as sometimes she is seen to pass over a cloud) showeth winds ; but kites flying aloft show fair and dry weather." Ham, I am but mad north-north-west : when tlie wind is southerly I know a hawk from a handsaw. (Act ii. sc. 2.) Who finds the partridge in the puttock's nest, But may imagine how the bird was dead, Although the kite soar with unbloodied beak ? ("2 King Henry VI.," act iii. sc. 2.) "And for the other I could never show it hitherto to the full ; being as a hawk tied to another's fist that might sometimes bait and proffer, but could never fly " (Letter written after Earl of Salisbury's death, May 29, 1612, p. 27, Birch, Letters, 1763). Dost thou love hawking ? Thou hast hawks icill soar Above the laorning lark. (Introduction, " Taming of the Shrew.") " Learning is not like a lark which can mount and sing, and please itself and nothing else ; hut it partakes of the nature of a hawk which am soar aloft, and can also descend and strike upon its prey at leisure" (Works, vol. vi. p. 58). Mr Spedding says of Bacon : " He had breeding swans and * "For if it check once with business, it troubleth men's fortunes, and niaketh men that they can no ways be true to their own ends" ("Love"). This word ' ' check " is a term in falconry used as ' ' stopping suddenly in flight, " when diverted from the (puirry (Dr Abbott, "Notes and Essays"). "Kites flying aloft sliow fair and dry M-eather, . . . for tliat they mount most into the air of that temper wherein they delight" ("Natural History," 824). PARALLELS. 261 feeding swans " (Works, i. 14). " I have somewhat of the French ; I love birds as the French king doth " (Life, vii. 444). " The hist words of those that suffer death for religion, like the songs of dybuj swans, do wonderfully work upon the minds of men " (" Wisdom of the Ancients," Diomedes). "Amongst these birds there were a. few swans* which if they got a medal ^vith a name, they used to carry it to a certain temple consecrate to immortality. But such swans are rare in our age " (" De Augmentis," 1640, p. 96). 'Tis strange that death should sing I am the cygnet to this pale-faced swaji t Who chants a doleful hymn to his own death. ("King John," v. 7.) Fnte7' a Townsman 0/ Saint Alban's, crying, "A miracle! " Glou. What means this noise ? Fellow, what miracle dost thou proclaim ? Toivns. A miracle ! a miracle ! Siif. Come to the king and tell him what miracle. Towns. Forsooth, a blind man at Saint Alban's shrine, Withui this half-hour, hath received his sight ; A man that ne'er saw in his life before. King. Now, God be praised, that to believing souls Gives light in darkness, comfort in despair ! Enter the Mayor of Saint Alban's and his brethren, bearing Simpcox, between two in a chair, Simpcox's Wiie following. Car. Here comes the townsmen on procession. To present your highness with the man. King. Great is his comfort in this earthly vale. Although by his sight his sin be multiplied. * Swans were sacred, to A'pollo (see Cicero's "Tuscul," i. 30.) t It is well worthy note that Or[iheus, whom Bacon quotes so frequently, was, according to Plato, following the Pythagorean system of the trans- migration of souls, turned into a swan. " Pntabant autem Pythagors, corpora cui(iue ai)tari pro vitfe genere quod ante egisset. Quo modo et secundum Platonem in X de legibus Orpheus a morte esset Cygntts ; Thamyras Philomela," &c. ("De Palingenesia Veterum," Guil. Irhovii. Amstelodami, 1733). Pythagoras declared the soul of the swan to be immortal, because it sang as death approached. Ben Jonson wrote of Shakespeare : — Sweet Swan of Avon ! what a sight it were To see thee in our waters yet appear. 262 PARALLELS. Glou. Stcind by, iny masters : bring him near the king ; His higlmess' pleasiire is to talk -with liim. Kiiuj. Good fellow, tell ns here the circumstance. That we may for thee glorify the Lord. What, hast tliou been long blind and now restored ? &biip. Born blind, an't please your grace. Wife. Ay, indeed, was he. Sihf. What woman is this ? Wife. His wife, an't like your worsliiji. Glou. Hadst thou been his mother, thou couldst have better told. King. Where wert thou born ? Simp. At Berwick in the north, an't like your.gi'ace. King. Poor soul, God's goodness hath been great to thee : Let never day nor night unhallow'd pass. But still remember what the Lord hath done. Queen. Tell me, good fellow, camest thou here by chance. Or of devotion, to this holy shrine ? Sim'p. God knows, of pure devotion ; being call'd A hundred times and oftener, in my sleep, By good Saint Alban ; who said, "Simpcox, come, Come, offer at my shrine, and I will helj) thee." Wife. Most true, forsooth ; and many time and oft Myself have heard a voice to call him so. Car. What, art thou lame ? Simp. Ay, God Almighty help me ! S^if. How camest thou so ? Simp. A fall olf a ti-ee. Wife. A plum-tree, master. Glou. How long hast thou been blind ? Simp. O, born so, master. Glou. What, and wouldst climb a tree ? Simp). But that in all my life, when I was a youth. Wife, Too true ; and bought his climbing very dear. Glou. Mass, thou lovedst plums well, that wouldst venture so. Simp. Alas, good master, my wife desired some damsons, And made me climb, with danger of my life. Glou. A subtle knave ! but yet it shall not serve. Let me see thine eyes : wink now : now open them : In my opinion yet thou see'st not well. Simp. Yes, master, clear as day, I tliank God and Saint Alban. Glou. Say'st thou me so ? Wliat colour is this cloak of? Simp. Red, master ; red as blood. Glo^i. Why, that's well said. Wliat colour is my gown of? Simp. Black, forsooth ; coal-black as jet. King. Why, then, thou know'st what colour jet is of? Suf. And yet, I think, jet did lie never see. Glou. But cloaks and gowns, before this day, a numy. Wife. Never, before this day, in all liis life. PARALLELS. 263 Gluu. Tell nie, .sirrah, what's my name? Simp. Alas, master, I know not. Glou. What's his name ? Simp. I know not. Gloti. Nor his ? Simp. No, indeed, master. Glo^l. What's thine of a name ? Simp. Sannder Simjjcox, an if it please you, master. Glou. Then, Sannder, sit there, the lyingest knave in Christendom. If thou hadst been born blind, thou mightst as well have known all our names as thus to name the several colours we do wear. Sight may distinguish of colours, but suddenly to nominate them all, it is imjiossible. My lords, Saint Alban here hath done a miracle ; and would ye not think his cunning to be great, that could restore this cripple to his legs again ? ("2 King Henry VI.," act ii. so. 2.) It is a remarkable thing this scene cited is laid at Saint Allan's. Hurnphi'ey, Duke of Eichmond, who plays so large a part in this play (uncle to King Henry VI.), was buried in St Alban's Abbey, and to this day his tomb is pointed out to the visitor. It is indeed remarkable how prominently he is brought forward in the second part of " King Henry the Sixth " (entitled in the Folio, " The second part of King Henry the Sixth, Avith the death of the Good Duke Humfrey "), in context with St Alban's, his burial place. " There was a Latin inscrij^tion to the memory of the Good Duke Humphrey, on the east wall (now removed) of the aisle (of the abbey), %vi'itten by a master of the Grammar School in the seventeenth century. It contained an allusion to a religious fraud, practised by a man who pretended he had been miraculously restored to sight at the shrine of St Alban's, and said to have been exposed by Duke Humphrey. Shakespeare describes the legend in the second part of 'Henry the Sixth,' act the second, the scene being laid at St Alban's " (Mason's " Guide to St Albans "). In 1703 the body of the Duke Avas discovered, from the following accidental occasion. In this year a flight of stone steps were discovered in the chapel by a man who was digging a grave there, for the family of Gape, leading to an arched stone 264 PARALLELS. \'uult, where the remains of this prince were fonnd deposited in a fluid and in a lead coffin covered with wood, which lead coffin time had not entirely decayed. Against the wall of the east end of the south aisle, close to the monument, was the following inscription painted upon the wall in black : — Pi:c Memoriae V. Opt. Sacrum Serotiuum. Hie jacet Humthkedus, Dux ille Glockstimu.^ oliiu Hexeici Sexti Protector, fraudis iiicepta^ Detector, dum ficta nolat miracula cceci : Lumen erat patriiB, coluuien venerahili Regui, Pacis amans, Muisq. favens melioribus, unde Gratum ojius Oxonio, ^\\vx nunc Scola saei-a refulget Invidia sed mulier Regno, Regi, sibi necj^iiam Abstulit nunc humili, vix hoc dignata sepulcliro ; Invidia rumpeute tamen, post funera vivat. Deo Gloria. Sacred to the 2nous memory of an excellent man. Interred within this consecrated ground Lies he, whom Heniiy his protector found ; Good Humphrey, Gloucester's Duke, who well could spy Fraud couch'd within the blind impostor's eye. His country's delight, — the State's rever'd support. Who peace and rising learning deign'd to court. Whence his rich library at Oxford plac'd, Her ample schools with sacred influence grac'd. Yet fell beneath an envious woman's wile, Both to herself, her king, and kingdom vile ; Who scarce allow'd his bones this spot of land. Yet spite of envy shall his glory stand. The fact that this scene of the detection of the miracle-working impostor, is laid at Saint Alban's, goes a long way to prove the author was acquainted with the minute details of the occurrence. That Shakespeare should have been impressed with this incident is extremely doubtful, but that Bacon should, from his earliest years, have been acquainted with this history, stands to reason, seeing Gorhambury is about twenty minutes' walk from the Abbey. Hatfield, the ancient scat of his uncle. Lord Bur- PARALLELS. 265 leigh, is only five miles from St Albaii's, and is now the residence of Lord Sulisbmy. Bacon shows in one line in this play how well acquainted he was with the family history of this princely place. For he makes Salisbury say : But 'William of Hatfield died without an heir. Such a detail is not likely to have come from the pen of Shakespeare. And the putting this line in the mouth of the Earl of Salisbury is proof positive the author was Bacon. Cecil, Bacon's cousin, was Earl of Salisl)ury, this being the title of the family living at Hatfield, as it is to this day. William of Hatfield was second son to King Edward the Third. Music. "As musicians used to do with those that dance too long galliards " ("Of Discourse "). Sir Toby Belch. Why dost thou not go to church in a galliard? I did think by the excellent constitution of thy leg, it was foi'm'd under the star of a galliard. (Twelfth Night," act i. sc. 3.) Notice how Music and Moonlight are introduced together in the " Meixhant of Venice " : — Music, hark. Ncr. It is your music, madam, of the house. Peace, now, the Moon sleeps svith Endymiou, And would not be awak'd. (Act V. sc. 1.) How sweet the moonlight slee^is upon this bank. Here will we sit, and let the sounds of music Creep in our ears, soft stillness, and the night, Become the touches of sweet hannony. {lb.) Compare : " There be in music certain figures, or tropes ; 266 PARALLELS. almost agreeing Avith the figiu'es of Ehetoric ; and \\A\h the affec- tions of the mind, and other senses. First, the division and quavering, which please so much in music, have an agi'eement with the glittering of light, as, the moonheamii playing on a wave " ("Sylva Sylvarum," Exp. 113). The setting sun, and rnusic at the dose, As the last taste of sweets, is sweetest last. ("Richard II.," act ii. sc. 1.) How exactly this re-echoes Bacon : — " The sliding from the close or cadence, hath an agreement in Ehetoric, which they call Frceter expedatum" (lb.). " It is first to be considered, what Great Motiaiis these are in Nature, which pass without sound or noise. The Heavens turn about in a most rapid motion, without noise to us perceived ; though in some dreams they have been said to make an excellent music " ("Sylva Sylvarum," Cent. II., Exp. 115). The moon shines bright : — in such a night as this, When the sweet wind did gently kiss the trees, Aiul they did onakc no noise. ("Merchant of Venice," act i. sc. 1.) Soft stillness, and the night, Become the touches of sweet harmony. Sit, Jessica. Look, how the floor of heaven Is thick inlaid with patines of bright gold : There's not the smallest orb which thou liehold'st, But in his motion like an angel sings, Still <|uiring to the young-eyed cherubims : Such harmony is in immortal souls ; But whilst this muddy vesture of decay Doth gi'ossly close it in, wc cannot hear it. ("Merchant of Venice," act i. 56.) Bacon also Avrites : " The winds in the upper regions, Avhich move the clouds above, which wc call the rack, and are not perceived below, pass wifhuut noise. The loAver winds in a plain, except they be strong, make no noise" ("Sylva Sylvarum," llo). The student may perceive both Bacon a)id the author of the PARALLELS. 267 plays ullude to ihe music of the Spheres, which belongs to Plato, although we are of opinion Bacon is thinking of the fragment by Cicero, called " The Dream of ScijAu," inasmuch as he writes, " though in some dreams they have been said to make an excellent music." The parallels in these passages touch not only language but subject matter, for Cicero expresses the same idea about this "music of the Spheres" as Plato. But it is possible Bacon alludes to the plays, for he writes at the commencement of the Third Book, " Poesy is as it were a dream of knowledge ; a sweet pleasing thing, full of variations : and would be thought to be somewhat inspired with divine rapture ; which dreams likewise pretend." " It is true, nevertheless, that a great light drowneth a smaller, that it cannot he seen ; as the sun that of a glow-worm ; as well as a gi'eat sound droAvneth the lesser " (" Sylva Sylvarum," 224). Portia. That light we see is burning in my liall, How far that little candle throws his beams ; So shines a good deed in a naughty world. Nerissa. When the moon shone we did not see the candle. Portia. So doth the greater glory dim the less. {" Merchant of Venice," act v. so. 1, 89.) A few lines further on, Bacon introduces candles, showing the identity of thought in both passages : — " And two mndles of like light Avill not make things seem twice as far off as one " (" Sylva Sylvarum," 224). Bacon \vrites (Book III., " Advancement," p. 134): — "To fall suddenly from a Discord upon a Concord commends the air, is a rule in music, the like effect it worketh in morality and the affections." Compare : — Theseus. Merry and tragical ? Tedious and brief ? This is hot ice and wondrous strange snow. How shall we find the concord of this discord? A philosophy of opposition or contrast, as light and shadow, indispensable to the perfection of all art, is apparent in both 268 PARALLELS. these passages. Mark to what profound extent Bacon had applied this law to ethics (" maixditi/ and the affections "), and let us reflect that the art of the Dramatist depends largely upon this turning of discord into concord or their opposites. It is evident Bacon had rightly apprehended and studied the effect of light and shade in the realms of passion, morality, and aftections, which constitute the playwright's stock-in-trade and their right, or ethical use. " I understand it that the song be in Quire placed aloft, and accompanied with some broken music " (" Masques and Triumphs "). Here is good broken imisic. ("Troilus and Cressida," act iii. sc. 1.) But is there any else longs to see this broken viv.sie in his sides ? ("As You Like It," act i. sc. 2.) BACON, SHAKESPEARE, AND THE ROSICRUCTANS. " Multos absolvemus, si oceperimus ante judicare cj^uam irasci" (" Seneca. de Ira," lib. iii. c. 29). " Disbelieve after inquiry, if you see cause to ; but never begin with dis- belief. Premature condemnation is the fool's function. It goes for nothing to say that the evidence of the truth of a proposition does not appear. Do you see the evidence of its falsity ? Before you reject a proposition or series of propositions, for what you suppose to be their error, take care that you apprehend all their truth ; or as Carlyle shrewdly advises, ' Be sure that you see, before you assume to oversee'" (" Life," p. 167, Grindon). " Facile est ut quis Augustinum vincat, videant utruni veritate an clamore" (Bacon's "Promus.," 263, Mrs Pott, p. 161). CHAPTEK I. BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. ' ' I should here except some cynics, Menippus Diogenes,, that Theban Crates, or to descend to these times, that omnisciouh only wise Fkatei;- is'iTY OF THE RosiE Ciioss, those great theologiies, politicians, philosophers, physicians, philologers, artists, &c., of whom, St Bridget, Albas Joacchimus, Leicenbergius, and snch divine spirits, have prophesied, and made promise to the world, if at least there be any such (Hen. Neuhusius makes a doubt oi' it, Valentinus Andreas, and others), or an Elias Artifex, their Theophrastian master ; whom, though Liliavius and many deride and carp at, yet some will have to he tlie Renewer of all Arts and Sciences, reformer of the WORLD AND NOW LIVING" (Burtou's "Anatomy of Melancholy." " Demo- critus to the Reader," p. 72, 1621). ' ' Utopian parity is a kind of government, to be wished for rather than effected, Respub. Christianopolitana, Campanella's City of the Sun, and that New Atlantis, witty fictions but mere chimeras." Footnote — "John Valent Andreas, Lord Verulam" (p, 60, " Democritus to the Reader," /&.). " Our age doth produce many such, one of the greatest (impostors) being a stage player, a man with sufficient ingenuity for imposition" ("Rosi- crucian Confession," 1615). De Quincey's celebrated " Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosi- crucians and Free-masons " is full of false statements, undigested evidence, and superficial assumptions. For example, De Quincey writes : " Certain follies and chimeras of the Rosicrucians (as gold making)." This is an error almost every writer on this subject falls into. But the Rosicrucians did not pretend, or aim at gold making,* which was a dream of the Alchymists, with whom they are often confounded, because many of their doctrines and tenets are drawn from Alchymical sources, and are couched in * The celebrated Rosicrucian, Thomas Yaughan, writes in the "Secrets Revealed ; or, an open way to the shut palace of the King" : — "I disdain, I loathe, I detest, this idolising of gold and silver, by the price whereof the pomps and vanities of the world are celebrated. V\e travel through many nations, just like vagabonds." 2 72 BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. Alchymical terms. Nor is it to be denied there were Rosi- crucians who were Alchymists at the same time, and who might have carried on the work of seeking for gold. But the internal evidence afforded by the Rosicrucian Manifestoes must be our judge. In the celebrated Rosicrucian Manifesto of 1614 (on P the title page of the third Frankfort edition we read, " First *■ printed at Cassel, 1616," the year Shakespeare died), entitled " Fama Fraternitatis ; or a Discovery of the Fraternity of the most laudable Order of the Rosy Cross": — " But now concerning, and chiefly in this our age, thi ungodlji and accursed gold making,* which hath gotten so much the upper hand, whereby under colour of it, many runagates and roguish people do use great villainies, and cozen and abuse the credit which is given them," &c, (p. 82, L, Waites' " Real History of the Rosicrucians "). Throughout the Rosicrucian Confessions and Manifestoes Ave find observation and study of Nature inculcated and recom- mended in thoroughly Baconian language, and placed before gold making. This indeed is the striking and strange parallel numing between Bacon's great system of Induction by experimental research into Nature, that the Hosicrucians joined hands idfh him. The whole of the Baconian philosophy may be summed up in the end to discover " how far mans knowledge extendeth in nature ? " To this was joined the overthrow of the authority of Aristotle, which was the earliest notice we have of Bacon's precocity when a freshman at Cambridge. The discovery of the New World by Columbus so fired his mind, that he applied the simile of plvs uUra,f not only to his daring method, * "But thus you see, we maintain a trade, not for gold, silver, or jewels ; nor for silks ; nor for spices ; nor any other commodity of matter ; but only for God's first creature, which was Light : to have Light (I say) of the growth of all parts of the world" ("New Atlantis"). Compare Robert Fludd : — "Light is the cause of all energies — nihil in hoc mundo pcractum fucrit, sine lueis mcditationc ant actu divino" ("History of the Rosicrucians," ]i. 292. Waite, quoted from Fludd's "Tract. ApoL," 1617. De Luce). t "Wherefore, sciences also have, as it were, their fatal columns; being men are not excited, either out of Desire, or Hope, to penetrate farther " (Preface, " Great Instauration "). BACON AND THE ROSICKUCIANS. 273 but takes the emblem of a ship sailing beyond the pillars of Hercules,* for the title-page engraving, and emblem of the " Xovum Organum," and "Advancement of Learning," 1640. He says : " For how long shall we let a few rereiced aiithors stand u]) like Hercules' columns, beyond which there shall be no sailing or discovery in science, when we have so bright and benignant a star as your Majesty to conduct and prosper us 1 " These ^'f/'w received authors " were Aristotle, Galen, Porphyry, and others. A Book of Nature Avas one of Bacon's cherished dreams, of which the " Sylva Sylvarum " is an exemplar or sketch. Now if the reader will carefully read and analyse the opening of the " Fama Fx-aternitatis ; or a Discovery of the Fraternity of the most laudable Order of the Rosy Cross" (1614, Cassel), he will find all these points closely packed together. " Seeing the only wise and merciful God in these latter days hath poinded out so richly His mercy and goodness to mankind, whereby we do attain more and more to the perfect knowledge of His Son Jesus Christ and of Nature, that justly we may boast of the happy time wherein therejs nut only discovered unto us the half part of the tvorld, which was heretofore unknown and hidden, but He hath also made manifest unto us many wonderful and never heretofore seen works and creatures of Nature, and, more- over, hath raised men, indued with great wisdom, which might partly renew f and reduce all arts (in this our spotted and imper- fect age) to perfection, so that finally man might thereby vtnder- * " It is in Nature as it is in Religion ; we are still hammering of old ele- ments, Mot seek not the America that lies beyoiid them" ("The Author to the Reader," Thomas Vaiighan, " Anthroposophia Theomagica "). Here is Bacon's influence visible (i.e., 'plus ultra), exemplified by a Rosicrucian. t Fludd uses the same words: " Unde fit quod Fratres renovationeni et restaurationeni raundi ethicam seu moralem, hoc est morum, scicntiarum, et artiiim mstaurationern, correctionem et exaltationem, et hominum in ob- scuritate, &c." ("Tractatus Apol.," 1617). Compare Bacon's title in chief, " Magna Instanratio." " Jiestabat illud unum ut res de integro tentetur inclioribus prcesldiis, utqiu- fiat scientiarum et artium atque omnis Mimanie doctrince in univcrsum Instanr- atio, a debitis c.vc if ata fundament is " (" Franeiscus de Verulamio sic cogitavit," vol. i., Phil. Wks., Spedding). S 2 74 BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. stand his own nobleness and worth, and why he is called Micro- cosmu.% and hotv far his handedge extendeth in Nature. " Although the rude world herewith will be but little pleased, but rather smile and scoff thereat ; also the pride and covetousness of the learned is so great, it will not suffer them to agree together ; hut were they vnifed, they might out of all those things which in this our age God doth so richly bestow upon us, collect Librum Naturce, or, a Perfect Method of all Arts. But such is their opposition that they still keejD, and are loth to leave, the old course, esteeming Porphyry, Aristotle, and Galen, yea, and that Avhich hath but a mere show of learning, more than the clear and manifest Light and Truth " (Waite's " Real History of the Rosicrucians "). If this was not written or inspired by Bacon himself, all we can say is. Bacon's claim as the protagonist or representative of the revolt against Aristotle is seriously threatened, and Ave must consider the author of this " Fama Fraternitatis " (supposed to have existed in manuscript as early as 1610, as appears in a passage in the Cassel edition of 1614) in the light of a serious rival or plagiarist of Bacon. But nobody "wdll believe this. The details of this passage are so Avonderfully reflected by some of Bacon's peculiar and cherished ends, that the parallel is too strik- ing to be either accidental, or imitation. For example, we find the idea of scientific collaboration in physical research inculcated, just as Ave find it in Bacon's AA'-ritings, Avhich resulted in the for- mation of the Royal Society. A Book of Nature, " Librum Naturce,"* or a collection of " Natural History," Avas a peculiar idea of Bacon's, upon which Spedding comments : " He might still indeed have hoped to arrive ultimately at an Alphabet of Nature (his principles being probably fcAV and simple, though his pheno- mena be enormously complex) ; but he would have found that a dictionary or index of Nature (and such Avas to be the office of the ' Natural History ') to be complete enough for the purposes of * "For I want this primary history to be compiled with a most religious care, as if every particular were stated u])on oath ; seeing that is the hook of God's works, and (so far as the majesty of heavenly may be compared with the humbleness of earthly things) a kind of second Sei-ipture." BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. 275 the ' No%iim Organum,' must be nearly as voluminous as Nature lierself " (Phil. Wks., vol. i. p. 385). We read in the "Fama Fraternitatis " : "After this manner began the Fraternity of the Eosie Cross — first l)y four jjersons only, and by them was made the magical language and \vTiting with a lanje dictionary" Bacon claims the exclusive copyright to this idea of a. Lihrwn Natuwj. He writes: " Afque j^osterius hoc mine agitur ; nunc inquam, neque unqiuun antehac. Neque enim Aristoteles, aut Theophrastus, aut Dioscorides, aut Caius Plinius, multo minus moderni, hiincjinem (de quo loquimur) historice naturalis unquam sihi proposuer- tait." Bacon was wrong, for the passage cited from the " Fama " proves there was a contemporary, Avho Avas insisting upon the collaboration of wits with the end of collecting facts into a Librum Naturce, or Natui'al History. In the discussion between Spedding and Ellis (Preface to Parasceve), we find Spedding say- ing : " You think that the difference between what Galileo did and what Bacon wanted to be done, lay in this, that Bacon's plan presupposed a History (or Dictionary, as you call it) of Universal Nature, as a store-house of facts to work on?"* Mr Ellis replies : " Bacon wanted a collection large enough to give him the command of all the avenues to the secrets of Nature." The importance Bacon assigned to this work cannot be over-estimated, t He placed it in the very front and entrance to his design. And the reader should not only study the " DescrijDtio Historiae Naturalis et Experimentalis Qualis sufficiat et sit in ordine ad basin et fundamenta Philosophise Verse," but Spedding's and * "To close in a word, let no man upon a weak conceit of sobriety or ill applied moderation, think or maintain that a man can search too far, or be too well studied in the Book of God's v:ord, or in the Book of God's uvrks " (Lib. I., " De Augnientis," ch. i. p. 9). t " That if all the wits of all ages, which hitherto have been, or hereafter ever shall be, were clubb'd together ; if all mankind had given, or should hereafter give their minds AvhoUy to Philosophy ; and if the whole earth were, or should be composed of nothing else but Academies, Colleges, and Schools of learned men ; yet without such a Natural and Experimental History as we shall now prescribe, we deny that there could be, or can be auj- progress in philosophy and other sciences worthy of mankind." (The description of such a Natural and Experimental History as may be sufficient in order to the basis and foundation of true philosophy.) 276 BA CON AND THE R OSICR UCIANS. Ellis' "Preface to the Parasceve." We cannot afford space to illustrate the subject as we Avould like. But certainly the most i of Rosy Cress" p. 515 (see " Struv. Not. Liter.," p. 467. Compare " Andrese Myth. Christ.," p. 14). " Campanella had an assistant by name Tobias Adami, who acted as his amanuensis and editor to prepare his works for publication, and who has acquired a certain degree of celebiity by no merit of his own, but merely by his obstetrical services to the infernal muse of Campanella " (}). 515). Professor Fuwler Avrites : " Campanella, whose name is frequently coupled with that of Bacon hy the German writers of the seventeenth century, and who was celebrated in his time as the disciple of Telesius " (Introduction " Novum Organum," p. 95). De Quincey Avrites of Maier : "In the same year with this book he published a work of Eol)ert Fludd's (with whom he had lived on friendly terms in England), Be Vita, morte, et resurrectione.' Note that Bacon in 1623 writes a work on parallel lines, " The History of Life and Death," * in which the Rosicrucian dream of prolonging life and restoring youth in some degree, is treated not only seriously, but with extraordinary care and curious style. It is also to be remarked how all these Rosicrucian works, manifestoes, and confessions are published about the time of Shakespeare's death, viz., 1614, 1616, 1617. + That Germany was not the source or origin of the Rosicrucians is proved by De Q.uincey's state- ment, " that in Germany, as there is the best reason to believe, no regular lodge of Rosicrucians was ever established. JJes Cartes, the Coiiducturc of sense and irrefragccble depositioas of the Architect himsclfc, whose hand in ivorks, dissents not from his luord in writing. And if the ' Great Instam-ation ' of the deep-mincing Philosopher, Fra. Bacon Lo. Verulam, Chancellor of England, a icork of high expectation, and most worthyj, as of Consideration, so of assistance, be brought to ■perfection, it loill perchance ajipearc, that we pursue the same ends, seeing ive tread the same foot-steps ii> traceing, and as it loere, hounding nature, by Sence cttid Experience, dr." (Judgments upon Bacon, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). * "Historia Vitre et Mortis," 1623. t "Nach dem Jalir 1620 die Rosenkreuzerische giilirung, allmalilig zur Ruhe kam und sicli am ende ganz verlor" (" Johann. Val Andreas und seiii Zeitalter," Berlin, 1819). Almost all the Rosicrucian writings bear date 1616, 1617, 1618, 1619, just on and after Shakespeare's death ! BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. 283 who had heard a great deal of talk about them in 1619, durinii; his residence at Frankfort-on-the-Maine, sought to connect him- self with some lodge (for which he was afterwards exposed to the ridicule of his enemies) ; hut the impossibility of finding any body of them formally connected together, and a perusal of the llosicniciaii writings, satisfied him in the end that no s%ich order was in existence " (p. 402). This is sufficient proof Germany was not the head-quarters of the society. " Many years after Leibnitz came to the same conclusion. ' II me paroit,' says he in a letter to a friend, pub- lished by Feller in the ' Otium Hannoveranum ' (p. 222), ' que tout ce, que Ton a dit des freres de la Croix de la Kose, est une pure invention de quelque personne ingenieuse ' (p. 402, De Quincey). Again, ' Fratres Rosse Crucis fictitios fuisse suspicor ; quod et Helmontius confirmavit ' " (7Z).). Leibnitz was, we think, a German, and it goes far to show that Germany could not have held the originators of the society, else they would have made themselves known, or at least felt. De Quincey ^vrites : " The exoterici, at whose head Bacon stood, and who afterwards composed the Roj^al Society of London, were the antagonist party of the Theosophists, Cab- balists, and Alchemists, at the head of whom stood Fludd, and from whom Freemasonry took its rise." We undertake to prove this statement of De Quincey false and misleading. Anybody acquainted with Bacon's " Two Books of the Advancement of Learning," and the " De Augmentis " of 1623, must confess to the Theosophical side of Bacon's writings, to say nothing of the " Holy War," his " Confessions of Faith," translation of the Psalms, and endless allusion to Scripture. There are seventy citations or allusions to the Bible in the Essays alone (Preface, " Bible Truths and Shakespeare Parallels "), and -one hundred and fifty in the " De Augmentis." And the way he quotes is often, if not always, in the last tvork obscured by Cabbalistical doctrine. Space forbids our illustrating this assertion. But Bacon's description of Natural Theology, of the knowledge of 284 BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. Angels and Spirits, in the Third Book " De Augnientis," is entirely Theosophical and Caliljalistic. AVhat are we to say to his collection of Parables from Solomon ; in the eighth book — thirty-four in number, and covering twenty-four ixiges of letterpress ? What has the Royal Society to do with this quotation repeated twice in the " De Augnientis " : — " I am verily of opinion, that if those commentaries of the same Solomon were noAV extant con- cerning nature (wherein he hath written of all vegetables, from the moss upon the wall, to the Cedar of Lebanus ; and of li\'ing creatures), it were not unlawful to expound them according to a natural sense" (Book VIII., p. 372, "Advancement of Learning," 1640). The whole of the Sixth Book of this same work is purely esoteric or Cabbalistical, in the same sense as the works of Raymond Lully, or Baptista Porta, npon the secret delivery of know- ledge. The system of Ciphers,* of " Notes of Things," of the " Prudence of Private Speech," &c., prove this. And if we tui-n to Bacon's curious " History of Life and Death," we find niunbers of citations taken, as Spedding states, from the Avritings of Card anus, Paracelsus, Porta, Roger Bacon, and other Alchymical or Cabbalistical writers. But the proof lies patent in what Bacon calls " Magnalia Naturce" a list of extraordinary preten- sions or things he deems attainable, viz., " The Prolongation of Life," "The Restitution of Youth in some Degree," "The Raising of Tempests," &c. The word " Magmdia " is borrowed from Para- celsus. The " Natural Histor}' " or " Sylva Sylvarum " is any- thing but a scientific work, being full of extraordinary things. Paracelsus was the herald of the Rosicrucians. Bacon, as Professor Fowler in his " Novum Organum " points out, believed in Astrology (Introduction, p. 26). "After begin- ning with the remark, ' At Astrologia multa superstitione referta est, ut vix aliquid sanum in ea reperiatur,' and rejecting various * The general belief lias obtained, that Bacon introduced his sj'stem of Ciphers in the "De Augnientis" of 1623, as part of the knowledge of his age only. But close study -will reveal the fact, they arc affiliated to the entire work as a great system of Mnemonics to restore from custody Poetry aiid History ! BACON AXD THE ROSICRUCIANS. 285 branches of the pretended science, he, nevertheless, allows that the study of the stars may enable us to predict not only natural events, like floods, frosts, droughts, earthquakes, &c., but wars, seditions, transmigrations of peoples, and in short all commotions or great revolutions of things, natural as well as civil." Pro- fessor Fowler writes : " The curious and absurd speculations on Sj/irit which abound in the ' Novum Organnm ' and elsewhere — many of which seem to have been clerived from Paracelsus — I shall frequently have occasion to call attention to in the notes. A typical passage may be foiuid in the ' Novum Organum,' ii. 40." Professor FoAvler may consider these speculations absurd, but it is certain they form an integral and leading feature in the character of the Baconian Philosophy, as may be refound in the fable of Proserpine (" Wisdom of the Ancients "), endlessly in the " Sylva Sylvarum," and " History of Life and Death." Are we certain that there is not something more in this doctrine than absurdity, seeing how potent are the invisible j^ower of electri- citij in matter? It may be remarked here, that Bacon's style is often obscure, and that his works (as Kuno Fisher has ob- served) are fiill of antinomies, contradicting or modifying in one place, an assertion in another. Like the works of Shakespeare his universality is so circular, that except upon certain subjects like his Liductive System, it is impossible to clearly apprehend how much he intends to withhold or convey. He tells us that "■' the privateness of the language must exclude many readers" of the " De Augmentis " (Letter to Dr Plafer). And this proves not oidy he had some secret to veil and obscure, but is a caution against accepting any of his statements unreservedly or as full disclosures. It is very curious and striking to find Bacon purging the word Magia (Magic),* exactly as we find Koliert Fludd doing in * Gabriel Naude, in his " History of Magic," writes : " We may therefore conclude with the learned Verulani, that this fourth kind of JNIagic, Nuturalcm Pliilosophiarii a veritate S2)cculationum ad riiagnitudinem 0})crum revocarc nititur, it being nothing else than a practical physic, as physic is a con- 286 BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. his reply to the attacks of Libaviiis upon the pretensions of the Eosicrucians. In this point Bacon joins hands with the latter, declaring Natm^al Magic to l)e not supernatural but only supi'a- sensible. This is a most important point to consider, because Fludd disclaims for the fraternity any superhuman pretensions. Like Bacon he bases a great part of his A\Titings upon Scripture, and claims for science and mechanical skill power to accomplish things deemed impossible or superhuman. He frequently cites the works of Roger Bacon in proof, and writes : " Quare sapientis est, quid res sit diligenter inquirere priusquani earn temere condemnet. Communis est igitiu' opinio nomem hoc (Magia) esse vocabulum Persicum, idem lingua sonans Persica, quod sapientia apud Latinos. Hujus varias esse species al) invicem exertissime difFerentes, ex philosophorum veterum et recentiorum authoritate colliguimus, cum alia sit naturalis, alia mathematica, alia venefica, et necromantica et alia praestigiatrix." Again : " Magi in specie mathematica expert! absque, occulto rerum naturalium auxilio, vel saltern exiguo virtute mathematica, et precipue Geometrica res admirabiles, et plane stupendas struunt atque sedificant, cujusmodi fuerunt columl3a Architas lignea quae volabat et capita ilia asnea Eogeri Baconis, et Alberti Magni, que locuta fuisse perhibentur. Li hac etiam parte ex- celluisse fertur Boetius, vir maximi ingenii. Sic etiam et egomet, hujus artis industria, taurum ligneum composui, gemitum et mugitum more tauri naturalis per vices edentem ; draconem alas moventem et sibilantem, ignemque et flammas in taurum ab ore suo evomentem : lyram per se absque : viventis auxilio, cantum symphoniarum modulantem : et multa alia quae mera arte teuiplative magic ; and consequently, since wliat is sub-alternate to the one is tlie same to the other, it will not be hard to disentangle it out of an infinite web of superstitions," &c. (p. 22, 1657). De Quincey writes: "Undoubtedly amongst the Rosicruciau titles of honour we find that of Magus'" (p. 372, "Inquiry into the Origin of the Freemasons and Rosicrucians "). This is undoubtedly of Persian origin, giving in its plural form Magi. It is striking to find Bacon discussing the " Persian Magic." BA CON AND THE ROSICR UCIA NS. 2 8 7 mathemiitica, m\e iitdijii', iiatui-iilis snp})k'inento, iM'testure uou potuisse, fatcor" ("Tractatus ApoL," 1617, pp. 23, 24). Aj^ain : " Ex his igitur maiiifestum est non omnem magias speciem esse repudiandam, cum prima ejus differentia et secunda sint lauda- l)iles et admiral)iles ; ultimas vero pro turpissimis Diaboli soidibus esse habeiulas, et in ultimas obliviunis oras ab hominibus rele- gandas, cum I). Libavio putamus. Et procul dubio Fratrcs de R. C. has Magiie species, et pra^cipue primam, cum de naturie facultatibus arcanis loquantur, intelligei^e eo loco videntur, ubi de Magica scriptura, et nova lingua mentionem fecerunt ; quoniam scripturam illam characteri])us magni lil)ri Naturae factam esse alibi agnoverunt" {lb.). In short, Fludd claims the word magic for natural philosophy, or science after the Baconian system. Now compare Bacon, and note he alludes to the Persian Magic like Fludd. " But it seems requisite in this place that the word Magia, accepted for a long time in the worst part (sense), be restored to the ancient and honourable place. Magia amongst the Persians Avas taken for a sublime sapience, and a science of the harmony, and consents of universal in nature ; so those three eastern kings, which came to adore Christ, are styled by the name of Magi ; and Ave understand it in that sense as to be a science which deduceth the knowledge of hidden forms to strange and wonderful effects and operations, and as it is commonly said by joining Actives with Passives, which discloseth the great Avonders of nature" (Book III., p. 169, " AdA^ancement of Learning"). NoAv, here is the Avonderful parallel, for continuing the quotation from Fludd first given (and Avhich we expressly abridged for the sake of clearer exposition) from " Pra'stigiatrix" he continues — " Occultissimam et arcanissimam illam physices partem, qua mystic£e creaturarum naturalium proprietates eliciuntur Natura- lem appellamus. Sic Sapientes regii qui Christum natum (stelld nova, ah Oriente (luce) qumsiverunt, Magi sunt dicti, quoniam ad swnmam rerum naturalium cogiiitionem tarn coelesliam qaam suhlunariwrn, atfigerunt. Sub hac ipsa etiam Magorum Specie comprehensus est, Salomon, quatenus arcanas rerum omnivm creatarum facultafes, et 288 BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. proprietates novit, dicitiu- enim omniiim plantantm naturas a cedro inontis Lihani usque ad Hyssopum infellexisse," &c. ("Tractatus Apolog.," Pars. I., p. 24, 1617). I hope the reader perceives the three extraordinary parallels running between Bacon and Fludd in these passages, viz., the subject matter — purging or examination of the term Magia or Magic — the same allusion to Persian Magic — the same reference to the nativity of Christ and the star in the East, and the final identical allusion to Solomon ! But the striking part is that the famous star which appeared in 1572 is supposed by astronomers (see Mazzaroth) to have been the star of Bethlehem. And it was this star, in connection with the prophecy of Paracelsus, that gave rise to the Rosicrucians.* All this receives further suspicious evidence when we reflect that the " New Atlantis " is termed " SoloinoiiS House." Bacon again repeats there the passage cited upon Solomon : "Ye shall under- stand (my dear friends) that amongst the excellent acts of that king, one above all hath the pre-eminence. It was the erection and institution of an order or society, which we cidl Solomon's House. The noblest foundation (as we think) that ever was upon the earth, and the lanthorn of this kingdom. // is dedicated to the stiuly of the works and creatures of God. Some think it beareth the founder's name a little corrujoted, as if it should l)e Solamona's House. But the records write it as it is spoken. So as I take it to be denominate of the King f of the Hebrews, Avhich is famous with you, and no stranger to us. For Ave have some parts of his works, which Avith you are lost. Namely, that Natural History, which lie wrote of cdl plants, from the Cedar (f Libanus, to the moss that groweth out of the wcdl " (p. 1 8). Now, mark the parallel. Bacon like, Solomon writes a " Natural His- * "The Comet of 1572 was declared by Paracelsus to be Hhe sign and harbinger of the approaching revolution,' and it will readily be believed that his innumerable disciples would welcome a secret society whose vast claims were founded on the philosophy of the master, whom they venerated " Waite's "Real History of the Rosicrucians "). t Bacon, in sj'caking of this king who symbolises with Solomon, seems tu allude to James I. R. L. Ellis (vol. iii. " Works"). BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. 289 tory " in ten centuries, and again introduces tliis passage (Cen- tury VI., p. 113, Exp. 536), "The Scripture saith that Solomon Avrote a 'Natural History,' from the cedar of Lihanus to the moss grow- iiig upon the wall ; for so the best traditions have it." The reader must see how curious it is to find Bacon telling us the founder of the order or society of the " College of the Six Days " hears Salomon's luoiie a little carrupted, and how strange to find Bacon imitating Solomon's " Natural History " in the plan of his " Sylva Sylvarum," Avhich largely deals in plants and vegetable life ! Are we sure Bacon himself was not a representative Solomon, and the founder of the order or society of the Rosicrucians, whom John Heydon declares to be the people of Bacon's " New Atlantis " ? But at any rate the reader must see the absurdity of De Quincey's statements, for he does not explain how it is Solomon plays such a great part in Free-masonry, and in the " New Atlantis." * If Fludd quotes Solomon, so does Bacon in the same Avords, and in a marked and extraordinary manner, over and over again. The weight of all this evidence can only come home with full force and appreciation to Masons or students of these subjects. I have the opinion of a gentleman who not only was a member of the modern society of Rosicrucians (to which the late Lord Lytton belonged), but is a voluminous author on masonic subjects, that I have, " 2>nmd facie, made out my case." This gentleman, to whom I was recommended as one of the highest authorities in England upon this subject, declares that the " ' New Atlantis ' is probably the key to the ritual of Free- * Fludd repeats in the second part ("De Scientiarum Impedinieutis "). "Xonne etiam comnienioratnra est in sacris Helirieoruni liistoriis, Solonioneui regem ad hujus Sapientise Naturalis apicem et culnien attigisse ? Cui a Deo concessum erat a Cedro Libani iis(jue ad Hysopuni disputasse " (p. 94). In one of the Rosicrucian manifestoes we read : "Our philosophy also is not a new invention, but as Adam after his fall hath received it and as Muscs and Solomon used it." Here we have proof of Bacon's connection with the society from his frequent quotations and proverbs from Solomon ("Advancement of Learning"), and chiefly in the "New Atlantis," which he calls, ''Solomon's House." The striking point is the identity of the (quotation, repeated thrice by Bacon. T 290 BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. masonry," and I consider the evidence of such an expert out- weighs in value the scoffing incredulity or hostile criticism of a multitude of outside unbelievers. Mr Hughan, to whom I refer, is the author of " Masonic Sketches and Reprints," inaugurated by him in 1869, and which have been heartily appreciated in Great Britain and America. De Quincey ascril)es to Fludd the origin of Masonry in Eng- land—that is of modern Masonry — confessing thus the Rosi- crucian source. The parallels shown between Fludd's works and Bacon's endorse De Quincey's last assumption, and show Bacon's claim to be founder stands upon a far stronger chain of e\adence than Fludd's. Bacon, we can understand, had every object in the world for concealing his Rosicrucian foundership. He seems to hint at this when he so frequently quotes Solomon, to the effect that, " The glonj of God is to conceal a thing, hid the glory of the King is to find it aid." This he repeats frequently. It seems almost a text illustrating the divine secrecy and reserve of his mind, which is as subtle as Nature itself. Any confession openly made to the effect that he Avas the founder of the order, could hardly be expected, seeing they called themselves invisibles, and covered themselves with a cloud. Mystery was part of their power, a great way if not entirely, their first moving principle. Self-sacrifice, borrowed from the example of Christ, I am certain Avas the foundation or corner-stone of their Sjjintual Temple, the rebuilding of which could only be effected by ages unborn. In- tense religious faith, belief in the ultimate regeneration of man, and the scriptural succession of times, they laboured to sow the good seed in silence, in darkness, in self-renunciation. The sacrifice all this implies finds its re-echo in Bacon's appeal to future ages, in his hints of self-sacrifice, in his love for humanity, in his end- less citations from the Bible. Judging from the Rosicrucian Avritings only, we should expect to find in the founder and pro- moter of this society, a man bent upon reforming philosophy by direct appeal to Nature, yet subordinating all this to Scrijoture. It is very certain Bacon believed in the Succession of Times, in BACON AND THE R OS/CRUCIANS. 291 ji scrii^tural sense. Not only is this shadowed forth in his motto from Daniel, " Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased," which is attached to both the title pages of the " Novum Organum " and " Advancement of Learning " (1640), but this as is well knoAvn is in contact with the Book of Seven Seals mentioned in Revelation. Did Bacon take this motto from Daniel with the thought of the context in his mind 1 " But thou, Daniel, shut %ip the ivo)-ds, and seal the Book, even to the time of the end : many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased " (Daniel xii. 4). This has been accepted by a nimil>er of divines as a prophecy of the present age, and has been wonderfully fulfilled in its latter sense. It is curious to find this motto attached to the "Advancement of Learning," 1640, with its mispaging, its endless enigmas, its esoteric style, its Secret Delivery of KnoAvledge by means of Ciphers, and the "Wisdom of Private Speech " ! The concluding book of this work - — the ninth — deals with " Emanations from Scripture," which Bacon calls " Utres Coelestes," where he deals with the " manner of interpreting" which he divides into Methodical and Solute, or at large. It is easy to see that he hints at a profound system, of interpretation, esoteric in distinction to an exoteric system for general use. " For this divine water, which infinitely excells that of Jacob's Well, is dra^vn forth and delivered much after the same manner as Natural Waters use to be out of wells ; for these at the first draught are either receiv'd into cisterns, and so may be convey 'd and deriv'd by many pipes for public and pi'ivate use, or is poured forth in buckets and vessels, to be us'd out of hand, as occasion requires " (p. 474). This seems a clear hint for an underground interpretation — Truth being at the bottom of a well and hidden from sight. " For it must be remembered, that there are two points known to God ; the author of Scripture, which man's nature cannot comprehend, that is the secrets of the heart and the succession of times " (p. 475). Fludd An-ites : " Nos docet Apostolus ad mysterii perfec- tionem vel sub Ayricoke, vel Architecti, typo pertingere ; " either 292 BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. under the iiiuige of a limhandriuin who cultivates a field, w of an architect who builds a house : and had the former type been adopted we should have had Free-husbandmen instead of Free-masons." Again in another place Robei^t Fludd "vmtes : " Atque sub istiusmodi Architecti typo nos monet propheta ut redificemus domurii Sapientioi" (see " Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosicru- cians and Free-masons, 410, De Quincey). Now here is an extra- ordinary parallel. Bacon's Ethics are entitled " Georgics of the Mind " (Georgica Animi), and of course this title applies to the culture of the character in an agricultural sense. Elsewhere Ave 23oint out how Bacon closes the " De Augmentis " Avdth an agri cultural simile, " / have sowen unto Fosteritij and the immortal God.'' The title page of Bacon's " Advancement of Learning," translated by Gilbert Wats, is as follows, Francisci De Verulamio, Architectura Scientiarum. Here indeed is Fludd's typical emblem of architecture and architect, applied by Bacon to himself, with regard to the "General Idea and Project of the Instauration." And this is no casual simile, but frequently to be refound affecting the imagery and style of the text. For example, in the Sixth Book, writing of the scheme, method, parts of the "Instauration": " But these are the kinds of Method ; the parts are two ; the one of the disposition of a whole work, or of the argument of some book ; the other of the limitations of propositions. For there belongs to Architecture not only the frame of the whole building, but likewise the form and figiu"e of the columns, beams, and the like ; and Method is, as it were, the architecture of sciences." Upon the title page prefixed to the " Platform of the Design," we find the motto, " Deus omnia in mensura, et numero et ordine disi^osuit." This thoroughly agrees with the last passage, that " method is, as it were, the Architecture of the Sciences." With regard to Fludd's statement as to the "building of the House of Wisdom" (domum sapientiae), we very strangely find Tenison, in " Baconiana," twice calling Bacon's " Instauration " by this title. " The work, therefore, of BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. 293 the ' Instauration ' was an original, and a work so vast and com- prehensive in its design, that though others in that age might hew out this or the other pillar, yet of him alone [Bacon] it seemeth true that he framed the xohole model of the House of Wisdom " (p. 9). The reader perceives the architectural language Tenison employs.* And it is still more striking to find amongst the initials of the members or founders of the Rosicrucians, the initials F. B., with the words " Pictor et Architectiis " following them. " After this manner began the fraternity of the Rosie Cross, — first by four persons only, and by them was made the magical language and MTiting, vnth a large dictionary, which we yet daily use to God's praise and glory, and do find gi'eat wisdom therein. They made also the first part of the book M, but in respect that that laboiu" was too heavy, and the unspeakable concourse of the sick hindered them, and also whilst his new building (called Saudi Spiritus) was now finished, they concluded to draw and receive )'et others into their fraternity. To this end was chosen Brother R. C, his deceased father's brother's son ; Brother B., a skilful painter" (" Fama Fraternitatis." Waite's "Real History of the Rosicrucians," pp. 71, 72). Who was this "Brother B., a skilful jMinter " 1 It is excessively curious to refind these initials and titles amongst the members' names, inscribed under the altar in the vault, where the body of Christian Rosencreutz lay buried. That the whole story was a splendid fiction to conceal the names of persons living at the time, is not only proved by Burton's testimony, 1621, who Amtes of the founder " lum living," but by the evidence of Leibnitz and Van Helmont. Amongst modern critics, De Quincey and Mr Waite (the latest writer on this subject) both arrive at the same conclusion. De Quincey says, quoting Professor J. G. Buhle's work on this subject : "To a hoax played off by a young man of extra- * Tenison writes : ' ' And those who have true skill in the works of the Lord Verulam, like great masters in painting, can tell by the design, the strength, the %cay of coloring, whether he was the author of this or the other piece, though his name he not to it " (p. 79, " Baconiana "). 294 BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. ordinary talents in the beginning of the seventeenth century {i.e., about 1610-14), but for a more elevated purpose than most hoaxes involve, the reader Avill find that the whole mysteries of Free-masonry, as now existing all over the civilized world, after a lapse of more than two centuries, are here distinctly traced " (p. 357, " Inquiry into the Origin of the Rosicrucians and Free-masons "). De Quincey, who only -acts in the sense of an expounder of Buhlc's work, agrees in the main with this hypothesis. He conclusively proves the fictitious character of the entire narrative concerning the discovery of Father Rosy Cross's Grave and Vault, by showing that the statement that the Vocabularium of Paracelsus was found in the vault before it existed, manifestly is absurd ! " Finally, to say nothing of the Vocabularium of Paracelsus, which must have been put into the grave before it existed, the Rosicrucians are said to be Protestants, though founded upwards of a century before the Reformation. In short, the fiction is monstrous, and betrays itself in every circumstance. Whosoever was its author must be looked upon as the founder, in effect, of the Rosicrucian order, inasmuch as this fiction was the accidental occasion of such an order heijig really founded." It seems to us highly probable that Brother B., pictoi' et Architectus, was the Architect and Poet Painter of this society — its originator. The reader will be surprised to find Sir Philip Sidney, Ben Jonson, and Bacon each describing Poetry as a kind of painting.'^ "The most notable illustration we have of the close connection * f 1 " Pocsis, et pictura — PlaUtrch. — Poetry and Picture are arts of a like nature, and both are busy about imitation. It was excellently said of Plutarch, poetry was a sj^eaking picture, and picture a mute poesy. For they both invent, feign, and devise many things, and accommodate all they invent to the use and service of nature " ("Discoveries," Ben Jonson). "Dc Pidura. — Whosoever loves not })icture is imperious to trutli, and all the wisdom of poetry " {Ibid.). " De Proyres. Pidurce. — Picture took her feigning from poetry " [Ibid.). " Poesy composeth and introduceth at pleasure, even aspcmiting doth : whicli indeed is the work of the imagination " (ch. i. Lib. II., "Advancement of Learning," ltJ40). BA CON AND THE R OSICR UCIANS. 2 9 5 of Frcc-niasonry uiul Rosicruciaiiism is in the case of Elias Ashmole, who was initiated at Warrington, Lancashire, on the 16th October 1646, along with Colonel Henry Mainwaring, the descendant of an ancient Cheshire family. At this meeting were present, Mr Eich. Penket, IFardcii, Mr James Collier, Mr Richard Sankey, Henry Littler, John Ellam, Richard Ellam, and Hngh Brewer. These chemical adepts met at Mason's Hall, Basinghall Street, London ; and Ashmole frequently records that he attended the ' Feast of the Astrologers,' The association is said to have heen formed on the model of the German society, and of the literary association aUegorkally described in Lord Bacon's ^ Nei.v Atlantis ' as the ^ House of Solomon.' De Quincey asserts that this is the true origin of the Society (f Free-masons .... there is evidence that genuine operative Free-masonry adojifed Customs from the Rosicrncians aud Templars " (" Mysteries of Antiquity," p. 106, Yarker). It is most important to note that we find Nicolai, Murr, Buhle, and De Quincey all agreeing that Freemasoiny grew out of Rosi- crucianism. De Quincey writes : " I shall now sum up the results of my inqr.iry into the origin and nature of Free-masonry. L The original Free-masons were a society that arose out of the Rosicrucian mania, certainly within the thirteen years from 163-"! to 1646, and probably between 1633 and 1640" (p. 413). Lord Bacon died in 1626. Again: "There is nothing in the imagery, myths, ritual, or purposes of the elder Free-masonry, which may not be traced to the romances of Father Rosycross, as given in the 'Fama Fraternitatis ' " (p. 416). This is a great point gained, because Nicolai and Murr maintain that the object of the elder Free-masons was to build Lord Bacons imaginary Temple of Solomon* This De Quincey will not allow. Simjsly because his * In the Preface to the "Fama Fraternitatis," wc find the opening wonls quoting Solomon : — "Wisdom (sayeth Solomon) is a treasure unto men that never I'ailetli, tor .she is bred of the power of God and an inlieritance flowing from the glory of the Almiglity ; , . , . "The wise King Solomon dotli testify of himself that lie upon his earnest 296 BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS. mind is pi'ejudiced with the idea there could be nothing in common between the scientific or philosophic ends proposed by Bacon and Rosicrucianism. He seems entirely ignorant of the great point we have adduced, that tlie ends of the Bosicrucians were Baconian — experimental research, tentative inquiry into nature as we have seen in the Avritings of Maier, the declarations of the Rosicrucian manifestoes, and as the works of Robert Fludd abundantly testify. He was not aware Bacon writes in " Valerius Terminus " of an oral method of transmission, Avhich he pul)lishes as one of his intentions, joined to a reserved or posthumous sys- tem of publishing. De Quincey writes quite ignorantly of the religious side of Bacon's writings, his endless allusions to Solomon, and does not see any affiliating evidence in the fact Solomon was the biblical FatJier, or {jrotagonist of the Bosicrucians, and that Bacons College of the Six Dai/s is ccdled by him Solomon's House. De Quincey did not know John Heydon reproduces Bacon's " Ncav Atlantis " word for word, with the title, " Land of the Rosicrucians." He does not suggest an exj^lanation why the elder Freemason in 1646 at a lodge meeting at Warrington adopted Bacon's two pillars, which may be re-seen upon the title-page of the " Librum Natm\'y," or " Sylva Sylvarum," with which the " New Atlantis " is bound up ! The truth is, De Quincey knew next to nothing of Bacon's works, and occupied himself exclusively upon the problem of the prayer and desire obtained sncli wisdom of God, that thereby he knew how the world was made, understood tlie operation of the elements, the beginning, ending, and middle of the times, the alterations, the days of the turning of the sun, the change of seasons, the circuit of years and the positions of stars, the natures of living creatures and the furies of wild beasts, the violence of winds, the reasonings of men, the diversities of plants, the virtues of roots, and all such things as are either secret or manifest, them he knew." This is proof that Solomon was the authority or inspirer of the Fraternity. With this must be compared the repeated quotations Bacon makes in his works to Solomon. Over and over again he quotes him calling him the Holy Philosopher. " That the glory of God is to conceal a thing, but tlie glory of the King is to find it out : as if the Divine Nature, according to the innocent and sweet play of children, which hide themselves to the end they may be found, took delight to hide his works, to the end they might be fouml out " (Preface to the " Great Instauration ''). BACON AND THE ROSICRUCIANS 297 connection of the Kosicrucians with Freemasonry only. Bacon's part in the mystery he only superficially glances at, and sets aside the really far profounder researches of Nicolai and Murr, both of whom living in Germany, had so many more soui^ces of literature upon this question at hand. De Quinccy writes : " The Temple of Solomon which they professed to build, together with all the Masonic attributes, pointed collectively to the grand pur- pose of the society — the restoration of the Temjilar order." De Quincey had probably not read Bacon's " Holy War," in which Bacon Avrites like a Knight Temj^lar, introducing the Templar and Eosicrucian motto or emblem of the Red Cross founded by Constantine in hoc signo vinces. If he had studied Bacon's " New Atlantis '' carefully, he would have found that the Tirsan is de- scribed as having a small red Cross on his turban. John Val Andreas states : " The Kosicrucians were formed out of the ruins of the Knight Templars by one faithful brother." Their great authority was Saint Augustine, and Bacon's fondness for this author may be discovered by anyone who studies the last book of the "De Augmentis." Bacon writes : "Notwithstanding we thought good to set down amongst Deficients as a wholesome and profitable work a treatise touching the degrees of Unity in the City of God" (p. 472, Book IX., "Advancement"). CHAPTER 11. NOTKS ON ROSICRUCIAN LITERATURE. I WISH to 2)oint out how remarkal^le a thing it is to find the Rosicrucians and their literature appearing on the stage of Europe, and making themselves first known on and about the date of Shakespeare's death, 1616. "The whole Rosicrucian contro- versy," writes Mr AVaite (in his fifth chapter of the " Real His- tory of the Rosicrucians "), " centres in a publication entitled ' The Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosencreutz.' It was first published at Strasbourg in the year 1616. Two editions of the German original are to be found in the British Museum,* both bearing the date 1616 — ' Chymische Hochzeit : Christiani Rosen- creutz. Anno 1459.' 'Erstlick Gedructzor Strasbourg. Anno MDCXVI.'" It appears from Mr Waite that this romance "is sup- posed to have existed in manuscript as early as 1601-2, thus ante-dating by a long period the other Rosicrucian books " (p. 99). If this is a fact, which Ave see no reason to doubt, it seems to us very curious it was not published before, and it is possible its publication depended upon some event. We are bound to con- sider our evidence altogether, and we must call attention again to the suspicious hint given in the " Confessio Fraternitatis " of 1615, where we read of imjDOstors, "One of the greatest being a STACiE PLAYER, a irui'ii toith sufficient ingemiitij for iinpositwn." t * In the Harleian MSS., from 6481 to 6486, are several Rosicrucian writ- ings, some translated from the Latin by one Peter Smart, and others by a Dr Rudd, who appears to have been a iirofonnd adejit. t We take the following from the "Confession of the Rosicruciau Fraternity," jmblished 1615 : — "For conclusion of our Confession we must earnestly admonish yon, tliat NO TES ON R OSICR UCIAN LITER A TURE. 2 9 9 Shakespeare, as we know by the list of actors given in the 1623 Folio, Avas an actor, his name figuring first out of twenty-six. And though we are quite alive to the fact that at this date — 1615 — Shakespeare had retired, some years back, to Stratford, all these llosicrucian manifestoes seem to have been existing in manuscript some years before they were published. This is no ingenious theory of ours, as Mr Waite's pages M'ill testify. For example, he A\Tites : " The original edition of the ' Universal Reformation ' contains the manifesto bearing the above title ('Fama Fraternitatis '), l)ut which the notary Haselmeyer declares to have existed in manuscript as early as the year 1610, as would also appear from a passage in the Cassel edition of 1614, the earliest which I have been able to trace" (p. 64, "Real History of the Rosicrucians "). It is a remarkable fact that the three publications which made, as it Avere, the mysterious fraternity knoAvn to the world, follow the dates 1614, 1615, 1616 — that is the two years preceding and the year Shakespeare died. The uproar resulting from these publications amongst the learned and even unlearned of Europe, reaches its climax in 1617, when Robert Fludd, the apologist for the order, replies to the attacks of Libavius. This is the year following Shakespeare's death. In 1623, the date of the publication of the first Folio edition of the plays, we read of a meeting in Paris of thirty-six Rosicru- cians, and the uproar recommences, and Gabriel Naude Avrites, like Mersennc and Gassendi, to expose the pretensions of the society. Fludd's "Tractatus Apologetici integi'itatem societatis de Rosea Cruce defendens Leiden," 1617, proves that the year following Shakespeare's death the battle of the critics Avas at its height. I cannot believe this coincidence accidental. Nothing is heard of the Rosicrucians before 1614, AAdren their manifestoes you cast away, it' not all, yet most of the worthless books of pseudo chymists, to Avhom it is a jest to apply the Most Holy Trinity to A'ain things, or to de- ceive men with monstrous symbols and enigmas, or to profit by the curiosity of the credulous ; our age doth produce many such, one, of the greatest being a STAGE-PLAYEK, a man with sufficient ingenuity for imposition" (chapter xii., "History of the Rosicrucians"). 300 NOTES ON ROSICRUCIAN LITERATURE. and confessions appear yearly for three years, up to Shakespeare's death, 1616. "We hear no more (directly) of them till 1623. Bacon dies 1626, and De Quincey points out that Avith the "Summum Bonum," 1629, they vanish from literature. The dates are as follows of the three great manifestoes : — , "Fama Fraternitatis," 1614. ■ " Confessio Fraternitatis," 1615. \ " Chemical Marriage of C. K. C," 1616. NoAv it is Avorthy of note that in 1614 Bacon was fifty-three years of age, and in his fifty -fourth year; Shakespeare, fifty years old, and in his fifty -first year. Because Shakespeare died in 1616 in his fifty-third year, and thus 1614 and 1616 give Bacon and Shakespeare the same age — fifty-three. We mention this because every sort of suggestion is valuable, seeing the word "Bacon" and the Christian name " Francis " (the latter twenty-two times) are to be refound on pages 53 of the Comedies, and 53 and 54 of the Histories. Shakespeare never attained the age of fifty -four. But in 1614, as already observed, the first Rosicrucian publication appears — Bacon being fifty-three, and in his fifty-fourth year. It is highly probable, if the Rosicnician mystery is at the l)ottom of the plays and their authorship, the first publication of the society would constitvite an initial starting-point. Thus the three great dates would be 1614, 1615, 1616. It is cui-ious to find the first mispaging in the Folio upon page 50, this being Shakespeare's age, 1614. And in the Histories we find Bacon's Christian name, "Francis," twenty-two times on pages 53, 54, which are mispaged (evidently intentionally), 55, 56. Now taking Bacon's age as a l)asis for dates, these ages give us 1614, 1616, the date of the first Eosicrucian publication and fame, and the date of Shake- speare's death — 1616. It is noteworthy, though perhaps merely a speculation, that Christian Rosy Cross, the founder of the society, dies at the age of 106. It is upon page 106 of the 1640 "Advancement of Learning" that the drama is first introduced, and this number is exactly the double of fifty-three. Bacon's age in 1614, and Shakespeare's — -1616 — when he died. NOTES ON ROSICRUCIAN LITERATURE. 301 It is indeed striking to find almost all the Rosicrucian litera- ture appearing at and about the date Shakespeare died — 1616. For example : " Rosa Florescens contra F. G. Menapii calumnias," &c., was published at Frankfort, 1617. " Edio der von Gott hocherleuchteten fraternitiit des loblichen ordens R. C." (Danzig, 1616). "Judicium Theologicum, oder : Christliches und Kurzes l)eden- ken von der fama und Confession der briiderschaft des loblichen ordens der Rosenkreuzers " (David Maier, 1616). " Turris Babel, sive Judicior de fraternitat Rosaceae Crucis Chaos," Argent., 1619 (John Val Andreas). " Analysi Confessionis Fraternitatis De Rosea Cruce " (And. Libavius, 1616). " ReipubliccV Christianopolitan?e descripto," Agentor., 1619 (Andreas, J. V.). " Silentium post clamores, h. e. Tractatus Apologeticus, quo causae non solum Clamonim (seu Revelationum) Fraternitatis Germanicai de R. C, sed et Silentii traduntur et demonstrantur " (Michaeli Maiero, Francof., 1617).* It is well worthy reflection the Rosicrucian manifestoes of 1615, were jiublished at Friuikforf, where Fludd 7vas publishing his works. Gabriel Naud6 writes: " L'an 1615 Jean Bringern imprima a Francfort un liure en Allemand contenant deux opuscules, intitulees Manifesto et Confession de foy des Freres de la R. C. lesquels pour estre les deux premures qui out annonc6 les nouvelles de cette congregation, nous apprennent que le premier fondaten d'icelle fut in Allemand, lequel estant ne l'an 1378," &c. ("Instruction a la France sur la verite de I'histoire des Freres de la Roze-Croix," 1623). Another point is that the Rosicrucians used the expression Instauration for their promised reformation of arts and sciences. Gabriel Naude in * A slight study of the Kloss Catalogue of Rosici'ucian works will convince the student of the enormous quantity of R. C. works which appeared in 1617, the year following Shakespeare's death. 302 NOTES ON ROSICRUCIAN LITERATURE. the work just quoted from, entitles one of his chapters "Re- sponse ;i la principale raison de rimtauration promise," &c. Postel, who evidently was a precursor of the society, wrote : " De ultima nativitate mediatoris : De instaumtione rerum omnmm * per magnus Helise prophetae," &c. The reader -wdll see how suspicious it is to find Bacon joining hands with the Rosicrucians in this title Insfauratioit. Bacon Avi'ites : "This one way therefore remaineth, that the whole lousiness be at- tempted anew, with l)etter preparations or defences against error ; and that there be a universal Instaimitiou or reconstruc- tion of the arts and sciences, and of all liimmn learning upon a due basis." That is the meaning of the word Instauratio : it was used by the Romans for the repetition of anything, and generally with a special view to correctness or completeness of performance, as for instance, of games or sacrifices, of which the first performance had been unsatisfactoiy. " It is properly a building up, and is nearly the same thing tvith a restoration " (Craik's "Bacon," p. ii. 2). The connection between the Avorks of Roger Bacon and the Rosicrucians is most apparent, and points to England as the origin of the Society. Naud6 says : " Et certain Anonyme qui a mis en hmiiere I'epistre de Roger Bacon De potestate artis et naturce, passe bien plus outre et se donne carriere en ses imaginations : car en la Preface au Lecteur il dit que cette renovation et instauration future se fera principalement re- marquer en trois poincts : le premier en Vunitie de Religion -j- par la conversion des Juifs, Idolatres et Ismaelites : le second * Fludd writes : " Unde sit (ut mihi videtur) quod Fratres renovationem et restaurationem mundi Ethicam sen nioralem, hoc est niorum, scientiarum ct artium instaurationcm, correctiouem et exaltationeiu, et hominum in obscuritate et tenebris vitas degentium libertatem et illuiuiuationeni, et per- spicnam veritatis olim tabesceiites lumen et splendorem, cum falsitatas detri- mento exilio, ac runia, et repetitionem atque mutuo quasi nixu renovationem aetatis aureae, nou inepte prresagiverint : dicentes in uuo confessionis loco : Quod, M'undus dcbeat rcnovari," &c. ("Tract. Apol.,"p. 81, 1617). + Note Bacon wrote an Essay upon " Unity in Religion." NOTES ON ROSICRUCIAN LITERATURE. 303 on rabondance et richesse de toutes sortes de biens : et le dernier fera reluire les vertus, esclater les sciences et obligera un chacun a ^•ivrc commc cnst faict notre premier perc s'il fut demeurc en I'estat de la justice originelle : laquelle dis- tribution il confirme par une infinite de passage de la saincte Escriture, le tout pour piloter et establir le premier principe ct fondement de cette congregation de la Roze-Croix " (pp. 43, 44, "Instr. Sur les Freres de la Roze-Croix," 1623). It is most remarkable that we always hear of the Rosicrucians and their founder in connection with Roger Bacon. For Burton writes in his " Anatomy of Melancholy," p. 72 (Democritus to the Reader) : " That omniscious, only wise fraternity of the Rosie Cross .... their Theophrastian master, whom though Libavius and many deride and carp at, yet some will have to be the lienewer of all arts and sciences (Footnote— Omnium artium ei scientiarum instaurafor), reformer of the Avorld, and now liWng ; for so Johannes Montanus Strigoniensis (that great patron of Paracelsus) contends and certainly avers, a onost divine man (Footnote — Diiinns ille tir. auctor notarum in ej?. Bog. Bacon, ed Hamburg, 1608), and the quintessence of wisdom, wheresoever he is." The reader perceives that this supposed founder of the fi'aternity is the author of notes upon Roger Bacon ! Let it be t here remarked Francis Bacon is supposed to have borrowed his doctrine of Idols from the four-fold classification of Roger Bacon's " Offendicula, quce omnem quemcunque sapientem impediunt " (Opus Magus, first part, and Opus Tertium, cap. 22). In the " New Atlantis " may be refound a number of marvels, which are borrowed from this Book of Roger Bacon, mentioned by Naud^, i.e., "De potestate artis et naturo'," and "Be secretis artis et Natura'," viz., to make chariots move without animals, diving boats, flying, telescopes, magnifying glasses, &c.* The invention of Spectacles, * The whole of Bacon's prophecies iu his "New Atlantis" regarding the march of science are being realised. Will the world not recognise that ' ' Looking Forward " belongs to Bacon and not to' only modern writers, like Bellamy and Thuisen ? 304 ^'0 TES ON R OSICR UCIAN LITER A TURE. like that of the Microscope and Telescope, has been ascribed to Roger Bacon. (Com2)are "Novum Organum," Book II. xxxix.) In the " Temporis Partus Masculus," Bacon -writes praisingly of his great namesake, " Siquidem utile genus eorum est, qui de theoriis non admodum solliciti, mechanica quadam subtilitate rerum inventarum extensiones prehendunt, qualia est Bacon." Another convincing proof that the origin of the Eosicrucians really was connected ivith England, and was transmitted abroad, is the fact that it never took any hold in the countries where it made most noise, but took lasting root onl/j in England. De Quincey writes : " In France it never had even a momentary success." Again : " Kosicrucianism received a shock from the WTitings of its accidental father, Andrea and others, such as in Germany it never recovered. And hence it has happened that, whatever numbers there may have been of individual mystics calling themselves Eosicrucians, no collective body of Eosicrucians acting in conjunction was ever matured or actually established in Germany. In England the case was othenvise ; for there, as I .•- tial flmcers, which derive their scents from the Aromatic moun- tains. If here there be aught of honei/, I cffer unto ijuu this hoiieij- cumb and bee-hive. Roses, however, are tvont to be soiled upon the breasts of most persons ; peradventure also this handful is sidlied, for it is of my gathering " (Dedication, " The Magical Writings of Thomas Vaughan," by A. E. Waite). It may be perceived that Bees and Bases are brought into context in this dedicatory address to the Fra- ternity, in an evidently symbolical or esoteric sense. Bacon, in describing the seats of Learning, foundations of Colleges (the Rosi- er ucians called themselves a College), writes : " The works which concern the seats of the Muses (Musai'um Sedes) are four, fonnda- tions of Houses, endowments, franchises, and privileges . . . nuich like the stations which Virgil prescribeth for the Idling (f Bees." Principio secies apibiis statioque petenda (}\io iie(|ue sit veiitis aditus, &c. ' (First for thy bees a (^uiet station find, And lodge tliein under covert of the wind. ) (Virgil, "Georg.," iv. 8.) (P. G9, "Advancement," 1640.) " For he that shall attentively observe how the mind doth gather this excellent dew of kaoivledge, like unto that which the poet speaketh of, Aerei mellis cedestia dona, distilling and contriv- ing it out of particulars, natnnd and artificial, as the flowers of tlw field and garden, shall find that the mind of herself by natiu'e dot)i manage and act an induction much better than they describe it "' ("Advancement of Learning," Book II., p. 152). It is easy to perceive by the Latin (juotation. Bacon is alluding to the industry TO BACOiVS II RI TINGS. 315 of Bees, in order to illustrate the collection of honey, or dew uf knowledge, from out of infinite particulars. In Michael Maier's " Septimana Philosophica" (1620, Francof.) we read: "At quid de Apibus dicendum 1 (Hyramus). Illarum ccelestis seu aerta ridei/ir origo, cum domunculaj earum, id est, cellse cereas, nutri- raentum seu ambrosia et Manna mellis, nee iion tota prosapia ex floribus ortum ducant ; flores autem a ccelo et a'era rorerii et fragran- tiuni nnituo accipiant. Cadi virtus melli in fa vis existenti, dum adsunt tamen exaraina in illis, infunditur, unde Apiculse novae gener tntur " (p. 1 95). Here we find a connotation of bees, honey, dew, and flowers. Canto xxxi. of Dante's " Paradiso " opens with the connotation of " a snow-tvliite rose " and bees : — 111 fashion then as if a snoiv-white rose Displayed itself to me the saintly host, AVhom Christ in his own blood had made his bride, Bnt the other host, that flying sees and sings The glory of him who doth enainonr it, And the goodness that created it so noble, Even as a swarm of bees that sink in flowers One moment, and the next returns again To where its labonr is to sweetness turned, Sunk into the great flower, that is adorned With leaves so many, and thence reascended To where its love abideth evermore.* LOXGFELLOW. Bacon almost always compares knov.^ledge to Water or a Foiui- * G. Rossetti maintains in his " Antipapal Spirit which [iroduced the Reformation," that Dante's Divine Comedy is nothing bnt an exposition of the secret mysteries and symbolism of the Knight Templars, to which order he belonged, and that Dante was active in preparing by his WTitings the way for the Reformation. Mr Waite, qiroting "Eliphas Levi," writes (p. 16, " History of the Roscrucians ") : " Not without astonishment will it be dis- covered," continues Levi, "that the Roman dc la Rose and the Divine Comedy are two opposite forms of the same work — initiation into intellectual indepen- dence, satire on all contemporary institutions and allegorical formulations of the great secrets of the Rosicrucian Society. These important manifestations of occultism coincide with the eiioch of the downfall of the Templars, since Jean de Meung or Clopinel, contemiiorary of Dante's old age, flourished during his most brilliant years at the Co\irt of Philippe le Bel. The ' Romance of the Rose ' is the epic of ancient France. It is a profound work in a trivial guise, as learned an exposition of the mysteries of occultism as that of Ajiuleius. 3 1 6 ROSICR UCIAN PARALLELS tain. "For as water will not ascend higher than the level of the first Springhead from whence it descendeth, so knowledge derived from Aristotle, and exempted from liberty of examina- tion, will not rise again higher than the knowledge of Ai'istotle " ("Advancement of Learning," Book I. 37). Again: "Was not the Persian Magic a reduction of correspondence of the principles and architectures of nature to the rule and 'policy of government? Is not the precept of a musician, to fall from a discord or harsh accord upon a concord or sweet accord, alike true in affection? " (page 107, Book II., " Advancement of Learning," Wright). This Persian magic Bacon calls ^'^ Philosophia lirima, sive de fontibus scientiaruni." "This science, therefore {as I understand it), I may justly report as deficient, for I see sometimes the profounder sort of wits, in handling some particular argument, will now and then draw a hucJcet of water out of this well for their present use, but the springhead thereof seemeth to me not to have been visited ; being of so excellent use for the disclosing of natiu'e and the abridgement of art" {Ibid., p. 108). How is it we find the Rosicrucians studying especially this Persian or Cluddcean Magic exactly as Bacon does, and even upon the same subject — music as applied to the affections 1 In describing foundation of Colleges, Bacon Avi'ites : "For as water, whether it be the Deiu of Heaven or the Springs of the Earth, doth scatter and leese itself in the ground, unless it he collected into some receptacle where it may by union comfort and sustain itself; and for that cause the industry of man hath made and framed Springheads, Conduits, Cisterns, and Pools, &c. ("Advancement," II., i. 3). ("Quemad- modum enim Aqua, sive ex Coilesti Rore descendens, sive ex fontibus scaturiens," &c., 1638.) The Rosicrucians, according to Mosheim, drew their title or name from ros crux or dew Cross. And it is certain the Rosicrucians termed their headquarters or source The Rose of Flaniel, of Jean de JMeuiig, and of Dante, blossomed on the same rose-tree." This indeed may well be believed, for there is a large amount of evidence pointing to the origin of the Rosicrucian revival of the seventeenth century in the Knight Templars. TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 317 a fountain or well. " Quod sit Castellum in quo Fratres degunt % " (Gassciulus, 1630). Castellum means not only a town or Adllage, but a canduit or pipe to convey ivater (Ainsworth's "Latin Dictionary "). Rose and Lily. The Rose and the Lily were the two flowers especially repre- sentative and emblematic of the Rosicrucian fraternity. Their jewel was a crucified rose mounted on a Calvary, and for the connection of the Lily or Fleur-de-Lis with the society, I must refer the reader to Hargreave Jennings' " Eosicrucians, their Rites and Mysteries" (chapter viii., vol. i.) where he will find a strange history of the Fleur-de-Lis, Ludfera Lisses, &c. Now it is very curious to find the author of the plays frequently introducing the Bose in context with the Lily : — Of Nature's gifts, tlioii may'st wich Lilies boast, And with the half-blown Rose. ("King John," act iii. sc. 1.) Nor did I wonder at the Lily's white, Nor praise the deeji vermilion of the Rose (Sonnets, 98.) Their silent war of Lilies and of Roses. (" Lucrece," 71.) That even for anger makes the Lily j)ale, And the red Rose blush at her own disgi'ace. (" Lucrece," 477.) The air hath starv'd the Roses in her cheeks. And pinch'd the Lily tincture of her face. ("Two Gentlemen of Verona," act iv. so. 4.) The religious character of the Lily is evidently connected "with Solomon, " Consider the Lilies of the field,"' &c. We find Bacon, in a letter to King James I., writing :— " It is observed upon a place in the Canticles by some ; Egosumflos Campi et Lillium Con- vallium, that a dispari, it is not said, Ego sum flos Horti et Lillium Montium ; because the Majedy of that Person is not enclosed for a few nor appropriate for the great " {i.e., " I am the Flower of the Field, and the Lily of the Valleys, that it is not said, 3 1 8 ROSICR UCIAN PARALLELS I am the flower of the garden, and the Lily of the mountains James I. was, Ave believe, a Mason.* It seems to us Bacon is addressing the king in mamnic language, with a side hint for Solomon. In this letter Bacon says, " Now i^ the corner-stone is laid of the mightiest monarchy in Europe." Is Bacon implying, by a compliment to the king, that he (Bacon) is the flower of the fields and the Lily of the Valleij — the king (seated on a higher place) the flower of the garden and Lily of the mountains ? The next letter is to Sir John. Davies (upon the king's coming in), and concludes, "So desiring you to he good to concealed poets." How could Sir John Davies favour Bacon's advancement through this allusion 1 My opinion is that this was meant as a possible recommendation to the king, and suggests some secret society or brotherhood, and the claims arising out of it. This quotation proves not only that Bacon was "a concecdedpoet" but that there were other concecded poets, hound hy brotherhood to do each other service. Sir John Davies wrote a poem upon the "Immortality of the Soul," a highly metaphysical and, we might a-lmost say, masonic poem. The thoughtful reader must see that Bacon could have no claim upon Sir John Davies' favour with the king, from the fact that he (Bacon) alone was a " concealed poet," unless Sir John Davies understood this in some reciprocal sense, as a secret sign between members of a fraternity. And it is curious this letter bears date 1603,1 the year Robert Fludd adduces as heralding, by the new stars in the breast of the Swan * " Why doth my face so much enamour thee, That to the garden fair thou turnest not, AVhicli under the rays of Christ is blossoming ? There is the Ease in wliich the Word Divine Became incarnate ; there the Lilies arc By whose perfume the good way was discovered." (Canto XXIII., "Paradiso," Dante.) I James I. was a Grand Master of Masonry, 1603 (see "Royal Masonic Cyclop:«dia," p. 285, M'Kenzie). So was also William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke. t This is also the date (1603) of those strange Astrological Notes in Bacon's hand, which Spedding discovered written upon the title-page of " Hermes Stella." TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 319 and in Serpentarius,* the uugmentation, if not the formation upon a new basis, of the society of Rosy Cross. Bacon does not say a "cwicmZe^? j3oe/," ])ut uses the plural, " co?iceaZe£^ pfW.^i," showing there was a bond of l^rotherhood between Davies and himself, if not others. It is difficult to imagine or ascribe a reason for this concealment, unless it had some religious or some reforming and advanced views connected with it. The Freemasons, as far as we know, did not exist at this period. But we can easily imagine the Rosicrucians, who called themselves Literati, being- connected with Poetry. The reasons for this belief are o])vious, for they called themselves the Literati of AjxdJo, Avho was the God of INIusic and Song ; and we find references in their writings to Parnassus, Helicon, the Muses, so often as to produce the con- viction that, joined to their ends of reforming philosophy and arts, they indulged in poetical literature. Amongst Bacon's fragments is an Essay upon Fame. We find it in the first part of the 1671 " Resuscitatio," and it is curiously not included in the Essaj's. It stands alone, and the title is printed in extraordinary large capitals, cpiite one inch in height. The style is exceedingly unlike Bacon's Essays, being obsciu'e, half allegorical, and entirely inapplicable to Fame in its usually accepted sense. The title of the celebrated Rosicru- cian first Manifesto of 1614 Avas " Fama Fraternitatis ; or a dis- covery of the Fraterniti/ of the most Laudable Order of the Fosy Cross." It was reprinted with the "Confessio Fraternitatis " and the * " There appeared also of late a new star in the breast of C'ljgnus, which has now lasted for twelve whole years" ("Description of the Intellectual Globe "). " God, indeed, hath already sent messengers which should testify His will, to wit, some new stars Mhich have appeared in Scrpentarius and Cygnus" (Confession of Rosicruciau Fraternity, p. 93, Waite's "Real Hist. Rosi- crucians "). "Cum igitur Stellas in longitudine signi istius lovis, in Serpentario re- pertas, et illas similiter Cygni ruminaverinms ; lovis conjunctionem cum Saturno, circa tempus apparitionis earum, et noii multum ante revelationem Fraternitatis istius de Rosea Cruce, speculari nobiscum jjrojiosuinius "' (De Characteribus Mysticis, "Tract. Apol.," p. 75. 1617, Fludd). This date was 1603. 320 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS " Allgemeine Reformation der Ganzen Welt" at Frankfort-on-the Maine in 1615. It is the first genuine Rosicrucian manifesto of which there is proof indubitable, for the "Reformation of the whole Wide World," though anonymously printed the same year, was borrowed entirely from the 77th advertisement of Boccalini's "Ragguagli di Parnasso," and was disclaimed l)y writers like Fludd. I therefore venture to suggest Bacon's fragment upon '^ Fame" may possibly allude in guarded language to the cele- brated "Fama." "The Poets make Fame a monster. They de- scribe her in part, finely and elegantly ; and in part, gravely and sententiously. They say, look how many feathers she hath, so many eyes she hath underneath : so many tongues, so many voices ; she pricks up so many ears. This is a flourish : there follow excellent parables ; as that she gathereth strength in going; that she goeth upon the ground, and yet hidefh her head in the clouds." In chapter v. of the " Confessio Fraternitatis R. C, 1615," we read: "A thousand times the unworthy may clamour, a thousand times may present themselves, yet God hath commanded our ears that they should hear none of them, and hath so compassed us about tvith His clouds* that Tinto us His servants no violence can be done ; wherefore now no longer are we beheld by human eyes, vmUss they have re- ceived strength borroived from the eagle " (Waite, p. 90, " History of Rosicrucians "). The Rosicrucian pamphlets mentioned were published in five languages, and may not Bacon be hinting at this in the words u "so many tongues," "so many voices" 1 And in making Fame a monster, there is the suggestion implied of a shapeless, headless, or formless creation, which was exactly the character of this Brotherhood— its origin, founder, pretensions, being always in- * "As to the heathen antiquities of the world, it is in vain to note them for deficient ; deficient they are, no doubt, consisting mostly of fables and fragments, but the delicience cannot be holpen, for antiquity is like FAME, Caput inter mtbila condit, her head is muffled from our sight" (" Two Books of the Advancement," j). 92, "Wright). TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 321 defined and Avithout outline. Bacon continues : " That in the day time she sitteth in a watch-tower, aiul flyeth most hy night." This implies an active armed defence and look-out, joined to secrecy and mystery. The Rosicrucian publications were all issued anonymously, and left the public in the dark as to their' real author, or the real source from whence they came. Bacon continues: "And that she is a terror to great cities." In 1623, the date of the plays (first Folio), there was a meeting of thirty- six members of the Eosicrucians'^in Paris, and the reader will find in " De Quincey's " Essay, how the city was thrown into uproar and consternation, by certain placards attached to the walls. The Raven. Bacon writes : " Neither is there such a sin against the Person of the Holy Ghost (if one should take it literally) as instead of the likeness of a Dove, to bring him down in the likeness of a Vulture or Raven ; nor such a scandal to the Church, as out of the bark of Saint Peter to set forth the flag of a barge of Pirates and Assassins " ("Of Unity in Religion "). Compare the Bore and Putven in this passage from the " Chymical Marriage of Christian Eosencreutz" ("The Second Day," p. 109, Waite's "Real History of the Rosici-ucians "). " I was so perplexed that, for great weariness, hunger and thirst seized me, whereupon I drew out my bread, cut a slice of it, which a snow-white dove, of whom 1 Avas not aware, sitting upon the tree espied, and therewith came down, betaking herself very familiarly with, me, to whom I willingly imparted my food, which she received, and with her prettiness did again a little refresh me. But as soon as her enemy, a most black Raven, perceived it, he straight darted down upon the dove, and taking no notice of me, would needs force away her meat, who could not otherwise guard herself but by flight. Whereupon, both X 32 2 R OSICR UCIA N PARALLELS together flew toward the South, at which I was so hugely incensed and grieved, that Avithout thinking, I made haste after the filthy Eaven, and so, against my "\nll, ran into one of the fore-mentioned ways a whole field's length. The Raven l)eing thus chased away, and the Dove delivered, I first ob- served what I had inconsiderately done, and that I was already entered into a way, from which, under peril of punishment, I durst not retire, and though I had still wherewith to comfort myself, yet that which was worst of all was, that I had left my bag and bread at the Tree, and could never retrieve them, for as soon as I turned mj'self about, a contrary wind Avas so strong against me that it was ready to fell me, but if 1 went forward, I perceived no hindrance, wherefore I patiently took up my cross, got upon my feet, and resolved I Avould use my utmost endeavour to get to my journey's end before night. Now, although many apparent bye-ways showed themselves, I still proceeded with my compass, and would not budge one step from the meridian line. Howbeit, the way was oftentimes so rugged that I was in no little doubt of it. I constantly thought upon the Dove and Raven, and yet could not search out the meaning, until upon a high hill afar off I espyed a stately Portal, to which, not regarding that it was distant from the way I was in, I hasted, because the sun had already hid himself under the hills, and I could elsewhere see no abiding place, which I verily ascribe only to God, Who might have permitted me to go forward, and withheld my eyes that so I might have gazed beside this gate, to which I now made mighty haste, and reached it by so much daylight as to take a competent view of it. It was an exceeding Royal, beautiful Portal, whereon were carved a multitude of most noble figures and devices, every one of which (as I afterwards learned) had its peculiar signification. Above was fixed a pretty large Tablet, with these words, ' Procul hinc procul He profani,' and more that I was forbidden to relate." This allegory is so transparent that it needs little apology for TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 323 interpretation. The worxls in Latin, " Pvoml hinc pvcul ite pro- fani" are bnt a transcript of Virgil's Procxil, ! pi'ocul estc, profani, Conclamat vates, totoiiue absistite loco. (Book VI., 258, 259, ".Eiieid.") In the notes to " Anthon's Virgil" by Metcalfe we read, " Procul, / 2^>'ocuJ, &c. This was the solemn preamble with which the celebration of the Sacred Mysteries used to be ushered in, the form of expression in Gi^eek being zxdg, sxag, Isri ^i^rfkoi " (p. 476). Warburton says : " The procul, procul este profani ! of the Sybil is a literal transition of the formula used by the mysta- gogue at the opening of the Mysteries " (" Diving Legation," p. 270). I have in my possession a copy of Khunrath's " Amphi- theatrum Sapiential yEternae." It contains a curious number of symbolical Rosicrucian charts. A remarkable one depicts the portals of a gigantic subterranean passage, and upon a stone over the gateway are the words, " Procul hinc Aheste Profani ! " i.e., "From hence depart ye j)rofane (uninitiated) ones!" This proves to anyone conversant with this subject, the Mysteries — and probably the Eleusinian Mysteries (Virgil's Sixth Book) — were implied behind these words. It is not difficult to see in the secrecy and brotherhood of societies, like the Rosicrucians, the only safety from the persecution of the Eaven, or Papal power, existed. Weapon-Salve. Bacon Avrites : " It is constantly received and avouched that the anointing of the weapon that maketh the wound will heal the wound itself " * (Century x., 998, " Natural History "). * " We smile at the sijinpat.hy of ' the weapon-salve ; ' but we must not for- get that this occult ]>ower was the received philosophy of the days of our Rosicrusian. Who has not heard of 'the sympatlietic powder ' of Sir Kenelm Digby, by which the bloody garter of James How»ll was cured, and conse- quently its pleasant owner, without his own knowledge ? or of the ' sympa- 324 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS A curious tract was Avritten by Fludd in reply to one Foster, who had declared, in a book attacking Fludd, that to " cure hj applyiiuj the salve to the weapon is magical and unlawful." The title of this book was, " A Sponge to Avipe away the Weapon-salve." Fludd replied by, " The Squeezing of Parson Foster's Sponge," 1631, 4to. (It is also found bound up with the " Philosophia Moysaica," published 1638, Goudse.) Fludd undertakes in this reply to answer in the affirmative this question, "An cui-atio vulnerum praestita per unguentum armarium veneficium sit et illicita?" Bacon continues: "In this experiment, upon the relation of men of credit (though myself as yet am not fully in- clined to believe it), you shall note the points following. First, the ointment, wherewith this is done, is made of divers ingredi- ents, whereof the strangest and hardest to come by, are the moss upon the skull of a dead man unhuried ; and the fats of a boar and a bear, killed in the act of generation. These two last I could easily suspect to be prescribed as a starting hole ; that if the experiment proved not, it might be pretended, that the beasts were not killed in the due time ; for as for the moss, it is certain there is a great quantity of it in Ireland, upon slain bodies laid on heaps unhuried. The other ingredients are, the bloodstone in powder and some other things, which seem to have a virtue to stanch blood ; as also the moss hath. And the description of the whole oint- ment is to be found in the chemical dispensatory of Crollius. Secondly, the same kind of ointment applied to the hurt itself worketh not the effect, but only applied to the weapon. Thirdly, (which I like well), they do not observe the confecting of the ointment under any certain constellation, which commonly is the excuse of magical medicines, when they fail tliat they were not tlietic needles' of the gi'eat author of 'Vulgar Errors,' by which, though somewhat perplexed, he concluded that two lovers might correspond invisibly ? and, above all o. 21, " De Aiig- mentis," 1638). TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 339 contain the living and spiritual characters, are^another" (Waitc's " Real History of the liosicrucians," p. 202). Compare what Dr Abbott ^\Tites of " Bacon as a Philosopher " (p. 84, Introduction, "Essays"): "The similarity or analogy between different sciences is, according to Bacon, not accidental ; it is as natural and as inevitable as the resemblance between the rippling surface of the sea, the ripple-marked clouds in the sky, the rippling lines on the sea-sand, and the hilly ripples of a sea-sha])e(l undulating land — all of which are but Nature's footprints as she treads in one fashion on her various elements : for tlicm are not only similitudes, as men of narrow observation iimy conceive them to he, but the same footsteps of nature, treading or pintiny upo7i several siibjects or matters." "These characters and letters, as God hath here and there incorporated them in the Sacred Scriptures, so hath He imprinted them most manifestly on the wonderful work of creation, on the heavens, the earth, and on all beasts, so that as the mathematicians predict eclipses, so we prognosticate the obscurations of the Chui-ch, and how long they shall last" ("Confessio Fraternitatis," 1615, p. 94, Waite). Magnalia, or Marvels. Amongst the chief characteristics of the Rosicrucian pretensions was the claim to cure diseases. " In this, as well as in many other respects, they appear to be followers of Paracelsus, whom they profess to revere as a messenger of the divinity. Like him, they pretend to cui'e all diseases, thmugh faitli and the ptower of ike imagination, to heal the most mortal disorders by a touch, or even by simply looking at the patient " (" Thaumaturgia," p. 359, 1835). Compare these Rosicrucian ends proposed by Bacon, — this table being always found at the end or following " The New Atlantis " (or " Land of the Rosicrucian s," according to John Heydon) : — 340 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS '■'■ Magnalia 7iaturce prcecipue quoad usus humcuios."* The Prolongation of Life. The Restitution of Youth in some Degree. The Retardation of Age. The Curing of Diseases counted Incurable. The Mitigation of Pain. More easy and less loathsome Purgings. The increasing of Strength and Activity. The increasing of ability to suffer Torture or Pain." ("SylvaSyl varum.") The word "Magnalia" is borrowed from Paracelsus, and is another proof of Rosicrucian connection. The works of Paracelsus are described as found in Christian Rosy Cross' tomb or vault. Bailey wintes of the Rosicrucians : "They pretended to protract the period of human life by means of certain nostrums, and even to restore, youth. They pretended to know all things. They are also called the Invisible Brothers, because they have made no appearance, but have kept themselves vicog. for several years" (Bailey, "Did. in voce"). Now it is very curious to find Bacon setting out certain claims to protract the period of human life, and even "to restore youth in some degree," in unmistakable language. With regard to Bacon's doctrine of Spirits, w-hich plays such a prominent part in his " History of Life and Death," and else- where, we find Professor Fowler Avi-iting: "It may be remarked that, though Bacon's account of 'Spirit' does not seem to be taken directly, at least without considerable modifioations, from * This page is to be found at the end of Bacon's "New Atlantis," and curiously carries the numbers 35, 36 as paging, these being the catalogue play number, and full number of plays in the 1623 Folio, " Troilus and Cressida" being omitted from catalogue (" Sylva Sylvarum," 1651). Spedding writes: — "This page follows in Neio Atlantis in the original edition and concludes the volume. " The reader will see, that in connecting these strictly Rosicrucian jnxtensions vHth the ^^ New Atlantis," we have "proof that John Hcydon's ''Land of the Rosicrucians" is really and not fancifully Bacons " Atlantis." TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 341 Paracelsus, there is much in common between the speculations of the two writers on this subject. 1 have not, however, thought it Avorth while to point this out in detail." The curing of diseases counted Incurahlc. Compare the King in "All's Well that Ends Well," act. ii. sc. 3 :— Lqfen. To be leliiKjuiHlit of the Artists. Par. So I say both of Galen and Paracelsus. Laf. Of all the learned and authentic fellows. Laf. TJuit gave him out Incurable. The Lion's Whp:lp. It is evident the Kosicrucians, from the sixth chapter of their " Confession " (1615), looked to some divine event connected with the '''Lion of the Tribe of Jiiduh." "But to the false and to impos- tors, and to those who seek other things then wisdom, we witness by these presents publikely, we cannot be betrayed unto them to our hurt, nor be knoAvn to them without the will of God, but they shall certainly be partakers of that terrible commination spoken of in our Faraa, and their impious designs shall fall back upon their own heads, while our treasures shall remain un- touched, till the Lion shall arise and exact them as his right, receive and imploy them for the establishment of his kingdom " (ch. iv., p. 92, Waite). Bacon writes : " The blessing of Judas and Issachar will never meet, that the same people or nation should be both the Lion's whelp, and ass between burthens " (" Of Kingdoms and Estates"). Compare " Cymbeline " : — Sooth. [^Reads'] "When as a lion's wlielp shall, to himself unknown, with- out seeking find, and be embraced by a piece of tender air ; and when from a stately cedar shall be lopped branches, which, being dead many years, shall after revive, be jointed to the old stock, and freshly grow ; then shall Pos- thumus end his miseries, Britain be fortunate and flourish in peace and l)lenty." 342 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS Thou, Leonatus, ait the lion's whelj* ; The fit and apt construction of thy name, Being Leo-natus, doth import so much. {To Cymhdincl The piece of tender air, thy virtuovis daughter, Which we call '■ mollis aer " ; and " mollis aer" "We term it "mulier" ; which "miilier" I divine Is this most constant wife ; who, even now. Answering the letter of the oracle, Unknown to yon, unsought, were clipp'd about "With this most tender air. (" Cymbeline," last act, last scene.) There is a passage in Ezekiel's prophecy where he represents the church as a lofty Cedar Tree, gro"svn from a tender twig, so that under it "should dwell all fowls of every wing; in the shadow of the branches thereof shall they dwell." The citation forms almost the last words of the 1623 Folio. Madame Blavatsky writes : " ' Behold the Assyrian (why not Atlantean, Initiate ?) was a cedar in Lebanon ... . his height was exalted above all the trees ; . . . the cedars in the garden of God could not hide him, ... so that all the trees of Eden . . . envied him' (Ezekiel xxxi. 3-9). Throughout all Asia Minor, the Initiates were called the ' trees of righteousness,' and the cedars of Lebanon, as also were some kings of Israel. So were the great adepts in India, but only the adepts of the left hand. When Vishnu Purana narrates that the 'world was over-run with trees,' while the Prachetasas, who 'passed 10,000 3'ears of austerity in the vast ocean,' were absorbed in their devotions, the allegory relates to the Atlanteans, and the adepts of the early fifth race, the Aryans" ("The Secret Doctrine," p. 494, vol. ii.). The reader will see how curious it is to find this author con- necting Atlantis with the Cedar of Lebanon, and thus bringing Solomon into touch historically with Bacon's fable of the " New Atlantis." " In the little banqueting-house in the orchard at Gorhambuiy House, St Albans, supposed to have been built about 1565, a singular series of inscriptions exist. First, the walls have the liljeral arts Ijeautifully depicted upon them, and over them TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 343 portraits of such learned men as had excelled in each, and under them verses expressive of the benefits derived from the study of them : — GiiAMMAK. — ' Lex sum scrmonis, liuguarum regula certa. Qui me nou didicit cu'teia nulla pctat.' DoNATUs, Lilly, Sekvius, and Prlsciak. *Aeithmetic'. — ' Ingenium exaeuo numerorum arcano recludo. Qui numeros didicit quid didicisse nequit. ' Stifelius, Budceus, Pythagoras. Logic. — 'Divido multiplicis, res, explanoque latentio Vera exquiro falsa arguo cuncta probo. ' Aristotle, Rodolph, Porphyry, Seton. Music. — 'Mitigo mferores et ecerbas lenio curas Gestiat ut placidis mens hilarata sonis. ' Aeian, Terpander, Orpheus. Rhetoric — ' Ille duce splendescit gratis prudentia verbis, Jamque ornata nitet qui fuit ante rudis.' Cicero, Isocrates, Demosthenes, Quintillian. Geometry. — ' Corpora describe rerum et quo singula pacto, Apte sunt formis appropriata suis.' Archimedes, Euclid, Strabo, Apollonius. Astrology. — ' Astrorum lustrans cursus veresque potentes Elicio miris fata futura modis. ' Regiomontanus, Haly, Copperxicus, Ptolemy. De Amicitia. — In aniico ad monendo melius est suceessum quam fidem deesse. Omnia cum amico de libera : sed de ipso, })rius. De Amore.— Amor insane amicitia : illius affectas istuis ratio causa : et ea sola amicitia durat cui virtus basis est." (M'Kenzie's "Masonic Cyclopaedia.") These are the seven liberal Arts and Sciences as illustrated in the Fellow Crafts or Second Degree in Masonry, viz.: Grammar, * "Arithmetic — The science of the proportion of numbers. In the lecture of the degi-ee of Grand Master Architect, the candidate is reminded that a Mason is continually to acid to his knowledge, never to subtract anything from the character of his neighbour, to multiphj his benevolence, and to divide his means ■with a distressed brother." 344 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS Ehetoric, Logic, Arithmetic, Geometry, Music, and Astronomy. This is proof that Sir Nicholas Bacon, the father of Francis Bacon, was a Free-Mason. " The preservation of these Arts as a part of the ritual of the Fellow-Craft's Degree, is another evidence of the antiquity of Freemasonry. These ' seven liberal arts,' as they were then for the first time called, constituted, in the eighth century, the Avhole circle of the sciences. The first three were dis- tinguished by the title of tiivium, and the last four by that of quadrivium ; and to their acquisition the labours and studies of scholars were directed, while beyond them they never at- tempted to soar. Mosheim, speaking of the state of literatm^e in the eleventh century, uses the folloAving language : ' The seven liberal arts, as they were now styled, were taught in the greatest part of the schools that were erected in this century for the education of youth. The first stage of these sciences was grammar, Avhich was followed successively by rhetoric and logic. When the disciple, having learned these branches, which were generally known by the name of trivium, extended his ambition further, and was desirous of new improvement in the sciences, he was conducted slowly through the quadrivium (arith- metic, music, geometry, and astronomy) to the very summit of literary fame.' " The orders of Architecture follow upon all this, and it is very striking to find, that as Geometry is the science on which Masonry is founded. Architecture is the art from which it borrows the language of its symbolic instruction. In the earlier ages of the Order, every Mason was either an operative mechanic or a superintending architect, and something more than a super- ficial knoAvledge of the principles of Architecture is absolutely essential to the Mason who would either understand the former history of the Institution or appreciate its present objects. It is very striking. Bacon in the first part, or, as it were, the very foundations of his " Instauration," gives us (the first part, viz., of the " De Augmcntis," " Scientiarum," or " Advancement of TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 345 Learning," 1640) a title-page, where he entitles himself the A reinfect of the Sciences, and gives us in the motto at the foot of this page a further hint to Arithmetic, Geometry, or pro- portion, thoroughly Masonic in its suggestions : — Francisci do Verulamis Architectura Scientiarum. Deus Omnia In mensura, et numero, et ordine disposuit. RosiCRUciAN Curiosities. "For this writing of our ' Sylva Sylvarum' is (to speak pro- perly) not Natural History, but a high kind of Natural Magic. For it is not a description only of Nature, but a breaking of Nature, into great and strange toorks " (Experiment 93, " Sylva Sylvarum "). "We see how flies and spiders, and the like, get a Septdchre in Amber, more durable than the monument and embalming of a king" {IK Experiment 100). "Also the exudation of Rock Diamonds and Crystals, which harden with time : also the induration of Bead Amber, which at first is a soft substance ; as appeareth by the flies and spiders which are found in it; and many more, but we will speak of them distinctly" (lb. page 22, "Experiment on Induration"). "It is manifest, that Flies, Spiders, Ants, or the like small creatures, falling by chance into amber, or the Gums of Trees, and so finding a burial in them, do never after corrupt or rot, although they be soft and tender bodies" (Ex. 21, p. 6, "History of Life and Death "). Everlasting Lamps.* "There is a tradition, that Lamps set in Sepulchres, will last an incredible time" (Ex. 24, p. 6, "History of Life and Death"). * " It will be sufficient to enumerate their belief in a secret philosophy, perpetuated from primeval times, in ever burning lamps, in vision at a dis- tance," &c. (Waite's " Real History of the Rosicrucians," p. 209). 346 ROSICRUCFAN PARALLELS In Century iv. Bacon gives (Experiments 366 to 375) much consideration to this subject. " And there are traditions of kna'ps and candles, that have burnt a very long time in caves and tombs" (374). Thomas Vaughan \mtes : " Jacob makes a covenant with Laban, that all the spotted and brown cattle in his flock should be assigned to him for his wages. The bargain is no sooner made but he finds an art to multiplie his own colours, and sends his father-in-law almost a wool-gathering. ' And Jacob took him rods of green poplar, and of the hasel and chesnut-tree, and pilled white strakes in them, and made the white appear which was in the rods ; and hee set the rods which he had pilled before the flocks in the gutters, in the watering-trough, when the flocks came to drink, that they should conceive when they came to drink. And the flocks conceived before the rods, and brought forth cattle ring-straked, speckled, and spotted'" ("Magia Adamica," p. 103, Waite). Bhy. "When Jacob grazed his uncle Laban's sheep — This Jacob from our holy Abram was, As his wise mother wrought in his behalf, The third possessor ; ay, he was the third — Ant. And what of him ? did he take interest ? Shy. No, not take interest, not, as you would say, Directly interest : mark what Jacob did, When Laban and himself were compromised That all the canlings which were streak'd and pied Should fall as Jacob's hire, the ewes, being rank. In the end of autumn turned to the rams, And, when the work of generation was Between these woolly breeders in the act, The skilful shepherd peel'd me certain wands And, in the doing of the deed of kind, He stuck them U[) before the fulsome ewes, "Who then conceiving did in eaning time Fall parti-colour'd lambs, and those were Jacob's. ("Merchant of Venice," act ii.) The great English Rosicrucian, Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 347 Philalethes) writes : " But most excellent and magisterial is that oracle of Marcus Antoniiuis, who in his Discourse to himself, speaks indeed things worthy of himself. The Nature (saith he) of the universe delights not in any thing so much, as to alter all things and then to make the like again. This is her tick tack, shee plays one game, to begin another. The matter is placed before her like a piece of wax, and shee shapes it to all formes, and figures. Now shee makes a bird, now a beast, now a fiowere, then a frog, and shee is pleas'd with her own magicall perfoi- mances, as men are with their OAvn fancies. Hence she is call'd of Orpheus, ' the mother that makes many things, and ordaines strange shapes, or figures ' " (" Caelum Terrse ; or the Magician's Heavenly Chaos," p. 128, AVaite). Compare this with the following of Shakespeare's supposed sonnets : — SONNET CXIII. Since I left you, mine eye is in my minde, And that which governes me to goe aljont, Doth jiart his function, and is partly blind, Seemes seeing, but eflectually is out : For it no forme delivers to the heart Of birds, or flower, or shape which it doth lack. Of his quick objects hath the mind no part, Nor his owne vision holds what it doth catch : For if it see the rud'st or gentlest sight, The most sweet favour or deformedst creature. The mountaine, or the sea, the day, or night : The Crow or Dove, it shapes them to your feature. Incapable of more re[>leat. with you. My most true minde thus maketli mine untrue. The same Eosicrucian Avrites : " Is there anything lost since the creation 1 "Would'st thou know his very bed and pillow 1 // is the earth. How many cities dost thou think have perished by the sword ? How many by earthquakes ? And how many by the deluge 1 Thou dost perhaps desire to know where they are at this present : believe it they have one common sepulchre, ivhat vxis once their wother, is noiv their tomh. All things return to 348 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS that place from whence they came, and that very place is earth " ("Caelum Terme; or the Magician's Heavenly Chaos," p. 128, Waits). Compare with the words in italics this passage from " Romeo and Juliet" : — The earth that's 'lUtture's mother is her tomh ; What i'.j her burying-grave that is her tuomb.* (Act ii. so. 3.) From long and intimate study of Lord Bacon's works, we feel l)ersuaded he felt himself a divine instrument, and a man charged with a great message to mankind. We see this hinted at in the following words : — " For I am a trumpeter only, I do not begin the fight ; perchance one of those of whom Homer : — Kaipi-e Kspuy.s:, ^ihc" Ayys/jji ■/] h's -/.ai avdpuv (Book IV., p. 117, "Advancement of Learning "). Throughout Bacon's works there are interspersed hints as if he was ever looking to posterity for the realisation of some divine moment or event connected "vvith his labours. This is most apparent in the title of one of his books only published a century after his death — " Valerius Terminus " — by which some end or finality is implied. The internal character of the Avork bears this out. For it deals with a "scale" reminding us of the fourth division of the "Listauration" missing, entitled "Scala Intellectus," or method of the mind in things exemplified. Under this section in the Distribution Preface, are introduced the Types and Platforms of Invention, in certain selected subjects worthy of remark, which we are convinced allude to the plays. We find in "Valerius Terminus," Bacon disclosing his mind upon his two methods of publishing. And we cannot believe this woi'k was published hy accident, and left in private hands without instructions, containing as it does such vital points. It seems to * " For corruption is a reciprocal to generation : and tliey two, are as Nature two termS; or boundaries; and the guides to life and death" ("Natural History," Century IV., Experiment .328, p. 73). TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 349 us it was intentionally reserved, that this point upon publishing privately (or reserved to a private succession of hands) might not prematurely be made known. This work is an example of the method of publishing in point to its own remarks.* It is well worthy a passing remark that lioger Bacon (who, whether in any way connected with Francis Bacon by way of descent or not, Avas a remarkable character) must have exerted a powerful influence upon Bacon, inasmuch as joined to the identity of name, Roger Bacon was an experimentalist and discoverer after Francis Bacon's own heart, f Roger Bacon was a Friar, a member of the Order of St Francis, commonly called Franciscans. In "Romeo and Juliet" Ave find two holy Franciscan Friars intro- duced, viz.. Friar Laurence and Friar John, the former playing a large part as Romeo's confessor and assistant to the lovers. The really striking part is that Friar Laiu'ence is introduced as an Alchemist or Rosicrucian, that is if evidence is anj'thing. For example, in the third scene, second act, Avith the first introduction of Friar Laiu'ence, Ave find him immediately pictured as a her- balist or botanist, collecting Aveeds and floAvers. * The " Confessio Frateiuitatis R. C. ad Erudites Euro^ire " opens thus : — " "Whatsoever you have heard, mortals, concerning our Fraternity by the trunq'd sound of the Fama R. C, do not either believe it hastily, or Avilfully suspect it" (1615). Compare : — Let the bu'd of loudest lay On the sole Arabian tree, Herald sad and trumpet be, To whose sound chaste wings obey. (" Phcenix and Turtle.") t That Bacon was Avell acquainted with the Avorks of his namesake Roger Bacon is certain. It has been remarked often hoAv closely Bacon's four idols resemble the four hindrances to knowledge of Roger Bacon's "Opus Magus." But whether this was the real source of inspiration is, of course, only conjec- ture. But in ' ' The History of Life and Death " we find Bacon has borrowed some stories from the " De Mirabel. Potest. Artis et Natur^v " of Roger Bacon. One of these is the story of the Lady of Formerey, or the Lady of the Wood, who, whilst seeking a white doe, met a forest ranger who had reucAved his youth by means of an ointment which he had sonieAvhere found in the forest. 35© ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS ScKNK \\\.— Filar Laitkence's Cell. Enter FrUir Laurence, tvith a baslri. Fri. The gi'ey-ey'd morn smiles on the frowning night, Checkering the eastern clo\ids with streaks of light ; And Hecked darkness like a drnnkard reels From forth day's path, and Titan's fiery wheels : Now ere the sun advance his burning eye, The day to cheer, and night's dank dew to dry, I must up-fill this osier cage of ours, With l)aleful weeds, and precious-juiced flowers. The earth, that's nature's mother, is her tomb ; "What is her burying grave, that is her womb : And from her womb children of divers kind We sucking on her natural bosom find : Many for many virtues excellent, None but for some, and yet all different. 0, mickle is the powerful grace, that lies In herbs, plants, stones, and their true qualities : For nought so vile that on the earth doth live, But to the earth some special good doth give ; Nor aught so good, but, strain 'd from that fair use, Revolts from true birth, stumbling on abuse : Virtue itself turns vice, being misapplied ; And vice sometime 's by action dignified. Within the infant rind of this weak flower Poison hath residence, and med'cine power : For this, being smelt, with that part cheers each part ; Being tasted, slays all senses with the heart. Two such opposed kings encamp them still In man as well as herbs, — grace, and rude will ; And, where the worser is predominant. Full soon the canker death eats up that plant. Now, we maintain this is a complete picture of a dealei- in Natural Magic, as we meet them over and over again either as Alchemists, Kosicrucians, or Occultists of the Mediaeval and Ke- naissance periods. Baptista Porta, in his treatise on "Natural Magic," enumerates a whole catalogue of secret formulae for pro- ducing extraordinary eflects by employing the occult powers of nature. Even the magic of the ancient ChaldaBans was lint a profound knowledge of the power of simples and minerals. Study the lengthy passage quoted, and it will be evident tlie "■hostly Friar Laurence is a student in this Natural Magic. TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 351 0, iiiickle is the powerful grace, that lies In herbs, plants, stones, and their true ipmlities. In man as well as hcrhs — grace, and rude will. And we see him gutheiiiig his " baleful weeds " in the grey dawn, before the snn has arisen, whilst the dew was on them, an essential thing, which shows the author's complete knowledge on this point. We find this repeated in " Cymbeline " by the Queen : — Queen. "Whiles yet the dew 's on ground, gather those flowers ; Make haste : Who lias the note of them ? (Act i. sc. 6.) It was always before dawn, or during the night, that herbs were gathered for magical purposes : — In such a night Medea gather'd the enchanted herbs That did renew old iEson. (" Jlerchant of Venice.") The Franciscan Friar, Roger Bacon, in his treatise on the *' Admirable Force of Art and Nature," devotes the first part of his work to natural facts. He gives us hints of gunpoAvder, and predicts the use of steam as a proi^elling power. The hydrau- lic press, the diving-bell, and kaleidoscope are all described. ("Alchemy, or the Hermetic Philosophy.") Now Francis Bacon in his " New Atlantis " completely parallels all this, giving us predictions of telephones, phonographs, explosives unquenchable in water, torpedoes, and all sorts of inventions realised since his age. Mackenzie, in his " Royal Masonic Cyclopsedia," enters Roger Bacon amongst the list of Rosicrucians, and describes him thus : — " Bacon, Roger. — A famous Franciscan friar of the eleventh century, and a believer in the philosopher's stone and in astrology. He is said to have invented gunpowder ; but this is doubtful, as are also his pretensions to be considered the originator of tele- scopes and spectacles. He made a famous brazen head, which, artfully fitted with acoustic apparatus, gave forth oracles." 352 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS Now it is a very curious parallel that Friar Laurence is not only a Franciscan friar, like Roger Bacon, but (in scene vi. act 2) alludes to Gunjwwder / Friar Laurence. These violent deliglits have violent ends, And in their triumph die ; like Ji^x and j)oivder, "\\^lich, as they kiss, consume. Eomeo and Juliet repeatedly luring i!i the word ghostly in connection with Friar Laurence : — Romeo. Hence will I to my gliosthj father' a cell, His help to crave, and my dear hap to tell. (Act ii. sc. 3.) Friar Laurence. Go and pardon sin ! wast thou Avith Rosaline 1 Romeo. With Rosaline, my ghostly father ? Jiolict. Good even to my ghosthj confessor. {Ibid., sc. 3.) (Act ii. sc. 6.) Romeo. How hast thou the heart Being a divine, a ghosthj confessor, A sin ahsolver, and my friend profess'd. To mangle me with that word banished ? (Act iii. sc. 3.) It is indeed curious to find Friar Laurence constantly bringing in gunpowder in his speeches. Here it is again — Friar L. Thy wit, that ornament to shape and love. Mis-shapen in the conduct of them both, Like ])owder in a skilless soldier's tlask. To set a lire by thine own ignorance. Again — Romeo. As if that name, Shot from the deadly level of a gun Did murder her. Romeo. Let me have A dram of poison ; such soon-speeding gear As will disperse itself through all the veins, That the life-weary taker may fall dead ; And that the trunk may be discharg'd of breath As violently as hasty powder fir d Doth hurry from the fatal cannon's toomb. (Act iii. sc. 3.) (Act iii. sc. 3.) (Act. V. sc. 1.) TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 353 The Perfect Number 3G. It is a remarkable coincidence that the 1623 Folio, known by the name of Shakespeare, contains exactly thirty-six plays,* because this was the perfect number of Pythagoras. The num- ber One was the point within the circle, and denoted the central fire, or God, Four referred to the Deity, for it was considered the number of numbers. It is the first solid figure ; a point being 1, a line 2, a superficies 3, and a solid 4. It was also the Tetractys ; a Word sacred amongst the Pythagoreans, and used as a most solemn oath, because they considered it the root and principle, the cause and maker of all things. Plutarch interprets this word differently. He says it is called Koff/zo^, the JForld, and therefore refers to the number Thirfi/sic (36), which consists of the first /(/«/• odd numbers, added into the first /owr even ones — thus : — l-f2= 3 3 + 4= 7 5-f6 = ll 7-1-8 = 15 Total . 36 (Lecture IX., Oliver's " Signs and Symbols," p. 199. 1837.) " The Tetractys was no other than the Glorious Tetragramma- ton of the Jews. The sum of all the principles of Pythagoras is this. The Monad is the principle of all things. From the Monad came the intermediate Duad, as matter subjected to the cause Monad ; from the Monad and the intermediate Duad, numbers ; from numbers, points ; from points, lines; from lines, superficies; from superficies, solids ; from these solid bodies whose elements are four — fire, water, air, earth ; of all which transmutated and totally changed the world consists " (Stanley, " History," Phil., vol. iii., pp. 1, 100). * " Troilus and Cressida" is strangely omitted from the catalogue of the plays in the 1623 Folio Shakespeare, — making the total number 36. This, we are convinced, was done imrjwsely to give two cipher numbers, 35, 36, ju«t as 52, 53 represent Shakespeare mathematically 1616. Z 354 ROSICRUCIAN PARALLELS I here re-introduce for the benefit of readers unacquainted with my work, " Bacon, Shakespeare, and the Rosicrucians," two extracts sho-wing the identity of John Heydon's " Voyage to the Land of the Rosicrucians " -Nvith Bacon's " New Atlantis." Line for line, and word almost for word, Heydon reproduces from l^eginning to end Bacon's narrative. Critics have replied by calling John Heydon a mountebank and impostor. They are ignorant of the fact ihai an ideal liejmblic or Utopia was essentially a liosicrucian dreum, exemplified in the " City of the Sun " by Campanella, and the "Reipublicse Chi-istianopolitanae " of the Rosicrucian protagonist, John Valentine Andreas. We possess a copy of both the latter, and their resemblance to each other is striking. These Utopias are perfectly in keeping with the Reformation of Society, the Restoration of Knowledge, and the Renewal of Arts, which the Rosicrucians proposed. These were also Bacon's ends testified abundantly throughout his works. His mind was bent on tooling fonmrd, and we may see in 'the description of the scientific marvels of his " New Atlantis," anticipation of this century. Heydon's "Voyage to the Land of the rosickucians." Bacon's "New Atlantis." " The morrow after our three dayes, " The morrow after our three days there came to us a new man, cloathed were past, there came to us a new in azure, save that his turban was man that we had not seen before,, white ivith a small red crosse * at the clothed in bhie as the former was, top. He had also a tippet of fine save that his turban was white, with linnen. He did bend to us a little, a small red cross on the top ;* he had and put his arms broad ; we saluting also a tippet of fine linen. At his him in a very lowly manner. He coming in he did bend to us a little, desired to speak with some few of us, and put his arms abroad. "We of our whereupon six onely stayed, and the parts saluted him in a very lowly and * " We were all distributed amongst the Lords, but our old Lord and I, most unworthy, were to ride even with the King, each of us bearing a snow- vJiite ensign with a Red Cross" ("Chemical Marriage of Christian Rosy Cross," 1616). The Rosicrucian emblem was a red cross — the Red Cross of the Knight Templars, of whom they were the direct successors. See Hargreave .Jennings. Emblem on title page of his book, ' ' The Rosicrucians : their Rites and Mysteries." TO BACON'S WRITINGS. 355 rest avoided tlie room. He said : — ' I am by office governour of this house of strangers, and by vocation a Christian priest of the Order of the Rosie Crosse, and am come to ofi'er you my service, as sti-angers and chiefly as Christians. The State hath given you licence to stay on land for the space of six weeks, and' let it not trouble you if your occasions ask further time, for the law in this point is not precise. submissive manner, as looking that from him we should receive sentence of life or death. He desired to speak with some few of us ; whereupon six of us only stayed, and the rest avoided the room. He said : ' I am by office governor of this House of Strangers, and by vocation I am a Christian priest ; and therefore am come to you to offer you my service both as stran- gers, and chiefly as Christians. Some things I may tell you, which I think you will not be unwilling to hear. The state hath given you licence to stay on laud for the space of six weeks. And let it not ti'ouble you if your occasions ask further time, for the law in this point is not precise ; and I do not doubt but myself shall be able to obtain for you such further time as shall be convenient. ' ' ' We have sound-houses, where we })ractise and demonstrate all sounds and their generation. We have har- monies (read the " Harmony of the AVorld ") which you have not, of quarter and lesser kindes of sounds — divers instruments of musick to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have, together with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. (See my book of "Geomancy and Telesmes.") "We represent small sounds as gi'eat and deep, gi'eat sounds as extenuate and sharpe ; we make divers tremb- lings and warblings of sounds which in their originall are entire. We re- present and imitate all articulate sounds and letters (read my "Cab- bala, or Art, by which Moses showed so many signs in ^Egypt"), and the voices and notes of many beasts and birds. We have certain helps which, set to the ear, do further the hearing greatly. We have strange and arti- ficiall ecclios, reflecting the voice ' ' ' We have also sound - houses, where we practise and demonsti'ate all sounds and their generation. We have harmonies, which you have not, of quarter-sounds, and lesser slides of sounds ; divers instruments likewise to you unknown, some sweeter than any you have ; with bells and rings that are dainty and sweet. We re- present small sounds as great and deep, likewise great sounds extenuate and sharp. We make divers tremb- lings and warbling of sounds, which in their original are entire ; we repre- sent and imitate all articulate sounds and letters, and the voices and notes of beasts and birds. We have certain helps, which set to the ear do further the hearing gi-eatly. We have also divers strange and artificial eclios re- flecting the voice many times, and as it were tossing it ; and some that give back the voice louder than it came, some shriller, and some deeper ; yea, some rendering the voice differing in 356 ROSICR UCIAN PARALLELS. many times, and, as it were, to sing the letters or articulate sound from it, some that give back the voice that they receive. We have also louder than it came, some shriller, means to convey sounds in trunks some deejver, some rendring the voice and pipes in strange lines and dis- differing in the letters, or articular tances.'" sound, from that they receive. We liave also means to convey sounds in trunks and pipes, in strange lines and distances. ' " These marvels so wonderfully realised at the present day in the speaking tube, telephone, phonograph, can hardly be called happy guesses. It is probable between Bacon's motto (attached to "Novum Organum" and "Advancement of Learning," 1640), from Daniel {^^ Multi pertransihunt et migeUtur scieniia," Many shall go to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased), and these prophecies or forestalments of nineteenth century discoveries, there is a connection pointing to the end of the times. I am persuaded Bacon's "New Atlantis" is the most extraordinary realisation of modern discovery on record. Madame Blavatsky Avrites : " We are at the very close of the cycle of 5000 years of the present Aryan Kaliyuga; and between this time and 1897, there will be a large rent made in the Veil of Nature, and materialistic science will receive a death blow " (" The Secret Doctrine," vol. i., p. 612). CHAPTER IV. GENERAL REMARKS. Bacon, amongst the humours and errors of Learning, classes the opinion, " That of all sects and opinions, the best hath still pre- vailed." And he writes upon this, "For Time seemeth to be of the nature of a River, which carrieth down to us that which is light and blown up, and sinketh and drowneth, that which is weighty and solid" (Book L, p. 37, "Advancement"). This thoroughly agrees with what Spedding confessed to having realised, viz.. Bacon's belief in some great pre-historic period, in which knowledge had been greater and more universal. The choice by Bacon of Plato's island of the New Atlantis for his ideal republic, carries this belief further out. Bacon evidently chose this site on account of its extreme pre-historic character, and vnth. that delight in antithetic contrasts which he is so fond of, places his college of the six days upon it, and forestalls by sheer power of imagination the marvels of the scientific future. Bacon is fond of uniting the old world to the new. This is pro- minent in his ship device, whereby he imitates in the realm of science the voyages of Columbus. So we may also see in his choice of the island of the New Atlantis, as the site and field of modern discovery, the same uniting of the extremest antiquity with his ideal of man's attainments over nature in the future.- Underneath all this lies dimly implied a restoration of know- ledge, a returning full circle to what once he thought existed. Those who have studied Madame Blavatsky's " Secret Doctrine," will see how truly the supposed myth of the submerged island of the Atlantic is connected not only with Truth, but with secret doctrines of which the Egyptian Priests had evidently some 3 58 GENERAL REMARKS. knowledge. It is our earnest conviction that Bacon had attained to extraordinary comprehension of Bible and esoteric, or what is called hermetic science.* We find this in the way he writes in his note-book disparagingly of the Greeks and Egyptians, and goes back to Chaldtea f for authority. How are we to explain his state- ment in the preface to the " Instauration," that the " Commerce of the mind and of things might by any means be entirely restored " ? This is exactly the language used in the Eosicrucian manifestoes, 1614. And it is remarkable that the character and plan of the " Instauration " is half divine, and borroAved from the six days of creation of Genesis. This is no fancied theory of ours. He closes his Distribution Preface with a prayer : "Wherefore if we labour with diligence and vigilance in thy works, thou Avilt make us participants of thy vision and of thy Sabbath." t This shows, closing as it does the six divisions of the design, that not only is the " Instaiu-ation" closely in touch with the College of the six days or Solomon's House of the "New Atlantis," but that Bacon's scheme was creative. This is very strange when we reflect, how his work appears only to be a system of Inductive Philosophy. * "Nor is it, for most part, so revealed unto us, what iu Arts and Sciences hatli been discovered, and Lrouglit to light in diverse ages, and different regions of tlie world ; nuicli less what hath been experimented, and seriously laboured by particular persons in private ; for neither the births nor the abor- tions of time luive been registered " (Preface, " Great Instauration," "Advance- ment," 1640). By ^'abortions," Bacon means premature discoveries, before time was ripe to appreciate or accept them. t Spedding in his preface to the Redargutio, iixing the date, by means of certain entries in Bacon's note book (Commentarius Solutus), viz., July 26th, 1608 : "Discoursing scornfully of the philosophy of the Grecians, with some better respect to the ^Egyptians, Persians, Chaldees, and the utmost antiquity, and the mysteries of the poets " (Preface to the ' ' Dclineatio et Argumentum et Redargutio Philosophiarum," vol. iii., Phil. "Wks., 545). So here is an indepeji- dent proof, that lW>on was contemplating an address, to what he terms in his next entry " Filios." "Qu. of an oration ad filios ; delightful, sublime, and mixed with elegancy, alfection, novelty of conceit, aiul yet sensible, and superstition " {Ibid). t Spenser (F. Q., viii. 2) : " But thenceforth all sliall rest eternally Witli him that is the God of Sabaoth hight : ! that gi-eat Sabaoth God, grant me tliat Sabaoth's sight." GENERAL REMARKS. 359 It is a striking feature of most of the Rosicruciaii writers of note, how fond they are of the siz creative days, as a theme or scheme for the division and treatment of their works. One of Michael Maier's celebrated works, " Sejitiraana Philosoj^hica," is likewise divided into seven parts called the days. Du Bartas' " Divine Week " is a contemporary work on the same model. Campanella's " City of the Sun " is often found bound up * with Bacon's " Atlantis," and treats of an ideal republic or commonwealth in like manner. The author was a w^ell-acknowledged Eosicrucian. John Valen- tine Andreas wrote a work entitled, "Reipublicae Christianopo- litanas " — an Utopia of exactly similar stamp. Burton, in his " Anatomy of Melancholy," classes all these three works together, in context with the Eosicrucians. A strong religious element is conspicuous in all these Avritings. It is a striking point of touch between the Eosicrucians and Bacon, that the}^ insisted upon appeal to nature by direct ex- periment, after the inductive method insisted on by the latter. A study of the great English Eosicrucian, Eobert Fludd's works, will in a moment illustrate these points. He wrote a work on the Mosaic Cosmogony, and another work full of experiments upon Natural Science. The Eosicrucians took Solomon for their his- toric founder and patron. Bacon does the same in the " New Atlantis." Those who cannot realize or possibly obtain a glimmer of meaning out of what Bacon means by a " restoration of knowledge," may be referred to such works as "The Perfect Way " and " Clothed in the Sun," by the late lamented and extraordinary woman, Anna Kingsford. They will find there, what I take and imagine to be the lifting of the veil, and fore- stalments of the sort of inspired knowledge Bacon was probably in possession of, w^hich knowledge is Hermetic and is as old as the Pyramids of Egypt. We may guess it Avas this sort of wisdom (which still lingers under the fossil rituals of Masonry), * AVe possess a work entitled, " Mundus Alter kt Idem," in which Cam- panella's "Civitas Solis," and Bacon's " New Atlantis," are to be found side by side. The date is 1643, and the work ascribed to Bishop Hall. 36o GENERAL REMARKS. that affiliates Bacon's name and his " New Atlantis," with the meeting in 1646 at Warrington of a Lodge, when his pillars were adopted, and from which the modern brotherhood date authentically their more recent history.* Bacon's extreme predilection for quoting Solomon is one of the features of his " Advancement of Learning" (1605), and of the " De Augmentis " (1623). There are forty-seven citations from the "Book of Proverbs" in the 1640 Translation (see Lulex of " Sacred Authors "), fifteen from " IJccIedasfes." Thirty- four of the Parables of King Solomon are not only introduced in the Eighth Book, but each is separately commented upon at consider- able length, taking up twenty-six complete pages of letterpress ! A glance at the catalogue of the " Sacred Authors " quoted, will show this was Bacon's favourite writer in this class of wisdom, ;ind it is very well worthy consideration. Bacon again intro- duces Solomon as the founder of his College of the Six Days in the "New Atlantis." Solomon loas the Bihliatl protagonist, w patron of the IiosicrucianSjj and there is something in this fact affiliating * " The London Freemasons also horroiucd much of their phraseology from. Lord Bacons ' Essay,' yet fresh in men's minds, in which, adopting the idea of the 'House of Wisdom,' a technical term with the Arab Astrologers, he proposed the foundation of a 'Solomon's House,' or a learned community dedicated to experimental [)hilosophy and the advancement of science. These philosoi)hic and royalist plotters, in order to cloak their real object, conducted their [)roceedings according to the rules laid down therein ; and this ceremonial and nomenclature they carefully maintain to the present day " (" The Gnostics and their Remains," King, p. 178). t " Our philosojihy also is not a new invention, but as Adam after his fall received it, and as Moses and Solomon used it, also it ought not much to be doubted of, or contradicted by other oi)inions or meanings ; but seeing the truth is 2>caccablc, brief, and always like herself in all things" ("Fama Fraternitatis, " 1614, p. 82, Waite). Again: "Wherein Enoch, Abraham, Moses, Solomon, did excel, but especially wherewith that wonderful book the IJible agreeth. All that same concurreth together, and makcth a sphere or globe whose total jMvts arc equidistant from tlic centre " {lb.). Bacon writes : " Thus have we made as it were a small globe of the Intellectual World " (p. 476, Book IX., " De Augmentis") ("Jam itaque mihi videor confecisse Globum exigttuni orbis intellectualis quam potui fidelissime.") On pages 43, 44, 45 of the First Book "Advancement of Learning" {and " De Augmentis"), Bacon discusses Moses and Solomon. GENERAL REMARKS. 361 Bacon to the Society. "NVc read in the " New Atlantis": "There reigned in this island, about 1900 years ago, a Kiwj^ whose memory of all others we most adore ; not superstitiously, but as a Divine instrument, though a mortal man : his name was Salonwna ; and we esteem him as the law-giver of our nation." Again : " Yee shall understand (my dear friends), that amongst the excellent acts of that King, one above all hath the pre- eminence. It was the erection and institution of an Order, or Society, which Ave call Salomons hnt.se; the noblest foundation (as we think) that ever was upon the earth ; and the lanthorn of this kingdom. It is dedicated to the study of the works and creatures of God. Some think it bears the founder's name a little corrujjted, as if it should be Solomon's House. But the records write it, as it is spoken. So as I take it to he denominate of the King of the Hebrews, which is famous with you, and no stranger to us / for we have some jMrts of his works, lohich with you are lost ; namely tliat Natural History, which he wrote of all plants, from the cedar of Libanus, to the moss that groweth out of the wall ; and of all things that have life and motion. This maketh me think, that our king finding himself to symbolise, in many things, Avith that King of the Hebrews (which lived many years before him), honoured him with the title of this foundation. And I am the rather induced to be of this opinion, for that I find in ancient records, this Order or Society is sometimes called Solomon's House ; and sometimes the College of the Six Days "Work ; whereby 1 am satisfied, that our excellent King had learned from the Hebrews, that God had created the world, and all that therein is, A\-ithin six days ; and therefore he instituting that house, for the finding out of the true nature of all things (whereby God might have the more glory in the workmanship of them, and men the more fruit in the use of them), did give it also that second name."" The extraordinary study and weight Bacon * Robert Fludd introduces this passage verbatim in his "Suninium Bonuni," 1629. It is always repeated in the same words both by Bacon and Fhidd. Bacon repeats it three times, as we have .shown, and Fhidd repeats it in the 362 GENERAL REMARKS. attached to Solomon's writings may be further proved by refex-- ence to the " Advancement and Proficience of Learning" of 1605. There we find twenty-five more Aphorisms given and separately commented on by Bacon, which he concludes thus : — " Thus have I stayed somewhat longer i;pon these sentences politic of Solo- mon than is agreealile to the proportion of an example ; led Avith a desire to give authority to this part of knowledge, which I noted as deficient, by so excellent a precedent ; and have also attended them Avith brief observations, such as to my understanding offer no violence to the sense, though I know they may be applied to a more divine use : but it is allowed, even in divinit}^, that some interpretations, ijea, and some toritingi have more of the eagle than others" (Book II. xxiii.). In a Kosicrucian Confession or Mani- festo, published by Mr E. Waite, we read : " A thousand times the unworthy may clamour, a thousand times may present them- selves, yet God hath commanded our ears that they should hear none of them, and hath so compassed us about Avith His clouds that unto us. His servants, no violence can be done ; wherefore noAv no longer are we beheld by human eyes, unless they have received strength horroiued from the eagle." This is repeated on the last page of the poems, in that curious and mysterious threne, the " Phoenix and Turtle," which seems pretty plainly to hint at rebirth or revelation : — From this session interdict Every fowl of tyrant wing, Save tlie eagle, feather'd king : Keep the obsequy so strict. That Bacon regarded the eagle in an apocalyptic sense is evi- dent from the way he connects it with St John : " St John, an apostle of our Saviour, and the Beloved Disciple lived ninety-three years. He was rightly denoted under the emblem of the eagle for his piercing sight into the Divinity, and was a Seraph among his Apostles in respect of his burning Love " (" History of Life ■ ' Apologeticus Tractat. , " 1617. I am convinced it is a text or reference to the founder of tlie Rosicrncian Society, and of Solomon's House of the "New Atlantis." GENERAL REMARKS. 3^3 and Death," 17, 18). It is plain Bacon and the Rosicrucians both allude to the eagle in the same sense. And amongst the favourite books of Scripture to which the society particularly applied themselves were the " Revelations of St John the Divine," already mentioned by Bacon. It is well worthy note that the feast of St John (Midsummer-day) is the chief festival of the Freemasons, who, according to De Quincey, Nicolai, and Murr, are lineal descendants of the Rosicrucians. In a work entitled "Aureum Seculum Redivivum, or The Ancient Golden Age, which has disappeared from the earth, but Avill re-appear," by Henricus Madathanus Theosophus (who styles himself " Mcdicus et tandem, Dei Gratia, aurese crucis frater "), published by Franz Hartmann (Boston, 1888), we find a great deal upon the Apo- calypse and the Book with seven seals. There can be little doubt the Book of Revelation is in connection with the Book of the prophet Daniel. It has generally been allowed by all writers on this subject, that the hook mth the seven seals is alluded to in the verse from Daniel : " But thou, Daniel, shut up the words, and seal the book, even to the time of the end : many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased " (ch. xii. v. 4). Now this is not only Bacon's motto to both the " Novum Organum " and the "De Augmentis," 1640, but this also is the motto attached to the title- page of " Anthroposophia Theomagica," by the great English Rosicrucian, Thomas Vaughan (alias Eugenius Philalethes), which title-page we reproduce : — ANTHROPOSOPHIA THEOMAGICA : A DISCOURSE OF THE NATURE OF MAN AND HIS STATE AFTER DEATH; GROUNDED ON HIS CREATOR'S PROTO-CHIMISTRY, AND VERIFI'D by A PRACTICALL EXAMINATION OF PRINCIPLES IN THE GREAT WORLD. BY EUGENIUS PHILALETHES. Dam : Many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased. Zoroaster in Oracul. — Audi Ignis Vocem. 364 GENERAL REMARKS. Dr Abbott confesses Bacon wrote " Like a priest, like a prophet of Science, whose mission he himself describes as being to px- pare and adorn the bride chamber of the Mind and the universe " * (" Bacon as a Philosopher," xcv.). This language bears a certain affinity to some Rosicrucian writings, particularly the " Chymical Marriage of Christian Rosy Cross " (published by Mr AVaite in his " Real History of the Rosicrucians "). This is generally understood to be a profound allegory. We cannot help thinking that this simile of Bacon's is borrowed from the Song of Solomon, in which is sung the Epithalamium (or marriage song) of Christ and his Church. There is good reason for believing the Rosicrucians considered Christ as the corner-stone or foundation of the world, in the light of the Logos, or Wisdom underlying the phenomenal world. That is taken in an esoteric sense, Christ is Truth not merely in an ethical sense, but in a philosophical and Catholic spirit, representing the marriage of man's mind to the universe. Bacon, be it observed, never separates Philosophy or science from Religion. He writes like "a priest," likes a Hermes Trigmegistus, and we take it he looked upon Religion as the frame embracing all things. The Rosicrucians borrowed much from the books of Hermes, in which the Logos doctrine is clearl}^ emuiciated as Wisdom. CXVI. Let me not to the maTriagc of true viinds Admit impediments. Love is not love AVhich alters -when it alteration finds, Or bends with the remover to remove : 0, no ! it is an ever-fixed mark, That looks on tempests, and is never shaken ; It is the star to every wandering bark, Whose worth's unknown, althougli his height be taken. * " The explanation of whicli things, and of the true relation between the nature of things and the nature of the mind, is as the strewing and deeoration of the bridal chamber of the Mind and the Universe, the Divine Goodness assisting ; out of ichich marriage let us hope {and he this the prayer of the bridal song) tliere may spring helps to man, and a line and race of inventions that may in some degi-ee subdue and overcome the necessities and miseries of humanity. This is the second i)art of the work "(" Distribution Preface," "Advancement of Learning," p. 30. 1640). GENERAL REMARKS. 365 Bacon and Campaneli-a. In the Second Book of the "Novum Organum" (Aphorism 36), we find Bacon enunciating the same theories held by Cam- panella, Telesius, and Patricius concerning the sea, viz., a rising and falling, on which Mr Ellis, "one theory, that of Telesius and Patricius, compares the sea to the water in a cauldron, that is to say, it rises and tends to boil over when its natural heat is called forth under the influence of the sun, moon, and stars, and then after subsides" (Ellis and Spedding, vol. iii., p. 41). Mr Fowler, in his notes to his edition of the " Novum Organum," calls attention to this (p. 463). Bacon has followed or imitated Telesius more than anybody else. " Bacon derived more ideas from him [Telesius] than from any other of the novelists, as he has somewhere called the philosophical innovation, and has "WTitten a separate treatise on three systems of philosophy, of which his is one" (Works, i., 564, footnote). But Campanella was a disciple of Telesius. Professor Fowler : "To Telesius, whom he [Bacon] calls the best of the novelists. Bacon refers, perhaps, more than to any other modern -vvi-iter" ("Novum Organum," p. 312). Again : " Campanella, whose name is frequently coupled tdth that of Bacon hy the German imiters of the seventeenth century, and who teas celebrated in his time as the disciple of Telesius " (Introduction, " Novum Organum," p. 95). This is most important evidence, for it bears out the declara- tion of Tobias Adami * (Campanella's editor), prefixed to the * This is what we read in the 1640 "Advancement": " Tob. Adami, in his preface to the 'Realis Philosophia' of that excellent philosopher Cam- panella, speaks his opinion thus : ' We erect no sect, establish no placits of Heresy, but endeavour to transcribe universal and ever veritable philosophy out of the ancient original coi>y of the world : not according to variable and disputable speculations, but according to the conducture of sense and irrefrag- able depositions of the Architect himself, whose hand in works differs not from his word in writing. And of the ' Great Instauration ' of the dee}) mining philosopher Fra. Bacon, Lo. Verulam, Chancellor of England, a work of high expectation, and most worthy, as of consideration, so of assistance be brought to perfection, it icill 'j^crchance appear that we pursue the same ends, seeing we tread the same footsteps in tracing, and, as it were, hounding nature by sense ami experience. ' " 366 GENERAL REMARKS. judgments upon Bacon, printed in "Wat's translation of the "De Augmentis," 1640. There can be no doubt, from the evidence of the striking resemblance of Campanella's " City of the Sun " to Bacon's "New Atlantis," there was some secret connection of philosophic aim or collaboration of brotherhood between them. It is our opinion Telesius, Campanella, Severinus, and Bacon were all members of the fraternity of Rosicrucians. The com- parison of Bacon to Campanella is most frequent in ■\\Titers upon Bacon's works. Leibnitz: "Interea feliciter.accidit ut consilia magni viri Francisci Baconi, Anglite Cancellarii, de augmentis scientiarum, et cogitata excitatissima Cardani et Campanellse et specimina melioris philosophia? Kepleri et Galilei et Cartesii ad manus pervenirent" ("Opera Philosophica," Erdman, p. 91). He then felt as if transported to another world. "At si ille Bacono, hie Campanellse comparetur, apparet illos humi repere ; hos magnitudine cogitationum, consiliorum, immo destinationum assiu'gere in nubes, ac pene human?e potentise imparia moliri. Illi ergo tradendis principiis, hi conclusionibus ad usum insig- nibus eliciendis meliores." Professor Fowler remarks : " It is curious so frequently to find the name of Bacon coupled by German writers with that of Campanella" (Introduction, "Novum Organum," p. 109). Perhaps this continual coupling of names by German writers has some source in the fact that the Eosicrucian Manifestoes took rise in Germany. We find Burton, in his " Anatomy of Melan- choly," coupling Bacon's "New Atlantis" with Cam^mnella's "City of the Sun." For example, "Utopian parity is a kind of government to be wished for rather than eff"ected, llespuh. Chris- fianopolitana, Campanella's City of the Sun, and that ' New Atlantis,' witty fictions but mere chimeras" (p. 60, Democritus to the Reader, 16th edition, "Anatomy of Melancholy"). And in a footnote we read, (appended to Respub. Christianopolitana), "John Valentine Andreas, Lord Yerulam." Now John Val. Andreas, was sujiposed by De Quincey, to have been the author of the Rosicrucian Fraternity and JManifestoes. It is GENERAL REMARKS. 367 therefore striking to find Burton, who, as we shall show, knows more than he openly writes, thus coupling Bacon and Andreas together. For example, as to Burton's knowledge of the real founder of the Order of Rosie Cross, and the mythical history of its founder : " I should here except some cynics — MenipjDus, Diogenes, that Theban Crates, or to descend to these times, that omniscious, only wise fraternity of the Eosie Cross, those great theologues, politicians, philosophers, physicians, l)hilologers, artists, &c., of whom St Bridget, Albas Joacchimus, Leicenbergius, and such divine spirits, have prophesied, and made promise to the world, if at least there be any such, (Hen. Neu heusius makes a doubt of it, Valentinus Andreas, and others), or an Elias Artifex, their Theophrastian master ; Avhom, though Libavius and many deride and carp at, yet some will have to be the Renewer of all Arts and Sciences, reformer of the tcorld and now living; for so Johannes Montanus Strigoniensis (that great patron of Paracelsus) contends, and certainly avers, a most divine num (Divinus ille vir, auctor notarum in ep. Rog. Bacon, ed. Hambur., 1608), and the quintessence of wisdom, wheresoever he is ; for he, his fraternity, friends, &c., are all betrothed to Avisdom, if we may believe their disciples and followers. I must needs except Lipsius and the Pope, and expunge their names out of the catalogue of fools : for beside that parasitical testimony of Dousa, — A sole exoriente Mteotidas usque paludes, Nemo est, qui justo se n?quiparare queat. Lipsius saith of himself, that he was humani generis quidam pcedagogus voce et stylo, a grand signior, a master, a tutor of us all : and for thirteen years, he brags how he sowed wisdom in the Low Countries (as Ammonius the philosopher did in Alexandria), cam hiimanitate literas et sapientiam cwn prudentid : antistes sapdentio', he shall be sapientum octavus" (p. 72, "Democritus to the Reader "). Li a footnote we read (attached to the description of the founder of the Rosicrucians " noiv living "), " omnium artium et 368 GENERAL REMARKS. scientiarum instauratar." This can only apply to Francis Bacon. For he repeatedly alludes to his own work, as a renewal or restoration of knowledge, of Arts and Sciences, and the actual title of his great Avork is the Great Instauration. Burton wrote this in 1621, and this proves that Avhat both De Quincey and Mr Waite have affirmed as to the mythical history of the society being a fraud, is true. We find Bacon in his Instauration Preface writing : " Restabat illud unum ut res de integro tentetur melioribus prsesidiis, utque fiat scientiarum et artium atqiie omnis Jmmance doctrince in universum instauratio, a debitis excitata fundamentis." Here we have almost Burton's words, — "Instauration of Arts and Sciences." But see in how many points the description given by Burton of the founder of the Rosicrucians agrees with what we know of Bacon. To begin with, he was at the time Burton ^vi'ote a " grand signior," Lord Keeper of the Seal (1617), Baron Verulam, and in 1621 Viscount St Albans. " Antistes Sapientice" means a Great Lawyer, an Oracle of the Law (Ainsworth, " Latin Dictionary "). We find Bacon's "New Atlantis" cited side by side with the "Resp. Christianopolitana3" of the great Rosicrucian protagonist, Valentine Andreas. To confirm this evidence, we have John Heydon, a Rosicrucian Apologist, reproducing, word for word, without any alteration of note or importance, the entire text of Bacon's " New Atlantis," and entitling it " The Land of the Rosicrucians " ! Critics have replied by classing Heydon impostor and mounte- bank. If Heydon's evidence stood singly this retort might have weight. But was Burton also an impostor 1 Is Nimrod an impostor, who deliberately calls Campanella a meml^er of the brotherhood or gang (as he writes) of the Rosie Cross ? And do we not find Professor Fowler calling attention to the strange coupling of Bacon's name with Campanella's by German writers ? The date of Campanella's "Civitas Solis" is 1623, the date of the publication of the Folio plays known as Shakespeare's, and the "De Augmentis." The internal evidence of Campanella's ^' City of the Sun " is to place it side by side in the same category GENERAL REMARKS. 369 of Utopian works as Bacon's " New Atlantis." Both are portraits of an ideal Republic. And have we not in the fact that Valentine Andreas wrote a work of this class, positive evidence afforded that such Utopian or ideal scheme for the reformation of Society was one of the Rosicrucian dreams ? The first Rosi- crucian Manifesto, reproduced almost literally from Boccalini's " Ragguagli di Parnasso," presents us with exactly the same end or aim. We are introduced to the Seven Wise Men of Greece, who severally propose ideas for the bettering of society. The Rosicrucians termed themselves a college. < >uid vis ? Collegium nostrum est Acadwiuia qufedam, Doctriufe studiis cum pietate sacra. ("John Valentine Andreas," Berlin, 1619.) Bacon's " New Atlantis " is called the " College of the Six Days." Bacon writes in the Preface to the "Advancement of Learning," 1640: "This one way remaineth, that the business be wholly re-attempted with better preparations, and that there be through- out an Instauration of Sciences and Arts, and of all human learning raised from solid foundations." These words are but Burton's over again, and in the Second Book of the " Advancement " (78, 79) Bacon again introduces the subject of Arts and Sciences in context with foundations and Colleges. In the great Rosi- crucian Manifesto, published at Cassel in 1614, and Frankfort- on-the-Main, 1615, occur these words: "He shewed them new growths, new fruits and beasts, Avhich did concord with old philosophy, and prescribed them new Axiomata, whereby all things might fully he restored." This refers to Father Rosy Cross, the founder of the society. Now compare Bacon's statement prefacing the Instauratio : " Francis of Verulam . . . being con- vinced that the human intellect makes its own difficulties, not using the true helps which are at man's disposal soberly and judiciously ; thought all trial should be made, whether that commerce between the mind of man and the nature of things, which is more precious than anything on earth, or at least than 2 A 370 GENERAL REMARKS. anything that is of the earth, might l)y any means he restored to its perfect and original candiiinn " (Latin text : " restitui 'pv)>set in integrum"). Dr Abbott, in his Introduction to the "Essays" writes of Bacon : " He seems to believe that in some happier original condition of Mankind, the Mind and Nature were once wedded, but are now divorced. He aims at restoring to its perfect and original condition tluit commerce between the Mind of Man and the Nature of Things, which is more precious than anything on earth " (Works, vol. iv. p. 7, "Bacon as a Philosopher," LXVII). There can be no doubt Bacon did believe in some prehistoric period, when knowledge was profounder, for Spedding even acknowledges this. Bacon writes : " The Grecians were, as one of themselves sayeth. You Grsecians are ever children ! They knew little antiquity ; they knew, except fables, not much above five hundred years before themselves. They knew but a small portion of the world " (Bacon's " Note Book "). In the " Magia Adamica " of Thomas Vaughan (Eugenius Philalethes) we find him repeating this : " Most apposite then was that check of the ^Egyptian to Solon : Solon, Solon ! Vos Gh'ceci semper pueri estis, nullam antiquam habendes Opinionem, nullam disciplinam tempore canam." "You Grsecians (said he) are ever childish, having no ancient opinion, no discipline of any long standing" (p. 91, Waite's "Magical "Writings of Vaughan "). It is very curious to find the Rosicrucian founder presenting his society with ^^ New growths, new fruits* — and prescribed them tiew Axiomata," because this is thoroughly Baconian language, as every student will immediately recognise. In Bacon's " Natural History " we read, " Our experiments we take care to be (as we have often said) either E.rperiinenfa, Fructifera, or Lucifera — either of use or of discovery." And as for " Axiomata," it is a * Page 69, " Fama Frateniitatis," Waite's " History of the Rosiernciaiis." Raw] ey writes (Preface to the Reader, " Sylva Sylvarum ") : "And for use, his Lordship hath often in his month, tlie two kinds of exiieriments, Experi- menta Fructifc7-o, and Evpcr'unm.f.a Lucifera." GENERAL REMARKS. 371 word rei)eatcdly employed by Bacon in the " Novum Organum " of any general proposition. In Aphorism 103, " AxioriKita" aie contrasted with " Opera" and "particularia." In Aphorism 104 he speaks of ^^axiomata (jcnendismna" (qnalia sunt primipia qitif vacant artium et rerum), "axionmta media," and " axioimita miiaira " or "injiiim." So frequently does Bacon introduce this word that it really constitutes a great feature of the " Noviun Organum," namely the discovery of neio axioms or axiomata. " For our road does not lie on a level, but ascends and descends ; Jirst ascendiar/ to axioms, then, descending to works." . . . Again, " But from the new lif/ht of axioms, which, having been educed from these par- ticulars by a certain method and nile, shall in their turn point out the way again to new particulars " (Aphorism 103, " Xovum Organum," Book I.). In short, the "Xovum Organum" is largely made up of a system of establishing axioms by forms of Induction. Campanella's " City of the Sun." I cannot do better than transcribe here Ximrod's description of Campanella's " City of the Sun " (Civitas Solis) from his " Dis- courses of History and Fable." Ximrod was a profound student of this class of literature, and the attentive reader will recognize many points reflected in Bacon's writings. " It is impossible for me to pass under silence the name of Thomas Campanella. He was a Dominican friar of Calabria, endowed with great talents, but addicted to atheism and magic. Being accused of those errors, he was confined in the inquisition at Rome ; and after- wards banished to a convent at Stilo, his native town. He de- clared that St Bridget,* Joachim of Calabria, Savonarola, and * The learned author of Niiurod seems to think that the Rosicrucians be- longed to the order of Mandaitian Sabaites. Mandaite from Javar ilando di heye or Herald of Life. The Jardeno, or mystic Jordan of the ilandaites, is interpreted by them a stream of red water, and derived from ourda a rose. Giordano Bruno says that all wisdom, Divine, Mathematical, and Natural, jwo- cccdsfroiii the inteUigibk suit ("Si)accio de la Bestia,"p. 215). His doctrine i.s 372 GENERAL REMARKS. even St John the Evangelist, had prophesied concerning him, and he caused himself to be announced as The Messiah fhat vms to come (Giannone, 'History di Xapoli,' p. 311). Campanella ;,s said to have undergone atrocious tortures, but he escaped the ca})ital punishment to Avhich his dupes were condemned, by sham- ming madness in the depositions Avhich he made. However he remained in prison from 1600 to 1626. He was the author of a romance entitled ' Civitas Solis Idea Eeipublicce Philosophica',' which is a production running on all fours with Inchoffer's ' Monarchy of the SoJvpses,' except that the former is a serious panegyric, and the latter a severe satire, u})on the same thing. In a dialogue between a Genoese navigator and the Grand Master of the Hospitallers, the former describes the City of the Sun in Taprobane. (T. Camp. Civ. Sol. annexed to Philos. Real, p. 417, &c., ed Franc. 1623, date of Folio Shakespeare). Its description coincides minutely with the scheme of that ancient city called Babel or Troy, as heretofore explained by me. It is built with four gates to the four cardinal points, and it is, distincta in. septem gyros amlitusve ingentes a septem planetis nominatos, each enclosure being strongly fortified. In the centre of all a mount ascends from the plain, and upon its summit there is a temple constructed with wonderful art. " The temple is round and supported upon columns, without Avails. It has a roof or dome upon which all the stars are deline- ated. Upon the altar there is nothing but a large globe representing earth, and another representing heaven." We pause in the descrip- tion, to call attention to the parallel presented by the title-page engraving of Bacon's "Advancement of Learning," 1640, to the words placed in italics. For Bacon's entire "Advancement of Learning " he calls the " Intellectual Globe," and, indeed, in an intermediate sketch of the "De Augmentis," afterwards aban- doned, written in 1612, shows us he had once the intention of that of the Eastern Sabianism, and the same as are contained in Julian the apostate's writings. " The Rosy Cross look upon Apolhmius as their tutelary deity" (" Naude la Rose-Croix," p. 42). GENERAL MEALIRKS. 37.] entitling the " De Augmentis " by this name. Bacon conchides eight books of the " De Augmentis " AVTith the words, " And now (most excellent king) we have with a small bark, such as we were able to set out, sail'd about the universal circumference of the old (IS the new World of Sciences " (ch. i. Book IX.). Again in the eighth book, "Deinde et ad perfectionem literarum hoc ipsum spectat, (juia legitime inquisitionis vera norma est, ut nihil inveniatur in r/lobo matericc, quod nun liahcat parallelum in gloho crystallino sive intellectu" (772. Phil. AVorks, I., Spedding). To wit — " This kind of wisdom much respects the perfection of Learn- ing ; because it is the right rule of a perfect inquiry that nothing be found in the Globe of Matter, that hath not a parallel in the Crystalline Globe or the Intellect"* (Book VIII., p. 59, " Advancement of Learning "). Remark Bacon's " Description of the Intellectual Globe," written in 1612, opens with his tripartite division of History, Poetry, and Philosophy (as in the Second Book Advancement 1605 and 1623), and deals largely with the heavens and astronomy. The reader may see on the title-page re- -] ferred to, the two globes portrayed — or hemispheres, one entitled the Visible world, the other the invisible world ; the former plainly the old world, the latter dotted out only. It is to the last that his ship emblem is bound on an intellectual voyage of discovery. And this should be paralleled with the fact, the "New Atlantis " is an island placed mid the ocean of the new world, like Prospero's magic island in " The Tempest." Miranda. Oh\'a,\e New World! That this is no imaginary theory is proved by Bacon's language in his "Distribution Preface," where, speaking of the Prseter- mitted Parts, entitled "^ New World of Sciences" (marked by stars), he writes : — "Wherefore we will not neglect to ride along * "Dr Thompson, the Master of Trinity College, Cambridge, has pointed out to me that the origin of liacon's ' globe of matter ' and ' globe of crystal or form' is probably the crtpalpos alad-qros and the crtpaipos vorjTds of Enipedocles as inter])reted by Prochis. See Proclus in Timreum, p. 160 D, and Simplicius in Physica, ji. 7 b." (Wright, " Advancement of Learning"). 374 GENERAL REMARKS. (;is it were in passage) the ojush of accepted Sciences and Arts — for these are found in the Intclledual Globe, as in the terrestrial soils, improved and deserts." We continue our description of the " City of the Sun " : — " The citizens are governed by their high priest, whom in their language they call SoL, and designate l»y the symbol 0, but whom we might properly call Metaphysicus. TJieij hare all their possessions in common, and the dispensation of them appertains to magistrates." We must again beg the reader's indulgence to point out an unquestionable and important Kosi- crucian parallel, which attracted the attention of the author of Nimrod, Avho writes (p. 517) further on: — "The Christianopolis, Uranopolis, or Eleutheropolis of Andreae (John Val. Andreas, to whom De Quincey attributes the entire liosicrucian hoax, as he considers it) has a certain similitude to the Civitas Solis. He desired to abolish property and establish communifi/ of goods" ("Rep. Christ.," c. XV., p. 48 ; "Myth Christ.," L. vi. c. 7, p. 285). This is a strong point, showing how these works are affiliated. But the astonishing parallel furnished by the play of "The Tempest," in the Avords of Gonzalo, finds extraordinary point, seeing Pros- pero's magic island,* like the island of the " New Atlantis," is evidently a dream or Utopian paradise. GoH. Had I plantation of this isle, my lord, — Ant. He'd sow't with nettle-seed. Scb. Or docks, or mallows. Goii. And were the king on't, what would I do 1 Seh. 'Scape being drunk for want of wine. Gon. V th' commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things ; for no kind of traffic Would I admit ; no name of magistrate ; Letters should not be known ; riches, poverty, And use of service, none ; contract, succession, * Bacon writes : — " For 'tis an immense Ocean that surrounds the island of Truth" (p. 58, vol. ii., Shaw's Edition, 1733), Compare — "So to live in one place that neither the people wliich dwell l)eyoud the Ganges could hide anything, nor those which live in Peru might be al)le to keep their secret, their counsel from thee" (ch. iv., "Confessio R. C."):— Bacon's "New Atlantis" — "We sailed from Pcm (where we had continued by the space of one whole year)." GENERAL REMARKS. 375 Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none ; No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil ; No occuiial.ion ; all men idle, all ; And women too, but innocent and pure ; No sovereignty ; — Seh. Yet he would be king on't. Ant. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning. Gon. All thinga in common nature should produce Without sweat or endeavour : treason, felony, Sword, jiike, knife, gun, or need of any engine. Would I not have ; but nature should biing forth, Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance. To feed my innocent people. Seb. No marrying 'mong his subjects ? Ant. None, man ; all idle ; whores and knaves. Gon. I would with such perfection govern, sir, to excel the golden age. ("Tempest," act ii. sc. 1.) Critics have joined issue with Sebastian and Antonio in de- claring the author of the plays, intended to turn into ridicule Gonzalo's speech. But they forget that Sebastian and Antonio are the '\\dcked scoffers, who fall under Prospero's especial dis- pleasm-e, and they overlook the fact Prospero loves Gonzalo, and terms him his ^^true premrver." On the contrary, it may be seen in the reproof Gonzalo brings upon the disbelievers in the matter of Tunis being identical with Carthage, and the incredulity this is met with by the same characters, the author's inten- tion was to make the seemingly impossible and miraculous the real, and by art to mock us as we laugh with the cynics in the play. The reader may see Campanella's ideas and Andreas' re- produced in the line — All things in common — . Campanella writes : " The communitij of women is likewise one of their institutions." Compare — No marrying 'mong his subjects. There can be no doubt that these words * of Gonzalo's point to * Gonzalo. I would with such perfection govern, sir ; T' excel the golden age. This is the key to the passage. The Rosicrucians believed in the Golden Age or Millennium, and its return with the end of the Times. 376 GENERAL REMARKS. these literary Utopi.as or Philosophical Eepublics we cite. And it is curious Campanolla's " City of the Sun" was published 1623, the same date as the Folio plays and the " De Augmentis." The fact that Bacon's last work, published in 1627, the year after he died, presents us with the ideal portrait of an island placed mid-ocean, and that the last play written and placed first in the 1623 Folio also is laid upon an island, carries a certain amount of evidence by parallelism along with it. Prospero deals in just that sort of magic which Disraeli maintains is Rosicru- cian. And there is the further parallel given by John Heydon, who identifies Bacon's "New Atlantis " with the "Land of the Rosicrucians." We have already found that the author of "The Tempest " was thinking of the Rosicrucian Utopias of Campanella and John Valentine Andreas, when he puts in Gonzalo's mouth the description of an ideal Republic, already cited by us. It is perfectly true Gonzalo's speech reads like satire rather than truth. But we must again remember Prospero terms him his ^^ true preserver." Holy Gonzalo, honoiu-able man, Mine eyes even sociable to the show of thine Fall fellovvy drops. good Gonzalo 3Ii/ true preserver and a loyal sir To him thou follow' St. (" Tempest," act v. sc. 1.) It is our conviction Gonzalo is introduced as an emblem of faith and miracle. He utters seeming extravagances, but the evi- dent intention of the poet author was to contrast his ideal utter- ances and longings favourably against the sceptics and incredidovs scoffers who laugh at him. Ad. Widow Dido said yon ? You make me study of that ; She was of Cartilage, not of Tunis. Gon. TJiis Tunis, sir, 2vas Carthage. Ad. Carthage ? Go'ii. I assure yotc Carthage. Ad. . His word is inore than the miraculous harp. Seb. He hath raised the wall and houses too. Ant, What imi)ossible matter will lie make easy next ? GENERAL REMARKS. 377 Sch. I think he will carry this islaml Ikhiic in lii.s pocket, and give it his son for an apple. Ant. And sowing the kernels of it in the sea, luiiig forth more islands. Oon. Ay. (Act ii. se. 1.) We see Gonzalo is right upon the uiatter of Tunis having been Carthage ! And this suggests the poet's intention was to show Gonzalo being right on one point, ix right in all his tdterances. It may be observed Gonzalo's critics are the unbelievers who gradually are brought under the power of Prospero's wrath and self-disclosure. Those who, like ourselves, perceive a miraculous element foreshadowed in Bacon's art, of a planned revelation accompanying cipher discovery, will recognise in the portrait of Gonzalo and his critics a parallel akin to the present position of the Bacon Shakespeare problem in England. The year Bacon died (1626), Ben Jonson wrote a Masque called '' The Fortunate Isles," * which was designed for the Court on Twelfth jS'ight of that year. Both the title and the internal evidence point to the play of " The Tempest." In introducing one Johphiel, an airy spirit, it is certain Ben Jonson is parodijiag Ariel. That Prospero holds some sort of affinity to Jupiter, must be patent to those who reflect upon the introduction of the classical Masque with Ceres, Juno, and Iris, or the speech where he says " He has rifted the stout oak with Jove's own bolt" — Enter, running, Johphiel, an airy si^irit, and (according to the Magi) the in- telligence of Jiqjiter's si}here : attired in light silks of several colours, with icings of the same, a bright yellow ha ir, a chaplet of flowers, blue silk stock- dngs, aiul pum2}s, and gloves, with a silver fail in his hand. Johp. Like a lightning from the sky, Or an arrow shot by Love, Or a bird of his let Hy ; Be't a sparrow, or a dove : With that winged haste, come I, Loosed from the sphere of Jove, To wish good-night To your delight. (" The Fortunate Lsles," act 1.) * " The Fortunate Isles, and their Union, celebrated in a Mast^ue designed for the Court, on the Twelfth-Night, 1626." 378 GENERAL REMARKS. Ill the following extract there is a parallel to Gonzalo's s})eoch, upon his ideal Commonwealth, or Utopia, already quoted by us : — for. No intermitted wind Blows here, bnt wliat leaves flowers or fmit behind. C)(o. 'Tis odour all that comes ! And every tree doth give his gums. Tro. There is no sickness, nor no old age known To man, nor any grief that he dares own. There is no hunger here, nor envy of state, Nor least ambition in the magistrate. But all are even-hearted, open, free. And what one is, another strives to be. For. Here all the day they feast, they sport and spring, Now dance the Grace's hay, now Venus ring : To which the old musicians play and sing. Sar. There is Arion, tuning his bold liarp, From flat to sharp. For. And light Anacreon, He still is one ! Pro. Stesiehorus there too. That Linus and old Orpheus doth outdo To wonder. (" The Fortunate Isles," act 1.) I think nobody, who carefully reads this masque, Avill fail to perceive, that Ben Jonson had the play of " The Tempest " — the magic island of Prospero — in his mind's eye when he wrote " The Fortunate Isles," in 1626. The above is the description of an kleuX terrestrial paradise. And this idea is reflected in the play of " The Tempest " in many points and touches. Ferdinand. Let me live here ever ; So rare a wonder'd father and a wife, Make this 2Jlace Paradise. (" Tempest.") This is no chance metaphor, as we may find the following parallel pointing to Virgil's Vth book of the " .^neid " : — Come unto these yellow sands And then join hands, &c. , &c. — which evidently is plagiarized from Virgil's description of J'anidise or the Elysian fields. Pais in gramineis exercent membra palrestris Conteudunt ludo, etfulva luctantur arena. (Book VL, "iEueid.") GENERAL REMARKS. 379 The opening of the Heavens by Prospero in the presentation of the masque proves our case, for this was just the heavenly side of the Mysteries — the initiate being first led through a symbolical death into Tartarus or Hell, and afterwards presented with a sight of the Gods of Olympus. All this is represented by Virgil in his sixth book of the " ^neid," which, ever since Warburton's "Divine Legation," has been accepted as a description of initia- tion into these shoAvs. Why should Bacon imitate all this % The reply is not far to seek. He treads in the footsteps of Virgil and Dante. And it is just these Ancient Mysteries, circling round the origins of the Drama, which constitute the particular fountain lore, of societies like the Rosicrucians, and to which even modern Freemasonry traces back its history. We maintain the island of " The Tempest " is one of the Fortunate Isles, described by Lambcrtus Floridus as " Paradisus insula in oceam iuorievte," or of Olympiodoms (MSS. Commentary on the '' Gorgias " of Plato), which he calls the Islands of the Blessed — of the emancipated soul — that is, of Truth and Light. The curious part is that this masque is full of the Rosicrucians, whom Ben Jonson identifies with the plaijers. Mercfool. I do like tlieir show, And would have thanked them, being the first grace The company of the Rosy-cross hath done me. Johp. The company o' the Rosy-cross, you Avidgeon ! The company of [the] players. Go, you are. And will be still yourself, a Merefool, in : And take your pot of honey here, and hogsgrease, See who has gulled you, and make one. [Exit Merefool. It is quite a mistake to think Jonson introduces the Rosicrucians only to make fun of them. He makes fun of one Merefool, who is seeking to enter their ranks. But in hogsgrease * is there no reference to Bacon ? * Lord Bacon adopted during his lifetime the crest of a boar, or Hog, which may be seen upon the cover of the " Novum Organum," 1620. This shows he entered perfectly into the joke of the play upon his name Bacon. Hang Hog is Latin for Bacon. ("Merry Wives of Windsor.") 3So GENERAL REMARKS. Sar. And Ampliiou ! he is there. Por. Nor is Apollo dainty to appear In snch a (juire ; although the trees be thick. Pro. He will look in, and see the airs be quick, And that the times be true. Por. Then, chanting. Pro. Then, Up with their notes, they raise the Prince of Men. Snr. And sing the ])resent i)roj)hecy that goes. Of joining the bright Lily and the Rose. The lily and the rose are the two Eosicrucian flowers. We have already found Heydon identifying Bacon's "New Atlantis" with the land of the Rosicrucians. But the Atlantis, according to all the Ancients, was Ogygia, the Isle of the Hesperides, in short, one of the Fortuiude Ides, placed in the AVest, and supposed to be the birth-place and home of Jupiter, and other gods of Olympus. How is it Jonson introduces the Eosicnicians in con- nection with the Fortunate Isles ? For the Island of Atlantis has been abundantly identified Avith not only Avalon, or the Grass Green Island of Apples (another name for the Hesperides), but with the Paradise and Infernal Regions of the Ancients. AVe find in the names of the Shakespeare Theatres titles which are strangely Rosicrucian — the Rose, the Swan, the Phoenix, the Curtain (or Veil), the Globe ; and, moreover, we find in the "Confession of the Rosicrucian Fraternity" of 1615, that "owe of the greatest impostors being a stage player, a man with sufficient ingenuity for imposition." The fact that a religious society like the Rosicrucians should call attention to the stage, or to an actor upon it, is pregnant with profound evidence if carefull}' considered at all. There is only one conceivable type of impostorship connected with a stiige player outside his profession, and that is authorship. Shakespeare was both actor and reputed author. CHAPTER V. bacon's "holy war." One of the titles by which the Kosicruciaii Fraternity was known wds the '^ Fallei/ of Peace." * In the 1614 " Fama Fraternitatis" we read : " Truth is jmiceahle, brief, and always like herself in all things." Eiigenius Philalethes attaches the following address to the Eosicrucians to the first chapter of his " Anthroposophia Theomagica " : — ■" To the Most Illustrious and truly regenerated brethren R. C, to the peace-loving apostles of the chiu-ch in this contentious age, salutation from the centre of 2Jeace" (Waite's edition, "Magical "Writings of Thomas Vaughan," Eugenius Philalethes). Bacon is fond of several times introducing in his An-itings the following : — "And as Alexander Borgia was wont to say of the expedition of the French for Naples, that they came with chalk in their hands to mark up their lodgings, and not with weapons to fight ; so I like better that entry of truth which Cometh peaceably vnfh chalk to mark up those minds which are capable to lodge and harljovu" it, than that which cometh Avith pugnacity and contention " (Redargutio). Very curiously this forms again the thirty-fifth aphorism of the first book of the " Novum Organum," and this is the number of the plays in the 1623 Folio Catalogue. In a letter to Sir Thomas Bodley he writes : " If you he not of the lodgings chalked up." The connection * " There is a somewhat remarkable document in the Latin language pro- fessing to be the record of a masonic meeting of the period, but discovered recently in Germany, along with Lodge minutes of the Hague, dated 1637, ;T.id styled 'Lodge of the Valley of Peace.' This dueument is called the ■ Charter of Cologne.' It has been printed in English, and is to be found in Dr Burne's 'History of the Templars" {The Freemasons' Quarterly (1840), The Freemasons 3Iagazine (1859), &c.) 382 BACON'S '' HOLY WAR." of ipmce and war — that is, soldiers who do not actually fight ex- cept with chalk in their hands— is eminently suggestive of a ;peace- ahle crusade, or reformation, and as it appears one of the titles of the Kosicrucians was Militia Crucifera Evangelica. In 1598 there was a meeting of them at Lunenhurg {vide De Quincey's Essay). "We have the authority of John Val. Andreas that the society was formed " out of the ruins of the Knight Tewplars" Like the latter, they aimed at rebuilding the Temple. " Ascendamus ad numtem rationahilem et cedificemus domum Sapientia'" (" Summum Bonum," Fludd, 1629). If the student Avill read Bacon's " Holy War " with this in his mind, he will see that Bacon's idea of a crusade carries out this idea. And he will, I think, easily perceive Bacon does not seriously propose a real war with sivords, hut rather one with pens. " For I am of opinion, that except you could bray Christen- dom in a mortar, and mould it into a new part, there is no possibilit _// of a Holy War." The possible and the impossible are wonderfully discussed in this tract. Bacon gives a sort of hint when he says: " Except they had the gift of Navius that they could, hew stones with jjen-hiives." Martins — one of the six characters of the dia- logue — is introduced thus: "But let us, if you think good, give Martins leave to proceed in his discourse ; for methought he spake like a Divine in Armour." The reader may perceive by the title (Holy War) and a number of such hints that, Bacon is thinking of the Crusades and the Templars. The great motto of Constantine, who gave the order the red cross, is introduced thus : " Yet o\u' Lord that said on earth, to the Disciples, lie et prmlicate, said from Heaven to Constantine, In hoc signo rinces. What Christian soldier is there that will not be touched with a Religious emulation, to see an order of Jesus, or of Saint Francis, or of Saint Augustine do such service, for enlarging the Christian borders ; and an order of Saint lago, or Saint Michael, or Saint George, only to robe and feast and perform rites and observances ?" Mark how all these Orders are introduced in context with Chris- tian soldiers ! The motto, " In hoc signo vinces," may be refound in the "Marriage of Christian Rosy Cross," IGIG. This motto went BACON'S ''HOLY WAR." 383 Avith the sign seen by Constiintine in the heavens, the fiery Cross. And in Bacon's " New Atlantis," we read : " The morrow after our three days were passed, there came to ns a new man that we had not seen before, ch)thed in bhie as the former was, save that his tnrban was white, uith a small red cross on flic top." * This "New Atlantis," John Heydon identifies line for line, word for word, with the ''Land of the Bosicnicians ! " In my opinion Bacon's " Holy War," written in 1622, and phxed at Paris, is a profound hint for the Militia EvangeHca Crucifera, or Rosicriicians, whom we hear of at Paris, next year (1623), at a meeting, the numbers being curioiisly thirty-six, or the inmiber of the plays in the 1623 Folio. All this, if coincidence < nly, is very curious. Why does Bacon lay this dialogue at Paris ? The style of the writing is at the commencement Alchemical — a profound hint worthy note. " Here be four of you, I think were able to make a good world ; for you are as differing as the four elements, and yet you are friends. As for Eupolis, because he is temperate, and Avithout passion, he may be the fifth Essence. If we five (Follio) make the Great JForld, you alone may make the Little" (page 1). The reader perceives the reference here to the Maerocosmos and Micro- cosmos — the Great and Little Worlds — which was one of the Eosicrucian tenets (see Fludd's works passim). This tract is full of Masonic allegory and hints from beginning to end. And here let us remark, it is not a satire. Bacon writes in the letter to Lancelot Andrews, Bishop of Winchester, prefixed to it : " But revolving with myself my writings, as well those I have published as those which I had in hand, methought they went all into the City, and none into the Temple ; where because I have found so great consolation, I desire likewise to make some poor oblation. * " AVe were all distributed amongst the Lords, but our old Lord and I, most unworthy were to ride even with the king, each of us bearing a snow- white ensign ivith a Red Cross " ("Marriage of Christian Rosenkreutz," 1616). " Having replied that I was a Brother of the Ilcd Itosic Cross, &c. " (Ibid., p. 111). "The Templars were the famous Red Cross Knights whom Spenser has taken in his Faery Queen to typify perfect holiness or the Church." 384 BACON'S ''HOLY IVAR:' Therefore I have chosen an argument, mixed of Religious and Civil considerations, and likewise mixed between Contemplative and Active. For who can tell whether there may not be an Eowiere Aliquis? Great matters (especially if they be Eeligious) have (many times) small beginnings, and the PUitform may dnm on the Building " (" Dedicatory Epistle "). The reader may see by the allusion to the Temple and its build- ing, that Bacon is referring to the House of JFisdom — the Temple of Solomon! He writes of the Princes of the World: "For they have made a great path in the seas, unto the ends of the Avorld ; and set forth ships and forces of Spanish, English, and Dutch enough to make China tremble. And all this for pearl, or stone, or spices ; but for the pearl of the Kingdom of Heaven, or the stones of the heavenly Jerusalem, or the spices of the Spouse's Garden, not a mart hath been set up." It may be perceived by this hint of Cuntemjilative and Active arguments what he really means. Upon page 38 he writes : " I was ever of opinion that the Philosopher's Stone and an Hoh/ JFar were but the rendez-vous of cracked brains." By Bacon's saying that he comes " with chalk in his hands to mark tip lodgings peaceahlp," he shows how adverse he was to any forcible entiy of Truth, by means of jDugnacity or contention. It is therefore necessary to examine this tract fipart from the serious or surface proposition for a new crusade. It seems to us that in this Advertisement is hidden some society of a reforming or religious character. The first striking thing that calls our attention is the marked way Bacon, in this " Holy War," preserves the true anti-infidel spirit, in his denouncement of the Ottomans or Tiu-ks, Avhich we shall show is also a Kosicrucian feature. " But let me recall myself ; I must acknowledge that within the space of fifty years (whereof I spake) there have been three nolile and memorable actions upon the infidels, wherein the Christian hath been the invader. For where it is upon the defensive, I reckon it a war of nature, and not of piety. The first was that famous and for- tunate war by sea, that ended in the Victory of Lepanto ; which BACON'S '' HOLY WARr 385 hath put a hook into the nostrils of the Ottomans to this day " (p. 34). This battle, which decided the fate of Europe, was fought in 1572, the same year as the Massacre of Saint Bartho- lomew, and it was this year the star or comet appeared in Cassiopea which has been by some supposed to be the star of Bethlehem. Bacon again writes of the Turks (in this " Holy War"): "So that if things be rightly Aveighed, the Eiiipirc of the Turks may be truly affirmed, to be more barbarous than any of these. A cruel tyranny, bathed in the blood of their Emj^erors, upon every succession : a heap of vassals and slaves : no nobles, no gentlemen : no free-men, no inheritance of land, no stirp or ancient families : a people that is without natural affection, and as the Scripture saith, that regardeth not the desires of women : and without piety or care towards their children : a nation with- out morality, Avithout letters, arts, or sciences ; that can scarce measiu-e an acre of laud, or an hour of the day : base and sluttish in buildings, diets, and the like : and in a word, a very reproach of human society : and yet this nation hath made the garden of the world a wilderness ; for that as it is truly said, con- cerning the Turks : JFhere Ottoman's horse sets his foot, people will come up verji thin" (p. 37). " I confess that it is my opinion that a war upon the Turks is more worthy than upon any othei- gentiles, infidels, or savages, that either have been, or now are, both in point of religion and in jjoint of honour." Directly we turn to the Rosicrucian " Confession" of 1615, we find the same anti-papal a,nd a nti-Mahoinet spirit displayed as by Bacon, "Al- though we believe ourselves to have sufficiently unfolded to you in the Fama, the nature of our order, wherein we follow the Avill of our most excellent father, nor can by any be suspected of heresy, nor of any attemi:>t against the commonwealth, we hereby do condemn the East and the JFest (meaning the Pope and Mahomet) for their blasphemies against our Lord Jesus Christ " (chapter i., " Confessio Fraternitatis R C, ad. Eruditos Europse "). Again, in the "Advertisement " we read : "And as we do secvu'ely call the Pope Antichrist, which was formerly a capital offence in every 2b 386 BACON'S " HOLY war:' place, so we know certainly tliat what Ave here keep secret, we shall ill the future thunder forth Avith uplifted voice, the which, I'eader, with us desire with all thy heart that it may happen most speedily." Again : " What think you, therefore, JNIortals, seeing that Ave sincerely confess Christ, execrate the i^ope," &c. (chap, xiii., "Confessio," 1615). Bacon shoAvs throughout his An-itings the most intense anti- papal spirit. Dr Abbott Avaites : " The Essay on Religion in 1612 is nothing but a protest against the crimes perpetrated in the name of the Eoman superstition ; and even in the ampler and graver Essay of 162-0, on the Unity of Religion, Bacon can suggest no means for procuring Unity, except the damning and sending to Hell for ever those facts and opinions that tend to the suppm't of snclh crimes as Hume had enconraged " (Bacon as a Theologian, p. cxi., "Essays"). Again : " The genuine and intense hatred felt l>y Bacon for Romanism is aa'cII illustrated by the letter he AATOte to Toby Matthew on hearing that the latter had been con\'erted to the Chui'ch of Rome: 'And I entreat you much sometimes to meditate upon the extreme effects of superstition in this last Powder Treason, fit to he tabled and p)ictured in the chambers of meditation as another Hell above ground, and well justifying the censure of the heathen that superstition is worse than atheism ; by how much it is less evil to have no opinion of God at all than such as is impious towards His Divine Majesty and Goodness.' Good Mr Blatthcw receive yourself from these courses of j^erdition " (Introduction, p. cxii., lb.). Again : "What Duessa is in the Faery Queen, that is Rome in Bacon's policy. Wherever in the Essays he Avrites the word • ' superstition,' Ave may take it for granted that he is thinking of Rome" {lb., cxiii.). Bacon Avrites in the " Advertisement for a Holy War " : — " This Pope is decrepit, and the bell goeth for him. Take order, that Avhen he is dead there be chosen a Pope of fresh years, ))etAveen fifty and threescore ; and see that he take the name of Urljan, bemuse a Pojjc of that name did Jirst institute the Cruzaday BACON'S ''HOLY WARr 387 and (as with an holy trumpet) did stir up the voyage for the Holy Land." This is a reference direct to the Crusades, and no doubt a key to the entire "Advertisement of a Holy War." " The Eosicrucians," according to Valentine Andreas, " were formed out of the ruins of the Knight T&mpkirs hy one faithful ))rother." It seems to us the style Bacon's " Holy War " is ^\Titten in is full of hints, half cabl)alistical and half hermetic, the general spirit being anti-papal and against the Turks. There is little doubt the Rosicrucian idea of a General Eefoimation of Society, was a secret or underground movement to carry on the work of the Great Eeformation (begun by Luther and Melancthon), by means of a secret brotherhood or fraternit}^, in the same way that Free Masonry aims at the purification of societ}^ by means of a private appeal to all that is best, noblest, and most unselfish in man, stimulating the interest by a certain amount of mystery, secrecy, and symbolism. Not only this title — " Befonnation of the whole Wide World " recalls the Great Eeformation, but their emblem, a cross surmounted by a rose, was the heraldic device of Luther* And to strengthen this evi- dence, we find their secret crusade or Eeformation was also (like Luther's) anti-papal. Amongst their jjrivileges, powers, and declarations, Naude enumerates : — " That by their means the triple crown of Peter will be ground into the dust. "That they confess freely and publicly, with no fear of repression, that the Pope is Anti-Christ. "That they denounce the blasphemies of East and West, meaning Mahomet and the Pope, and recognise but two sacra- * "They bore the Rose and Cross as their badge, not because they were Brethren of the Concocted and Exalted Dew, not because they had studied the book called Zohar, not because they were successors and initiates of the ancient Wisdom-Religion and the sublime hierarchies of Eld, but because they were a narrow sect of theosophical dissidents, because the monk Martin Luther was their idol, prophet, and master, because they were rabidly and extravagantly Protestant, with an ultra-legitimate violence of abusive Pro- testantism, because, in a single M'ord, the device on the seal of Martin Luther was a Cross-crowned heart rising from the centre of a Rose " (p. 242, Waite's "Real History of the Rosicrucians "). 3 8 S BA CON'S ' ' HOL Y WAR. " ments, with the ceremonies of the early Church, renewed by their congregation " (Waite's " Real History of the Rosicrucians," p. 399). Germany and England Avere the two countries in Europe where the Reformation first took hold, and it is not surprising if the visit of the Rosicrucian Michael Maier to England should have had results. The Rosicrucians were a protestant, religious society, thoroughly in harmony with Christian doctrines, Avhich is further proved hy Robert Fludd's explanation of their emblem, the Rose mounted on a Cross : — " In England the pseudonymous author of the ' Summum Bonum,' who is supposed to be Robert Fludd, gives a piirely religious explanation of the Rose Cross symbol, asserting it to mean 'the Cross sprinkled with the rosy blood of Christ.' All authorities are agreed upon one important point in the character of Andreas, and that is his predilection in favour of secret societies as instruments in the reformation of his age and country. According to Buhle, he had a profound and painful sense of the gross evils and iimumerable abuses which afflicted the German fatherland, and which were revealed, not eradicated, by the lurid fire-brand of Luther's reformation. These abuses he sought to redress by means of ' secret societies ' " (Waite's " Real History of the Rosicrucians "). I have assumed Bacon's mind was bent upon self-sacrifice. It is certainly a most remarkable thing, both the " Advancement of Learning," in Two Books (first published 1605), and the more stately "De Augmentis" of 1623, commence and end with the idea and allusion of Sacrifice. "There were under the law (excellent King) both daily sacrifices and free-will offerings " (opening of First Book, both 1605 and 1623). "But the errors I claim and challenge to myself as mine OAvn. The good, if any be, is due Tanqiumi, acleps sacrificii to be incensed to the honour, first of the divine Majesty, and next of your Majesty, to Avhom on earth I am most bounden." These arc the actual Avords concluding the Avork of the " Proficience and Advancement of BACON'S ''HOLY WAR." 389 Learning," 1605. Now it is very striking that the "De Aug- mentis " of 1623 (which constitutes an enlargement of the Second Book of the " Proficience " into eight books) terminates with the same allusion, though the context is dissimilar. " Notwithstand- ing, seeing the greatest matters are owing unto their principles, it is enough to me that I have scnvn inito Posferitij and the imvwrtal GofJ, whose divine Majesty I huml)ly im})lorc through his son and our Saviour, that ho would vouchsafe graciously to accept these and such like sacrifices of hiuiuine vnderstaiuling, seasoned with religion as with salt, and incensed to his glori/"* (Book IX., the end, p. 477, 1640 "Advancement"). These final words are placed in italics. There was evidently some particular associa- tion in Bacon's mind between the " De Augmentis " and Sacrifice. For in a letter to Sir Thomas Bodley upon sending this book, he writes : " My labours I have dedicated to the King ; desirous if there may be any good in them, it may be as the fat of a sacrifice." This idea of sacrifice is closely connected with the simile of sowing seed. In a letter to Dr Playfer, requesting him to translate the book of the "Advancement of Learning" into Latin : — " I have this opinion, that if I had sought mine own commendation, it had been a much fitter course for me, to have done as gardeners used to do, by taking their seeds and slijjs, and rearing them first into plants, and so uttering them in pots, when they are in flower, and in their best state. But for as much as my end was mei'it of the state of learning and not glory ; and because my purj)ose Avas to excite other men's wits than magnify my own ; I was desirous to prevent the uncertainness of my own life and times by uttering rather seeds than plants : nay, * "They that sow in tears shall reap in joy. He that goeth forth and weepeth, bearing precious seed, shall doubtless come again with rejoicing, bringing his sheaves with him " (Psalm cxxvi. 5, 6). Who sows in tears shall rea]) in joy, The Lord doth so ordain ; So that his seed be pure and good, His harvest shall be gain. (Bacon's translation.) 390 BACON'S ''HOLY WAR." and further (as the proverlj is) by sowing M'ith the basket rather than with the hand." This passage refers entirely to the " Advancement of Learning " or " De Augmentis." It is re- markable to find the Sixth Book treating of Secret Ciphers and Delivery, opening with again this simile of sowing and harvest. " For there a book is found entitled Formicarium Artium ; Ave have indeed accumulated a little heap of small dust, and laid up many Grains uf Arts and Sciences therein, whereto ants may creep and there repose a while, and so betake, themselves to new labours. Nay, the Avisest of the kings sends the slothful, of what rank or quality soever, unto the ants ; and those Ave define to be slothful, Avhose only care is to live upon the main stock, but not to improve it hi/ solving the ground of sciences over again and reaping a new luirvest* (Book VI., 258, 1640). The impres- sion this opening passage leaves upon our minds is that this Art of Tradition or Delivery Bacon thus introduces has something in common Avith the simile of the ants, seeds, and underground store Bacon propounds. It seems to us Bacon has presented us this simile to suggest not only resurrection of his oAvn art, or of his name, but that it is for us to develop these underground seeds, to till the garden of his Theatre, and make a proper use of the hints and directions contained and obscured purposely in this Avork. The aforesaid passage quoted from his letter to Dr Playfer is pregnant Avith self-sujipression and not self "glory," as he Avrites of his style of delivering the "Advance- ment." And Ave must take the hint he gives us of his "purpose to excite other men's wits," Avhich is evidently part of the object he has in vieAv connected Avith this particular Avork — "sowing with the basket rather them with the hand," — as if to say this Avork Avas pregnant Avith the sowings for posterity he concludes it Avith. * Tliis emblem of seed and sowing is typical of the Rosicrucian Frateiuity. Fludd : "Nos docet Apostolus ad mysterii perfectioneni vel sub Agricolcc vel Architccli typo pertingere" — either under the image of a hushandman icho cultivates afield, or of an architect who builds a liouse. Bacon adajited both types, for in Ins "Advancement of Learning," 1640, he styles himself Archi- tectura Scientianim. BACON'S ''HOLY WAR." 391 Upon page 96 (Book II.) he writes in context with the sul)ject of List Names: "But such swans are rare in our age; and although many men more mortal in theii- vigilancies and studies than in their l)odies despise the meiiwri/ of their names as if it were fume or air, aninm nil magnoi laudis egentes : namely, whose philo- sophy and severity spring from that root, Non prius landes contempsimus quavi laudaitda faeere desciriiinis." We cannot doubt that this is Avrittcn in a})plication to himself. (There arc ninety- five words upon this i)age in italics ; and the ninety-fifth word all counted from the top of the page is " Foefs"). In the al)0ve passage (juoted we find the self-confession of a great mind despising praise, and again the suggestion of efFacement and self-sacrifice with regard to a name.* That Bacon held the ends he proposed to himself, and their results l)efore all things first and himself as nothing is certain. " Francis Verulam con- sulted thus, and thus concluded with himself ; the publication whereof he conceived did concern the present aiid future age." The conclusion of these motives of Bacon's to his Instauration of sciences, concludes : " Truly he estimated other ambition what- soever, inferior to the business he had in hand; for either the matter in consultation, and thus far prosecuted, is nothing ; or so much as the conscience of the merit itself ought to give him. contentment ivithout seeling a recompense from abroad." Belief in this theory of sacrifice can only be accepted ujoon the grounds that Bacon was throughout actuated by deep religious feelings * The Rosicrucian doctrines were closely connected with .s((crifce, Cluist being their divine pattern, and their jewel a crucifix and rose. Robert Fludd in his " Sunimuni Bonum " and " Sojihicc cum Morid ccrtamen" explained the symbols of the Rose and the Cross as meaning ^' tlic Cross sprinkled with the rosy blood of Christ.'" Again Fludd writes: " Eadeni mens sit in vobis ([uae est in Jesn," i.e., " May the same mind dwell in yon as in Jesus." We find throughout the Rosicrucian wiitings, and particularly Fludd's, Christ identified as the Corner Stone of the invisible Temjile of Wisdom: "Con- cludimus igitur (piod Jesus sit templi humani lapis angularis ; at<[ue ita, ex mortuis, la])ides vivi facti .sunt homines pii ; id(jue transniutatione reali ab Adami la])si statu in statum sute innocentire et perfectionis, i.e., a vili et lejtrosa plumbi conditione in auri purissimi perfectionem " ("Summum Bonum," p. 37). 392 BACON'S ''HOLY JVAR." of extraordinaiy charucter. Xol)od}' acquainted with his works will doul)t that. And as far as is permitted for hnman art to l)arallel Divine Art, I believe Bacon has approximated creation. We have the parallel of the six days and the six divisions of the " Instauration," terminating (in the Distribution Preface) with a pi aver: "Wherefore if we labour with diligence and vigilance in thy works, thou ^\\\t make us participants of thy vision and of thy sabbath."* The inspired character of Bacon's " Advancement " is a particular feature of its own, and should be duly remarked. This work contains one hundred and fift}' (piotations or allusions to Sacred Scripture, and this is sufficiently curious in itself. Another important point to register upon this subject, is Bacon's repeated appeal to* posterity and far off ages. It c mnot be explained iipon the accepted understanding he refers to his Inductive System of Philosophy only. For during Bacon's life-time Galileo, Harvey, Gilbert, and others Avere successfully applying experiment and induction to Nature, and nobody knew that better than Bacon. Let those who wonder at this assertion read the dialogue carried on between Spedding and Ellis in the preface to the Farasceve. They will find Ellis declaring the Baconian Philosophy "has yet to come" and that Bacon's extravagant claims for his peculiar sj^stem cannot be explained upon any as yet received hypothesis. One of Bacon's promises were Examples to illustrate his system in })ractice. The second part of the "Instauration" was to be applied to the fourth, which Avas to exemplify the method of the mind in the com- prehension of things upon models, as by a scale or ladder. IJacon writes in the most confident terms upon these examples which were apparently never completed, or if completed, withheld. This foiuth part of the " Instauration " (as likewise the fifth and sixth) is missing. Yet in some posthumous writings published at Amsterdam l)y Gruter, 1653, he speaks of two of the parts as * See Preface, " Iiistauiation " : "And l)y tlio protection and assistance of the Divine Power have borne np and encouraged oiuselves" (p. 15). BA CON'S ''HOLY Jl 'A R. " 393 if they existed, und in uoiic of his writings explains or apologises for their absence. The entire Baconian philosophy' is bound up witli these missing parts, or second half of the " Instauration." The fact that there is no sketch, no hint of what these platforms, tyi)es, and models were to be, or are (beyond what we adduce as to the paging 35, 36, and the 71 capital words on these pages*) in his Preface yet confidently alluded to as completed, requires some explanation and is sufficiently suspicious. I adhere to Delia Bacon's intuitive theory that the plays belong to this series. " Our Lord at His solemn manifestation to the Gentiles when the inquiry of the Greeks who came saying, ' We would see -lesus,' was answered by the voice from heaven, sjioke of himself as the Corn (or Seed) of wheat which dying should arise, and bring forth much fruit." The He1)rew New Testament translating " corn " by the same word used as " seed " in Genesis iii. 13. I am convinced the sacrifice implied in Bacon's authorship of the plays, and his constant comparison of Poetri/ to Seed, and his con- clusion of the " De Augmentis " with the words, " / have sowen wito "posterity and the immortal God" have a profounder relation- ship to the founder of Christianity than we can at present form any idea of. It is striking that almost the last words in the Folio, 1623 — the last act of Cymbeline — refer to CJtrist ajid the CJiurch. For the " Lion's JJlielp " is "the Lion, of the tribe of JudaJi," the Messiah (Rev. v. 5). It is noteworthy the Rosicrucians en- tirely based their doctrines upon the Bible. Their advent upon the stage of Europe is connected with the star of Bethlehgm, 1572, and the spirit of their writings is anti-papal. In the description of the vaidt of Christian Rosy Cross, given in the " Fama Frater- nitatis," we find this description : " hi the midst, instead of a tomljstone Avas a round altar covered with a plate of brass, and thereon this engraven : — A. C. R. C. Hoc universi compendium iinius mih.i sejndchriim, feci. Round about the first circle or brim stood — Jesus mihi omnia." * III my last work, "Hermes Stella," pages 103, 104. 105. 394 BACON'S ''HOLY WAR!' All this should be compared with Bacon's extraordinary know- ledge of Scripture, which is reflected in the plaj^s known as Shakesj^eare's. The type of '' AgricoJa'" or husbandmen, which Rol)ert Fludd ascribed for the Eosicrucian Fraternity, is a strong parallel pointing to this parable of sclf-saciijice and seed. The Kosi- crucians evidently took Chrixfs mcrijice in the sense of buried seed or corn, promising future harvest, and it is striking Bacon joins hands with them in this i:)oint. I am convinced tJie sacrifice, of name, with respect to the authorship of the plays known as Shake- speare's, is closely connected with all this, being part of their self-renunciative doctrines reflected l)y their head and founder, Francis Bacon, the King Solomon of their House of AVisdom. De Quincey writes : "I shall now sum up the results of my inquiry into the origin and nature of Free-masonry, and shall then conclude with a brief notice of one or two collateral questions growing out of popular errors on the main one. " I. The original Free-masons were a society thtd arose out of the liosicrucian mania, certainly within the thirteen years from 1633 to 1646, and probably between 1633 and 1640. Their object was magic in the cabbalistic sense, i.e., the occult tcisdom transmitted from the beginning of the world, and matured by Christ ; to communicate this when they had it, to search for it Avhen they had it not ; and both under an oath of secrecy. "II. This object of Free-masoiuy was represented under the form of Solomon's Temple — as a type of the true Church, whose corner-stone is Christ. This temple is to be built of men, or living stones ; and the true method and ;ut of building with men it is the province of nnu/ic to teach. Hence it is that all the masonic symbols either refer to Solomon's Temple, or are figurative modes of expressing the ideas and doctrines of magic in the sense of the Ilosicrucians, and their mystical predecessors in general." I consider, if this last conclusion of Dc Quincey's as to Solomon's Tcmjile is to he accepted as true, then it is certain Bacon's " New BACON'S ''HOLY WARr 395 Atlantis" is in, connection with Frce-masonr// throtif/h Bosicruciaidshi. Bacon's calls his " College of the Six Days " Solomonh House, and Tenison, in his "Baconiana," terms the entire " Instauration " " Domus Sapientire," or the House of Wisdom.* My theory is Lord Bacon was the representative Solomon of the Society, and anyone reflecting upon the repeated introductions by Bacon of this writer's name and his works, must see that Bacon had a special object in repeating so often, " 'The glory of God is to con- ceal a thing, but the glory of the King is to find it out ; ' as if, * " The London Free-masons also boiiowcd mueli of their jihraseology from Lord Bacon's Essay, yet fresh in men's minds, in which, adopting the idea of the ' Honse of AVisdom,' a technical term with the Arab astrologers, he pro- posed the foundation of a 'Solomon's House,' or a learned community dedi- cated to exjierimental philosophy and the advancement of science. An important jioint is the fact that the Rosici'ucians are acknowledged even now amongst the Free-masons as a degree or class, although disclaimed as the parent stock, a truth which, if allowed, were utterly incompatible with the fraternity's claim to immemorial antiquity" ("The Gnostics and their Remains," King, pp. 178, 179). " ' Do any of j'ou know that the Ashmolean Masonry is altogether ignored on the Continent of Eurojie ? ' the Surgeon inquired. "'Brother Frederick Xicolai has given it a decided contradiction,' the Skijtper replied. ' He says that the object of the meeting at AVarrington, so far from being Masonic, was simi)ly for the purpose of carrying out a jihiloso- phical idea which had been promulgated by Lord Bacon in his "New Atlantis" of the model of a perfect society, instituted for the secret purpose of inter- l)retiug nature, and of producing new arts and marvellous inventions for the benefit of mankind, under the name of Solomon's House, or the College of the Six Days' AVork, Mliich, in plain language, was intended to be an ideal society for the study of natural })hilosophy. 2'he persons jyresent at these viectings are said hy Nicolai to liave been llosierueians, and we know this to be true of Ashmole himself. He asserts, further, that these men erected, in their Lodge, two Great Pillars, M'hich they called the Pillars of Hermes, in front of Solomon's House, and they used a che(|uered pavement, a ladder of seven staves or lounds, and many other secret symbols'" (" Discrepancies of Freemasonry," Oliver). Professor Buhle affirms as the "main thesis" of his concluding chajitei-, that " Freemasonry is neither more nor less than Rosicrucianisra as modified by those who transplanted it into England." This is De (^)uincey's opinion also: "For I affirm, as the main thesis of my concluding labours, ■ihat FREE-MASONRY IS NEITHER MORE NOR LESS THAN ROSICRUCIANISM AS MODIFIED BY THOSE WHO TRANSPLANTED IT UNTO ENGLAND" ("Hist. Critico-LKjuiry," chaji. v., De (^Hiincey). 396 BACON'S ''HOLY WAR." accoi'ding to the innocent play of chiklieii, the Divine Majesty took delight AWnV/e 7/is i(wZ-5, to the end to have them found out ; and as if kings could not obtain a greater honour than to be God's playfellows in that game." This is the chief text and key-note of Bacon's mind, — con- cealment and reserve. It quite falls in with his other observa- tions. " Let great authws so have their due, as we do not derogate from Time, which is the Author- of Authors and Parent of Truth " (p. 35, "Advancement," 1640). Or this : ''Another error induced by the former is, a suspicion and diffidence, that anything sho\dd now to he found out, which the world should have missed and j^^ssed mxr so long time" (p. 36, "Advancement," 1640). Both these passages are upon pages lumibered 35 and 36, which agree with the thirty-five plays in the 1623 Folio Catalogue, and if we add " Troilus and Cressida " (omitted from the Catcdogue expressly, prohahly to give tv:o flay numbers), the thirty-six plays known as Shakespeare's. CHAPTER VI. hermes stella. Bacon's Mysterious Astrological MSS. Notes, 1603, with Stran(4e Parallels from the Rosicrucian Robert Fludd. Spedding, in his " Note to Preface to Valerius Terminus," describes certain writing in Bacon's hand found at the bottom of the title page of " Valerius Terminus," and which he reproduces in facsimile. SacGimilt OF THE TITLE PAGE OF THE MANUSCRIPT OF THE VALERIUS TERMINUS. See pp. 205 and 21.3, voL iii., "Phil. Wks.," Si)eddiiig, At the bottom of the title page of " Valerius Terminus of the Interpretation by Nature," with the annotations of Hermes Stella, Ave find in Bacon's hand : — / ^fj (T-:^ ^f^, x^. y° ■'jr. iS~^ : / pfj o ■_/' -^f . y . J //Sri cd'nytcfiu!^ ^^ / -haj ^ ^ . „^ 398 HERMES STELLA. Speckling endeavoured to throw what light he could upon what he considered these to be astronomical figures, Avith the date 1603 attached to them. In a footnote he writes :—" The writing' in the original is on the outside of the last leaf, Avhich is in fact the cover. The front cover, if there ever was one, is lost. The ink with which the line containing the symbols is written corresponds witli that in the body of the MS. ; and the line itself is placed symmetrically in the middle of the page near the top. The two lower lines are apparently by anotlier hand, probably of later date, certainly in ink of a different colour, and paler. The word ' Philosophy ' is in Bacon's own hand, written lightly in the upper corner at the left, and is no doubt merely a docket inserted afterwards when he Avas sorting his papers. What connexion there was between the note and the MS. it is impossible to say. But it is evidently a careful memorandum of something, set down by somebody when the MS. was at hand ; and so many of the characters resemble those adopted to represent the planets and the signs of the zodiac, that one is led to suspect in it a note of the positions of the heavenly bodies at the time of some remarkal)le accident ; — perhaps the plague, of which 30,578 persons died in London, during the year ending 22nd December 1G03. The period of the conunencement, the duration, or the cessation of such an epidemic might naturally be so noted. Now three of the characters clearly represent respectively Mercury, Aquarius, and Sagittarius. The sign for Jupiter, as we find it in old books, is so like a 4, that the first figure of 45 may very well have been meant for it. The monogram at the beginning of the line bears a near resemblance to the sign of Capricorn in its most characteristic feature. And the mark over the sign of Aquarius a}qimr^ to hr an ahhrcnafvm