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UNIVERSITY OF CALIFORNIA
AT LOS ANGELES

THE GIFT OF

MAY TREAT MORRISON

IN MEMORY OF

ALEXANDER F MORRISON

Digitized by the Internet Archive

in 2008 with funding from

IVIicrosoft Corporation

http://www.archive.org/details/baconshakespeareOOreed

BACON AND SHAKE-SPEARE
PARALLELISMS

By Same Author
Uniform with this Volume

FRANCIS BACON OUR SHAKE-SPEARE

Chapter

II.

III.

IV.

VI.

VII.

VIII.

CONTENTS

Coincidences

The Early Authorship of Shake-speare

The Late Authorship of Shake-speare

The Place of the Shake-speare Dramas in Bacon's System of

Philosophy
The Classical Element in the Plays
I. Latin Language
IL Greek and Latin Literature

III. Greek and Latin Mythology
Jonson's Masque, 'Time Vindicated'
Bacon's Poetic Gifts
Origin of the Pseudonym Shake-speare
Appendices
Index

BACON vs. SHAKSPERE

Brief for plaintiff

Eighth Edition, Illustrated, Revised, and Enlarged

CONTENTS

Introductory

Preface to Second Edition
Preface to Fourth Edition
List of Books for Consultation

Chapter

I. The Attainments of the Au-
thor of the Plays
II. William Shakspere of Stratford-
upon-Avon

III. Francis Bacon

IV. Ben Jonson

V. Objections Considered

Chapter

VI.

VII.

VIII.

IX.

XI.

XII.

XIII.

XIV.

Common Studies

Disillusion, a Gain

Biography of Shakspere

The Birthplace at Stratford

Anne Hathaway' s Cottage

New Place

The Mulberry Tree

The Death-Mask

Summary

Index

Bacon and Shake-speare
Parallelisms

By
Edwin Reed, A.M.

Author of ' Bacon vs. Shakspere, Brief for Plaintiff'
and * Francis Bacon, Our Shake-speare '

BOSTON

CHARLES E. GOODSPEED

1902

Entered at Stationers' Hall, London

UNIVERSITY PRESS • JOHN WILSON
AND SON • CAMBRIDGE, U. S. A.

7\ ^5 4rt^

5Co tng

ISrlotiEti ffirranUtiaitgfjttr

©orotfjg gork OHaliljams

" littlt babe, tt)au raiu'st into tf)c toorlti iafcping totjilst all about tljce aiiiiUli ;
So libf tf)at tljou man'st Depart in smilfs toljilst all about tfjrr farrp "

J.34565

In this volume, as well as in our preceding ones on the
same subject, wherever personal reference is made to
William Shakspere of Stratford, the reputed dramatist,
the name is so spelled, William Shakspere ; but where the
reference is to the author of the Plays, as sucli, we treat
the name as a pseudonym, spelling it as it was printed on
the title-pages of many of the early quartos, William
Shake-speare. In all cases of citation, except in those
where confusion would arise, we follow the originals.

INTRODUCTION

MY first perilous adventure on the subject of the
authorship of Shake-speare is entitled ' Bacon
vs. Shakspere, Brief for Plaintiff' (1897). It
is mainlj' devoted to the historical evidences pertinent to
the case, indirect and circumstantial as these evidences
necessarily are.

My second bears the title ' Francis Bacon, Our Shake-
speare' (1899). This deals with, internal criticism, and
shows the philosophic purpose for which the Plays were
written. For this effort to assign to the great author of
the Shake-speare dramas — dramas imbedded in the love
and reverence of mankind — a motive higher than one
merely mercenary, 1 venture to ask a candid, if not sym-
pathetic hearing.

In the present volume I rest the argument for Bacon as
the sole author of these Poems and Plays on a single point,
viz., identity of thought and diction between them and his
acknowledged works. It is confidently believed that the
passages, quoted herein on either side, exhibit the warp
and woof of but one fabric, running in and out, over and
under, from end to end.

Inasmuch as in nearly every instance in these parallel-
isms the earlier ex])ression, or germ, is in prose, subse-
quently developed in verse, I suggest to the student that

INTRODUCriON

the respective extracts from Bacon be read first. This would
be particularly serviceable in the case of the Promus. The
Pronius is Bacon's private memorandum book, or, as its
name signifies, literary storehouse, embracing nearly two
thousand entries in various languages (Greek, Latin,
Italian, Spanish, French, and English), and contributing
an immense variety of metaphors and illustrations to the
future work of his pen. The Shake-speare pages are
everywhere ablaze with this imagery. Some of the entries
are suitable only for use in dialogue, such as the follow-
ing: 'come to the point;' 'you take more than is
granted ; ' ' you go from the matter ; ' ' hear me out ; ' ' now
you say ; ' ' you speak colorably ; ' ' that is not so, by your
favor ; ' ' answer directly ; ' ' answer me shortly ; ' ' your
reason ; ' and many more of the same character. These
are, of course, wholly absent from Bacon's prose works.
Other entries are mere hooks and eyes, as it were, to
connect sentences : ' nevertheless,' ' well well,' ' perad-
venture,' ' yet,' ' whereas,' and the like. Others still are
hints only ; sharp-pointed phrases, to attract and bring
down, when wanted on any subject, flashes of creative
imagination, latent in the mind of the author. They
served to enrich and broaden the thought. One of these,
for example, consists of the words ' Bellerophon's Letters,'
that is to say, sealed letters in which the person addressed
is desired to put the bearer to death. Such a letter is in
' Hamlet,' but nowhere else in any writing ever attributed
to Bacon. Another instance is the salutation ' good
dawning,' never used before and but once (1608) since, in
the English language, viz., in 'King Lear.' This would
seem to establish a connection between Bacon's Promus

INTRODUCTION xi

(a work unknown to the public for a period of more tlian
two hundred years after it was written) and the great
tragedy as close as there is between a seed and its plant.
Indeed, Shake-speare itself is a vast field in which the
Baconian philosophy is white unto harvest. Fortunate
will he be who first enters it with his sickle.

EDWIN REED.

Andoveb, Mass., January, 1902.

Bacon and Shake-speare

PARALLELISMS

PRESAGES OF DEATH

From Shake-speare From Bacon
" After I saw him fumble with " The immediate signs which pre-
the sheets, and play with flowers, cede death are • . . fumbling with
and smile upon his fingers' the hands . . . grasping and clutch-
ends, I knew there was but one ing . . . the nose becoming sharp,
way; for his nose was as sharp the face pallid, . . . coldness of
as a pen. He bade me lay more the extremities." — Historia VitoB
clothes on his feet ; I put my hand et Mortis (1623).
into the bed and felt them, and
they were as cold as any stone."
Henry V. ii. 3 (1600).

In the first collective edition of the Plays (1623), known
as the first folio, the above passage from ' Henry V.' is printed
thus :

" After I saw him fumble with the sheets, and play with flowers,
and smile upon his fingers' ends, I knew there was but one way ;
for his nose was as sharp as a pen on a table of green field ; ^ he
bade me lay more clothes on his feet ; I put my hand into the bed
and felt them, and they were as cold as any stone."

Hostess Quickly's account of the death of Sir John
Falstaff is one of the most famous passages in Shake-
speare, though it is one which editors and commentators
have failed to interpret correctly. In this speech of an
old nurse we find six distinct presages of death, all of
them taken from Hippocrates, a Greek writer of the fifth

1 Two slight typographical errors corrected. See p. 3, 2 n.

2^'"'"''''BJC0N AND SHAKESPEARE

century b. c, and all but one mentioned also by Bacon
in his Historici Vitcc et Mortis, as quoted above. We give
the three versions in tabular form as follows :

Hippocrates

Bacon

Shake-speare

Handling the bed-
clothes awkwardly.

Gathering bits of straw
or stems of flowers.

Raising the hand aim-
lessly to the face.

The nose sharp.

The whole face of a
pale-green color.

The extremities cold.

Fumbling with the
hands.

Clutching and grasp-
ing.

The nose becoming
sharp.

The face pallid.

Coldness of the ex-
tremities.

Fumbling with the
sheets.

Playing with flowers.

Smiling upon his
fingers' ends.

Nose as sharp as a
pen.

On a table of green
field.

Feet cold as any stone.

Shake-speare could not have copied these passages from
Bacon, for the play was first printed in 1600, and the His-
toria Vitcc et Mortis not until 1623 ; nor did Bacon copy
them from Shake-speare, for he gives many from Hippoc-
rates which Shake-speare omits. The common source
was undoubtedly in the writings of Cardan or Galen, one
of whom had previously published a Latin translation of
the original Greek work, Prognostica, containing the pres-
ages, and the other a commentary upon it. A singular
circumstance (for our knowledge of which we are indebted
to Dr. C. Creighton of London), -points unmistakably to this
conclusion.

Hippocrates, in describing the pallor that creeps over
the face at such a time, used the word ^Xcopd? to denote
it. 'x\(i)p6<i means pale-green, — a term entirely appropriate

PARALLELISMS

when applied to the olive-complexioned people of Greece,
but easily misunderstood or misinterpreted elsewhere. Ac-
cordingly, we find that out of forty-three versions of the
Prognostica, published in the languages of Western Europe,
including Latin, previously to the date of the play, twenty-
five translate this word by the Latin pallidus (pale) or its
equivalent, while nine do not translate it at all, but bring it
over bodily from the Greek into the new text. Several place
it in the margin, as though they were not sure of its true
meaning. Cardan and Galen, almost alone among their
contemporaries and successors, however, take the right
view. Galen says:

" The ancients assumed that ;^Xwpds means merely pale ; it is
rather the color of cabbage or lettuce."

So, also, Cardan :

'- The difficulty is, what does x^wpos mean 1 It seems to me that
it should be interpreted in the sense of the time in which it was
used. Who does not know that in Greece the face of a dying man
is of a green color 1 " *

We find the same fact stated in one of Sappho's poems :

" My face is paler than the grass ;
To die would seem no more."

To the Beloved.
(Translated by Prof. Thomas Davidson.)

Here is very nearly absolute proof that the author of the
Play, who in his description of Falstaff's nose — " as sharp as a
pen on a table of green field " ^ (that is, against a green back-

1 A very poor, confused translation of the ' Prognostics ' appeared in English
in 1597. It was based upon a French version by Canappe, Canappe's on one
by Rabelais, and Rabelais' on Copus, all of whom rendered the Greek xKa)p6s
by pallidtis in Latin, pdle in French, or pale in English.

2 The printers of the first Shakespeare folio made two slight but perfectly
obvious typographical errors in setting up this line. They made it read as
follows :

" For his Nose was as sharpe as a Pen, and a Table of greene Fields." Tlie
word Table, beginning with a capital letter, must, of course, be a substantive.

4 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

ground) — was simply true to the original, had studied Car-
dan's translation of the Frognostica, or Galen's commentary
upon it. We know that Bacon was familiar with both of these
authors' works, frequently quoting from them in his own.
Perhaps the most striking passage in the Novum Organum
is that in which he proclaims man as naturcc minister
(servant of nature), taken by Galen from the writings of
Hippocrates. In one of his tracts he mentions the Frog-
nostica by name. We know, too, that the author of the
Plays was acquainted with them, as Douce and Hunter
admit :

" There is a good deal on this subject [Suicide and Doubt] in Car-
dan's 'Comfort' (1576), a book which Shakespeare had certainly
read." — Dovce's Illustratiois of Shakespeare, ii. 238.

"This seems to me to be the book [Cardan's] which Shake-
speare placed in the hands of Hamlet." — lIviiiTEB.'s Illustrations of
Shakespeare, ii. 243.

The word field, used by Hostess Quickly in the above
passage, signifies merely expanse or surface (of the face), as
in the following instances, taken from Shake-speare himself :

" This silent war of lilies and roses,
Which Tarquin viewed in her fair face's j^eW."

Lucrece.

" When forty winters shall besiege thy brow,
And dig deep trenches in thy beauty's j^Zci."

Sonnet 2.

Dr. Henry Bradley, the distinguished lexicographer, has
shown that the royal court, now known as the Board of
Green Cloth, was formerly called, in one at least of the
household ordinances (1470), the Board of Green Field or
Feald.

It appears, then, that Bacon and Shake-speare quoted
the same presages of death from Hippocrates, quoted them

PARALLELISMS

in the same order, and (probably) from the same Latin

translation.

CHALKING THE WAY

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" It is you that have chalk'd the " Alexander Borgia was wont to

way say of the expedition of the French

Which has brought us hither." for Naples, that they came with

Tempest, v. 1 (1623).* chalk in their hands to mark

" Not propp'd by ancestry, whose up their lodgings, and not with

grace weapons to fight." — Advancement

Chalks successors their way." of Learning (1603-5).

Henry VIIL, i. 1 (1623). "To mark with chalk."— Pro-
mus (1594-96).

Bacon was very fond of quoting the above witticism of the
Pope, applying it to his own case in the peaceful efforts he
was makmg to introduce into the minds of men a new phi-
losophy. In 1607, he sent one of his tracts to Sir Thomas
Bodley with the remark, " If you be not of the lodgings
marked up, I am but to pass by your door." He refers to
the subject again in his Bedargutio PhilosopMarum com-
posed probably in 1608; also in the Novilth Organum (1620)
and the De Augmentis (1623).

"I like better that entry of truth which comes peaceably, as
with chalk to mark up those minds which are capable to lodge and
harbor such a guest, than that which forces its way with pugnacity
and contention." — Advancement of Learning.

The ' Tempest ' was first printed in 1623, but written prob-
ably in or about 1613. ' Henry VIII,' was also printed for
the first time in the folio of 1623, the date of its composi-
tion in its present form not having been earlier than May
3, 1621.

* The dates appended in parentheses to these passages indicate the time
either when the passages were written, or (if that be unknown) when they
were first printed.

6 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

3
KINGS OF BEES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" For so live the honey-bees. ♦' The king in a hive of bees."

Apothegm (1624).
They have a king."

Henry V., i. 2 (1600).

This is, of course, an error, for bees have no king. But it
is one of classical origin. Virgil says :

" The bees of a hive are very obsequious to their king. They
attend him in crowds, often raising him on tlioir shoulders and ex-
posing their own bodies in his defence." — Georgics, iv.

The truth is, the author of the Plays drew his knowledge
of natural history, not from nature, but from books.

" If this [song] penetrate, I -will
consider your music the better ; if it
do not, it is a vice in her ears which
horse-hairs . . . can never mend."
— Cymbeline, u. 3 (1623).
" Your tale, sir, would cure deaf-
ness."

The Tempest, i. 2 (1623).

DEAFNESS

"To cure deafness is difficult."
— Promus (1594-96).

" Nothing is so hard to cure as
the ear." — De Augmentis (1622).

HONET-DEW

" Fresh tears
Stood on her cheeks, as doth the

honey-dew
Upon a gather'd lily."

Titus Andronicus, iii. 1 (1600).
" Like the bee, culling from every

flower
The virtuous sweets."

2 Henry IV., iv. 5 (1623).

" Observe how the mind doth
gather this excellent dew of know-
ledge, like unto that which the poet
speaketh of, 'aerial honey,' distil-
ling and contriving it out of partic-
ulars natural and artificial, as the
flowers of the field and garden." —
Adcancement of Learning (1603-5).

PARALLELISMS

It was the opinion of Aristotle that honey comes from
dew, and that bees gather from flowers nothing but wax.
Bacon notices this theory in his Natural History, saying of
it: "I have heard from one that was industrious in luis-
bandry, that the labor of the bee is about the wax ; and that
he hath known, in the beginning of May, honey-combs empty
of honey, and within a fortnight, when the sweet dews fall,
filled like a cellar." Then he states his own opinion, agreeing
with the author of the plays : " for honey, the bee maketh
or gathereth it." The old superstition lingers with both
authors, however, in the term " honey-dew."

ELDER-TREE AND VINE

From Shahe-speare From Bacon
" Quid. I tlo note " Take a service-tree, or a come-
That Grief and Patience, rooted in lian-tree, or an elder-tree, which

him, both we know have fruits of harsh and

Do mingle their spurs together. binding juice, and set them near a

Arvir. Grow, Patience, vine or fig-tree, and see whether

And let the stinking elder, Grief, the grapes or figs will not be the

untwine sweeter." — Natural History (1622-

His perishing ^ root, with the in- 25).

creasing vine."

Cijmbeline, iv. 2 (1623).

The ancients believed in the existence of sympathy and
antipathy among plants. They cited particularly the case
of the colewort and the vine, declaring that the vine, when-
ever it finds itself creeping near its enemy, the colewort,
turns away. Bacon discusses the same subject in his Nat-
ural History, and suggests that an experiment be made to
determine whether or not the elder-tree (among others) be
also inimical to the vine. The author of ' Cymbeline ' not only
makes mention of the same singular theory, as stated in
Pliny and Porta, but also applies it in connection with the
vine to the elder-tree (instead of the colewort), as Bacon did.

1 Used transitively, equivalent to killing.

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

SIR TUOMAS MOKE
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Nothing in his life " Sir Thomas More, at the very

Became him like the leaving it ; he instant of death, when he had

died already laid his head on the fatal

As one that had been studied in his block, lifted it up a little and,

death, gently raising aside his beard,

To throw away the dearest thing which was somewhat long, said,

he ow'd,^ ' This at least has ncjt offended the

As 'twere a careless trifle." king.' " — Be Augmentis (1G22).

Macbeth, 1. 4 (1G23).

The commentators think that the author of ' Macbeth,' in
writing the above passage, had in mind the Earl of Essex.
This is clearly a mistake. The Earl's conduct on the scaffold
was marked by deep seriousness and the most scrupulous
regard for propriety. He spent the entire time to the
moment of his death either in prayer or in imploring the
prayers of others. On the other hand, Bacon pronounces the
demeanor of Sir Thomas More on the scaffold as a miracle of
human nature, because More died with a jest in his mouth,
or threw away —

" The dearest thing he ow'd.
As 't were a careless trifle." ^

A LONG WORD

" Honorificabilitudinitatibus." " Honorificabilitudine." — North-

Love's Labor 's Lost, v. 1 (1598). umberland 3ISS. (circa 1598).

1 In the sense o^ owned.

^ Mr. Spediling's want of discrimination is shown by his comment on above
passage from ' Macbeth ' : "If Sbakspere had not died two 3^ears before the
death of Sir Walter Raleigh, we must have thought these lines referred to
him." And yet Mr. Spedding's own account of Sir Walter Raleigh's behavior
on the scaffold — that he met his death "with the most unaffected and
cheerful composure, the finest humanity, the most courtly grace and good
humor, and yet with no unseemly levity " — entirely negatives his opinion on
this subject.

PARALLELISMS

This is a perfectly serious word, meaning honor in a high
degree, with two stem roots and three suffixes, combined
according to the rules of mediaeval Latin. We find it in a
charter granted by the See of Eome to a religious house in
Genoa in 1187, but not printed until 1644; in Dante's De
Vulgare Eloquio, written in or about 1304, translated from
the original Latin into Italian and printed for the first time
in 1529 ; in the ' History of Henry VII. ' of Italy by Albertus
Musatus, a work composed between 1313 (date of Henry's
death) and 1330 (date of the author's death), but first printed
in 1635; and in the 'Complaint of Scotland,' anonymous,
pubhshed at St. Andrews in 1549.

The several passages in these works are as follows :

" Proinde considerata devotione, quam erga nos, et Ecclesiam
laauensem, nee non et honorificabilitudinitate Ecclesiae tuae,
Parochiam quam Ecclesia jam dicta in prsesentiarum noscitur
obtinere, et a quadraginta anuis possedit, tibi et successoribus
tuis confirmamus, et pra3sentis scripti patrocinio communimus." —
Italia Sacra, Tomus Quartus, page 845 (1187).

" Posset adbuc inveniri plurium syllabarum vocabulum, sive
verbum ; sed quia capacitatem nostrorum omnium carminum super-
excedit, ratione prsesenti nou videtiir obnoxium ; sicut est illud
ojiorificabilitucUnitate, quod duodena pei'ficitur syllaba in Vulgari,
et in grammatica tredena perficitur, in duobus obliquis." ^ — De
Vulgari Eloquio, bb. ii. cap. vii. {cir. 1304).

" Xam et maturius cum rex prima Italice ostia contigisset, legatos
illo dux ipse direxerat cum regabbus exeniis Houorificabibtudini-
tatis et obsequentiee ulbus causa, quibus etiam inhibitum pedes
osculari regies." — De Gestis Henrici VII. page 17 (1313-1330).

1 Translation of the jiassarje frmn Dante:

" A name or word might be found with more syllables still; but as it
would exceed the capacity of all our lines, it does not appear to fall into
the present discussion. Such a word is onorificabilitudinitatc, which runs in
Italian to twelve syllables, and in Latin to thirteen, in two of the oblifiue
cases."

The case endin^^s to which Dante refers are, of course, the dative and abla-
tive plural, in which the word (as used in ' Love's Labor 's Lost') has thirteen
syllables, thus : honorificahilitadinitatibiis.

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" Ther vas ane utiier that writ in his verkis, gaudet Ilonorificahili-
tudinitatibus. " ^ — Complaint of Scotland (1549).

The first edition of ' Love's Labor 's Lost ' was printed in
1598 ; the play was probably written in or about 1588.

CHASING A BUTTERFLY

From Sliake-speare
" I saw bill! run after a gilded
butterfly; and, when he caught it,
he let it go again; and after it
again." — Coriolanus, i. 3 (1023).

Prom Bacon
" To be Uke a child following a
bird, which when he is nearest,
flyeth away and 'lighteth a little
before ; and then the child after it
again." — Letter to GrcuUle (1595).

Professor Nichol refers to this extraordinary parallelism in
his Biography of Bacon, showing by dates that Bacon could not
have copied from Shake-speare, nor Shake-speare from Bacon.
The sentence from Bacon is found in a private letter, written
in 1595, but not made public till 1657. The production of
* Coriolanus ' is assigned to a date not earlier than 1612. The
play was first printed in 1623.

SELF-CENTRED CHARACTER OP JULIUS C^SAR

" Ccesar. I am constant as the
northern star.

Of whose true fixed and resting
quality

There is no fellow in the firma-
ment. The skies are painted
with unnumber'd sparks ;

They are all fire, and every one
doth shine ;

But there 's but one in all doth hold
his place.

" He [Julius Ccesar] referred all
things to himseK, and was the
truest centre of his own actions."
— CJiaracter of Julius Ccesar (^circa
1601).

1 First discovered by Mr. George Stronach of Edinburgh, and communi-
cated to the public by the poet Henry Dryerre, Esq., in the ' People's Friend
(Dundee), May 16, 1898.

PARALLELISMS 1 1

So in the world ; 't is furnish'd well

with men,
And men are flesh and blood, and

apprehensive ;
But in the number I do know but

one
That, unassailable, holds on his

rank,
Unshak'd of motion."

Julius Ccesar, iii. 1 (1623).

As to the cause of Caesar's downfall we have also an exact
parallelism between the two authors, thus :

11
Cesar's downfall due to envy

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" This was the noblest Roman of " How to extinguish envy he

them all ; knew excellently well, and thought

All the conspirators, save only he, it an object woi'th purchasing
Did what they did in enr?/ of great even by the sacrifice of dignity;
Caesar." — Ibid., v. 5. and being in quest of real power,

he was content during the whole
course of his life to decline and
put by all the empty show and
pomp and circumstance of it, thus
throwing the envy upon others ;
until at last, whether satiated with
power or corrupted by flattery, he
aspired likewise to the Eternal em-
blems thereof, the name of King
and the Crown, — which turned
to his destruction." — Ibid.

In one of Bacon's letters to Sir Toby Matthew, written in
1609, he refers to this tract on the ' Character of Julius
Caesar ' as having been in existence, at least in an early draft,
for several years. It seems probable, therefore, that the prose
study and the Play (^circa 1601) were substantially of the
same date.

12 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

12
ANAXARCHUS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Ere my tongue " What a proof of patience is dis-

Shall wound mine honor with such played in the story of Anaxarchus,

feeble wrong, who, under torture, bit out his own

Or sound so base a parle, my teeth tongue (the only hope of infor-

shall tear matiou) and spat it into the face

The slavish motive of recanting of the tyrant." — De Augmentis,

fear, (1622).

And spit it bleeding, in Ms high

disgi'ace,
Where shame doth harbor, even in
Mowbray's face."

Richard IL, i. 1 (1597).

This story was told by Valerius Maximus and the elder-
Pliny, Latin authors of the first century A. D. ; and also par-
tially by Diogenes Laertius, a Greek writer of the second cen-
tury ; but no one of these works, Greek or Latin, had been
translated into English at the date when the play of ' Eichard
II. ' was produced.

CORK-FLOWERS

" Idle weeds that grow " There be certain corn-flowers

In our sustaining corn." which come seldom or never in

King Lear, iv. 4 (1608). other places unless they be set,
but only amongst corn." — Natu-
ral History (1622-25).

The play antedated the history ; but the explanation which
Bacon gives of the alleged phenomenon and his hst of the
flowers that grow amongst corn, indicate the common pater-
nity of the two quoted passages, as follows :

" There be certain corn-flowers which come seldom or never in
other places, unless they be set, but only amongst corn ; as the

PARALLELISMS 13

blue-bottle, a kind of yellow marygold, wild poppy and fumitory.
IS'either can this be by reason of the culture of the ground, by
ploughing or furrowing, as some herbs and flowers will grow but
in ditches new cast ; for if the ground lie fallow and unsown, they
will not come ; so as it should seem to be the corn that qualifieth
the earth, and prepareth it for their growth."

THE BEASTLY MULTITUDE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Beast with many heads." " Beast with many heads."

Coriolanus, iv. 1 (1623).^ Charge against Talbot (1614).

" Monster with many heads."

Conference of Pleasure (1592).

This is a characterization of the people, as distinguished
from the nobility. Shakspere, one of the people ; Bacon, one
of the nobility.

" Nay, worse than this, worse than his servility to royalty and
rank, we never find him speaking of the poor with respect, or al-
luding to the working classes without detestation or contempt.
We can understand these tendencies as existing in Lord Bacon,
born as he was to privilege, and holding office from a queen ; but
they seem utterly at variance with the natural instincts of a man
who had sprung from the body of the people, and who, through
the very pursuits of his father and likewise from his own begin-
ning, may be regarded as one of the working classes himself." —
George Wilkes' Shakespeare from an America7i Point of View.

PHTSIOGNOMT

« There 's no art " Neither let that be feared
To find the mind's construction in which is said, fronti nulla fides
the face." [There 's no trusting to the face],
Macbeth, i. 4 (1623). which is meant of a general out-
ward behavior." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

^ 'Coriolanus ' was written in 1612-19.

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

16
C^SAR AND ANTHONY

From Bacon

" There was an Egyptian sooth-
sayer that made Autonius believe
that hi3 genius (which otherwise
was brave and confident) was, in
the presence of Octavius Ca;sar,
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 Cleopa-
tra."— iVa^wrai History (1622-25).

From Shakespeare

" Anthony. Now, sirrah ; you do

wish yourself in Egypt.
Soothsayer. Would I had never

come from thence. . • .

Hie you again to Egypt.
Ant. Say to me, Avhose fortunes

shall rise higher, Csesar's or

mine 1
Sooth. Caesar's.

Therefore, 0 Anthony, stay not at

his side ;
Thy dsemon, that 's thy spirit

which keeps thee, is
Noble, courageous, high, unmatch-

able,
"Where Csesar is not ; but near him,

thy angel
Becomes a fear, as being o'er-

power'd ; therefore
Make space enough between you."

Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 3
(1623).

Bacon had previously stated the principle underlying the
soothsayer's speech as follows :

" Others, that draw nearer to probability, calling to their view the
secrets of things and especially the contagion that passeth from body
to body, do conceive that there should be some transmissions and
operations from spirit to spirit without the mediation of the senses ;
whence the conceit has grown of the mastering spirit." — Advance-
ment of Learning (1603-5).

On the details of this extraordinary parallelism we quote
from Judge Nathaniel Holmes :

" A similar story is to be found in North's translation of Plu-
tarch's life of Anthony, which Shakespeare may have seen as well

PARALLELISMS

as Bacon ; and it is true that some parts of it are very closely fol-
lowed in the play. There is little doubt that the writer had read
Plutarch. But Plutarch makes the soothsayer a member of the
household of Anthony at Eome : 'with Antonius there was a Sooth-
sayer or Astronomer of Egypt that could cast a figure and judge of
men's nativities, to tell them what should happen to them.' But
the play, like Bacon's story, makes him not only an Egyptian, but
one of the household of Cleopatra ; and in the play, he is sent by
Cleopatra as one of her numerous messengers from Egypt to Rome
to induce Anthony to return to Egypt; and in this he is success-
ful ; all which is in exact keeping with Bacon's statement that he
was thought to be suborned by Cleopatra to make Anthony live in
Egypt ; but of this there is not the least hint in Plutarch. All
this goes strongly to show that this story, together with the doc-
trine of a predominant or mastering spirit of one man over another,
went into the play through the Baconian strainer ; for it is next to
incredible that both Bacon and Shakespeare should make the same
variations upon the common original." — Authorship of Shakespeare,
i. 292.

LOCATION OF THE SOUL

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" His pure brain " The opinion of Plato, who

(Which some suppose the soul's placed the understanding in the
frail dwelling house)." brain . . . deserveth not to be de-

King John, v. 7 (1623). spised, but much less to be al-
lowed."— Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

Every man, says Bacon, has two souls : one, in common
with the brute creation ; the other, especially inspired by
God. The former, which he calls the sensible soul, he lo-
cates (to use his own language) " chiefly in the head ; " the
latter, or rational one, in no particular part of the body.
The doubt he evidently felt on this point is reflected in
' Kinfj John.*

1 6 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

A COMPOSITE WOMAN

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" If, one by one, you ■wedded all " A man cannot tell whether

the world, Apelles or Albert Diirer were the

Or from all that are, took some- more trifler; whereof the one would

thing good, make a personage by geometrical

To make a perfect woman, she proportions ; the other, by taking

you kill'd the best parts out of divers faces,

Would be unparallel'd." to make one excellent." — Essay

Winter's Tale, v. 1 (1623). of Beauty (1007-12).

" Ferdinand (to Miranda") :

But you, O you !
So perfect and so peerless, are

created
Of every creature's best."

Tempest, iii. 1 (1623).

This singular conception appears once more in Bacon's
prose works. In his history of ' Henry VII.' he says :

" The instructions touching the Queen of Naples were so curious
and exquisite, being as articles whereby to direct a survey or fram-
ing a particular of her person, for complexion, favour, feature,
stature, health, age, customs, behavior, conditions and estate, as
if ... he meant to find all things in one woman" (1621).

It may be well to add that Bacon makes a characteristic
error in his essay, quoted above ; for it was not Apelles, but
Zeuxis, of whom it is told that he took five beautiful maidens
of Greece to serve as models for his picture of Helen. The
author of the Plays was evidently familiar with this classical
story.

The 'Winter's Tale' was written in or about 1611; the
' Tempest,' in 1613 ; both were first printed in 1623. The
essay preceded both.

PARALLELISMS 17

THE HUMAN EYE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" The eye sees not itself " The mind of a wise man is

But by reflection, — by some other compared to a glass wherein images

thing. of all kinds in nature and custom

are represented." — Advancement

Since you know you cannot see of Learning (1603-5).

yourself
So well as by reflection, I, your

glass.
Will modestly discover to yourself
That of yourself which yet you
know not of."

Julius Ccesar, i. 2 (1623).

For the second edition of the ' Advancement,' printed in
the same year as the play, Bacon rewrote the above-quoted
sentence, as follows :

" The comparison of the mind of a wise man to a glass is the
more proper, because in a glass he can see his own image, which
the eye itself witliout a glass cannot do."

The original of both of these parallel passages, however, is
in Plato, not then translated into English :

" You may take the analogy of the eye ; the eye sees not itself,
but from some other thing, as, for instance, from a glass ; it can
also see itself by reflection in another eye." — First Alcibiades.

CROCODILES SHEDDING TEARS

" As the mournful crocodile " It is the wisdom of crocodiles

With soiTow snares relenting pas- that shed tears when they would
sengers." dcsvour." — Essay of Wisdom

2 Henry VL, iii. 2 (1623). (1625).

Taken from the Adagia of Erasmus, the Latin work from
which Bacon introduced more than two hundred proverbs
into his commonplace-book. The Adagia had not been

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

translated into English when the play of ' King Henry VL'
was published or written. Erasmus says :

" Sunt qui scrihunt crocodilum, conspecto procul homine, lachrymas
emittere atque eundem mox devorare"

PUTREFACTION

From Shakespeare

" The earth 's a thief
That feeds and breeds by a com-

posture stolen
From general excrement."

Timon of Athens, v. 3 (1623).
" Your chamber-lie breeds fleas
like a loach."

1 Henry IV., ii. 2 (1598).

From Bacon

" Putrefaction is the bastard
brother of vivification." — Natural
History (1622-25).

" Moulds of pics and flesh, of
oranges and lemons, turn into
worms." — Ibid.

" The nature of viWfication is
best inquired into in creatures bred
of putrefaction. Dregs of wine
turn into gnats." — Ibid.

" Wholesome meat corrupteth to
little worms." — Essay of Super-
stition (1607-12).

Bacon strongly held the old notion that putrefying sub-
stances generate organisms, such as frogs, grasshoppers, and
flies. And so did Shake-speare. Indeed, both authors seem
to have made a like investigation into the cause of the al-
leged phenomenon, as the following parallelism will show :

22
ORIGIN OF LIFE FROM PUTREFACTION

'^Hamlet. For if the sun breeds
maggots in a dead dog, being
a god kissing carrion, — Have
you a daughter ?

Polonius. I have, my lord.

Ham. Let her not walk in the
sun. Conception is a blessing,
but not as your daughter may
conceive."

Hamlet, ii. 2 (1604).

*' Aristotle dogmatically assigned
the cause of generation to the sun."
— Novum Organum (1608-20).

PARALLELISMS

St. Augustine says : " Certain very small animals may not
have been created on the fifth and sixth days, but may have
originated from putrefying matter." St. Isadore of Seville,
who wrote in the seventh century of our era, is more explicit ;
he declares that "bees are generated from decomposed veal,
beetles from horse-flesh, grasshoppers from mules, scorpions
from crabs."

Bacon pursued the subject still farther, anticipating the
time when the generation of animals out of putrefying sub-
stances would be controlled by man, thus :

" We make a number of kinds of serpents, worms, flies, fishes, of
putrefaction ; whereof some are advanced (in effect) to be perfect
creatures, Hke beasts or birds. Neither do we this by chance, but
we know beforehand of what matter and commixture what kind of
those creatures will arise." — New Atlantis.

CHILDREN OF GOOD PARENTS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" My trust, " You cannot find any man of

Like a good parent, did beget of rare felicity but either he died

him childless ... or else he was un-

A falsehood." fortunate in his children." — Me-

Tempest, i. 2 (1623). morial to Queen Elizabeth (1608).

This most extraordinary opinion, expressed by Bacon in
1 608, that happy men are always unfortunate in their chil-
dren (if they have any), was held also by the author of
the 'Tempest,' a play composed in about 1613. It is the
good parent, says Shake-speare, that begets children false
to him.

In the De Augmentis Bacon reiterates the statement, by
way of an exaggerated antithesis, thus : " They that are for-
tunate in other things are commonly unfortunate in their
children ; lest men should come too near the condition of
gods."

20 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

21
WHITE VIOLETS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Violets dim, "That which, above all others.

But sweeter than the lids of Juno's yields the sweetest smell in the air

eyes, is the violet, especially the white."

Or Cytherea's breath." — Essay of Gardens (^1625).
Winter's Tale, iv. 3 (1623).

The above exquisite passage from the ' Winter's Tale ' has
been the subject of much ignorant criticism. Dr. Johnson
accused the author of mistaking Juno for Pallas, on the
ground that the latter was the " goddess of blue eyes." Mr.
EUacombe, in his elaborate treatise on ' Plant Lore in Shake-
speare/ says that " in all the passages in which Shake-speare
names the violet he alludes to the purple violet." This is a
misapprehension. Bacon enables us to set the matter aright ;
for he tells us that it is the white variety which is the sweet-
est, and this, being slightly tinged or veined with purple, as
eyelids are, is the one, therefore, that justifies the compari-
son in the text.

Mr. EUacombe adds that the dramatist was evidently " very
fond " of this flower : he was so, indeed ; for in a letter to
Lord Treasurer Cranfield, Bacon expressed the pleasure he
should soon take in visiting his Lordship and "gathering
violets " in his garden.

THE world's muck

'' He looked upon things precious " Money is like muck, not good

as they were except it be spread upon the earth."

The common muck of the world." — Essay of Seditions (1625).
Coriolanus, ii. 2 (1623).

Bacon made use of this simile three times in the course of
his life : in a letter to King James ; in one of his Apothegms,
where he credited it to an associate in Gray's Inn ; and,
lastly, in the re\'ised version of his ' Essay of Seditions.' Dr.

PARALLELISMS 21

E. M. Theobald, to whom we are indebted for tliis paralleKsm,
remarks that the " annotators of ' Coriolanus ' have not yet
found out what Shakespeare meant by the ' common muck
of the world.'"

We group together several parallelisms under the head of
Love.

26
LOVE, A MADNESS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

*' Love is merely [wholly] a mad- ♦' Transported to the mad degree

ness." of love." — Essay of Love (1625).
As You Like It, iii. 2 (1623).

LOVE IS FOLLY

"By love, the young and tender wit "Love is the child of folly." —

Is turn'd to folly." Essay of Love (1612).

Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1
(1623).

STRONG CHARACTERS NOT GIVEN TO LOVE
" Believe not that the dribbling " Great spirits and great business

dart of love do keep out this weak passion." —

Can pierce a complete bosom." — Ihid.
Measure for Measure, i. 4 (1623).

29
LOVE FATAL TO WORLDLY SUCCESS

" It has " Whosoever esteemeth too much

Made me neglect my studies, lose of amorous affection quitteth both

my time, riches and wisdom." — Ibid.

War with good counsel, set the "All who, like Paris, prefer

world at naught." beauty, quit, like Paris, wisdom

Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1 and power." — De Augmentis (1622).

(1633).

LOVE CREEPS BEFORE IT GOES

"Love "Love must creep in service

Will creep in service where it can- where it cannot go." — Letter to

not go." King James.
Ibid.,iv. 2(1623).

22 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

The letter was written in IGIO, but not published till long
after Bacon's death. The proverb appeared in one of the
Shake-speare plays, in print for the first time in 1623.

MODERATE LOVE

From Shake-speare From Bacon

" Love moderately ; long love doth " Love me little ; love me long."

30." — Promus (1594-96).
Romeo and Juliet, ii. 6 (1599).

LOVE AND WISDOM INCOMPATIBLE

" To be wise and love "It is not granted man to love

Exceeds man's might; that dwells and be wise." — Advancement of

with gods above." Learning (1603-5).

Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2 (1609).

It was Publilius Syrus, a Roman mimographer of the time
of Julius Csesar, who said that " it is scarcely possible for a
god to love and be wise." Bacon and the author of the Plays
both quote the saying approvingly, but both also change its
application (as above) from gods to men.

LANGUAGE OF LOVE HYPERBOLICAL

"When we vow to weep, live " Speaking in a perpetual hyper-

in fire, eat rocks, tame tigers, — bole is comely in nothing but love.'"'
this is the monstrosity of love." — — Essay of Love (1612).
Ibid., iii. 2.

" Woo in rhyme, like a blind Har-
per's song,
Taffeta phrases, silken terms pre-
cise,

Three-pil'd hyperboles."
Love's Labor's Lost, v. 2 (1598).
" Cleopatra. If it be love indeed,

tell me how much.
Anthony. There's beggary in the
love that can be reckon'd.

PARALLELISMS 23

Cleo. I '11 set a bourn how far to

be loved.
Ant. Then must thou needs find

out new heaven, and new

earth."
Anthony and Cleopatra, i. (1623).

34
UNRECIPROCATED LOVE TREATED WITH CONTEMPT
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" In revenge of my contempt of " It is a true rule that Love is

love." ever rewarded either with the reci-

Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 4 proqueor with an inward and secret
(1623). contempt.'' — Essay of Love (1612).

35
LOVE BEWITCHES

" Now Romeo is beloved and loves " There be none of the affections,

again, which have been noted to fascinate

Alike bewitched by the charm of or bewitch, but Love and Envy." —
looks . ' ' Essay of Envy (1625).

Romeo and Juliet, i. Chorus
(1599).
" All the charms of love !
Let witchcraft join with beauty ! "
Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 1
(1623).

SOLDIERS GIVEN TO LOVE

•'' We are soldiers, " I know not how, but martial

And may that soldier a mere re- men are given to love." — Essay of

creant prove Love (1625).

That means not, hath not, or is not
in love."
Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 (1609).

This passage from Bacon's Essay was quoted by Lord
Tennyson to prove that Bacon, owing to his peculiar senti-
ments on love, could not have written the plays of Shake-
speare. And yet here is the identical sentiment in ' Troilus
and Cressida.'

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

LOVE HOSTILE TO FORTUNE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" We have kiss'd away "Love troubleth men's for-

Kingdoms and provinces." tunes." — Ihid.

Anthony and Cleopatra, iii. 8
(1623).

These twenty-eight passages on Love cited above, and
many more of the same kind that might be cited, plainly
show that the two authors were in exact accord on the sub-
ject. This fact, indeed, is not without recognition among in-
telligent commentators. For example :

" In * Venus and Adonis,' the goddess, after the death of her
favorite, utters a curse upon love which contains in the germ, as it
were, the whole development of the subject as Shakespeare has un-
folded it in the series of his dramas." — Gervinus.

It has been asserted by several writers that Queen Eliza-
beth withdrew her countenance from Bacon because of her
aversion to his sentiments on love, as expressed in his famous
essay. The essay was not written till nine years after the
Queen's death.

DIVINATION

From Bacon :

*' By natural divination we mean that the mind has of its own essen-
tial power some pre-notion of things to come. This appears mostly (1)
in sleep; (2) in ecstasies; (3) near death; (4) more rarely, in waking
apprehensions; and (5) . . . from the foreknowledge of God and the
epirits." — De Augmentis (1622).

From Shakespeare:
1. In sleep :

" King Richard [narrating a dream].

Methought the souls of all that I had murder'd
Came to my tent; and every one did threat
To-morrow's vengeance on the head of Richard."

PARALLELISMS 25

" Richmond {also narrating a dream'}.

Metbought their souls, whose bodies Richard murder'd,
Came to my tent, and cried on victory."

Richard III., v. 3 (159V).

2. In ecstasy:

" Queen Ito Hamlet, who sees his father's ghost].
This is the very coinage of your brain;
This bodiless creation ecstasy is very cunning in."

Hamlet, iii. 4 (1604).

3. Near death :

" King Henry [^to his executioner^

Thus I prophesy, that many a thousand,
Which now mistrust no parcel of my fear,
And many an old man's sigh, and many a widow's,
And many an orphan's water-standing eye —
Men for their sons, wives for their husbands.
And orphans for their parents' timeless death —
Shall rue the hour that ever thou wast born."

3 Henry VI., v. 6 (1595).

4. In waking apprehensions :

" Macbeth. Methought I heard a voice cry, * Sleep no more,
Macbeth does murder sleep.' . . .

Lady Macbeth. What do you mean ?

Macb. Still it cried, ' Sleep no more,' to all the house ;

Glamis hath murder'd sleep, and therefore Cawdor
Shall sleep no more; Macbeth shall sleep no more."

Macbeth, ii. 2 (1623).

5. From foreknowledge of spirits :

" King [to Hamlet]. Prepare thyself ;

The bark is ready, and the wind at help ;

The associates tend, and everything is bent

For England.
Hamlet. For England !

King. Ay, Hamlet.

Ham. Good.

King. So it is, if you knew'st our purposes.

Ham. I see a cherub that sees them." ^

Hamlet, iv. 3 (1604).

1 Col. II. L. Moore of Lawrence, Kansas, in the Journal of the Bacon
Society, i. 187. Colonel Moore is an exceptionally keen and able critic.

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Here we have a perfect illustration of each one of the five
kinds of divination mentioned by Bacon.

OPIATES

From Bacon
"■ Simple opiates are . . . (1) the
plant and seed of the poppy, (2)
henbane, (3) mandragora. . • ."
— Natural History (1622-25).

From Shakespeare
" Not (1) poppy, nor (3) man-
dragora,
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the

world
Shall ever medicine to that sweet

sleep
Which thou ow'dst yesterday."

Othello, iii. 3 (1622).
" Cleo, Give me to drink (3) man-
dragora.
Char. Why, madame ?
Cleo. That I might sleep out this

great gap of time
My Anthony is away."

Anthony and Cleopatra, i. 5
(1623).
" Upon my secure hour thy uncle

stole,
With juice of cursed (2) hebenon

[henbane] in a vial,
And in the porches of mine ear did

pour
The leperous distillment."

Hamlet, i. 5 (1603).

Both authors evidently made a study of anaesthetics:
Bacon, for his Natural History, which was not published
until after his death and which, therefore, could not have
been the source of Shake-speare's knowledge of the subject ;
and Shake-speare, from time to time for several of the Plays,
exact dates unknown. Bacon's study was of course original,
for he mentions many opiates not foimd in Shake-speare.

The two authors, still hand in hand as it were, pursued
the inquiry farther ; they investigated not only artificial

PARALLELISMS

methods of inducing sleep, but also those that cause death
to be painless. Under this head Bacon specifies three, two
of which are given by Shake-speare. Indeed, the dramatist
makes one of his characters (Cleopatra) an avowed specialist
(as Bacon was) in this singular branch of science, thus :

40
PAINLESS DEATH

From Shake-speare
" Bring down the devil, for he must

not die
So sweet a death as hanging."

Titus Andronicus, v. 1 (1600).
" Hast thou the pretty worm of

Nilus there,
That kills and pains not ? "
Anthony and Cleopatra, V. 2 (1623).
" She [Cleopatra] hath pursued

conclusions infinite
Of easy ways to die." Ihid.

From Bacon

" A man who was hanged and
afterwards resuscitated, on being
asked what he had suffered said
that he felt no pain." — History of
Life and Death (1623).

" The death that is most without
pain hath been noted to be upon tak-
ing a potion of hemlock. . . . The
poison of the asp, that Cleopatra
used, hath some affinity with it."

Ibid.

The passage quoted above from 'Hamlet' was doubtless
suggested by what Pliny says of hebenon or henbane ; namely,
that it is a dangerous poison, especially when " injected into
the ear." Pliny was not translated into English until fifteen
years at least after the play of ' Hamlet ' was first drafted.

RECOGNITION

" I have surely seen him ;

His favour is familiar to me ; Boy,

Thou hast look'd thyself into my

grace,
And art mine own. I know not

why, nor wherefore."

Cymbeline, v. 5 (1623).

OF FRIENDS

" It is mentioned in some stories
that where children have been ex-
posed, or taken away young from
their parents, and afterward have
been brought into their parents'
presence, the parents, though they
have not known them, have felt
a secret joy or other alteration
thereupon." — Natural History
(1622-25).

28 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

lu the above passage from Shake-speare, it is Imogen who
comes disguised after a long separation into her father's pres-
ence, producing upon him the effect noted in the play and
described by Bacon.

TERRESTRIAL GRAVITY

From Shake-speare From Bacon

" As the very centre of the earth, " Bodies fall towards the centre

Drawing all things to it." of the earth." — Union of the

Troilus and Cressida, iv. 2 Kingdoms (1603).

(1609). " The ancients added the math-

" I '11 believe as soon ematical fancy that heavy bodies

This whole earth may be bor'd, and would adhere to the centre of the

that the moon earth, even if the earth were bored

May through the centre creep." through." — History of Heavy and

Midsummer-NighCs Dream, iii. 2 Light (1623).
(1600).

The opinion that, if a hole were bored tlirough the earth,
bodies falling into it from either end would stop at the centre,
or as near the centre as possible, was elaborated by Eras-
mus, thus :

" Curio. If any god should bore through the centre of the earth,
quite down to the antipodes in a perpendicular line, and a stone were
let fall into it, whither would it go 1

Alphius. To the centre of the earth ; there all heavy bodies rest.

Cur. "What if the antipodes should let fall a stone on their side ?

Alp. Then one stone would meet the other about at the centre and
stop there.

Cur. But what if by the vehemence of its motion the stone should
pass beyond the centre ?

Alp. It would return to the centre again, just as, when thrown up
into the air, it returns again to the earth.

Cur. But suppose any one should bore through the earth, but not
through the centre itself, as, for instance, one hundred furlongs distant
on one side from it, where would a stone fall then ?

Alp. It would go straight to a point opposite the centre and rest there,
and at the left hand of the hole if the centre were at the left."

Familiar Colloquies.

PARALLELISMS 29

The ' Familiar Colloquies ' was first printed in Latin (as
already stated) in 1519, but not translated iuto English
until 1671. Bacon is kuown to have become thoroughly-
acquainted with the Latin works of Erasmus as early as
15941

43
KING JAMES AND SCOTLAND

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Tlie body is with the king, " Although his body-politic of

but the king is not with the King of England and his body-
body." — Hamlet, iv. 3 (1604). politic of King of Scotland be sev-
eral and distinct, yet his natural
person, which is one, hath an
operation upon both and createth
a privity between them." — Speech
in Court (1608).

The passage quoted above from 'Hamlet' seems to have
grown out of the new relations then existing between Scot-
land and the King. James had left Scotland the year before
(1603), but he claimed that, though separated in person
from its body-pohtic, he was still united with it as closely
as ever. " I am the head ; it is my body," said he, in his
first address to the English parliament. Bacon became at
once a strenuous advocate of the political union of the two
kingdoms, one of his arguments being that, although the
King in his natural body was not with the body -politic of
Scotland, yet the body-politic of Scotland was still with him.'*

1 Bacon seems to have caught a glimpse of ore of the laws of gravity, —
namely, that attraction is in proportion to mass, — for he asserted that while six
men inight be required to move a certain stone at the surface of the earth, two
could easily move the same stone at the bottom of a mine ; the difference in
weiglit being due, of course, to the counteraction of a part of the earth's mass,
where the stone is beneath the surface. Indeed, he finally rejected the com-
mon opinion that bodies are always drawn toward tlie centre of the earth (a
mathematical point, as he called it), because, he said, bodies can be attracted
only by bodies, and not by place. Had he known the other law, discovered
by Newton, that attraction is in inverse ratio to the square of the distance,
he would have seen his mistake in regard to the stone.

2 See Dr. Robert M. Tlicohald in Journal of Bacon Society.

so BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

POETRY, A PLANT WITHOUT SEED

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Our poesy is as a gum which oozes "Poesy is a plant that cometh

From whence 'tis nourished." of the lust of the earth, without a

Timon of Athens, \. \ {IQ^?)'). formal seed." — Advancement of

Learning (1603-5).

A remarkable deiinition of poetry, given by Bacon eighteen
years before it appeared in any form in Shake-speare. * Timon
of Athens ' was written after Bacon's downfall in 1621.

WHEN WRONG IS JUSTIFIABLE

" To do a great right, do a " The question is of a great deal

little wrong," of good to ensue of a small in-

Merchant of Venice, \Y. 1 (1600). justice." — Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

46
CIRCUMLOCUTION

" King Richard. Stanley, what " It is strange how long some

news with you ? men will lie in wait to speak some-

Stanley. None good, my liege, to what they desire to say, and how

please you with the hearing, far about they will fetch." — Essay
Nor none so bad, but well may be of Cunning (1625).

reported.
King Richard. Heyday, a riddle !

neither good nor bad ?
What need'st thou run so many

miles about,
When thou may'st tell thy tale

the nearest wayl
Once more, what news ? "
King Richard III., iv. 4 (1597).

PARALLELISMS 31

OBSOLETE LAWS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" We have strict statutes and most " It has been weU said that ' no

bitin«^ laws, ^^^ should be wiser than the laws ; '

Which for these fourteen years we yet this must be understood of

have let sleep." waking and not of sleeping laws."

Measure for Measure, i. 3 (1623). De Augmentis (1622).

In the De Augmentis Bacon devotes several aphorisms to
the consideration of obsolete laws. He regards such laws as
a source of danger in the influence which they naturally exert
on the public mind regarding all law. To repeal them from
time to time was the one great practical reform which he con-
stantly urged upon the government, and it is the identical
reform which the author of ' Measure for Measure ' sought to
illustrate and enforce in that play. Bacon advised the fre-
quent appointment of commissions to do this work ; the Duke
iu the play actually appoints one.

Judge Holmes calls attention to the fact that both authors
make the possession of "power and place" a necessary condition
to the accomplishment of this end. "Good thoughts are
little better than good dreams, except they be put in act ; and
that cannot be without power and place," says Bacon.

" I have deliver'd to Lord Angelo,
A man of stricture and firm abstinence,
My absolute power and place here in Vienna,"

says the Duke.

VACUUM

" The air which, but for vacancy, " There is no vacuum in nature,

Had gone to gaze on Cleopatra either in space at large, or in the

too, pores of bodies." — History of

And made a gap in nature." Dense and Rare {\Q2Z).
Anthony and Cleopatra,ii. 2 (1623).

32 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Bacon's mind was in a curious state of vacillation regard-
ing the theory of a vacuum in nature. At tirst he thought
that the atoms of which a body is composed must vibrate in
a vacuum, as he could not otherwise conceive how bodies
contract and expand. This was in 1603. In 1620, when he
published the Novum Organum, he said he was in doubt on
the subject ; but three years later we find him distinctly and
emphatically rejecting the theory of a vacuum, whether ap-
plied to bodies in space or to the internal constitution of
bodies. It is this last state of his mind which is reflected in
' Anthony and Cleopatra ' of the same date.

SELF-TORTURE IN PROSPECT OF DEATH

From Shakespeare From Bacon

Cardinal Beaufort^s Bedchamber. " The poets in tragedies do make
The Cardinal in Bed. the most passionate lamentations,

" Cardinal. Bring me unto my and those that fore-run final de-
trial when you will. spair, to be accusing, questioning,
Died he not in his bed ? Where and torturing of a man's self." —

should he die ? Colors of Good and Evil (1597).

Can I make men live whe'r they

will or no ?
O ! torture me no more, I will con-
fess."

2 Henry VI., iii. 2 (1623).

Cardinal Beaufort is represented in the drama as having
been accessory to the murder of Duke Humphrey, and after-
wards (in the above) as " questioning and torturing " himself
on the verge (forerunning) of " final despair."

THE NOXIOUS IN STUDIES

" The prince but studies his com- " There are neither teeth, nor

panions stings, nor venom, nor wreaths and

Like a strange tongue, wherein folds of serpents which ought not

to gain, the language. to be known. Let no man fear

PARALLELISMS

'T is needful that the most im-
modest word

Be look'd upon and leain'd ;
which ouce attaiu'd,

Youi' highness knows, comes to no
further use

But to be known and hated,''

2 Henry IV., iv. 4 (1600).

infection therefrom, for the sun
eutereth into sinks and is not
defiled." — Meditationes Sacrce
(1598).

PRESUMPTION

From Shakespeare

" Most is it presumption in us,

when
The help of heaven we count the
act of men."

Airs Well,i\. 1 (1623).
" There 's something in 't.
More than my father's skill (which

was the greatest
Of his profession), that his good

receipt
Shall for my legacy be sanctified
By the luckiest stars of heaven."
Ibid., i. 3.

From Bacon

"Those that were great poHti-
ques ever ascribed their successes
to their felicity, and not to their
skill or virtue." — Advancement oj
Learning (1603-5).

"All wise men, to decline the
envy of their own virtues, use to
ascribe them to providence and
fortune." — Essay of Fortune
(1607-12).

Bacon refers to this act of presumption several times in
his writings, and to the evil effects that flow from it. He
mentions twice the case of Timotheus, the Athenian, who,
" after he had, in the account he gave to the state of his
government, often interlaced this speech, ' And in this For-
tune had no part,' never prospered in anything he undertook
afterwards."

Bacon also cites an instance of the same kind from the
life of Julius Caesar. When it was reported to Ctesar that
the omens were unpropitious for his going to the Senate, he
was heard to mutter, — "They will be auspicious when I
will." His death immediately followed.

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

52
NATURE OF WOMAN

From Shakespeare
" This it is to be a peevish girl,
That flies her fortune when it

follows her."
Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 2
(1623).

From Bacon
"Fortune has somewhat of the
nature of a woman, who, if she be
too much wooed, is commonly the
farther off." — Advancement o/
Learning (1603-5).

SECOND CHOICE

" This project
Should have a back, or second, that

might hold,
If this should blast in proof."

Hamlet, iv. 7 (1604).

" A man ought to have one thing
under another, as, if he cannot
have that he seeketh in the best
degree, yet to have it in a
second." — Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

CREDITING ONE S OWN LIE

" Who having unto truth, by tell-
ing oft,

Made such a sinner of hia mem-
ory

To credit hia own lie, he did
believe

He was indeed the Duke."

" It was generally believed that
he was indeed Duke Richard. Nay,
himself, with long and continual
counterfeiting and with oft telling
a lie, was turned by habit almost
into the thing be seemed to be;
and from a liar into a believer." —

Tempest, i. 2 (1623). History of Henry VIL (1621).

A sentiment uttered by Tacitus in his Annals. Bacon
quoted the Latin sentence containing it, in the 'Advance-
ment of Learning ' (1605), but with an entire misconception
of its meaning. He then rendered it thus : " The man who
easily believes rumors will as easily manufacture additions to
them." Later in life, however, he seems to have gained a
better insight into the passage, the true signification of which,
enlarged into a proverb, is, that untruthful persons credit even
their own lies. It is so given both in the ' History of Henry
VIL ' (1621) and in the ' Tempest ' (1623). The qualification

PARALLELISMS 35

that a lie is to be repeated many times as a condition pre-
cedent to such belief is not in Tacitus, but is peculiar alike
to Bacon and to Shake-speare, as above.
" Telling oft." — Shake-speare.

" Oft telling." — Bacon.

APPROVAL OF ERROR

From Shake-speare From Bacon

" What damned error, but some " There is scarce any passion

sober brow which has not some branch of

Will bless it and approve it with learning to flatter it." — De Aug-

a text ? " mentis (1622).
Merchant of Venice, iii. 2 (1600).

56
GOOD INTENTIONS WITHOUT ACTS

" If our virtues " What is your virtue, if yom

Did not go forth of us, 't were aU show it not ? " — Gray's Inn Revels

alike (1595).

As if we had them not." " Good thoughts . . . are little

Measure for Measure, i. 1 (1623). better than good dreams, except

they be put in act." — Essay of
Great Place (1607-12).

JUPITER ASSUMING FORMS OF BEASTS

" Jupiter " The poets tell us that Jupiter

Became a hull and bellow'd." in pursuit of his loves assumed

Winter's Tale, iv. 4 (1623). many shapes, — a hull, an eagle, a

"As I slept, methought swan." — Wisdom of the Ancients

Great Jupiter, upon his eagle (1609).

back'd.
Appeared to me."

Cymheline, v. 5 (1623).

" You were also, Jupiter, a swan.'^

Merry Wives of Windsor, v. 5

(1623).

CESAR DECLINING THE CBOWN

" Brutus. Casca, tell us what hath " Caesar did extremely affect the

chanc'd to-day that Csefiar name of king ; and some were set
looks 80 sad. on, as he passed by, in popular

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

acclamation to salute him king
whereupon, finding the cry weak
and poor he put it off thus, in a
kind of jest." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

Casca. Why, there was a crown
offered him ; and being oflfered
him, he put it by with the
back of his hand, thus ; and
then the people fell a shouting.

Brutus. What was the second
noise for ?

Casca. Why, for that too.

Cassius. They shouted thrice;
what was the last cry for ?

Casca. Why, for that too.

Brutus. Was the crown offered
him thrice ?

Casca. Ay, marry, was 't, and he
put it by thrice, every time
gentler than other; and at
every putting by, mine honest
neighbors shouted.

Cassius. Who offered him the
crown 1

Casca. Why, Antony.

Brutus. Tell us the manner of it,
gentle Casca.

Casca. I can as well be hanged as
tell the manner of it; it was
mere foolery."

Julius Ccesar i. 2 (1623).

This account was undoubtedly taken, directly or indirectly,
from Plutarch, where it is given as follows : —

" Cossar, dressed in a triumphal robe, seated himself iu a golden
chair at the rostra, to view this ceremony [celebration of the Luper-
calia]. Antony . . . went up and reached to Caesar a diadem
wreathed with laurel. Upon this there was a shout, but only a slight
one, made by the few who were stationed there for that purpose ;
but when Caesar refused it, there was universal applause. Upon the
second offer, very few, and upon the second refusal, all again, ap-
plauded. Cfesar, finding it would not take, rose up and ordered the
Crown to be carried into the Capitol. Caesar's statues were after-
ward found with royal diadems on their heads." — Life of Julius
Ccesar.

PARALLELISMS 37

North's English translation of Plutarch's ' Lives ' was pub-
lished in 1579 ; Bacon's ' Advancement of Learning 'in 1605;
Shakespeare's play of 'Julius Cfesar' in 1623. It is sus-
ceptible of easy proof, as Judge Holmes in his ' Authorship
of Shakespeare' shows, that the narration in the play did
not come directly from Plutarch, but either from the ' Ad-
vancement ' or from the pen of the author of the ' Advance-
ment.' Judge Holmes says :

" The play follows the ideas of Bacon rather than those of
Plutarch, and adopts the very peculiarities of Bacon's expres-
sions, wherein they diifer from North's ' Plutarch,' as, for instance,
in these :

* Caesar refused it.' — Plutarch.
' He put it off thus.' — Bacon.

' He put it off with the back of his hand, thus.' — Shakespeare.

* There was a shout, but only a slight one.' — Plutarch.
' Finding the cry weak and poor.' — Bacon.

* What was that last cry for ] ' — Shakespeare.

— Plutarch.

* In a kind of jest.' — Bacon.

' It was mere foolery.' — Shakespeare.

[Plutarch has nothing to coiTespond with these last ex-
pressions. The author of the play plainly followed Bacon.]

" Again, North's Plutarch speaks of a laurel crown having a
' royal band or diadem wreathed about it, which in old time was
the ancient mark or token of a king ; ' in the play it is called a
' crown,' or ' one of these coronets,' but never a diadem, while in
Bacon, it is the * style and diadem of a king ; ' whence it would
seem clear that Bacon followed Plutarch rather than the play." —
The Authorship of Shakespeare, page 286.

In the following, the versions are substantially alike :

From Shakespeare From Bacon
" Decius. The Senate have con- " With Julius Ca)sar, Decimus
eluded Brutus had obtained that interest.
To give this day a crown to mighty as he set him down, in liis testa-
Caesar ; ment, for heir in remainder, after

:34r>65

38 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

If you shull send tiiem word you his nepliew. And this was the

will not come, man that had power with him, to

Their minds may change. Besides, draw him I'urth to his death. For

it were a mock, when Caesar would have discharged

Apt to be rendered, for some one the Senate, in regard of some ill

to say, presages, and especially a dream of

Break up the Senate till another Calpurnia, this man lifted him

time, gently by the arm out of his chair,

When Caesar's wife shall meet with telling him he hoped he would not

better dreams." dismiss the Senate till his wile

Julius Ccesar, ii. 2. had dreamt a better dream." —
Essay of Friendship (1625).

It has been noticed that the name of Caesar's wife CaU
purnia, and the prtenomen of Brutus, Decimus, while given
correctly in Bacon's ' Essay of Friendship,' are spelled re-
spectively Calphur7iia and Decius in the play, the inference
being that the two compositions could not have proceeded
from the same pen ; in other words, that Bacon knew what
Shake-speare did not know. The discrepancy is easily ex-
plainable. The forms found in the play were in Shake-
speare's time in common use in England. The Essay was
sent to the press two years after the publication of the play,
through the hands of Bacon's chaplain and amanuensis,
Eawley, who edited it for the press. We know this from the
fact that he impressed upon it (as will be seen above) his
own singular method of punctuation. Eawley was a Latin
scholar, and would naturally have made the superficial cor-
rections, alluded to, in the text.^

A similar mistake, Bosphorus for Bosporus, has been

1 Bacon's ' Essay of F.ame,' a fragment, was published by Rawley in 1657,
thirty years after Bacon's death. The following passage from it will also
show Rawley's peculiar method of pniictuation : —

" Julius Caesar, took Pompey unprovided, and laid asleep his industry, and
preparations, by a Fame that he cunningly gave out ; How Caesar's own
soldiers loved him not ; and being wearied with the wars, and laden with the
spoils of Gaul, would forsake him, as soon as he came into Italy. Livia,
settled all things, for the succession, of her son Tiberius, by continually giving
out, that her husband Augustus, was upon recovery, and amendment."

PARALLELISMS

handed down to the present time, even through the scholarly-
pages of Gibbon.

DEFORMITY OF RICHARD HI

From Shakespeare

" Gloucester. I, that am not
shaped for sportive tricks,

Nor made to court an amorous
lookiug-glass ;

I, that am rudely stamp'd, and
want love's majesty

To strut before a wanton ambling
nymph;

I, that am curtail'd of this fair pro-
portion,

Cheated of feature by dissembling
nature,

Deform'd, unfinish'd, sent before
my time

Into this breathing world, scarce
half made up.

And that so lamely and unfashion-
able

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 s>m

And descant on mine own deform-
ity ;

And therefore, since I cannot prove
a lover.

To entertain these fair well-spoken
days,

I am determined to prove a villain.

Plots have I laid, inductions dan-
gerous,

By drunken prophesies, libels, and
dreams,

From Bacon

'• Deformed persons are com-
monly even with nature ; for as
nature hath done ill by them, so
do they by nature ; being for the
most part (as the scripture saith)
void of natural affection ; and so
they have their revenge of nature."
— Essay of Deformity (1607-12).

" Deformed persons seek to
rescue themselves from scorn by
malice." — De Augmentis (1622).

40 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

To set my brother Clarence and

the King
In deadly hate."

Richard III., i. 1 (1597).

Richard III. is said to have been deformed, one of his
shoulders being somewhat higher than the other. The defect,
however, was scarcely noticeable, and yet Shake-speare, fol-
lowing and enlarging upon Holinshed, tells us it was so
marked that dogs in the street barked at the figure as it
passed. But this exaggeration had a definite purpose. The
play was written to show the natural connection between
deformity in body and deformity in mind, the two being in
the relation, as Bacon says, of cause and effect. Accordingly
we have in Richard a monster " born before his time," " born
with teeth," " unfinished," a " bottled spider," a " foul bunch-
back'd toad." He is also (in strict accordance with Bacon's
theory), "void of natural affection;" for he murders his
wife, his brother Clarence, and his two young nephews
in the Tower; and he died with his mother's curse on his
soul.^

In the play of ' Henry VI.,' this relationship between mind
and body in the case of Richard III. is still more clearly ex-
pressed :

" Gloucester. Since the heavens have shaped my body so,

Let hell make crook'd my mind to answer it. "

3 Henry VI., v. 6.

1 " The deformity could scarcely have been very marked in one who per-
formed such feats upon the battlefield, nor does it appear distinctly in any
contemporary portrait, though there are not a few. Of these several are of
the same type, and perhaps by the same artist, as those in the royal collection
at Windsor and the National Portrait Gallery. They exhibit an anxious-
looking face, with features capable, no doubt, of very varied expression, but
scarcely the look of transparent malice and deceit attributed to him by Poly-
dore Vergil, or the warlike, hard-favored visage with which he is credited by
Sir Thomas More." — Dictionary of National Biography."

The same criticism applies to Holinshed. Authorities differ even as to
which shoulder was the higher.

PARALLELISMS

60
HARMONY OF THE SPHERES

From Shakespeare

" Launcelot. Sit, Jessica ; look how

the floor of heaven
I3 thick inlaid with patines of

bright gold;
There 's not the smallest orb which

thou behold'st
But in his motion like an angel

sings,
Still quiring to the young-eyed

Cherubins ;
Such harmony is in immortal

souls ;
But, whilst this muddy vesture of

decay
Doth grossly close it in, we can-
not hear it."
Merchant of Venice, v. 1 (1600).

From Bacon

" It was Plato's opinion that all
knowledge is but remembrance,
and that the mind of man by
nature knoweth all things, and
hath but her own native and orig-
inal motions (which by the
strangeness and darkness of this
tabernacle of the body are se-
questered) again revived." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

" The pipe of seven reeds [borne
by Pan] plainly denotes the har-
mony and consent of things, caused
by the motion of the seven planets.
... If there be any lesser planets
which are not visible, or any
greater change in the heavens (as
in some superlunary comets), it
seems they are as pipes either
entirely mute or vocal only for
a season ; inasmuch as their in-
fluences either do not approach
so low as ourselves, or do not long
interrupt the harmony of the
seven pipes of Pan." — De Aug-
mentis (1622).

It is the integument of our bodies, Shakespeare says in
effect, that prevents our perceiving the harmonious motions
of the stars ; it is also the integument of our bodies, says
Bacon, that shuts out from our memory those motions of the
spirit which we had in a previous state of existence. Bacon
deliberately used here the word motion to describe what it is
that the body excludes; but editors of his works, even in-
cluding Mr. Spedding, have ignorantly substituted for it the
word notion. The parallel passage in the play justifies us in

42 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

restoring the original text. In Bacon's philosophy discord
and concord are natural results of motion.

Indeed, both authors make occasional use of the word
motion in a very peculiar philosophical sense, applying it, as
occasion may require and to the despair of commentators, to
every possible impulse or movement, mental and physical, in
the whole realm of created things.
In Bacon :

'* The light of nature consisteth in the motions [that is, intui-
tions] of the mind and the reports of the senses." — Advancement
of Learning.

Motions changed to notions by modern editors.

In Shakespeare :

" Yet in the number I do know but one

That, unassailable, holds on his rank,

Unshak'd of motion."

Julius Ccesar, iii. 1.

" Read, Unshak'd of notion." — Upton's Critical Observations on
Shakespeare, p. 229.

" The reasons of our state I cannot yield,
But like a common and an outward man,
That the great figure of a council frames
By self-unable motion."

All 's Well, iii. 1.

" Read notion ; that is, from his own ideas. A printer might
easily mistake motion for notion." — Prebendary Upton, p. 230.

THE WIND, A BROOM
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Puck. I am sent with broom " To the earth the winds are

before, brooms ; they sweep and cleanse

To sweep the dust behind the iV — History of the Winds {1^21).

door."
Midsummer-Night'' s Dream, v. 1
(1600).

Puck is one of the aerial spirits personified in ' Midsummer-
Night's Dream.' He represents the winds.

PARALLELISMS 43

62
PATIENCE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"You are so fretful, you cannot "To live long, one must be

live long." patient." —Promus (1594-6).
l°Henry IV., Z (1598).

63
REFLECTION OF VIRTUE

" Man feels not what he owes, but " Virtue is as an heat which is
by reflection ; doubled by reflection." — Colors

As when his virtues, aiming upon of Good and Evil (1597).
others.

Heat them, and they retort that
heat again

To the first givers."

Troilusand Cressida, iii. 3 (1609).

64
WORLD ON WHEELS

" The world on wheels." "The world runs on wheels." —

Two Gentleinen of Verona, iii. 1 Promus (1594-96).
(1623).
" The third part [of the world] then

is drunk ; would it were all,
That it might go on wheels."
Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 7 (1623).

DEATH-BED UTTERANCES

" The tongues of dying men " The words which men speak

Enforce attention, like deep bar- at their death, like the song of the
raony." dying swan, have a wonderful

Richard 77., ii. 1 (1597). eff"ect upon men's minds." — Wis-
dom of the Ancients (1609).

Diomedes, having wounded Venus in battle, was put to
death for impiety, and his followers were changed into
swans, "a bird," says Bacon, "which at the approach of

44 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

its own death utters a sweet and plaintive sound." This
myth is several times referred to in the Plays:

" If he lose, he makes a swau-like end,
Fading in music."

Merchant of Venice, iii. 2.

It is in the comparison, however, between the speech of
dying men and the notes of a dying swan, or " deep har-
mony," that this extraordinary parallelism exists.

RELIGIOUS PERSECUTION
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" It is an heretic that makes the " We may not take up the third
fire, sword (which is Mahomet's) . . .

Not she which burns in 't." to propagate religion by wars or by

Winter's Tale, u. 3 (1623). sanguinary persecutions; ... or

descend to the cruel and execrable
actions of murdering princes, butch-
ery of people, and subversion of
states and governments. Surely
this is to bring down the Holy
Ghost, not in the likeness of a
dove, but in the shape of a
vulture." — Essay of Unity of
Religion (1612).

This, in an age of almost universal intolerance, is a marked
agreement of opinion in favor of religious liberty. It was
also of the same date, the play being first heard of in 1611,
and the essay in 1612.

DIVINITY IN CHANCE

" Our indiscretion sometimes serves "Oh, what divinity there is in

us well, chance ! Accident is many times

"When our dear plots do pall ; and more subtle than foresight." — Ad-

that should teach us, vancement of Learning {l%QZ-b).

PARALLELISMS

There 's a divinity that shapes our

ends,
Rough hew them how we will."
Hamlet, v. 2 (1604).

SUITS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Being perfected how to grant •' To grant all suits were to undo

suits, yourself or your people; to deny

How to deny them, whom to ad- all suits were to see never a con-

vance, and whom tented face ; ... as your Majesty

To trash for overtopping." hath of late won hearts by depress-

Tempest, i. 2 (1623). ing, you should in this lose no

hearts by advancing," — Letter to

King James ^ (1620).

" There is use also of ambitious
men in pulling down the greatness
of any subject that overtops."

Essay of Ambition (1625).

69
MISQUOTING ARISTOTLE

" Young men, whom Aristotle " Is not the opinion of Aristotle

thought worthy to be regarded wherein he

Unfit to hear moral philosophy." saith that young men are no fit

Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2 auditors of moral philosophy ] " —

(1609). Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

It was political philosophy that Aristotle referred to.

" AtO T^S TToXtTlK^? OVK CCTTtV OlKftOS d/CpoaTJJS O VEOS.

Nicomachean Ethics, i. 3.

This error doubtless originated with Erasmus, with whose
works Bacon was thoroughly acquainted. It is found in

^ Quoted by Theron S. E. Dixon in his admirable work entitled ' Francis
Bacon and his Shakespeare' (1895), p. 36. "We should bo doing our readers
great injustice not to call their attention to this author's masterly analysis of
the drama of ' Julius Caesar.' All intelligent lovers of Shake-speare will
mourn Mr. Dixon's untimely death in 1898. He was a lawyer of uncommon
ability and worth.

46 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

the 'Familiar Colloquies/ first published iu Latin in 1519,
but not translated into English until 1671, or sixty -two years
after the date of the play. Erasmus wrote :

" Velut irrejpens in animos adolcscentium quos rede scripsit
Aristoteles inidoneus ethicce philosophic^ " (young persons
whom Aristotle accounted not to be fit auditors of moral
philosophy).

Following is a group of parallelisms on the subtle connec-
tion between Secrecy and Trust.

SILENCE INDUCING TRUST

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Your silence, " Secrecy induceth trust and

Cunning in dumbness, from my inwardness." — Advancement of

weakness draws Learning (1603-5).

My very soul of counsel."
Troilusand Cressida, iii. 2 (1609).

In the second edition of the ' Advancement ' (De Aug-
mentis), Bacon rewrote the above sentence thus:

"Taciturnity induceth trust, so that men like to deposit their
secrets there."

Again :

" The silent man hears everything, for everything can be safely
communicated to him."

BLABBING

" See, we fools ! " The secret man heareth many

Why have I blabb'd ? Who shall confessions ; for who will open

be true to us, himself to a blab ] " — Essay of

When we are so unsecret to Simulation (1625).

ourselves ? "
Troilusand Cressida, iii. 2 (1609).

PARALLELISMS 47

72
INDISCRETION
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Sweet, bid ine hold my tongue, " Experience showeth that there

For in this rapture I shall surely are few men so true to themselves
speak and so settled but that, sometimes

The thing I shall repent." upon heat, sometimes upon bra-

Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2 very, sometimes upon kindness,
(1609), sometimes upon trouble of mind

and weakness, they open them-
selves."— Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

It will be noticed that this train of thought, abstruse and
peculiar, appears in the 'Advancement of Learning' (1605),
'Troilus and Cressida' (1609), De Augmentis (1622), and
the Essays (1625).

INVITING CONFIDENCES

" Perchance, my lord, I show more " Liberty of speech inviteth and

craft than love, provoketh liberty [in others], and

And fell so roundly to a large con- so bringeth much to a man's knowl-

fession edge." — Advancement of Learning

To angle for your thoughts." (160-3-5).

Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2 (1609).

This is a variation of the same theme as above (secrecy
and trust). Bacon thus reverts to it in the De Augmentis :

" The second [rule] is to keep a discreet temper and mediocrity
both in liberty of speech and in secrecy ; in most cases using
liberty, but secrecy when the occasion requires it."

Even this variation duly appears in both authors.

A SPANISH PROVERB

'* Your bait of falsehood takes this " Tt is a good shrewd proverb of
carp of truth." the Spaniard, ' Tell a lie and find

Hamlet, ii. 1 (1604). a truth.' " — Essay of Simulation
and Dissimulation (1625).

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

BKHAVIOR,

From Shakespeare
" How oddly he is suited ! I
think he bought his doublet in
Italy, his round hose in France, his
bonnet in Germany, and his be-
haviour everywhere."

Merchant of Venice, i. 2 (1600).

A GARMENT

From Bacon
" Behaviour is but a garment."
— Letter to Rutland (1596).

In tlie play behavior is regarded as a part of one's apparel
or S2dt, concerning which Bacon wrote at greater length in
the 'Advancement' :

" Behaviour seemeth to me as a garment of the mind, and to
have the conditions of a garment. For it ought to be made in
fashion ; it ought not to be too curious ; it ought to he shaped so
as to set forth any good making of the mind and hide any deform-
ity ; and above all, it ought not to he too straight or restrained for
exercise or motion." — Book ii.

ROBIN GOODPELLOW

" You are that shrewd and knavish

sprite
Call'd Eobin Goodfellow ; are not

you he
That frights the maidens of the

villagery.
Skim milk, and sometimes labor in

the quern?"
Midsummer-NighCs Dream, ii. 1

(1600).

" Sir Fulke Greville would say
merrily of himself, that he was like
Robin Goodfellow, for when maids
spilt the milk-can, or kept any
racket, they would lay it upon
'Rohi-a." — Apothegms (1624).

FEAR OF DEATH

" Of all the wonders that I yet

have heard.
It seems to me most strange that

men should fear [death] ;

" I do wonder at the Stoics, that
accounted themselves to hold the
masculine virtues, esteeming other
sects deUcate, tender and effemi-

PARALLELISMS 49

Seeing that death, a necessary end, nate, they sliould urge and advise

Will come when it will come." men to the meditation of death.

Julius Ccesar, ii. 2 (1623). Was not tliis to increase the fear of

death, which they professed to as-
suage 1 . . . Ought they not to have
taught men to die as if they should
live, and not to live as though
they continually should die. More
manfully thought the voluptuous
sect that counted it as one of the
ordinary works of nature." — Essex
Device (c. 1592).

EARLY AND LATE

• From Shakespeare From Bacon

"It is so very very late " It is not now late, but early."

That we may call it early." — Essay of Death {posthumous).
Romeo and Juliet, iii. 4 (1597).

Both authors seem to have taken special delight in this
curious play upon the words early and late as applied to the
hours after midnight. In ' Twelfth Night ' Shakespeare says :

" To be up after midnight and to go to bed then, is early." — ii. 3.

Again, in ' Eomeo and Juliet ' :

" Is she not down so late, or up so early 1 " — iii. .5.

So, also, in the 'Promus,' written almost simultaneously
with ' Komeo and Juliet,' we find this double entry :

" Late rising,
Early rising."

FEAR

" So full of artless jealousy is guilt, " Nothing is fearful but fear it-

It spills itself in fearing to be self." — Letter to Rutland (l^)9G).
spilt." " jSTothiuf: is to be feared but fear

Hamlet, iv. 5 (1604). itsaU." — Essex Device (c. 1592).
4

so BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

The principle of this grand aphorism in 'Hamlet' is ex-
pressed many times in Ijacon's prose writings, that fear is
the most terrible foe of mankind.

" Nothing is terrible but fear." — De Aug7nentis.

" Fears make devils of cherubins." — Troilus and Cressida.

"Of all base passions, fear is most accursed." — 1 Henry VI.

In 'Hamlet,' as above, the sentiment is applied to the
extreme case of a criminal. The germ of the thought is in
Virgil, who tells us that to become exempt from all fear one
must know the causes of things, and that such knowledge is
happiness.

Our attention was first called to this aphorism by the Eev.
William R Alger of Boston, one of the keenest intellects
New England has produced.

FEAR OF LOSS

From ShaJce-speare From Bacon

" I canuot choose " To abstain from the use of a

But weep to have that which I thing that you may not feel a want

fear to lose." of it ; to shun the want that you

Sonnet 64 (1G09). may not fear the loss of it, are the

precautions of pusillanimity and

cowardice." — Advancement of

Learning (1603-5).

" I will not use because I will
not desire. I will not desire be-
cause I will not fear to want." —
Essex Device (c 1592).

The sentiment, w^hich Bacon condemns and v/hich Shake-
speare confesses as a weakness, that men cannot properly
take pleasure in anything because in the mutability of human
affairs they must be in constant anticipation of its loss, is
thus re-stated in the second edition of the ' Advancement *
(1623):

"Do we not often see minds so constituted as to take great
delight in present pleasures and yet endure tlie loss of those

PARALLELISMS

pleasures with equanimity 1 Hence the advice of philosophers —
' Enjoy not, that you may not desire ; desire not, that you may
not fear ' — is pusillanimous and cowardly."

The same sentiment is in Plutarch :

" To neglect the procuring of what is necessary or convenient in
life for fear of losing it, would be acting a very mean and absurd
part ; by the same rule a man might refuse the enjoyment of riches
or honor or wisdom, because it is possible for him to be deprived
of them." — Life of Solon.

A LETTER TRICK

From Bacon
Some procure themselves to be
surprised at such times as it is
like[Iy] the party they work upon
will suddenly come upon them ;
and to be found with a letter in
their hand, to the end they may
be apposed [questioned] of those
things which of themselves they
are desirous to utter." — Essay of
Cunning (1625}.

From Shakespeare

\_Reading a letter.']
" Edmund. If this letter speed,
And my good intention thrive,

Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate.
Enter Gloster.
Glo. Edmund, how now ? What

news ?
Edm. So please your lordship,

none. [Putting up the letter.
Glo. Why so earnestly seek you to

put up that letter ?
Edm. I know no news, my lord.
Glo. What paper were you reading ?
Edm,. Nothing, my lord.
Glo. No ? What needed, then, that

terrible dispatch into your

pocket ? " — King Lear, i. 2

(1608).

" With much affected reluctance Edmund gives up the letter,
which contains a proposition to put Gloster to death." — Euggles'
Plays of Shakespeare, 196.^

1 Mr. Henry J. Ruggles' work, ' The Plays of Shakespeare, Founded on
Literary Forms* (Boston, Houghton, Mifflin,, & Co., 1895), from which we
have taken some excellent parallelisms, is one of the most valuable ever writ-
ten in Shakespearean criticism. It is the product of twenty years' study by a
trained jurist.

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

MATERIALITY OF HEAT

From Shakespeare
" One heat another heat expels.
As one nail by strength drives out
another."

Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 4
(1623).
" One fire drives out one fire; one
nail, one nail."

From Bacon
"When two heats differ much
in degree, one destroys the other."
— De Principiis atque Originibus
(date unknown).

" Flame doth not mingle with
flame, but remaineth contiguous."
— Advancement of Learning (1603-

Coriolanus, iv. 7 (1623). 5),

83
DRIVING NAILS

" One nail by strength drives out " To drive out a nail with
another." Ibid, nail." — Promus (1594-96).

84
STEP-MOTHERS

" You shall not find me, daughter,
After the slander of most step-
mothers,
Evil-ey'd unto you."

Cymheline, i. 2 (1623).

" His Majesty hath commanded
special care to be taken in the
choice of persons to whom wards
be committed, ... to no greedy
persons, no step-mothers." —
Declaration for the Master of the
Wards (1612).

85
CIRCULATION" OF THE BLOOD

" Both of Galen and Paracelsus."
AlVs Well, ii. 3 (1623).
" He has no more knowledge in
Hippocrates and G-alen." — Merry
Wives of Windsor, iii. 1 (1623).
" I have read the cause of his ef-
fects in Galen."

2 Henry IV., i. 1 (1600).
"The most sovereign prescrip-
tion in Galen is empiricutic." —
Coriolanus, ii. 1 (1623).

" I ever liked the Galenists, that
deal with good compositions, and
not the Paracelsians, that deal with
these fine separations." — Letter to
Cecil (1595).

PARALLELISMS ^^

Shake-speare's conception of the circulation of the blood,
as well as Bacon's, was that held by scientific medical schools
before the time of Servetus ; it was such as had been taught
by Hippocrates, Galen, and Paracelsus, namely, that the
blood ebbs and flows between the heart and the extremities of
the body, not by a circuitous motion (outward by the arteries
and back by the veins), but to and fro, or up and down, by
each route independently. This corresponds to the descrip-
tion of the process given in ' King John ' :

" Melancholy
Had baked thy blood and made it heavy-thick,
Which else runs tickling up and down the veins." — iii. 3.

Neither in Bacon's writings nor in the plays do we find
any mention of Servetus or Harvey, but frequent references
to Hippocrates, Galen, and Paracelsus in both.

" Of the different functions of the arteries and veins Shakespeare
does not seem to have had any knowledge." [Nor did Bacon.] —
Elze's Life of William Shakespeare, p. 400.

Judge Holmes calls attention to a still closer parallelism
under this head, as follows :

HUMOR AND THE VITAL SPIRIT

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Through all thy veins shall run " It was a pestilent fever, but, as

A cold and drowsy humor, which it seemeth, not seated in the veins

shall seize or humors ; only a malign vapor

Each vital spirit." flew to the heart and seized the

Romeo and Juliet, \Y.\ (1597). vital spirit." — History of Henry

VII. (1621).

Physiological science was then in its infancy, but the
same peculiar conceptions of it are found in the two sets
of works.

54 BACON ANB SHAKESPEARE

KNOWLEDGE IS REMEMBRANCE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" If there be nothing new, but that " It was Plato's opinion that all

which is knowledge is but remembrance." —

Hath been before, how are our Advancement of Learning {\Wi-b).

brains beguil'd, " Salomon saith, ' There is no

Which, laboring for invention, new thing upon the earth.' So that

bear amiss as Plato had an imagination, that

The second burthen of a former all knowledge is but remembrance,

child!" Sonnet 59 (1 009). so Salomon giveth his sentence,

"No! Time, thou shalt not boast that all novelty is but oblivion."

that I do change. — Essay of Vicissitude of Things

Thy pyramids, built up with newer (1625).

might.
To me are nothing novel, nothing

strange ;
They are but dressings of a former

sight." Sonnet 123.

This notion, derived from Plato, is repeatedly expressed
both in Bacon and in Shake-speare.

CHANCES IN WAR

"Consider, sir, the chance of war; "Consider the varying chances

the day was yours by accident." — of war." — Promus (1594-96).
Ci/nibeline, v. 5 (1623).
" Now good or bad, 't is but the
chance of war."
Troilus and Cressida, Prologue
(1623).

" Thou know'st, great son,
The end of war 's uncertain."

Coriolanus, v. 3 (1623).

CHILDREN GOVERNING PARENTS

" I have often heard him main- " Suppose a nation where the

tain it to be fit that sons at perfect custom was that after full age the

PARALLELISMS SS

age and fathers declined, the father sons should expulse their fathers
should be as a ward to the son, and and mothers out of their posses-
the son manage the revenue." — sions and put them to their pen-
King Lear, i. 2 (1608). sion." — Aduertigement touching a

Holy War (1622).

The above passage from ' King Lear ' was first printed in
1608, and the ' Advertisement touching a Holy War ' in 1629,
three years after Bacon's death. We know that the latter
tract was composed, in the shape in which we now have it,
in 1622, but various memoranda, found among Bacon's post-
humous papers, show that he had made a study of the sub-
ject at different times several years earlier. The context
clearly proves that this study was an original one on his
part, and wholly independent of anything in * King Lear.'
Bacon's full statement is as follows :

" Let me put a feigned case (and yet antiquity makes it doubt-
ful whether it were fiction or history) of a land of Amazons, where
the whole government, public and private, yea, the militia itself,
was in the hands of women. . . . And much like were the case,
if you suppose a nation where the custom were, that after full age
the sons should expulse their fathers and mothers out of their pos-
sessions, and put them to their pensions : for these cases, of women
to govern men, sons the fathers, slaves free men, are much in the
same degree ; all being total violations and perversions of the law
of nature."

EMBLEMS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

'^ Prospe.ro. Canst thou remember "Emblem reduceth conceits in-

A time before we came to this cell ? tellectual to images sensible, which
Miranda. Certainly, sir, I can. strike the memory more." — Ad-
Pros. Of anything the image tell vancement of Learning (1603-5).
me, that
Hath kept thy remembrance."

Tempest, i. 1 (1623).

S6 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

In the second edition of the ' Advancement ' (JDe Aug-
mentis, 1622) Bacon adds the following, to the sentence
quoted above :

" An image strikes the memory more forcibly and is more easily
impressed upon it than an object of tlie intellect ; insomuch that
even brutes have their memory excited by sensible impressions,
never by intellectual ones. And therefore you will more easily
remember the image of a hunter pursuing a hare, of an apothe-
cary arranging his boxes, of a pedant making a speech, of a boy
repeating verses from memory, of a player acting on a stage, than
the mere notions of invention, disposition, elocution, memory,
and action. ... So much, therefore, for the art of retaining or
keeping knowledge."

It is difficult to believe that when Prospero begged his
daughter to give him the image of anything she might have
retained in her memory of the time of their arrival on the
island, the author did not have in mind the philosophical
thesis on the art of memory that had been composed by
Bacon ten or twelve years earlier.

CASTOR AND POLLUX

From SJiaJce-speare From Bacon

" Prospero. Hast thou, spirit, " The ball of fire, called Castor

Perform'd, to point,i the tempest by the ancients, that appears at sea,

that I bade thee 1 if it be single, prognosticates a

Ariel. To every article ; severe storm (seeing it is Castor,

I boarded the king's ship; now on the dead brother), which will be

the beak, much more severe if the ball does

Now in the waist, the deck, in not adhere to the mast, but rolls

every cabin, and dances about. But if there be

I flam'd amazement ; sometimes two of them (that is, if Pollux, the

I 'd divide, living brother, be present), and

And burn in many places ; on the that, too, when the storm has in-

topmast, creased, it is reckoned a good sign.

1 " To point" means in every particular.

PARALLELISMS

The yards and bowsprit, would I But if there are three of them (that
flame distinctly, is, if Heleu, the general scourge,

Then meet and join." arrive), the storm will become more

Tempest J i. 2 (1623). fearful. The fact seems to be, that
one by itself seems to indicate that
the tempestuous matter is crude ;
two, that it is prepared and ripened ;
three or more, that so great a quan-
tity is collected as can hardly be
dispersed." — History of the Winds
(1622).

Prospero's commission to Ariel to raise a storm at sea and
wreck Antonio's ship illustrates the object for which the
play was written ; namely, to show man's destined command
over the powers of nature. This was the professed object,
too, of Bacon's system of philosophy ; all his studies had
been directed from his youth to that end.

Accordingly, we are not surprised to find in Bacon's
prose works the preliminary details of such a wreck, as well as
the source from v/hich they were chiefly derived. We quote
from PHny's ' Natural History,' translated into English for
the first time in 1601, as foUows:

" They settle also upon the yards and other parts of the ship, as
men do sail the sea, making a kind of vocal sound, leaping to and
fro, and shifting their places as birds do which fly from bough to
bough. Dangerous they be and unlucky when they come one by
one without a companion ; and they drown those ships on which
they alight and threaten shipwreck ; yea, and they set them on
tire, if haply they fall upon the bottom of the keel. But if they
appear two and two together, they bring comfort with them, and
foretell a prosperous course in the voyage, by whose coming, they
say, that dreadful, cursed and threatening meteor, Helena, is
chased and driven away. And therefore it is that men assign this
mighty power to Castor and Pollux and invocate them at sea, no
less than gods."

58 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

It will be seen that, according to Pliny, it was a single
ball of fire that struck terror to the hearts of the mariners ;
but in Bacon's version, while one alone signified danger, the
really fatal omen, such as Ariel sought to create, lay in the ap-
pearance of three or more balls of fire together. That is to
say. Bacon made a certain deviation from the classical story,
and in this was duly followed by the author of the play ; for

in the lines —

" On the topmast,
The yards and bowsprit would I flame distinctly,
Then meet and join," —

the word distinctly, used to qualify the kind of apparition
produced by Ariel on the ship, means separately, or severally,
that is, in three or more places at once.

Hakluyt described these lights, as he called them, in
1600, but apparently without any knowledge of their alleged
character as portents.

EEGION, BACK, AND SILENCE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Anon permit the basest clouds " The winds in the upper region

to ride (which move the clouds above,

With ugly rack on his celestial face, which we call the rack, and are
And from the forlorn world his not perceived below) pass without

visage hide, noise." — Sylva Sylvarum (1622-23).

Stealing unseen to West. . . .
The region cloud hath mask'd him

from me now."

Sonnet 43 (1609).
" But as we often see, against some

storm,
A silence in the heavens, the rack

stood still,
The bold winds speechless, and the

orb below
As hush as death, anon the dreadful

thunder
Doth rend the region.''''

Hamlet, ii. 2 (1604).

PARALLELISMS

Mr. Main, in his * Treasury of English Sonnets,' was the
first to notice this threefold parallelism of ' region, rack, and
silence ' in the foregoing descriptions of a storm.

FRIENDSHIP

From Shakespeare

" I have trusted thee, Camillo,
"With all the nearest things to my

heart, as well
My chamber-councils, wherein,

priest-like, thou
Hast cleans'd my bosom."

Winter's Tale, i. 2 (1623).

From Bacon
" No receipt openeth the heart
but a true friend, to whom you
may impart griefs, joys, fears,
hopes, suspicious, counsels, and
whatsoever lieth upon the heart
to oppress it, in a kind of civil
shrift or confession." — Essay oj
Friendship (1625).

The first draft of the Essay was made sometime between
1607 and 1612. Both authors confer upon friendship the
functions of a religious confessional.

94
CURRENT THROUGH BOSPHORUS

" In the Mediterranean Sea, a
slight ebb begins at the Atlantic,
but a flow from the other end." —
De Fluxu et Refluxu Maris (1616).

" Like to the Pontic sea,
Whose icy and compulsive course
Ne'er feels retiring ebb, but keeps

due on

To the Propontic and the Helles-
pont."

Othello, iii. 3 (1622).

For an elucidation of this extraordinary parallelism, see
' Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare,' p. 45.

BROWNISTS

"5tV Andrew Toby. Policy I
hate ; I had as lief be a Brownist
as a politician." — Twelfth Night,
iu. 2 (1623).

" As for those we call Brownists,
being when they were at the most,
a very small number of very silly
and base people, here and there

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

dispersed, they are now (thanks be
to God), by the good remedies
that have been used, suppressed
and worn out." — Observations on
a Libel (1592).

The Brownists (so called from Eobert Brown, tlieir leader)
were a religious sect that objected to the rites, ceremonies,
and discipline of the English Church. They were the fore-
runners of the Puritans. Bacon and Shake-speare, it is un-
pleasant to note, both expressed the utmost contempt for
them.

This parallelism was suggested to us by a respected corre-
spondent in Basel, Switzerland.

CHOLERIC MEATS

From Shake-speare From Bacon

" Katherine. I pray thee, hus- " Fat meats induce choler and

band, be not so disquiet. satiety." — Syloa Sylvarum (1622-

The meat was well, if you were so 25).
contented.

Petruchio. I tell thee, Kate, 't was
burnt and dried away.

It engenders choler.

Grumio. What say you to a neat's

foot?
Kath. 'T is passing good ; I prithee,

let me have it.
Gru. I fear it is too choleric a

meat.
How say you to a fat tripe, finely

boil'd ?
Kath. I like it well ; good Grumio,

fetch it me.
Cfru. I cannot tell ; I fear 't is

choleric."
Taming of the Shrew, iv. 2, 3 (1623).

PARALLELISMS 6i

In the first draft of ' The Taming of the Shrew/ published
under the title of 'The Taming of a Shrew' in 1594, the
term choleric in this scene is applied to mustard only ; but in
the final draft (1623), made while Bacon was writing his
' Natural History ' and investigating the effects of different
kinds of food upon the stomach, it is used (as in the latter
work) in connection with fat meats. The reference to
mustard is still retained, but in a wholly subordinate way.

LIFE ECLIPSED

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" The mortal moon [Queen Eliza- " The Queen hath endured a

beth] hath her eclipse en- strange eclipse." — History of
dured." Sonnet 107. Henry VII. (1621).

ASSUMPTION OF VIRTUE

" Assume a virtue, if you have it " Whatsoever a want a man

not." hath, he must see that he pretend

Hamlet, in. 4 (1604). the virtue that shadoweth it." —

Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

FALL OF THE ANGELS

" Cromwell, I charge thee, fling " The desire of power in excess

away ambition ; caused the angels to fall." — Essay

By that sin fell the angels." of Goodness (1625).
Henry VIII., iii. 2 (1623).

100

HUMAN BEINGS, SPORT FOR THE GODS

" The gods kill us for their sport." " As if it were a custom that no

King Lear, iv. 1 (1608). mortal should be admitted to the

table of the gods, but for sport."

— Wisdom of the Ancients (1609).

62 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

101
■WATER-SPOUTS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Not the dreadful spout " So great is the quantity and

Which, shipraen do the hurricano mass of water suddenly discharged

call, hy these water-spouts, that they

Constringed in mass by the al- seem to have been collections of

niirrhty sun, water made before, and to have

Shall dizzy with more clamor remained hanging in these places,

Neptune's ear and afterwards to have been thrown

In his descent than shall my down by some violent cause, than

prompted sword to have fallen by the natural mo-
Falling on Diomed." tion of gravity." — iVoi;u?rt Orga-
Troilus and Cressida, v.2 (1609). num. (1608-20).

102

JEWEL IN toad's HEAD

"Which, like the toad, ugly and "Quaere, if the stone, taken out

venomous, of a toad's head, be not of the like

Wears yet a precious jewel in his virtne." — Natural History (1622-
head." 25).

As You Like It, ii. 1 (1623).

Bacon, discussing the virtues of inanimate things, mentions
the bloodstone, which was once thought to be "good for
bleeding at the nose." It is in this same sense — that is,
as a " precious jewel " — that he treats of the stone said to be
found in a toad's head.

103

BASE KNOWLEDGE

" Berowne. By Jove, I always took " ' Sir ' (saith a man of art to

three threes for nine. Philip, king of Macedon, when

Costard. O Lord, sir, it were pity he controlled him in his faculty),

you should get your living by 'God forbid your fortune should

reckoning, sir." — Love's Labor's be such as to know these things

Xos<, v. 2 (1598). better iha.n I.' "— Valerius Ter-

PARALLELISMS

The Valerius Terminus is one of the very earliest of
Bacon's philosophical \vritings, the exact date being unknown.
The anecdote in it respecting Philip was repeated twenty or
thirty years later in the De Augmcntis, where a knowledge
of the musical art, like that of the multiplication table, is
assumed to be beneath royal dignity.

104

PURSUIT BETTER THAN ATTAINMENT

From Shakespeare

" All things that are,
Are with more spirit chased than
enjoy 'd."
Merchant of Venice, ii. 6 (1600).
" Things won are done ; joy's soul
lies in the doing."
Troilus and Cressida, i. 2 (1609).

Fi-om Bacon

" Life without an object to pur-
sue is a languid and tiresome
thing."

" Good of advancement is greater
than good of simple preserva-
tion."— Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

" So much pleasanter is it to be
doing than to be enjoying." — De
Aiigmenlis (1622).

105
DEATH, AN ARREST WITHOUT BAIL

" This fell sergeant, death,
Is strict in his arrest."

Hamlet, v. 2 (1G04).

" That fell arrest
Without all bail shall carry me
away."

So7inct 74 (1G09).

" He should be close enough [in
prison], and Death should be his
bail." — Charge against Somerset
(1616).

Here is the same legal imagery used in different ways for
different purposes. Overbury w^as arrested and imprisoned
under such conditions that death was his only bail ; the
author of the sonnet anticipates his own arrest by death
without bail.

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

106
LITTLE THINGS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" A good wit will make use of " Excellent wits will make use
anything." — S Henry IV., i. 2 of every little thing." — Letter to
(1600). Sir Fulke GreviUe (1596).

107

nONEY IN CARRION

" 'T is seldom when the bee doth

leave her comb
In the dead carrion."

2 Henry IV., 4 (1600).

'* It may be, you shall do poster-
ity good, if out of the carcass of
dead and rotten greatness (as out
of Samson's lion), there be honey
gathered for the use of future
times." — Petition to the House of
Lords (1621).

108
PROTESTATIONS

" The lady protests too much." " For protestations ... I never

Hamlet, iii. 2 (1603). found them very fortunate ; they
rather increase suspicion."

Speech on Undertakers (1614).

109
PHILOSOPHERS AND THE TOOTH-ACHE

" There was never yet philosopher
That could endure the tooth-ache

patiently."

Much Ado about Nothing, v. 1
(1600).

" It is more than a philosopher
morally can digest. I esteem it
like the pulling out of a tooth." —
Letter to Essex (1595).

" I esteem it like the pulling out
of an aching tooth, which, I re-
member, when I was a child and
had little philosophy, I was glad
of when it was done." — Ihid.

This striking parallelism on the incompatibility of phil-
osophy and the toothache was pointed out by Mr. Donnelly
in his ' Great Cryptogram,' p. 377.

PARALLELISMS

110

SMALL DEFECTS OF CHARACTER

From Shalce-s:peare

" The dram of leaven.
Doth all the noble substance of

them [virtues] sour
To his own scandal."

Hamlet, i. 4 (1604).

From Bacon

" A little leaven of new distaste
doth commonly sour the whole
lump of former merits." — History
of Henry VII. (1621).

The above is Mr. Hudson's version of an obscure passage
in ' Hamlet.' The parallelism, however, extends into further
details, thus :

" Oft it chances in particular men,
That for some vicious mole of

nature in them,
As in their birth, wherein they are

not guilty,
Since nature cannot choose his

origin.
By the o'er growth of some com-
plexion,
Oft breaking down the forts and

pales of reason,
Or by some habit that too much

o'er-leavens
The form of plausive manners ;

that these men,
Carrying, I say, the stamp of one

defect,
Being nature's livery, or fortune's

star,
Their virtues else, be they as pure

as grace,
As infinite as man may undergo,
Shall in the general censure take

corruption
From that particular fault."

Ihid. (1G04).

" It is a very hard and unhappy
condition (as the proverb well re-
marks) of men pre-eminent for
virtue, that their errors, be they
never so trifling, are never ex-
cused. But, as in the clearest
diamond, every little cloud or
speck catches and displeases the
ej% which in a less perfect stone
would hardly be discerned, so
in men of remarkable virtue the
slightest faults are seen, talked of,
and severely censured, which in
ordinary men would either be
entirely unobserved, or readily
excused." — De Axigmentis (1622).

" The best governments, yea and
the best men, are like the best
precious stones, wherein every
flaw, or icicle or grain is seen
and noted more than in those
that are generally foul and cor-
rupted."— Reply to tie Speaker
(1621),

66 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

The origin of this sentiment, at least so far as Shake-
speare's expression of it is concerned, seems to have been in
Dante's ' Convito,' which had not been translated into English
when ' Hamlet' was re-written in 1604. It may be interest-
ing to compare the two poets on this fine point of the moral
law:

From the * Convito ' :

"■ Now, the man is stained with some passion, which he cannot
always resist ; now, he is blemished by some fault of limb ; now,
he is soiled by the ill-fame of his parents, or of some near relation ;
things which Fame does not bear with her, but ■which hang to the
man, so that he reveals them by his conversation ; and these spots
cast some shadow upon the brightness of goodness so that they
cause it to appear less bright and less excellent." — Translated hy
Elizabeth Price Sater.

Ill

BODIES WRINKLED IN OLD AGE

From. Shakespeare From Bacon

"I am a scribbled form, dra\vn " Parchment, ... is not only

with a pen wrinkled in parts by fire, but the

Upon a parchment, and against whole body twists, curls, and rolls

this fire up." — Historia Densi et Rari

Do I shrink up." (1623).
King John, v. 7 (1623).

Bacon contends that the shrivelling of human bodies in old
age, or under the action of heat, is due to the loss of spirit.
King John feels this loss, just before his death, in his own
body, and compares his condition, almost in Bacon's prose
language, with that of parchment before a fire.^

1 Mr. Donnelly calls attention to this parallelism in the First Part of his
' Great Cryptogram,' p. 371. We take this occasion to say that in our judg-
ment he has given in this part the best popular presentation of the argument
for Bacon thus far produced. The intimation of his belief that Bacon wrote
Montaigne's Essays is, of course, to be regretted.

PARALLELISMS

112

A DARK PERIOD

From Bacon

From Shakespeare

" Thence comes it that my name
receives a brand."

Sonnet 111 (1600-1601).

" Your love and pity doth the im-
pression fill

Which vulgar scandal stamp'd
upon my brow."

Sonnet 112.

" Then hate me if thou wilt ; if
ever, now,

Now while the world is bent my
deeds to cross,

Join ^vith the sjjite of fortune."

Sonnet 90.

" 'T is better to be vile than vile
esteem'd :

On my frailties why are frailer

spies,
Which in their wills count bad
what I count good '( "

Sonnet 121.
" My body being dead,
The coward conquest of a wretch's
knife."

Sonnet 74,

For an explanation of these remarkable parallelisms see
' Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare,' p. 27.

113

DISAPPOINTED LIFE

" My life has been threatened,
and my name libelled." — Letter
to the Queen (1599-1600).

" I know no remedy against
libels and lies ; ... as for any
violence to be offered to me,
wherewith my friends tell me
to no small terror that 1 am
threatened, I thank God I have
the privy coat of a good con-
science." — Letter to Cecil (1599-
1600).

" For my part, I have deserved
better than to have my name
objected to envy, or my life to a
ruffian's violence.'' — Letter to
Howard (1599-1600).

" Alas! 'tis true I have gone here

and there,
And made myself a motley to the

view,
Gor'd mine own thoughts, sold

cheap what is most dear,

" I do confess, since I was of
any understanding, my mind hath
in effect been absent from that I
have done ; . • . knowing myself
by inward calling to be fitter to
hold a book than to play a part, I

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Made old offences of affections
new ;

Most true it is that I have look'd
on truth

Askance and strangely."

Sonnet 110 (1609).

" 0 ! for my sake do you with For-
tune chide,

The guilty goddess of my harmful
deeds,

That did not better for my life
provide,

Than public means which public
manners breeds."

Sonnet 3.

have led my life in civil causes for
wliich I was not very fit by nature,
and more unfit by the preoccupa-
tion of my mind." — Letter to
Bodley (1605).

" I have mis-spent [my life] in
things for which I was least fit;
so as I may truly say, my soul
hath been a stranger in the
course of my pilgrimage." —
Bacon^s Prayer (1621).

Here is a double confession, that the pursuits of a whole
lifetime had been disappointing, and that, too, from the same
cause ; namely, preoccupation of mind.

114

From Shake-sjieare

" Not mine own fears, nor the pro-
phetic soul

Of the wide world dreaming on
things to come,

Can yet the lease of my true love
control,

Supposed as forfeit to a confin'd
doom.

The mortal moon hath her eclipse
endured,

And the sad augurs mock their own
presage ;

Incertainties now crown themselves
assur'd,

And peace proclaims olives of end-
less age.

Now with the drops of this most
balmy time

SOUTHAMPTON"

From Bacon
" It is as true as a thing that
God knoweth, that this great
change [from Elizabeth to James]
hath wrought in me no other
change towards your Lordship than
this, that I may safely be now that
which I was truly before." — Let-
ter to Southampton (1603).

PARALLELISMS 69

My love looks fresh, and Death to

me subscribes,
Since, spite of him, I '11 Hve in this

poor rhyme,
While he insults o'er dull and

speechless tribes."

Sonnet 107 (1609).

It is evident that these two passages deal with the same
events; namely, the death of Queen Elizabeth, who was com-
monly called Cynthia, or " mortal moon," by the rhymesters
of her time ; ^ the peaceful succession of James to the vacant
throne in spite of the author's " fears " and the prophecies of
all to the contrary; and the release of Southampton from
the tower. The latter person is claimed by the poet as
his "true love," and by Bacon as one whom he stiU "loved
truly."

When the danger of a struggle for the crown was past,
Bacon described the sensation as like that of waking from a
fearful dream. The fears, expressed in the first line of the
sonnet (quoted above), had been felt by him long before the
sonnet was written ; for he clearly foresaw that the rising
spirit of independence in the House of Commons would event-
ually lead to an armed conflict over the royal prerogative.^

1 The use of the word " endured " in the line —

" The mortal moon hath her eclipse endur'd,"
does not militate against this construction. The word sometimes means
simply to suffer without resistance, as in ' Macbeth,' —

" Let me endure your wrath, if 't be not so." v. 5, 36,

Queen Elizabeth had no wish to prolong her life. She persistently refused on
her death-bed to take any remedies, or even nourishment, for the purpose.

2 "It had been generally dispersed abroad that after Queen Elizabeth's
decease there must follow in England nothing but confusions, interreigns and
perturbations of estate; likely far to exceed the ancient calamities of the
civil wars between the houses 'of Lancaster and York. . . . Neither wanted
there here within this realm divers persons, both wise and well-affected, who,
though they doubted not of the undoubted right, yet setting before them-
selves the waves of people's hearts, were not without fear what might be the
event." — Bacon's History of Great Britain.

70 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Bacon and Southampton had been in early life very inti-
mate friends. They were fellow-lodgers at Gray's Inn, and
fellow-supporters of the Earl of Essex. But in or about 1600
they became, outwardly at least, estranged, Southampton fol-
lowing Essex in his mad career, and Bacon siding with the
government. There is reason to believe, however, says Mr.
Spedding, that Bacon did all he could to save Southampton
in that unhappy affair, mentioning his name in the Declara-
tion concerning it " as slightly as it was possible to do with-
out misrepresenting the case in one of its most material
features ; " ^ and, also, using his private influence with the
Queen after the trial to mitigate her displeasure. That there
was danger in an open avowal of sympathy with Southamp-
ton at this time appears from a letter written by Cecil to Sir
G. Carew in which he says : " those that would deal for him
(of which number I protest to God I am one as far as I dare)
are much disadvantaged."

Bacon's letter, of which we have quoted a part, was writ-
ten on the eve of Southampton's release (1603), and is as
follows :

" It may please your Lordship :

" I would have been very glad to have presented my humble ser-
vice to your Lordship by my attendance, if I could have foreseen
that it should not have been uupleasing to you. And therefore,
because I would commit no error, I choose to write ; assuring your
Lordship (how credible [incredible] soever it may seem to you at
first) yet it is as true as a thing that God knoweth, that this great
change [death of Elizabeth] hath wrought in me no other change
towards your Lordship than this, that I may safely be now that
wluch I was truly before. And so, craving no other pardon than
for troubling you with this letter, I do not now begin, but con-
tinue to be,

" Your Lordship's humble and much devoted."

Shake-speare had the same loving attachment to the Earl
of Southampton in the first part of the decade 1590-1600.

1 Spedding's Life and Letters of Francis Bacon, iii. 75.

PARALLELISMS 71

The ' Venus and Adonis ' was dedicated to Southampton in
1593, and the ' Eape of Lucrece ' in 1594, in terms of ador-
ing friendship. Then there came a period of estrangement,
the existence of which is proved not only by the sonnet
already quoted, but also by the apology offered in nos. 116
and 120:

* ' Let me not to the marriage of true minds

Admit impediments. Love is not love

Which alters when it alteration finds,

Or bends with the remover to remove.

O, no 1 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, although his height be taken.

Love 's not Time's fool, though rosy lips and cheeks

Within his bending sickle's compass come ;

Love alters not with his brief hours and weeks,

But bears it out e'en to the edge of doom.
If this be error, and upon me proved,
I never writ, nor no man ever loved." — 116.

*' That you were once unkind befriends me now,
And for that sorrow which I then did feel
Needs must I under my transgression bow,
Unless my nerves were brass or hammer'd steel.
For if you were by my unkiudness shaken,
As I by yours, you 've pass'd a hell of time ;
And I, a tyrant, have no leisure taken
To weigh how once I sujfer\l in your crime.
O ! that our night of woe might have remember'd
My deepest sense, how hard true sorrow hits,
And soon to you, as you to me, then tender'd
The humble salve which wounded bosoms fits.

But that your trespass now becomes a fee ;

Mine ransom yours, and yours must ransom me." — 120.

It is probable, as Mr. Spedding suggests, that Southampton
did not know, until after his release, of Bacon's exertions to
save him in 1601 ; therefore, Bacon may well have written
of him and to him in 1603 :

72 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

In verse :

" 0 ! never say that I was false of heart,
Though absence seem'd my flame to qualify ;
As easy might I from myself depart
As from my soul, which in thy breast doth lie."

In prose :

*' However incredible it may seem to you at first, I may safely be
now that which I was truly before."

It thus appears —

1. That both authors had at the same time (1593-94) a
warm attachment for the Earl of Southampton.

2. Both became estranged from him a few years later ; and

3. Both renewed their protestations of love, confessedly
without knowing how those protestations would be received,
in 1603.

115

CONSENT

From Shakespeare Prom Bacon

"For government, though high, "Certainly there is a consent

and low, and lower, between the body and the soul." —

Put into parts, doth keep in one Essarj of Deformity (1607-12).

consent,
Congreeing in a full and natviral

close.
Like music."

Henry F., i. 2 (1600).

The word " consent " in both of the above passages is used
in a very peculiar sense. In its ordinary meaning, it is
derived from the Latin consentire, to agree, but here it ex-
presses the idea of harmony or concord, from concinere {con-
canere) to sing together. Bacon often uses metaphors,
suggested by the science of music, in his writings. He
compares, precisely as Shake-speare does, the ideal state of
society, in which all its members, of differing capacities, tastes
and acquirements, should work together for the common

PARALLELISMS 73

good, to harmonious chords. In one of his speeches in the
House of Commons he said :

" For consent, where tongue-strings, not heart-strings, make
the music, that harmony may end in discord."

It has long been noted by commentators that the passage
which we have quoted from 'Henry V.' bears a striking
resemblance to one in Cicero's De Bcjmhlica, a treatise now
lost, but of which we have a fragment preserved in St.
Augustine's De Civitate Dei. It is in this fragment that
we find the musical simile which may have inspired that in
' Henry V.,' and which is as follows :

" As among the different sounds tliat proceed from lyres, flutes,
and the human voice there must be maintained a certain harmony,
so where reason is allowed to control the various elements of a
state there is obtained a perfect concord from the upper, lower, and
middle classes of the people. What musicians call harmony in
singing is concord in matters of state." — i. 74.

For the original of this famous passage, however, we must
go still farther back in the world's literature. It is found in
Plato.

Cicero, of course, followed Plato in the use of this remark-
able metaphor, his whole treatise being only an adaptation
of Plato's work on the same subject ; but which of the
two authors, Latin or Greek, Shake-speare himself followed,
it is impossible, perhaps, to determine. Mr. Knight, in-
deed, strongly favors the claim in behalf of Plato, for he
finds the lines in Shake-speare, as he says, "more deeply
imbued with the Platonic philosophy than the passage in
Cicero."

It is especially significant to find the conception of a social
state, in which citizens are likened to " consenting " chords,
or heart-strings, in both our authors.

Neither Plato nor St. Augustine had been translated into
English at the time the play was written.

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

116

TO RULERS

From Bacon
"The third platform [model] is
the government of God himself
over the world, whereof lawful
monarchies are a shadow. . . . So,
we see, there be platforms of mon-
archies, both in nature, and above
nature ; even from the monarch of
heaven and earth to the king, if
you will, in a hive of bees." —
Speech on the Poslnali (1608).

OBEDIENCE
From Shakespeare

" Canterbury. Therefore doth

heaven divide

The state of man in diverse func-
tions.

Setting endeavor in continual mo-
tion ;

To which is fixed, as an aim or
butt,

Obedience ; for so work the honey-
bees.

Creatures that by a rule of nature
teach

The act of order to a peopled
kingdom.

They have a king and officers of
sorts."

Henry V., i. 2 (1600).

This is a variation of the theme treated of in the paral-
lelism last cited. Instead of comparing the differences of
character and equipment among citizens of an ideal state
of society with chords in music, both authors are now em-
phasizing obedience to a ruler as a means of securing social
harmony. Bacon says that monarchies are established in
the very nature of things, not only in human affairs, but also
both above and below the human, from God in heaven to the
king in a hive of bees. This is likewise the exact statement
in Shake-speare, including the same illustration from bees and
the common error that bees have kings. Dr. E. A. Abbott
makes the following comment on this parallehsm :

" No other passage that I know of expresses that multiplicity in
unity, that identity of object amid diversity of agents and means,
which was to characterize Bacon's ideal English nation, so aptly
as the well-known extract from the council scene in 'Henry V.'"
— Introduction to BacorCs Essays.

PARALLELISMS 75

In ' Troilus and Cressida,' printed for the first time in the
year following that in which the Postuati speech was de-
livered, and therefore suggestive of a common study of the
subject in prose and verse, the providence that governs a
state, or (as expressed in ' Henry V.') the instinct of obedience
to a ruler, is pronounced a mystery. Bacon also pronounces
it a mystery :

117

HEREDITARY MONARCHS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" There is a mystery, with whom " And it is not without a mys-

relation tery that the first king that was

Durst never meddle, in the soul of instituted by God was translated

state, from a shepherd. . . . Allegiance

"Which hath an operation more of subjects to hereditary monarchs

divine ... is the work of the law of

Than breath, or pen, can give ex- nature." — Speech on the Postuati

pressure to." — Troilus and (1608).

Cressida, iii. 3 (1609).

The identity of thought on this subject between the two
authors runs even into minor details :

I. Shake-speare says, referring to the mystery of govern-
ment, that " relation durst never meddle " with it. Bacon
also says (' Advancement of Learning,' Book II.) that " govern-
ments are deemed secret, in both the respects in which things
are deemed secret; for some things are secret because they
are hard to know, and some because they are not fit to
utter."

II. Shake-speare says that the soul of state, in the dif-
ferent functions into which government is divided, is in
" continual motion ; " Bacon defines the soul itself as con-
tinual motion.

The speech on the Postuati was delivered, as we have
said, in 1608, but not printed until 1641, or twenty-five
years after the death of William Shakspere of Stratford.

-](, BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

118

COUNTRY FRUITS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Country hands reach forth " Now, because I am in the coun-

mQk, cream, fruits, or what they try, I will send you some of my
have ; and many nations (we have country fruits, whicli with me are
heard) that had not gums and in- f,'<)od meditations." — Letter to
cense, obtained their request with V'dliers (1616).
a leavened cake. It was no fault
to approach their Gods by wliat
they could." — Epistle Dedicatory
to the Folio (1623).

The original of these passages may be found in the Dedi-
cation to Emperor Titus of Pliny's ' Natural History,'
translated into English in 1601 :

" The gods reject not the humble prayers of poor country peas-
ants, yea, and of many nations who offer nothing but milk unto
them ; and such as have no incense find grace and favor many
times with the oblation of a plain cake, made only of meal and
salt ; and never was any man blamed yet for his devotion to the
gods, so he offered according to his ability, were the things never

so simple."

119

TABLES OF THE MIND

" From the tables " Tables of the mind differ from

Of my memory, I '11 wipe away all common tables ; . . . you will

saws of books, scarcely wipe out the former

All trivial fond conceits records unless you shall have in-

That ever youth, or else observance scribed the new." — Redargutio

noted, Philosophiarum (date unknown).

And thy remembrance all alone

shall sit."

Hamlet, i. 5 (160.3).

In the second edition of ' Hamlet ' the above passage was

revised, thus :

" From the table of my memory

I '11 wipe away all trivial fond records.

All saws of books, all forms, all pressures past,

That youth and observation copied there j

PARALLELISMS

And thy commandment all alone shall live
Within the book and volume of my brain."

1G04.

Hamlet says, he will erase all previous records from the
table of his memory, and remember only his father's com-
mandment ; Bacon shows how this can be effected.

This metaphor was a favorite one with ^schylus.

120

THE GREATER AND LESS

From Sliake-speare
" So doth the greater glory dim

the less ;
A substitute shines brightly as a

king,
Until a king be by, and then his state
Empties itself, as doth an inland

brook,
Into the main of waters."
Mei'chant of Venice, v. 1 (1600).

From Bacon
" So we see when two lights do
meet, the greater doth darken and
drown, the less. And when a
smaller river runs into a greater,
it loseth both the name and
stream." — Discourse on Union of
the Kingdoms (1603).

For this double parallelism of light and water, used in the
same order and in illustration of the same idea, we are in-
debted to Judge Holmes.

121
MERCY AND JUSTICE

" In the course of justice none of

us
Should see salvation ; we do pray

for mercy."
Merchant of Venice, iv. 1 (1600).

" Forasmuch as mercy and jus-
tice be the true supporters of our
royal throne, . . . and that our
subjects, where their case deserveth
to be relieved in course of equity,
should not be abandoned and ex-
posed to perish i;nder the rigor
and extremity of the law, therefore,
etc." — Decree on the Prcemunire
Question, drawn probably by Bacon
(1G16).

The above quotation, as from Bacon, is taken from a royal
decree made in 1616, when Francis Bacon was Attorney-Gen-
eral, to settle a long and bitter controversy between the two

78 BJCON AND SHAKESPEARE

systems of Law and Equity. This controversy, arising from
the impossibility in those early days of providing by statute
for all the exigencies of civil life that came before the courts,
had been going on, as we learn from an oflBcial report made
to King James, with ever-increasing severity, since the be-
ginning of the reign of Henry VII. in 1485. It reached a
crisis in 1616 that was simply intolerable, the judges at com-
mon law indicting the judges in equity for interference with
their judgments. Francis Bacon stood for justice and equity ;
Sir Edward Coke, for the statutes just as they were, without
much regard to extenuating circumstances. The Plays reflect
this great dispute. That Shake-speare, as well as Bacon, knew
not only the necessity at times for such interferences, but
also the limitations of the power of a court of equity, as
then imderstood and observed, appears as follows :

122
EQUITY COURTS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" There is no power iu Venice " Equity is the dispenser of the

Can alter a decree established." king's conscience, following the

Ibid, law and justice, [but] not altering
" Lear. I '11 see their trial first. the law." ^ — Ibid.

[To Edgar."] Thou robed man of

justice, take thy place.
[ To the Fool.] And thou, his yoke-
fellow of equity,
Bench by his side.
Edgar. Let us deal justly."

King Lear, iii. 6 (1608).

1 In the famous passage in ' 1 King Henry lY.' (ii. 2) —

"An the Prince and Poins be not arrant cowards, there's no equity stir-
ring"—

the term equity is used in the popular sense, as synonymous with justice.
Falstaff is seeking to secure for the persons named condemnation for coward-
ice, a cause which, if actionable, would have clearly belonged to a court of
law. It would have been in personam, whereas equitable procedure is, in
ulterior effect, always in rem.

"An the Prince and Poins be not [condemned as] arrant cowards, there's
no [justice] stirring."

PARALLELISMS

123

REPUDIATION

From Shakespeare

" King John. Thy hand hath mur-
der'd him ; I had a mighty
cause

To wish him dead, but thou hadst
none to kill him.

Hubert. Why, did you not pro-
voke me ?

K. John. It is the curse of kings
to be attended

By slaves that take their humors
for a warrant

To break within the bloody house
of life,

And on the winking of authority

To understand a law, to know the
meaning

Of dangerous majesty, when per-
chance it frowns

More upon humor than advis'd
respect.

Hub. Here is your hand and seal
for what I did.

OF AGENTS

From Bacon
" These ministers, being by
nature cruel, and knowing well
enough what they are wanted for,
apply themselves to this kind of
work with wonderful diligence ;
till for want of caution and from
over eagerness to ingratiate them-
selves, they at one time or another,
(taking a nod or an ambiguous
word of the prince for a warrant)
perpetrate some execution that is
odious and unpopular. Upon
which the prince, not willing to
take envy of it upon himseK,
throws them overboard." — Wis-
dom of the Ancients (1609).
' "Kings hate, when uttered, the
very words they have ordered to
be uttered." — Pro7n?(s (1594-96).

K. John. But thou didst under-
stand me by my signs,

And didst in signs again parley
with sin.

Out of my sight, and never see me
more."

King John, iv. 2 (1623).

We find another example of this trait of character, as
described by Bacon, in the Shake-speare plays:

" Exton. Great king, within this coffin I present

Thy buried fear ; herein all breathless lies
The mightiest of thy great enemies,
Richard of Bordeaux, by me hither brought.

Bolingbroke. Exton, I thank tliee not ; for thou hast wrought
A deed of slander with thy fatal hand

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Ext on.
Bolinghroke.

Upon my head and all this famous land.
From your own mouth, my lord, did I this deed.
They love not poison that do poison need ;
Nor do I thee ; though I did wish him dead,
I hate the murderer, love him murder 'd.
The guilt of conscience take thou for thy labor.
But neither my good word, nor princely favor.
With Cain go wander through the shade of night,
And never show thy head by day nor light."

Richard II., v. 6 (1597).

These wicked agents act, — according to Shake-speare, " on
the winking of authority ; " according to Bacon, " on a nod or

ambiguous word.

124

PRIDE

From Slmlce-Rpeare
" Let them pull all about mine

ears ; present me
Death on the wheel, or at wild

horses' heels;
Or pile ten hills on the Tarpeiau

rock,
That the precipitation might down

stretch
Below the beam of sight ; yet will

I still
Be thus to them.

From Bacon
" The highest pride lacks one
element of vice, hypocrisy." — De
Augmentis (1622).

Would you have me
False to my nature ?
Men. His nature is too noble for

the world.
He would not flatter Neptune for

his trident,
Or Jove for 's power to thunder."

Coriolanus, in. 1 and 2 (1623).

The friends of Coriolanus are urging him to conceal his
true sentiments until he shall safely be inducted into office.
The play is a treatise on uncorrupted and incorruptible Pride.

PARALLELISMS

125

TRAVEL

From Shakespeare
"Home-keeping youth have ever

homely wits.
Were 't not aflfection chains thy

tender days
To the sweet glances of thy honor'd

love,
I rather would entreat thy company
To see the wonders of the world

abroad."

Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1
(1623).
" PantJuno : [He] did request me

to importune you
To let him spend his time no more

at home,
Which would he great impeach-
ment to his age.
Antonio. He cannot be a perfect

man,
Not being tried and tutor'd in the

world."

Tbid., i. 3.

From Bacon

" Travel in the yoimger sort is a
part of education ; in the elder, a
part of experience." — Essay of
Travel (1625).

" In your travel you shall have
great help to attain to knowl-
edge."— Advice to the Earl of
Rutland (1596).

126

SILENCE UNDER ACCUSATION

" Baptista. Why dost thou wrong
her that did ne'er wrong thee ?

When did she cross thee with a
bitter word !

Katharine. Her silence flouts me,
and I '11 be revenged."
Taming of the Shreio, ii. 1 (1623).

" [On being charged with a fault]
guard against a melancholy and
stubborn silence, for this either
turns the fault wholly upon you,
or impeaches your inferior." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

127

COUNTING IN ANGER

" Second Murderer. I pray thee, " A man may think, if he will,

stay awhile ; I hope this holy hu- that a man in anger is as wise as

82 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

mour will change ; 't was wont to he that hath said over the twenty
hold me but while one would toll four letters." — Essay of Anger
Uventy." — Richard III., i. 4 (1625).
(1597).

128
MAKING one's SELF CHEAP

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Being daily swallow'd by men's " He that is too much in any-

eyes, thing, so that he giveth another

They surfeited with honey, and occasion of satiety, maketh himself

began cheap." — Essay of Ceremony

To loathe the taste of sweetness, (1598).

whereof a little
More than a little is by much too

much.

Grew a companion to the common
streets."

1 Henry IV., iii. 2 (1598).

129
MIND DEFORMED BY AGE

"As with age his body Uglier grows, "Old age, if it could be seen,
So his mind cankers." deforms the mind more than the

Tempest, iv. 1 (1623). body." — De Augmentis (1622).

Bacon enlarges on this subject in his Historia Vitcc et
Mortis (1623) thus :

''I remember when I was a young man at Poictiers in France
that I was very intimate with a young Frenchman of great wit, but
somewhat talkative, who afterwards turned out a very eminent
man. lie used to inveigli against the manners of old men, and say
that if their minds could be seen as well as their bodies, they
would appear no less deformed ; and further indulging his fancy,
he argu^ed that the defects of their minds had some parallel and
correspondence with those of the body."

Many other writers, inchiding Lucretius, have called atten-
tion to this relationship between the mind and the body.

PARALLELISMS 83

130
CONCORD AND DISCORD
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" How shall we fiud the concord of " A discord, resolved into a con-

this discord 1 " cord, improves the harmony." —

Midsummer-Night's Dream, v. 1. Preface to Novum Organum{\Q^0).
(1600).

131

LOVE, THE FIRST GOD

" 0 brawlino- love! 0 loving hate ! " Love was the most ancient of

0 anything! of nothing first all the gods, and existed before

created." everything else, except chaos." —

Romen and Juliet, i. 1 (1597). Wisdom of the Ancients (1609).

Bacon wrote a chapter ou Love as a god, declaring him to
have been the appetite or desire of matter, or the natural
motion of the atom. Accordingly, Love had no progenitor.

" Absolutely without cause," says Bacon.

" Created out of nothing," says Shake-speare.

132

DUELLING FORBIDDEN BY THE TURKS

Enter Othello and Attendants. "Touching the censure of the

" Othello. What is the matter Turks of these duels : there was a

here 1 combat of this kind performed by

Montana. 'Zounds ! I bleed still ; two persons of quality of the Turks

I am hurt to the death. wherein one of them was slain,

Othello. Why, how now, ho ! from the other party was convented

whence ariseth this ? before the council of Bassaes;

Are we turn'd Turks, and to our- the manner of the reprehension

selves do that was in these words : ' How durst

Which heaven hath forbid the you undertake to fight one with

Ottomites ? " the other? Are there not Christians

Othello, ii. 3 (1622). enough to kill ? Did you not

know that whether of you should

be slain, the loss would be the

Great Seigneour's ? ' " — Charge

touching Duels (1613).

Both authors condemned duelling, and both knew that the
practice was forbidden among the Turks.

84 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

133

THK WOULD, A STAGE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" All the world 's a stage, " Men must know that in this

And all the men and wonien theatre of man's life it is reserved

merely players. only for God and the angels to be

They have their exits and their lookers-on." — Advancement of

entrances, Learning (1603-5).

And one man in his time plays
many parts."
As Toil Like It, ii. 7 (1623).

The word merely in the above quotation from the play is
used in its strict Latin sense, merinn, wholly.

On the world's stage men and women, without exception, are all

players. — Shakespeare.
In the theatre of man's life, none are lookers-on. — Bacon.

134

ELIXIR

" How much unlike art thou Mark " [It is believed] that some
Anthony ! grains of the medicine projected
Yet, coming from him, that great should in a few moments of time
medicine hath turn a sea of quicksilver or other
With his tinct gilded thee." material into gold." — Advance-
Anthony and Cleopatra, i. 5 (1623). ment of Learning (1603-5).

Both authors called the tinct, which was supposed by the
alchemists to have the property of transmuting base metals
into gold, The Medicine. Both evidently investigated this
curious subject. Bacon even expressing the opinion that silver
could be produced by artificial means more easily than gold.
The true term for the tinct was Elixir.

135
HONOKS LIKE GARMENTS

" New honors come upon him, " Queen Elizabeth used to say

Like our strange garments, cleave of her instructions to great officers,

not to their mould, ' that they were like garments,

But with the aid of use." straight at first putting on, but did

Macbeth, i. 3 (1623). by and by wear loose enough,'" —

Apothegms (1624),

PARALLELISMS

136
ORPHEUS

From Shakespeare

"Orpheus' lute was strung -n-ith

poet's sinews,
Whose golden touch could soften

steel and stones,
Make tigers tame and huge levia-
thans
Forsake unsounded deeps to dance
on sands."
Two Gentlemen of Verona, iii. 2
(1623).
" Therefore the poet
Did feign that Orpheus drew trees,

stones and floods ;
Since nought so stockish, hard and

full of rage,
But music for the time doth change
his nature."
Merchant of Venice, vi. (1600).

From Bacon

" AH beasts and birds assembled,
and forgetting their several appe-
tites, some of prey, some of game,
some of quarrel, stood all sociably-
together, listening unto the airs
and accords of [Orpheus'] harp." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

" So great was the power of his
music that it moved the woods and
the very stones to shift themselves
and take their stations about him."
— Wisdom of the Ancients (1609).

It is perhaps significant that Bacon took Orpheus, the
great musician whose lyre Jupiter placed among the stars,
for his own model. He erected a statue of him in the
orchard at Gorhambury as " Philosophy Personified."

137

GESTICULATION

"Do not saw the air too much
with your hand, thus, but use
all gently. ... Be not too tame
neither, but let your discretion be
your tutor; suit the action to the
word, the word to the action, with
the special observance that you o'er-
step not the modesty of nature." —
Hamlet, iii. 2 (1604).

" It is necessary to use a sted-
fast countenance, not wavering
with action, as in moving the head
or hand too much. ... It is suf-
ficient with leisure to use a modest
action." — Civil Conversation (date
unknown).

86 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

138

UNION

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" lu the cup an union shall he " Pearls are taken either in a
throw, fine powder or in solution." — His-

Richer than that which four sue- tory of Life and Death (1623).
cessive kings

In Denmark's crown have worn."
Hamlet, v. 2 (1604).

Large pearls were called uniones and treated as dainties
by the Komans. Bacon classified them among medicines for
prolonging life.

The printers of the Hamlet quartos, not knowing what a
union was, substituted onyx for it.

139

GOVERNMENT BY MINORS

'* Woe to that land that 's govern'd " Government of princes in mi-

by a child ! " nority ... an infinite disadvan-

Richard III., ii. 3 (1597). tage to the state." — Advancement
of Learning (1603-5).

140

TRIAL BY FIRE

" The fire seven times tried this ; " Fire shall try every man's

Seven times tried that judgment is work." — Promus (1594-96).
That did never choose amiss."
Merchant of Venice, ii. 9 (1600).

141
BASTINADO

" He gives the bastinado with his " No man loves one the better

tongue ; for giving him the bastinado with

Our ears are cudgell'd." a little cudgel." — Advice to

King John, ii. 1 (1623). Queen Elizabeth (1584-85).

142

VIVISECTION

" Queen. Master doctor, have you " Though the inhumanity of

brought those drugs ? anntomia vivorum was by Celsus

Cornelius. Here they are, madam, justly reproved, yet, in regard to

PARALLELISMS

the great use of this observation,
the iuquiry needed not by him so
slightly to have been relinquished
altogether." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

" We have also parks and enclo-
sures of all sorts of beasts and birds
which we use not only for view or
rareness, but likewise for dissec-
tions. We also try poisons and
other medicines upon them." —
New Atlantis (1624).

Queen. I will try the forces
Of these thy compounds on such

creatures as
We count not worth the hanging,

but none human,
To try the vigor of them and apply
AUayments to their act, and by

them gather
Their several virtues and effects.

Cor. [aside']. I do not like her.

She doth think she has
Strange lingering poisons ; I do

know her spirit,
And will not trust one of her

malice with
A drug of such damn'd nature.

Those she has
Will stupefy and dull the sense

awhile ;
Which first, perchance, she '11 prove

on cats and dogs,
Then afterward up higher."

Cymbcline, i. 5 (1623).

The practice of vivisection, and trial of drugs on living
organisms can be traced back to a very early period ; but
until Harvey resorted to it in order to demonstrate the
circulation of the blood, knowledge of the subject was con-
fined to a very limited circle of physiologists. It was on
this account that Harvey has been called the Father of Vivi-
section. And yet it seems that Bacon and Shake-speare had
both investigated it before Haivey's experiments became
public, and were fully aware of the beneficent effects claimed
in its behalf. And they use the same expression in their
treatment of it :

*' First, perchance, she '11 prove it on cats and dogs,
Then afterward up higher." Shake-speare.

" To speak, therefore, of medicine, and to resume that we have said,
ascendinLf a little higher." — Bacon.

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Harvey began his course of lectures after Shakespere's death
in 1616 ; and twelve years after the latter 's retirement from
London.

143
BANISHMENT OF WOMEN FROM COURT

Frvm Shakespeare
" King. Navarre shall be the

wonder of the world ;
Our court shall be a little academe,
Still and contemplative in living

art.
You three, Biron, Dumaine, and

Longaville,
Have sworn for three years' term

to live with me.
My fellow-scholars, and to keep

these statutes
That are recorded in this schedule

here.

Biron. Give me the paper; let

me read the same,
And to the strict'st decrees I'll

write my name.
IReads] ' Item, that no woman

shall come within a mile of

my court.'

' Item, if any man be seen to talk
with a woman within the term of
three years, he shall endure such
public shame as the rest of the
court can possibly devise. ' " —
Love's Labor 's Lost, i. 1 (1598).

From Bacon
" They would make you a king
in a play. . . . What! nothing but
tasks, nothing but working days 1
No I'easting, no music, no dancing,
no comedies, no love, no ladies 1 "
— Gesta Gray or um (1594).

144

CONDEMNED FOR VIRTUES

"I cannot tell, good sir, for
which of his virtues it was, but he
was certainly whipp'd." — Winter's
Tale, iv. 2 (1623).

" For which of the good works do
you stone me ? " — Promus (1594-
96).

PARALLELISMS 89

145
MIRACLES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Nothing almost sees miracles " If miracles be the command

But misery." over nature, they appear most in

Zmr, ii. 2 (1623). adversity." — Essay of Adversity
(1625).

Dr. E. M. Theobald calls attention to the significant fact
that in both of the quarto editions of * Lear,' published in
1608, the passage, quoted above, reads — •

" Nothing almost sees my wracke
But misery."

The substitution in the foho of 1623 of the word miracles
for my wracke not only gives sense to the passage, but also
brings it into harmony with Bacon's philosophical views as
expounded by him in one of his later essays. This affords
additional proof to those given elsewhere that the play was
specially revised for the folio, seven years after the reputed
author's death, and by Francis Bacon himself. How else
could such a meaning have been extracted from the quartos ?

146

LOVE IN EYES

" Tell me where is fancy [love] " The affections, no doubt, do

bred, make the spirits more powerful

Or in the heart or in the head ? and active ; and especially those

How begot, how nourished ? affections which draw the spirits

Reply, reply. into the eyes ; which are two —

It is engender'd in the eyes, with love and envy." — Natural His-

gazing fed." tory (1622-25).

Merchant of Venice, iii. 2 (1600). " There be none of the affections

which have beennoted to fascinate
or bewitch, but Love and Envy ;
. . . and they come easily into the
eye." — Essay of Envy (1625).

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

147

MARIGOLD

From Shakespeare

" Great princes' favorites their fair

leaves spread
But as the marigold at the sun's

eye."

Sonnet 25 (1609).

From Bacon

" Some of the ancients, and like-
wise divers of the modern writers
that have labored in natural magic,
have noted a sympathy between
the sun, moon, and some princij)al
stars, and certain herbs and plants.
... It is manifest that there are
some flowers that have respect to
the sun ; ... for marigolds do
open or spread their leaves abroad
when the sun shineth serene and
fair ; and again (in some part)
close them or gather them inward
either towards night, or when tlie
sky is overcast." — Natural His-
tory (1622-25).

148

NATURAL MAGIC

" Oberon. I know a bank where

the wild thyme blows.
Where oxlips and the nodding

violet grows,
Quite over-canopied with luscious

woodbine,
With sweet musk-roses, and with

eglantine ;
There sleeps Titania some time of

the night,
Lull'd in these flowers with dances

and delight ;
And there the snake throws her

enamell'd skin,
Weed wide enough to wrap a fairy

in;
And with the juice of this I'll

streak her eyes,

" Natural magic has the same
kind of efi"ect on men as some so-
porific drugs, which not only lull
to sleep, but also during sleep
iustil gentle and pleasing dreams."
-De Augmentis (1622).

PARALLELISMS 91

And make her full of hateful fan-
tasies."

Midsummer-Night's Dream, ii. 1
(1600).

'■'•Puck. If we shadows have of-
fended,

Think but this, and all is mended,

That you have but slumber'd here,

While these visions did appear.

And this weak and idle theme

No more yielding than a dream."
Ibid., V. 1.

' A Midsummer-Night's Dream ' is a play founded on
natural magic, with Oberon and Puck, or Eobin Goodfellow,
as prominent dramatis personce. These names and the char-
acters they represent were taken from romances, written by
Hugh or Huon of Bordeaux, with which Bacon was familiar.
He refers to them in the ' Advancement of Learning ' when
treating of magic :

" As for that natural magic whereof now there is mention in
books, containing certain credulous and superstitious conceits and
observations of Sympathies and Antipathies, and hidden proprieties
[properties], and some frivolous experiments, strange rather by
disguisement than in themselves, it is as far differing in truth of
nature from such a knowledge as we require, as the story of King
Arthur of Britain, or Hugh of Bordeaux, differs from Caesar's Com-
mentaries."— Book ii. (1G05).

The play illustrates precisely such effects of magic as
Bacon describes, sympathy and antipathy at the will of
magicians. Lysander and Hermia, for instance, are intro-
duced to us in the first act as in love with each other and
about to marry ; but while Lysander is lying asleep by the
side of his prospective bride, Puck makes his appearance and
lets fall into his eyes some drops of a liquid that at once
turns his love into hate. The same kind of enchantment
causes him to fall in love with Helena. That is to say, his

92 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

affections, like those of Demetrius and Titania, are controlled
by the " hidden (or magical) properties " of a flower while he
is asleep.

149
METHOD IN MADNESS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Though this be madness, yet " Tliey were only taking pains
there is method in 't." to show a kind of method and

//am/e<, ii. 2 (1604). discretion in their madness." —
Novum Organum (1608-20).

150

COUGHING

"Thou hast quarreled with a "A cough cannot be hid." —

man for coughing in the street." Promus (1594-96).
— Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1 (1599).

151
FOOLS

" Jaques. I am ambitious for a " Cato Major would say, that
motley coat. wise men learned more by fools,

Duke S. Thou shalt have one. than fools by wise men." — Apo-

Jaq, It is my only suit. thegms (1624).

. . . I must have liberty

Withal, as large a charter as the
wind,

To blow on whom I please ; give
me leave

To speak my mind, and I will
through and through

Cleanse the foul body of the in-
fected world,

If they will patiently receive my
medicine."
As You Like Jt, ii. 7 (1623).

Bacon was very fond of apothegms, as he was also of
proverbs. He refers to them as useful productions in the
first edition of his ' Advancement of Learning' in 1605, and
still more forcibly in the Latin edition of the same work

PARALLELISMS

published in 1623. It is not difficult to understand why
both apothegms and proverbs are found, credited to clowns
and fools, in Shake-speare: they illustrate Bacon's favorite
method of imparting philosophy without contention. " In
the reflections of Falstaff," says Mr. Hudson, " we have a clear,
though brief, view of the profound philosopher underlying
the profligate humorist and make-sport ; for [the author]
there discovers a breadth and sharpness of observation and a
depth of practical sagacity such as might have placed him in
the front rank of statesmen and sages."-

•Shakespeare's Art

and Life, ii. 94.

152

FIRESIDE TALK

From Shake-speare

" 0, these flaws and starts,
Impostors to true fear, would well

become
A woman's story at a winter's fire."
Macbeth, iii. 4 (1623).

From Bacon

"They ought all to be despised,
and ought to serve but for win-
ter's talk by the fireside." — Essay
of Prophecies (1625).

153

MEDICINES FOR THE MIND

" Canst thou not minister to a
mind diseased ? "

Macbeth, v. 3 (1623).

" The particular remedies which
learning doth minister to all the
diseases of the mind." — Advance-
ment of Learning, Book i. (1603-5).

" Good lord. Madam, said I, how
wisely and aptly can you speak
and discern of physic ministered
to the body, and consider not that
there is the like occasion of physic
ministered to the mind." — Apology
concerning the Earl of Essex (1603).

" We know diseases of stoppings
and suff'ocations are the most dan-
gerous in the body ; and it is not
much otherwise in tlie mind." —
Essay of Friendship (1625).

94 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

154

ADDRESS IN COURT

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Most potent, grave, and reverend " I speak not to simple men, but

signiors ! " to prudent, grave, and wise peers."

Othello, i. 3 (1622). Speech at the Trial of Essex (IGOl).

On this parallelism Mr. Gerald Massey comments as
follows :

" Shakespeare himself givps us a hint, in his dramatic -way, that
he was present at the trial of the Earl, for he has, in a well-known
speech of Othello's, adopted the manner and almost the words with
which Bacon opened his address on that memorahlo occasion." —
The Secret Drama of Shakespeare's Sonnets, p. 216.

155
LUST

" The expense of spirit in a waste " Lust never rests satisfied with

of shame what it has, but goes on and on,

Is lust in action; and till action, with infinite insatiable appetite,

lust panting after new triumphs. Tigers

Is perjur'd, murderous, bloody, full also are kept in its stalls and yoked

of blame, to its chariot; for, as soon as it

Savage, extreme, rude, cruel, not to ceases to go on foot and comes to

trust ; ride in its chariot, as in celebration

Enjoy 'd no sooner but despised of its victory and triumph over

straight; reason, then it is cruel, savage, and

Past reason hunted." pitiless." — Wisdom of the Ancients

Sonnet 129 (1609). (1609).

156
PERSONAL BEAUTY AND VIRTUE

"Those that she [Fortune] makes " Neither is it almost seen that

fair she scarce makes honest, and very beautiful persons are other-

those that she makes honest she wise of great virtue." — Essay of

makes very ill-favoredly." Beauty (1607-12).
As Yon Like It, i. 2 (1623).

PARALLELISMS

157

RUMOR

From Bacon
" The nature of the common
people . . . gives birth to rumors,
and malignant whispers, and quer-
ulous fames, and defamatory libels,
and the like." — Wisdom of the
Ancients (1609).

From Shakespeare

" Rumor is a pipe
Blown by surmises, jealousies,

conjectures,
And of so easy and so plain a stop
That the blunt monster with un-
counted heads.
The still-discordant wavering mul-
titude.
Can play upon it."

2 Henry IV., Induction (1600).

Mr. George James, a ripe scholar and critic of Birming-
ham, England, calls attention to the identity of thought
regarding the operations of Eumor (evidently inspired by
Virgil) in Bacon's Essay of ' Seditions and Troubles ' and the
Induction to ' 2 Henry IV.' The passages he refers to are
as follows :

" Rumor. I, from the orient to the

drooping west,
Making the wind my post-horse,

still unfold
The acts commenced on this ball

of earth ;
Upon my tongue continual slanders

ride ;
The which in every language I

pronounce,
Stuffing the ears of men with false

reports."

Induction (1600).

" Libels and licentious discourses
against the state, when they are
frequent and open, and in like sort,
false news, running up and down
to the disadvantage of the state
and hastily embraced, are amongst
the signs of troubles." — Essay of
Seditions (1607-12).

158

SHIP ON A LEE SHORE

Enter Mariners
" Boatswain. Heigh, my hearts !
cheer! y, cheerly, my hearts !
yare, yare ! take in the topsail.

" In heavy storms they first
lower the yards, and take in the
topsails, and, if necessary, all
tlie others, even cutting down

96 BACON JND SHAKESPEARE

the masts themselves." — History
Down with the topmast! yard of the Winds (1622).

lower, lower 1
Bring her to try with main course.

Lay her a-hokl, a-hold ! set her two

courses ;
Off to sea again ; lay her off."

Tempest, i. 1 (1623).

Bacon tells us, that when a ship is on a lee shore, and, to
avoid disaster, must put to sea again, she can lie within six
points of the wind, provided she set her courses. Those were
the exact orders given in the play, lest " we run ourselves
aground," says the master.

159

ANGEK

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"He's truly valiant that can "Seneca saith well, 'that anger

wisely suffer is like rain, which breaks itself

The worst that men can breathe, upon that it falls.' The Scripture

and make his wrongs exhorteth us, ' to possess our souls

His outsides, to wear them like his in patience.' Whosever is out of

raiment, carelessly, patience is out of possession of his

And ne'er prefer his injuries to his soul. Men must not turn bees,

jjgart animasque in vulnere ponunt [and

To bring it into danger." leave their lives in the wound]."

Timon of Athens, iii. 5 (1623). — Essay of Anger (1623).

The injunction not to permit anger to strike to the heart
and thus endanger life appeared in one of the latest of
Bacon's essays, first published in 1625 ; and also in a Shake-
speare drama not heard of till seven years after the reputed
author's death, and first published in 1623.

160

SUSPICIOUS PERSONS

" Coesar. Let me have men about " Princes, being full of thought
me that are fat ; and prone to suspicions, do not

PARALLELISMS

Sleek-headed men and such as
sleep o' nights.

'^ond Cassius has a lean and hun-
gry look ;

He thinks too much ; such men
are dangerous."

Julius Cccsar, i. 2 (1623).

easily admit to familiar inter-
course men that are perspicacious
and curious, whose minds are
always on the watch and never
sleep." — Wisdom of the Ancients
(1609).

Another parallelism suggested by Mr. James, who seems
to be justified in pronouncing it " absolute and perfect."

161

TEREBRATTON OF TREES

From Bacon
" The terebration of trees not
only makes them prosper better,
but it maketh also the fruit sweeter
and better. The cause is, for that,
notwithstanding the terebration,
they may receive aliment sufficient,
and yet no more than they can
well turn and digest." — Sylva
Sylvarum, 463 (1622-25).

From Shakespeare

" 0, what pity is it
That he had not so trimm'd and

dress'd his land
As we this garden. We at time of

year
Do wound the bark, the skin of

our fruit-trees,
Lest, being over-proud in sap and

blood,
With too much riches it confound
itself."

Richard 11., iii. 4 (1597).

Still another parallelism due to Mr. James. Bacon says
again on the same subject :

" It hath been practised in trees that show fair and bear not, to
bore a hole through the heart of the tree, and thereupon it will bear.
Which may be, for that the tree before hath too much repletion,
and was oppressed with its own sap." — Ibid., 428.

162

A PROPHECY

" King Henry of Richmond. Come

hither, pretty lad ;
If heavenly powers do aim aright

" One day when Henry the
Sixth (whose innocency gave him
holiness) was washing his hands

98 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

To my divining thoughts, thou, at a great feast, and cast his eye

pretty boy, upon King Henry [the Seventh],

Shalt prove this country's bliss. tlien a young youth, he said.

Thy head is made to wear a princely ' This is the lad that shall pos-

crown, sess quietly that that we now

Thy looks are all replete with strive for.' " — History of Henry

majesty; VII. (1621).

Make much of him, my lords,
For this is he shall help you more
Than you are hurt by me."
5 Henry VI., iv. 6 (1595, 1600,

1619).

The passage, cited above, from the ' Thu-d Part of King
Henry VI.' appeared in the first edition of the play in 1595 ;
also, without change in the second, 1600 ; also again without
change in the third, in 1619, or three years after the death of
the reputed poet at Stratford in 1616. For the folio of 1623,
however, it was revised, undoubtedly (as our readers can
judge) by the author himself, and then made to read as
follows :

" King Henry. Come hither, England's hope ; 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 fram'd to wear a crown,
His hand to wield a sceptre ; and himself
Likely in time to bless a regal throne." (1623.)

It is noteworthy that on the titlepage of the 1619 quarto
the play, as then published, was said to have been " newly
corrected." The inference, therefore, is almost irresistible
that the author was living, not only immediately before
1619, when certain changes were elsewhere made in the
play, but also during the interval between 1619 and
1623, when very great changes, involving thousands of
lines, were made in it.^

See 'Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare,' p. 116.

PARALLELISMS 99

To pursue the subject a little farther, — the anecdote was
taken from Holinshed, where we find it given thus :

" The Earl of Pembroke took this chikl, being his nephew, out of
the custody of the Lady Herbert, and at his return brought the child
with him to Loudon, to King Henry VI. ; whom when the king had
a good while beheld, he said to such princes as were with him :
' Lo, surely this is he, to whom both we and our adversaries, leav-
ing the possession of all things, shall hereafter give room and
place.' "

The historical plays of Shake-speare contain many para-
phrases from Holinshed and Halle. To show how closely
the dramatist sometimes follows these old chroniclers, we
give one more instance, this time from ' Henry V.' :

163

SALIC LAW

From Shake-speare From Bacon

" There is no bar to stay your high- " There was a French gentleman

ness' claim to France speaking with an Enghsh, of the

But one, which they produced from law Salique, that women were ex-

Faramount ; eluded to inherit the crown of

No female shall succeed in Salicke France. The English said, ' Yes,

land, but that was meant of the women

Which Salicke land the French themselves, not of such males as

unjustly gloze claimed by women.' The French

To be the realm of France, gentleman said, ' Where do you

And Faramount the founder of this find that gloss 1 ' The Englishman

law and female bar. answered, ' 1 11 tell you, sir ; look

Yet their own writers faithfully on the back side of the record of

affirm the law Saliqiie, and there you

That the land Salicke lies in Ger- shall find it endorsed ; ' meaning

many there was no such thing at all as

Between the floods of Sabeck and the law Salique, but that it was a

of Elm." fiction." — Apothegms (1624).
Henry V., i. 2 (1600).

Both of these statements regarding the Salic law were
taken, almost word for word, from Holinshed's history. This
is a significant fact, for it shows that Holinshed was a com-

lOO

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

mon and prolific source of information for the two authors in
their respective works. We give an example of each, addi-
tional to the above :

From Shakespeare
" Sent the Lord Treasurer with
Master Reginald Bray and others
unto the Lord Mayor of London,
requiring a present of six thousand
marks. Whereupon the said Lord
Mayor and his brethren, with the
commons of the city, granted a
present of two thousand pounds."
— Holinshed, p. 764.
" Canterbury. In the book of Num-
bers is it writ ;
'When the man dies, let the in-
heritance
Descend unto the daughter.' "

Henry V. i. 2 (1600).
" King Henry. If we may jiass, we

will ; if we be hinder'd,
We shall your tawny ground with

your red blood
Discolor."

Ibid., iii. 6.

From Bacon

" And thereupon he took a fit
occasion to send the Lord Treas-
urer and Master Bray, whom he
used as counsellor, to the Lord
Mayor of London, requiring of the
city a present of six thousand
marks ; but after parleys, he could
obtain but two thousand pounds."
— Bacon's History of Henry VI.

" The Archbishop further alleged
out of the book of Numbers this
saying : ' when a man dieth with-
out a son, let the inheritance de-
scend to his daughter.' " — Holins-
hed, p. 546.

" And yet wish I not any of you
to be so unadvised as to be the
occasion that I dye your tawny
ground with your red blood." —
Ibid.

164

FLEAS
" Second Carrier. I think this
be the most villanous house in all
London road for fleas. . . . Your
chamber-lie breeds fleas like a
loach." — i Henry IV., ii. 1
(1598).

" Fleas breed principally in straw
or mats where there had been a
little moisture, or the chamber and
bedstraw been kept close and not
well aired." — Sylva Sylvarum
(162^25).

165

CONJUNCTION OF PLANETS

" When the planets
In evil mixture to disorder wander,
What plagues, and what portents,
what mutiny,

" Greater winds are observed to
blow about the time of the con-
junctions of planets." — History of
the Winds (1622).

PARALLELISMS

lOI

What raging of the sea, shaking of

earth,
Commotion in the winds ! "
Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 (1609).

166
APPARITIONS

From Bacon
" As in infection and contagion
from body to body it is most cer-
tain that the infection is received
by the body passive, but yet is by
the strength and good disposition
thereof repulsed and wrought out
before it is formed into a disease ;
so much the more in impressions
from mind to mind, or from spirit
to spirit, the impression taketh, but
is encountered and overcome by
the mind and spirit, which is pas-
sive, before it work any manifest
effect." — Sylva Sylcarum (1622-
25).

From Shakespeare

" Brutus. Ha ! who comes here ?

I think it is the weakness of mine
eyes

That shapes this monstrous appari-
tion.

It comes upon me. Art thou any-
thing ?

Art thou some god, some angel, or
some devil,

That mak'st my blood cold and my
hair to stare 1

Speak to me what thou art.

Ghost. Thy evil spirit, Brutus.

Brutus. Why comest thou ?

Ghost. To tell thee thou shalt see
me at Philippi.

Brutus. Well ; then I shall see
thee again 1

Ghost. Ay, at Philippi.

Brutus. Why, I will see thee at
Philippi then.

[Ghost vanishes.

Now I have taken heart, thou
vanish est."
Julius CcEsar, iv. 3 (1623).

This story is told by Plutarch, as follows :

" He thought he heard one come unto him and casting his eye
towards the door of his tent, he saw a wonderful strange and mon-
strous shape of a body coming towards him and said never a word.
So Brutus boldly asked what he was, a God or a man, and what
cause brought him tliither. The spirit answered him, ' I am thy
evil spirit, Brutus, and thou shalt see me by the City of Philippes.'

102 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Brutus being no otlierwiso afraid replied again unto it — 'well,
then, I shall see tliee again.' The spirit presently vanished away."

It appears now, as Mr, James very cleverly points out,
that Sliake-speare's account of this apparition differs in one
important particular from Plutarch's ; namely, it represents
Brutus as at first affected by fear, and then, on recovery from
the fear, immediately losing sight of his unwelcome visitor.
That is, the ghost, being simply the creature of a disordered
imagination, fled as soon as the mind of Brutus resumed its
natural courage. This result is in exact accordance with
Bacon's definition, as given above.

167

WITCHES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Be these juggling fiends no more "As divers wise judges have

believed, prescribed and cautioned, men

That palter with us in a double may not too rashly believe the
sense ; confessions of witches, nor yet the

That keep the word of promise to evidence against them. For the
our ear, witches themselves are imagina-

And break it to our hope." tive, and believe oft-times they do

Macbeth, v. 7 (1623). that which they do not." — Nat-
ural History (1622-25).

At the time when the drama of ' Macbeth ' was written, the
crusade against witchcraft had reached its height, the king
himself having recently inflicted the most terrible punish-
ments upon a man in Scotland who was condemned for hav-
ing raised a tempest in the North Sea and thus endangered
the king's life. The drama is an admirable example of
Bacon's method of combating popular delusions, as laid
down in his preface to the ' Wisdom of the Ancients ' :

" Even now, if any one wish to let new light on any subject into
men's minds, and that without offence or harshness, he must still
go the same way [as that of the ancient poets] and call in the aid
of similitudes."

PARALLELISMS

103

The term similitudines would include such a work as the

drama of ' Macbeth.'

168

quarrellii;g

From Shakespeare

" Gregory. I will frown as I pass
by, and let them take it as they
list.

Sampson. Nay, as they dare. I
will bite my thumb at them ;
which is a disgrace to them, if
they bear it.

Abraham. Do you bite your
thumb at us, sir 1

Samp. I do bite my thumb, sir.

Air. Do you bite your thumb
at us, sir ?

Samp. No, sir ; I do not bite my
thumb at you, sir ; but I bite my
thumb, six.

Abr. You He.

Samp. Draw, if you be men.

Prince. What ho! you men, you

beasts,
That quench the fireoi your perni-
cious rage
"With purple fountains issuing from
your veins."

Romeo and Juliet,!. 1 (1597).
" Thou ! why, thou wilt quarrel
with a man that hath a hair more
or a hair less in hLs beard than thou
hast. . . . Thou hast quarrelled
with a man for coughing in the
street, because he hath awakened
thy dog that hath lain asleep in
the sun. Didst thou not fall out
with a tailor for wearing his new
doublet before Easter ? With an-
other, for tying his new shoes with
old ribbon ? " — Ibid. , iii. 1.

OVER TRIFLES

From Bacon

" Life is grown too cheap in these
times, and every petty scorn or dis-
grace can have no other reparation
[than with the sword]. Nay, so
many men's lives are taken away
with impunity, that the life of the
law is almost taken away." —
Charge against Duelling (1613).

"Men have almost lost the
true notion and understanding of
fortitude and valor. A man's life
is not to be trifled with ; it is to
be ofi'ered up and sacrificed to
honorable services, public merits,
good causes, and noble adventures."
— Ibid.

I04 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

1G9

THE PROUD MAN DEVOURING HIMSELF

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Achilles. Patroclus, I'll speak " Those that want friends to open
with nobody. themselves unto are cannibals of

their own hearts." — Essay of

Agamemnon. He that is proud eats Friendship (1625).
up himself."

Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3 (1609).

170

A MONARCH NOT ACCOUNTABLE TO OTHERS

" Her majesty, being imperial
and immediate under God, was
not holden to render account of
her actions to any." — Proceedings
against Essex (1600).

" What subject can give sentence
on his king ?

Shall the figure of God's majesty,
His captain, steward, deputy elect,
Anointed, crowned, planted many

years,
Be judg'd by subject and inferior
breath ? "

Puchard II., iv. 1 (1597).

On no subject were Bacon and Shake-speare more fully
agreed than on the divine prerogatives of a king or queen.

171

WATCHMEN

" Watchman. Well, masters, we
hear our charge ; let us go sit here
upon the church-bench till two,
and then all to bed.

Dogberry. Goodman Verges, sir,
speaks a little off the matter, an
old man, sir, and his wits are not
so blunt as, God help, I would de-
sire they were ; but, in faith, honest
as the skin between his brows.

Verges. Yes, I thank God I am

" Question. How long is their
oiEce?

Ayiswer. The office of constable
is annual, except they be removed.

Question. Of what rank or order
of men are they ?

Answer. They be men, as it is
now used, of inferior, yea, of base
condition." — The Office of Con-
stable (1608).

PARALLELISMS 105

as honest as any man living that is
an old man and no honester than
I." — Much Ado, iii. 3 and 4 (1600).

In his paper on Constables from which we have quoted,
Bacon emphasizes the fact that these officers of the law
ought not to be aged men, one of the points upon which
Shakespeare lavishes his fun. We seem to find in the play
a clear case of instruction by example.

172

FORGIVENESS BETTER THAN VENGEANCE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Kindness, nobler ever than re- " In taking revenge, a man is

venge." but even with his enemy; but in

As You Like It, iv. 3 (1623). passing it over, he is superior. . . .

" Though with their high wrongs I Some, when they take revenge, are

am struck to the quick, desirous the party should know

Yet, with my nobler reason, 'gainst whence it cometh. This the more

my fury generous. For the delight seemeth

Do I take part. The rarer action is to be, not so much in. doing the hurt.

In virtue than in vengeance ; they as in making the party repent." —

being penitent, Essay of Revenge (1625).

The sole drift of my purpose doth " One who does the wrong is the

extend aggressor; he who returns it, the

Not a frown further. Go, release protractor." — De Augmentis (1622).
them, Ariel."

Tempest, v. 1 (1623).
" Who by repentance is not satis-
fied,
Is not of heaven nor earth."

Two Gentlemen of Verona, iv. 1
(1623).

Bacon's inculcation of the duty of forgiveness, which is so
emphatically reproduced in the Shake-speare Plays, was fully
exemplified in his own life. Sir Toby Matthew says of him :
" I can truly say that I never saw in him any trace of a vin-
dictive mind, whatever injury was done him, nor ever heard
him utter a word to any man's disadvantage which seemed
to proceed from personal feeling against the man."

io6

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

173
DRUGS SUSPENDING ANIMATION

From Shakespeare

[Enter Friar Lawrence, with a
basket.]

" Friar. Now, ere the sun advance
his burning eye

The day to cheer and night's dank
dew to dry,

I must up-fiU this osier cage of
ours

With baleful weeds and precious-
juiced flowers.

0, mickle is the powerful grace

that lies
In herbs, plants, stones, and their

true qualities.

Within the infant rind of this weak

flower
Poison hath residence and medi-
cine power.
For this, being smelt, with that

part cheers each part;
Being tasted, slays all senses with

the heart."

Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3 (1597).
" Friar. Take thou this vial, being

then in bed.
And this distilled liquor drink

thou off;
When presently through all thy

veins shall run
A cold and drowsy humor, for no

pulse
Shall keep his native progress, but

surcease;
No warmth, no breath, shall testify

thou livest;
The roses in thy lips and cheeks

shaU fade

From Bacon
" I now come to inquire into the
second way of condensing the
spirits, namely, by cold ; and it is
done without any malignity or un-
friendly quality. . . . The root of
the operation I place in nitre, as a
thing specially created for this
purpose. The principal subordi-
nates of nitre are borage, bugloss,
langue de boeuf, burnet, strawberry
plants, strawberries, raspberries,
raw cucumbers, raw apples, vine
leaves, vine buds, and violets.
Next to these come . . . balm,
green citrons, green oranges, dis-
tilled rose-water, roasted pears, and
pale, red, and musk roses. Opium
and other strong narcotics congeal
the spirits and deprive them of
motion. So much for the conden-
sation of spirits by cold." — His-
tory of Life and Death (1623).

PARALLELISMS 107

To paly ashes; thy eyes' windows
fall,

Like death, when he shuts up the
day of life ;

Each part, deprived of supple gov-
ernment.

Shall, stiff and stark and cold, ap-
pear like death."

Ihid.., iv. 1.

It will be seen that Bacon made a special study of nar-
cotics, and of numerous plants and fruits that are narcotic in
their nature. He even speaks of the efficacy of such potions
in inducing what he called " voluntary or procured trances,"
in which, precisely as in the case of Juliet in the play, the
" senses are suspended," and suspended too, as he says,
" more powerfully than in sleep."

Indeed, Bacon went into the subject so thoroughly, pub-
lishing the results of his researches in two different books,
the fruits of a lifetime of study, that we may well refuse to
find the source of any part of his knowledge of it in a play.

174

SOLDIERS, IRON

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Therefore was I created with a " This island of Britain hath (I

stubborn outside, with an aspect of make no question) the best iron in.
iron, that, when I come to woo the world, that is, the best soldiers
ladies, I fright them." in the world." — Speech in the

Henry F., v. 2 (1623). House of Commons (1606-7).
" To see you here an iron man,
Cheering a rout of rebels with
your drum."

2 Henry IV., iv. 2 (1600).

Mr. Wigston points out this curious identification of
soldiers with iron in both authors.

io8 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

175
pompey's command of the sea

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Anthony. What is his [Pompey's] "Pompey's counsel is plainly

strength by land ? that of Themistocles, for he thinks

Ccesar. Great and increasing ; but tliat wlioever is master of tlie sea

by sea is master of the empire." — De

He is an absolute master." Augmentis (1622).

Anthomj and Cleopatra, ii. 2 (1623). " The commandment of the sea

^'■Menas. Thou [Pompey] art, if is an abridgment or quintessence

thou dar'st be, the earthly Jove ; of an universal monarchy." — Cort'

Whate'er the ocean pales, or sky ference of Pleasure (1592).

inclips,
Is thine, if thou wilt ha't."

Ibid., ii. 7.

The empire of the sea is thus described by one of the
characters of the play to be equivalent to the empire of the
world. Bacon, quoting Cicero, who in turn had quoted
Themistocles, and applying the remark (as Shake-speare
does) to Pompey, adds : " Without doubt, Pompey had tired
out Caesar, if upon vain confidence he had not left that
way " — that is, if he had not relinquished the sovereignty
of the sea.

The parallelism goes farther than this, as Mr. Wigston
shows. The two authors were agreed in their conception of
Pompey's character. Menas having advised Pompey, who
for the moment had the triumvirs, Csesar, Anthony, and
Lepidus, in his power, to murder them, Pompey thus
replies :

176
pompey's dissimulation
*' Ah, this thou should'st have " Pompey made it his design by

done, infinite secret engines to cast the

And not have spoke on 't. In me state into an absolute anarchy and

't is villainy ; confusion, that the state might

In thee 't had been good service, cast itself into his arms for neces-

Thou must know sity and protection, and so the

PARALLELISMS

109

sovereign power be put upon him,
and he never seen in it." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

'T is not my profit that does lead

mine honor ;
Mine honor, it. Repent that e'er

thy tongue
Hath so betray'd thine act ; being

done unknown,
I should have found it afterwards

well done."
Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. (1623).

In the second edition of the ' Advancement,' the phrase
" never seen in it " is rendered, " apparently against his
will and inclination." Both authors represent the Roman
as an adept in dissimulation.

177

PERSONAL VANITY

From Shakespeare

" Sin of self-love possesseth all

mine eye,
And all my soul, and all my every

part ;
And for this sin there is no remedy,
It is so grounded in my heart.
Methinks no face so gracious is as

mine."

Sonnet 62 (1609).

From Bacon

" Neither had the fame of Cicero,
Seneca, Plinius Secundus, borne
her age so well, if it had not been
joined with some vanity in them-
selves ; like unto varnish, that
makes ceilings not only shine but
last. In some persons [this] is
not only comely, but gracious." —
Essay of Vain Glory (1612).

178

PAINTING OP THE FACE

" Why should false painting imi-
tate his cheek,

And steal dead seeing of his living
hue?

Why should poor beauty indirectly
seek

Roses of shadow 1 "

Sonnet 67 (1609).

*' As for artificial decoration [of
the face], it is well worthy of the
deficiencies which it hath; being
:ieither fine enough to deceive, nor
handsome enough to please, nor
wholesome enough to use." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

no BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

old

From Shakespeare
" But there 's a saying very

and true :

If that you will France win,

Then with Scotland Jirst begin.
For, once the eagle England being

in prey,
To her unguarded nest the weasel

Scot
Comes sneaking and so sucks her

princely eggs.
Playing the mouse in absence of

the cat.
To tear and havoc more than she

can eat."

Henry F., i. 2 (1600).

179

SCOTLAND AND ENGLAND

From Bacon
" Scotland was ever used by
France as a diversion of an Eng-
lish invasion upon France." — Ob-
servations of a Libel (1592).

180

PREMATURE DEATH OF HENRY V

" Small time, but in that small

most greatly lived
This star of England."

Epilogue to Henry V. (1623).
" King Henry V., too famous to

live long ! "

1 Henry VI., i. 1 (1623).

" King Henry V., as his success
was wonderful, so he wanted con-
tinuance, being extinguished after
ten years in the prime of his for-
tune." — Observations on a Libel
(1592).

181
FREQUENT CHANGE OF RULERS, A DISADVANTAGE

*' Henry the Sixth, in infant bands
crown'd king,
Of France and England, did this
king succeed ;
Whose state so many had the
managing
That they lost France and made
his England bleed."
Epilogue to Henry V. (1623).

" That sentence of Scripture —
' a nation is miserable which has
many rulers ' — is interpreted not
only to extend to divisions and
distractions in government, but
also to frequent changes in suc-
cession." — Ibid. (1592).

PARALLELISMS 1 1 1

182

DISTRIBUTION OF RICHES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Gloucester. Here, take this " Of great riches there is no real

purse . . . use, except it be in distribution."

So distribu tion should undo excess, — Essay of Riches ( 1 607-1 2) .
And each man have enough."

King Lear, iv. 1 (1608).

183
NOT EVERY CLOUD A STORM
"Every cloud engenders not a "Every vapor or fume doth

storm." not turn into a storm." — Essay of

3 Henry VI., v. 3 (1623). Seditions and Troubles (1625).

In both passages, as Mr. Wigston notes, the storms re-
ferred to under this metaphor are political.

184

"WIND-CHAXGING WARWICK

"Wind-changing Warwick now " It is commonly seen that men,

can change no more." once placed, take in with the cou-

3 Henry VI., v. 1 (1623). trary faction to that by which they
enter, thinking belike that they
have the first sure, and now are
ready for a new purchase." — Essay
of Faction (1597).

It is very probable that Bacon had Warwick's career in
mind when he wrote the above sentence (the first part of it
in 1597 and the latter part for the tlihd edition of his Essays
in 1625) ; for that was the most conspicuous instance of
" wind-changing " that had happened down to that period in
the history of England. He amplified the thought still more
in the Latin edition, thus : " they have been long sure of the
goodwill and zeal of the other faction, and so prepare them-
selves to gain new friends."

The word " purchase " is used by Bacon, as it frequently
is by Shake-speare, in its strictly legal sense, of acquisition

112 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

by any method other than inheritance. To purchase a thing
is to pay an equivalent for it ; and in one way or another,
excepting in the case of an inheritance, a man pays for every-
thing he acquires. Even a theft has its price.

185
bellerophon's letters

From Shakespeare From Bacon

^^ Hamlet. Up from luy cabin, "Bellerophon's letters (produc-

My sea-gown scarf d about me, in ing letters or evidence against

the dark oneself)." — Promus (1594-96).

Grop'd I to find out them ; had my

desire ;
Finger'd their packet ; and, in fine,

withdrew
To mine own room again, making

so bold.
My fears forgetting maimers, to

unseal
Their grand commission ; where I

found,
O royal knavery! an exact com-
mand, —
Larded with many several sorts of

reasons,
Importing Denmark's health, and

England's too.
With, hoi such bugs and goblins

in my life, —
That on the supervise, no leisure

bated,
No, not to stay the grinding of the

axe,
My head should be struck off."

Hamlet, v. 2 (1604).

Bellerophon, having committed an offence at the court at
Argos and being protected from punishment there by the
rites of hospitality, was sent away to the king of Lycia
with a sealed letter, in which the king was requested to

PARALLELISMS

113

put the bearer to death. Such letters were thence called
" Bellerophon's Letters." Bacon's entry of these words in
his Promus was made to remind him of this device in
correspondence for use in his writings. No other hint of a
letter of this kind can be found in all his works, unless
the perfect example of it in ' Hamlet ' be his.

186

" Polonius. What do you read, my

lord?
Hamlet. Words, words, words.
Pol. What is the matter, my lord 1
Ham. Between who 1
Pol. I mean, the matter that you

read, my lord ? "

Hamlet, ii. 2 (1604).

" This matter of marrying his

king's daughter . . . words him,

I doubt not, a great deal from the

matter." — Cymbeline, i. 5 (1623).

WORDS AND MATTER

" Here, then, is the first distem-
per of learning, when men study
words, and not matter." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

187

WRITING FOR THE FUTURE

" Not marhle, nor the gilded mon-
uments

Of princes, shall outlive this power-
ful rhyme ;

But you shall shine more bright in
these contents

Than unswept stone, besmear'd
with sluttish time.

When wasteful war shall statues
overturn,

And broils root out the work of
masonry,

Nor Mars his sword, nor war's
quick fire shall burn

The living record of your memory.

'Gainst death and all-oblivious en-
mity

" I must confess my desire to be
that my writings should not court
the present time, or some few
places, in such sort as might make
them either less general to persons,
or less permanent in future ages."
— Letter to Sir Toby Matthew
(16C9).

114 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Shall you pace forth ; your praise

shall still find room,
E'en in the eyes of all posterity
That wear this world out to the

ending doom."

Sonnet 55 (1G09).

No comment on Shake-speare has been more often or
more approvingly quoted than one of Jonson's : " he [Shake-
speare] was not of an age, but for all time." How exactly
these words also describe Bacon's literary ambition, as above

expressed !

188

DIVINITY HEDGING A KING
From Shake-speare From Bacon

" There 's such divinity doth wall " God hath implanted such a

a king majesty in the face of a prince that

That treason dares not look on." no private man dare approach the
Hamlet, iv. 5 (1603). person of his sovereign with a
traitorous intent." — Speech at
Trial of Essex (1601).

189
WORDS SOUNDING, BUT SIGNIFYING NOTHING

" It is a tale " It is nothing else but words,

Told by an idiot, full of sound and which rather sound than signify

fury, anything."

Signifying nothing."

Macbeth, v. 5 (1623).

190

A MURDERED MAN'S WOUNDS BLEEDING AFRESH

"If thou delight to view thy hein- " If the body of one murdered

ous deeds, be brought before the murderer,

Behold this pattern of thy butcher- the wounds will bleed afresh." —

ies. Natural History (1622-25).

0 ! gentlemen, see, see ! dead

Henry's wounds
Open their congeal'd mouths and

bleed afresh."

Eichard III., i. 2 (1597).

PARALLELISMS

115

In his prose treatment of this subject Bacon makes several
points that are not alluded to in Shake-speare, and that must
have come from independent sources, thus :

" Some do affirm tliat the dead body, upon the presence of the
murderer, hath opened the eyes ; and that there have been such
like motions, as well, where the party murdered hath been
strangled or drowned, as where they have been killed by wounds,"

He makes the same superstition the subject of an
apothegm :

"A lover met his lady in a close chair, she thinking to go un-
known. He came and spake to her. She asked him — ' how
did you know me 1 ' He said, ' because my wounds bleed afresh.' "

191

REBELLION AGAINST THE BELLY

From Bacon
" In this they fall into the error
described in the ancient fable, in
which the other parts of the body
did suppose the stomach had been
idle, because it neither performed
the office of motion, as the limbs
do, nor of sense, as the head doth ;
but yet, notwithstanding, it is the
stomach that digesteth and distrib-
uteth to all the rest." — Advance-
ment of Learning (1603-5).

From Shake-speare
"There was a time when all the

body's members
Rebell'd against the belly ; thus

accused it :
That only like a gulf it did remain
I' the midst of the body, idle and

inactive,
Still cupboarding the viand, never

bearing
Like labor with the rest, where the

other instruments
Did see and hear, devise, instruct,

walk, feel.
And, mutually participate, did

minister
Unto the appetite and affection

common
Of the whole body."

Coriolanus, i. 1 (1623).

Found in Plutarch (1579), and in Sir Philip Sidney's
' Apology for Poetry ' (1581). ' Coriolanus ' was probably writ-
ten sometime between 1612 and 1619 ; first printed in 1623.

ii6

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

192
A CUNNING DEVICE

From Bacon
" There is a cunning which we
in England call The Turning of
the Cat in the Pan ; which is, when
that which a man says to another,
he lays it as if another had said
it to him." — Essay of Cunning
(1612).

From Shakespeare
''[Enter Othello and lago at a dis-
tance.']
Emilia. Madam, here comes my

lord.
Cassia. Madam, I '11 take my

leave.
Desdemona. Why, stay, and hear

nie speak.
Cas. Madam, not now ; I am

very ill at ease, unfit for mine

own purposes.
Des. Well, do your discretion.

[Exit Cassio.
lago. Ha, I like not that.
Othello. What dost thou say ?

lago. Nothing, my lord ; or if —

I know not what.
0th. Was not that Cassio parted

from my wife ?
lago. Cassio, my lord 1 No,

sure, I cannot think it
That he would steal away so

guilty-like.
Seeing you coming.

0 ! beware, my lord, of jealousy ;
It is the green-eyed monster which

doth mock
The meat it feeds on."

Othello, iii. 3 (1622).

A better example of the kind of cunning which Bacon de-
scribes cannot be found in all literature than the one given
above from the play of ' Othello.' lago first incites the feel-
ing of jealousy in his victim, and then, as if surprised and
grieved to discover it, utters his warning against it. Mr.
Wigston, to v/hom we owe this splendid parallelism, thus
comments upon it : " If we study the whole of this scene

PARALLELISMS 1 1 7

where lago first begins working 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 endeavoring to disabuse a suspicious mind of jealous

fancies."

193

ENVY, A DEVIL

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Devil Envy, say Amen." "Envy is the proper attribute

Troilus and Cressida, \i. Z (\^0Q^. of the devil." — Essay of Envy

(1625).

Bacon calls envy the "vilest affection and the most de-
praved." Shake-speare wrote a play to show its effect, when
exerted from without, even upon a mind wholly free from it.
Dante has pictured the result : the tempter and his victim
(Cassius and Brutus) both being eternally crunched between
the jaws of the DeviL

194
FALSE PRAISE

'■^Alcihiades. If I thrive well, I '11 "Some men are praised mali-

visit thee again. ciously to their hurt." — Essay

Timon. If I hope well, I'll never of Praise (1607-12).

see thee more.
Alcib. I never did thee harm.
Tim. Yes, thou spok'st well of

me.
Alcib. Call'st thou that harm ?
Tim. Men daily find it. Get thee

away."

Timon of Athens, iv. 3 (1623).

Alcibiades, a sycophant, had praised Timon " to his hurt."

195

SELF-CONTEMPT
" Apemantus. Heavens, that I were " Let pride go a step higher, and
a lord ! from contempt of others rise to con*

ii8 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Timon. What would'st do then, tempt of self, and it becomes phi-
Apemautus? losophy." — De Augmenlis (1622).

Apem. E'en as Apoinantus does
now ; hate a lord with all my
heart.

Tim. What, thyself ?

Apem. Ay."

Titmn of Athens, i. 1 (1623).

Apemantus is the " philosopher " of the play.

196

THE STARS, A SHOW

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" This huge stage presenteth nought " Velleius, the Epicurean, needed
but shows, not to have asked, why God should

Whereon the stars in secret influ- have adorned the heaveus with
ence coniiiient." stars, as if he had been an iEdilis,

Sonnet 15 (1609). one that should have set forth some
magnificent shows or plays." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

This singular conception of the Maker of the Universe as an
^dile, arranging the stars as shows, commou to both authors,
seems to have been taken from Cicero's De Naturd Deorum.

The use of the word " plays " in this connection by Bacon
is significant, as Mr. Wigston with admirable pertinency
points out. It suggests the idea which lay deep in the minds
of both authors and which finds frequent expression in the
writings of both, that the world is a theatre :

" All the world 's a stage, " Men must know that, in this

And all the men and women theatre of man's life, it is reserved

merely players." owlj for God and the Angels to

As You Like It, ii. 7 (1623). be lookers-on." — Advancement of

•' I hold the world but as the world. Learning, Book ii. (1603-5).

Gratiano ;
A stage where every man must play
a part."
Merchant of Venice, i. 1 (1600).

PARALLELISMS

119

" Life 's but a walking shadow, a

poor player
That struts and frets his hour upon

the stage,
And then is heard no more."

Macbeth, v. 5 (1623).

" If your Majesty do at any time
think it fit for your affairs to em-
ploy me again publicly upon the
stage." — Memorandurn of Access
to King James (1622).

This parallelism runs even into a minor detail, thus :

197

CRYING AT BIRTH

From Shakespeare
" When we are born, we cry that we

are come
To this great stage of fools."

King Lear, iv. 6 (1608),

From Bacon
" Alen are sent headlong into this
wretched theatre, where, being ar-
rived, their first language is that
of mourning." — Posthumous Essay
of Death.

198

CONFLICT OF PASSIONS

" Gremio. A bridegroom say you ?

'T is a groom indeed,
A grumbling groom, and that a

girl shall find.
Tranio. Curster than she ? Why,

't is impossible.
Gremio. Why, she's a devil, a

devil, a very devil.
Tranio. Why, she's a devil, a

devil, the devil's dam.

Katharina. Come, come, you fro-

ward and unable worms !
My mind hath been as big as one

of yours,
My heart as great, my reason haply

more,
To bandy word for v?ord and frown

for frown ;
But now I see our lances are but

straws.

" The best doctors of this knowl-
edge are the poets, where we may
find painted and dissected to the
life, how affections [passions] are to
be stirred up and kindled; how
still'd and laid asleep ; . . . how to
set afi"ection against affection, and
by the help of one to master and re-
claim the other." — De Augmentis
(1622).

I20 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Our strength as weak, our weak-
ness past compare ;

Then vail your stomachs, for it is
no boot.

And phice your hands below your
husWand's loot.

Hortensio. Now go thy ways; thou

hast tamed a curst shrew.
Lucentio. 'T is a wonder; by your

leave, she will be tamed so."
Taming of the Shrew, v. 2 (1623).

Probably there is no more conspicuous instance in history
or fiction than the one we find in the ' Taming of the Shrew,'
where two persons, each of violent temper and determined
will, meet in conflict with the result Bacon describes. And
this, too, as Bacon says it ought to be, the work of a poet !

199

HAPPINESS IN THE MEAN
From Shakespeare From Bacon

"They are as sick that surfeit ^' Mediocria Jirma." — Motto oj

with too much as they that starve Nicholas Bacon, father of Francis.
with nothing. " Media tutius itur," — Letter to

"It is no mean happiness, there- King James (1616).
fore, to be seated in the mean." —
Merchant of Venice, i. 2 (1600).
"Be moderate, be moderate."
Troilus and Cressida,iv.4 (1609).
" Be moderate, allay thy ecstasy."
Merchant of Venice, iii. 2 (1600).
" Laugh moderately."

Love's Labor''s Lost, i. 1 (1598).
" Love moderately."

Romeo and Juliet, ii. 7 (1598).

The motto on the Bacon coat-of-arms (Nicholas Bacon)
was mediocria firma, — safety is in the mean. It can be read
to-day over the door of an ancient buildmg connected with

PARALLELISMS 121

Bacon's residence in Gorhambury Park. Nicholas BacoD
died in 1579.

200

LAUGHING PARROTS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Laugh like parrots at a bag- •' You shall have parrots that will

piper." not only imitate voices, but laugh-

Merchant of Venice, i. 1 (1600). ing." — Sylva Sylvarum (1622-25).

Pointed out by Mr. Wigston.

201
SLANDER

" [Slander], a crow that flies." " Fame hath swift wings, spe-

Sonnet 70 (1609). cially that which hath black feath-
ers." — Letter to Sir George
Villiers (1616).

202

IMPRESSIONS IN ICE

" This weak impress of love is as a " High treason is not written in

figure ice, that when the body relenteth,

Trench'd in ice, which with an the impression goeth away." —

hour's heat Charge of Owen (1615).

Dissolves to water and doth lose
his form."
Tiuo Gentlemen of Verona, in. 2
(1623).

This fine parallelism is also due to Mr. Wigston, who in
this important field has no superior.

203

ANGER, A TEMPORARY MADNESS

'' Ira furor hrevis est." " Ira furor brevis." — Charge on

Timon of Athens, i. 2 (1623). Opening of the Court of the Verge

(circa 1611).

122 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

204
WHEEL OF FORTUNE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"The [death] of majesty ... is a "This wheel (death of Queen.
massy wheel." Elizabeth) is turned rouud." —

Hamlet, iii. 3 (1G04). Letter to Kempe (1603).

Col. H. L. Moore calls attention to Bacon's definition of
wheel, given in one of his letters to VilKers, as a revolution in
public sentiment : " Opinion is a master wheel." Cicero uses
it in the same sense.

205
MIND TRAINED LIKE A HORSE

" So is my horse, Octavius ; ' ' Diogenes' opinion is to be ac-

It is a creature that I teach to fight, cepted who commended them . . .

To wind, to stop, to run directly which could give unto the mind

on, (as is used in horsemanship), the

His corporal motion govern'd by shortest stop or turn." — Advance-

my spirit." ment of Learning (1603-5).
Julius Ccesar, iv. 1 (1623).

In the play Anthony compares Lepidus with his horse,
both being creatures he can turn or stop at will. Bacon para-
phrases a Greek passage (not then translated into English)
from Diogenes, in which we find the same comparison of a
man's mind with a horse under control of a master.

206

MUSIC, LOVE, AND FLOVTERS

" If music be the food of love, play " The breath of flowers . . .

on; comes and goes like the warbling

Give me excess of it, that, surfeit- of music." — Essay of Gardens

ing, (1625).

The appetite may sicken, and so " The falling from a discord to a

die. concord in music is sweet." — Sylva

That strain again ! it had a dying Sylvariim (1622-25).

fall ; "Is not the precept of a musi-

PARALLELISMS

123

0, it came o'er my ear like the

sweet south,
That breathes upon a bank of

violets,
Stealing and giving odor. Enough,

no more ;
'Tis not so sweet now as it was

before."

Twelfth Night, i. 1 (1623).

cian, to fall from a discord to a
concord, alike true in affection ? " —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

The reader will take note that the passage from Shake-
speare contams three very recondite conceptions ; namely,
the character of a particular trope in music, the com-
parison of musical sounds with fragrance of flowers, and
the effect of music itself upon the heart. These are all
in Bacon.

207

D^DALrS

From Shakespeare

" I, Daedalus ; my poor son, Icarus ;
Thy father, Minos, that denied our

course ;
Thy brother Edward, the sun that

sear'd his wings ;
And thou, the envious gulf that

swallow'd him."

3 Henry VI., v. 6 (1595).

From Bacon

"This Dmdalus was persecuted
with great severity and diligence
and inquisition by Minos ; yet he
always found means of escape and
places of refuge. Last of all, he
taught his son Icarus how to fly ;
who, being a novice and ostenta-
tious of his art, fell from the sky
into the water." — Wisdom of the
Ancients (1609).

It will be noticed that of the five persons mentioned
with their types in a single sentence by Shake-speare,
King Henry (Daedalus), Prince Edward (Icarus), Duke of
York (Minos), King Edward (the Sun) and the Duke of
Gloucester (the Sea), the types of all of them are mentioned
or alluded to by Bacon, also in a single sentence.

124 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

208
ORPUEUS AND THE THRACIAN WOMEN

From Shakespeare
•' The riot of the tipsy Bacchanals,
Tearing the Thraciau singer in their
rage."
A Midsummer-Night'' s Dream, v.
1 (1600).

From Bacon
" At last, certain Thracian
women, under the stimulation
of Bacchus, came where he was,
. . . while Orpheus himself was
torn to pieces by them in their
fury.'' — Wisdo?n of the Ancients
(1609).

209

LEAGUE OF BODY AND SOUL

** Your face, my thane, is as a book
where men

May read strange matters. To be-
guile the time,

Look like the time ; bear welcome
in your eye,

Your hand, your tongue; look
like the innocent flower,

But be the serpent under 't."

Macbeth, i. 5 (1623).

" There's language in her eye, her
cheek, her lip.

Nay, her foot speaks."

Troilus and Cressida, iv. 5
(1609).

Bacon made a special study of physiognomy, as had also,
it is evident, the author of the Shake-speare plays.

"The league of soul and body
consists in disclosing the one the
other, and the working the one
upon the other. , . . And well is
this known to a number of cun-
ning and astute persons, whose
eyes dwell upon the faces and
gestures of men, and make their
own advantage of it, as being
most part of their ability and
wisdom." — Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

210

FEAR IS IGNOBLE

" Let pale-fac'd fear keep with the

mean-born man,

And find no harbor in a royal heart."

2 King Henry VI., iii. 1 (1623).

" True nobility is exempt from fear."

Ibid., iv. 1 (1623).

"Fear is a mark of ignoble
minds." — Promus (1594-96).

PARALLELISMS

1^5

211
CONSTANCY

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Even to vice " Even vices derive a grace

They are not constant, but are from constancy." — De Augmentis

(1622).

One vice, but of a minute old, for

one
Not half so old as that."

Cymbeline, ii. 5 (1623).

212

EGTPTIAN DARKNESS

" There is no darkness, but ig-
norance, in which thou art more
puzzled than the Egyptians in
their io^:' — Twelfth Night, iv. 2
(1623).

" This was done with an oath or
vow of secrecy, which is like the
Egyptian darkness." — Charge
against the Countess of Somerset
(1616).

213
THRASONICAL BEHAVIOR

" His general behavior vain, ridic-
ulous and thrasonical."
Lovers Labor 's Lost, v. 1 (1598).

" He was of an insolent thrasoni-
cal disposition." — Charge against
Somerset (1616).

214

FORTUNE-TELLING TRICKS

"We are simple we; we know "My Lord of Somerset, you

not what is brought to pass under used him as fortune-tellers do
the color of fortune-telling." — poor people in the country, hold
Merry Wives of Windsor, iv. 2 them in a tale while they steal
(1602). their purse." — Charge against

Somerset (1616).

Bacon gives one kind of trick that was practised " under
the color or profession of fortune-telling."

126 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

215
POISON IN SAUCES
From Shakespeare From Bacon

♦♦ Timon. Would poison were " The poison of great spiders and

obedient and knew my mind, of the venomous fly cantharides
Apemantus. Where would'st thou was fit for pig's sauce, or par-
send it ? tridge sauce, because it resembles
Timon. To sauce thy dislies." pepper." — Charge against the
Timon of Athens, iv. 3 (1G23). Countess of Somerset (1G16),

The drama of ' Timon of Athens ' was not known to the
world until it made its appearance in the first Shake-speare
folio of 1623. The trial of the Earl and Countess of Somer-
set on the charge of murder by poison, the most famous one
in the annals of England, took place in 1616. Bacon as
State's Attorney conducted the prosecution. The poison
had been admmistered to the victim in sauces. This trial
was subsequent to the death of the reputed poet.

216

TO WALK INVISIBLE

" We have the receipt of fern- " The wits of these days are too

seed; we walk invisible." — ! much refined, and practice too
Henry /F., ii. 1 (1598). much in use, for any man to walk

invisible." — Observations on a

Libel (1592).

217
WALKING WOODS

«' Siward. What wood is this be- " The greater navies look like

fore us ? walking woods." — Metrical Trans-

Menteith. The wood of Birnam. lation of Psalm 104 (1624).

Malcolm. Let every soldier hew
him down a bough,

And bear 't before him.

Messenger. Gracious my lord,
I should report that which I say I

saw,
But know not how to do it.

PARALLELISMS 127

Macbeth. Well, sir, say.

Mess. As I did stand my watch

upon the hill
I look'd toward Birnam, and anon,

methought.
The wood began to move."

Macbeth, y. 4, 5(1623).

Concerning Bacon's metrical translation of the psalm, made
(as Mr. Spedding says) " during a fit of sickness," we quote :

"The heroic couplet could hardly do its work better in the
hands of Dryden. The truth is, Bacon was not without the ' fine
phrensy ' of the poet ; but the world into which it transported
him was one wliich, while it promised visions more glorious than
any poet could imagine, promised them upon the express condition
that fiction should be utterly prohibited and excluded. Had it
taken the ordinary direction, I have little doubt that it would
have carried him to a place among the great poets ; but it was the
study of his life to refrain his imagination and keep it within the
modesty of truth, aspiring no higher." — Spbdding's Worlds of
F. Bacon (Boston), xiv. 113.

On this we beg to make four points in reply :

1. The exclusion of imaginative works was not essential
to Bacon's success as a philosopher. Goethe's career is a
sufficient answer to Mr. Spedding on this point.

2. If it were Bacon's reputation only that would have
been injured by such works and thereby the success of his
philosophy imperilled, nothing was required but concealment
of authorship.

3. Poetic instincts of a high order cannot be suppressed.
And Bacon himself says that they ought not to be suppressed,
even for philosophical purposes, for only by yielding to them
and making use of them can the nature and power of the
human passions, one with another, be displayed. (See ' Ad-
vancement of Learning,' Book II.)

4. As a matter of fact in Bacon's case, imaginative works
were not excluded. The ' New Atlantis ' is wholly imagina-

128

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

tive, a work of the same kind as Plato's * Eepublic,' St
Augustine's De Civitate Dei, and More's ' Utopia.'

218
TIME, OUR INTERPRETER

F)vm Shakespeare

" So our virtues
Lie in tlie interpretation of the
times."

Coriolanus, iv. 7 (1623).

From Bacon
" The times themselves inter-
pret our deeds." — De Augmentis
(1622).

219

THE WORLD,

" Guildenstern. Prison, my lord?

Hamlet. Denmark 's a prison.

Rosencrantz. Then is the world
one.

Hamlet. A goodly one, in which
there are many confines, wards,
and dungeons, Denmark being
one of the worst." — Hamlet, ii. 2
(1623).

220

A PRISON

" The world is a prison, if I
may not approach his majesty." —
Letter to Buckingham (1621).

PRETENCE

" There are a sort of men whose
visages

Do cream and mantle like a stand-
ing pond,

And do a wilful stillness entertain.

With purpose to be dress'd in an
opinion

Of wisdom, gravity, profound con-
ceit,

As who should say, I am Sir
Oracle,

And, when I ope my lips, let no
dog bark,

0 ! my Antonio, I do know of these

That therefore are reputed wise

For saying nothing."

Merchant of Venice, i. 1 (1600)

OP WISDOM

" Some help themselves with
countenance and gesture, and are
wise by signs, as Cicero saith of
Piso, that when he answered him,
he fetched one of his brows up to
his forehead, and bent the other
down to his chin. . . . 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." — Essay of
Seeming Wise (1607-12).

PARALLELISMS 129

221

THE WISE MAN AND THE FOOL

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"The fool doth think he is wise, " If you are wise, you are a fool ;

but the wise man knows himself to if you are a fool, you are wise." —
be a fool." — As You Like It, v. De A ugmentis (1622).
1 (1623).

222
THE COFFER OF DARIUS

" Her ashes, in an urn more pre- " What estimation he had learn-

cious ing in doth appear ... in the

Than the rich-jewell'd coffer of judgment he gave touching that

Darius." precious cabinet of Darius, which

1 Henry VI., i. 6 (1623). was found among his jewels." —

Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

223

DURATION OF A WONDER

" Gloucester. That would be ten " I thought good to step aside

days' wonder at the least. for nine days, which is the du-

Clarence. That 's a day longer ranee of a wonder." — Letter to
than a wonder lasts." Lord Keeper (1595).

3 Henry VL, iii. 2 (1595).
" I was seven of the nine days out
of the wonder before you came."
— As You Like It, iii. 2 (1623).

224
AN" ACTOR FORGETTING HIS PART

"As an imperfect actor on the stage, "They would make you a king

Who with his fear is put beside his in a play, who, when one would

part." think he standeth in great majesty

Sonnet 23 (1609). and felicity, is troubled to say his

part." — Gesia Grayorum (1594).

225

AFFECTATIONS OF TRAVEL

" Look you lisp and wear strange " Let his travel appear rather in

suits, ... or I will scarce think his discourse than in his apparel or

you have swam in a gondola." — gesture." — Essay of Travel (1625).
As You Like It, iv. 1 (1623).

i^o

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

226
INTEREST MONEY

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Antonio. Is your gold and silver " It is against natui-e for money

ewes and rams ? to beget money.

Shylock. I cannot tell ; I make it Usury (1625).

breed as fast.

Essay of

A ntonio. When did friendship take
A breed of barren metal of his
friend ? "
Merchant of Venice, i. 3 (1600).

227

GAIN TIME

" In all refrainings of anger, it is
the best remedy to gain time, and
to make a man's self believe that
the opportunity of his revenge is
not yet come ; but that he foresees
a time for it, and so to still himself
in the mean time and reserve it."—
Essay of Anger (1625).

IN ANGER

" Hamlet. And thus he dies, and so

I am revenged.
No, not so ; he took my father

sleeping, his sins brimful ;
And how his soul stood to the state

of heaven,
Who knows, save the immortal

powers ]
And shall I kill him now,
When he is purging of his soul.
Making his way to heaven ? This

is a benefit.
And not revenge ; no, get thee up

again ;
When he's at game, swearing,

taking his carouse, drinking,

drunk.
Or in the incestuous pleasure of

his bed,
Or at some act that hath no relish
Of salvation in 't, then trip him.
That his heels may kick at heaven,
And fall as low as hell."

Hamlet, iii. 3 (1603).

The commentators can make nothing of this speech of
Hamlet's. Dr. Johnson thought it " too horrible to be read

PARALLELISMS

13^

or to be uttered." Caldecott and Wordsworth wondered
" whether or not Shakespeare gave a faithful picture of human
nature " in it !

228

REPUGNANCE TO DEAD BODIES

From Shakespeare

" How ! a page !
Or dead or sleeping on him ? But

dead rather ;
For nature doth abhor to make his

bed
With the defunct, or sleep upon
the dead."

Cymheline, iv. 2 (1623).

From Bacon

" Generally, that which is dead
or corrupted or excerned hath an-
tipathy with the same thing when
it is alive and when it is sound ;
as a carcass of man is most infec-
tious and odious to man." — Nat-
ural History (1622-25).

229

VICE IN GARB OF VIRTUE

" There is no vice so simple but " Evil approacheth to good,

assumes sometimes for concealment, some-

Some mark of virtue on his out- times for protection. So hypocrisy
ward parts." draweth near to religion for covert

Merchant of Venice, iii. 2 (1600). and hiding itself ; vice lurks in

the neighborhood of virtue; and
sanctuary-men, which were com-
monly inordinate men and male-
factors, were wont to be nearest to
priests and prelates and holy men."
— Colors of Good and Evil, vii.
(1597).

230

KNOTS IN TREES

'' As knots, by the conflux of meet-
ing sap,
Infect the sound pine."

Troilus and Cressida, i. .3 (1609).

" They have some closeness and
hardness in their stalk, which hin-
dereth the sap from going up, until
it hath gathered into a knot." —
Sylva Sylvarum (1622-25).

132 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

231
ARION AMONG DOLPHINS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Like Arion on the Dolphin's " A man should be an Orpheus

back." in the woods, but among dolphins

Twel/ih Night, i. 2 (1623). an Avion." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

232
KNOTS IN GARDENS

" Thy curious-knotted garden." " As for the making of knots or

Lovers Labor's Lost, i. 1 (1598). figures with divers colored earths,

that they may lie under the win-
dows of the house, on that side
which the garden stands, they be
but toys." — Essay of Gardens
(1625).

233
IMPOSTHUMATIONS

*' This is th' imposthume of much " He that turneth the humor or

wealth and peace, maketh the wound bleed iuwards

That inward breaks, and shows no endangereth malign ulcers and

cause without pernicious imposthumations." —

Why the man dies." Essay of Seditions (1607-12).
Hamlet, iv. 4 (1604).

Mr. Eeynolds, in his scholarly edition of Bacon's Essays,
notes how frequently Bacon uses this pathological simile,
also introduced into Shake-speare. For instance, in addition
to the passage quoted above, we have the following :

" Take away liberty of Parliament, the griefs of the subject will
bleed inwards ; sharp and eager humours will not evaporate ; and
then they must exulcerate, and so may endanger sovereignty itself."
— Speech in Parliament (1610).

234

NIGHT MUSINGS

" Weary with toil I haste me to " I verily think your brother's

my bed, weak stomach to digest hath been

PARALLELISMS

^33

The dear repose for limbs with

travel tired ;
But then begins a journey in my

head
To work my mind, when body's

work 's expir'd."

Sonnet 27 (1609).

much caused and confirmed by
untimely going to bed, and then
musing nescio quid when he should
sleep." — Lady Bacons Letter to
Anthony (1590).

Peter Boener, one of Bacon's servants, says he seldom saw
his lordship " take up a book. He only ordered his chaplain
and me to look in such and such an author for a certain
place, and then he dictated to us early in the morning what
he had invented and composed during the night."

235

THE COMPLEXIONS

From Shakespeare
"The o'ergrowth of some com-
plexion."

Hamlet, i. 4 (1604).
"Is that one of the four com-
plexions ? "
Love's Labor 's Lost, i. 2 (1598).

From Bacon
" Empiric physicians . . . know
neither the causes of di^sease nor
the complexions of patients." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).
' ' Then must Franklin be pur-
veyor of the poisons, and procure
five, six, seven several potions, to
be sure to hit his complexion." —
Charge against Somerset (1616).

In each of these passages the word " complexion " is used
in its old philosophical sense of teinperament, as determined
by the combination (complexio) in every man of the four
elementary humors : choler, melancholy, phlegm, and blood.
The excess or " o'ergrowth " of one of these was thought to
produce disease — beyond the knowledge or skill, as Bacon
says, of "empiric physicians."

236
CHAKGE TO CONSTABLES

" Verges. Give them their "The office of high-constable

charge, neighbor Dogberry." — grew in use for the receiving of
Miich AdOi iii. 3 (1600). the commJmdments and prescripts

134 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

from the justices of the peace, and
distributing them to the pettj
constables." — Office of Constables
(posthumous paper, date un-
known).

Lord Chief Justice Campbell, commenting on this scene in
' Much Ado about Nothing,' says, " there has never been a
law or custom in England to give a charge to constables." It
appears that the author of the play knew more about the
laws of England than this Chief Justice himself did.

On other points involved in this scene between the master
constable and the watch, however. Lord Campbell concedes
that even " Coke could not have defined more accurately, than
in these lines, the power of a peace-officer." Certainly not,
nor could any other judge that ever sat upon an English
bench. Shake-speare simply followed the rule laid down by
Bacon, thus :

'' For pacifying of quarrel begun, the constable may, upon hot
words given, or likelihood of breach of the peace to ensue, com-
mand them in the King's name to keep peace, and depart, and
forbear. . . . For punishment of breach of peace past, the law is
very sparing in giving any authority to constables, because they
have not power judicial, and the use of his office is rather for pre-
venting or staying of mischief, than for punishment of offences."

This limitation of authority is observable in every utter-
ance of Dogberry.

237

LIE THERE, MY ART

From Shake-speare From Bacon

" Lend thy hand, Lord Treasurer Burleigh used to

And pluck my magic garment say, when laying aside his official

from me, — so : robe at the close of his day's work,

[Lays down his mantle. " lie there, Lord Treasurer."
Lie there, my art."

Tempest, i. 2 (1623).

PARALLELISMS

135

Burleigh was Bacon's uncle. He died in 1598, but this
incident of his private life was not made public until twenty-
six years after Shakspere's death.

238
LOVE WITHOUT CAUSE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Why to love I can allege no " Love has no cause." — Wisdom

cause." of the Ancients (1609).

Sonnet 49 (1609).

239

PERSPECTIVES

" Mine eye hath play'd the painter, " Like perspectives, which show

and hath stell'd things inward when they are

Thy beauty's form in table of my but paintings." — Natural History

heart ; (1622-25).

My body is the frame wherein 't is

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 with

thine eyes."

Sonnet 24 (1609).

To " show things inward," or (as in the sonnet) to show
the loved one's form within the body, or in the heart of the
loving, is the highest art of the painter. Both authors call
this effect a perspective (perspicere, to see through).

240
UNIVERSAL KNOWLEDGE

** Shakespeare 80 devoted himself " I have taken all knowledge to
to the study of every trade, pro- be my province." — Letter to Lord
fession, pursuit and accomplish- Burleigh (1592).

^36

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

ment that he became master of
them all, which his plays clearly
show him to have been." — Fur-
ness's Variorum Shakespeare.

241

ASTROLOGY

From Shakespeare

" The fault, dear Brutus, is not in

our stars,
But in ourselves."

Julius CcEsar, i. 2 (1623).

From Bacon

" As for astrology, it is so full of
superstition that scarce anything
can be discovered in it." — De
Augmentis (1622).

" Chiefly the mould of a man's
fortune is in himself." — Essay of
Fortune (1607-12).

It was Bacon's opinion that the influence of the stars is
exerted, not on individual men, but directly on masses of
men, though he made an exception in favor of certain persons
who, he said, " are more susceptible, and of softer wax, as
it were, than the rest of their species."

It is clear that Cassius would not have been included by
him in his excepted class.

242

EXPRESSION OF SORROW

" Give sorrow words; the grief

that does not speak,
Whispers the o'erfraught heart,
and bids it break."

Macbeth, iv. 3 (1623).

" You do freely bar the door of

your own liberty, if you deny your

griefs to your friend." — Hamlet,

iii. 2 (1604),

" No receipt openeth the heart
but a true friend, to whom you
may impart griefs."

" No man, that imparteth his
griefs to his friend, but he grieveth
the less."

" Those that want friends to open
themselves unto are cannibals of
their own hearts." — Essay of
Friendship (1607-12, 1612, 1625).

PARALLELISMS

137

From Bacon
" He who rises early, praising
his friend, shall be counted a curse
to him." — De Augmentis (1622).

243
EXCESSIVE PRAISE

From Shakespeare
*' Gaunt. Though Richard my

life's counsel would not hear,
My death's sad tale may yet un-

deaf his ear.
York. No; it is stopp'd with other

flattering sounds.
As praises of his state.

Where doth the world thrust

forth a vanity,
So it be new, there 's no respect

how vile,
That is not quickly buzz'd into

his ears ?
Then all too late comes counsel to

be heard,
Wliere wUl doth mutiny with

wit's regard.

Gaunt. [To the king.

A thousand flatterers sit within
thy crown.

Northumberland. The king is not

himself, but basely led
By flatterers."

Richard II., ii. 1 (1597).

We agree with Mr. Wigston that the drama of * Richard
II.' was written to show the effect of flattery upon a mind
predisposed to receive it.

244

TELEPATHY

" Imogen. I did not take my leave

of him, but had
Most pretty things to say; ere I

could tell him

" Some trial should be made
whether pact or agreement do any-
thing ; as if two friends should
agree that on such a day in every

138

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

week, they, being iu far different
places, should pray one for an-
other, or should put on a ring or
tablet, one for another's sake." —
Natural History (1022-25).

How I would think on him, at

certain hours,
Such thoughts and such. . . .

Or have charged him
At the sixth hour of morn, at

noon, at midnight,
To encounter me with orisons, for

then
I am in heaven with him."

CymheLine, i. 4 (1623).

Imogen made this " pact or agreement " with her husband
on the eve of his departure for Italy, precisely in the manner
and for the purpose suggested by Bacon. The resemblance
extends even to the ring which she gives him for a keepsake :

'* Imogen. This diamond was my mother's ; take it, heart." i. 1.

And the departing husband gives her a bracelet, an ex-
change of mementos, as Bacon says, " for one another's sake."

245

FOR VIRTUE,

From Shakespeare

" But come, the bow ; now mercy
goes to kill,

And shooting well is then ac-
counted ill.

Thus will I save my credit in the
shoot : —

Not wounding, pity would not let
me do it ;

If wounding, then it was to show
my skill.

That more for praise than purpose
meant to kill.

And out of question, so it is some-
times,

Glory grows guilty of detested
crimes,

When for fame's sake, for praise,
an outward part,

NOT PRAISE

From Bacon

" Praise is the handmaid of vir-
tue." — Promus (1594).

" We should both seek and love
virtue for itself, and not for praise;
for, as one said, it is a shame for
him that woos the mistress to
court the maid, for praise is the
handmaid of virtue." — Letter to
Rutland (1596).

PARALLELISMS 139

We bend to that the working of

the heart.
As I for praise alone now seek to

spill
The poor deer's blood, that my

heart means no ill."
Love's Labor ^s Lost, iv. 1 (1598).

Here is a parallelism that for depth, subtlety, and strength
cannot be exceeded. The two passages are rays of light into
one and the same mind, penetrating to and revealing, under
different forms of imagery, the most sublime rule of human
conduct. Not only did Bacon express this sentiment several
times in his writings, but, as we shall endeavor to show, he
also expressed it in his life.

246

MOLES
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Well said, old mole ! canst work " He had so many moles, as it

i' the earth so fast 1 " were perpetually at work, under-

Hamlet, i. 5 (1603). mining him." — History of Henry
VII. (1621).

247

C^SAR AFFECTED BY FLATTERY

" When I tell him he hates flat- " Whether satiated with power

terers, or corrupted by flattery, he aspired

He says he does, being then most likewise to the external emblems [of
flattered." sovereignty], the name of king and

Julius CcEsar, ii. 1 (1623). crown ; which turned to his destruc-
tion."— Character of Julius Ccesar
{circa 1601).

The two authors were at one in ascribing not only envy
to the assassins of Ciesar, but to Csesar himself a fatal suscep-
tibility to flattery.

Mr. Wigston points out another subtle parallelism in this
twin analysis of the causes of Caesar's downfall. The flat-

I40

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

terers of Csesar had inspired him to an extreme (according to
Bacon), to an unwise (according to Shake-speare) degree of
self-confidence :

248
CuEsar's self-confidence
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Ccesar. What say the augurers ?

Servant. 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.
Cces. The gods do this in shame of

cowardice.
Csesar should be a beast without a

heart,
If he should stay at home to-day

for fear.
No, Csesar shall not ; danger knows

full well
That Csesar is more dangerous than

he.
We are two Hons litter'd in one

day.
And I the elder and more terrible ;
And Csesar shall go forth.
Calpurnia. Alas ! my lord.

Your wisdom is consumed in con-
fidence."

lUd., ii. 2 (1623).

" When the augur brought Csesar
word that the entrails were not
favorable, he murmiu'ed in a low
voice, ' they will be more favorable
when I choose ; ' which speech did
not long precede the misfortune of
his death. For this extremity of
confidence is ever as unlucky as un-
hallowed." — De Augmentis (1622).

249

ACTS NOT TO BE JUDGED BY RESULTS

" Why, brother Hector,
We may not think the justness of

each act
Such and no other than event doth
form it."
Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2 (1609).

" I pray that whoever thinks
that an act must be judged by the
event he may not succeed." —
Promus (1594-96).

PARALLELISMS 141

250

COMPOSITE BEINGS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" This hand is Grecian all, " Betwixt different species there

And this is Trojan ; the sinews of almost always lie certain indivi-

this leg duals which partake of the nature

All Greek, and this all Troy ; my of both ; as moss between corrup-

mother's blood tion and a plant ; fishes that stick

Euns on the dexter cheek, and his to rocks and cannot move away ;

sinister between a plant and an animal ; rats

Bounds in my father's." and mice, and some other things,

Troilusand Cressida, iv. 5 (1609). between animals generated of pu-

" This Aj ax is half made of Hec- trefaction and of seed ; bats between

tor's blood; birds and beasts; flying fish (which

In love whereof half Hector stays are now well-known) between birds

at home ; and fishes ; seals, between fishes and

Half heart, half hand, half Hector quadrupeds ; and the like." — De

comes to seek A ugmentis (1622).

This blended knight, half Trojan,
and half Greek."
Troilus and Cressida (1609).

251
HOG AND BACON

" Quickly. Hang-hog is Latin for " A culprit, on trial for his life
Bacon, I warrant you." — Merry before Sir Nicholas Bacon, desired
Wives of Windsor^ iv. 1 (1623). his mercy on account of kindred.

* Prithee,' said my lord judge,
' how comes that in ? ' ' Why, if
it please you, my lord, your name
is Bacon, and mine Hog, and
in all ages Hog and Bacon have
been so near kindred that they are
not to be separated.' ' Ay, but,'
replied Bacon, 'you and I cannot
be kindred, except you be hanged ;
for Hog is not Bacon until it be
well hanged." — Apothegms.

An incident in the history of the Bacon family, not pub-
lished to the world till forty -eight years after the above pas-
sage in the play was written.

142

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

252
SYMPATHY IN SOUNDS

From Bacon
'* All concords and discords of
music, no doubt, are sjmipathies
and antipathies of sounds." — Nat-
ural History (1622-25).

From Shakespeare

" Mark how one string, sweet hus-
band to another,

Strikes each in each by mutual
ordering ;

Resembling sire and child and
happy mother,

Who, all in one, one pleasing note
dosing." 5on?ie( 8 (1609).

The writer of tliis sonnet must have made a study of the
laws of sound. He refers to the effect which the vibration
of one string of a musical instrument may have by induction
upon another, both having first been wound up in unison.
From this he derives an exquisitely poetic exemplification of
marriage with its resulting offspring.

Bacon made the same study ; he devoted several pages of
his ' Natural History ' to it. In the case supposed his ex-
planation was, that the vibration is communicated from one
string to another " by sympathy." Bacon told the House of
Commons in 1610 that "in consent, where tongue-strings,
not heart-strings, make the music, harmony may end in dis-
cord." The transition to " heart-strings," implied in the
sonnet, is exactly in line with Bacon's thought.

253
DRUGS

" 'T is known I ever
Have studied physic, through

which secret art
By turning o'er authorities, I have
Together with my practice, made

familiar
To me and to my aid the blest

infusions
That dwell in vegetives, in metals,

stones."

Pericles, iii. 2 (1609).

" Here is the deficience which I
find, that physicians have not,
partly out of their own practice,
partly out of the constant proba-
tions reported in books, and partly
out of the traditions of empirics,
set down and delivered over cer-
tain experimental medicines for
the cure of particular diseases." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

PARALLELISMS

143

Ceremon, the physician in the play, has evidently supplied
the deficiency in the curative art which had been noted by
Bacon, a few years before the play of ' Pericles ' appeared in
print. Not only so, but this learned and philanthropic
citizen expressly admits that to acquire a knowledge of
these medicines, he was obliged, as Bacon says he would
be, to make some sacrifice of honor and wealth. We quote
again:

254

THE TRUE

Fi-om Shakespeare

" I can speak of the disturbances
That nature works, and of her

cures ; which doth give me
A more content in course of true

delight
Than to be thirsty of tottering

honor,
Or tie my treasure up in silken

bags,
To please the fool and death."

Pericles, iii. 2 (1609).

PHYSICIAN

From Bacon

" In the opinion of the multi-
tude, witches and old women and
impostors have had a competition
with physicians. And what fol-
loweth ] Even this, that physi-
cians say to themselves, as Salomon
expresseth upon an higher occasion,
' if it befal to me as befalleth to the
fools, why should I labor to be more
wise ? ' And therefore I cannot
much blame physicians, that they
use commonly to intend some
other art or practice, which they
fancy, more than their profession.
For you shall have of them anti-
quaries, poets, humanists, states-
men, merchants, divines, and in
every of these better seen than
in their profession; and no doubt
upon this ground, that they find
mediocrity and excellency in their
art maketh no difference in profit
or reputation toward their for-
tune."— Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

In another respect, then, Ceremon rises above the common
practitioners of the time. He seeks neither " honor " nor
" treasures tied up in sUkcn bags " outside of his profession.

144 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

He is Bacon's ideal, a true physician, " studying nature
and nature's cures with delight." He even restored Thaisa
to life, after she had lain many hours in her coffin, — an
achievement Bacon declares to be, under certain conditions,
within the scope of medical science.

255
CONSTANCY

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Were man " Constancy ia the foundation

But constant, he were perfect." on which virtues rest." — De

Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 4 Augmentis (1622).
(1623).

256

FOIL

" A base foul stone, made precious " The stone had need to be rich

by the foil that is set without foil."

Of England's chair, where he is " Virtue is a rich stone, best

falsely set." plain set." — Essay of Beauty

Richard 111., v. 3 (1597). (1607-12).
" 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."

1 Henry IV., I 2 (1598).

257
CIPHERS

" A crooked figure may " He that plotteth to be the

Attest in little place a million ; only figure amongst ciphers is the

Let us, ciphers to this great ac- decay of an whole age." — Essay

compt, of Ambition (1607-12).
On your imaginary forces work."

Prologue to Henry V. (1623).

PARALLELISMS

145

253

TOPS OF

From Shakespeare
"The top of admiration."

Tempest, iii. 1 (1623).
" The top of judgment."
Measure for Pleasure, ii. 2 (1623).
"The top of honor."

2 Henry VL, i. 2 (1623).
" To the spire and top of praises."
Coriolanus, i. 9 (1623).
" The top of question."

Hamlet, ii. 2,
" Top of sovereiprnty."

Macbeth, iv. 1 (1623).
"Top of my compass."

Hamlet, iii. 2.
" Top of my bent." Ibid.

" In top of all design."
Anthony and Cleopatra, v. 1(1623).
" In tops of all their pride."

3 Henry VL, v. 6.
" The top of happy hoiu's."

Sonnet 16.
" In top of rage."

Loverh Complaint.

259

GATES OF MERCY

" The gates of mercy shall be all " We wished him not to shut

shut up." the gate of your Majestj^'s mercy."

Henry V., iii. 3 (1623). —Letter to the King (1616).

260

ELM AND VINE

VIRTUES

From Bacon
" Pindar, in praising Hiero, says
most elegantly (as is his wont)
that he ' culled the tops of all vir-
tues.' And certauily I think it
would contribute much to mag-
nanimity and the honor of human-
ity, if a collection were made of
what the schoolmen call the ultimi-
ties and Pindar the tops or summits,
of human nature, especially from
true history ; showing what is the
ultimate and highest point which
human nature has of itself attained
in the several gifts of body and
mind." — De Augmentis (1622).

" Thou art an elm, my husband, I
a vine."
Comedy of Errors, ii. 2 (1623).

" In France, the grapes that
make the wiue grow upou low
vines, bound to small stakes ; • . •
in Italy and other countries where
they have hotter suns, they raise
them upon elms." — Natural His-
tory (1622-2.5).

146 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

2()1
TWO SOULS IN EVERY MAN

From Bacon
" We now come to the doctrine
of the human soul. It has two
parts ; the one treating of the
rational soul, which is divine ;
the other of the irrational, which
we have in common with the
brutes." — De Augmentis (1622).

From Shakespeare
'* Adriana. I see two husbands, or

mine eyes deceive me.
Duke. One of these men is Genius
to the other.

Which is the natural man,
And which the spirit ?

These two Antipholuses, these two

so like,
And these two Uromios, one in

semblance "
Comedy of Errors, v. 1 (1623).

Eacon's psychology finds a witty development in the play.
Adriana, seeing a double husband before her, declares that
his two souls have become separated, and that each has
acquired a body of its own. The bewildered duke demands
to know which contains the Genius, or (as Bacon calls it)
" mastering spirit " ?

262
CONSERVATION OF BODIES

" Hamlel. How long will a man

lie i' the earth before he rots ? "

Hamlet, v. 1 (1603).

"It is strange and well to be
noted, how long dead bodies have
continued uncorrupt and in their
former dimensions, as appeareth
in the mummies of Egypt ; having
lasted, as is conceived (some of
them), three thousand years." —
Natural History (1622-25).

It is sufficiently remarkable that both authors should have
investigated this singular subject of the conservation of bodies
after death ; but it is still more remarkable — indeed, it can
be explained in one way only — that both should have sought
illustrations of it in the two-fold case of Alexander and Csesar,
thus:

PARALLELISMS

147

" Hamlet. Why may not imagi-
nation trace the noble dust of
Alexander, till he find it stopping
a bung-hole 1

Imperious Csesar, dead and turn'd

to clay,
Might stop a hole to keep the

wind away."

Hamlet, v. 1 (1603).

" When Augustus Csesar visited
the sepulchre of Alexaiider the
Great in Alexandria, he found the
body to keep his dimension ; but,
notwithstanding all the embalming
(which no doubt was of the best),
the body was so tender as Csesar,
touching but the nose of it, de-
faced it."— Natural History (1622-
25).

263
ANTIQUITY, THE YOUTH OF THE WORLD

From Bacon
'* Antiquity was the youth of
the \<^orld. These times are the
ancient times, when the world is
ancient, and not those which we
account ancient by a computation
backward from ourselves." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

" The age in which the ancients
lived, though in respect of us it
was the elder, yet in respect of
the world, it was the younger." —
Novum Organum (1608-20).

This sentiment is one of the most noteworthy Bacon ever
uttered ; we find it constantly repeated and enforced by him
as though it were his own. In Mr. Spedding's opinion it prob-
ably was his own, for no English writer, so far as we know,
had previously given expression to it — except Shake-speare.

From Shakespeare
" If that the world and love were

young,
And truth in every shepherd's

tongue,
These pretty pleasures might me

move,
To live with thee and be thy

love."

Lovers A nswer.

264
COMMONPLACE BOOKS

" Look 1 what thy memory cannot

contain.
Commit to these waste blanks, and

thou shalt find
Those children nurs'd, deliver'd

from thy brain,

" There can hardly be anything
more useful even for the old and
popular sciences than a sound help
for the memory ; that is, a good
and learned digest of common-
places. ... I hold the entry of

148

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

To take a new acquaintance of thy commonplaces to be a matter of

mind. great use and essence in study-

These offices, so oft as thou wilt ing." — Advancement of Learning

look, (1(503-5).

Shall profit thee, and much en-
rich thy book."

Sonnet 77 (1G09).

Bacon himself kept a commonplace book. He began it
in December, 1594, and on Jan. 20, 1595-96, he was still
making entries in it. The advice given in the 'Advance-
ment of Learning,' reinforced in the De Augmcntis, and also
laid down in the seventy-seventh Sonnet, as to the usefulness
of such a work, was thus based on the results of personal ex-
perience.

265

AUTOMATIC MUSICAL INSTRUMENTS

From Shakespeare

" [Solemn music.

Belarius. My ingenious instru-
ment!

Hark ! Polydore, it sounds ; but
what occasion

Hath Cadwal now to give it mo-
tion 1 Hark !

Guiderius. Since death of my
dear'st mother

It did not speak before."

Cymbeline, iv. 2 (1623).

From Bacon

" There were lately with us cer-
tain Batavians who had constructed
a musical instrument which, when
exposed to the rays of the sun, ut-
tered harmonious sounds. It is
probable this was caused bj-- the
expansion of heated air, which was
able to impart motion to the ele-
ments." — Phcenomena Universi
(previous to 1622).

266

BOOKS MORE DURABLE THAN MONUMENTS

" We see, then, how far the mon-
uments of wit and learning are
more durable than the monuments
of power or of the hands. For
have not the verses of Homer con-
tinued twenty-five hundred years
or more, without the loss of a syl-

" Not marble, nor the gilded mon-
uments

Of princes, shall outlive this power-
ful rhyme."

Sonnet 55 (1609).

" When wasteful war shall statues
overturn,

PARALLELISMS

149

And broils root out the work of
masonry,

Shall you pace forth ; your praise
shall still find room."

Sonnet 55 (1609).

lable or letter ; during which time
infinite palaces, temples, castles,
cities, have been decayed and de-
molished ?" — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

" It is not possible to have the
true pictures or statues of Cyrus,
Alexander, Caesar, no, nor of the
kings or great personages of much
later years, for the originals cannot
last, and the copies cannot but
leese of the life and truth. But
the images of men's wits and
knowledges remain in books, ex-
empted from the wrong of time
and capable of perpetual renova-
tion." — Ibid,

267
ENCYCLOPEDIAS

From Shakespeare

'Jagues. 'T is a Greek invocation,
to call fools into a circle."
As You Like It, ii. 6 (1623).

From Bacon

" It is a matter of common dis-
course of the chain of sciences how
they are linked together, insomuch
as the Grecians, who had terms at
will, have fitted it of a name of
Circle Learning." — Of the Inter-
pretation of Nature (1603).

The circle mentioned by Jaques is the circle of the sciences,
called by the Greeks Encyclopcedia. An adept in one science,
and one only, may, in badinage, be considered a " fool," for,
as Bacon undertakes to prove, a knowledge of all sciences is
necessary for the full comprehension of any one. He cites
the case of Copernicus in point. Copernicus, as an astron-
omer, reached the conclusion that the sun is the centre of the
solar system, an opinion, says Bacon, " which astronomy can-
not correct because it is not repugnant to any of the appear-
ances, yet natural philosophy doth correct." The banished

I50 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

duke, in seeking to please a stubborn will in one direction,
has disregarded or lost sight of other interests, and thus,
technically considered, become a fool.

268
GOOD DAWNING
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Good dawning to thee, friend." " Albada " [good dawning]. —

Promus (1594-96).

Albada is from the Spanish alhorada, dawning. This
salutation, entered as an experiment in Bacon's private com-
monplace book, circa 1596, has since appeared but once in
English print, viz., in ' King Lear,' first published in 1608.

269

PERSISTENCE OP NATURE

" How hard it is to hide the sparks " Nature is often hidden, some-

of nature. times overcome, seldom extiu-

These boys know little they are guished. ... It will lie buried a

sons to the king ; great time, and yet revive upon oc-

Nor Cymbeliue dreams that they casion ; like as it was with ^sop's

are alive. damsel, turned from a cat into a

They think that they are mine, woman, who sat very demurely at

and that though trained up the board's end till a mouse ran

thus meanly before her." — ^ssa^ of Nature in

V the cave, wherein they bow, Men (1607-12).

their thoughts do hit " You may expel nature with a

The roofs of palaces." pitch fork, but it will continually

Cymbeline, iii. 3 (1623). return." — Promus (1594-96).
" Oh, my lord, wisdom and

blood combating in so tender a

l)ody, we have ten proofs to one

that blood hatb the victory." —

Afuch Ado, ii. 3 (1600).

270
ENGLAND'S WALLS AND BULWARKS

" England, hedged in with the " The seas are our walls, and

jjiain the ships our bulwarks." — Jd-

That water-walled bulwark." vice to Buckingham (1616).
King John, ii. 1 (1623).

PARALLELISMS 151

In referring to the sea around Great Britain, both authors
use the terms wall and bulwark, and use them together, as
above, in a single sentence respectively. The metaphor was
a favorite one :

" The silver sea, " The King cannot enlarge the

Which serves it in the office of a bounds of these islands, the ocean
wall." being the unremovable wall which

Richard II., n. 1(1597). encloseth them." — Ad cice to Buck-
ingham (1616).

271

FASHION IN CREED

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" He wears his faith but as the " There be that delight in giddi-

fashion of his hat; it ever changes." ness, and count it a bondage to^a;

— Much Ado, i. 1 (1600). a belief." — Essay of Truth (1625).

In the Latin edition of the essay, printed after Bacon's
death, the plirase " to fix a belief " is rendered, " to be
restrained by a fixed faith or constant axioms " (translated).

272

SUSPICION IN KINGS

" I can counterfeit the deep trage- '' It is a miserable state of mind

dian, to have few things to desire and

Speak and look, and pry on every many things to fear, and yet that

side, commonly is the case of kings.

Tremble and start at wagging of a They have many representations

straw, of perils and shadows." — Essay (f

Intending deep suspicion." Empire (1607-12).
Richard III., iii. 5 (1597).

It has been noticed with what frequency this sentiment is
expressed in Bacon's acknowledged writings. That it should
have been uppermost in his mind in and after 1621 we can
easily understand, for in that year he wrote the history of
Henry VII., one of the most suspicious characters that ever
lived. Bacon says the king was "infinitely suspicious."
Perhaps this circumstance may account for the late insertion
of the picturesque line, —

" Tremble and start at wagging of a straw,"

152 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

in above passage ; for this line was not in the first quarto of
the play, 1597 ; nor in the second, 1598 ; nor in the third,
1602 ; nor in the fourth, 1605 ; nor in the fifth, 1612 ; nor in the
sixth, 1622 (six years after the death of William Shakspere of
Stratford) ; but it appeared for the first time in the folio of
1623. For proof that the folio version was written after that
of 1622, see 'Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare. '

273

BASILISK

From Shake-speare From Bacon

"It is a basilisk unto mine eye, "The ftible goeth of the basi-

Kills me to look on't." lisk, that if he see you first you

Cymbeline, ii. 4 (1623). die for it, but if you see him first
hedieth." — Advancement of Learn-
ing (1605).

274
COMPARATIVE LOVE

" If then that friend demand why "I confess I love some things

Brutus rose against Csesar, this is much better than I love your lord-

niy answer : ' not that I loved ship, as the Queen's service, her

Csesar less, but that I loved Rome quiet and contentment, her honor,

more.'" — Julius Ccesar, in. 2 her favor, the good of my country."

(1623). —Letter to Essex (1600).

Bacon took part with the government in the prosecution
of Essex, and in the course of the proceedings he was
charged by Essex with personal delinquency in doing so.
Brutus took part in the murder of Caesar, and he also was
charged by Cffisar {et tu Brute) with personal delinquency.
The defence in both cases was, not only in thought but also
in diction, the same. And the play was written immediately
after the trial and execution of Essex in 1601. Says Dr.
Furnivall :

" What made Shakespeare produce this historical play in
16011 "We know its date by an extract from Weever's 'Mirror of
Martyrs,' 1601, no doubt written when the play was quite fresh in
people's minds : —

PARALLELISMS 153

' The many-headed multitude were drawn
By Brutus' speech, that Csesar was ambitious ;
When eloquent Mark Anthony had shown
His virtues, who but Brutus then was vicious ? '

As there is nothing in Plutarch's Lives that could have suggested
this, "NVeever must have known Shakespeare's play. What hap-
pened in England in 1601 to make Sliakespeare anxious to enforce
the lesson of it ? Why, Essex's ill-judged rebellion against Queen
Elizabetli, on Sunday, Feb. 8, 1601. He, the Queen's most petted
favorite and general, broke out in armed rebellion against her in
London. His outbreak was ridiculousl}'^ ill-advised. He was taken
prisoner, tried, and executed on Feb. 25, 1601. And I cannot
doubt that this rebellion was the reason of Shakespeare's pro-
ducing his 'Julius Csesar ' in 1601." — Introduction io the Leopold
Shakespeare, p. Ixvii.

275

BESTRIDING THE SEA

From Shakespeare From Bacon

**His legs bestrid the ocean." "This giant bestrideth the sea."

Anthony and Cleopatra, v. 2 — Charge against Duelling (1613).
(1623).

276
SAFFRON

" Whose villainous saflfron would " Some few grains of saflfron

have made all the unbaked and will give a tincture to a ton of

doughy youth of a nation in his water." ^ — Of the Interpretation oj

coloi-:' — All's Well, V. 5 (1623). Nature {circa 1603).

The tract, ' Of the Interpretation of Nature,' was probably
an early draft of the ' Advancement of Learning,' and was
therefore written some time before 1603. It was not pub-
lished until 1734, or more than one hundred years after
Bacon's death. We may possibly regard it as an amplifi-
cation of the suppressed treatise, entitled ' The Greatest
Birth of Time ' (1585).

^ This parallelism was first pointed ont by the anonymous author of ' Sliake-
speare — Bacon ; Au Essay,' Loudon, 18U9

154 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

277

THE LIBERTY OF A FOOL

From Shakespeare
" 0 ! that I were a fool !
I am ambitious for a motley coat.

I must have liberty

Withal, as large a charter as the

•wind,
To blow on whom I please ; for so
fools have.

From Bacon
" One ought to be born either a
king or a fool." — Promus (1594-
9G>

Invest me in my motley ; give me

leave
To speak my mind, and I will

through and through
Cleanse the foul body of the infected

world,
If they will patiently receive my

medicine."
As You Like It, ii. 7 (1623).

In this instance it is Shake-speare who explains Bacon.
Fools were once privileged characters at court, free, like
their royal masters, to express sentiments which would not
have been tolerated in others. This is why there are so
many fools in the dramas of Shake-speare, — entirely in line
with Bacon's favorite method of imparting instruction.

278

HATRED

" Hates any man the thing he would
not kill ? "
Merchant of Venice, i\. 1 (1000).

" The love of wicked friends con-
verts to fear ;

That fear to hate ; and hate turns
one, or both.

To worthy danger and deserved
death."
King Richard II., v. 1 (1597).

" Every one wishes him dead
whom he has feared." — Promus
(1594-96).

PARALLELISMS

^55

2V9

ECHOES

From Shakespeare

" Mark the musical confusion
Of hounds and echo in conjunction.
1 was with Hercules and Cadmus

once
When in a wood of Crete they

bay'd the bear
With hounds of Sparta ; never did

I hear
Such gallant chiding ; for, besides

the groves,
The skies, the fountains, every

region near
Seem'd all one mutual cry ; I

never heard
So musical a discord."
A Midsummer-Nighf s Dream, iv.
1 (1600).

From Bacon

" Sounds do disturb and alter
the one the other ; sometimes the
one drowning the other and mak-
ing it not heard ; sometimes the
one jarring with the other and mak-
ing a confusion ; sometimes the one
mingling with the other and mak-
ing a harmony. . . . Natural echoes
are made upon walls, woods, rocks,
hills and banks. There be many
places where you shall hear a num-
ber of echoes, one after another,
where there is variety of hills or
woods. Where echoes come from
several parts at the same distance,
they must needs make, as it were,
a quire of echoes." — Natural His-
tory (1622-25).

Bacon made a painstaking study of echoes, beginning it,
when he was a lad, at a conduit in the garden of St. James
Square in London, and continuing it during his sojourn in
France, in 1576-79. He describes two or three places in the
neighborhood of Paris that were quite famous in this respect,
one of them curiously as follows :

'* There are certain letters that an echo wiU hardly express : as
S for one, especially being principal in a word. I remember well
that when I went to the echo at Pont-Charenton, there was an old
Parisian who took it to be the work of spirits, and of good spirits.
* For,' said he, * call Satan and the echo will not deliver back the
devil's name, but will say, va Ven ; ' which is as much in French
as apage, or ' avoid him.' "

156

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

280
STAR-CHAMBER
From Shakespeare
" Shallow. Sir Hugh, persuade

From Bacon

me uot ; I •will make a Star-cbaiu-
ber matter of it." — Merry Wives
of Windsor,!. 1 (1602).

" Let Praetorian and Censorian
Courts confine themselves to mon-
strous and extraordinary cases.
. . . Especial care must be taken
in Praetorian Courts not to afford
relief in sucli cases as the law has
not so much omitted as despised
for their unimportance." — De
Augmentis (1622),

Bacon is speaking of tlie Court of Chancery and the Star-
chamber, though he does not call them by name. He insists
that their respective jurisdictions be limited to important
causes. This is the point in the play, where it is enforced by
the author's powers of ridicule, — as though a difference be-
tween old Justice Shallow and Falstaff could be a matter for
the Star-chamber !

281
timon's tree
" I have a tree that grows here in

my close,
That mine own use invites me to

cut down,
And shortly must I fell it ; tell

my friends,
TeU Athens, in the sequence of

degree,
From high to low throughout, that

whoso please
To stop affliction, let him take his

halter,
Come hither, ere my tree hath felt

the axe,
And hang himself."

Timon of Athens, v. 2 (1623).

"There be many that make it
their practice to bring men to the
bough, and yet have never a tree
for the purpose in their gardens."
— Essay of Goodness and Good-
ness of Nature (1607-12).

PARALLELISMS

157

In the second edition of Bacon's Essays (1612), the above
extract appears as follows :

" There be many misanthropi that make it their practice to bring
men to the bough, and yet have never a tree for the purpose in their
gardens, as Timon had."

In ' Francis Bacon our Shake-speare ' will be found ample
proof that the author of 'Timon of Athens' derived his
knowledge of this circumstance, not from Plutarch, but from
Lucian, the Greek writer from whose ' Dialogues ' Plutarch
himself copied it.

282
GALLOWS vs. DROWNING

From Shakespeare

" The pretty-vaulting sea refus'd

to drown me,
Knowing that thou wouldst have

me drown'd on shore."
2 King Henry VI., iii. 2 (1623).
" Be gone, to save your ship from

wreck,
Which cannot perish, having thee

aboard,
Being destin'd to a drier death on

shore."
Two Gentlemen of Verona, i. 1

(1623).
" I have great comfort from this
fellow ; methinks he hath no dro\vn-
ing mark upon him ; his complex-
ion is perfect gallows. Stand fast,
good fate, to his hanging ! Make
the rope of his destiny our cable,
for his own doth little advantage!
If he be not born to be hang'd, our
case is miserable. ... I '11 war-
rant him for drowning, though the
ship were no stronger than a nut-
shell." — The Tempest, i. 1 (1623).

From Bacon

" He may go by water, for he is
sure to be well landed." — Promus
(1594-96).

158

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

283
FRIENDS AND ENEMIES

From Bacon
"Yoii shall read that we are
commanded to forgive our en-
emies ; but you never read that
we are commanded to forgive our
friends." — Essay of Revenge
(1625).

From Shakespeare
" Flavins. What viler thing upon

the earth than friends
Who can bring noblest minds to

basest ends !

Grant I may ever love, and rather

woo,
Those that would mischief me,

than those that do."

Timon of Athens, iv. 3 (1623).

Here is the same curious distinction in both authors be-
tween those who, as friends, lead us astray, and those who,
as enemies, merely try to do so. It is the latter class, rather
than the former, who are to be "loved and wooed." The
true friend is one who can see the natural consequences of
an action, and who will give advice accordingly. Motives
are of secondary importance.

284

IN AND WITHOUT TROY

" Why should I war without the

walls of Troy,
That find such cruel battle here

within ? "
Troilus and Cress ida, i. 1 (1623).

" Men sin inside and outside the
walls of Troy." — Promus (1594-
96).

285
LIGHT SWIFTER THAN SOUND

" Ariel. Jove's lightnings, the pre-
cursors

0' the dreadful thunder-claps,
more momentary

And sight-outrunning were not ;
the fire, and cracks

Of sulphurous roaring."

Tempest, i. 2 (1623).

" Light moves swifter than
sound ; as we see in thunder
■which is far ofi", while the L'ght-
ning precedeth the crack a good
space." — Natural History (1622-
25).

PARALLELISMS

^S9

Bacon was very fond of such comparisons as this between
light and sound. Shake-speare also took delight in them,
comparing love, when " war, death or sickness doth make
siege to it," to a sudden illumination, —

" Momentary as a sound,
Swift as a shadow, short as any dream,
Brief as the lightning in the collied night.
That in a spleen, unfolds both heaven and earth.
And ere a man hath power to say, ' Behold ! '
The jaws of darkness do devour it up."

A Midsummer-Night's Dream, i. 1,

286

ART OF PERSUASION

From Shake-speare From Bacon

" Has almost charm'd me from " Reasons plainly delivered, and

my profession, by persuading me always after one manner, espe-

to it." cially with fine and fastidious

Timon of Athens, iv. 3 (1623). minds, enter but heavily and

dully ; whereas if they be varied
and have more life and vigor put
into them by these forms and in-
sinuations, they cause a stronger
apprehension, and many times
suddenly win the mind to a reso-
lution." — Colours of Good and
Evil (1597).

Timon, as a hater of mankind, exhorts some handits to go
on with their evil practices — to visit Athens, break open
shops, and cut people's throats; and he tells them that in
doing this they will be in harmony with physical nature and
human society, for —

" The sun 's a thief, and with his great attraction
Robs the vast sea ; the moon's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches from the sun ;
The sea 's a thief, whose liquid surge resolves
The moon into salt tears; the earth's a thief,

i6o BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

That feeds and breeds by a composture stol'ii
From general excrement ; each thing 's a thief.

Nothing can you steal
But thieves do lose it." — iv. 3.

Strange to say, however, this had an effect on the minds
of the bandits just the opposite of the one apparently in-
tended ; they felt persuaded to abandon their trade. Why ?
The answer is found in Bacon's treatise on the Art of Per-
suading. He says that reasons which, if presented, especially
to weak minds, directly or didactically, are powerless, gain
unexpected strength when hidden " in colors, popularities and
circumstances." Timon made his personal malevolence
toward mankind so clear that even these robbers revolted
from it. "Apprehension" in a case like this leads, says
Bacon, to " reprehension." This is confessed in the play :

" 1 Bandit. 'T is in the malice of mankind that he thus advises us ;
not to have us thrive in our mystery.
2 Bandit. I'll believe him as an enemy, and give over my trade."

287

TRUTH HID IN MINES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" I will find " The truth of nature lies hid in

Where truth is hid, though it vrere certain deep mines and caves." — ■

hid indeed Advancement of Learning {IQ03-5).
Within the centre."

Hamlet, ii. 2 (1603).

288
TRUTH FORGED ON ANVILS

"Behold "Vulcan is a second nature.

(In the quick forge and working- ... It were good to divide natu-
house of thought) ral philosophy into the mine and

How London doth pour out her the furnace, and to make two pro-
citizens." fessions or occupations of natural
Henry V., v. (Chorus) (1623). philosophers, some to be pioneers

and some smiths ; some to dig,
and some to refine and hammer."
— Ibid.

PARALLELISMS i6i

*' The wits of men . , . are the
shops whereiu .ill actions are
forged." — Historical Sketch (writ-
ten previously to 1603).

We combine these two sets of parallelisms for the reason
that they themselves combine, on either side, the two Baconian
processes of ascertaining and cultivating truth ; namely, the
one by digging for it, as into a mine, and the other by forg-
ing it for use, as on an anvil.

289
PAINTING one's MIND

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"O, could he but have drawn his " O, that I could but paint bis

wit!" mind!" — Inscription over Bacon's

First Shakespeare Folio (1623). Portrait (1578).

These are respectively Ben Jonson's lament over the
Shake-speare portrait engraved as a frontispiece of the
First Folio, and that of Hilliard, the portrait-pamter, over
his likeness of Francis Bacon at the age of seventeen. We
have little doubt that one of these lamentations is a mere
echo in jest of the other, and that both portraits (the former
behind a mask) are intended to represent the same person.

290

PAKTHIAN ARROWS
" Like the Parthian, I shall flying " Words, as a Tartar's bow, do

ficrht." shoot back upon the understand-

Cymbdine, i. 6 (1623). ing." — Advancement of Learning
(1603-5).

291

ROLLING SNOW-BALLS

" A little snow, tumbl'd about, " Their snow-ball did not gather

Anon becomes a mountain." as it went." — History of Henry

King John, iii. 4 (1623). VII. (1621).
11

1 62 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

292

wife's control of husband

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Obeying in commanding." " Nature to be commanded must

King Henry VIII., u. 4 (^1623). be obeyed." — Noi'ian Organum

(1621).

The splendid apliorism which we quote from Bacon is
supposed by Mr. Spedding to have been suggested by Pub-
lilius Syrus, of the first century b. c, one of whose maxims
was that a wife governs her husband by obeying him. This
clever inference is confirmed by the fact that the dramatist
actually applies it as Syrus did, our parallel on that side
being a part of King Henry the Eighth's speech in commen-
dation of his queen. Undoubtedly the two expressions, in
prose and in verse, were drawn from the same Latin source.

293
SOUNDS AT NIGHT

"Soft stillness and the night " Sounds are better heard, and

Become the touches of sweet further off in an evening or in the

harmony." night than at the noon or in the

Merchant of Venice, v. 1 (1600). day." — Natural History (1622-

25).

294

ART SUBJECT TO NATURE

" Nature 's above art." "Art is subject to nature." —

Lear, iv. 6 (1608). Wisdom of the Ancients (1609).

295
CARDUUS BENEDICTUS

" Get you some of this distill'd " I commend beads or pieces of
Carduus the roots of carduus benedictus.'' —

Benedictus and lay it to your Natural History (1622-25).
heart."

Much Ado, iii. 4 (1600).

PARALLELISMS 163

296
MICROCOSM
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" If you see this in the map of "The alchemists, when they
my microcosm, follows it that I am maintain that there is to be found
known well enough too ? " — Cor- in man every mineral, every
iolanus, ii. 1 (1623). vegetable, etc., or something corre-

sponding to them, take the word
microcosm in a sense too gross and
literal." — Wisdom of the Ancients
(1609).

This singular theory of the Greeks, knowledge of which is
presupposed in the play, is explained in Bacon's prose.

297

MEDICINE VS. SURGERY

" A limb that hath but a disease — "If there be a speck in the eye.

Mortal, to cut it off ; to cure it, we endeavor to take it off. He

easy." would be a strange oculist who

ConoZanus, iii. 1 (1623). would puU out the eye." —

Apothegms (posthumous).

298

OPPORTUNITY SUGGESTING CRIME

*' How often the sight of means to " Opportunity makes the thief.''

do ill deeds — Letter to Essex (1598).

Makes deeds ill done. Hadst thou

not been by,
A fellow by the hand of nature

mark'd,
Quoted and sign'd to do a deed of

shame,
This murder had not come into my
mind."

King John, iv. 2 (1623).
299
PRISON OF THE THOUGHTS

" Hamlet. Denmark 's a prison. " There is no prison to the prison

of tlie thoughts." — The Essex De-

Rosencrantz. We think not so, vice (1595).
my lord.

164

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Hamlet. Why, then, 't is none to
you ; for there is nothing either
good or bad but thinking makes it
so ; to me it is a prison." — Hamlet,
ii. 2 (1623).

300

Pygmalion's image

From Shakespeare

" What, is there none of Pygma-
lion's images, newly made woman,
to be had now ? " — Measure for
Measure, iii. 2 (1623).

From Bacon
" It seems to me that Pygma-
lion's frenzy [insania'] is a good em-
blem or portraiture of this vanity ;
for words are but the images of
matter ; and except they have life
of reason and invention , to fall in
love with them is all one as to fall
in love with a picture [sto^iza]." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

301

IFS

" When the parties were met
themselves, one of them thought
but of an ' if,' as, ' if you said so,
then I said so ;' and they shook
hands and swore brothers. Your
' if ' is the ouly peace-maker ; much
virtue in 'if.' " — As You Like It,
V. 4 (1623).
" Hastings. If they have done this

deed, my noble lord —
Gloucester. If ! thou protector of

this damned strumpet,
Talk'stthoutomeof'ifs'? Thou

art a traitor !
Off with his head ! "

Richard III. iii. 4 (1597).

AND ANDS

" His case was said to be this :
that in discoiirse between Sir
Robert Clifford and hirn he has
said. That if he were sure that that
young man were King Edward's
son, he would never bear arms
against him. . . , The judges
thought it was a dangerous thing
to admit Ifs and Ands to qualify
words of treason. And it was
like to the case of Elizabeth Barton,
the holy maid of Kent, who had
said. That if King Henry the Eighth
did not take Catherine his wife
again, he should be deprived of
his Crown, and die the death of a
dog." — History of Henry VII.
(1621).

" Whosoever shall affirm in diem
or suh conditione that your majesty
may be destroyed, is a traitor de
prcesenti, for that he maketh you

PARALLELISMS 165

but tenant for life at the will of
another. And I put the Duke of
Buckingham's case who said that
if the King caused him to be ar-
rested of treason he would stab
him, and the case of the impos-
turess Elizabeth Barton, who said
that if King Henry the Eighth
took not his wife again, Catherine
Dowager, he should be no longer
King." — Letter to King James
(1615).

302
AN APOTHECARY SHOP
From Shakespeare From Bacon

♦' Here dwells an apothecary whom " It is easier to retain the image

oft 1 noted ... of an apothecary arranging

As I pass'd by, whose needy shop his boxes than the corresponding

is stuff 'd notion of . . . disposition." — De

With beggarly accounts of empty Augmentis (1622).

boxes.
And in the same analigarta hangs;
Old ends of packthread, and cakes

of roses
Are thinly strew'd to make up a

show."

Romeo and Juliet, v. 1 (1597).

The multiplicity and variety of articles kept in an apothe-
cary shop seem to have made a permanent impression upon
the minds of both authors.

303

LITERARY PIRACY

" How careful was I, when I took '* I now act like one that has an

my way, orchard ill neighbored, and gathers

Each trifle under truest bars to his fruit before it is ripe, to pre-

tbrust, vent stealing. These fragments

That to my use it might unused of my conceits were going to the

stay press ; to endeavor their stay had

i66

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

From hands of falsehood, iu sure
wards of trust.

But thou, to whom my jewels
trifles are,

My worthy comfort, uow my great-
est grief,

Thou, best of dearest, and mine
only care,

Art left the prey of every vulgar
thief."

Sonnet (1609).

been troublesome ; I therefore held
it best to publish them myself, as
they passed lon<^ ago from my pen."
— Dedication of First Edition of
Essays (1598).

Mr. James of Birmingham, England, to whom we owe
this parallelism, thus comments upon it : "a careful analysis
of this sonnet (48) will prove to the most skeptical that the
writer is lamenting his inability to prevent the loved crea-
tions of his intellect from being appropriated by others."
This was precisely the reason assigned by Bacon for hurry-
ing his essays into print.

304

From Bacon
" How many things are there
which a man cannot with any face
of comeliness say or do himself I
A man can scarcely allege his own
merits with modesty, much less
extol them." — Essay of Friend-
ship (1625).

SELF-PRAISE
From Shakespeare
"0, how thy worth with manners

may I sing.
Where thou art all the better part

of me ?
What can mine own praise to mine
own self bring 1 "

Sonnet 39 (1609).
" There 's not one wise man
among twenty that will praise
himself."— ifwc^ Ado,v. 2 (1600).
" This comes too near the prais-
ing of myself ; therefore, no more
of it.'' — Merchant of Venice, iii. 4.

The author of the sonnet says that a man cannot praise
himself " with manners ; " the essayist, that one cannot do it
" with any face of comeliness," or " modesty."

PARALLELISMS

167

305
HAILING PEARLS

From Slmke-speare
" I '11 set thee in a shower of gold,

and hail
Rich pearls upon thee."
Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 5 (1623).

From Bacon
" Such difference as is betwixt
the melting hail-stone and the
solid pearl." — Gray^s Inn Masque
(1594).

306
CUSTOM, AN APE OF NATURE

" He would beguile nature of her " Governed by chance, custom

custom,
So perfectly is he her ape."

Winter's Tale, v. 2 (1623).

doth commonly prove but an ape
of nature." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

Custom was regarded by both authors as often the ape of
nature, because, like nature, it is governed by laws of which
it is unconscious, and consists in habitudes or automatic
repetition of acts.

307

VERBOSITY

" Holof ernes. He draweth out
the thread of his verbosity finer than
the staple of bis argument. I ab-
hor such fanatical phantasimes,
such insociable and point-devise
companions, such rackers of or-
thography. . . .

Moth. They have been at a great
feast of languages, and stolen the
scraps.

Costard. O ! they have lived long
on the alms-basket of words. . . .

Hoi. The posterior of the day,
most generous sir, is liable, con-
gruent, and measurable for the
afternoon ; the word is well called,
chose, sweet and apt, I do assure
you." — Love's Labor's Lost, v. 1
(1598).

" Men began to hunt more after
words than matter ; and more after
the choiceness of the phrase, and
the round and clean composition
of the sentence, and the sweet fall-
ing of the clauses, and the varying
and illustration of their works
with tropes and figures, than after
the weight of matter, worth of
subject, soundness of argument,
life of invention, or depth of judg-
ment; taking liberty to coin and
frame new terms of art to express
their own sense, and to avoid cir-
cuit of speech, without regard to
the pureness, pleasantness, and
(as I may call it) lawfulness of the
phrase or word. . . . The excess
of this is 60 justly contemptible

i68

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

that as Hercules, when he saw
the image of Adonis, Venus* min-
ion, in a temple, said in disdain,
* Thou art no divinity,' so there is
none of Hercules' followers in learn-
ing, but will despise those delica-
cies and affectations, as indeed
capable of no divineness." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

What Bacon analyzed and condemned as one of the dis-
tempers of learning, that is, an excessive pedantic regard for
mere diction, Shake-speare illustrated and ridiculed in ' Love's

Labor's Lost.'

308

QUEEN ELIZABETH

From Shakespeare

Cranmer. " Let me speak, sir,

For heaven now bids me; and the
words I utter

Let none think flattery, for they '11
find 'em truth.

This royal infant, heaven still move
about her !

Though in her cradle, yet now
promises

L^pou this land a thousand thou-
sand blessings.

Which time shall bring to ripe-
ness ; she shall be,

But few now living can behold
that goodness,

A pattern to all princes living with
her

And all that shall succeed; Saba
was never

More covetous of wisdom and fair
virtue

Than this pure soul shall be ; all
princely graces,

That mould up such a mighty
piece as this is,

From Bacon
" If Plutarch were now alive to
write lives by parallels, it would
trouble him, I think, to find for
her [Queen Elizabeth] a parallel
amongst women. ... I shall not
exceed if I do affirm that this part
of the island never had forty-five
years of better times; and yet not
through the calmness of the season,
but through the wisdom of her
regiment. For if there be con-
sidered the truth of religion es-
tablished ; the constant peace and
security ; the good administration
of justice; the temperate use of the
prerogative, not slackened, nor
much strained; the flourishing
state of learning, sortable to so ex-
cellent a patroness ; the convenient
estate of wealth and means, both
of crown and subject ; the habit of
obedience and the moderation of
discontents; . . . these things I
say considered, I suppose I could
not have chosen an instance more

PARALLELISMS

169

With all the virtues that attend

the good,
Shall still be doubled on her;

truth shall nurse her ;
Holy and heavenly thoughts still

counsel her ;
She shall be lov'd and fear'd ; her

own shall bless her,
Her foes shake like a field of beaten

remarkable or eminent to the pur-
pose in hand." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

And hang their heads with sorrow;

good grows with her.
In her days every man shall eat iu

safety
Under his own vine what he plants,

and sing
The merry songs of peace to all

his neighbors.
God shall be truly known; and

those about her
From her shall read the perfect

ways of honor,
And by her claim their greatness;

not by blood."

Henry VIII., v. 5 (1623).

In these two equally unstinted eulogies of Queen Elizabeth
the commendation chiefly rests on the same points ; namely,
the peacef ulness of her reign and the establishment of religion.

KING

From Shakespeare
" Nor shall this peace sleep with

her ; but as when
The bird of wonder dies, the

maiden phoenix,
Her ashes new create another heir,
As great in admiration as herself,
So shall she leave her blessedness

to one,

309

JAMES I

From Bacon
" Your Majesty's manner of
speech is indeed prince-like, flow-
ing as from a fountain, and yet
streaming and branching itself into
nature's order, full of facility and
felicity, imitating none and inim-
itable by any. . . . For I am well
assured there hath not been since

lyo BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Wbeu Leaven shall call lier from

this cloud of darkness,
Who, from the sacred ashes of her

honor,
Shall star-like rise, as great in

fame as she was.
And so stand fix'd. Peace, plenty,

love, truth, terror.
That were the servants to this

chosen infant.
Shall then be his, and like a vine

grow to him ;
Wherever the bright sun of heaven

shall shine.
His honor and the greatness of his

name
Shall be, and make new nations ;

he shall flourish.
And, like a mountain cedar, reach

his branches
To all the plains about him ; our

children's children
Shall see this and bless heaven."
Henry VIII., \. 5 (1623).

Christ's time any king or tem-
poral monarch which hath been so
learned in all literature and eru-
dition, divine and human. To
drink indeed of the true fountains
of learning, nay, to have such a
fountain of learning in himself, in
a king, and in a king born, is al-
most a miracle. And the more,
because there is met in your Maj-
esty a rare conjunction as well of
divine and sacred literature as of
profane and human ; so as your
Majesty standeth invested of that
triplicity which in great venera-
tion was ascribed to the ancient
Hermes: the power and fortune
of a King, the knowledge and il-
lumination of a Priest, and the
learning and universality of a
Philosopher." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

It will be readily admitted, we think, that these extrava-
gant eulogies of King James are even more significant than
those immediately preceding, of his predecessor on the

throne.

310

A PLEADER

THE SWORD,

From Shakespeare
" Plead my successive title with
your swords."
Titus Andronicus, i. 1 (1600).

From Bacon
"It will be said of them [Gas-
coigne and Anjou] also, that, after,
they were lost, and recovered in
ore gladii." — Post-Nati Speech in
Court (1608).

It has been objected ^ that the phrase used as above in the
play, " plead with swords," is contrary to legal usage, and

^ Castle's Shakespeare, Bacon, Jonson, and Greene, p. 91,

PARALLELISMS

171

that therefore the play itself could not have been written by
a lawyer. Bacon said, in the course of a legal argument in
the Exchequer Chamber, that a territory in France had been
taken by the English in ore gladii ; i. e., by the mouth or
pleading of a sword.

Exception has been taken on the same grounds, also, to the
use of the word " successive " in the above. But successive,
in the sense of one in succession, is a strict Latinism, of
which examples are found in Virgil and Ovid. Its use im-
plies, we admit, a scholarly and exceptional knowledge of
the Latin tongue on the part of the author.

311

THE PROPER REMEDIES FOR MENTAL DISEASE

From Shakespeare

" Macbeth. How (loth your patient,

doctor ?•
Doctor. Not so sick, my lord,

As she is troubled with thick-
coming fancies,
That keep her from her rest.
Macb. Cure her of that.

Canst thou not minister to a mind

diseas'd,
Pluck from the memory a rooted

sorrow,
Eaze out the written troubles of

the brain,
And with some sweet oblivious

antidote
Cleanse the stuflf'd bosom of that

perilous stuff
Which weighs upon the heart ?
Doct. Therein the patient

Must minister to himself.
Macb. Throw physic to the dogs ;

I '11 none of it."

Macbeth, v. 3 (1623).

From Bacon

" I now come to those remedies
which operate upon diseases of the
mind, to custom, exercise, habit,
education, imitation, emulation,
company, friendship, praise, re-
proof, exhortation, fame, laws,
books, studies, and the like. These
are the things that rule in morals ;
these the agents by which mental
diseases are cured ; the ingredients,
of which are compounded the
medicines that recover and pre-
serve the health of the mind, so
far as it can be done by human
remedies." — De Augmentis (1622).

172

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Both authors treat of diseases of the mmd and their cure.
One condemns for this purpose the use of physic ; the other
prescribes exercise, good company, studies, and books.

312

COUNTY OF KENT

From Shakespeare

" Kent, in the Commentaries

Cccsar writ,
Is tenu'd the civil'st place hi all

this isle.
Sweet is the country, because full

of riches ;
The people liberal, valiant, active,

wealthy."

2 Heriry VI., iv. 7 (1594).

From Bacon

"The rude people had heard
Flammock say that Kent was never
conquered, and that they were the
freest people of England." — His-
tory of Henry VII. (1621).

The Bacon family originated in the county of Kent.

313

TURNING one's ESTATE INTO OBLIGATIONS

" Timon. In some sort these wants

of mine are crown'd,
That I account them blessings; for

by these
Shall I try friends. You shall

perceive how you
Mistake my fortunes ; I am wealthy

in my friends."

Timon of Athens, ii. 2 (1623).

" They would say of the Duke
of Guise, Hemy, that he was the
greatest usurer in France, for that
he had turned all his estate into
obligations ; meaning that he had
sold and oppignorated all his pat-
rimony to give large donations to
other men." — Apothegm (date un-
known) .

314

BEGGARS, NO CHOOSERS
'^Lord. Would not the beggar then "Beggars should not be choos-

forget himself ? ers." — Promus (1594-96).

1 Hunter. Believe me, lord, I think
he cannot choose."
The Taming of the Shrew, Intro-
duction (1623).

PARALLELISMS

173

315

STARS, LIKE FRETS

From Shakespeare
" This majestical roof, fretted with,
golden fire."

Hamlet, ii. 2 (1604).

From Bacon
"For if that great workmaster
had been of a human disposition,
he would have cast the stars into
some pleasant and beautiful works
and orders, like the frets in the
roofs of houses." — Advancement
of Learning (1603-5).

316
WATERS SWELLING BEFORE STORMS
" By a divine instinct men's minds " As there are .

mistrust

Ensuing danger; as, by proof, we
see

The waters swell before a boister-
ous storm."

Richard 111., ii. 3 (1597).

secret swell-
ings of seas before tempests, so
there are in states." — Essay of
Seditions and Troubles (1607-12).

317

IVY ON TREES

" The ivy which had hid my

princely trunk,
And suck'd my verdure out on't."
Tempest, i. 2 (1623).

" It was ordained that this wind-
ing 1%^ of a Plantagenet should
kUl the tree itself." — History of
Henry VII. (1621).

318
ALL IS NOT GOLD THAT GLISTERS

" All that glisters is not gold." " All is not gold that glisters." —

Merchant of Venice, ii. 7 (1600). Proraus (1594-96).

319

ASHES OF FORTUNE

"I shall show the cinders of my " The sparks of my affection shall

spirits
Through the ashes of my chance."
Anthony and Cleopatra, v. 2 (1C23).

ever rest quick under the ashes of
my fortune." — Letter to Falkland
(1622).

174 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" In me thou see'st the glowing of " Ashes are good for somewhat,
such fire for lees, for salts ; but I hope I am

That on the ashes of his youth cloth rather embers than ashes, having
lie." the heat of good affections under

Sonnet 73 (1609). the ashes of my fortunes." — Let-
ter to King James (1622).

320
SWEET MEATS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Lo ! as at English feasts, so I " Let not this Parliament end

regreet like a Dutch feast in salt meats,

The daintiest last, to make the end but like an English feast, in sweet

most sweet." meats." — Speech in Parliament

Richard II., i. 3 (1597). (1604).

321

QUICKSILVER

" The rogue fled from me like " It was not long but Perkin,

quicksilver." who was made of quicksilver (which

2 Henry IV., ii. 4 (^IQOO). is hard to imprison) began to
stir ; for deceiving his keepers, he
took to his heels, and made speed
to the sea-coast." — History of
Henry VII. (1621).

322

ADAMANT

" As iron to adamant." " A great adamant of acquaint-

Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2 ance." — Essay of Travel (1625).
(1609).
" Draw me, thou hard-hearted ada-
mant. "
A Midsummer- N^ight^s Dream, ii.
2 (1623).

The word " adamant " is from the Greek aBd/jLa^, meaning
anything very hard, or incapable of being broken, dissolved,
or penetrated. It was first used as the name of the hardest
metal, probably steel, and subsequently of the diamond, the
latter (diamant) being indeed a mere variation of it. In

PARALLELISMS 175

mediffival Latin, however, it came to signify the loadstone
or magnet, perhaps because the word was thought to have
been derived from adamarc, to have a likeness for, to draw.
In this perverted sense it made its way in the fourteenth
century into tlie English language, though it had been cor-
rectly used there for a period of five hundred years preceding.
Wyclif, Chaucer, Coverdale, Gower, Greene, and many other
writers had so used it. Bacon and Shake-speare were among
the last and most conspicuous to fall victims to the blunder.

323

CARDINAL WOLSET

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Had I but served my God with " Cardinal Wolsey said that if

half the zeal he had pleased God as he had

I served my king, he would not pleased the king, he had not been

in mine age ruined." — Letter {first draft) to

Have left me naked to mine the king (1621).
enemies."

Henry VIII., iii. 2 (1623).

324
POETRY, FEIGNED HISTORY

^^ Viola. 'T is poetical. " Poetry is feigned history." —

Olivia. It is the more likely to Advancement of Learning (1603-
be i&ign' A.' '— Twelfth Night, i. 5).
5 (1623).

" The truest poetry is the most
feigning." — As You Like It, iii.
3 (1623).

"If thou wert a poet, 1 might
have some hope thou didst feign."
— Ibid.

325

TASTED, CHEWED, SWALLOWED, AND DIGESTED

" How shall we stretch our eye, "Some books are to be tasted,

when capital crimes, chew'd, swal- others to be swallowed, and some
low'd, and digested, appear before few to be chewed and digested." —
us ? " — Henry V., ii. 2 (1600). Essay of Studies (1598).

176

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

326
CHAMELEON FEEDING ON AIR

From Shakespeare
" The chameleon, Love, can feed
on the air." — Tivo Genllemen of
Verona, ii. 1 (1G23).

" Valentine. He is a kind of cha-
meleon.

Thurio. That hath more mind to
feed on your blood than live in
your air." — Ibid., ii. 4.
" Hamlet. The chameleon's dish —
feed on the air."

Hamlet, iii. 2 (1G03).

From Bacon
"Some that have kept chame-
leons a whole year together could
never perceive that they fed upon
anything but air." — Sylva Syl-
varuin (1022-25).

327
CHAMELEON CHANGING COLORS

" I can add colors to the chame-
leon ;
And for a need change shapes with
Proteus."

3 Henry VI., iii. 2 (1595).
'^Silvia. What, angry, Sir Thu-
rio ? Do you change color ?

Valentine. Give him leave, mad-
am ; he is a kind of chameleon."
— Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 4
(1G23).

" If the chameleon be laid upon
green, the green predominates ; if
upon yellow, the yellow ; laid
upon black, he looketh all black."

— Ibid.

" Proteus would turn himself in-
to all manner of strange shapes."

— Wisdom of the Ancients (1609).

328
ENDYMION

"The moon sleeps with Endy- " The moon of her own accord

mion." came to Endymion as he slept." —

Merchant of Venice, v. 1 (1600). De Augmentis (1622).

329

DOUBLE CHERRY

" So we grew together, " There is a cherry tree that hath

Like to a double cherry." double blossoms." — Sylva Syl-

A Midsummcr-NighCs Dream, iii, varum (1622-25).
2 (1600).

PARALLELISMS

177

330

EFFECT ON THE THROAT
From Shakespeare

" "When we were boys,
Who would believe that there were

mountaineers
Dew-lapp'd like bulls, whose

throats had hanging at 'em
WaUets of flesh ? "

Tempest, iii. 3 (1623).

OF DRINKING SNOW WATER

From Bacon
" The people that dwell at the
foot of snow mountains, or other-
wise upon the ascent, especially
the women, by drinking snow
water, have great bags hanging
under their throats." — Sylva Syl-
varum (1622-25).

331

CONJECTURES AT HOME

" They '11 sit by the fire, and pre-

siime to know
What 's done i' the Capitol ; who 's

like to rise,
Who thrives and who declines;

side factions, and give out
Conjectural marriages."

Coriolanus, i. 1 (1623).

" To make conjectures at home."
— Promus (1594-96).

332
HOW SWEET jrUSIC AFFECTS THE SPIRITS

" I am never merry when I hear
sweet music.

The reason is, your spirits are at-
tentive."
Merchant of Venice, v. 1 (1600).

" Some noises help sleep, as —
soft singing; the cause is, they
move in the spirit a gentle atten-
tion." — Syloa Sylvarum (1622-
25).

333
SEA OP TROUBLES

" To take arms against a sea of " A sea of multitude."
troubles." thegm.

Hamlet iii. 4 (1604).

■Apo-

Hamlet's phrase, "sea of troubles," has caused the com-
mentators great perplexity. Pope, thinking it a typograph-
ical error, proposed to substitute siege of troubles ; Forrest so

178 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

rendered it on the stage. Another commentator preferred
an assail of troubles. It requires, however, but a glance at
Bacon's writings, in which the word " sea " is used over and
over agam for "host" or "multitude," to redeem the passage.
Bacon evidently adopted it from the Greek, kukwv ireXayo^.
In the expression " sea of multitude," Bacon refers to the
large army with which Charles VIII. invaded Italy, against
which it would have been perfectly proper to say, if histori-
cally true, that the people " took arms."

334

ADVANTAGE OF TIME

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Advantage is a better soldier " If time give his majesty the

than rashness." — Henry V., iii. 6 advantage, what needeth precipita-
(1600). tion to extreme remedies?" —

Letter to Villiers (1616).

335

IMPORTANCE OF DELAY

" How poor are they that have not " In all negotiations of difficulty

patience? a man may not look to sow and

What wound did ever heal but by reap at once, but must prepare

degrees ? business and so ripen it by de-

Thou know'st we work by wit, grees." — Essay of Negotiating

and not by witchcraft, (1625).

And wit depends on dilatory " I give Time his due, which is

time." to discover truth." — Conference

Othello, ii. 3 (1622). of Pleasure (1592).

336
HOLY-WATER

"Court holy-water in a dry " He was no brewer of holy-water

house is better than this rain-water in court."

out o' door." — King Lear, iii. 2 "Your lordship is no dealer in

(1608). holy-water, but noble and real." —

Letter to Salisbury (1607).

PARALLELISMS

179

337

DARK BACKGROUNDS

From ShaJce-speare
Like bright metal on a sullen
ground,
My reformation, glitt'ring o'er my

fault,
Shall show more goodly, and at-
tract more eyes,
Than that which hath no foil to
set it off."

1 Henry IV., i. 2 (1598).

From Bacon
" We see in needle-works and
embroideries it is more pleasing to
have a lively work upon a sad and
solemn ground than to have a
dark and melancholy work upon
a lightsome ground." — Essay of
Adversity (1625).

338

" Wonder is the child of rarity.
If a thing be rare, though in
kind it be no way extraordinary,
it is wondered at. Yet, on the
other hand, things which really
call for wonder, if we have them
by us in common use, are but
slightly noticed." — Novum Or-
ganum (1620).

WONDER, CHILD OF RARITY

" Being seldom seen, I could not

stir,
But, like a comet, I was wonder'd

at."

1 Henry IV., iii. 2 (1598).
" Lafeu. They say miracles are
past, and we have our philosophi-
cal persons to make modern and
familiar things supernatural and
causeless. Hence it is that we
make trifles of errors, ensconcing
ourselves into seeming knowledge,
when we should submit ourselves
to an unknown fear.

Parolles. Why, 't is the rarest ar-
gument of wonder." — All's Well,
ii. 3(1623).

This conception of wonder as a state of mind produced by
what is rare, whether extraordinary or not, was a favorite one
with Bacon. We find it repeatedly in his prose works. We
find it also in many of the plays. Henry IV. tells his son
to keep himself as much as possible out of people's sight,
in order that, whenever he is seen, he may excite greater
wonder. It is at least remarkable that a causal relation of

i8o

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

so subtle a nature should occur over and over again in both
sets of works.

339

CORRUPTIONS IN PEACE

From Shakespeare
" The cankers of a calm world
and a long peace." — 1 Henry IV.,
iv. 2 (1598).

From Bacon
" States corrupted through wealth
and too great lengtli of peace." —
Letter to Rutland (1596).

340

EELS STARTLED BY THUNDER

Boult. " I warrant you, mis-
tress, thunder shall not so awake
the beds of eels." — Pericles, iv.
2 (1609).

" Upon the noise of thunder

. . . fishes are thought to be

frayed." — Sylva Sylvarum (1622-

25).

" I thought you sea-gods, as in
your abode,

So in your nature, had not been
unlike

To fishes ; the which, as say phi-
losophers,

Have so small sense of music's
delight.

As 'tis a doubt, not fully yet
resolv'd,

Whether of hearing they have
sense or no."
Gray's Inn Masque (1594).
341

OPPORTUNITY

" There is a tide in the affairs of men,
Which, taken at the flood, leads

on to fortune ;
Omitted, all the voyage of their life
Is bound in shallows and in miseries.
On such a full sea are we now

afloat ;
And we must take the current

when it serves.
Or lose our ventures."

Julius CcBsar, iv. 3 (1623).

" In the third place, I set down
reputation, because of the peremp-
tory tides and currents it hath,
which, if they be not taken in
their due time, are seldom recov-
ered."— Advancement of Learning
(1603-5).

" Particular conspiracies have
their periods of time, within which,
if they be not taken, thej^ vanish."
Charge against Owen (1615).

PARALLELISMS i8i

" I have important business, " If you had not been short-
The tide whereof is now." sighted, you might have made

Troilus and Cressida, v. 1 (1609). more use of me; but that tide is
"Who seeks and will not take, passed." — Letter to Coke (1601).
when once 'tis offered, "You are as well seen in the

Shall never find it more." periods and tides of estates [states]

Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 7 (1623). as in your own circle and way." —
"Take the safest occasion by the Letter to Cecil (^1602).

front." " Occasion . . . turneththe handle

Othello, iii. 1 (1622). of the bottle first to be received,

and after that the belly, which is

hard to clasp." — Essay of Delays

(1625).

"Occasion turneth the bald nod-
dle after she hath presented her
locks in front, and no hold taken."
— Ibid.

" We may say of Nature, what
is usually said of Fortune, that she
hath a lock before, but none be-
hind." — Scala InteUectus.

The ' Advancement of Learning ' was first printed in
1605; 'Troilus and Cressida/ in 1609; 'Othello,' 1622;
'JuHus Ceesar,' 1623; 'Essay of Delays,' 1625. The 'Let-
ter to Coke ' was written in 1601, and the ' Speech against
Owen' delivered in 1615.

The sentiment expressed in the above-quoted passages
seems to have been a favorite one with both authors, ap-
pearing, however, in Bacon first. The figure common to
' Othello ' and the Essay is of classical origin, the ancients
having erected a statue to Occasion as a goddess, in which
the fore part of the head was furnished with a lock of hair,
while the back part was bald. The significancy of this was
pointed out in the Latin writings of Phffidrus, Cardan, and
Erasmus, and in the French of Eabelais. With the possible
exception of Phaidrus, these works we know were familiar
to Bacon, though none of them had then been translated
into English.

l82

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

342

NATURE

From Shakespeare

" Nature is made better by no mean

[moans],
But nature makes that mean ; so,

o'er that art,
Which you say adds to nature, is

an art
That nature makes. You see, sweet

maid, we marry
A gentler scion to the wildest stock,
And make conceive a bark of baser

kind
By bud of nobler race. This is an

art
Which does mend nature, change

it rather, but
The art itself is nature.^*

Winter's Tale, iv. 4 (c. 1611).

AND ART

From Bacon

" An opinion has long been
prevalent that art is something
different from nature. . . . There is
likewise another and more subtle
error which has crept into the
human mind, namely, that of con-
sidering art as merely an assistant
to nature, having the power, in-
deed, to finish what nature has
begun, to correct her when lapsing
into error, or to set her free when
in bondage, but by no means to
change, transmute, or fundamen-
tally alter nature. And this has
bred a premature despair in human
enterprises." — De Augmentis
(1622).

"It is the fashion to talk as if
art were something different from
nature, or a sort of addition to na-
ture, with power to finish what
nature has begun, or correct her
when going aside. In truth, man
has no power over nature except
that of motion, — the power, I say,
of putting natural bodies together,
or separating them, — the rest is
done b;/ nature icithin." — Descrip-
tio Glohi Intellectualis (c. 1612).

For an exposition of this exceptionally strong parallel-
ism, see ' Francis Bacon Our Sliake-speare,' p. 29.

343

KINGS HAVE LONG ARMS

" His rear'd arm " Kings have long arms, when

Crested the world." they will extend them." — Speech

Anthony and Cleopatra, v. 2 (1623). at trial of Lord Sanquhar (1612).

PARALLELISMS

183

" His sword
Hath a sharp edge ; it 's loug, and

't may be said,
It reaches far ; and where 't will

not extend,
Thither he darts it."

King Henry VIII., i. 1 (1623).

344

PRAEMUNIRE

From Bacon
" Where a man purchases, or
pursues in the Court of Rome, or
elsewhere, any process, sentence of
excommunication, bull, or instru-
ment, or other thing which touches
the king in his regality or his
realm in prejudice, it is prcemu-
nire." — Union of Laws {circa
1603).

FroTn Shakespeare

" Surrey. You have sent innumer-
able substance

To furnish Rome, and to prepare
the ways

You have for dignities ; to the
mere undoing

Of all the kingdom.

Suffolk. Lord Cardinal, the King's

farther pleasure is, —
Because all those things you have

done of late,
By your power legatine within this

kingdom,
Fall int' th' compass of a prcemu-

nire,

That therefore such a writ be sued

against you."

Henry VIII., iii. 2 (1623).

345
PEEPING THROUGH SMALL HOLES
" I have seen the day of wrong " You may see great objects

through the little hole of discre- through small crannies." — Amo-
tion."— Love's Labor ^s Lost, v. 2 tural History (1622-25).
(1598).

Bacon made a characteristic use of this homely proverb :

" The eye of the understanding is like tlie eye of the sense ; for,
as you may see great objects through small crannies or levels, so
you may see great axioms of nature tlirough small and contemptible
instances."

1 84 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

340
NOTHING FROM NOTHING

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Nothing can be made out of " Out of nothing, nothing can

nothing." — Kinj Lear, i. 4 (1608). be made." — Novum Organum

(1620).

347

FAITH, LIKE ODORS OF FLOWERS

" Tread down my need, and faith " Virtue is like precious odors,

mounts up." most fragrant when they are in-

King John, iii. 1 (1623). censed or crushed." — Essay oj
Adversity (1625).

348

WINE, A DEVIL

•* 0 thou invisible spirit of wine ! " Wine, a devil." — Advance-

if thou hast no name to be known ment of Learning (1603-5).
by, let us call thee devil." —
Othello, ii. 3 (1622).

349

THE TURKS

" Valiant Othello, we must " The Ottomans . . . degenerate

straight employ you from the laws of nature ; in their

Against the general enemy, Otto- very body and frame of estate a
man." monstrosity ; and may be truly

Othello, i. 3 (1622). accounted common enemies and
grievances of mankind." — Adver-
tisement touching a Holy War
(1622).

Bacon regarded the Ottomans, not only as infidels, but even
as a " general enemy ; " that is, as a reproach on general
groimds to the human race. He wrote the following con-
cerning them in his dialogue on ' A Holy War ' :

" A cruel tyranny, bathed in the blood of their emperors upon
every succession ; a heap of vassals and slaves ; no nobles, no
gentlemen, no freemen, no inheritance of land, no stirp of ancient

PARALLELISMS

185

families ; a people without natural affection, and, as the scripture
saith, that regardeth not the desires of women ; without piety or
care toward their children; a nation without morality, without
letters, arts, or sciences ; that can scarce measure an acre of land, or
an hour of the day ; base and. sluttish in buildings, diet, and the
like; in a word, a very repi'oach of human society."

This view of the Turks, as enemies of all nations on strictly
human grounds, was common to both authors. It was
expressed by both in the same year, 1622, six years after the
death of William Shakspere of Stratford.

350

HERBS OR WEEDS IN HUMAN NATURE

From Shakespeare

" Our bodies are our gardens, to
the which our wills are gardeners ;
so that, if we 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 idle-
ness or manured with industry,
why, the power and corrigible
authority of this lies in our wills."
— Othello, i. 3 (1622).

From Bacon

" A man's nature runs either to
herbs or weeds." — Essay of Nature
in Men (1625).

" Emilia. 0, who hath done this

deed ?
Desdemona. Nobody ; I mj'self ;

farewell ;
Commend me to my kind lord.

0 ! farewell ! "

Othello, V. 2 (1622).

351

AN ANATHEMA

" If a man have St. Paul's per-
fection, that he would wish to be
an anathema from Christ for the
salvation of his brethren, it shows
much of a divine nature." — Essay
of Goodness (1625).

Mr. Euggles makes the following just comment on these
related passages :

1 86 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

"Desdemoaa, dying under her husband's hands, devotes her
last gasp to the utterance of a lie, thus becoming an anathema
from Christ, in order to shield her murderer from the consequences
of his cruelty to her. Here she touches the summit of human
nature, and reminds us of the divine utterance, ' Father, forgive
them, for they know not what they do.' It is as near an approach
to perfection as poor human frailty can make, and reveals a love
that can only be expressed by the antithesis of a lie prompted by
divine truth." — The Flays of Shakespeare, 602.

Mr. Ruggles cites au historical case in point. When the
Charter House monks in London were summoned in the
reign of Henry VIII. to take the oath of allegiance to the
king, the prior proposed to the fraternity that he should save
their lives by offering himself as representative of the house
and swearing falsely. "I will make myself anathema for
you all," he said, " and trust to the mercy of God."

352

A CAUTION IN CONFERRING BENEFITS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Desdemona. If I do vow a friend- "Common benefits are to be

ship, I '11 perform it communicate with all, but peculiar

To the last article. My lord shall benefits with choice. And beware

never rest ; how in making the portraiture

I'll watch him tame, and talk thou breakest the pattern. For

him out of patience. divinity maketh the love of our-

His bed shall seem a school, his selves the pattern ; the love of our

board a shrift. neighbor but the portraiture." —

I '11 intermingle everything he does Essay of Goodness (1607-12).
With Cassio's suit."

Othello, iii. 3 (1622).

Desdemona's espousal of the cause of Cassio and the blind
zeal, ending in her own destruction, with which she prose-
cutes it, is an exact and evidently an intentional illustration
of the danger pointed out by Bacon. She sacrifices herself
for Cassio ; that is, she breaks the pattern on which she
models her innocent love for him.

PARALLELISMS 187

353

PENALTY OF ADAM

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Are not these woods " After the creation was finished,

ilore free from peril than the it is said that man was placed in
envious court ? the garden to work therein, which

Here feel we not the penalty of could only have been the work of
Adam." contemplation ; that is, the end of

As You Like It, ii. 1 (1623). his work was but for exercise and
"All things in common, nature delight, and not for necessity. For
should produce without sweat." — there being then no reluctance of
Tempest, ii. 1 (1623). the creature, nor sweat of the
brow, man's employment was con-
sequently matter of pleasure, not
labor." — A dvancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

Bacon is describing the Garden of Eden as it was before
the fall; Shake-speare (in the passage from the 'Tempest')
as it will be when restored, and the " penalty of Adam "
remitted.

Modern editors, followinor Lewis Theobald, have changed
the word not, in the line quoted above from ' As You Like It,'
" Here feel we not the penalty of Adam,"

to hut, and thus lost the sense of the passage. The Duke, as

pointed out by Mr. Knight, means that in the woods he and

his companions are escaping the penalty inflicted upon Adam,

" In the sweat of thy face shalt thou eat thy bread."

354
brewer's horse
" An I have not forgotten what " The ass that carries wine and

the inside of a church is made of, I drinks water." — Promus (1594-
am a pepper-corn, a brewer's horse." 96).
— 1 King Henry IV., iii. 3 (1598).

The phrase, " brewer's horse," has caused the commentators
some perplexity, Johnson suggested that as a brewer's horse
is apt to be lean with hard work, Ealstali' means that, if he

1 88 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

does n't tell the truth about his churchgoing, he is willing to
become emaciated, as a penalty iov his falsehood. According
to Steevens, Falstaff refers, not to a dray-horse, but to the
" cross-beams on which beer-barrels are carried into cellars."
The Promus entry makes the meaning clear, Falstaff, who is
immoderately fond of beer, declares that, if convicted of
falsehood, he will carry beer about for others, instead of
drinking it himself, like a brewer's horse.

355
SUBJECTS NOT TO BE JESTED ABOUT

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Touchstone. You are not for- " Some things are privileged

sworn; no more was this knight, from jest, namely, religion, matters
swearing by his honor, for he of state, great persons." — Essay of
never had any. . . . Discourse (\b'd>i).

Celia. Prithee, who is it that
thou meanest ?

Touchstone. One that old Fred-
erick, your lather, loves.

Celia. My father's love is enough
to honor him. Enough ! speak no
more of him." — As You Like It,
i. 2 (1623).

Mr. Euggles justly regards Celia's expostulation against
any jesting at the expense of one whom her father loved and
honored as coming directly under Bacon's rule.

356

PRAISE, A GLASS

" The glass of Pindar's praise." " Praise is the reflection of vir-

Troilus and Cressida, i. 2 (1609). tue. But it is as the glass or body

which giveth the reflection." —
EssoTj of Praise (1607-12).

Both authors have elsewhere (in ' Love's Labor 's Lost '
and in 'The Apology') denounced praise as an aim. Bacon
calling it in this sense the handmaid of virtue : here both
denominate it as a glass.

PARALLELISMS

189

357

WINDOW OF THE HEART

From Shakespeare

" My good window of lattice,

fare thee well; thy casement I

need not open, for I look through

thee." — All's Well, ii. 3 (1623).

From Bacon
" Let us obtain, as far as we can,
that window which Momus re-
quired, who, seeing in the frame
of man's heart such angles and
recesses, found fault there was not
a window to look into them." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

358

DIVrNATION INDUCED BY

" Soothsayer. Last night the very
gods show'd me a vision,

(I fast and pray'd for their intelli-
gence), thus :

I saw Jove's bird, the Eoman eagle,
wing'd

From the spongy south to this part
of the west,

There vanish'd in the sunbeams;
which portends

(Unless my sins abuse my divi-
nation)

Success to the Roman host."

Cymbeline, iv. 2 (1623).

FASTING AND PRATER

" Natural divination springs
from the inward power of the
mind. It is of two sorts: the
one, primitive ; the other, by
influxion. Primitive is grounded
upon the supposition that the
mind, when it is withdrawn and
collected into itself, and not dif-
fused into the organs of the body,
has of its own essential power
some pre-notion of things to come.
This state of mind is commonly
induced by those abstinences and
observances which most withdraw
the mind from exercising the
duties of the body, so that it
may enjoy its own nature, free
from external restraint. The re-
tiring of the mind within itself
gives it the fuller benefit of its
own nature and makes it the
more susceptible of divine influx-
ions." — De Augmentis (1622).

Bacon says that the act of divination must be preceded by
" a])stinences and observances " that withdraw the mind from
external objects; Shake-speare gives an instance in which
the mind was prepared for an act of divination by " fasting
and prayer."

I90 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

359
AN ENDURING MONUMENT

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"And thou in this slialt find thy " Tin's attribute of your Majesty

monument, deservetb to be expressed, not only

When tyrants' crests and tombs of in the fame and admiration of the
brass are spent." present time, nor in the history or

Sonnet 107 (160!)). tradition of the ages succeeding, but
also in some solid work, fixed me-
morial, and immortal monument."
— Advancement of Learning
(1605).

Each author claims in the same tone of self-confidence to

have erected with his pen a monument that would endure

forever.

360

prince's favorites, screens

" His ambition growing ... " There is great use in ambi-

To have no screen between this tious men in being screens to

part he play'd princes in matters of danger and

And him he play'd it for." envy." — Essay of Ambition

Tempest, i. 2 (1623). (1625).

Bacon defined the nature of the " screen " in his letter of
advice to Villiers, thus :

" The king himself is above the reach of his people, but cannot
be above their censures ; and you are his shadow, if either he com-
mit an error and is loath to avow it, but excuses it upon his minis-
ters, of which you are the first in the eye ; or you commit the fault,
or have willingly permitted it, and must suffer for it ; so perhaps
you may be offered as a sacrifice to appease the multituile."

(1616).
361

SEX IN PLANTS

" Pale primroses, " I am apt enough to think that

That die unmarried, ere they can this same binarium of a stronger

behold and a weaker, like unto masculine

Bright Phoebus in his strength." and feminine, doth hold in all

Winter's Tale, iv. 4 (1623). living bodies." — Natural History

(1622-25).

PARALLELISMS 191

The existence of sex in plants was known, it appears, to
the author of the 'Winter's Tale,' as well as to Bacon.
Caesalpinus' great work on the subject was published in Italy
in 1583, but not translated into English in Shake-speare's
time.

362
ROYAL BROKERAGE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" That sly devil, " As for the politic and whole-

That broker that still breaks the some laws which were enacted in

pate of faith, his time, they were interpreted to

That daily break-vow, he that wins be but the brocage of an usurper,

of all ; thereby to woo and win the hearts

of the people." — History of Henry

And why rail I on this commodity, VII. (1621).
But for because he hath not woo'd
me yet."

Kinff John, ii. 1 (1623).

"We owe this striking parallelism to Mr. Edmund Bengough.
In the passage from Shakespeare, the King of France is
called a " broker," because he espouses the righteous cause of
Prince Arthur, not because it is righteous, but that he may
thereby "woo and win" favor. In the passage from Bacon,
the King of England is also called a broker, because he
passes wholesome laws, not because they are wholesome, but
that he may thus " woo and win " popular applause. We
have the same hypocritical pretence, described in the same
terms, in both cases.

363
THE MISANTHROPE, A BEAST

" Alcibiarles. What art thou there ? " A natural and secret hatred,

speak ! and aversion towards society in

Timon. A beast, as thou art. any man hath somewhat of the

savage beast." — Essay of Friend-

I am Misanthropos, and hate man- ship (1625).

kind."

Timon of Athens, iv. 3 (1623),

192

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

364

CONSCIENCE

From Shakespeare
" Every man's conscience is a thou-
sand swords."
King Richard III., v. 2 (1597).
" My conscience hath a thousand

several tongues,
And every tongue brings in a
several tale."

Ibid., V. 3 (1597).

Fro7n Bacon
" Conscience is worth a thou-
sand witnesses." — Promus (1594-
96).

365

THE LIFE OF MAN, A SPAN

" A life 's but a span." — Othello, " The life of man,
ii. 3 (1622). Less than a span." ■

Epigram.

366

SOUNDS FROM

" The empty vessel makes the

greatest sound."

Henry V., iv. 4 (1623).
" I did never know so full a voice

issue from
So empty a heart." Ibid.

" Thy youngest daughter does not

love thee least,
Nor are those empty-hearted, whose

low sound
Reverbs no hollowness."

King Lear, I 1 (1608).

EMPTY CASKS

" Like empty casks, they sound
loud when a man knocks upon
their outside." — Advice to Rut-
land (1596).

" Empty coffers give but an ill
sound." — Advice to Villiers (1616).

367

MAN WITHOUT REASON OR
" Poor Ophelia,
Divided from herself and her fair

judgment,
Without the which we are pic-
tures."

Hamlet, iv. 5 (1604).

JUDGMENT, A PICTURE

" Except they be animated with
the spirit of reason, to fall in love
with them is all one as to fall in
love with a picture." — Advance-
ment of Learning (1603-5).

PARALLELISMS

^93

Man without judgment is a picture. — Sliake-speare.
Man ■R-itlxout reason is a picture. — Bacon.

368
COWARDS AND DEATH

From Shakespeare

" Cowards die many times before

their deaths ;
The valiant never taste of death

but once."

Julius Cossar, ii. 2 (1623).

From Bacon

" He that lives in fear doth die
continually." — Letter to Rutland
(1596).

369
FEAR OF DEATH

" The sense of death is most
in apj^rehension." ■ — Pleasure for
Measure, iii. 1 (1623),

" The expectation [of death]
brings terror, and that exceeds the
evil." — Essay of Death (posthu-
mous).

370

LOSS OF REPUTATION

" Had I but died an hour befoie
this chance,

I had lived a blessed time ; for,
from this instant,

There 's nothing serious in mortal-
ity ;

All is but toys ; renown and grace
is dead."

Macbeth, ii. 3 (1623).

" Who can see worse days than
he that, yet living, doth follow at
the funerals of his own reputa-
tion ?"— /Jirf.

371

nature's account

" She [Nature] may detain, but not
still keep, her treasure ;

Her audit, though delay'd, an-
swer'd must be."

Sonnet 126 (1609).

" Men should frequently call
upon Nature to render her ac-
count. — Cor/itationes de Natura
Renm (c. 1603).

194 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

372

Lear.
Kent.
Lear.
Kent

COMPARATIVE

From Bacon

" That which is good to be rid
of, is evil ; that which is evil to he
rid of, is good.

" Tlie reprehension of this color
is, that the good or evU. which is
removed may be esteemed good or
evil comparatively." — Colors of
Good and Evil (1597).

GOOD AND EVIL

From Shakespeare
" Kent. Here is the place, my

lord ; good my lord, enter.
The tyranny of the open night's

too rough
For nature to endure.

\_Storm still.
Let me alone.
Good my lord, enter here.
Wilt break my heart ?
I 'd rather break my own.
Good my lord, enter.
Lear. Thou thiuk'st 't is much

that this contentious storm
Invades us to the skin ; so 't is to

thee ;
But where the greater malady is

fixed,
The lesser is scarce felt. Thou 'dst

shun a bear ;
But if thy flight lay toward the

roaring sea,
Thou 'dst meet the bear i' the
mouth."

King Lear, iii. 4 (1608).

In the second edition of the ' Advancement,' Bacon ex-
plains more fully the principle underlying these passages.
He says:

" When a good thing is taken away, it is not always succeeded
by a had thing, but sometimes by a greater good ; as when the
flower falls and the fruit succeeds. Neither when a bad thing is
taken away, is it always succeeded by a good thing, but sometimes
by a worse. For by the removal of his enemy Claudius, JMilo lost
the 'seed-bed of his glory.' "

This explains, also, Shake-speare's reference to the " bear "
and the " sea " in ' King Lear ; ' that is, a bad thing succeeded

PARALLELISMS

^9S

by a worse. Mr. Wigston, to whose critical acumen we are
indebted for this parallelism, very justly assumes that " these
philosophical subtleties of thought are too deep, too rare,
to be the product of two separate and contemporary minds."

373

NATURE FURNISHING MODELS FOR HUMAN SOCIETY

From Bacon
" Taking the fundamental laws
of nature, with the branches and
passages of them, as an original
and first model, whence to take
and describe a copy and imitation
for government." — On Union of
England and Scotland (1603).

From ShakC'Speare

" Gardener. Go, bind thou up yon
dangling apricocks,

Which, like unruly children, make
their sire

Stoop with oppression of their prod-
igal weight ;

Give some supportance to the bend-
ing of the twigs.

You thus employ'd, I will go root

away
The noisome weeds, that without

profit suck
The soil's fertility from wholesome

flowers.
First Servant. Why should we in

the compass of a pale
Keep law, and form, and due

proportion.
Showing, as in a model, our firm

estate,
When our sea-wall'd garden, the

whole land,
Is full of weeds, her fairest flowers

chock'd up.
Her fruit-trees all unpiun'd, her

hedges ruin'd.
Her knots disorder'd, and her

wholesome herbs
Swarming with caterpillars."
King Richard II., iii. 4 (1597).

Bacon was very fond of working out analogies between
nature, animate and inanimate, and human society. He

196

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

foimd one in the harmony of musical chords ; another,

in a bee-hive ; and here we have a third (first pointed

out by Mr. J. E. Eoe) in a garden. All three are in

Shake-speare.

374

PRIDE AND ENVY

From Bacon

" Those are most subject to
envy which carry the greatness
of their fortunes in an insolent
and proud manner." — Essay of
Envy (1625).

" When envy is gotten once into
a state, it traduceth even the best
actions thereof and turneth them
into an ill odor." — Ibid.

" Public envy is an ostracism."—
Ihid.

From Shake-speare
" Sicinius. Was ever man so proud

as is this Martins ?
Brutus. He has no equal.

Coriolanus. I would they were

barbarians, as they are.
Though in Rome litter'd, not

Romans, as they are not,
Though calved i' the porch 0' the

Capitol.
Behold ! these are the tribunes of

the people,
The tongues o' the common mouth ;

I do despise them.

Brutus. Charge him home, that

he aflfects
Tyrannical power ; if he evades us

there.
Enforce him with his envy to the

people.
And that the spoil, got on the

Antiates,
Was ne'er distributed.

In the name 0' the people,

And in the power of us the trib-
unes, we.

Even from this instant, banish him
our city."
Coriolanus, ii. and iii. (1623).

Coriolanus in the play was both proud and insolent;
hence the three results mentioned by Bacon as inevitable
under such circumstances:

PARALLELISMS 197

1. He excited public envy.

2. He was therefore slandered without cause, accused of
misappropriating the spoils of war and of seeking to over-
throw the liberties of the people.

3. He was ostracized.

With enviable keenness of vision, Mr. Wigston sees the
following additional points of resemblance between Shake-
speare and Bacon in the treatment of pride and envy :

CONCEALMENT

Shakespeare :

" Volu7nnia. I would dissemble with my nature where

My fortunes and my friends at stake required.

You might have been enough the man you are
With striving less to be so ; lesser had been
The thwartings of your dispositions, if
You had not show'd them how ye were dispos'd,
Ere they lack'd power to cross you."

Coi-iolanus.
Bacon :

" Pride wants the best condition of vice, that is, concealment." — De
Augmentis.

DISEASE

Shakespeare :

" Sicinius. He 's a disease that must be cut away.
Brutus. Pursue him to his house, and pluck him there,
Lest his infection, being of catching nature,
Spread further."

Corlolanus.
Bacon :

" It is a disease in a state like to infection. For as infection spreadeth
upon that which is sound and tainteth it, so when envy is gotten once
into a state, it traduceth even the best actions thereof." — Essay of
Envy.

JUNO AND HERCULES

Shakespeare :

♦' Volumnia. Leave this faint puling, and lament as I do,
In anger, Juno-like. . . .
My boy Marcius approaches ; for the love of Juno, let 's go.

198 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Cominius. He [Coriolanus] will shake

Your Rome about your ears.
Menenius. As Hercules

Did shake down mellow fruit."

Coriolatius,
Bacon :

'' Envy puts virtues to laborious tasks, as Juno did Hercules." — De
A ugmentis.

ONE VICE EXPELLING ANOTHER

Shakespeare :

" Power, unto itself most commendable,
Hath not a tomb so evident as a chair
To extol what it has done.
One fire drives out one fire, one nail one nail ;
Rights by rights falter, strengths by strengths do fail."

Coriolanus.
Bacon :

" Pride is, even with vices, incompatible. As poison is expelled by
poison, so are many vices by pride." — De Augmentis.

WITCHCRAFT

Shakespeare :

" I do not know what witchcraft 's in him, but
Your soldiers use him as the grace 'fore meat,
Their talk at table, and their thanks at end."

Coriolanus.
" I will counterfeit the bewitchment of some popuhir man." — Ibid.

Bacon :

" There be none of the affections which have been noted to fascinate
or bewitch, but love and envy." — Essay of Envy.

THE COMMON PEOPLE
Shakespeare :

" Volumnia. 'T was you incens'd the rabble!

Cats, that can judge as fitly of his worth
As I can of those mysteries which heaven
Will not have earth to know."

Coriolanus.
Bacon :

" The lowest virtues are praised by the common people ; the middle
are admired ; but of the highest they have no sense or perception." —
De Augmentis.

PARALLELISMS

199

FLATTERY

Shakespeare :
*' Menenius.

Men.
Cor.

His nature is too noble for the world ;

He would not flatter Neptune for his trident,

Or Jove for 's power to thunder.

Calmly, I beseech you.
Ay, as an ostler."

Coriolanus.

Bacon :

" Flattery is the style of slaves, the refuse of vices. The lowest of
all flatteries is the flattery of the common people." — De Augmentis.

Shakespeare :
" Coriolanus,

Bacon ;

PRIDE AND MISFORTUNE

Let them pronounce the steep Tarpeian death,
Vagabond exile, flaying, pent to linger
With but a grain a day, I would not buy
Their mercy at the price of one fair word.

Coriolanus.

"The proud man, while he despises others, neglects himself.
A ugmentis.

Mr. Wigston adds the following excellent criticism :

" The play of * Coriolanus ' should be studied in relationship to
the character of Julius Ctesar, as depicted in the play of that
name. In these plays we are presented with two noble Eomaus,
who are successful soldiers, and who attain to the higliest martial
honors. But whilst Julius Caesar is represented as a brave man,
he is also presented as a profound dissembler j in short, a master
of those arts which seek and attain popularity by means of con-
cealing the inner man. Caesar is painted as feeling just the same
sort of contempt for the Roman common people as Coriolanus feels;
but with the great difference, that while the former conceals his
contempt, the latter reveals it, and revels in unbosoming himself
of his scorn. Both of these characters are victims of envy ; both
meet with a violent and tragic end."

200 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

375

DYSPEPSIA

From Shakespeare
'^Adriana. This week he hath been

heavy, sour, sad,
And much difTerent from the man

he was.
Abbess. Unquiet meals make ill

digestions ;

. . . What doth ensue
But moody and dull melancholy,
Kinsman to grim and comfortless

despair,
And at their heels a huge infectious

troop
Of pale distemperatures and foes to

life?"
Comedy of Errors, v. 1 (1623).

From Bacon
" I have found now twice upon
amendment of my fortune dis-
position to melancholy and dis-
taste, specially the same happening
against the long vacation when
company failed and business both ;
for upon my Solicitor's place I
grew indisposed and inclined to
superstition. Now upon Mill's
place I find a relapse unto my old
symptom, as I was wont to have it
many years ago, as after sleeps,
strife at meats, strangeness, clouds,
etc." — Private Memoranda (1608).

The symptxjms of disease given by the Abbess in the play
are those of dyspepsia, — a malady with which Bacon was
afflicted all his life, or until he became the victim of gout.
" Unquiet meals," or " strife at meats," are mentioned as one
of the causes of it, in both cases.

376

SINON, THE PROTOTYPE OF DECEIT

"*It cannot be,' quoth she, 'that

so much guile ' —
She would have said — 'can lurk

in such a look.'
But Tarquin's shape came in her

mind the while,
And from her tongue ' can lurk '

from ' cannot ' took.
'It cannot be,' she in that sense

forsook,
And turn'd it thus, ' it cannot be,

I find.
But such a face should bear a

wicked mind ;

" There is no man but will be
a little more raised by hearing it
said, ' Your enemies will be glad
of this' — Hoc Ithacus velit, et
magiio mercentur Atridce — than
by hearing it said only, 'This is
evil for you.' " — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

PARALLELISMS 201

For even as subtle Sinon here is

painted,
So sober-sad, so weary, and so

mild,
As if with grief or travail he had

fainted,
To me came Tarquin arm'd; so

beguil'd
With outward honesty, but yet

defil'd
With inward vice ; as Priam him

did cherish.
So did I Tarquin ; so my Troy did

perish.' "

Lucrece (1594).

Lucrece illustrates the deceitfulness of Tarquin by citing
the case of Sinon, who under false pretences secured the
admission of the wooden horse into Troy. Bacon illustrates
his definition of a sophism by quoting from Virgil a line of
Sinon's speech made to the Trojans on that occasion ; that is
to say, Shake-speare and Bacon both chose the same classical
character as the prototype of deceit.

377

WARS AND TEMPESTS

From Shake-speare From Bacon

" This battle fares like to the morn- " Shepherds of people had need

ing's war, know the calendars of tempests of

When dying clouds contend with states ; which are commonly

growing light. greatest when things grow to

equality ; as natural tempests ai-e

Now it sways this way, like a greatest about the Equinoctia." —

mighty sea ; Essay of Seditions and Troubles

Now one the better, then another (1607-12).

best ;
Both tugging to be victors, breast

to breast,
Yet neither conqueror, nor con-

quer'd ;
So is the equal poise of this fell war."
3 Henry VI., ii. 5 (1623).

202 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Shake-speare compares a war iii which the contendiug
forces are of equal strength auJ varying fortune with the
struggle between the powers of light and darkness at break
of day. At such a moment day and night are at an equi-
poise. Bacon, having the same phenomena in mind, says
that tempests are greatest at the time of the equinox, for
then day and night are equal in length and also (inferen-
tially) in power. Both authors apply this theory to civil
wars.

378

CIVIL WAR, A FEVER

From Shake-speare From Bacon

" We are all cUseas'd, " A civil war is as the heat of a

And with our surfeiting and fever." — Essay of the Greatness

Avanton hours, of Kingdoms (1612).

Have brought ourselves into a
burning fever,"

S Henry IV., iv. 1 (1623).

Bacon made a distinction in the use of imagery between a
foreign war and a civil war. The former he likened to the
heat of exercise ; the latter, to the heat of a fever. In the
above passage from ' Henry IV.,' Shake-speare is treating of
the civil war under Eichard II., and in strict accordance with
Bacon's usage, he calls it a fever.

379

RANKS AND DEGREES IN STATES

" Degree being vizarded, "Nothing doth derogate from the

The unworthiest shows as fairly in dignity of a state more than con-

the mask. fusion of degrees." — A dvanccnient

The heavens themselves, the of Learning (1603-5).

planets, and this centre
Observe degree. . . . O ! when

degree is shaked,
Which is the ladder to all high

designs,
The enterprise is sick. How could

communities,

PARALLELISMS 203

Degrees in schools, and brother-
hoods in cities,

Peaceful commerce from dividable
shores,

The primogenitive and due of
birth,

Prerogative of age, crowns, scep-
tres, laurels.

But by degree, stand in authentic
place 1

Take but degree away, untune that
string,

And, hark ! what discord follows ! "
Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 (1609).

In the second edition of the ' Advancement,' Bacon, who
was a nobleman and who had a contempt for the political
abilities of the commonalty, inserted the word " ranks " in
the sentence quoted above, so as to make his meaning still
clearer. It reads there :

" Nothing derogates from the dignity of a state more than con-
fusion of ranks and degrees."

Mr. E. S. Alderson, an excellent critic, to whom we are
indebted for this and the next following parallelisms, says :

" The political wisdom and insight displayed in ' Troilus and
Cressida ' have been a standing puzzle to all writers on Shakespeare,
How came he so well versed in state mysteries and policies 1 . . .
Bacon had been brought up among statesmen. At the age of seven-
teen he formed one of the suite of Sir Amyas Paulet, the Ambas-
sador to the French Court, and before he was nineteen had begun
the study of European politics, so that, by the time the plays were
•written, the ways and policies of kings and states were quite famil-
iar to him. How they became so to Shakspere we can find no

clue."

380

YOUTH AND OLD AGE

"Youth is full of pleasance, age is full of care ;
Youth like summer morn, age like winter weather;

204 BACON ANT> SHAKESPEARE

Youth like summer brave, age like winter bare ;
Youth is full of sport, age's breath is short ;

Youth is uimble, 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 adore thee."

Shakespeare's Passionate Pilgrim (1599).

" A young man's skin is even and smooth, an old man's dry and
wrinkled ;

A young man's flesh is soft and tender, an old man's hard ;

Youth has strength and activity, old age decay of strength and slow-
ness of motion ;

Youth has a strong, old age a weak digestion ;

In youth the body is erect, in old age bent into a curve ;

A young man's limbs are firm, an old man's weak and trembling ;

In youth the juices of the body are more roscid, in old age more crude
and watery;

In youth the spirit is plentiful, in old age poor and scanty ;

In youth the senses are quick, in old age duU ;

A young man's teeth are strong, an old man's worn ;

A young man's hair is colored, an old man's white ;

Youth has hair, an old man is bald ;

In youth the pulse beats strong, in old age weak ;

In youth wounds heal fast, in old age slowly ;

A young man's cheeks are fresh-colored, an old man's pale."

Bacori's History of Life and Death [compressed], 1623.

Besides an elaborate contrast (of which we have given
above a part only) between youth and old age in respect of
the body, Bacon made another, equally elaborate, between
them in respect of the mind. The two occupy several pages
in the printed edition of his works.

381

MARK ANTHONY AND LOVE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Look ! where they come. " You may observe that amongst

{Enter Anthony and Cleopatra. all the great and worthy persons

Take but good note, and you shall (whereof the memory remaineth,

see in him ancient or modern) there is not

PARALLELISMS

205

The triple pillar of the world trans-

form'd
Into a strumpet's fool."
Anthony and Cleopatra, i. 1 (1623).

one that hath been transported to
the mad degree of love ; which
shows that great spirits and great
business do keep out this weak
passion. You must except, never-
theless, Mark Anthony, the half
partner of the Empire of Rome ! "
— Essay of Love (1612).

" Nothing is more certain," says Mr. Wigston, " than that
the play of ' Anthony and Cleopatra ' was composed with an
entirely ethical purpose of portraying the calamities and
disasters that accompany inordinate and irregular love."

382

MONEY MAKES MATRIMONY

From Shakespeare

" Why, give him gold enough,
and marry him to a puppet, or an
aglet-baby ; or an old trot with
ne'er a tooth in her head, though
she have as many diseases as two
and fifty horses ; why, nothing
comes amiss, so money comes
withal." — Taming of the Shrew, i.
2 (1623).

From Bacon

" Money makes matrimony."-
Promus (1594-96).

383
Cesar's star

thy

"A far more glorious star

soul will make
Than Juliiis Csesar's."

1 Henry VI., i. 1 (1623)

" This work, which is for the
bettering of men's bread and wine,
I hope by God's holy providence
will be ripened by Caesar's star."
Letter to the King (1620).

A brilliant comet, which is said to have made its appear-
ance at the time of Julius Ca3sar's death, was in popular
belief the soul of Caesar himself, received up into heaven.
Virgil (Eclog. 9. 46) calls this comet " Coesar's Star." Bacon
and Shake-speare both refer to it under the same name, the
former hoping that its influence on the great work, Novum

2o6

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Organum, would be favorable, and the latter declaring that

at Henry the Fifth's death the English warrior's star would

be even more glorious than was Ctesar's. Bacon quoted

Virgil's lines.

384

WINNOWING WITH A FAN

From Shakespeare
" lu the wind and tempest of her

frown,
Distinction, with a broad and

powerful fan,
Puffing at all, winnows the light

away ;
And what hath mass or matter, by

itself
Lies, rich in virtue and unmingled."
Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 (1609).

From Bacon
"Your Majesty will discern
what things are intermingled, like
the tares amongst the wheat, as
the one cannot be pulled up with-
out endangering the other; and
what are mingled but as the chaff
and the com, which need but a
fan to sift and sever them." —
Pacification of the Church (1603).

See Donnelly's 'The Great Cryptogram,' p. 368.

385
SUPPRESSED ANGER

" Give sorrow words ; the grief

that will not speak,
Whispers the o'erfraught heart

and bids it break."

Macbeth, iv. 3 (1623).

" Suppressed anger is likewise
a kind of vexation, and makes the
spirit to prey upon the juices of
the body. But anger indulged
and let loose is beneficial." —
History of Life and Death (1623).

' The Great Cryptogram,' p. 372.

386

MIND, A MIRROR HELD UP TO NATURE

To hold, as 't were, the mirror
up to nature."

Hamlet, iii. 2 (1604).

" God hath framed the mind of
man as a glass capable of the image
of the universal world." — Of the
Interpretation of Nature (c. 1603).

"The mind of a wise man is
compared to a glass wherein images
of all kinds in nature and custom
are represented." — Advancement
of Learning (1603-5).

PARALLELISMS

207

Bacon explained the existence of error in the world as an
imperfection in the mind as a glass, " which " (he says), " re-
ceiving rays irregularly, distorts and discolors the nature of
things " (^jSfovum Organum'). On one occasion he even
reversed the imagery, calling Nature herself a "mirror
(speculuni) of art."

387
SILENCE

From Shakespeare
" Be check'd for silence,
But never tax'd foi* speech."

All 's Well, i. 1 (1623).
" Give every man thine ear, but
few thy voice."

Hamlet, i. 3 (1604).
" Men of few words are the best
men."
King HeJiry V., iii. 2 (1623).

From Bacon
" Silence gives to words both
grace and authority."

" Silence is the sleep that nour-
ishes wisdom."

" Silence aspires after truth."
De Augmentis (1622).

388
BROKEN MUSIC

' ' All concords and discords of
music may be aptly called the
sympathies and antipathies of
sounds ; so in that music termed
Broken or Consort Music." —
Natural History (1622-25).

" Is there any else longs to see this
broken music in his sides ? "
As You Like It, i. 2 (1623).
"Come, your answer in broken
music."

Henry V., v. 2 (1623).
*' Fair prince, here is good broken

music."
Troilus and Cressida,iu. 1 (1G09).

Of all \vTiters on music known to us, Mr. Chappel is the
only one who has undertaken to explain what was meant in
Bacon's time by " broken music." He defined it, in his
' Popular Music of the Olden Time,' as the " music of wind
instruments," but subsequently intimated, in a private letter
to ]\Ir. Aldis A. Wright, that on further consideration he had
discarded that opinion and adopted another, the latter,
however (as it appears to us), still less tenable. It is a pity

-2o8 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

he did not consult Bacon, perhaps the best authority of that
a^e on the musical art ; for if he had, he would have found
no mystery in the phrase. The author of the Plays was so
familiar with the expression that he made a pun on it in
' Henry V.'

" King Henry. Come, your answer in broken music ; for thy
voice is music, and thy English broken ; therefore, queen of all,
Katliariuc, break tliy mind to me in broken English : wilt thou
have me] " — v. 2.

389

BURNING GLASSES
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" He loves to hear " I heard it affirmed by a man

That iinicorns may be betray'd that was a great dealer iu secrets,

^v^th trees, but he was but vain, that there

And bears with glasses, elephants was a conspiracy (which himself

with holes, hindered) to have killed Queen

Lions with toils, and men with Mary, sister to Elizabeth, by a

flatterers." burning glass, when she walked in

Julius Ccesar, ii. 1 (1623). St. James Park, from the leads of

the house ; (as they talk generally
of burning glasses that are able to
burn a navy. ) " — Natural History
(1622-25).

390

COUNCIL AND COUNSEL

" The council shall know this ; " Besides the giving of counsel,
't were better for you it were known the councillors are bound by their
in counsel." — Merry Wives of duties, as well as by their oaths,
Windsor i. 1 (1602). to keep counsel." — Advice to Vil-

liers (1616).

From the beginning until late in the seventeenth century,
and in a few instances, even in the eighteenth, these two words,
council and counsel, were used interchangeably in our lan-
guage. For examples: council (council-board) was written
counsel by Marbeck in 1581 ; by Sir K. Williams in 1590 ; by

PARALLELISMS 209

Captain John Smith in 1606 ; by Cotgrave in 1611 ; and by
the ' London Gazette ' m 1697. In like manner the word coun-
sel (advice) was written council by Wyclif in 1380 ; by Mal-
lory in 1470 ; byCaxton in 1474; by Coverdale in 1535; by
Udall in 1548 ; by Heywood in 1562 ; by Ford in 1633 ; by
Perkins in 1642 ; by Ward in 1647 ; by Nicholas in 1654 ; by
Steele in 1709 ; and by Gibber in 1739. On the other hand,
the author of the Plays used the word council 42 times, and
counsel 180 times without confusing them in a single in-
stance. He even makes a pun on them (as above) in the
' Merry Wives of Windsor.' Bacon, though proverbially
careless in matters of detail, observed this distinction with
great care in his prose writings, except in one or two
instances in which he is supposed to have employed
amanuenses.

391

THE SULTAN SLAYING HIS BROTHERS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Brothers, you mix your sadness " Aristotle, after the Ottoman

with some fear. fashion, felt insecure ahout his own

This is the English, not the Turk- kingdom of philosophy till he had
ish court ; slain his brethren." — De Princip-

Not Amurath an Amurath sue- Us atque Originibus (posthumous),
ceeds,

But Harry, Harry."

2 Henry IV., v. 2 (1600).

' The Great Cryptogram,' p. 405.

392

REPUGNANCE TO MAKING WILLS

" I ne'er made my will yet, I " Men commonly die intestate ;

thank heaven ; I am not such a this being a rule, that when their
sickly creature." — Merry Wives will is made, they think themselves
of Windsor, iii. 4 (1623). nearer a grave than before." — Es-

say of Death (posthumous).

* The Great Cryptogram,' p. 395.

2IO

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

393
PLUTO AND PLUTUS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Dearer than Pluto's mine, richer "Pluto was better to him than

than gold." Pallas." — History of Henry VII.

Julius CcEsar, iv. 3 (1623). (1621).
" Plutus, the god of gold,
Is but his steward."

Timon of Athens, i. 1 (1G23).

Both authors carefully distinguished between Pluto, god of
mines, and Plutus, god of gold. Bacon certainly could not
have made a mistake of this kind, for he probably was the
most thorough student of ancient mythology that ever lived.
He expounded some of the prominent myths of Greece and
Rome in a book entitled De Sapientia Veterum and published
in 1609. In the passage from his 'History of Henry VII.,'
quoted above, he means that King Ferdinand of Spain was
more fortunate, after the death of Isabella, as owner of mines
than as civil governor. It is, to say the least, remarkable
that classical scholars, editing the drama of Julius Casar,
should have changed the name of the god from Pluto, as it
was plainly printed in the folios, to Plutus, on the ground
that Shake-speare had blundered. Mrs. C. F. A. Windle, of
San Francisco, was the first to point out this singular mis-
conception.

394

A MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS

" Falstaff. Sirrah, you giant,
what says the doctor to my water ?

Page. Pie said, sir, the water it-
self was a good healthy water ; but
for the party that ow'd it, he might
have more diseases than he knew
for."— 2 Henry IV., i. 2 (1600).

" These advertisements which
your lordship imparted to me, and
the like, I hold to be no more cer-
tain to make judgment upon than
a patient's water to a physician;
therefore for me upon one water to
make a judgment were, indeed,
like a foolish bold mountebank or
Doctor Birket." — Letter to Essex
(1598).

PARALLELISMS 1 1 1

395
A fool's bolt
FTom Shakespeare From Bacon

" A fool's bolt is soon shot." "' I will shoot my fool's bolt."

Henry V., iii. 7 (1623). Letter of Advice to Essex (1598).

" According to the fool's bolt, sir." "A fool's bolt is soon shot."

.4s You Like It, v. 4 (1623). Fromus (1594-96).

396

HARPING ON A STRING

"Harp not on that string, madam." "This string you cannot upon

Richard III., iv. 4 (1597). every apt occasion harp upon too

much." — Ibid.

397

CAHIBRIDGE UNIVERSITY

" Knock at his study, where (they " I remember in Trinity College

say) he keeps." in Cambridge there was an upper

Titus Andronicus, v. 2 (1600). chamber, which, being thought

weak in the roof of it, was sup-
ported by a pillar of iron of the
bigness of one's arm, in the midst
of the chamber ; which if you had
struck, it would make a little flat
noise in the room where it was
struck, but it would make a great
bomb in the chamber beneath." —
Natural History (1622-25).

Bacon was educated at Cambridge University ; so also, we
have good reason to believe, was the author of the Plays.
Under the latter head, we make the following points :

1. In a book printed at Cambridge and published anony-
mously in 1595, the author (that is, the true author) of
' Venus and Adonis ' is said to have been matriculated
at Cambridge, Oxford, or at one of the Inns of Court in
London.^

1 See ' Bacon vs. Shakspere, ' 8th ed.

212

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

2. The author of the ' Merry Wives of Windsor ' held up
to ridicule a notorious character attached to a college at
Cambridge.^

3. The author of ' Titus Andronicus ' was familiar (as
shown above) with a dialectical expression peculiar to Cam-
bridge University.^

398

SEEDS
From Shalce-speare From Bacon

" If you can look into the seeds of " Skilful gardeners make trial of

time the seeds before they buy them,

And say which grain will grow whether tliey Le good or no." —

and which will not, Natural History (1622-25).

Speak then to me."

Macbeth, i. 3 (1623).

399

WEED

" Why write I still all one, ever

the same,
And keep invention in a noted

weed,
That every word doth almost tell

my name ? "

Sonnet 76 (1609).
"Julia. Gentle Lucetta, fit me

with such weeds
As may beseem some well-reputed

page."
Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 7

(1623).
" Cordelia. Be better suited ;
These weeds are memories of those

worser hours ;
I prithee, put them oflF.

Kent. Pardon me, dear madam ;
Yet to be known, shortens my

made intent ;

" The King was forced to put
himself into a pilgrim's weeds and
in that disguise to steal away." —
Speech at Trial of Essex (1601).

" This fellow . . . clad himself
like a hermit, and in that weed
wandered about the country, till
he was discovered and taken." —
History of Henry VII. (1621).

1 See ' Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare,' p. 43.

2 See ' Bacon vs. Sliakspere,' Sth ed.

PARALLELISMS 213

My boon I make it that you know

me not
Till time and I think meet."

King Lear, iv. 7 (1608).

The word u-ecd, in the sense in which it is used in the
above passages on either side, means garment, but a garment
such as one wears to express condition of some sort. Shake-
speare makes use of it over and over again in this signifi-
cation, as the following examples will show :

To express bereavement :

" My mourning weeds are laid aside." — 3 Henry VI.
" My mourning weeds are done." — Ihid.
" Victorious in thy mourning weeds." — Titus Andronicus.
" Mournful weeds." — Ibid.

It will be observed that in ' King Lear ' Cordelia asks
Kent to change his garments (weeds) because the circum-
stances of the wearer had changed.

To express humility :

" With a proud heart he wore
His humble weeds." — Coriolanus.
" With contempt he wore the humble weed." — Ihid.

This was the " gown of humility," put on by candidates
for office in Eome.

To express sex :

" Where lie mj' maiden weeds." — Twelfth Night.
" In thy woman's weeds." — Ibid.

To express nationality :

" Weeds of Athens he doth wear." — A Midsummer- Nighfs Dream.
" I '11 disrobe me of these Italian weeds." — Cymbeline.

To express servitude :

"Away with slavish weeds, and servile thoughts!
I will be bright, and shine in pearl and gold,
To wait upon this new-made empress." — Titus Andronicus.

214 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

To express official character :

" Were they but attir'd in grave weeds,
Rome could afford no tiil)uue like to these." — Titus Andronicus.

To express peace (iu the garb of a citizen, as distinguished
from a soldier's uniform) :

" Hector iu his weeds of peace." — Troilus and Cressida.

In character of a flower-girl, symbolic of spring :

" Florizel. These, your unusual weeds, to each part of you
Do give a life ; no shepherdess, but Flora,
Peering iu April's front." — Twelfth Night.

It is to its use by both authors to signify a disguise (as
shown in our parallelism), however, that we wish to call the
particular attention of our readers. In Sonnet 76 the word
unquestionably is so used ; for, notwithstanding the fact that
these sonnets had been in private circulation for years, and
were openly published in 1609, as Shakespeare's, the writer
confessed in the stanza quoted that every word did almost
tell his name. The true name of the author must, therefore,
have been concealed.

This inference is greatly strengthened by a confession in
one of Bacon's prayers ; a prayer composed by him on the
occasion of his downfall, and said by Addison to resemble
the devotion of an angel rather than that of a man. The
confession is in these words :

" I have loved thy assemblies ; I have mourned for the divisions
of thy church ; I have delighted in the brightness of thy sanctu-
ary. Tliis vine, which thy right hand hath planted in this nation,
I have ever prayed unto thee that it might have the first and the
latter rain ; and that it might stretch her branches to the seas and to
the floods. Tlie state and bread of the poor and oppressed have been
precious in mine eyes ; I have hated all cruelty and hardness of heart ;
I have (though in a despised weed) procured the good of all men."

That Bacon used the word weed in this confession in the
sense of a disguise appears from the following considerations :

PARALLELISMS 215

1. He always uses it, so far as we know, in this sense.
See the passages above quoted from him as parallels.

2. He characterizes the composition to which he referred,
whatever it was, as " despised." No term could have been
selected more appropriately expressing public sentiment at
that time on the subject of theatrical performances. Play-
actors were denounced by law as vagabonds ; they did not
dare to appear on the public streets of London without
protection-papers signed by some nobleman who called them
his servants ; otherwise they were liable to be arrested and
to have their ears bored with hot irons, not less (according
to the specific provisions of a statute) than one inch in cir-
cumference. The theatres themselves were the resorts of
the most degraded people of the city. No woman of good
character could visit them without wearing a mask.

3. By means of these mysterious compositions he had, as
he says, " procured the good of all men." Bacon, almost
alone among his contemporaries, viewed the drama as an
educational institution of high value. He recommended
that it be taught, both in theory and in practice, in public
schools. He even drafted the plan of a building for the
purpose, including dressing-rooms for the actors.

4. Bacon was the achnowlcdged author of no compositions
that were despised. This is proof that his authorship of those
described in the prayer was unacknowledged and secret.

401

WINE, NEEDING NO BUSH
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Good wine needs no bush." " Good wine needs no bush." —

As You Like It, Epilogue (1623). Promus (159-1-96).

402
USELESS LIFE

" ' Let me not live," quoth he, " When you cannot be what you

« After my llaiue hvcks oil. ' " have been, there is no reason why

All 's Well, i. 2 (1623). you should wish to live." — Ibid.

2i6 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

403

INFLUENCE OF THE MIND UPON THE BODY

Fi-om Shakespeare From Bacon

"By my body's action teach my " In what manner and how far

mind do the hnniors and temperaments

A most inherent baseness." of the body alter or work ujiou

Coriolanus, iii. 2 (1G23). tlie mind ?" — Advancement of

Learning (1603-5).

Bacon made a special study of physiognomy, not only to
show how " lineaments of the body disclose the character
of the mind," but also how the mind itself is affected by
the condition of the body. His object was, of course, to
gain a knowledge of physical remedies applicable to mental
disease. Shake-speare had made the same investigation.

404

VICE BY NATUBE

"What he cannot help in his "It were a strange speech

nature, which, spoken or spoken oft,

You account a vice in him ! " should cure a man of a vice to

Coriolanus, i. 1 (1623). which he is subject by nature."

405

THE NEAREST WAY, THE FOULEST

" I fear thy nature; " It is in life as it is in ways;

It is too full o' the milk of human the shortest way is commonly the

kindness foulest." — Advancement of Learn-

To catch the nearest way." ing (1603-5).
Macbeth, i. 5 (1623).

The " nearest way " for Macbeth was through murder ; the
nearest way to attain a fortune (says Bacon) is by " dispen-
sations from the laws of charity and integrity." " He that
maketh haste to be rich shall not be innocent " (' Essay of
Riches ').

PARALLELISMS

217

406
SABBATH AND SABBAOTH

From Shakespeare
" Come the next Sabbaoth and I
will content you."
Richard III., iii. 2 (quarto
ed., 1597).

From Bacon
" Sacred and inspired Divinity,
the Sabbaoth and port of all men's
labors." — Advancement of Learn-
ing (first ed., 1605).

" Sacred and insi^ired Divinity,
tlie Sabbath and port of all men's
labors." — Advancement of Learn-
ing (second ed., 1623).

" Come the next Sabbath and
■will content you."

Ibid, (folio ed., 1623).j

"By our holy Sabbaoth have 1"

sworn
To have the due and forfeit of my

bond."
Merchant of Venice, iv. 1

(quarto ed., 1600).
" By our holy Sabbath have I

sworn
To have the due and forfeit of

my bond."

Ibid, (folio ed., 1623). J

It will be seen that Bacon and the author of the Plays
made the same singular blunder in their earlier writings in
the use of the word Sabbaoth (host) for Sabbath (the
Hebrew day of rest). Both of them, however, subsequently
and (it would appear) simultaneously corrected it ; the one
in the second edition of the ' Advancement,' published in
1623, and the other in the folio editions of 'Richard III.'
and the 'Merchant of Venice," published also in 1623.

The same blunder is found in Bacon's ' Confession of
Faith,' written before 1603.

407
DISCOURSE OF REASON

" 0 God ! a beast that wants dis- " Martin Luther, conducted, no

course of reason doubt, by an higher Providence,

Would have mourn'd longer! " but in discourse of reason." — Ad-

Hamlet, i. 2 (1603). vancement of Learning (1603-5).

2i8 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" Is your blood " True fortitude, which is not

So madly hot, that no discoui'se of given to man by nature, must grow

reason, out of discourse of reason." — Let-

No fear of bad success in a bad ter to Rutland (1596).

cause,
Can qualify the same ? "
Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2 (1609).

The word discoitrse is derived from the Latin discurrere,
to run to and fro, that is, in mentahty, from one fact or
consideration to another, in order that we may compare and
judge. It is a strict Latinism, found in the writings of Cax-
ton in the fifteenth, of Eden in the sixteenth, and of Florio
in the seventeenth centuries.

" May it not be that in the few instances where Shakespeare
uses the phrase in reference to the operations of the mind (I speak
with great hesitation -^ ) that its Latin origin was uppermost in his
mind 1 " — Furness' Variorum Edition of Shakespeare, vi. 268.

408

THE FALL OF MAN

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Ignorance is the curse of God." " The true end of knowledge is

S Henry VI., iv. 7 (1623). the restitution of man to the sov-
ereignty and power (for whenso-
ever he shall be able to call the
creatures by their true names he
shall again command them) which
he had in his first state of crea-
tion." — Valerius Terminus.

Ignorance caused man's fall, says Shake-speare.
Knowledge will restore man to his first estate, says Bacon.
The Valerius Terminus preceded the 'Advancement of
Learning,' the exact date unknown.

1 The fear of the commentators lest they ascribe too much learning to the
author of the Plays is pitiable. The fate of Actaeon is continually before
their eyes.

PARALLELISMS

219

409
ABANDONMENT OF POETRY

From Shakespeare

" This rough magic

I here abjure; and, when I have
required

Some heavenly music (which even
now I do)

To work mine end upon their
senses, that

This airy charm is for, I '11 break
my staff,

Bury it certain fathoms in the
earth.

And, deeper than did ever plum-
met sound,

I '11 drown my book."

Tempest, v. 1 (1623).

From Bacon
" Poetry is as a dream of learn-
ing ; a thing sweet and varied, and
that would be thought to have in
it something divine ; a character
which dreams likewise affect. But
now it is time for me to awake,
and rising above the earth, to wing
my way through the clear air of
Philosophy and the Sciences." —
De Augmentis (1622).

410

LOVE AND SELF-LOVE

" 0 ! how thy worth with manners

may I sing,
When thou art all the better part

of me ?
What can mine own praise to mine

own self bring ?
And what is 't but mine own when

I praise thee ?
Even for this let us divided live
And our dear love lose name of

single one.
That by this separation I may give
That due to thee which thou de-

serv'st alone."

Sonnet 39 (1609).

" The resolution of Erophilus
[Love] is fixed ; he renounceth
Philautia [Self-love] and all her
enchantments. For the Queen's
recreation, he will confer with his
muse ; for her defence and honor,
he will sacrifice his life in the
wars, hoping to be embalmed in
the sweet odors of her remem-
brance; to her service will he con-
secrate all his watchful endeavors ;
and will ever bear in his heart the
picture of her beauty ; in his ac-
tions, of her will ; and in his for-
tune, of her grace and favor.

So that I conclude I have traced
him the way to that which hath
been granted to some few, amare
et sapere, to love and be wise." —
Essex Device of Love and Self-love
(1595).

220

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

In this sonnet, as indeed throughout the entire body of the
Shakespearean Sonnets, the poet is represented as a dual
being, himself as a man and himself as a muse, divided and
yet one. He even calls himself, in honest recognition of his
own worth, the tenth muse ; and to this, the " better part "
of him, he gives all his love.

Bacon makes a similar distinction in the ' Essex Device '
(1595). Love of the Queen and Self-love here contend for
the mastery. The former prevails, because only through the
Queen can fame, honor, and power, which are the objects of
Self-love, be attained. The two are thus in the last analysis
identical. He only who seeks the happiness of another, in
total abnegation of self, shall gain his own. " Whoso loseth
his life for my sake [in behalf of others], he shall find it. "

411

CUPID AS AN INDIAN PRINCE

From Shakespeare

" She, as her attendant, hath
A lovely boy, stol'n from an Indian

king ;
She never had so sweet a change-
ling.

Cupid all arin'd ; a certain aim he

took
At a fair vestal thron'd by the

west.

I know

When thon hast stol'n away from
fairy land,

And in the shape of Corin sat all
day,

Playing on pipes of com, and vers-
ing love

To amorous Phillida. Why art
thou here ?

From Bacon

" In the most retired part of that
division which those of Europe call
the West Indies, near unto the
fountain of the great river of the
Amazons, there governeth at this
day a mighty monarch whose rare
happiness in all things else is only
eclipsed in the calamity of his son,
this young Prince, who was born
blind. . . . Your majesty's sacred
presence hath wrought the strangest
innovation that ever was in the
world. You have here before you
Seeing Love, a Prince indeed,
but of greater territories than all
the Indies, armed after the Indian
manner with bow and arrows." —
Device of the Indian Prince (1595).

PARALLELISMS 111

Come from the farthest steppe of

India ?

. the bouncing Amazon."
Midsumrner-Nighf s Dream, ii. 1

(1600).

In the State Paper Ofi&ce in London is preserved a docu-
ment in the handwriting of the end of the sixteenth, or the
beginning of the seventeenth century, and officially described
in the calendar as follows :

"A short play or iuterhxde devised by the Earl of Essex for the
entertainment of the Queen. The subject is the visit of a native
Indian Prince from the sources of the Amazon Eiver, who miracu-
lously recovers his sight."

The date of the performance is indicated in a penciled
memorandum as of November 17, 1595, being that of the
' Essex Device,' to which we have already alluded. Mr. Hep-
worth Dixon in his ' Personal History of Lord Bacon ' (p. 62)
says that the interlude (as it is called) was a part of that
entertainment, and therefore the work of Bacon. It tells us
that a mighty monarch whose dominions were situated on
the Amazon had a son wdio was born blind, and that the
only resource left, after every other effort had been tried in
vain to give him eyesight, was to send him to England and
bring him into the presence of Queen Elizabeth. The oracle
was delivered in these words :

" Seated between the Old World and the New,
A land there is no other land may touch,
Where reigns a Queen in peace and honor true ;
Stories or fables do describe no such.
Never did Atlas such a burden bear,
As, in holding up the world opprest;
Supplying with her virtue everywhere
Weakness of friends, errors of servants best.
No nation breeds a warmer blood for war,
And yet she calms them by her majesty ;
No age hath ever wits refined so far,

222 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

And yet she calms them by her policy.
To her thy son must make his sacrifice,
If he will have the morning of his eyes."

Accordingly the young Indian Prince, " blind from his
birth," and " armed with bow and arrows," crossed the
Atlantic, entered the presence of Elizabeth, and at once
became ' Seeing Love.' Of course he personated Cupid.

The drama of ' A Midsummer-Night's Dream ' was pro-
duced at or about the time of the 'Device.' It was men-
tioned by Meres as being in existence and known to the
public in 1598. In it (as in the passage quoted above) we
have " Cupid all arm'd " coming from the Amazon, and tak-
ing aim —

" At a fair vestal, thron'tl in the West."

It appears that when the author's manuscript of the
' Device ' was sent to the printer, the portion of it pertain-
ing to the Indian Prince, and the most interesting portion,
was for some unknown reason stricken out. It lay undis-
turbed among the documents of the State Paper Office two
hundred and fifty years. Being an early sketch, in part,
of a Shakespearean play, it was not permitted, with the
remainder of the ' Device,' to see the light.^

412
NOBILITY OF JULIUS CiESAR
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Your swords, made rich " Julius Caesar, the worthiest

With the most noble blood of all man that ever lived, a man of the
this world." greatest honor." — Essex Device,

Julius CcEsar, iii. 1 (1623). (c. 1592).

1 ]\Ir. Dixon says, without the slightest authority for the statement, that
the Earl of Essex struck it out on account of liis enmity to Sir Walter Raleigh ;
hut no evidence exists to show that the ' Device' had anything to do with Raleigh.
Spedding very properly rejects Dixon's statement, and then, unable himself to
offer any explanation of the curious circumstance, concludes that the legend
of the Indian Prince was no part of the ' Device.' In this view, however, he is
certainly wrong, for the character Philautia (Self-love) appears in both parts,
printed and unprinted, and links them together.

PARALLELISMS 213

♦* Thou [Cassar] art the ruins of the

noblest man
That ever lived in the tide of

times."

Julius Coesar, iii. 1 (1623).

413
MARCUS BRUTUS, C^SAR's BASTARD SON
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Brutus' bastard hand "At last, when Marcus Brutus

Stabb'd Julius Csesar." gave him a wound, [he exclaimed]

2 Henry VI., iv. 1 (1594). and thou, my son!'''' — Essex De-
vice (c. 1592).

Brutus was believed by many to be Caesar's illegitimate
son. Plutarch makes no mention of the alleged fact that
Csesar, before he fell, uttered a rebuke to Brutus. The story
rests upon the authority of Suetonius, a Greek writer, who
gives it in the words quoted by Bacon, Kal av, tskvov. The
writings of Suetonius were not translated into English at the
time of Shake-speare.

414
EPICURUS AND HIS REJECTION OF AUGURIES

'< You know that I held Epicurus " Epicurus, accommodating and

strong, subjecting his natural to his moral

And his opinion ; now I change my philosophy (as appears from his

naind, own words), would not willingly

And partly credit things that do admit any opinion that depressed

presage. or hurt the mind, and troubled, or

Coming from Sardis, on our former disturbed that Enthumia of his,

ensign which he had adopted from Demo-
Two mighty eagles fell, and there critus. And so, being more fond

they perch'd, of enjoying the sweets of thought

Gorging and feeding from our than patient of the truth, he fairly

soldiers' hands, threw oflF the yoke, and rejected

Who to Philippi here consorted us. both the necessity of Fate and the

This morning are they fled away fear of the gods." — De Augmentis

and gone, (1622).
And in their stead do ravens, crows

and kites

224 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Fly o'er our heads and downward

look on us,
As we were sickly prey."

Julius CcEsar, v. 1 (1623).

Epicurus denied the existence of Fate, and therefore
opposed every form of augury. His philosophy is fully
set forth in the writiugs of Diogenes Laertius, a Greek
writer of the third century, b. c.

415

RAINING ODORS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

** The heavens rain odors on you ! " " The treasure that cometh from

Twelfth Night, iii. 1 (1623). you to her Majesty is but as a vapor

which riseth from the earth and
gathereth into a cloud, and stayeth
not there long, but upon the same
earth it falleth again ; it is like a
sweet odor." — Speech in Parlia-
ment (1597).

The speech was on a money bill. It is so wise, so far in
advance of Bacon's time and even of our own, on an impor-
tant principle of political economy (namely, that a nation
prospers as its neighbors also prosper), that we take the liberty
to quote the full sentiment on the point given above :

" Sure I am that the treasure from you to her Majesty is but as
a vapor wliich riseth from the earth and gathereth into a cloud, and
stayeth not there long, but upon tlie same earth it falleth again ;
and what if some drops of this do fall upon France or Flanders %
It is like a sweet odor of honor and reputation to our nation
throughout the world."

416

STANLEY CROWNING HENRY VII. ON THE FIELD OF BATTLE

" Stanley. Lo ! here, this long- " Sir "William Stanley, after

usurped royalty some acclamations of the soldiers

From the dead temples of this in the field, put a crown of orna-
bloody wretch ment (which Richard wore in the

PARALLELISMS

11^

battle and was found amongst the
spoils) upon King Henry's head,
as if it were his chief title." — His-
tory of Henry VII. (1621).

Have I pluck'd off, to grace thy

brows withal;
Wear it, enjoy it, and make much

of it."

Richard III., v. 4 (1597).

Of the three titles to the crown open to the choice of
Henry VI L, after the death of Eichard on Bosworth Field,
that of conquest was the one, according to Bacon, which his
soldiers regarded as the chief ; it is the one, also, according
to Shake-speare, which was urged upon him by Sir William
Stanley and others in the moment of victory. A temporary
crown, taken from Kichard's head, was presented to him, as
per each account, as the badge of royalty. The play ends,
and the prose history begins, at this point.

The reign of Henry VII. is the only gap in the consecutive
series of Shake-speare's historical dramas, beginning with that
of Richard II. (1366-1399) and extending through those of
Henry IV. (1399-1413), Henry V. (1413-1422), Henry VI.
(1422-1471), Edward IV. (1471-1483), Richard III. (1483-
1485), to Henry VIII. (1509-1547) inclusive. Bacon's prose
history of Henry VII. exactly fills the gap of twenty-four

years.

417

ENCLOSURE OF COMMON LANDS

From Shakespeare
" Queen Margaret. Are your
supplications to his lordship ?

Suffolk. What 's yours ? What 's
here ? [Reads] Against the Duke
of Suffolk for enclosing the com-
mons of Melford. How now, sir
knave !

Second petitioner. Alas! sir, I
am but a poor petitioner of our
whole township." — 2 Henry VI.,
i. 3 (1594).

From Bacon
" Though it may be thought ill
and very prejudicial to lords that
have enclosed great grounds, and
pulled down even whole towns,
and converted them to sheep-pas-
tures, [j'^et] I should be sorry to
see within this kingdom that piece
of Ovid's verse prove true. Jam
seges est ubi Troja full (there is a
cornfield where Troy was) ; so in
England, instead of a whole town
full of people, none but green
fields, but a shepherd and a dog."
Speech in Parliament (1597).

226 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Into the movement to arrest decay of tillage by preventing
enclosure of common lands Bacon threw all his energy. He
introduced a bill on the subject into the House of Commons
and advocated it in the speech from which we quote. In the
play a whole township protests against such an enclosure
made by the Duke of Suffolk, though the reputed poet, Wil-
liam Shakspere, favored a nefarious proceedmg of this kind
at Stratford, after he had been secretly guaranteed against
personal loss by the promoters.

418
man's body a musical instrument
From Shakespeare From Bacon,

"You are a fair viol, and your " The poets did well to conjoin

sense the strings, music and medicine in Apollo,

Who, finger'd to make man his because the office of medicine is

lawful music, but to tune this curious harp of

Would draw heaven do'mi and all man's body and to reduce it to har-

the gods to hearken." mony." — Advancement of Learn-

Pericles, i. 1 (1609). ing (1603-5).

A most striking and beautiful metaphor, appearing and
reappearing constantly, with different applications, in both
sets of works.

419
LEES

" The wine of life is drawn, and " The memory of King Richard

the mere lees lay like lees in the bottom of men's

Is left." hearts." — History of Henry VIL

Macbeth, ii. 3 (1623). (1621).

420

TEMPERING WAX

" I have him already tempering " Taking him but as an image

between my finger and my thumb, of wax that others had tempered

and shortly will I seal with him." and moulded." — History of Henry

— 2 Henry IV., iv. 3 (1600). VIL (1621).

PARALLELISMS ii-^

421

THE HARE AND THE CRIPPLE

From Shakespeare From Bacon
" Such a hare is madness ... to "A cripple in the right way out-
skip o'er the meshes of good conn- skips the runner in a wrong one."
sel, the cripple." — Merchant of — Novum Organwn {\W8-20).
Venice, i. 2 (1600).

422

LIME-TWIGS

" They are limed with the twigs " Whatsoever service I do to her

that threaten them." — All's Well, Majesty, it shall be thought to be

iii. 5 (1623). but lime-twigs to place myself." —

"Myself have limed a bush for Letter to Greville {lb94).
her."

2 Henry VI,, i. 3 (1623).

The practice of ensnaring birds by the use of lime or other
viscous substance on bushes is often employed metaphori-
cally by both authors.

' The Great Cryptogram,' p. 364.

423

KNOWLEDGE

" Knowledge [is] the wing where- " To praise knowledge, or to per-

with we fly to heaven." suade your lordship to the love of

3 Henry VI., iv. 7 (1623). it, I shall not need to use many

words ; I will only say, that where
that wants, the man is void of all
good ; without it, there can be no
fortitude; without it, no liberality;
without it, no justice ; without it,
no constancy or patience ; without
it, no temperance ; nay, without it,
no true religion." — Letter to Rut-
land (1596) [abridged].

William Shakspere, the reputed poet, had two children,
both of whom passed their lives in utter ignorance. One
could not write her name at the age of twenty-six, and the
other could not identify her husband's handwriting after a
married life with him of twenty-eight years.

228

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

424
GKIEF FOR OTHERS

From Shakespeare

" Is it not monstrous that this
player here,

But in a fiction, in a dream of pas-
sion,

Could force his soul so to his own
conceit,

That, from her working, all his
visage wann'd.

Tears in his eyes, distraction in 's
aspect,

A broken voice ? "

Hamlet, ii. 2 (1604).

From Bacon
" To weep for grief of others.'
-Promus (1594-96).

425

A BEAUTIFUL FACE

" The "beauty that is borne here in "A beautiful face is a silent

the face commendation." — Ornamenta Ra-

. . . Commends itself to others' tionalia (date unknown),
eyes."
Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3 (1609).

* The Great Cryptogram,' p. 382.

426

RELATIVE DURATION OF GOOD AND EVIL

" The evil that men do lives after

them,
The good is oft interred with their
bones."

Julius CcBsar, iii. 2 (1623).
" Men's evil manners live in brass ;

their virtues
We write in water."

Henry VIIL, iv. 2 (1623).

" 111, to man's nature as it stands
perverted, hath a natural motion
strongest in continuance ; but
good, as a forced motion, strong-
est at first." — Essay of Innovations
(1625).

The Great Cryptogram,' p. 386.

PARALLELISMS

229

427

PILOTS IN CALM WEATHER

From Shakespeare From Bacon

*' When the sea was calm, all " Any one can manage a boat in
boats alike calm weather." — Promus (1594-

Show'd mastership in floating." 96).

Coriolanus, iv. 1 (1623).

428
THE PHANTASM AT PHILIPPI

" Brutus [<o Ghost]. Why comest " A phantasm that appeared to

thou ? M. Brutus in his tent said to

Ghost. To tell thee, thou shalt see him. Thou shalt see me again at

me at Philippi." PhilippV — Essay of Prophecies

Julius Ccesar, iv. 3 (1623). (1625).

429

COCKATRICE

" They will kill one another by " This was the end of this little
the look, like cockatrices." — cockatrice of a king, that was able
Twelfth Night, iv. 3 (1623). to destroy those that did not espy

him first." — History of Henry

VIL (1621).

430

CUSHIONS

'• Hostess. I pray God the fruit " Henry the Fourth of France his

of her womb miscarry. Queen was great with child. Count

Beadle. If it do, you shall have Soissons, that had his expectation

a dozen of cushions." — 2 Henry upon the crown, when it was twice

IV. , V. 4(1600). or thrice thought that the Queen

was with child before, said to
some of his friends, that it was
but with a pillow." — Apothegm.

' The Great Cryptogram/ p. 406.

230 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

431
THINGS UNNOTICED
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" The jewel that we fiud, we stoop " When things are put before

and take it their feet, men do not see them,

Because we see it ; but what we do unless admonished, but pass on."

not see
We tread upon, and never think
of it."

Measure for Measure, ii. 1
(1623).

Quoted from Mr. Wigston's ' A New Study of Shakespeare.'

432
OPINION DETERMINES VALUE

"There is nothing either good "Pain and danger be great only

or bad but thinking makes it so." — by opinion." — Letter to Rutland
Hamlet, ii. 2 (1604). (1596).

' The Great Cryptogram,' p. 389.

433

SLEEP, A NOURISHMENT

" Sleep, " Sleep nourisheth, or at least

Chief nourisher in life's feast." preserve th bodies a long time

Afac&e</j, ii. 2 (1623). without other nourishment." —
Natural History (1622-25).

Mr. Donnelly very justly emphasizes this parallelism.
' The Great Cryptogram,' p. 425.

434

LIVER, THE SEAT OF SENSUALITY

" This is the liver- vein, which " Plato's opinion, who located

makes flesh a deity." — Lovers sensuality in the liver, is not to

Labor 's Lost, iv. 3 (1598). be despised." — Advancement of

^'■Ford [referring to Falstaff]. Love Learning (1603-5).

my wife !
Pistol. With liver burning hot."
Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1
(1602).

PARALLELISMS

231

435

GEOCENTRIC THEORY OF THE SOLAR SYSTEM

From Shakespeare
" The heavens themselves, the
planets, and this centre observe
degree." — Troilus and Cressida,
i. 3 (1609).

From Bacon
" It is a poor centre of a man's
actions, himself ; it is right earth ;
for that only stands fast upon his
own centre, whereas all things
that have affinity with the heavens
move upon the centre of another
[the earth], which they benefit." —
Essay of Wisdom for a Mail's Self
(1607-12).

Both authors held to the geocentric theory of the solar
system to the last, though the Copernican hypothesis, pub-
lished in 1543, had then prevailed. See ' Francis Bacon Our
Shake-speare,' p. 16.

436

SIGNIFICANCY OF NAMES

" Ferdinand. What is your name ?
Miranda. Miranda.

Ferdinand. Admired Miranda !
Indeed, the top of admiration."
Tempest, iii. 1 (1623).

" There is a conformity and sig-
nificancy in the very names which
must be clear to everybody. Metis,
Jupiter's wife, plainly means coun-
sel; Typhon, swelling; Pan, the
universe; Nemesis, revenge; and
the like." — Preface to the Wis-
dom of the Ancients (1G09).

What Bacon notices and comments upon in the ancient
myths ; namely, that oftentimes names of gods and goddesses
bear a close relation to the characters ascribed to them, we find
also in the Shake-speare plays. In the case of Miranda the
author expressly tells us what the name signifies, — the " top
of admiration." And this in turn is explained by Bacon in
his ' Advancement of Learning,' thus :

" Pindar, in praising Hiero, says most elegantly (as is his wont)
that he * culled the tops of all the virtues.' And certainly I think
it would contribute much to the magnanimity and the honor of
humanity, if a collection were made of what the sclioolmen call

232 BJCON AND SHAKESPEARE

the ultimities, and Pindar the tops or summits of human nature,
especially from true history ; showing what is the ultimate and
highest point which human nature has of itself attained in the
several gifts of hody and mind."

That Miranda was intended to personate the highest glory
of womanhood appears further from what Ferdinand says

of her:

' ' For several \'irtue3
Have I liked several women ; never any
With so full a soul, but some defect in her
Did quarrel with the noblest grace she owed,
And put it to the foil ; but you, 0 you !
So perfect, and so peerless, are created
Of every creature's best." — iii. 1.

437

DISSECTION OF MINDS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Then let them anatomize Regan, "Wherefore out of these materi-

see what breeds about her heart. als let a full and careful treatise be

Is there any cause in nature that constructed; ... so that we may

makes these hard hearts ? " — King have a scieutific and accurate dis-

Lear, iii. 6 (1608). section of minds and characters,

and the secret dispositions of par-
ticular men may be revealed; and
that from the knowledge thereof
better rules may be framed for the
treatment of the mind." — De
Augmentis (1622),

Both authors proposed that mind be dissected: the one,
for the purpose of learning how to treat it ; the other, how
to understand such a nature as Eegan's, and then, presuma-
bly, how to treat it.

438

WEIGHT AND VELOCITY
" The thing that 's heavy in itself, " Weight in all motions increas-

Upon enforcement, flies with great- eth force." — Speech in Parliament
est speed." (1610).

2 Henry IV., i. 1 (1600).

PARALLELISMS

'^33

439

From Shakespeare From Bacon

DIFFEKENCES AMONG CHILDREN OF SAME PARENTAGE

" Kent. It is the stars,

The stars above us, govern our

conditions;
Else one self-mate and mate could

not beget
Such different issues."

King Lear, iv. 3 (1608).

" A man shall find in the tradi-
tions of astrology some pretty and
apt divisions of men's natures,
according to the predominances of
the planets." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

In 'King Lear,' Kent is unable to explain how Cordelia
could be of a character so different from that of her sisters,
except through the varying influence of the planets at birth.
Bacon, it appears, held the same theory at the time when
the tragedy was written, in or about 1605-6, though later in
life he thought such influence is exerted upon men in the
mass rather than upon individuals. Even then, he made an
exception of such individuals as are of a tender or particularly
susceptible nature. The case of Cordelia would probably
have fallen within the exception.

440

OBEDIENCE TO KINGS,

" Therefore doth heaven divide

The state of man in divers func-
tions ;

To which is fixed, as an aim or
butt.

Obedience ; for so work the honey
bees ;

Creatures that by a rule of nature,
teach

The act of order to a peopled king-
dom."

Henry V., i. 2 (1600).

A LAW OF NATURE

" The platforms [of obedience]
are three : The first is that of the
father or chief of a family, who,
governing his wife by prerogative
of sex and his children by preroga-
tive of age, . . . is the very model
of a king. This we see is wholly
natural.

The second is that of a shepherd
and his flock — a work likewise of
nature.

The third is the government of
God himself over the world, both
in nature and above nature ; even
from the monarch of heaven and

234 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

earth to the king, if you will, in a
hive of bees. This state subaisteth
by nature." — Case of the Post-
JS'aii (1G08).

Both authors based the allegiance of subjects to hereditary

inonarchs on the same ground on which obedience of children

is due to parents ; namely, not by human laws, but by a rule

of nature. And both illustrated it by the example of bees in

a hive. Bacon believed in the divme right of kings ; so did

Shake-speare.

441

A FRIEND, ANOTHER ONE's SELF
From Shake-speare From Bacon

" Thou disease of a friend, and not " A friend is another himself."

himself." — Essay of Friendship (1625).

Timon of Athens^ iii. 1 (1623).

This parallelism and the three parallelisms that follow
were pointed out by Mr. Wigston.

442
IN SOLITUDE, MAN IS A BEAST
" Alcibiades. What art thou, there? " ' Whosoever is delighted in soli-
Timon. A beast, as thou art." tude is either a wild beast, or a

Ibid., iv. 3. god.^
" Nothing I '11 bear from thee For it is most true that a natural

But nakedness, thou detestable and secret hatred and aversatiou
town! towards society, in any man, hath

Timon will to the woods, where he somewhat of the savage beast."

shall find Ibid.

The unkindest beast more kinder
than mankind."

Ibid., iv. 1.

The dramatist had so strong a feeling that a man who, out
of hatred towards his fellow-men, retires to a solitude, must
have in him " something of the savage beast," that he makes
one of his characters on seeing Timon's tomb exclaim, —

" What is this !
Some beast rear'd this ! " — v. 3.

PARALLELISMS

'^3S

443
STONES VALUED ACCORDING TO FANCY
From Shakespeare From Bacon

"• Stones, whose rates are either " Do you not see what feigned
rich or poor prices are set upon little stones ? " —

As fancy values them." Essay of Riches (1607-12).

Measure for Measure, ii. 2 (1623).

444

FOLLOWERS STRIPPING A MAN OF WINGS

" I do fear,
When every feather sticks in his

own wing,
Lord Timon will be left a naked

gull."

Timon of Athens, ii. 1 (1623).

" Costly followers are not to be
liked, lest, while a man maketh
his train longer, he make his •nangs
shorter." — Essay of Followers and
Friends (1598).

445

AIR POISONED BY

•* The rabblement shouted and
clapped their chopped hands, and
threw up their sweaty night-caps,
and uttered such a deal of stinking
breath, because Caesar refused the
crown, that it had almost choked
Caesar ; for he swooned and fell
down at it. And for my part, I
durst not laugh, for fear of open-
ing my lips and receiving the bad
ah" — Julius Ccesar, i. 2 (1623).

FOUL BREATHS

" If such foul smells be made by
art and by the hand, they consist
chiefly of man's flesh or sweat pu-
trefied ; for they are not those stinks
which the nostrils straight abhor
and expel, that are most perni-
cious. . . .

And these empoisonments of air
are the more dangerous in meet-
ings of people, because the much
breath of people doth further the
reception of the infection." — Nat-
ural History (1622-25).

446
STARS ARE FIRES

" The skies are painted with un-

number'd sparks ;
They are all fire."

Julius Ccesar, iii. 1 (1623).

" The stars are true fires." —
Descriptio Globi Intellectualis (c.
1612).

2^6

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

447
GOLD, THE METAL MOST EASILY WROUGHT

Fi-om Bacon
" The most excellent metal, gold,
is of all other the most pliant and
most enduring to be wrought ; so
of all living and breathing sub-
stances the perfectest (man) is the
most susceptible." — Helps for the
Intellectual Powers (1596-1604).

Dixon's 'Francis Bacon and his Shakespeare,' p. 173.

From Shakespeare
^' Cassius [^speaking to Brutus']. I

see
Thy honorable metal may be

wrought
From that it is disposed."

Julius Ccesar, i. 2 (1623).

448

PROPHETIC

"Calpurnia, here, my wife, stays
me at home ;

She dream'd to-night she saw my
statua,

Which, like a fountain with a hun-
dred spouts,

Did run pure blood ; and many
lusty Romans

Came smiling, and did bathe their
hands in it."

Julius Ccesar, ii. 2 (162.3).

•* By a divine instinct men's minds
mistrust ensuing danger."
Richard III., u. 3 (1597).

Bacon's dream was in 1579.

DREAMS

" I myself remember that, being
in Paris, and my father dying in
London, two or three days before
my father's death, I had a dream,
which I told to divers English
gentlemen, that my father's house
in the country was plastered all
over with black mortar." — Nat-
ural History (1622-25).

449

AFFECTION AND REASON
To speak truth of Ca;sar, " Affections behold merely the
present ; reason the future. There-
fore, the present filling the imagi-
nation more, reason is commonly
vanquished ; but after that force of
eloquence and persuasion have
made things future and remote
appear as present, then upon the

I have not known when his aflfec-

tions sway'd
More than his reason."

Julius Ccesar, ii. 1 (1623)

PARALLELISMS 237

revolt of the imagination reason
prevaileth." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

The author of the play had investigated the relative
strength of the affections and the reasoning faculty.

450
ANTICIPATIONS OF MIND
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Brutus. 'T is a common proof " The method of discovering

That lowliness is young ambition's truth, now in vogue, is to fly at

ladder, once from the senses and particu-

Whereto the climber-upward turns lars to the most general axioms,

his face ; rather than by a gradual and un-

But when he once attains the up- broken ascent; for the mind longs

most round, to spring up to positions of higher

He then unto the ladder turns his generality, that it may find rest

back, there ; and so, after a little while,

Looks in the clouds, scorning the wearies of experiment." — Novum

base degrees Organum (1620).
By which he did ascend."

Julius Ccesar, ii. 1 (1623).

Bacon called his philosophical method a ladder {Scala In-
tellectus), and declared that every sincere inquirer after
truth must mount it, round by round, to the top and rest
there. In no other way, as he taught, can one safely climb
to a broad generalization. If, however, the searcher after
truth should leap higher, or —

" unto the ladder turn his back,"

he will become "weary of experiment;" m other words,

(Shake-speare's), he will

'* scorn the base degrees
By which he did ascend."

This leads to error. Brutus (or the author who created the
character of Brutus) certainly understood the difference be-
tween ' Anticipation of Mind ' and ' Interpretation of Nature,'
as laid down in the Novum Organum.

238 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

451
CiESAB WARNED BY AUGURERS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Ccesar. What say the augurers ? *' The augur brought him word

Servant. They would not have you that the entrails were not favor-
to stir forth to-day. able." — De Augmentis (1622).
Plucking the entrails of an offering

forth,
They could not find a heart within
the beast."

Julius Ccesar, ii. 2 (1623).

452
ACTION IS ELOQUENCE

" Action is eloquence, and the eyes " Question was asked of Demos-

of the ignorant thenes, ' what was the chief part of

More learned than the ears." an orator ?' he answered, * action.'

ConoZanws, iii. 2 (1623). What next? 'action.' What next
again ? 'action.' " — Essay of Bold-
ness (1625),

453
DEATH, BEING INEVITABLE, MUST BE ENDURED

' ' With meditating that she must " I mourn not for that end which
die once, must be." — Essay of Death (post-

I have the patience to endure it humous),
now."

Julius Cassar, iv. 3 (1623).

454

UNSUSPECTING NATURES

" The Moor is of a free and open <c ^g .^^j^^ ^-^^^-^^ ^^^ g^jj jg ^^^^^

"^tu^e, deceived." — Promus (1 594-96).

That thinks men honest that but

seem to be so.
And will as tenderly be led by the

nose
As asses are."

Othello, i. 3 (1622).

" A brother noble,
Whose nature is so far from doing
harms,

PARALLELISMS

239

That he suspects none ; on whose

foolish honesty
My practices ride easy."

King Lear, i. 2 (1608).

455

WRITIN^G FOR POSTERITY

From Shakespeare

" "Were 't aught to me I bore the

canopy,
With my extern the outward

honoring,
Or laid great bases for eternity ? "
Sonnet 125 (1609).

From Bacon

"I write for posterity, these
things requiring ages for their
accomplishment." — Letter to
Father Fulgentio (1624-25).

456

ARIEL A SPIRIT, COMPOUNDED OF FLAME AND AIR

" Ariel. I boarded the king's ship ;

now on the beak,
Now in the waist, tlie deck, in

every cabin,
IJiam'd amazement ; sometimes I 'd

divide.
And burn in many places ; on the

topmast,
The yard and bowsprit, would I

flame distinctly.

Tempest, i. 2 (1623).
" Ariel. If you now beheld them,

your affections
Would become tender.
Prospe.ro. Dost thou think so,

spirit ?
Art. Mine would, sir, were I hu-
man.
Pros. And mine shall.

Hast thou, which art but air, a touch,

a feeling
Of their affections ? "

lb. V. 1.

" Let us now proceed to the
doctrine which concerns the human
soul. The parts thereof are two :
the one treats of the rational
soul, which is di\ane ; the other
of the sensible, which is common
with brutes. The latter is itself
only the instrument of the rational
soul, and may be fitly termed not
soul, but spirit. It is compounded
of flame and air." — De Aug-
mentis (1622).

240

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

In the play Ariel is an invisible creature that confesses
himself to be the " instrument " of Prospero. He is said at
one time (as the name implies) to be " air ; " when he visited
the ship, he was " flame ; " at all times, therefore, he was a
" compound of air and flame." Prospero frequently addresses
him as " spirit." It would be difficult to conceive of more
perfect embodiments, according to Bacon's conception, of the
two souls, taken separately, that exist in every human being
than these in the * Tempest.'

457
BARRING ENTAILS BY MEANS OF A FEE-SIMPLE

From Shakespeare

" Parolles. Sir, for a quart d'ecu
he will sell the fee-simple of his
salvation, the inheritance of it;
and cnt the entail from all re-
mainders." — All's Well, iv. 3
(1623).

From Bacon

" The last and greatest estate in
land is fee-simple, and beyond this
there is none. He that maketh a
lease for life to one, or a gift in
tail, may appoint a remainder to
anotlier for life, or in tail after
that estate, or to a third in fee-
simple ; but after a fee-simple he
can limit no other estate. And if
a man do not dispose of the fee-
simple by way of remainder when
he maketh the gift in tail or for
lives, then the fee-simple resteth
in him as a reversion. . . . This
slight was first invented when
entails fell out to be so inconven-
ient that men made no conscience
to cut them off, if they could find
law for it." — Use of the Law
(date uncertain).

The ownership of land in fee-simple was doubtless well
understood in Shake-speare's time ; but this cunning use of
it, to bar entails, was then a comparatively recent invention,
and known only to lawyer.s. Chief Justice Campbell says
('The Law in Shakespeare') that "Parolles, the bragging

PARALLELISMS

241

cowardly soldier, is made to talk like a conveyancer in
Lincoln's Inn."

458

KING BESTOWING WARDS IN MARRIAGE

From Shakespeare

" King. It is in us to plant thine

honor where
We please to have it grow. Check

thy contempt.
Obey our will, which travails to
thy good.
.... Take her by the hand,
And tell her she is thine."

All '5 Well, ii. 3 (1623).

From Bacon

" The grief was, that every man's
eldest son or heir was, by Preroga-
tive, to be in ward to the king for
his body and lands ; [the king] to
imitate and approach, as near as
may be, to the duties and offices
of a natural father, in the good
education, and well bestowing
in marriage." — On Wardships
(1612).

The scene of ' All 's Well ' is laid in France, but Bacon
knew (as pointed out by the late Mr. T. S. E. Dixon) that the
same law prevailed there as in England, conferring upon the
king the right to dispose of his wards in marriage. This ap-
pears in his ' History of Henry VII.' where he says that King
Charles of France had the power, " according to his right
of seigniory and tutelage, to dispose of the marriage of the
young Duchess of Britain [his ward] as he should think
good."

459
FELONY AND BENEFIT OF CLERGY

" Thou hast appointed justices
of the peace, to call poor men be-
fore them about matters they were
not able to answer. Moreover,
thou hast put them in prison, and
because they could not read, thou
hast hanged them, when indeed
only for that cause they have been
most woithy to live." — 3 Henry
VL, iv. 7 (1594).

" For the scarcity of men that
could read, and the multitude req-
uisite in the clergy of the realm to
be disposed unto religious houses,
priests, deacons, and clerks of
parishes, there was a prerogative
allowed to the clergy tiiat if any
man that could read as a clerk
were to be condemned to death, the
bishop of the diocese might, if he
would, claim him; but if either
the bishop would not demand him,

242

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

or that the prisoner could not read,
then he was to be put to death." —
Use of the Laio (date uncertain).

" How acquired I know not, but it is quite certain that tho
drawer of this indictment must have had some acquaintance with
* Tho Crown Circuit Companion,' and must have had a full and
accurate knowledge of that rather obscure and intricate subject —
' Felony and Benefit of Clergy.' " — Chief Justice Campbell, in
his * Lmv in Shakespeare.^

460
OFFICE OF TIME, TO DISCLOSE TRUTH
From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Time's glory is . . . "The inseparable property of

To unmask falsehood, and bring Time, which is ever more and
truth to light." more to disclose truth." — The Ad-

Lucrece (1594). vancement of Learning {\QO'i-b).

" Truth is rightly called the
Daughter of Time." — Novum
Organum (1620).

461
"WITCHCRAFT IN LOVE

^ I will a round unvarnish'd tale

deliver
Of my whole course of love ; what

drugs, what charms.
What conjuration, and what

mighty magic
(For such proceedings I am charged

withal)
I won his daughter with.

This only is the witchcraft I have
us'd."

Othello, i. 3 (1623).

"For witchcraft, by the former
law it was not death ; . . . but
now by an act of his Majesty's
times, charms and sorceries in
certain cases of procuring unlaw-
ful love or bodily hurt, and some
others, are made felony the sec-
ond offence." — Speech in Court
(1611).

462
FALSE WEIGHTS AND MEASURES
" Sly. Bring our lady hither to " There have been many addi-

our sight ; tions of power and authority given

PARALLELISMS 243

And, once again, a pot o' the small- to the stewards of Leets and Law-
est ale. days to be put in use in their courts.

Servant. Yet would you say ye They may punish . . . trades-
were beaten out of door, men of all sorts, selling at under

And rail upon the hostess of the weight or measure." — Use of the
house, Law (date uncertain).

And say you would present her at
the leet,

Because she brought stone jugs and
no seal'd quarts."
Taming of the Shrew, Induction,
2 (162.3).

Bacon's interest in the subject of weights and measures
was very great, for in 1601 he introduced a bill against
abuses in the use of them into the House of Commons,
and in the course of his speech, advocating it, he said:

" I '11 tell you, Mr. Speaker, I '11 speak out of mine own experi-
ence that I have learned and observed, having had causes of this
nature referred to my report, that this fault of using false weights
and measures is grown so intolerable and common that, if you
would build churches, you shall not need for battlements and
bells other things than false weights of lead and brass."

Bacon's bill appears to have been temporarily " thrown
out ; " but, according to Chief Justice Campbell, a law was
subsequently enacted that " ale should be sold only in sealed
vessels of the standard capacity," and not in stone jugs.
Bacon appears finally to have been successful, as we learn
also from the play.

463

LAND INHERfTANCE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"King. Your brother is legiti- " If the son marry himself to a

mate; woman defamed, so that she bring

Your father's wife did after wed- bastard slips and false progeny

lock bear him ; into the family, yet the issue of

And if she did play false, the fraud this woman shall inherit the

was hers. land." — Use of the Law.

244

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

My mother's son did get your

father's heir;
Your father's heir must have your

father's land."

King John, i. 1 (1G23).

" Tliis is the true doctrine, Pater est quern 7iupticB demonstrant.
It was likewise properly ruled [in ' King John '] that the father's
Avill, in favor of his son Robert, had no power to dispossess the
rightful heir." — Chief Justice Campbell.

464
A FOOL AMONG FOOLS

From Shake-speai-e

" Hamlet. Why was he sent into
England ?

Clown. Why 1 Because he was
mad; he shall recover his wits
there ; or, if he do not, 't is no great
matter there.

Hamlet. Why?

Clown. 'T will not be seen in
him there. There the men are as
mad as he." — Hamlet, v. 1 (1603).

" A strange fish ! Were I in
England now (as once I was), and
liad but this fish painted, not a
holiday fool there but would give
a piece of silver ; there would this
monster make a man ; any strange
beast there makes a man." — The
Tempest, ii. 2 (1623).

From Bacon

" It was both pleasantly and
wisely said (though I think very
untruly) by a nuncio of the Pope,
returning from a certain nation
where he served as lieger ; whose
opinion being asked touching the
appointment of one to go in his
place, he wished that in any case
they did not send one that was too
wise; because no very wise man
would ever imagine what they in
that country were like to do." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

" To few doubtless would he
seem mad therein, because the
majority of men are mad."

Promus (1594-90).

465

SELF-INFLICTED EVILS

" Those wounds heal ill that men
do give themselves."
Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3 (1609).

" The evil that a man brings on
himself by his own fault is greater;
that which is brought on him from
without is less. . . . Where the evil
is derived from a man's own fault,
there all strikes deadly inwards."
— Colors of Good and Evil (1597).

PARALLELISMS

245

466
PURVETORSHIP GRIEVANCES

From Bacon
" There is no grievance in your
kingdom so general, so continual,
so sensible, and so bitter unto the
common subject, as this whereof
we now speak." — Speech on Pur-
veyors (1604).

From Shakespeare
" Queen Katharine. Nay, we must
kneel longer ; I am a suitor.

I am solicited, not by a few.
And those of true condition, that

your subjects
Are in great grievance ; there have

been commissions
Sent down among 'em, which hath

flaw'd the heart
Of all their loyalties ; wherein, al-
though,
My good lord cardinal, they vent

reproaches
Most bitterly on you, as putter- on
Of these exactions, yet the king,

our master.
Whose honor heaven shield from

soil ! even he escapes not
Language unmannerly; yea, such

which breaks
The sides of loyalty, and almost

appears
In loud rebellion."

Henry VIII., i. 2 (1623).

In 1604, the House of Commons petitioned the king to
abate certain evils growing out of the royal purveyorship ;
that is, out of proceedings established by law for taking
merchandise of various kinds from subjects for the use of
the king's household. The petition was presented by a com-
mittee of which Bacon was spokesman.

In the play of ' Henry VIII.,' a petition of the same kind,
and made for the same purpose, was presented to the king
by Queen Katharine. Her speech, as given by the dramatist
and that of Bacon, are so similar in scope and diction, that,
as the late Judge Holmes (to whose work on the ' Author-

246 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

ship of Shakespeare ' we are indebted for this interesting
parallelism) said, the two must have "proceeded from the
same pen."

The following are some of the points of resemblance :

1. The exactions are made in the king's name, affecting
the king's honor.

" Queen. Although,

My good lord cardinal, they vent reproaches

Most bitterly on you, as putter-on

Of these exactions, yet the king, our master.

Whose honor heaven shield from soil, even he escapes not

Language unmannerly." Shake-speare.

" All these great misdemeanors are committed in and under your
Majesty's name. And therefore we hope your Majesty will hold them
twice guilty, — once for oppressing of the poor, and once more for doing
it under color and abuse of your Majesty's dreaded and beloved name."
— Bacon.

2. The exactions are very great and oppressive.

" These exactions,
Whereof my sovereign would have note, they are
Most pestilent to the hearing ; and to bear 'em
The back is sacriticed to the load."

Shake-speare.

"Your Majesty doth not hear our opinions or senses, but the very
groans and complaints themselves of your Commons, more truly and
vively than by representation. For there is no grievance in your king-
dom so general, so continual, so sensible and so bitter unto the common
subject, as this whereof we now speak." — Bacon.

3. The exactions were made under commissions, against
the law.

" Queen. The subjects' grief

Comes through commissions."

King {to the Cardinal]. Have you a precedent
Of this commission 1 I believe, not any.
We must not rend our subjects from our laws.
And stick them in our will."

Shake-speare.

PARALLELISMS i^'j

" They take in an unlawful manner, in a manner (I say) directly and
expressly prohibited by divers laws." — Bacon.

4. The exactions bear heavily upon dealers in wool and

woollen goods.

" Norfolk. The clothiers all, not able to maintain

The many to them 'longing, have put off
The spinsters, carders, fullers, weavers."

Shake-speare.

"I do set apart these commodities, wool, wool-fels, and leather."
— Bacon.

5. Another special grievance is the taking of trees.

" We take
From every tree, lop, bark, and part o' th' timber ;
And, though we leave it with a root, thus hack'd,
The air will drink the sap." Shake-speare.

" They take trees, which by law they cannot do ; timber trees,
which are the beauty, countenance, and shelter of men's houses.
. . . They put the axe to the root of the tree, ere ever the master
can stop it." — Bacon.

Bacon's speech was delivered, as we have said, in 1604, the
very year in which the reputed poet retired from London and
took up his permanent abode in Stratford. ^ It was not
printed till 1657, or forty-one years after the latter's death.

467

PORTRAYING ANOTHER, AS IN A GLASS
From Shake-speare From Bacon

" You go not till I set you up a glass " That which I have propounded
Where you may see the inmost to myself is, . . . to show you
part of you." your true shape in a glass." — Let-

Hamlet, iii. 4 (1604). ter to Sir Edward Coke.

^ Mr. Staunton, in his ' Life of Shakspere ' (excellent Shakespearean author-
ity), says that the reputed poet retired to Stratford in the spring of 1G04. It
is hardly possible, however, that, even if in London at the time, he could have
knovv-n the contents of a speech of which there was no contemimrary public
record, and which was delivered before the court and iu the presence of a com-
mittee of tlie House of Commons only.

248

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

A LOAN

From Bacon
" It must be renienibered that
the least part of knowledge, passed
to man by tins so large a charter
from God, must be subject to that
use for which God hath granted it ;
which is the benefit and relief of
the state and society of man." —
Valerius Terminus (c. 1603).

468
nature's benefits
From Shakespeare
" Nature never lends
The smallest scruple of her excel

lence;
But, like a thrifty goddess, she de

termines
Herself the glory of a creditor —
Both thanks and use."

JMeasure for Measure, i. 1 (1623).
" Nature's bequest gives nothing,

but doth lend;
And being frank, she lends to those

are free.
Then, beauteous niggard, why dost

thou abuse
The bounteous largess given thee
to give ? "

Sonnet 4 (1609).

469

KULES OF LITERAKY ART, PROGRESSIVE

" We would not lay down, after
the manner now received (more re-
cepto) among men, any rigid rules
of our own, as though they were
unique and inviolable for the prep-
aration of these works. We would
not so cramp and confine the in-
dustry and felicity of mankind.
Indeed, we know of nothing to
hinder others who have more lei-
sure than we have and who are
freed from the special difficulties
that always attend a first experi-
ment, from carrying our method
to higher perfection. True art is
progressive." — Scala Iniellectus
(date unknown).

As will be shown hereafter, the Scala Intcllectus is a
preface to the fourth part of Bacon's pliilosophical system,

" Impute it not a crime

To me, or my swift passage, that I
slide

O'er sixteen years, and leave the
growth untri'd

Of that wide gap; since it is in my
power

To overthrow law, in one self-born
hour

To plant and o'erwhelm custom.
Let me pass

The same I am, ere ancient'st or-
der was,

Or what is now received."
Winter's Tale, iv. Chorus (1623).

PARALLELISMS

249

being the sole fragment of this fourth part that has come
down to us among his acknowledged works. It briefly de-
scribes the character of the art employed in the missing part,
informing us that the rules applied to it were contrary to
prevaihng usage. The Chorus in the ' Winter's Tale ' ex-
plains, as the late Judge Holmes pointed out, what this
deviation was ; namely, an abandonment of the Greek rules
of dramatization, for which this play is noted.

470

GROSS AND PALPABLE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"This palpable gross play hath
well Leguil'd

The heavy gait of night."

A Midsummcr-Nlght''s Dream,
V. 1 (1600).

" These lies are like the father
that begets them ;

Gross as a mountain, open, pal-
pable."

1 Henry IV., ii. 4 (1598).

" Which moveth me to give the
reader a taste of their untruths,
especially such as are wittily con-
trived, and are not merely gross
and palpable." — Observations on
a Libel (1592-3).

" The second is a slander and
falsification and averting of the law
of the land, gross and palpable."

— Charge against Oliver St. John,
(1615).

" This [was] done with an oath
or vow of secrecy which is like the
Egyptian darkness, a gross and pal-
pable darkness that may be felt."

— Charge against the Countess of
Somerset (161G).

The expression, " gross and palpable," is, as Dr. Kobert M.
Theobald informs us, "one of Bacon's inventions."

471

TRUTH, A SOVEREIGN
'' Tliou seem'st a palace "Truth, . . . the sovereign

For the crown'd truth to dwell in." good of human nature." — Essay
Pericles, v. 1 (1609). of Truth (1625).

250 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

47-2
MEN BUSIEST WHEN ALONE
From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Men most are busied when " His Majesty is never less alone

they 're most alone." than when he is alone." — Letter

Romeo and Juliet^ i. 1 (1597). to Villiers (1G16).

473

WHOLESOME AND SWEET AIR FOR HOMES

" He that builds a fair house upon
an ill seat comniitteth hinisell' to
prison. Neither do I reckon it an
ill seat only where the air is un-
wholesome, but likewise where
the air is unequal." — Essay of
Building (1625).

474

PRINCES SHOULD BE CAREFUL OF SPEECH

" This castle hath a pleasant seat,

the air
Nimbly and sweetly recommends

itself
Unto our gentle senses."

Macbeth, i. 6 (1623).

" Exton. Didst thou not mark the

king, what words he spake,
* Have I no friend will rid me of

this living fear ? '
Was it not so ?
Servant. Those were his very

words.
Exton. ' Have I no friend ? ' quoth

he; he spake it twice."

Richard II., v. 4 (1597).

" Surely, princes had need in
tender matters and ticklish times
to beware what they say ; especially
in these short speeches which fly
abroad like darts and are thought
to be shot out of their secret
intentions." — Essay of Seditions
and Troubles (1625).

475
EVIL REPORTS, LIKE POISONED STEEL DARTS

" I go to meet

The noble Brutus, thrusting this
report

Into his ears ; I may say, thrusting
it,

For piercing steel and darts en-
venomed

Shall be as welcome to the ears of
Brutus

As tidings of this sight."

Julius CcBsar, v. 3 (1623).

" A seditious slander, like to
that the poet speaketh of, a ven-
omous dart that hath both iron and
poison." — Charge against St. John
(1615).

PARALLELISMS 1 5 1

Both authors describe an evil report, thrust into the ears,
as a steel or iron dart, envenomed.

476

INSTRUCTION IN SCHOOLS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Small have coutinual plodders " Alas ! they learn nothing there

ever won, [in the universities of Europe]

Save base authority from others' but to believe." — In Praise of

books." Knowledge (1592).

Love's Labor ''s Lost, i. 1 (1598). "In the schools men learn to

believe." — Promus (1594-96).

477

WISDOM AND HER CHILDREN

*' Every wise man's son doth " Wisdom is justified in all
know." her children." — Advancement of

Twelfth Night, ii. 3 (1623). Learning (1603-5).

478

TALES DELIGHTING YOUNG AND OLD

" Aged ears play truant at his tales, " A tale that holdeth children

And younger hearings are quite from play, and old men from the

ravish'd." chimney corner."
Love's Labor's Lost, ii. 1 (1598).

479
EXCESSIVE GOODNESS

" Undone by goodness ; " The Italians have an ungra-

Man's worst sin is, he does too cious proverb, — so good that he

much good." is good for nothing." — Essay of

Timon of Athens, iv. 2 (1609). Goodness (1607-12).

480
ADONIs' GARDENS

" Thy promises are like Adonis' " The gardens of love, wherein

gardens, he now playeth himself, are fresh

That one day bloom 'd and fruitful to-day and fading to-morrow ; but

were the next." the gardens of the Muses keep the

1 Henry VL, i. 6 (1623). privilege of the golden age; they

ever flourish and are in league with

time." — Device for Essex (1595).

252 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

As elsewhere explained, the gardens of Adonis, known to
the ancients, were of two kinds : the one, consisting of plants
in earthen pots, that soon faded ; these in the popular view
were emblematic of things showy and without substance.
Bacon describes them in the ' Essex Device ' and in the
' Promus.' The other is a creation of the poets, in which
trees and shrubs hasten, not to decay, but to bloom and
fruitage. Thus, in an important sense, the two were com-
plementary, one to the other, knowledge of one implying
knowledge of both.

481

BEKMOOTHES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Thou call'dst me up at mid- "The Spaniards dislike thin

night to fetch dew letters and change them imme-

From the still-vex'd Bermoothes." diately into those of a middle tone."

The Tempest, i. 2 (1623). -De Augmends (1622).

The scene of the ' Tempest ' was laid on one of the islands
of the Bermudas, but Shake-speare gave to the name its
Spanish pronunciation, according to the rule laid down by
Bacon, the letter d being flattened into the median inter-
vocal z (English tli), Bermoothes.

482
METEMPSYCHOSIS

" Thou almost mak'st me waver in " This has bred opinions super-

my faith, stitious and corrupt and most in-

To hold opinion with Pythagoras, jurious to the dignity of the human

That souls of animals infuse them- mind, touching metempsychosis,

selves and the purification of souls in

Into the trunks of men ; thy cur- periods of years, and indeed too

rish spirit near an affinity in all things be-

Govern'd a wolf, who, hang'd for tween the human soul and the

human slaughter, soul of brutes." — De Augmentis

Even from the gallows did his fell (1622).

soul fleet,
And whilst thou lay'st in thy un-

hallow'd dam,

PARALLELISMS

'^53

Infus'd itself in thee ; for thy de-
sires

Are wolfish, bloody, starv'd and
ravenous."
Merchant of Venice, iv. 1 (1600).

483

DEPOPTILATIOX

From Shakespeare
" Sicinius. What is the city but

the people ?
Citizens. True,

The people are the city.

Sicinius. Where is this viper

That would depopulate the city ?

For we are peremptory to dispatch
This viperous traitor."

Coriolanus, iii. 1 (1623).

OF TOWNS

From Bacon
" I should be sorry to see within
this kingdom that piece of Ovid's
verse prove true, 'Now there are
crops where Troy was ; ' so in
England, instead of a whole town
full of people, none but green
fields, only a shepherd and a dog.
. . . A sharp and vigorous law
had need to be made against these
viperous natures." — Speech in Par-
liament (1597).

On this subject Bacon took very strong ground He in-
troduced a bill in favor of towns into the House of Com-
mons ; and though the Peers were against him — the Earl of
Essex even coming to London expressly to join the opposi-
tion— he carried it through triumphantly. The result was
one of the greatest victories of his parliamentary career.

484
VAIN SPECULATIONS

" Thus the native hue of resolution
Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast of

thought ;
And enterprises of great pith and

moment,
With this regard, their currents

turn awry.
And lose the name of action."

Hamlet, iii. 1 (1604).

" The same unprofitable sub-
tility or curiosity is of two sorts ;
either in the subject itself that
they handle, when it is a fruitless
speculation or controversy, or in
the method of handling, . . . that
rests not so much upon evidence
of truth as upon particular con-
futations and solutions of every
scruple, cavillation and objection;
breeding for the most part one
question as fast as it solveth an-

254 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

other; . . . so as it is not possible
but this quality of knowledge must
fall under popular contempt . . .
when people see such digladiation
about subtilities and matter of no
use or moment." — Advancement
of Learning (1603-5).

Bacon gives us here an exact description of Hamlet's great
soliloquy on Suicide and Doubt. He is discussing the dis-
tempers of learning, which he finds to be three in number :
" the first, fantastical learning ; the second, contentious learn-
ing ; and the last, delicate learning," — summing them up
respectively as "vain imaginations, vain altercations and
vain affectations." Under the second head he places " vain
matter," which he declares to be " worse than vain words ; "
matter, like certain substances in nature, that " putrefies and
corrupts into worms ; " that is, " into subtile, idle, unwhole-
some and, as it were, vermiculate questions, which have
indeed a kind of quickness and life of spirit, but no sound-
ness of matter or goodness of quality."

Colonel Moore, to whom we owe this interesting and in-
structive parallelism, says :

"Hamlet's question dissolved itself in this manner: one spring-
ing up after another before he could get the first one answered.
To be or not to be 1 is death a sleep 1 is the sleep of death dis-
turbed by dreams 1 and so on, — all unwholesome questions, ' with-
out soundness of matter, or goodness of quality.' "

The result of indulgence in such speculations is, according
to the dramatist, that one loses power of action ; according
to Bacon, that one becomes subject to popular contempt.

485

WORKING OTHERS FOR SELFISH ENDS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Hamlet. Why do you go about " The honest and just bounds of

to recover the wind of me, as if observation by one person upon an-
vou would drive me into a toil 1 other extend no farther than to un-

PARALLELISMS

^SS

Guildenstern. 0 ! my lord, if
my duty be too bold, my love is
too unmannerly.

Hamlet. I do not well under-
stand that. Will you play upon
this pipe ?

Why, look you now, bow un-
worthy a thing you make of me.
You would play upon me; you
would seem to know my stops ;
j'ou would pluck out the heart of
my mystery ; you would sound me
from the lowest note to the top of
my compass. 'S blood ! do you
think I am easier to be play'd on

derstand him suflliciently, whereby
not to give him offence, or where-
by to be able to give him faithful
counsel, or whereby to stand upon
reasonable guard and caution in
respect of a man's self ; but to be
speculative into another man, to
the end to know how to work him,
or wind him, or govern him, pro-
ceedeth from a heart that is double
and cloven." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

than a
(1603).

pipe 1 " — Hamlet, iii. 2

The colloquy between Hamlet and Guildenstern gives us
the best conceivable illustration of the precept laid down by
Bacon ; namely, that while it is right and proper for us to
investigate the character of those with whom we deal to the
extent of knowing how to help them and how to protect our
own interests, we are not justified in going any farther and
acquiring secret confidences to any selfish or injurious end.
Guildenstern, who was one of Hamlet's old friends, had been
summoned by the king to Elsinore for this very purpose, —
" to work him, or wind him, or govern him," — and thus to
compass Hamlet's death. In doing so, he had, of course, a
" double or cloven heart." For this parallelism, also, we are
indebted to Colonel Moore.

486

TEDIUM OF LIFE
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Life is as tedious as a twice-told " Only think how often you do
tale." the same thing over and over.

King John,\n. 4 (1623). Food, sleep, play, come round in a

2^6

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

p(!ipetuul circle ; one might wish to
die, not only from fortitude, or
misery or wisdom, but merely from
disgust and weariness of life." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

487
BOOK ON DUELLING

From Bacon
" Item, no knight of this order
shall, in point of honor, resort to
any grammar rules out of the
books De Duello; but shall out of
his own brave mind and natural
courage deliver himself from
scorns."

Gesla Grayorum (1594).

From Shakespeare
" 0 sir, we quarrel in point, by
the book. . . . You may avoid
that, too (lie direct) with an ' if.'
I knew when seven justices could
not take up a quarrel ; but when
the parties were met themselves,
one of them thought but of an ' if,'
as, 'If you said so, then I said so ; '
and they shook hands, and swore
brothers. Your ' if is the only
peacemaker ; — much virtue in

'if.'"

As You Like It, v. 4 (1623).

It is practically certain that the book to which the author
of 'As You Like It' alludes is one written by A^incentio
Saviolo and published in 1594 ; for a paragraph from one of
its chapters is transferred almost bodily into the play, as
given above. The paragraph is as follows :

" Conditional lies he such as are given conditionally, as if a man
should say or write these words : if tbou hast said that I have
offered my lord abuse, thou liest ; or if thou sayest so hereafter,
thou shalt lie. Of these kinds of lies, given in this manner, often
arise much contention in words."

It is also practically certain that Bacon, who was the chief
contriver of the Eevels at Gray's Inn in 1594, refers to the
same book, and in the same spirit of ridicule, in the " orders
of the court;" for he mentions it by its chief title, De
Duello. And the book was published in the same year.

PARALLELISMS

2S7

488

FINE AND

From Shakespeare
" Dromio S. There's no time for

a man to recover his hair that grows

bald by nature.

Ant. S. May he not do it by

fine and recovery?

Dromio S. Yes, to pay a fine for

a periwig, and recover the lost hair

of another man."

Comedy of Errors, ii. 2 (1623).

RECOVERY

From Bacon
" A fine is a real agreement . . .
that one man shall have [land]
from another to him and his heirs,
or to him for his life, or to him
and the heirs or heirs male of his
body, or for years certain. It is a
record of great credit. . . . Re-
covery is where, for assurance of
lands, the parties do agree that one
shall begin an action real against
the other, as though he had good
right to the land, . . . and at the
day appointed he maketh default ;
and thereupon the court is to give
judgTnent against him. . . . By
this device, grounded upon strict
principles of law, the first tenant
loseth the land and hath nothing;
but it is by his own agreement, for
assurance to him that bought it."
— The Use of the Law (date un-
certain).

The legal procedure involved in a case of fine and recovery
is so abstruse that Blackstone, in entering upon the subject
in his Commentaries, says: "I am greatly apprehensive that
its form and method will not be easily understood by the
student who is not yet acquainted with the course of judicial
proceedings." But we find the author of the ' Comedy of
Errors ' so familiar with the law that he actually revels in
puns upon it. The explanation is simple. The play was
first produced before the judges and lawyers of Gray's Inn,
on a festive occasion when Francis Bacon was master of cere-
monies, and so clearly the leading spirit that the entire pro-
ceedings finally centred upon him as the " conjurer."

William Shakspere, the reputed dramatist, not only took

258

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

no part in the presentation of tlie play, but he was not even
present. He was at Greenwich, with the company of players
to which he was attached.

489

QUEEN ELIZABETH AND LOVE

From Bacon
" Your Majesty shall first see
your own invaluable value, and
thereby discern that the favors you
vouchsafe are pure gifts and no ex-
changes. And if any be so happy
as to have his affection accepted,
yet your prerogative is such as
they stand bound, and your Ma-
jesty is free." — Device of the In-
dian Prince (1595).

From Shakespeare
** Cupid all arm'd ; a certain aim

he took
At a fair vestal thron'd by the west ;
And loos'd his love shaft smartly

from his bow,
As it should pierce a hundred

thousand hearts ;
But I might see young Cupid's fiery

shaft
Quench'd in the chaste beams of

the wat'ry moon,
And the imperial vot'ress passed

on,
In maiden meditation fancy-free."
A Midsummer-Night^ s Dream,
ii. 1 (1600).

Both authors assert that Queen Elizabeth was capable of
inspiring the passion of love in others while she herself was
always free from it, — Shake-speare in ' Midsummer-Night's
Dream,' written in or about 1595-6, and Bacon in his 'De-
vice of an Indian Prince,' a masque performed before the
Queen in 1595.

490

WITCHES
'■'First Witch. Round about the

cauldron go ;
In the poison'd entrails throw."
Macbeth iv. 1 (1623).

CAULDRON

" There be many things that
work upon the spirits of men by
secret sympathy and antipathy."
— Natural History (1622-25).

In the incantation scene in ' Macbeth ' the witches throw
into the cauldron certain ingredients that were deemed to
possess occult properties, and cause spirits or apparitions

PARALLELISMS isg

to appear at call. Bacon also in his Natural History
enumerates many objects that possess the same secret prop-
erties, some of them being identical with those used for the
same purpose by the witches. The following are examples
from each :

From Shakespeare From Bacon

Brinded cat hath meVd. Tail or leg of a cat.

Hedge-pig whin'd. Hedge-hog.

Fillet of a fenny snake. Spoil of a snake.

Tongue of dog. Head of a dog.

Toad, under coldest stone. Toad [that] loveth shade and cool-
ness.

Swelter'd venom. Venom drawn from the spirits.

Witches' mummy. Mummy.

Root of hemlock. Hemlock.

Baboon's blood. Heart of an ape.

Tooth of wolf. Skin of a wolf.

Maw of the salt-sea shark. Rings of sea-horse teeth.

The two lists agree in another important particular : each
consists, generally speaking, of portions only of the animals
mentioned. This is explained by Bacon:

" The writers of natural magic do attribute much to the virtues
that come from the parts of living creatures ; so as they be taken
from them, the creatures remaining still alive ; as if the creature,
still living, did infuse some immateriate virtue or vigor into the
part severed."

Incantations, of the kind we find described in Bacon and
acted in Shake-speare, abound in ancient authors, as in
^schylus. Homer, Ovid, Lucan, Seneca, and Virgil. Preb-
endary Upton says :

"There is such a cast of antiquity, and something so horridly
solemn in this infernal ceremony of the witches [in 'Macbeth'], tliat
I never consider it without admiring our poet's improvement of
every hint he receives from the ancients or moderns." — Critical
Observations, p. 36.

26o BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

491
TO DIVIDE AND DEFINE

From Shakespeare

" Sir, his definement suffers no
perdition in you ; though, I know,
to divide him inveutorily would
dizzy the arithmetic of memory."
— Hamlet, v. 2 (1604).

From Bacon

" Plato casteth his burden and
saith, that he will revere him as a
God who can truly divide and
define." — Interpretation of Nature
(c. 1603).

492
MARRIAGE OF MIND AND PHYSICAL NATURE

" Speculation turns not to itself,
Till it hath travell'd, and is married

there
Where it may see itself."
Troilusand Cressida, iii. 3 (1623).

" I have established forever a
true and lawful marriage between
the empirical and the rational
faculties, the unkind and ill-starv'd
divorce and separation of which
has thrown into confusion all the
affairs of the human family.

" The true relation between the
nature of things and the nature of
the mind is as the strewing and
decoration of the bridal chamber
of the Mind and the Universe." —
Preface to Novum Organum (1620).

In tlie above passage from ' Troilus and Cressida,' Mr.
Richard Grant White, following some others, substitutes the
word mirror' d for "married," and says that "the emendation
needs no defence ; " but the late Judge Holmes, having the
advantage of a correct point of view, defended the original
text as entirely consistent with the profound metaphysical
meaning of Bacon's marriage of the mind to external nature.
This becomes evident when we consider what follows in the
play:

" No man is lord of anything,

Though in and of him there be much consisting,

Till he communicate his parts to others."

PARALLELISMS i6i

493
DEVOURING TIME

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Ulysses. Time hath, my lord, a " Solomon giveth this sentence :

■svallet at his back. That all novelty is but oblivion.

Wherein he puts alms for oblivion ; AVhereby you may see that the
A great siz'd monster of ingrati- river of Lethe runneth as well

tudes, above-ground as below. . . Certain

Whose scraps are good deeds, past ; it is that matter is in a perpetual

which are devoui-'d flux, and never at a stay." — Essay

As fast as they are made, forgot as of Vicissitude (1625).

soon
As done."
Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3 (1623).

Bacon regarded all nature as in a " perpetual flux," in
accordance with the classical derivation of the word natura,
meaning the about-to-be. The present, he says in. effect, is
continually rushing into the past and into forgetfulness.
Shake-speare expresses this thought in three different ways :
first, in the passage quoted above, where Time is represented
as an ungrateful monster, devouring all deeds as they come
to him ; secondly, in the following lines, —

" . . . to have done is to hang
Quite out of fashion, like a rusty nail
In monumental mockery," —

showing that deeds past are not only obliterated, but also
useless ; thirdly, to illustrate how soon even good deeds are
forgotten, —

" Time is like a fashionable host
That slightly shakes his parting guest by the hand,
And with his arms outstretch'd, as he would fly,
Grasps in the comer."

Judge Holmes comments eloquently :

" This marriage of mind to the universe, this deep river of Letho,
running as well above ground as below, this perpetual flux of
remembrance and oblivion, in which all that appears is like the

262 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

foam on tho roaring waterfall, every instant born, and every instant
dead, living only in the flow, — tlieso subtle riddles running under-
neath the two writings, — will marry to nothing but the truth of
JWiture, or to the prose and verse of Francis Bacon." — Authorship
of iS/uiJce-sjjeare, 464.

494

WRONG IN HIGH PLACES
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Thieves for their robbery have " When the judgment-seat takes

authority, the part of injustice, there succeeds

When judges steal themselves." a state of general robbery." — De

Measure for Meas%ire,\\. 2 (\G2Z). Augmentls (1622).

495
moon's influence on vegetation

" As true as . . . plantage to the " The opinion received is that

moon.'"' seeds will grow soonest ... in

Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2 (1623). the increase of the moon." — Nat-
ural History (1622-25).

" We see that in planting and
sowing and grafting, observation
of the age of the moon is a thing
not altogether frivolous." — De
Augmentis (1622).

496
PREMATURE OLD AGE

" That time of year thou mayst in " I wax now somewhat ancient ;

me behold one and thirty years is a great deal

When yellow leaves, or none, or of sand in the hour glass." — Letter

few, do hang to Burghley (1592).
Upon those boughs which shake " Her Majesty's being begun in

against the cold, my first years, I would be sorry she

Bare ruin'd choirs, where late the should estrange in my last years, —

sweet birds sang. for so I account them, reckoning

In me thou see'st the twilight of by health, not by age." — Letter to

such day Cecil (1599).
As after sunset fadeth in the west,
Which by and by black night doth

take away,

PARALLELISMS 263

Death's second self, that seals up

all the rest.
In me thoix see'st the glowing of

such fire
That on the ashes of his youth

doth lie,
As the death-bed whereon it must

expire,
Cousum'd with that which it was
nourish'd by.
This thou perceivest, which
makes thy love more strong,
To love that well which thou
must leave ere long."

Somiet 73 (1609).
" My glass shows me myself in-
deed,
Seated and chopp'd Avith tann'd
antiquity." Ibid., 62.

" Vainly thinking that she thinks
me young,
Although she knows my days are
past the best." Ibid., 138.

The sonnets, confessing to the writer's premature old age,
were written several years before they were published, at or
about the time when Bacon's letters, above quoted from, were
also written.

497

FLOWERS OF NARCISSUS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" O Proserpina ! " Proserpina, daughter of Ceres,

For the flowers now, that, frighted, a fair virgin, was gathering flowers

thou lett'st fall of Narcissus in the Sicilian mead-

From Dis' wagon ! " ows, when Pluto rushed suddenly

The Winter's Tale, iv. 3 (1623). upon her and carried her off in his

chariot to the subterranean re-
gions. Great reverence was paid
her there, so much that she w.as
even called the Queen of Dis." —
De Sapientia Veierum (1609).

264

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Bacon, following the myth, says that Proserpina was carried
ofif in a chariot and became Queen of Dis. Shake-speare adds
tlie pretty conceit that among the flowers which Perdita
delivers to her friends in the play are some that Proserpina
in her fright dropped from Dis' chariot at the time of her
capture.

498

GREATER KNOWLEDGE,

From Shake-speare
" lago. Trilles, light .'is air,

Are to the jealous confirmations

strong
As proofs of holy writ.

Othello. I swear, 't is better to be

much abus'd
Than but to know a little."

Othello, iii. 3 (1622).

TUE CURE OF SUSPICION
From Bacon
" There is nothing makes a man
suspect much, more than to know
little ; and therefore men should
remedy suspicion by proceeding to
know more." — Essay of Suspicion
(1625).

499
GREAT DEEDS DONE BY WEAK MEN

" He that of greatest works is fin-
isher

Oft does them by the weakest min-
ister."

All's Well, ii. 1 (1623).

" It is the workmanship of God
alone to hang the greatest weights
upon the smallest wires." — Resus-
citatio (posthumous).

500
WORLD FORMED FROM ATOMS OF SEEDS

" There is a history in all men's

lives,
Figuring the nature of the times

deceas'd.
The which observ'd, a man may

prophesy,
"With a near aim, of the main

chance of things,
As yet not come to life, which in

their seeds
And weak beginnings, lie intreas-

ur'd;

" When Democritus had set
down matter, or seeds, as infinite
in quantity and finite in attributes
and power, he was driven by the
very force of this opinion to con-
stitute multiform worlds." — De-
scriptio Globi Intellectualis (1612).

" The natural motion of the
atom is the original and unique
force that constitutes and fashions
all things out of matter." — De
Sapientia Ve'erum (1609).

PARALLELISMS 26s

Such tMngs become the hatch and " In the first beginnings of

brood of time." things, these seeds must neces-

2 King Henry IV., iii. 1 (1600). sarily have a dark and hidden

nature, lest something should rise
up to resist and oppose them." —
De Principiis atque Originibus.

Both authors in early life held to the doctrine of atoms, —
a system which, on the assumption that atoms are endowed
with gravity and motion, accounts for the origin of all other
things. The one says that these seeds lay " intreasured " in
the beginning, and became the " hatch and brood of time ; "
the other, that they are of a " dark and hidden nature," and
out of them the " worlds were constituted and fashioned."

The Be Principiis atcpie Originibus, from which we have
quoted, is one of Bacon's earliest philosophical tracts, its
exact date unknown.

501

COUNTENANCE BEFLECTING MIND

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" What are these faces ? " " With regard to the counte-

Macbeth, iv. 2, 79 (1623). nance, be not influenced by the old

" [Enter a servant, adage, ' Trust not to a man's face ; '

Macbeth. The devil damn thee for, though this may not be wrongly

black, thou cream-fac'd loon! said of the general outward carriage

Where gott'st thou that goose- of the face and action, yet there

look ? are some more subtle motions and

Servant. There is ten thousand — labors of the eyes, mouth, counte-

Macheth. Geese, villain? nance and gesture by which (as Q.

Servant. Soldiers, sir. Cicero elegantly expresses it) the

Macbeth. Go, prick thy face, over- door of the mind is unlocked and

red thy fear, opened." — De Augmentis {\Q2'i).
Thou lily-liver'd boy. What

soldiers, patch ?
Death of thy soul 1 those linen

cheeks of thine
Are counsellors to fear. What

soldiers, whey-face ?

266 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Servant. The Englisli force, so

please you.
Macbeth. Take thy face hence."
Ibid., V. 3.

The play of ' Macbeth ' is crowded with proofs, as shown
by Mr. Ruggles in his 'Method of Shakespeare as an
Artist ' (1870), that the dramatist had made (as we have
already said) a painstaking study of physiognomy. It was
on the sudden entrance of the murderers into the presence
of Lady Macduff that she asks in terror, " What are these
faces ? " So Macbeth himself, when the approach of the
English forces is announced to him, dwells on the signs of
fear in the face of the messenger.

The results of Bacon's study of this subject were given
to the world in the first edition of ' The Advancement of
Learning,' in 1605, simultaneously with the production of
' Macbeth.' Our quotation above is taken from its second
edition (in which the subject is still more elaborately
discussed), contemporaneous with the first publication of the
play.

502
MAKE HASTE SLOWLY
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Romeo. 0 ! let us hence ; I stand " I knew a wise man had it for a

on sudden haste. bye-word when he saw men hasten

Friar. Wisely and slow ; they to a conclusion ; stay a little that

stumble that run fast." we may make an end the sooner." —

Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3 (1599). Essay of Dispatch (1607-12).

503
DOUBT

" Modest doubt is call'd " Doubts have a double use ;

The beacon of the wise, the tent first, they guard philosophy against

that searches errors ; secondly, they are so many

To the bottom of the worst." sponges which attract and imbibe

Troilus and Cressida, ii. 2 (1609). whatever stimulates the growth of

knowledge." — The Advancement
of Learning (1605).

PARALLELISMS

267

504

MOUNTEBANKS

From Shakespeare
" I bought an miction of a mounte-
bank
So mortal, that but dip a knife in

it,
Where it drops blood, no cataplasm

so rare,
Collected from all simples that

have virtue
Under the moon, can save the

thing from death.
That is but scratch'd withal."

Hamlet, iv. 7 (1604).
" Corrupted
By spells and medicines bought of
mountebanks."

Othello, i. 3 (1622).

From Bacon
" Such is the weakness and cre-
dulity of men that they will often
prefer a witch or mountebank to a
learned physician." — Advancement
of Learning (1603-5).

505

JEALOUSY

" Pardon me, wife. Henceforth, do

what thou wilt,
I rather will suspect the sun with

cold
Than thee with wantonness ; now

doth thy honor stand,
In him that was of late an heretic,
As firm as faith."
The Merry Wives of Windsor, iv.
4 (1623).

*' The Italian says : Sospetto li-
centia fede ; as if suspicion did
give a passport to faith." — Essay
of Suspicion (1625).

In the quarto editions of ' The Merry Wives of Windsor '
of 1602 and 1619 (the latter published three years after the
death of WiUiam Shakspere of Stratford) the renunciation of
suspicion for the future, declared by Bacon to be under such
circumstances in accordance with human nature, is made in
these words :

268

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

"■Ford. Well, wife, here take my Laud ; upon my soul, I love thee
deiirer than I do my life, and joy I have so true and constant wife. My
jealousy shall never more offend thee."

506
CUSTOM SUBDUING NATURE

From Shakespeare
" Use almost can change the stamp
of nature."

Hamlet, in. 4 (1604).

From Bacon
" His rule holdeth still, that na-
ture, nor the engagement of words,
are not so forcible as custom." —
Essay of Custom and Education,
(1607-12).

"Custom only doth alter and
subdue nature." — Essay of Na-
ture in Man (1607-12).

507
INCENSE ON ALTARS

" Upon such sacrifices, my Cor- " The first grain of incense that

delia, was sacrificed upon the altar of

The gods themselves throw in- peace." — History of Henry VII.

cense." (1621).
King Lear, v. 3 (1608).

508

IMAGINATION AND ACTION

'* Imagination bodies forth the form
of things unknown."
A Midsummer-NighCs Dream, v.
1 (1600).

" Nothing can be done in act
until it first be done in imagina-
tion," — Advancement of Learning
(1G03-5).

509
"WITCHES OPERATE THROUGH INTERMEDIATE AGENTS

"Hie thee hither.
That I may pour my spirits in

thine ear,
And chastise with the valor of my

tongue
All that impedes thee from the

golden round.
Which fate and metaphysical aid

doth seem
To have thee crown'd withal."

Macbeth, i. 5 (1623).

" If a witch by imagination hurt
any one afar ofi", it cannot be done
naturally, but by working upon
the spirit of one that comes to the
witch, and from thence upon the
imagination of another."- — Sylva
Sylvarum (1622-25).

PARALLELISMS

269

The witches took full possession of Lady Macbeth's mind,
but only in the manner described by Bacon, through the in-
termediate agency of her husband, who had interviewed
them.

510

INSOMNIA IN KINGS

From Shakespeare
" How many thousand of my

poorest subjects
Are at this hour asleep ! 0 sleep !

0 gentle sleep !
Nature's soft nurse, how have I

frighted thee.
That thou no more wilt weigh my

eyelids down
And steep my senses in forgetful-

ness ?

O thou dull god! why liest thou

with the vile
In loathsome beds, and leav'st the

kingly couch
A watch-case or a common 'larum

bell?

From Bacon
" It is a miserable state of mind
to have few things to desire, and
many things to fear ; and yet that
commonly is the case of kings ;
who, being at the highest, want
matter of desire, which makes their
minds more languishing ; and have
many representations of perils and
shadows, which makes their minds
the less clear." — Essay of Empire
(1607-12).

Uneasy lies the head that wears
a crown."

3 Henry IV., iii. 1 (1600).

511

WIVES MURDERING

" For God's sake, let us sit upon

the ground
And tell sad stories of the death of

kings;
How some have been depos'd, some

slain in war,
Some haunted by the ghosts they

have depos'd,
Some poison'd by their wives, some

sleeping kill'd.

THEIR HUSBANDS

" Kings have to deal with their
neighbors, 'their wives, their chil-
dren, their prelates or clergy, their
nobles, their second-nobles or
gentlemen, their merchants, their
commons, and their men of war;
and from all these arise dan-

" For their wives : there are cruel
examples of them. Livia is in-

270

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

All murder'd ; for within the

hollow crown
That rounds the mortal temples of

a king
Keeps Death his court."

Richard II., iii. 2 (1597).

famed for the poisoning of her
husband ; Roxalana, Solyman's
wife, was the destruction of that
renowned prince Sultan Mustapha,
and otherwise troubled his house
and succession ; Edward the Second
of England his queen had the
principal hand in the deposing and
murder of her husband. This kind
of danger is then to be feared." —
Essay of Empire (1625).

512
CHILDREN, THE HIGHEST FELICITY
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Thrice blessed they that master

so their blood

To undergo such maiden pilgrim-
age.

But earthlier happy is the rose
distill'd

Than that which, withering on the
virgin thorn.

Grows, lives and dies in single
blessedness."
Midsummer-Night^ s Dream, i. 1
(1600).

" Childless she [Elizabeth] was,
indeed, and left no issue ; . . .
some taking it for a diminution of
felicity, for that to be happy both
in the individual self and in the
propagation of the kind would be
a blessing above the condition
of humanity." — The Fortunate
Memory 0/ Elizabeth (1608).

513

DISCERNING CHARACTER IN EYES AND FACES

"Which is the villain 1 Let me

see his eyes,
That when I note another man

like him,
I may avoid him."

Much Ado, V. 2 (1600).

" A number of subtile persons,
whose eyes do dwell upon the
faces and fashions of men, do well
know the advantage of this obser-
vation, as being most part of their
ability ; neither can it be denied
but that it is a great discovery of
dissimulations." — Advancement of
Learning, Bk. ii. (1605).

PARALLELISMS

271

JEALOUSY,

From Shakespeare

" For where Love reigns, disturb-
ing Jealousy

Doth call himself Affection's senti-
nel."

Venus and Adonis (1593).

514
A SENTINEL

From Bacon

" Counsellors are not commonly
so united but that one counsellor
keepeth sentinel over another." —
Essay of Counsel (1607-12).

The identical image here, as pointed out by Mr. Wigston,
is in the function of Jealousy as a sentinel, whether among
the counsellors of a king or the affections of one's heart.

515
EXCESS OF COURAGE, MAGNANIMITY

" Excess is usually the vice of
youth, defect that of old age. . . .
In excess there is some magna-
nimity shown." — Sapientia Vete-
rum (1609).

" Methinks a woman of this valiant
spirit

Should, if a ^ coward heard her
speak these words,

Infuse his breast with magnani-
mity,

And make him, naked, foil a man
at arms."

3 Henry VI., v. 4, 39-42.

The youthful Prince Edward, brought unarmed and de-
fenceless into the presence of his captors, so defied and
insulted them that he was at once put to death. This was
on his part an excess of courage, in which both authors see
greatness of soul or magnanimity.

516

SYMPATHY WITH BRUTES

" First Lord. Come, shall we go " My Lord St. Alban, having a

and kill us venison ?
And yet it irks us, the poor dappl'd

fools,
Being native burghers of this desert

city,

dog which he loved sick, put him
to a woman to keep. The dog
died. My Lord met her the next
day and said, ' how dotli my dog?'
She answered in a whining tone,

272

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Should in their own confines with

forked heads
Have their round haunches gor'd.

To the which place a poor seques-

ter'd stag,
That from the hunter's aim had

ta'en a hurt,
Did come to languish ; and, indeed,

my lord,
The wretched animal heav'd forth

such groans
That their discharge did stretch his

leathern coat
Almost to bursting ; and the big

round tears
Cours'd one another down his iimo-

cent nose
In piteous chase ; and thus the

hairy fool,
Much marked of the melancholy

Jaques,
Stood on the extremest verge of the

swift brook.
Augmenting it with tears.
Duke Senior. And did you leave

him in this contemplation ?
Second Lord. We did, my lord,

weeping and commenting
Upon the sobbing deer."

As You Like II, ii. 1 (1623).
" I, for praise alone, now seek to

spill
The poor deer's blood that my

heart means no ill."
Lovers Labor's Lost, iv. 1 (1598).

" ' Out with the dog,' says one ;
' What cur is that,' says another ;
' Whip him out,' says the third ;
' Hang him up,' says the duke. I,
having been acquainted with the
emell before, knew it was Crab, and

and putting a handkerchief to her
eye, ' The dog is well, I hope.' " — '
Apothegm.

" The inclination to goodness is
imprinted deeply in the nature of
man ; insomuch that if it issue not
toward men, it will 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." —
Essay of Goodness and Goodness
of Nature (1625).

PARALLELISMS 273

goes me to the fellow that whips
dogs. ' Friend,' quoth I, ' you mean
to whip the dog *? ' ' Ay, marry,
do I,' quoth he. ' You do him the
more wrong,' quoth I ; * 't was I
did the thing you wot of.' He
makes me no more ado, but whips
me out of the chamber. How
many masters would do this for his
servant ? Nay, I '11 be sworn, I
have sat in the stocks for puddings
he hath stolen, otherwise he had
been executed ; I have stood on
the pillory for geese he hath killed,
otherwise he had suffered for it."
— Tlie Two Gentlemen of Verona,
iv. 4 (1623).

Bacon's sympathy with brute animals in distress was one
of his most marked characteristics, as it is one that continu-
ally crops out in the plays. He once sacrificed a friendship
because he could not endure the sight of a dog abused. He
told the owner that " every gentleman loves a dog." Shake-
speare represents a man as taking upon himself various pun-
ishments for offences committed by his dog, to save the dog's
Hfe.

517

HAPPY DOLE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Happy man be his dole." "Happy man, happy dole." —

Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 4 Promus (1594-96).

(1623).
1 King Henry IV., ii. 2 (1598).
The Taming of the Shrew, i. 1
(1623).
The Winter's Tale, i. 2 (1623).

518

HAPPINESS IN OPINION OP OTHERS

*• 0 ceremony, show me but thy " Certainly, great persons had

worth I need to borrow other men's opin-

274

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

What is the soul of adoration ?

Art thou aught else but place, de-
gree, and form,

Creating awe and fear in other men?

Wherein tliou art less happy, being
fear'd,

Than they in fearing.

And what art thou, idle ceremony?

What kind of god art thou, that
suffer'st more

Of mortal grief than do thy wor-
shippers ] "

Henry V., iv. 1 (1623).

ions, to think themselves happy ;
for, if they judge by their own feel-
ing, they cannot find it ; but if they
think with themselves what other
men think of them, and that other
men would fain be as they are,
then they are happy, as it were, by
report ; when perhaps they find
the contrary within." — Essay oj
Great Place (1602-12).

519

SOME GOOD IN EVERYTHING

From Shakespeare

** There is some soul of goodness in

things evil,
Would men observingly distil it

out."

Henry F., iv. 1 (1623).
"And this our life, exempt from

public haunt,

Finds . . • good in everything."

As You Like It, ii. 1 (1623).
" Nought so vile that on the earth

doth live,
But to the earth some special good
doth give."

Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3.

From Bacon

" There is formed in everything
a double nature of good." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

" The inclination to goodness is
imprinted deeply in the nature of
man." — Essay of Goodness and
Goodness of Nature (1625).

520

DISTORTION OF IMAGES REFLECTED IN THE MIND

" A mind reflecting ages past,

whose clear
And equal surface can make things

appear

" The reflection from glasses, so
usually resembled to the imagery
of the mind, every man knoweth
to receive error and variety both in

PARALLELISMS

275

Distaut a thousaud years, and rep-
resent

Them in their lively colors, just
extent."
/. M. S. in First Shakespeare
Folio (1623).

color, magnitude, and shape, ac-
cording to the quality of the glass."
— Of the Interpretation of Nature
(c. 1603).

" Do you suppose that when en-
trances to men's minds are ob-
structed by the darkest errors,
smooth, even spaces can be found
in these minds so that the light of
truth can be accurately reflected
from them? " — Temporis Partus
Masculus (c. 1605).

" The mind of man, dimmed and
clouded as it is by the covering of
the body, far from being a smooth,
clear and equal glass, wherein the
beams of things reflect according
to their true incidence, is rather
like an inchanted glass, full of su-
perstition and imposture." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

The unknown contributor to the preliminary matter of the
first Shake-speare folio, I. M. S., here uses one of Bacon's
favorite images in depicting the dramatist's intellectual
character.

521
BOBBERY ON GAd'S-HILL

From Shakespeare
"Enter Gadshill.
"Gadshill. Stand.
Falstaff. So I do, against my
will.

Poins. 0 ! 't is our setter, I
know his voice.

Enter Travellers.
1 Traveller. Come, neighbor ;
the boy shall lead our horses down
the hill ; we '11 walk afoot awhile,
and ease our legs.
Thieves. Stand !
Travellers. Jesu bless us !

From Bacon
" If a man command I. S. to
rob I. D. on Shooter's-hill, and he
doth it on Gads-hill, . . . yet he is
accessory nevertheless." — Maxims
of the Law (1596).

276 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Falstaff. Strike, down with
them; cut the villains' throats.
Ah! whoreson caterpillars! bacon-
fed knaves ! They hate us youth ;
down with them ; fleece them.

Travellers. O! we are undone,
both we and ours, for ever." —
1 King Henry IV., ii. 2 (1596).

The only case of highway robbery mentioned in the plays

occurred on Gad's-Hill ; the only one mentioned by Bacon

in his law treatises was also committed on Gad's-Hill. The

play and the treatise appear to have been written the same

year.

522

FLOWERS ACCORDING TO SEASON

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" I do hold it, in the royal order-
ing of gardens, there ought to be
gardens for all the months in the
year, in which severally things of
beauty may be then iu season."

FLOWERS OF WINTER

*^ Perdita. Eeverend sirs, "For December and January

For you there 's rosemary and rue ; and the latter part of November,

these keep you must take such things as are

Seeming and savor all the winter green all winter; rosemary, laven-

loncj.''^ der, sweet marjoram.''''

FLOWERS OF SPRING

" Pej-dita. Now, my fair'st friend, " There followeth for the latter

I would I had some flowers 0' th' part of January and February

spring, that might crocus vernus, both the yellow and

Become your time of day; and the grey; primroses; anemones;

yours, and yours, the early tulippa ; hyacinthus ori-

That wear upon your virgin entalis. For March, there come

branches yet violets, especially the single blue,

Your maidenheads growing ; 0 which are the earliest ; the yellow

Proserpina! daffodil; the daisy. In April fol-

For the flowers now, that, frighted, low the double white violet, the

thou lett'st fall wall-flower, the stock- gilHJlower,

PARALLELISMS

277

From Dis' wagon! daffodils,

That come before the swallow
dares, and takes

The winds of March with beauty;
violets, dim.

But sweeter than the lids of Juno's
eyes,

Or Cytherea's breath; pale prim-
roses.

That die unmarried ere they can
behold

Bright Phoebus in his strength, a
malady

Most incident to maids; bold ox-
lips, and

The crown imperial ; lilies of all
kinds,

The Jlower-de-luce being one."

the cowslip, jiower-de-luces, and
lilies of all natures ; rosemary
flowers, the pale daffodil, the
French honeysuckle."

FLOWERS

From Shakespeare

" Perdita. Here 's flowers for you ;

Hot lavender, mints, savory, mar-
joram,

The marigold, that goes to bed wi'
the sun,

And with him rises weeping ; these
are flowers

Of middle summer, and, I think,
they are given

To men of middle age."

OF SUMMER

From Bacon
" In May and June come pinks
of all sorts, especially the blush
pinks, roses of all kinds, except the
musk, which comes later ; honey-
suckles, columbine, the French
marigold, vine flowers, lavender in
flowers, the sweet satyrian."

" Perdita. Sir, the year growing

ancient, —
Not yet on summer's death, nor

on the birth
Of tremVjling winter, — the fairest

flowers 0' the season
Are our carnations, and streak'd

gillivors.''^
The Winter's Tale, iv. 3 (1623).

FLOWERS OF AUTUMN

" In October and the beginning
of November come services, roses
cut, or removed to come later;
hollyokes, and such like." — Essay
of Gardens (1625).

278

BACON JNB SHAKESPEARE

Not only is the catalogue of flowers iii the two lists sub-
stantially the same, but so also is the order of the seasons
given in them, each beginning, rather curiously, with winter.

We now add a complete list of the flowers, trees, and
shrubs mentioned in this single Essay and also in the
Plays :

Ivy

Lily

Filberts

Apple

Bay

Honeysuckle

Poppy

Plum

Cypress

Thorn

Pear

Quince

UTew

Pink

Almond

Burnet

Kosemary

Rose

Gooseberry

Carnation

Lavender

Musk rose

Currants

Mint

Marjoram

Damask rose

Bean

Thistle

Primrose

Strawberry

Grape

Pine

Violet

Columbine

Holly

Flag

DafTodn

Marigold

Orange

Myrtle

Daisy

Cherry

Lemon

Peach

Gilliflower

Vine

Damson

Warden

Cowslip

Lime

Fig

Wild thyme

Fleur-de-lis

Apricots

523
RISE AND FALL

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" King Richard. O, good ! con- " Be seated ; your rise has been

vey? Conveyers are you all, my fall." — A Saying to his Ser'

That rise thus nimbly by a true vants (1621).
knight's fall."
King Packard II., iv. 1 (1623).

524

PITT

" If ever you have look'd on better

days,
If ever been where bells have

knoll'd to church,
If ever sat at any good man's feast,
If ever from your eyelids wip'd a

tear,

" The next morning he came to
me again, joyful as it seemed, and
said, ' There is word come to the
governor of the city, that one of
the Fathers of Salomon's House
will be here this day seven-night ;
we have seen none of them this

PARALLELISMS 279

And kuow what 't is to pity, and dozen years. His coming is in

be pitied, state, but the cause of his comiug

Let gentleness my strong enforce- is secret. I will provide you fel-

ment be." lows of a good standing to see his

As You Like It, ii. 7 (1623). entry.' I thanked him, and told

him, ' I was most glad of the news.'
The day being come, he made his
entry. He was a man of middle
stature and age, comely of person,
and had an aspect as if he pitied
men." — New Atlantis (c. 1624).

According to Bacon, pity for distress is the crowning glory
of human character; this alone, as though it were all in
all, he ascribes to the chief personage of his ideal common-
wealth, the New Atlantis. So Orlando in the play, rushing
forward for succor in behalf of his poor, old, famishing ser-
vant left behind in the woods, makes his impassioned appeals,
rising to higher and higher considerations as he speaks, and
finally resting his claim on that which, in intensity and
strength, was thought to surpass all others, — the sentiment
of pity.

525

VAPOR

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Vows are but breath, and breath " When water passes into vapor,

a vapor is ; it is most certain that it is changed

Then thou, fair sun, which on my into air." — Cofjitationes de Natura

earth dost shine, Rernm (1603).

Exhal'st this vapor-vow." " Water seems to be but a con-

Love^s Labor ^s Lost, iv. 3 ("1598). gelation and contraction of air." —
" Like a dew-drop from the lion's De Principiis et Originihus.

mane, "A drop of water, turned into

Be shook to air." air, requires at least a hundred

Troilus and Cressida,\\\. 3 (1623). times more space than before." —

History of the Winds.

The extraordinary opinion, derived from Aristotle, that
the vapor of water is air was held by both authors. It ap-
peared, in Shake-speare, in a play first published in 1598 ;

28o

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

in Bacon, iu one of his earliest philosophical tracts, printed in
Holland for the first time, posthumously, in 1653. A con-
temporary opinion, widely spread, was to the effect that vapor
is a combination of water and fire, the latter element giving
to the compound its tendency to rise through the atmos-
phere. The actual identity of vapor and air seems to have
taken a strong hold on the minds of Bacon and Shake-speare.

526
SWELLING WITH PRIDE, AS WITH VENOM

From Shakespeare
" The venomous malice of my

swelling heart."
TvLus Andronicus, v. 3, 13 (1600).

From Bacon
"Knowledge, if it be taken
without the true corrective thereof,
hath in it some nature of venom or
malignity, and some effects of that
venom, which is ventosity or swell-
ing."— The Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

Both authors made frequent use of this analogy between
the swelling of a serpent with venom and that of the human
heart with pride and malice. Bacon says, it is not quantity
of knowledge that produces this result, but its quality ; that
is, as he defines it, knowledge without charity.

527

PERSEUS AND PEGASUS

"I will not change my horse
with any that treads but on four
pasterns, ^a, ha ! He bounds from
the earth as if his entrails were
hairs ; le chevall volanfy tlie Pegasus,
qui a les narines de feu ! When I
bestride him, I soar, I am a hawk ;
the earth sings when he touches it ;
the basest horn of his hoof is more
musical than the pipe of Hermes.

It is a beast for Perseus." — King
Henry V., iii. 7 (1600).

" Perseus was sent, it is said, by
Pallas to cut off the head of Me-
dusa. . . . From the blood that
flowed from the wound, there sud-
denly leaped forth a winged Pega-
sus."— Wisdom of the Ancients
(1609).

PARALLELISMS 281

528
PROTEUS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Change shapes A\dth Proteus." " If any one wanted his [Pro-

3 King Henry VI., iii. 2, 192 (1595). tens'] help in any matter, the only

way was first to secure his hands
with handcuffs, and then to bind
him with chains. Whereupon he
on his part, in order to get free,
would turn himself into all man-
ner of strange shapes." — Wisdom
of the Ancients (1609).

529
NEMESIS

" Black Nemesis." " Nemesis of the Darkness." —

1 King Henry VI., iv. 7, 78 (162.3). Ibid.

The dramatist had no authority to call Nemesis black,
except in allusion to her origin and to the secrecy with
which she was supposed to execute certain divine decrees.
This was Bacon's view of her.

530

SIN BY LAW

" Escalus. What do you think of "I had not known sin but by
the trade, Pompey ? the law." — Promus (1594-96).

Is it a lawful trade ?

Clown. If the law would allow
it, sir?"
Measure for Measure, ii. 1
(1623).

531
DOMINEERING PEDANTS

" A domineering pedant o'er the " The conditions of life of ped-

boy." ants have been scorned upon

Love's Labor's Lost, iii. 1, 179 theatres, as the ape of tyranny."

(1598). — The Advancement of Learning

(1603-5).

2b2

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

532

PARASITES

From Shakespeare
" Most smiling, smooth, detested
parasites,

You fools of fortune, trencher-
friends, time's Hies."

From Bacon
"Such as were those trencher-
philosophers, which, in the later
age of the Roman state, were usu-
ally in the houses of great persons,
being little better than solemn

Timon of Athens, 'in. 6, 95-97 parasites." — The Advancement oj

(1623).

Learning (1603-5).

533

OPINION

*' The great Achilles, whom opinion " Praise is a matter of opinion.'

crowns — Pro?>ms (1594-90).

The sinew and the forehand of our
host."
Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 (1609).

WEALTH IN A

•' r the commonwealth .

Letters should not be known;

riches, poverty,
And use of service, none."

Tempest, ii. 1, 146-150 (1623).

534

STATE, AN EVIL

" There was never any state in
the world into which avarice and
luxury made their way so late ;
nor any in which poverty and
frugality were for so long a time
held in so great honor.

We see, likewise, after that the
state of Rome was not itself but
did degenerate, how that person
that took upon him to be coun-
sellor to Julius Csesar after his
victory, where to begin his restora-
tion of the state, niaketh it of all
points the most summary to take
away the estimation of wealth:
' but these and all other evils ' (he
says) 'will cease as soon as the
worship of money ceases.' " —
Advancement of Learning, i,
(1603-5).

PARALLELISMS 283

The author of the play, in his delineation of an ideal
commonwealth, undoubtedly followed Montaigne ; but the
influence of wealth ia a state, which the dramatist deemed an
evil, was deprecated also by Bacon.

535
DAFFODIL, A SPRING FLOWER
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Daffodils, " Narcissus [daffodil] is said to

That come before the swallow have been a young man of wonder-
dares, and take ful beauty. . . . One day, he came
The winds of March with beauty." by chance to a clear fountain, and
Tlie Winter's Tale, iv. 3, 119-120 (it being in the heat of noon) lay
(1623). down by it ; when, beholding in

the water his own image, he fell
into such a study and then into
such a rapturous admiration of
himself, that he could not be
drawn away from gazing at the
shadowy picture, but remained
rooted to the spot till sense left
him ; and at last he was changed
into the flower that bears his name,
a flower that appears in early
spring." — The Wisdom of the
Ancients (1609).

536

MEDUSA, TURNIKG PEOPLE TO STONE

"Approach the chamber, and de- " No cause of war is more pious

stroy your sight than the overthrow of a tyranny

With a new Gorgon." under which the people lie pros-

Macbeth, ii. 3, 72-73 (1623). trate, as if turned to stone by the

aspect of Medusa. Medusa was
one of the Gorgons. " — Ibid.

537
THE CYCLOPS, HAMMERING AND FORGING

" The Cyclops' hammers fall ''With officious industry, the

On Mars his armor, forg'd for Cyclopes labored hard witli a

proof eterne." terrible din in forging thunder-

Hamlet, ii. 2, 495-496 (1604). bolts and other instruments of

terror." — Ibid.

2 84 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

638

ACTION
From Shakespeare
" Had I the power that some say

Dian had,
Thy temples should be planted

presently
With horns as was Acta;on's."

Titus Andronicus, ii. 3, 61-63
(1600).

TimNED INTO A STAG

From Bacon
" Actseon, having unawares and
by chance seen Diana naked, was
turned into a stag." — The Wisdom
of the Ancients (1609).

539

TITAN S RAYS

"Lord Saturnine, whose virtues

will, I hope,
Reflect on Rome as Titan's rays

on earth."
Titus Andro7iicus, i. 1, 226 (1600).

" The body of Nature is most
elegantly and truly represented as
covered with hair, in allusion to
the rays which all objects emit.
Whatever produces an effect at a
distance may be said to emit rays.
The rays of the celestial bodies
operate and penetrate from a
greater distance than any other."

" The Sun was the only one of
the Titans that was on Jupiter's
side." — Ibid.

Both authors call the sun by the exceptional name of
Titan.

540
hamlet's indecision

" Conscience does make cowards
of us all ;

And thus the native hue of resolu-
tion

Is sicklied o'er with the pale cast
of thought,

And enterprises of great pith and
moment

With this regard their currents
turn away

And lose the name of action."

Hamlet, iii. 1 (1603-4).

" Aristotle speaketh seriously
and wisely when he saith, 'They
who take few points only into ac-
count find it easy to pronounce
judgment.' " — Advancement oj
Learning (1603-5).

PARALLELISMS 285

"How all occasions do inform

against me,
And spur my dull revenge ! . . .
Whether it be
Bestial oblivion, or some craven

scruple
Of thinking too precisely on the

event —
A thought which, quarter'd, hath

but one part wisdom
And ever three parts coward, — I

do not know
Why yet I live to say ' This thing '3

to do,'
Sith I have cause, and will, and

strength, and means,
Todo't."

Advancement of Learning^ iv. 4

(1604).

Bacon furnishes in tlie above-quoted passage from the
* Advancement ' the key to Hamlet's irresolution in execut-
ing the command laid upon him. Hamlet himself was an
extraordinarily resolute character, as shown when he followed
his father's ghost on the platform agamst the admonition of
his friends, and when on the voyage to England he boarded
the pirate, sword in hand and alone, at the first moment of
contact between the two vessels. On each of these occasions
his duty seemed clear to him ; and his action was prompt and
courageous. But when it came to an act of assassination in cold
blood at the behest of a spectre, and the person to be assassi-
nated was his uncle, his stepfather and his sovereign, that was
a different matter. That required the most careful circum-
spection. After all, he said to himself (as Orestes did under
similar conditions in the 'Electra' of Euripides,^ whence
Shake-speare derived so much of his great tragedy), perhaps
" the spirit that I have seen may be the devil who abuses
me to damn me." AVe find, then, that his subsequent de-

1 See 'Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare,' Chapter V.

286 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

meanor conformed to the precept laid down by Bacon ; namely,
that in forming a judgment, whatever may be the delay, we
should take all points into account.

The philosophy of ' Hamlet ' may be compressed into an
aphorism: he knows nothing who knows not everything.
Actions are rightly adjudged wise or unwise only in the light
of their eternal etlects.

541

ATALANTA

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Nimble wit . . . made of Ata- "Atalanta, remarkable for speed."
lanta's beels." — The Wisdom of the Ancients

As You Like It, iii. (1623). (1609).

542
ALL 'S WELL THAT ENDS WELL

" All 's well that ends well." " All 's well that ends well." —

AlVs Well, iv. 4 (1623). Ihid.

543
SCYLLA AND CHARYBDIS

'♦When I shun Scylla, your "The passage between Scylla
father, I fall into Charybdis, your and Charybdis needs both skill and
mother." — Merchant of Venice, Hi. good fortune to navigate it. For
5 (1600). if the ship run on Scylla, it is

dashed on the rocks ; if on Cha-
rybdis, it is sucked in by the
whirlpool." — Ibid.

544
A king's oath
"For a kingdom any oath may "As to treaties and compacts

be broken ; of princes, whatever be the solem-

I would break a thousand oaths to nity and sanctity of the oath they
reign one year." are confirmed with, yet they are

3 King Henry VI., 1, 2 (1623). little to be depended upon ; inso-
much that they are used in fact
rather with an eye to reputation
and fame and ceremony than for
confidence and security and effect."
— Ibid.

PARALLELISMS

287

545

THE KISSES OF AN ENEMY

From Shakespeare
" His kisses are Judas' own

children." — As Yott Like It, iii. 4

(1623).

" 'T is time to fear when tyrants

seem to kiss." — Pericles, i. 2 (1609).

From Bacon
" The kisses of an enemy are de-
ceitful." — Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

546

CHERUBIM

" In the celestial hierarchy, ac-
cording to Dionysius, the first place
or degree is given to the angels of
love, which are termed seraphim ;
the second, to the angels of light,
which are called cherubim; so as
the angels of knowledge and illu-
mination are placed before the
angels of office and domination."
— Ibid.

" Besides, this Duncan
Hath borne his faculties so meek,

hath been
So clear in his great office, that his

virtues
Will plead like angels, trumpet-

tongued, against
The deep damnation of his taking-

off ;
And pity, like a naked new-born

babe,
Striding the blast, or heaven's

cherubin, hors'd
Upon the sightless couriers of the

air,
Shall blow the horrid deed in every

eye."

Macbeth, i. 7 (1623).
" Such cherubins as your sweet self

resemble,
Creating every bad a perfect best,
As fast as objects to his beams as-
semble."

Sonnet 114 (1609).

Bacon confessedly took his view of the celestial hierarchy
from Dionysius, the Areopagite, who wrote in Greek, and
whose works have only recently been translated into Eng-
lish. But Shake-speare was also acquainted with the writ-
ings of Dionysius, for he assigns to the cherubim, as Bacon

288 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

does, the attributes of light and iUumination, the seraphs

being angels of love. Macbeth foretells that the knowledge

of Duncan's murder will be carried by the cherubim "to

every eye."

547

KINGS FEARED AND LOVED

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Never was monarch better fear'd " The king which is not feared

and lov'd is not loved." — Essay of a King

Than is your majesty." (posthumous).
King Henry V., ii. 2 (1600).

548
THE FOUR ELEMENTS

" I might say ' element,' but the " The opinion that all sublunary

word is overworn." — Twelfth bodies are composed of the four
Night, iii. 1 (c. 1601). elements is ill borne out." — His-

tory of Dense and Rare (1622-25).

Bacon seems to have come slowly to the conclusion that
the doctrine of the four elements of matter (earth, air, fire,
and water), held by his contemporaries, is erroneous. In a
tract written in 1612 {De Glohi Intellechialis) he expressly
withheld his opinion on the subject, saying parenthetically,
" in regard to this I am silent." But when subsequently he
investigated the specific gravity of various substances and
discovered that gold is heavier than any one of these four
elements, or than any possible combination of them, he
definitely rejected the doctrine. Shake-speare entertained
the same doubt that Bacon did, and entertained it too at
the same time; that is to say, several years before the
latter made the decisive experiment referred to.

549

POETRY, DrVINE

" Much is the force of heaven- " Poesy was ever thought to

bred poesy." — Two Gentlemen of have some participation of divine-
Verona, iii. 2 (1623). ness." — Advancement of Learning

(1603-5).

PARALLELISMS

289

550

MUSIC AND POETRY

From Shakespeare

" The elegancy, facility and
golden cadence of poesy." — Lovers
Labor's Lost, iv. 2 (1623).

" Music and poesy iise to quicken
you." — The Taming of the Shrew,
i. 1 (1623).

From Bacon

" Poesy, by its congruities with
man's nature and pleasure, joined
with the agreement and consort it
hath with music, hath had access
and estimation in rude times and
barbarous regions, where other
learning stood excluded." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

Bacon pronounces poetry " one of the principal portions of
learning," dramatic poetry especially being " nothing else but
feigned history." The latter, he says, has two uses : one,
" to demonstrate and illustrate that which is taught and de-
livered ; " the other, " to retire and obscure the secrets and
mysteries of religion, polity and philosophy." It was for
this reason that he regarded the ancient poets as philoso-
phers, and that even now, if we wish to advance anything
new in philosophy, we must employ the pen of a dramatic
poet for the purpose.

551

EPICUREANS

" Epicureans placed felicity in
pleasure, and made virtue to be
but as a servant, without M'hich
pleasure cannot be properly served
and attended." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

" What a damn'd Epicurean ras-
cal is this ! " — Merry Wives of
Windsor, ii. 3 (1602).
" Our court, infected with their

manners,
Shows like a riotous inn ; Epicur-
ism and lust
Make it more like a tavern, or a

brothel,
Than a grac'd palace."

King Lear, i. 4 (1608).

In the plays from which the above extracts are taken,
virtue is treated, under the express authority of Epicurus,
as subordinate to pleasure. Bacon also credits the same
doctrine to Epicurus.

290

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

552
FORTUNE AND FOLLY

From Shakespeare

" Call me not fool, till Heaven hath
sent me fortune."
As You Like It, ii. 7 (1623).
" I am even
The natural fool of fortune."

King Lear, iv. 6 (1608).

From Bacon

" Fortune is the child of the vul-
gar. . . . Epicurus seems not only
to be profane, but to be foolish,
when he says, ' It is better to be-
lieve in the fable of the gods, than
to assert the power of fate.' " — De
Augmentis (1622).

Bacon expresses this sentiment more clearly in his

' Promus ' :

" God sendeth fortune to fools."

553

Chaos is come again."

Othello, iii. 3 (1622).

LOVE AND CHAOS

*' When I love thee not, " Love, united with Chaos, be-

gat the gods and all things." —
Principles and Origins (posthu-
mous).

" Chaos is restrained and kept
in order by the concord of things,
which is love." — De A ugmentis
(1622).

Othello identifies his individual love for Desdemona with
that inherent in the universe, and assigns to it the function
described by Bacon. In other words, take love from the
world, and " chaos is come again."

554

TTPHON

" When he speaks, " The same thing is alluded to

'T is like a chime amending ; with

terms unsquar'd.
Which, from the tongue of roaring

Typhon dropp'd,
Would seem hyperboles."
Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 (1609).

in that other circumstance of catch-
ing Typhon in a net." — De Aug-
mentis (1622).

PARALLELISMS

291

The story of Typhon is here alluded to by both authors.
The giant stormed the heights of heaven, and with such
awful roarings in imitation of different animals as to frighten
the gods. In the same boisterous manner Patroclus, lolling
on his bed and amusing Achilles, mocks the several Grecian
chieftains.

555

GRATITUDE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

*' Ventidius. I do return those " Gratitude is justly due only

talents, for things unbought." — Promus

Doubled with thanks and service, (1594-96).
from whose help

I deriv'd liberty.

Timon. 0, by no means,

Honest Ventidius; you mistake my
love;

I gave it freely ever ; and there '3
none

Can truly say, he gives, if he re-
ceives."
Timon of Athens, i. 2 (1623).

556

PROGNOSTICS

" Calphurnia. Caesar, I never stood

on ceremonies.
Yet now they fright me. There is

one within,
Besides the things that we have

heard and seen.
Recounts most horrid sights seen

by the watch.
A lioness hath whelped in the

streets ;
And graves have yawn'd, and

yielded up their dead ;
Fierce fiery warriors fight upon the

clouds,

" Predictions may be made of
wars, seditions, schisms, transmi-
grations of peoples, and in short
of all commotions or greater revo-
lutions of things, natural as well
as , civil. These predictions may
also be made (though not so cer-
tainly) with reference to events
more special and perhajis singular."
— De Augmentis (1622).

292 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

In ranks and squadrons, and right

form of war,
Which drizzled blood upon the

Capitol ;
The noise of battle hurtled in the

air,
Horses do neigh, and dying men

did groan.
And ghosts did shriek and squeal

about the streets,
O Cffisar I these things are beyond

all use,
And I do fear them.
CcEsar. What can be avoided

Whose end is purpos'd by the

mighty gods 1
Yet Cfesar shall go forth ; for these

predictions
Are to the world in general, as to

Caesar."

Julius Ccesar, ii. 2 (1623).

557

ANTIPODES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Thou art as opposite to every " The ancients had knowledge

good of the antipodes,

As the antipodes are unto us." ' And while on us the fresh East

3 King Henry VI., i. 4 (1594). breathes from far,

For them the red West lights her
evening star.' "

Advancement of Learning,
(1603-5).

Among the great controversies that from time to time
have raged in the world, one of the most notable and viru-
lent was upon the existence of the antipodes. It began in
the early days of Christianity (Christian writers denouncing
the theory as unscriptural), and did not wholly cease till
long after the time of Bacon and Shake-speare. Even
Magellan's voyage into the Pacific Ocean did not terminate

PARALLELISMS

^93

it, nor Acosta's letters from Peru, in which he assured his
friends that he and the people about him were not standing
" with their heads downwards and their feet on high."
Bacon and Shake-speare were at one on the subject.

558
spider's self-drawing web

From Shake-speare

" Spider-like,
Out of his self-drawing web, he

gives us note.
The force of his own merit makes
its way."
King Henry VIIL, i. 1 (1623).

From Bacon
" The wit and mind of man, if
it work upon matter, worketh ac-
cording to the stuff, and is limited
thereby ; but if it work upon itself,
as the spider worketh his web,
then it is endless." — Advance-
ment of Learning (1603-5).

CUPID AN INFANT, BLIND,

1. An Infant
■' Therefore is Love said to be a
child."
A Alid summer-Night's Dream, i.

1 (1600).
" He hath been five thousand
years a boy." — Love's Labor's
Lost, v. 2 (1598).

2. Blind
" Love looks not with the eyes,

but with the mind,
And therefore is wing'd Cupid
painted blind."
A Midsummer-Night's Dream, i.
1 (1600).
" Love is blind."

Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 1
(1623).

3. Naked
'* A naked blind boy." — King
Henry F.,iii. 2 (1623).

559
NAKED, WINGED, AND AN ARCHER

" Various attributes have been
assigned to Cupid : as that he is
always [1] an infant, [2] blind, [3]
naked, [4] winged, and [5] an
archer." — De Principiis et Origini-
bus (posthumous).

294

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" If [you would] conjure up love
in her in his true likeness, he must
appear naked and blind." — King
Henry V., iii. 2 (1623).

4. Winged
" Borrow Cupid's wings and soar
with them." — Romeo and Juliet,
i. 4 (1599).

5. An Archer
" Hit with Cupid's archery." —
A Midsummer-Night'' s Dream,
iii. 2 (1600).

560

AXLETREE OF THE EARTH

From Shakespeare
" Strong as the axletree
On which heaven rides."
TroUus and Cressida, i. 2 (1609).

From Bacon
" By the ancient fable of Atlas,
Aristotle meant the poles or axle-
tree on which the earth turns.*'
— Advancement of Learning
(1603-5).

561
ACCENTS OF WORDS

" The pox of such limping, an- " With regard to

tique, aflfecting fantasticos, these
new tuners of accents." — Romeo
and Juliet, ii. 4 (1597).

accents of
words, it is too small a matter
to speak of." — De Augmentis
(1622).

562

LANGUAGE

" Thou shalt not sigh, nor hold
thy stumps to heaven,

Nor wink, nor nod, nor kneel, nor
make a sign.

But I, of these, will wrest an alpha-
bet,

And, by still practice, learn to
know thy meaning."
Titus Andronicus, iii. 2 (1623).
" There was speech in their

OF GESTURE

" In the practice of some who
had been deaf and dumb from
their birth and were otherwise
clever, I have seen wonderful dia-
logues carried on between them
and their friends who had learned
to understand their gestures." —
De Augmentis (1622).

PARALLELISMS 295

dumbness, language in their very
gesture." — Winter's Tale, v. 2
(1623).

Bacon made mention, rather cursorily, of the language of
gesture in the first or English edition of the ' Advancement '
in 1605, but in the second or Latin edition of 1622-23, he
gave more attention to it, as the above extract will show.
At about this latter date, probably, the author of 'Titus An-
dronicus' added the celebrated new scene (iii. 2) to the play,
with the same subject (the language of gestures) as its most
conspicuous feature. The preceding quarto editions of 1600
and 1611 did not contain it.

563

seller's price

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Timon. Sir, your jewel " The merchant praises what he

Hath sufFer'd under praise. . . . wants to sell." — De Augmentis

If I should pay you for 't as 't is (1622).

extoll'd,
It would unclew me quite."

Timon of Athens, i. 1 (1623).

564
buyer's price
" You do as chapmen do, " ' It is naught, it is naught,*
Dispraise the thing that you desire says the buyer." — Ibid.

to buy."
Troilus and Cressida, iv. 1 (1609).

565

STINGS IN WORDS

" What sharp stings are in her " These points and stings of
mildest words." — All 's Well, iii. 4 words." — Ibid.
(1623).

566

THE PROMISED END

" Is this the proniis'd end ? " " Is this the promised end ? " —

King Lear, v. 3 (1G08). Promus (1594-96).

296

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

567

APPLAUSE OF THE RABBLE

From Shakespeare

" The rabble call him lord ;
And, as the world were now but to

begin,
Antiquity forgot, custom not

known,
The ratifiers and props of every

word.
They cry, ' Choose we ; Laertes

shall be king ! '
Caps, hands, and tongues, applaud

it to the clouds."

Hamlet, iv. 5 (1604).

" I love the people,

But do not like to stage me to their

eyes;
Though it do well, I do not relish

well
Their loud applause."

Measure for Measure, i. 1 (1623).
An habitation giddy and unsure.
Hath he that buildeth on the vul-
gar heart.
Oh thou fond [foolish] many ! ^\ath

what loud applause
Didst thou beat heaven with bless-
ing Boliiigbroke,
Before he was what thou wouldst

have him be ;
And being now trimm'd in thine

own desires,
Thou, beastly feeder, art so full of

him.
That thou provok'st thyself to cast

him up.
So, 80, thou common dog, didst

thou disgorge
Thy glutton bosom of the royal

Richard,

From Bacon

" Phocion, when the people ap-
plauded him more than usual,
asked, whether he had done wrong."
— DeAugmenlis (1622).

PARALLELISMS 297

And now thou wouldst eat thy

dead vomit up,
And howl'st to find it."

2 King Henry IV., i. 3 (1623).

568
FRIENDS IN ASSOCIATION WITH FRIENDS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Friends should associate friends." " Everything delights to associ-

Titus Andronicus, v. 3 (1600). ate with itself that which is agree-
able."— I)e Augmentis (1622).

569
VIGILS IN CONNECTION WITH FEASTS

" He that shall live this day, and " The lower order of courtiers

see old age, were pleasantly compared with the

Will yearly on the vigil feast his vigils of festivals, that are next the
neighbors, feast days." — Ibid.

And say, ' To-morrow is Saint Cris-
pian.' "
King Henry V., iv. 3 (1600).

570
EVERT WAY, A GAIN

" Whether be kiU Cassio, " To fall well every way." — Pro-

Or Cassio him, or each do kiU the mus (1594-96).

other,
Every way makes my gain."

Othello, v. 1 (1622).

571

QUEEN ELIZABETH, A PHCENIX

" The bird of wonder, the maiden " A phoenix, a blessed bird

phccrii.x; [Queen Elizabeth]." [Queen Elizabeth]." — Speech of
Henry VIII. , v. 5 (1623). Nicholas Bacon [Father of Francis]
in Parliament (1571).

Pointed out by Mr. George James.

298 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

572

UNITY AND MULTIPLICITY
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" A thing iuseparate Sophism. — " Whatever consists

Divides more wider thau the sky of many divisible parts is gieater

and earth." than that which consists of few

Troilus and Cressida, v. 2 (1609). parts and is more of one piece." —

Colors of Good and Evil (1597).

Bacon gives this sophism in order to refute it. He says
that " though at first sight it appears a shorter distance on a
dead level, where nothing intervenes to break the view, than
when there are trees and buildings or some other mark to
divide the space," " yet this is a false opinion." " The sophism
deceives," he adds, "by reason of the superiority of what is
inseparate to multitude."

573

CIPHER MESSAGE OF THE SPARTANS

"What's here? A scroll, and " Scytala." — Promus (1594-96).
written about."
Titus Andronicus, iv. 2 (1600).

The scytala was a cipher message, written about a conical
staff. Used by the Lacedsemonians in communication with
their generals in the field.

574

DEATH, A REDEEMER

" 0 ! that the Everlasting had not " A man might wish to die,

fix'd though he were neither brave, nor

His canon 'gainst self-slaughter! miserable, nor wise, wholly from

O God! O God! weariness of living." — De Aug-

How weary, stale, flat, and un- mentis (1622).

profitable
Seem to me all the uses of this

world !
Fie on 't! 0 fie ! "

Hamlet, i. 2 (1604).

PARALLELISMS 299

675

THE STOICS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Only, good master, while we do " The felicity of the Stoics is

admire placed in virtue ; but it is like the

This virtue, and this moral disci- felicity of a player, who, if he were

pline, left of his auditory and their ap-

Let 's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, plause, would straight be out of

I pray." heart and countenance." — Colors

The Taming of the Shrew, i. 1 of Good and Evil (1597).

(1623). "It was not the Epicureans

but the Stoics that troubled the
ancient states." — De Augmentis
(1622).

576
DEATH AND ENVY

(^Before the tomb.) " Nothing but death can recon-

" Here lurks no treason, here no cile envy to virtue." — Ibid.
en^iy swells."
Titus Andronicus, i. 2 (1623).

577

CIRCE

*' As if, with Circe, she would " The worst of Circe's transfer-

change my shape." mations." — Ibid.

1 King Henry VI., v. 2 (1623).

578

HUMANE INFLUENCES OF CHILDREN

"You have no children, butchers! "Children are a kind of disci-

if you had, pline of humanity." — Ibid.

The thought of them would have
stirr'd up remorse."
3 King Henry VL, v. 5 (1595).

579
TYRANNY OF CUSTOM
"Custom calls me to 't; "The tyranny of custom." —

What custom wills, in all things Essay of Custom and Education
should we do't." (1625).

Coriolanus, ii. 3 (1623).

300

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" New customs,
Though they be never so ridicu-
lous,
Nay, let 'em be unmanly, yet are
foUow'd."
King Henry VIII., i. 2 (1623).
" The tyrant custom."

Othello, i. 3 (1622).
" That monster, custom, who aU
sense doth eat."

Hamlet, iii. 4 (1604).

" Custom is the principal magis-
trate of man's life." — Essay oj
Custom and Education (1607-12).

" Nature is a schoolmaster, cus-
tom a magistrate." — De Augmen-
lis (1G22).

580

ACCIDENTS OF LIFE

From Shakespeare
" Not a man, for being simply

man.
Hath any honor; but honor for

those honors
That are without him, as place,

riches and favor,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit."
Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3 (1609).

From Bacon
" It is absurd to prefer the acci-
dents of life to life itself." — Ibid.

581

DISH OF DOVES

"I have here a dish of doves
that I would bestow upon your
worship." — Merchant of Venice,
ii. 2 (1600).

" I have brought you a letter
and a couple of pigeons." — Titus
Andronicus, iv. 4 (1600).

" I send between your brother
and you the first flight of my dove-
house, ii dozen and iiii pigeons ;
xii to you and xvi to your brother
[Francis], because he was wont to
love them better than you from a
boy." — Lady Bacon to A nthony
(Gorhambury, April, 1595).

" I send you xii pigeons, my
last flight, and one ring-dove he-
aidea." — Ibid. (Oct. 1595).

It is interesting to note in this connection that Francis
Bacon had an especial fondness for a dish of doves.

PARALLELISMS 301

582
COMMANDING ARMIES FROM A LITTER

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Once I read " Great empires have been gov-

That stout Pendragon, in his litter, emed from bed, great armies com-

sick, manded from the litter." — De

Came to the field and vanquished Augmentis (1622),
his foes."
1 King Henry VI., iii. 2 (1623).

583
VIRTUE, BEAUTY

•' Virtue is beauty." — Twelfth " Virtue is nothing but inward
Night, iv. 3 (1623). beauty." — Ibid.

584

DIVINENESS IN TOUTH

" Behold divineness " Youug men's counsels have

No elder than a boy." more divineness." — Ibid.

Cymbeline, iii. 6 (1623).

585
PRIAM AND HIS CHILDREN

" And so obsequious will thy father " Some persons have wished for

be, Priam's fortune, who survived all

Son, for the loss of thee, having no his children." — Ibid.
more,

As Priam was for all his valiant
sons."
5 King Henry VI., ii. 5 (1623).

586
WEALTH DESPISED BY THE POOR

" Whiles I am a beggar, I will " They despise riches who de-

rail, spair of them." — Ibid.

And say, there is no sin but to be
rich."

King John, ii. 2 (1623).

302 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

587
DELIBERATION, A MARK OF DULNESS

From Shakespeare

" 0, these deliberate fools ! when

they choose,
They have the wisdom by their wit

to lose."
Merchant of Verice, ii. 9 (1600).

From Bacon

♦* He that is wise in deliberation
and not upon the moment does no
great matters." — De Augmentis
(1622).

588

ELDER-FLOWERS

"What says my ^Esculapius ? my
Galen ? my heart of Elder. . . .
Thou art a Castilian, King Urinal."
— Merry Wives, ii. 3.

" Of this kind are elder-flowers,
which are therefore proper for
stone." — Sylva Sylvarum (\ 622-
25).

" In the end, add of elder-flow-
ers and marigold-flowers together,
one pugil.'' — Bacon's Receipt for
the Stone (posthumous).

Dr. Caius, a physician, is here addressed as though he
were a specialist in kidney diseases, and in some manner con-
nected with a specific remedy mentioned by Bacon ; namely,
elder-flowers — " my heart of elder." He was a conspicuous
professor in the University of Cambridge when the Bacon
brothers were matriculated there, both of whom are known
to have been lifelong sufferers from an affection of the
kidneys. Noted by Mr. James.

589

SPIRITS IN INANIMATE BODIES

My uncle's spirit is in these
stones."

King John, iv. 3 (1623).

" All tangible bodies contain a
spirit."

" No known body in the upper
parts of the earth is without a
spirit." — Historia Vitce et Mortis
(1623).

PARALLELISMS

303

From Bacon
" An ill wind that bloweth no
man to good." — Promus (1594-96).

590
AN ILL WIND

From Shakespeare

" The ill wind which blows no

man to good."

2 King Henry IV., v. 3 (1600).

"Ill blows the wind that profits

nobody."

S King Henry VI., ii. 5 (1595).

591
STUDIES SHOULD FOLLOW INCLINATION

" Practise rhetoric in your com-
mon talk ;

Music and poesy use to quicken you.

The mathematics, and the meta-
physics,

Fall to them, as you find your
stomach serves you.

No profit grows where is no pleas-
ure ta'en.

In brief, sir, study what you most
affect."

The Taming of the Shrew, i. 1 (1623).

" There are very many advantages
in a collegiate education. Let some
encouragement be given to the free
exercise of the pupils' minds and
tastes ; I mean, if any one of
them, besides performing the pre-
scribed exercises, shall steal time
for other pursuits to which he is
more inclined, let him not be
checked." — De Augmentis (1622).

592
ARMIES OF THE PANNONIANS

" The Pannonians and Dalmatians

for
Their liberties are now in arms."
Cymbeline, iii. 1 (1623).

*' Two stage-players, by their
faculty of playing, put the Pan-
nonian armies into an extreme
tumult. " — Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

Bacon speaks of the Dalmatians in his Historia Ven-

torum.

593

STAGE-PLAYING AND BASHFULNESS

" I love the people, " Stage playing accustoms young

But do not like to stage me to their men to bear to be looked at." — De

eyes." Augmentis (1622).
Measure for Measure, i. 1 (1623).

304

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

594

CONTEMPLATIVE STUDIES

From Shakespeare

" Navarre shall be the wonder of

the world ;
Our court shall be a little academe,
Still and contemplative in living

art."
Love's Ldbor''s Lost, i. 1 (1598).

From Bacon

" Moral philosophy determines
the question, ' Which is to be pre-
ferred, the contemplative or the
active life,' and decides it ayainst
Aristotle. For all the reasons
which Aristotle adduces in favor
of the contemplative are for one's
private good and have respect to
the pleasure and dignity of a man's
self; not much unlike the com-
parison which Pythagoras made,
who, being asked what he was,
answered, ' That if Hiero were ever
at the Olympian games, he knew
the manner, that some came to try
their fortune for the prizes, and
some came as merchants to utter
their commodities, and some came
to make good cheer and meet their
friends, and some came to look on ;
and that he was one of them that
came to look on.' But men must
know that in this theatre of man's
life, it is reserved only for God and
Angels to be lookers on." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

Contemplative life, according to Bacon, is that which is
spent in abstract study, in consideration, for instance, of the
nature of things, of virtue and vice, of pleasure and pain, of
degrees of good, and the like, without regard to the practical
wants of society. This he contrasts with active life, such as
Pythagoras found in the games at Olympia.

Shake-speare proposes a similar theoretical study in
'Love's Labor's Lost ;' bestows upon it a name taken from
Bacon's philosophical terminology ; and then proceeds, as if

PARALLELISMS

305

in vindication of Bacon's opinion of it, to demonstrate its
absurdity. See 'Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare,' p. 42.

595
EFFECT OF GREAT AND SUDDEN JOTS

From Shakespeare

" OHelicanus ! strike me, honor'd
sir;

Give me a gash, put me to present
pain,

Lest this great sea of joys, rushing
upon me,

O'erbear the shores of my mortality,

And drown me with their sweet-
ness."

Pericles, v. 1 (1609).

596

From Bacon
" Many have died from great
and sudden joys." — History of
Life and Death (1623).

COMEDY OF ERRORS

^^ Lucetta. In what habit will you "As it is used in some come-
fro alono' ? dies of errors, wherein the mistress

Julia. Gentle Lucetta, fit me with and the maid change habits." —
such weeds Ihid.

As may beseem some well-reputed
page."

Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii.
7 (1623).

In the play (one of the earliest written) ^ the mistress
changes her habit to that of a page. In Bacon's work from
which the corresponding passage is cited, a similar trans-
formation is said to have been effected in some " comedies of
errors." It is noteworthy that in the second edition of the
'Advancement' (1622) the designation " comedies of errors "
is withdrawn, and that of " comedies " only substituted in its
stead. Why ? Had the former become too significant, just
on the eve of the first publication (1623) of a Shakespearean
drama, entitled, ' The Comedy of Errors ' ?

1 See 'Francis Bacon Our Shake-spearc,' p. 70.

3o6 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

597

ABSTEMIOUSNESS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Let 's be no Stoics, nor no stocks, " Introducing such an health of

I pray; mind as was that health of body

Or so devote to Aristotle's checks, of which Aristotle speaketh of

As Ovid be an outcast quite ab- Herodicus who did nothing all his

jur'd." life long but intend his health." —

The Taming of the Shrew, i. Advancement of Learning (^1603-5).
1 (1623).

In the second edition of the ' Advancement ' (1622) Bacon
quotes further from Aristotle that Herodicus, out of con-
sideration for his health, " abstained from an infinite variety
of things, depriving himself, as it were, of the use of his
body in the meantime." It is to these restraints that Tranio
makes objection in the play, calling them " Aristotle's
Checks."

598

nerd's passion for the lute

" I will, and, like thee, Nero, " The passion of Nero for the

Play on the lute." lute." i — De Augmeniis (1622).

1 King Henry VI., i. 4 (1623).

599

CHARACTER OF STLLA

" Like ambitious Sylla, overgorg'd " That gigantean state of mind,

With gobbets of thy mother's which possesses the troublers of the

bleeding heart." world, such as was Lucius Sylla."

2 King Henry VI., iv. 1 (1623). — Ibid.

600
PRAISE IN PRESENCE

" I come not " It is esteemed flattery to praise

To hear such flattery now, and in in presence." — Advancement of

my presence." Learning (1603-5).
King Henry VIII. , v. 2 (1623).

1 The word is cithara in the original.

PARALLELISMS

307

" Madam, although I speak it in

your presence,
You have a noble and a true conceit
Of god-like amity."

The Merchant of Venice, iii. 4
(1600).

601
WHEEL OF FORTUNE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"She [Fortune] is painted also " The wheels of his fortune."
with a wheel." Essay 0/ Fortune (1625),

King Henry V., iii. 6 (1600).

602
PREDOMINANCES OF PLANETS

" We make guilty of our disas-
ters the sun, the moon, and the
stars ; as if we were villains by
necessity ; fools, by heavenly com-
pulsion ; knaves, thieves, and
treachers, by spherical predomi-
nance ; drunkards, liars, and
adulterers, by an enforced obe-
dience of planetary influence," —
King Lear, i. 2 (1608).

" In the traditions of astrology,
men's natures and dispositions are
not unaptly distinguished accord-
ing to the predominances of the
planets." — De Augmentis (1622).

603

KILLING OF TYRANTS LAWFUL

" Those whom we fight against
Had rather have us win than him

they follow.
For what is he they follow 1 truly,

gentlemen,
A bloody tyrant, and a homicide;
One rais'd in blood, and one in

blood establish 'd ;
One that made means to come by

what he hath;
And slaughter'd those that were

the means to help him ;
A base foul stone, made precious

by the foil

" To make trial of their opinions,
the question was cunningly raised,
' whether the killing of a tyrant
were lawful 1 ' They were divided
in opinion; some holding that it
was clearly lawful, for servitude is
the extreme of evils." — Advance-
ment of Learning (1603-5).

3o8 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Of England's chair, where he is

falsely set ;
One that hath ever been God's

enemy.
Then, if you fight against God's

enemy,
God will, in justice, ward you as

his soldiers ;
If you do sweat to put a tyrant

down,
You sleep in peace, the tyrant

being slain."
King Richara III., v. 3 (1597).

604

POETS, BEST DELINEATORS OF AFFECTIONS AND PASSIONS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" The truest poetry is the most " To speak the real truth, the
feigning." poets, and writers of history, are

As You Like It, iii. 3 (1623). the best doctors of this knowledge ;

where we may find, painted forth
with great life, how affections are
kindled and incited ; how pacified
and refrained ; how they disclose
themselves, how they work, how
they vary, how they gather and
fortify, and how they are in-
wrapped one within another." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

Bacon tells us that the conflicting passions and affections
of tlie human heart can best be portrayed by poets ; Shake-
speare, developing the thought a little farther, that this is
done to " the greatest advantage when the poetry is most
feigned, — that is, when it is least in the trammels of actual
events. Bacon adds that " a character, so worked into the
narrative, gives a better idea of the man than a formal
criticism or review can."

It is evident that both of these authors had the drama
here in view. Bacon certainly anticipated for the drama a

PARALLELISMS 309

wider sphere of usefulness in the future, for he complains
that down to his own time, the precepts, derived from this
method of study, were but, as it were, a " few posies in our
hands, instead of that scientific and accurate dissection of
character by which better rules may be framed for the treat-
ment of the mind."

605
OLD MEN MISERLY

From Shakespeare From 6acon

•' An old man loves money." " We see that Plautus makes

All 's Well, iii. 2 (1623). it a wonder to see an old man bene-
ficent."— Advancement of Learn-
ing (1603-5).

606
AIMS IN LIFE

"Let all the ends thou aim'st at "The last point, which is ot all

be thy country's, others the most compendious and

Thy God's, and truth's." summary, and again the most

King Henry VIII., iii. 2 (1623). noble and effectual, ... is the

electing and propounding unto a
man's seK good and virtuous ends
ofhislife." — 76ic?.

607

VIRTUE, A CAUSE OF RUIN

" Some by virtue fall." " ' There are seasons,' says Taci-

Measure for Measure, u. 1 (1623). tus, 'when great virtues are the

surest causes of ruin.' " — Ibid.

608

ELOQUENT SILENCE

"Say, she be mute, and will not « A kind of eloquence in silence."
speak a word ; — De Augmentis (1622).

Then I '11 commend her volubility,

And say, she uttereth piercing
eloquence. "
TTie Taming of the Shrew, ii. 1
(1623).

3IO

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

609
SWIMMING ON BLADDERS AND DANCING WITU HEAVY SHOES
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" I have ventured, " It is one method to begin

Like little wanton boys that swim swimming with bladders, which
on bladders, keep you up; and another, to begin

This many summers, in a sea of glory dancing with heavy shoes, which
Far beyond my depth." wei^'li you down." — Advancement

King Henry VIII., iii. 2 (1023). of Learning (1603-5).
" You have dancing shoes
With nimble soles ; I have a soul

of lead
So stakes me to the ground, I can-
not move."
Romeo and Juliet, i. 4 (1599).

610

SPEECH,

Would I had a rod in my mouth."
Timon of Athens, ii. 2 (1623).

A ROD

" It was Pindar's peculiar gift
to surprise men's minds with some
striking expression, as with a magic
rod." — De Augmentis (1622),

611

RATS FORSAKING A HOUSE

" The very rats instinctively "It is the wisdom of rats that

bave quit it." will be sure to leave a house

The Tempest, i. 2 (1623). before it Ml." — Essay of Wis-
dom (1625).
612

TUNING INSTRUMENTS

" Hortensio. You '11 leave his lec-
ture, when I am in tune ?

[Exit.

Lucentio. That will be never;
tune your instrument.

Hortensio [Returning']. Madam,
my instrument 's in tune.

Bianca. Let 'shear. [Hor.plays.l
0 fie ! the treble jars.

" This treatise of mine seems to
me not unlike those sounds and
preludes which magicians make
while they are tuning their instru-
ments."— De Augmentis (1622).

PARALLELISMS 3 1 1

Lucendo. Spit in the hole, man,
and tune again.

Bianca. Now let me see if I
can construe it : Hie ibat Simois,
I know you not ; Mc est Sigeia
tellus, I trust you not ; Hie
steterat Priami, take heed he hears
us not ; regia, presume not ; celsa
senis, despair not.
Hortensio. Madam, 't is now in

tune.
Lucentio. All but the base.

Hortensio. The base is right ;
'tis the base knave that jars."

The Taming of the Shrew, iii. 1
(1623).

613

POINTS OF THE COMPASS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

*' It standeth north-north-east *' The particular divisions of
and by east." — Lovers Labor 's the winds is shown by the follow-
Lost, i. 1 (1598). ing table [in part] : North-north-

east, North-east, anciently called
Aquilo, and by East." — Historia
Ventorum (1622).

Both authors made a study of the winds in relation to
points of the compass.

614

EAST WIND, rumor's POST-HORSE

" Open your ears ; for which of " Persons, sailing in the open sea

you wiU stop between the tropics, are aware of a

The vent of hearing, when loud steady and continual wind (called

Rumor speaks ? by the sailors Brize) blowing from

I, from the Orient to the drooping East to West. This wind is so

West, strong that partly by its own blast

Making the wind my post-horse, and partly by its influence on the

still unfold current, it prevents vessels, sailing

The acts commenced on this ball toPeru, from returning by the same

of earth ; way." — Historia Ventorum, (1622).

312

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Upon my tongues continual slan-
ders ride,

The which in every language I
pronounce,

StuflBng the ears of men with false
reports."
2 King Henry IV., Induction
(1600).

Bacon attributed this continuous east wind in the tropics,
as also the general atmospheric movement in the same direction
throughout the earth, to the influence of the heavens, for he
thought the latter to be always in motion from east to west.
In this view no other wind could be a suitable post-horse for
Eumor to ride.

615

ENGLAND AND FRANCE
From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Five men to twenty! — though "England, though far less in

the odds be great, territory and population, has been

I doubt not, uncle, of our victory. nevertheless an overmatch [for

Many a battle have I won in

France
When as the enemy hath been ten

to one."
3 King Henry VI., i. 2 (1623).

France]; and for this reason, that
the yeomen and lower classes of
England make good soldiers and
the peasants of France do not." —
De Augmentis (1622).

616
EXCESSIVE PKAISE

" Duke. How dost thou, my
good fellow 1

Clown. Truly, sir, the better for
my foes, and the worse for my
friends.

Duke. Just the contrary ; the
better for thy friends.

Clown. No, sir ; the worse.

Duke. How can that be ?

Clown. Marry, sir, they praise
me, and make an ass of me." —
Twelfth Night, v. 1 (1623).

" Praises, when moderate and
seasonable, and expressed on fit
occasion, contribute greatly both
to the reputation and fortune of
men ; but when immoderate, noisy,
and unseasonably lavished, they do
no good ; nay rather, they do
great harm." — Ibid.

PARALLELISMS

3^3

From Shakespeare
"1 Citizen. This Caesar was a

tyrant.

3 Citizen. Nay, that 's certain.

We are bless'd that Rome is rid

of him." — Julius Ccesar, iii. 2

(1623).

617

A TYRANT

From Bacon
"As Cicero said, 'Caesar does
not refuse, but rather demands to
be called a tyrant, as he really
is.' " — Advancement of Learning
(1603-5).

618

SOLDIERS, THE TRUE SINEWS OF "WAR

(The gates heing forced, enter
Soldiers.)
" Talbot. How say you, madam ?

are you now persuaded,
That Talbot is but shadow of him-
self?
These are his substance, sinews,
arms, and strength."
1 King Henry VI., ii. 3 (1623).

" Whereas there was an old
proverb, that ' money is the sinews
of war,' yet he maintained on the
contrary that the true sinews of
war are nothing else than the
sinews of a valiant and military
people." — Ibid.

619
A JUDGMENT OF GOD ON HENRY AND KATHARINE

"King Henry. Hence I took a

thought,
This was a judgment on me."
King Henry VIIL, ii. 4 (162.3).

" It was a judgment of God, for
that her former marriage was made
in blood ; meaning that of the Earl
of Warwick." — History of Henry
VII. (1621).

The execution of Edward, Earl of Warwick, a prisoner in

the Tower and a dangerous claimant of the throne, had been

insisted upon by Katharine's parents as a condition precedent

to her marriage with Arthur. To this act, under a judgment

of God, Henry attributed his domestic misfortunes, as above

stated.

620

THE BATTLE OF ACTIUM
"Anthony. "All is lost! "The battle of Actium decided

This foul Egyptian hath betray 'd the fate of the world" — De Aug-
me. mentis (1622).

314 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

My fleet hath yielded to the foe,
aud yonder

They cast their caps up, and ca-
rouse together,

Like friends long lost.

Dercetas. I say, 0 Caesar, Anthony

is dead.
CcBsar. The breaking of so great a

thing should make
A greater crack. The round world
Should have shook lions into civil

streets.
And citizens to their dens. The

death of Anthony
Is not a single doom ; in the name

lay
A moiety of the world."

Anthony and Cleopatra, iv. 9,
V. 1 (1623).

621

TIME, THE WISEST OF ALL THINGS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Time is the old Justice that " Time, according to the ancient

examines all such offenders." — As saying, is the wisest of all things."
You Like It, iv. 1 (1623). — X>e Augmentis (1622).

' ' Here 's Nestor :
Instructed by the antiquary times.
He must, he is, he cannot but be

wise."
Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3 (1609).
"jEneas. 'T is the old Nestor.

Hector. Let me embrace thee, good

old Chronicle,
Thou hast so long walk'd hand in
hand with Time."

Ibid., iv. 5.

** That old common arbitrator,

Time." Ibid.

" 0 Time ! thou tutor both to good

and bad!"

Lucrece (1594).

PARALLELISMS 3 1 5

622
LEGAL SNARES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Here '3 a fish hangs in the net, "There are no worse snares

like a poor man's right in the than legal snares ; . . . they are
law." — Pericles, ii. 1 (1609). as nets in the path." — De Aug-

mentis (1622).
623
BRANDING THE HAND

" Methinks he should stand in " The king began also then, as

fear of fire, being burnt i' the hand well in wisdom as in justice, to
for stealing of sheep." — 2 King pare a little the privilege of
Henry VI., iv. 2 (1594). clergy ; ordaining that clerks con-

vict should be burned in the
hand." — History of Henry VII.
(1621).

The first enactment relating to Benefit of Clergy was in
the reign of Henry VI.

624

LIVING IN FEAR OF DEATH

" That life is better life, past fear- " Philosophers have increased

ing death, the fear of death in offering to

Than that which lives to fear." cure it. For when they would

Measure for Measure,^. 1 (1623). have a man's whole life to be but

"Cassius. He that cuts off twenty a discipline or preparation to die,

years of life, they must needs make men think

Cuts ofi" so many years of fearing that it is a terrible enemy against

death. whom there is no end of prepar-

Brutus. Grant that, and then is ing." — Advancement of Learning

death a benefit ; (1603-5).
So are we Caesar's friends that have

abridg'd
His time of fearing death."

Julius Ccesar, iii. 1 (1623).

625

SELDOM COMES THE BETTER

"Seldom comes the better." " Seldom cometh the better." —

King Richard 111., ii. 3 (1597). Prumus (1594-96).

3i6 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

62G

CICERO's DE ORATORE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Cornelia never with more care " Cicero's portrait of a perfect

Read to her sons than she hath orator." — Advancement of Learn-

read to thee ing (1C03-5).

Sweet poetry and Tally's Orator."
Titus Andronicus, iv. 1 (1600).

The book referred to is Marcus Tiillius Cicero's ' Orator *
QDc Oratore'), not translated into English in Shake-speare's
time.

627

SAYING AND DOING

" Your word " Saying and doing are two

And performance are no kin." things." — Promus (1594-96).

Othello, iv. 2 (1622).
" Ever may your highness yoke

together,
As I will lend you cause, my doing

well
With my well saying."

King Henry VIIL, iii. 2 (1623).

628
KINGDOM OF ^GLUS

" What did I then, but curs'd the " The poets have feigned that

gentle gusts, the kingdom of ^olus was situated

And he that loos'd them from their in subterranean dens and caverns,

brazen caves." where the winds were imprisoned,

2 King Henry VI., iii. 2 (1623). and whence they were occasionally

let loose." — Ibid.

629

AIB WITHIN THE EARTH

" Aswhen the wind, imprison'd in "When air exhales from the
the ground, earth gradually and at different

PARALLELISMS

317

Struggling for passage, earth's
foundation shakes."

Venus and Adonis (1593).

spots, it is at first hardly percepti-
ble ; but when many of these small
emanations of air are collected to-
gether, a wind is formed from
them. There is doubtless a large
quantity of air contained in the
earth.

It requires a great force of sub-
terraneous air to shake or cleave
the earth." — Historia Ventorum
(1622).

630
A GOD TO MAN

From Bacon
" Let a man only consider what
a difference there is between the
life of men in the most civilised
provinces of Europe and in the
wildest and most barbarous dis-
tricts of New India ; he will feel
it be great enough to justify the
saying that ' man is a god to
man.' " — Novum Organum (1608-
20).

MAN,

From Slmke-speare
"A god on earth thou art."

King Richard II., v. 3 (1597).
" Which is that god in office, guid-
ing men ?
Which is the high and mighty

Agamemnon 1 "
Troilus and Cressida, i. 3 (1609).
" And this man
Is now become a god."

Julius Ccesar, i. 2 (1623).
" He [Caesar] is a god
And knows what is most right."
Anthony and Cleopatra, iii. 2
(1623).
" We scarce are men, and you are
gods."

Cymheline, v. 2 (1623).
" Immortality attends the former,
[Virtue and cunning] making man
a god."

Ihid., iii. 2.

631
SOLYMAn's campaigns against PERSIA

" By this scimitar, — " Sometimes the winds hurl

That slew the Sophy, and a Per- down avalanches from the moun-

sian prince tains, so as almost to bury the

3i8

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

That won three fields of Sultan

Solyman, —
I would outstare the sternest eyes."
The Merchant of Venice, ii. 1

(1600).

plains below them ; a thing which
befel Solyman in the plains of
Sultania." — Historia Veniorum
(1622).

" So again Persia . . . hath had
three memorable revolutions of
great monarchies. The first in the
time of Cyrus ; the second in the
time of the new Artaxerxes, who
raised himself in the reign of
Alexander Severus, Emperor of
Rome ; and now of late memory,
in Ismail the Sophy, whose de-
scendants continue in empire, and
competition with the Turks, to
this day." — Of the True Greatness
of the Kingdom of Gt. Britain
(c. 1608).

Solyman, the Magnificent, undertook three invasions of
Persia, in 1534-35, 1549, and 1554, and in each of them failed
to accomplish his purpose. They were thus, substantially
(as Shake-speare calls them), Persian victories.

The avalanche, mentioned by Bacon, took place in 1534,
while the Turkish army was encamped in Sultania.

Knowledge of these campaigns was exceedingly meagre
in England at the time ' The Merchant of Venice ' was
written. It was probably limited to foreign sources.

632

OVERFLOWING

From Shake-speare
« They take the flow o' the Nile
By certain scales i' the pyramid ;

they knew,
By the height, the lowness, or the

mean, if dearth
Or foison follow. The higher

Nilus swells,
The more it promises ; as it ebbs,

the seedsman

OF THE NILE

From Bacon

" It is strange that, the river of
Nilus, overflowing, as it does, the
country of Egypt, there should be
nevertheless little or no rain in
the country." — Natural History
(1622-25).

" It is reported of credit that if
you take earth from land adjoin-
ing to the river of Nile, and pre-

PARALLELISMS

319

Upon the slime and ooze scatters
his grain,

And shortly comes to harvest."
Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 7
(1623).

" Charmian. Even as the overflow-
ing Nile presages famine.

Iras, Go to, yon wild fellow, you
cannot soothsay."
Anthony and Cleopatra, i. 2.

serve it in that manner that it
come to be neither wet nor wasted,
and weigh it daily, it will not al-
ter weight until June 17th, which
is the day when the river begin-
neth to rise." — Natural History
(1622-25).

" The water of Nilus is sweeter
than other waters in taste." —
Ibid.

" It is an old tradition that those
that dwell near the cataracts of
Nilus are strucken deaf. " — Ibid.

"The Nile runneth through a
country of a hot climate, and flat,
without shade either of woods or
hilh." — Ibid.

" It is certain that in Egypt
they prepare and clarify the water
of the Nile by putting it in great
jars of stone, and stirring it about
with a few stamped almonds ;
wherewith they also besmear the
mouth of the vessel ; and so draw
it off, after it hath rested some
time." — Ibid.

" Upon that very day when the
river first riseth, great plagues in
Cairo use suddenly to break up."
— Ibid.

" It has been set down by the
ancients as one of the causes of the
inundation of the Nile that at that
time of the year the Etesian or
North winds are prevalent, which
prevent the river from running to
the sea, and drive it back." —
Historia Ventorum (\ 622).

Here are statements respecting the annual overflow of the
river Nile, eight made by Bacon and three by the author we
call Shake-speare, and all taken from a book of travels writ-

320 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

ten by George Sandys and published in 1615. Indeed, Bacon
followed Sandys so closely and systematically while writing
his Sylva Sylvarum, that (as we have stated elsewhere) one
can know what countries Sandys visited, and what was the
order in which he visited them, from Bacon's work. This
dependence, we shall now undertake to show, was true also,
so far as knowledge of the Nile is concerned, of Shake-speare.
We give the corresponding passages in juxtaposition :

Bacon. " It is strange that the river of Nihis, overflowing, as it does,
the country of Egypt, there should be nevertheh;ss little or no
rain in the country."

Sandys. " The earth then burnt with the violent fervor, never re-
freshed with rain (which here rarely falls, and then only in
the winter)."

Bacon. " It is reported of credit that if you take earth from land
adjoining to the river of Nile, and preserve it in that manner
that it come to be neither wet nor wasted, and weigh it daily,
it will not alter weight until June 17th, which is the day when
the river beginneth to rise."

Sandys. '• Take of the earth of Egypt, adjoining to the river, and
preserve it carefully, that it neither come to be wet nor wasted;
weigh it daily, and you shall find it neither moi-e nor less
heavy until the 17th of June; at which day it beginneth to
grow ponderous, and augmenteth with the augmentation of
the river."

Bacon. *' The water of Nilus is sweeter than other waters in taste."

Sandys. " Than the waters whereof there is none more sweet."

Bacon. "It is an old tradition that those that dwell near the cata-

racts of Nilus are strucken deaf."

Sandys. " lie spouts down from a wonderful height into the valley
below, and that with such a roaring of waters that a colony,
there planted by the Persians, made almost deaf with the noise,
were glad to abandon their habitations!''

PARALLELISMS

321

Bacon. " The Nile runneth through a country of a hot climate, and

flat, without shade either of woods or hills."
Sandys. " From Rosetta to Alexandria, thirty miles, all low ground,

and lying in a Champion level between barren mountains."
*• Neither are there any trees to speak of."

Bacon. "It is certain that in Egypt they prepare and clarify the
water of the Nile by putting it in great jars of stone, and stir-
ring it about with a few stamped almonds ; wherewith they
also besmear the mouth of the vessel ; and so draw it off after
it hath rested some time."

Sandys. •' They put the water in large jars of stone, stirring it about
with a few stamped almonds, wherewith also they besmear the
mouth of the vessel ; and for three or four hours do suffer it to
clarify."

Bacon. "Upon that very day when the river first riseth, great
plagues in Cairo use suddenly to break up."

Sandys. " The Plague, which here oft miserably rageth, upon the
first of the flood doth instantly cease."

Bacon. " It has been set down by the ancients as one of the causes
of the inundation of the Nile that at that time of the j'ear the
Etesian or North Avinds are prevalent, which prevent the river
from runniug to the sea, and drive it back."

Sandys. " Thales attributes it unto the northern Avinds, which, then
blowing up the river, resist the current and force the rever-
berated streams to retire."

Shakespeare. " They take the flow o' the Nile

By certain scales i' the pyramid."
Sandys. " By the pillar, standing in a vault within the Castle, entred
by the Nile, they measure his increase."
21

322 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Shakespeare. " They know-

By the height, the lowness, or the mean, if dearth
Or ibison follow. The higher Nilus swells,
The more it promises."

Sandys. "Answerable to the increase of the river, is the plenty or
scarcity of the year succeeding."

Shakespeare. " As it ebbs, the seedsman

Upon the slime and ooze scatters his grain,

And shortly comes to harvest."
Sandys. " Eetiring a month after within his proper bounds, it giveth

way unto husbandry (the earth untilled) by throwing the

grain on the mud, and rice into the water."

Sandys' book of travels was published in London in 1615 ;
that is, as years were then reckoned, between March 25,
1615, and March 25, 1616.^ William Shakespeare, the re-
puted poet, died at Stratford, April 23, 1616. His will was
drawn by a scrivener in January preceding, at which time he
was unable to recall the name of a grandchild, eleven years
of age. His death was occasioned, according to the best
evidence that we possess, by a drunken debauch.^

633
MARRIAGE OF RICHMOND AND ELIZABETH
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" 0 ! now let Richmond and " At last upon the eighteenth

Elizabeth, of January was solemnised the

The true succeeders of each royal so long expected and so much de-
house, sired marriage between the king
By God's fair ordinance conjoin and Lady Elizabeth ; which day
together ! of marriage was celebrated with

1 Contemporary accounts of the inundation are found in Leo's History of
Africa (translated by Pory, 1600) and Pliny's Natural History (translated by
Holland, 1601). The dramatist, however, is at variance in some important
particulars with these authors, but with Bacon and Sandys in exact agreement
throughout.

* See our ' Bacon vs. Shakspere,' 8th ed.

PARALLELISMS 30.3

And let their heirs (God, if thy greater triumph and demonstra-

will be so) tions (especially on the people's

Enrich the time to come with part) of joy and gladness, than the

smooth-fac'd peace, days either of his entry or coro-

With smiling plenty, and fair nation." — History of Henry VII.

prosperous days." (1622).
King Richard III., v. 4 (1597).

634

FREQUENT CAPTURE OF THEBES

From Shahe-spcare From Bacon

" It was play'd " Storks ought to be very long-
When I from Thebes came last a lived, if the old story is true that
conqueror." they never went to Thebes because
A Midsummer-Night^ s Dream, V. that city was so often captured."
1 (1600). —Historia Vitce et Mortis (1623).

635

FISH COLD-BLOODED

" His fins like arms ! Warm ! o' " Fish are said to be cold-

my troth ! I do now let loose my blooded." — Ibid.
opuiion, hold it no longer. This
is no fish." — The Tempest, ii . 2
(1623).

636

bacon's newly DISCOVERED PORTFOLIO

" Revealing day through every " Revealing day through every

cranny spies." cranny peeps." — Cover of MS.

Lucrece (1594). Volume of Bacon (c. 1598).

A volume of manuscripts, on the cover of which had been
reproduced a line from Shake-speare's ' Lucrece ' (as quoted
above), was discovered in an old library in London in 1867.
It contained certain writings of Francis Bacon, the existence
of which had not previously been known. It also con-
tained on the same cover the names of Bacon and Shake-
speare, written together over and over again, and what, if
possible, is still more significant, the titles of two of the
Shake-speare plays, ' Eichard II.' and ' Eichard III.' In the

324 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

space immediately above these latter titles the name of
Shakespeare made its first appearance in this Bacon port-
folio. For a full description of this interesting volume,
including a facsimile of the cover, see our * Bacon vs.
Shakspere,' 8 th ed.

637

OIL IN WHALES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" This whale, with so many tons " Au immense quantity of oil

of oil in his belly." is extracted from whales." —

Merry Wives of Windsor, ii. 1 Natural History (1G22-25).
(1623).

The first edition of ' The Merry Wives of Windsor ' (1602)
did not contain the above reference to a whale ; nor did the
second edition (1619). The reference made its first appear-
ance in the folio of 1623, at which time Bacon was compos-
ing his ' Natural History.'

638

BEAUTY OF NARCISSUS

" Hadst thou Narcissus in thy " Narcissus is said to have been a
face, to me young man of wonderful beauty."

Thou wouldst appear most ugly." — Wisdom of the Ancients (1609),
Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 5
(1623).

639
C^SAR DESIRING TITLE OF KING

" What means this shouting ? I " Caesar did extremely affect the

do fear the people name of king ; and some were set

Choose CtBsar for their king." on, as he passed by, in popular

Julius Ccesar, i. 2 (1623). acclamation to salute him king."

— T7ie Advancement of Learning

(1603-5).

640
MAN IN THE MOON

"This man, with lanthorn, dog, "Respecting the face in the

and bush of thorn, moon's orb, this consideration is

Presenteth Moonshine. wisely proposed, that it is not prob-
able that in the dispersion of matter

PARALLELISMS

3'^S

nature enclosed every compact
body in the globe of the earth
alone, when there were so many
globes of stars revolving." — De
Principiis et Originibus (c. 1603).

This lanthorn is the moon; I, the
man in the moon."
A Midsummer-Night's Dream,
V. 1 (1600).
" The man i' the moon 's too
slow."

The Tempest, ii. 1 (1623).

It may surprise our readers to find this myth given a
place in Bacon's system of philosophy.

641

MEDEA

From Shakespeare

" In such a night
Medea gathered the enchanted

herbs
That did renew old ^son."

The Merchant of Venice, v. 1
(1600).

From Bacon
" In the fable of the restoration
of Pelias to youth, Medea, when
she pretended to set to work, pro-
posed to accomplish it by cutting
the body of the old man to pieces,
and boiling it up in a cauldron
with certain drugs." — History of
Life and Death (1623).

These passages have reference to the same myth.

642

MEDICAL

" 'T is known I ever

Have studied physic, through
which secret art

By turning o'er authorities, I have

(Together with my practice) made
familiar

To me and to my aid the blest in-
fusions

That dwell in vegetives, in metals,
stones."

Pericles, iii. 2 (1609).

Bacon laid special stress on the medicinal virtues of infu-
sions, and he virtually classified them, for practical use, as
Shake-speare did, into the vegetative, the metallic, and the
mineral, thus :

INFUSIONS

" I fully believe that if some-
thing could be infused in very
small portions into the whole sub-
stance of blood, over which the
action of the spirit and heat should
have little or no power, it would
be very effectual in prolonging
Vder — Ibid.

326 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

The Vegetative. " In my opinion, the safer and more effectual
means would be the use of woods in infusions and decoctions. Those
suited to the purpose are sandal, oak, and vine. Also, the dry and
woody stalks of rosemary and the ivy. Let them be taken in broths, or
in new wine or beer before the latter is settled. If in broths, let them
be infused a long time before they are boiled."

The Metallic. "Gold only, for all metals except gold have some
pernicious quality in their volatile part, neither can they be beaten out
so finely as gold-leaf. Wine in which gold has been dissolved I think
good once in a meal.

The Mineral. "Of crystals two are chiefly regarded as cordials,
the emerald and the jacinth, which are given in the same forms as
pearls — either in a fine powder or in a kind of paste or solution made
by the juice of very sour and fresh lemons."

It iwS difficult to resist the conclusion that the man who
drew the character of Cerimon in * Pericles ' had made a
study of medicine (as indeed Cerimon confesses he had), and
particularly of the effect of drugs on the human constitution,
as Bacon had.

643

DISEMBOWELLING, THE PUNISHMENT FOR HIGH TREASON

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Like a traitor to the name " I remember to have seen the

of God, heart of a man who had his bowels

[Thou] didst break that vow, and torn out (the punishment with us

with thy treacherous blade of high treason) which, on being

L^nripp'dst the bowels of thy sov- cast according to custom into the

ereign's son." fire, leaped up." — Ibid.
King Richard III., i. 4 (1597).

In the passage from the play, Clarence is accused of
having disembowelled Prince Edward with his own dagger.

644

MOON and SATURN

" Chanting faint praises to the cold, " Other planets again are set

fruitless moon." dowTi as cold ; the moon for in-

A Midaummer-NighVs Dream, i. stance, and, above all, Satiu:n." —

1 (IGOO). Novum Organum (1620).

PARALLELISMS 327

"Flying between the cold moon

and the earth,
Cupid, all arm'd."
A Midsumvier-Night's Dream, ii. 1.

" The sweet view on 't
Might well have warm'd old
Saturn."

Cymheline, ii. 5 (1623).

645
DIMENSIONS OP AN ATOM

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"It is as easy to count atomies "An atom, as Democritus him-

as to resolve the propositions of a self said, no one ever saw or can

lover." — As You Like It, iii. 2 see." — Cogitationes de Natura

(1623). Rerum (c. 1603-4).

Bacon was a great admirer of Democritus, considering him
to have been superior both to Plato and to Aristotle. At one
time he strongly leaned toward the doctrine of atomies or
atoms which Democritus was the first to proclaim, and in his
own writings he laid special stress on the latter's habit of
imparting instruction by the use of allegory, parable, meta-
phor, and other devices of the imagination. The author of
the Plays, as already pointed out, was also familiar with the
atomic theory of Democritus.

646

CENTRAL FIRE IN THE EARTH

" Doubt that in earth is fire." " With regard to the earth, when

Hamlet, ii. 2 (1603). we have penetrated into the in-
terior, and got through the crust
and composition which is found on
the surface and next to it, there
seems a perj^etuity there also, like
that supposed to exist in the
heavens. . . . Certainly most of
the earthquakes and eruptions of
water or fire do not rise from any
great depth, but close at hand,
seeing that they occupy a small
part of the surface."

328 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

When the author of ' Hamlet ' made his first draft of that
tragedy in 1586, he evidently agreed with the opinion, then
and still prevailing, that the interior of the earth is a mass
of molten matter, and the earth itself, consequently, subject
to changes throughout its entire body. This was the view
of Aristotle, who held that the heavens, on the contrary, were
incorruptible and unchangeable. The play was first printed
in 1603, substantially in the form in which it had been
written seventeen years earlier. In 1604, however, the
second edition appeared with the line, quoted above, omitted.
The theory was repudiated by Bacon, it will be seen, in the
same year. See 'Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare,'p. 15,e^ seq.

647

CHAOS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Mis-shapen chaos." "Chaos is without form." —

Romeo and Juliet, i. 1 (1597). De Principiis atque Originibus

(posthumous).

648
PARENTAGE OF CUPID

"Tell me, heavenly bow, "Cupid, the son of Venus." —

If Venus, or her son, as thou dost Ibid.

know,
Do now attend the Queen ? Since

they did plot
The means that dusky Dis my

daughter got,
Her and her blind boy's scandal'd

company
I have forsworn."

The Tempest, iv. 1 (1623).

649

PREDOMINANCY OP THE PLANETS

" You must needs be born under " What an idle invention is

Mars, that, that each of the planets

When he was predominant." reigns in turn." — De Augmentis

All's Well, i. 1 (1623). (1622).

PARALLELISMS 329

"It is a bawdy planet that will

strike
Where it is predominant."

Winter's Tale, i. 2 (1623).

650
THE EAETH, A DEAD BODY
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" She 's dead as earth." " The earth, from its entire and

King Lear, v. 3 (1608). unrefracted cold, and the extreme
contraction of matter, is most
cold, dark, dense, and completely
immovable." — De Principiis et
Originibus (posthumous).

King Lear's reference to the earth as " dead " was probably
suggested by the search made in ancient times for the first
principle of matter. Of the four (supposed) original elements,
earth, water, air, and fire, three of them, each in turn, were
selected and advocated as the primal, active cause : water by
Thales, air by Anaximenes, and fire by Heraclitus. " I have
found no one," says Bacon, " who would affirm that principle
to be earth ; for the quiet, torpid, inactive nature of the earth
which submits patiently to the heaven, fire, and other things,
prevented such a conception from entering into any one's
mind." The earth, as distinguished from the other elements,
was thus dead matter.

651

MONSTERS

" This is a devil, and no monster." "Nature is either free, and

The Tempest, ii. 2 (1623). allowed to go her own way and
develop herself in her ordinary
course ; or she is forced and driven
out of her course by the perversi-
ties and insubordination of way-
ward and rebellious matter, and
by the violence of impediments,
as in monsters." — Descriptio Glohi
Intellectualis (c. 1612).

330 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Trinculo makes the same distinction as Bacon does, between

creatures developed in accordance with regular types and

those that deviate from regular types. Technically, the latter

are monsters.

652

DARKNESS AT C^SARS DEATH

From Shakespeare From Bacon

' In the most high and palmy state " Such phenomena [of the sun's

of Kome, temporary diminution of light]

A little ere the mightiest Julius happened in the year 790, in the

fell, times of Justinian for half a year,

The graves stood tenantless, and and after the death of Julius Coesar

the sheeted dead for several days. Respecting the

Did squeak and gibber in the Ro- Julian darkness there remains that

man streets, notable testimony of Virgil :

As stars with trains of fire and ' Then did the sun in pity dim his

dews of blood, light,

Disasters in the sun ; and the And drew a dusk veil o'er his

moist star, visage bright.

Upon whose influence Neptune's And shook the impious times with

empire stands, dread of endless night.' "

Was sick almost to doomsday with Descriptio Glohi Intelledualis

echpse." (c- 1612).
Hamlet, i. 1 (1604).

653

ASSASSINATION OF JULIUS C^SAR

At the celebration of the Queen's birthday in 1592 (17th
November), Bacon made a speech on Fortitude, as part of a
device prepared by the Earl of Essex. In this speech he
cited the case of Julius Ctesar as one that illustrates the trait
of character with which he was dealing. It will therefore
be interesting to compare his statements as then made with
those made by the dramatist a short time afterward in the

play of ' Julius Csesar.'

1
" The worthiest man that ever lived." — Bacon.
" The noblest man
That ever lived." Shake-speare,

PARALLELISMS 331

" They came about him unarmed, and as a stag at bay." — Bacon.
" Antony. Here wast thou bay'd, brave hart ;

How like a deer, stricken by many princes,
Dost thou here lie."

Shake-speare.
3
" The first wound was given him on the neck by Casca, that stood
behind his chair." — Bacon.

" Damned Casca, like a cur behind.
Struck Caesar on the neck."

Shake-speare.
4
" He turned about and caught hold of Caeca's arm." — Bacon.

" Caesar catches hold of his [Casca's] arm."

Shake-speare.
5
"At last Marcus Brutus gave him a wound." — Bacon.
"He is then stabbed by several other conspirators, and last by
Marcus Brutus." Shake-speake.

" And thou, my son." — Bacon.

" Were you, Antony, the son of Caesar,
You should be satisfied."

Shake-speare.

No hint of this is in Plutarch.

" This word [and thou, my son] turned itself afterwards into the like-
ness of an ill spirit." — Bacon.

" O Julius Caesar ' thou art mighty yet ;
Thy spirit walks abroad."

Shake-bpeare.
8
"Spirit that appeared to him in his tent." — Bacon.
[ Within the tent of Brutus.
lEnter the Ghost of Ccesar.
" Brutus. Speak to me, what thou art.
Ghost. Thy evil spirit, Brutus."

Shake-speare.

33^ BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" This word wounded, this word enchanted him [Brutus], this word
made him ever despair of a final good success of the war." — Bacon.
" Brutus. The ghost of Caesar hath appeared to me.

I know my hour is come."

Shake-speare.

"Let us turn our consideration, and behold justice, the sacred
virtue." — Bacon.

" Did not great Julius bleed for justice's sake ? "

Shake-speare.
11

" I do wonder at the Stoics . . . that they should so urge and advise
men to the meditation of death. . . . More manfully thought the vo-
lujjtuous sect [Epicureans] that counted it as one of the ordinary works
of nature." — Bacon.

" Cassius. You know that I held Epicurus strong,

And his opinion ; now I change my mind.
Brutus. But I do find it cowardly and vile,

For fear of what might fall, so to prevent [anticipate]
The time of life." Shake-speare.

12
" Nothing grievous, but to yield to grief." — Bacon.
" 0, Cassius, I am sick of many griefs."

Shake-speare.

" Pain hath taught him a new philosophy." — Bacon.
*' Of your Philosophy you make no use."

Shake-speare.

654
REVOLUTION OF THE SUN
From Shake-speare From Bacon

" Doubt that the sun doth move." " The introduction of so much

Hamlet, ii. 2 (1604). immobility into nature, by repre-
senting the sun and stars as im-
movable, especially being of all
bodies the highest and most ra-
diant, and making the moon re-

PARALLELISMS ^33

volve about the earth iu an epicycle,
and some other assumptions of his
[Copernicus], are the speculations
of one who cares not what fictions
he introduces into nature, pro-
vided his calculations come out
aright." — Descriptio Globi Intel-
Icctualis (c. 1612).

For a full exposition under this head, see p. 16.

655
FINAL CONFLAGRATION OF THE WORLD

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Let the vile world end, "Aristotle ought not therefore to

And the premised flames of the have feared the conflagration of

last day Heraclitus for his world, although

Knit earth and heaven together." he had determined the stars to be

2 King Henry VI., v. 2 (1623). true hves." — Ibid.

656

LIFE AND ITS DUTIES

" To-day shnlt thou behold a sub- " I am of opinion that the du-

ject die ties of life are preferable to life it-

For truth, for duty, and for loy- self." — Historia Vitce et Mortis

alty." (1623).
King Richard III., iii. 3 (1597).

657

WOOD TURNING TO STONE

" Like the spring that turneth " There are some springs of water

wood to stone." wherein, if you put wood, it will

Hamlet, iv. 7 (1604). turn into the nature of stone." —
Physiological Remains (date un-
certain).

658

GRAFTING OLD TREES

"We have some old crab-trees "Experiment to be tried — graft-
here at home, that will not ing upon boughs of old trees." —
Ee grafted to your relish." Ibid.
Cor iol anus, ii. 1 (1623).

334 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

659

SOUTH SEA OF DISCOVERT

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" One inch of delay more is a " We sailed from Peru for China

Soutli-sea of discovery." and Japan by the South Sea. . . .

As You Like It, iii. 2 (1623). Findint,' ourselves [after six

months] in the midst of the greatest
■wilderness of waters in the world,
without victual, we gave ourselves
for lost men, and prepared for
death ; . . . knowing how that
part of the South Sea was utterly
unknown, and might have islands
or continents that hitherto were
not come to light." — New At-
lantis (1624).

Eosalmd, impatient to be informed of something, says
that an inch of further delay would be more to her than a
voyage of discovery on the South Sea, just such a voyage as
Bacon's imagmation was then projecting in quest of his
New Atlantis.

660
ARCHERY

'' SJialloio. Is old Double of your "When he was come withm a

town livin" yet ? flight-shot of our ship, signs were

Silence. Dead, sir. made to us." — Ibid.

Shallow. Jesu! Jesu ! — he drew
a good bow ; and dead ! — a' shot
a fine shoot ; John a Gaunt loved
him well, and betted much money
on his head. Dead ! — a' would
have clapped i' the clout at twelve
score ; and carried you a forehand
shaft a fourteen, and fourteen and
a half." — :? King Henry IV., iii.
2 (1600).

A " flight-shot " was a term used in archery, meaning the
distance covered by an arrow when the archer was seeking

PARALLELISMS

33 S

to shoot farthest. Shake-speare gave the distance which

, under such
score ; that is, 280 or 290 yards.

Double could shoot under such circumstances as 14 or 14^-

661

MEAN PERSONS
From Shakespeare
" We live not to be grip'd by
meaner persons."
King Henry VIIL, ii. 2 (1623).

From Bacon
" We, being some ten of us (the
rest were of the meaner sort, or
else gone abroad) sat down with
him." — A^ew Atlantis (1624).

" I was not ignoble of descent,
And meaner than myself have had

like fortune."
S King Henry VI., iv. 1 (1623).
" The contract you pretend with

that base wretch,
(One bred of alms, and foster'd

with cold dishes.
With scraps o' the court), it is no

contract, none ;
Though it be allow'd in meaner

parties."

Cymbeline, ii. 3 (1623).

Both authors continually style all persons, not of noble
rank, as mean, rude, vulgar. The fair inference is that both
(if there were two) belonged to the nobility.

662

THE THEATRE AND THE WORLD

" This wide and universal theatre
Presents more woeful pageants

than the scene
Whereiu we play."

As You Like It, ii. 7 (1623).

" Dramatic poetry, which has the
theatre for the world." — De Aug-
meniis (1622).

Mr. Spedding calls attention to what he considers "a
curious fact that these remarks [made by Bacon in the Be
Augmentis] on the character of the modern drama were

33^ BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

probably written, and were certainly first published, in the
same year which saw the first collection of Shakespeare's
plays."

Bacon made three grand divisions of knowledge : knowl-
edge of God, knowledge of nature, and knowledge of man.
For the first, we must go, as he said, to the inspired Scrip-
tures ; for the second, to the mind of man, which is its mirror ;
for the third, to dramatic poetry. The three constitute what
he called The Intellectual Globe.

663

SEA-WATER GREEN

From Shakespeare From Bacon

'■'■ Armado. I am in love, too. Who "The herald and children are

was Sampson's love, my dear clothed with mantles of sea-water

]\Ioth? green satin." — New Atlantis

Moth. A woman, master. (1624).
Armado. Of what complexion ?

Moth. Of the sea-water green, sir.
Armado. Is that one of the four

complexions 1
Moth. As I have read, sir; and

the best of them, too.
Armado. Green, indeed, is the

color of lovers."
Love's Labor's Lost, i. 2 (1598).

The natural color of a person was thought in mediaeval
times to indicate temperament or character. In the classifi-
cation of colors with this in view, green, or, as the author of
' Love's Labor 's Lost ' says, sea-green, was considered the
best, being the color of love.

It was on this accoimt, perhaps, that Bacon arrayed the chief
attendants at the Feast of the Family in his New Atlantis in
sea-green. The occasion was one when reverence and affec-
tion became supreme, the King addressing the father officially
on the happy occasion as " my beloved friend." Every man

PARALLELISMS

331

in Bacon's commonwealth, who lived to see thirty lineal de-
scendants of his, all alive at one time and all over three years
of age, was entitled to the honors of this Feast, given to him
at public expense.

664

BROTHELS

From Shakespeare
"Marina. Thou holdst a place for

which the painecl'st fiend
Of hell would not in reputation

change ;
Thou art the damned door-keeper

to every
Coystrel that comes inquiring for

his Tib ;
To the choleric fisting of every

rogue
Thy ear is liable ; thy food is such
As hath been belch'd on by in-
fected lungs.
Boult. What would you have
me do ? Go to the wars, would
you ? where a man may serve
seven years for the loss of a leg,
and have not money enough in
the end to buy him a wooden one 1
Marina. Do anything but this

thou doest. Empty
Old receptacles, or common sewers,

of filth ;
Serve by indenture to the common

hangman ;
Any of these ways are yet better

than this."

Pericles, iv. G (1609).

From Bacon

" I remember to have read,
in one of your European books, of
an holy hermit amongst you that
desired to see the Spirit of Forni-
cation ; and there appeared to him
a little foul, ugly Aethiop. But
if he had desired to see the Spirit
of Chastity of Bensalem, it would
have appeared to him in the like-
ness of a fair, beautiful Cherubin.
For there is nothing amongst
mortal men more fair and admi-
rable than the chaste minds of
this people.

Know, therefore, that with them
there are no stews, no dissolute
houses, no courtesans, nor any-
thing of that kind. Nay, they
wonder (with detestation) at you
in Europe, which permit such
things." — A^ett? Atlantis (1624).

KING JAMES I

" Peace, plenty, love, truth, terror.
That were the servants to this
chosen infant,

665

THE SOLOMON OF HIS AGE

"We have some parts of his
works which with you are lost ;
namely, that Natural History
22

338 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Shall then be his, and like a vine which he wrote, of all plants, from

grow to him ; the cedar of Libanus to the moss

Wherever the bri.L^ht sun of heaven that groweth out of the wall, and

shall shine, of all things that have life and mo-

His honor and the greatness of his tion. This maketh me think that

name our king, finding himself to sym-

Shall be, and make new nations ; bolize in many things with that

he shall flourish, king of the Hebrews (which lived

And, like a mountain cedar, reach many years before him) honored

his branches him with the title of this founda-

To all the plains about him." tion."
King Henry Vlll., v. 4 (1623).

James I., who prided himself on his learning, was called
by his flatterers the Solomon of his age. Bacon and Sliake-
speare both refer to him in connection with the cedar of
Lebanon, because of the prominence given to that tree in the
Hebrew king's work on Natural History.

666

SPELLING AND READING

Fmn Shakespeare From Bacon

" Thy love did read by rote, and " Such as rather laboreth to

could not spell." — Romeo and spell and so by degrees to read in
Juliet, ii. 3 (1597). the volume of God's creatures." —

Of the Interpretation of Nature
(e. 1603).

667

PEACE, A LETHARGY

" Peace is a very apoplexy, " No body can be healthful with-

lethargy ; mulled, deaf, sleepy, in- out exercise ; and certainly to a
sensible." — Coriolanus, xiv. 5 kingdom or estate a just and honor-
(1623). able war is the true exercise." —

De Augmentis (1622).

668
KNOWLEDGE REQUIRED TO ASK QUESTIONS

"Fool. An' thou hadst been i' "It asks some knowledge to de-

the stocks for that question, thou mand a question not impertinent."

hadst well deserved it. — On the Interpretation of Nature

Kent. Why, fool ? (c. 1603).

PARALLELISMS 339

Fool. We 11 set thee to a school
to an ant."

King Lear, ii. 4 (1608).

Bacon uses the word " impertinent " in its primitive Latin
sense, not pertinent. This explains why it is proposed in the
play to send a foolish questioner to school.

669
THE WHITE IN ARCHERY

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" You hit the white." " Except the white be placed,

The Taming of the Shreio, v. 2 men cannot level." — On the Inter-
(1623). pretation of Nature (c. 1803).

670
CENTAURS

"Down from the waist they are " The strange fiction of the poets,

Centaiirs, of the transformation of Scylla,

Though women all above.'' seemeth to be a lively emblem of

King Lear, iv. 6 (1608). this philosophy and knowledge ; a

fair woman upwards in the parts

of show, but when you come to

the parts of use and generation,

barking monsters." — Ibid.

671

CIVET

" Give me an ounce of civet, to " So many grains of civet will

sweeten my imagination." — King give a perfume to a whole chamber
Lear, iv. 6 (1608). of air." — lUd.

Bacon's complete sentence, of which the above is a part, is
as follows:

" Some few grains of saiTron will give a tincture to a ton of water ; but
so many grains of civet will give a perfume to a whole chamber of air."

Shake-speare, as we have already shown, takes note of this
property of saffron, as well as of civet, thus :

"Your son was misled with a snipt-taffeta fellow there, whose villa-
nous saffron would have made all the unbaked and doughy youth of a
nation in his color." — All's Well, iv. 5 (1623).

340

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

672
MANUFACTURE OF GOLD

From Shakespeare
" You are. an alchymist ; make gold

of that.
Out, rascal clon;s ! ''

Timon of Athens, v. 1 (1623).

From Bacon
" We knew a Dutchman that had
wrought himself into the belief of
a great person by undertaking that
he could make gold, whose dis-
course was, that gold might be
made, but that the alchymists over-
fired the work." — Sylva Sylvarum
(1622-25).

673

CAUSE OP THUNDER

" What is the cause of thunder ? " " Some of the Grecians which

King Lear, iii. 4 (1608). first gave the reason of thunder
were condemned of impiety." —
Filum Labyrinthi (c. 1608).

674
SECRETS OF NATURE

" The secrets of nature
Have not more gift in taciturnity."
Troilus and Cressida, iv. 2
(1609).

"The secrets of nature are the
secrets of God." — Ibid.

" God hath set the world in
man's heart, yet man cannot find
out the work which God worketh
from the beginning to the end."
— Of the Interpretation of Nature
(c. 1603).

675
WISDOM OF SOLOMON

" Solomon had a very good wit."

Love's Labor ^s Lost, i. 2 (1598).
" Profound Solomon."

Ibid., iv. 3.

" Solomon, in his grant of wis-
dom from God, had contained as
a branch thereof, that knowledge
whereby he wrote a natural his-
tory of all verdor, from the cedar
to the moss." — Filum Labyrinthi
(c. 1608).

" In the person of Solomon, the
king, we see the gift or endowment
of Wisdom and Learning." — Ad-
vancement of Learning (1603-5).

PARALLELISMS

341

Wit, as used in the play, means intellect or mental

capacity.

676

LUNACY

From Shakespeare
"Emilia. O, my lord! yonder 's

foul murder done.
Othello. What ! now ?
Emilia. But now, my lord.
Othello. It is the very error of the

moon;
She comes more nearer earth than

she was wont,
And makes men mad."

Othello, V. 2 (1622).

From Bacon

" As for the exciting of the mo-
tion of the spirits, you must note
that the growth of hedges, herbs,
hair, &c. is caused by the moon,
by exciting of the spirits, as well
as by increase of the moisture.
But for spirits in particular, the
great instance is in lunacies." —
Natural History (1622-25).

677

PROMETHEUS, DISCOVERER OF FIRE

" But once put out thy light,
Thou cunning'st pattern of excel-
ling nature,
I know not where is that Prome-
thean heat
That can thy Ught relimie."

Ibid.

" You would not say that Pro-
metheus was led by speculation to
the discovery of fire, or that when
he first struck the flint he expected
the spark; but rather that he
lighted on it by accident, and (as
they say) stole it from Jupiter." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

678
A SONNET

" I once writ a sonnet in his
praise." — King Henry V., iii. 7
(1600).

" At which time I had (though
I profess not to be a poet) prepared
a sonnet directly tending and al-
luding to draw on her Majesty's
reconcilement to my Lord." —
The Essex Apology (1603).

679

BURNING ^TNA

"Now let hot .^tna cool in Si-
cily."
Titus Andronicus, iii. 1 (1600).

" Great quantity of sulphur, and
sometimes naturally burning, after
the manner of -iEtna." — De Colore
et Frigore (date unknown).

342

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

680

HEAT FROM BURNING-GLASSES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" The appetite of her eye did " The uniting or collection of

seem to scorch me up like a burn- the sun-beams multiplieth heat, as

ing-glass." — The Merry Wives of in burning glasses."' — De Calore

Windsor, i. 3 (1602). et Frigore (date unknown).

681

" The sun is a fountain of light
as well as heat. The other celes-
tial bodies manifest in light, and
yet nan constat whether all bor-
rowed as in the moon." — Ibid.

SUN, FOUNTAIN OF LIGHT
" Alcihiades. How came the noble

Timon to this change ?
Timon. As the moon does, by

wanting light to give.
But then, renew I could not, like

the moon;
There were no suns to borrow of."
Timon of Athens, iv. 3 (1623).
"And thirty dozen moons, with

borrow'd sheen,
About the world have times twelve
thirties been."

Hamlet, iii. 2 (1604).

682

DEW

" When the sun sets, the air doth " The sun-beams raise vapors

drizzle dew." out of the earth, and when they

Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5 (1597). withdraw they fall back in dews."

— Ibid.

683

CIRCE S DRUGS

" I think you all have drunk of

Circe's cup."
The Comedy of Errors,^. 1 (1623).

" Such is the weakness and
credulity of men that they will
often prefer a mountebank or
witch before a learned physician.
And therefore the poets were clear-
sighted in discerning this extreme
folly when they made ^sculapius
and Circe brother and sister ; . . •

PARALLELISMS 343

for in all times, in the opinion of
the multitude, witches and old
women and impostors have had a
competition with physicians." —
Advancement of Learning (1603-5).

Circe was fabled to possess two special powers ; namely,
to transform men into beasts, and by means of drugs to pro-
duce mental stupefaction without impairing the bodily facul-
ties. Our parallelism No. 581 exhibits the first; the second
is presented above.

684

CHINESE GOLD

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Here comes the little villain. "A counterfeit angel [piece of

How now, my metal of India ? " — money] is made more like a true

Twelfth Night, ii. 5 (1623). angel than if it were an angel

coined of Chinese gold." — Of the
Interpretation of Nature (c. 1603).

It is conceded that by the phrase " metal of India," Shake-
speare meant gold, it being similar to the more common one,
" Pearl of India." But in this sense it seems to be so incon-
gruous with the context (where the same person is called
the "little villain") that some of the commentators have
pronounced it a printer's blunder, and suggested the alter-
native reading, " nettle of India." But Bacon's prose easily
sets us right. The people of the East made a kind of gold
(out of lead, Purchas says) which Bacon stigmatizes as coun-
terfeit. This is the kind to which Sir Toby compares the
little villain in the play.

Purchas' book went to press in 1625; it could not there-
fore have been the source of either Shake-speare or Bacon's
information on this subject. But it was based on manu-
scripts which had been in existence for many years, and to
which, as proved by other references, Bacon had had access.

344 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

685

CYCLOPS

From Shakespeare
" We are but shrubs, no cedars we;
No big-bon'd men, fram'd of the
Cyclop's size."
Titus Andronicus, iv. 3 (1600).

From Bacon
" The story is, that the Cyclops
(giants) were at first on account
of their fierceness and brutality
driven into Tartarus, and con-
demned to perpetual imprison-
ment; but afterwards he [Jupiter]
was persuaded by the Earth (their
mother) that it would be for his
interest to release them and em-
ploy them to make thunderbolts
for him ; which he accordingly
did; and they with officious in-
dustry labored assiduously with
a terrible din in forging thunder-
bolts and other instruments of
terror." — Wisdom of the Ancients
(1609).

686
DIVORCE OF HENRY VIII

" Did you not of late days hear
A buzzing of a separation
Between the king and Katharine ? "
King Henry VIIL, ii. 1 (1623).

" The divorce of King Henry the
Eighth from the Lady Katharine
did so much busy the world." —
History of Henry VII. (1621).

687

LOVE CANNOT BE HID

" A murderous guilt shows not " Love cannot be hid." — Pro-

itself more soon
Than love that would seem hid.
Love's night is noon."

Twelfth Night, iii. 1 (1623).

mus (1594-96).

688
WARS WITH THE ROSES

"I pluck this white rose with "The title of the White Rose

Plantagenet.'' or house of York." — History of

1 King Henry VI., ii. 4 (1623). Henry VII. (1621).

PARALLELISMS 345

689
RICHARD III. AS A MURDERER
Murdered His Sovereign, Henry VI
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Gloucester. I '11 hear no more, — " No man thinking any igno-

die, prophet, in thy speech." miny or contumely unworthy of
\_Stabs him. him that had been the executioner
of King Henry the Sixth with his
own hand."

Murdered His Brother, Clarence
" (Enter two murderers.) " The contriver of the death of

Gloucester. But soft, here come the Duke of Clarence, his brother."
my executioners.

How now, my hardy, stout, re-
solved mates !

Are you now going to dispatch
this thing ?

1 Murderer. We are, my lord ; and
come to have the warrant.

That we may be admitted where
he is.

Gloucester. Well thought upon ; I
have it here about me.

[Gives the warrant.

Clarence. Not to relent is beastly,

savage, devilish.
Which of you, if you were a

prince's son,
Being pent from liberty, as I am

now.
If two such murderers as your-
selves came to you,
Would not entreat for life ?
My friend, I spy some pity in thy

looks ;
0 ! if thine eye be not a flatterer,
Come thou on my side, and entreat

for me.
As you would beg, were you in

my distress.

346 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

A begging prince what beggar pities
not.

2 Murderer. Look behind you, my
lord.

1 Alurderer. Take that, and that
[^Stahs hirn] ; if all this will
not do,

I '11 drown you in the malmsey-
butt within.

\_Exit, with the body."

Mdrdeeed His Two Nephews

*' (Re-enter Page, with Tyrrel.) "The murderer of his two

Gloucester, noiv King Richard. Is nephews,"

thy name Tyrrel ?
Tyrrel. James Tyrrel, and your

most obedient subject.
King Richard. Art thou, indeed ?
Tyrrel. Prove me, my gracious

lord.
King Richard. Dar'st thou resolve

to kill a friend of mine 1
Tyrrel. Please you ; but I had

rather kill two enemies.
King Richard. Why, then thou

hast it: two deep enemies,
Foes to my rest, and my sweet

sleep's disturbers,
Are they that I would have thee

deal upon.
Tyrrel, I mean those bastards in

the Tower.
Tyrrel. Let me have open means

to come to them,
And soon I '11 rid you from the

fear of them.
King Richard. Thou sing'st sweet

music. Hark, come hither,

Tyrrel ;
Go, by this token. Rise and lend

thine ear.

[ Whispers.

PARALLELISMS

347

There is no more but bo : — say, it is

done,
And I will love thee, and prefer

thee for it.
Tyrrel. I will dispatch it straight.

(Enter King Richard.)
Tyrrel. All health, my sovereign

lord.
King Richard. Kind Tyrrel, am

I happy in thy news ?
Tyrrel. If to have done the thing

you gave in charge
Beget your happiness, be happy

then,
For it is done.
King Richard. But didst thou

see them dead ?
Tyrrel. I did, my lord."

Probably Murdered His Wife Anne

'^ King Richard. Come hither,
Catesby ,; rumor it abroad.

That Anne, my mfe, is very
grievous sick ;

I will take order for her keeping
close.

"And vehemently suspected to
have been the impoisoner of his
wife." — History of Henry VII.
(1621).

Queen Elizabeth \to K. Richard^.
Tell her, thou mad'st away her

uncle Clarence,
Her uncle Rivers ; ay, and for her

sake,
Mad'st quick conveyance with her

good aunt Anne.

{The Ghost of Queen Anne rises.)
Ghost [to K. Richard"]. Richard,

thy wife, that wretched Anne,

thy wife,
That never slept a quiet hour with

thee.

348

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Now fills thy sleep with perturba-
tions.

Tomorrow in the battle think on
me,

And fall thy etlgeless sword."

King Richard III. (1597).

Notwithstanding the great diversity of opinion that has
prevailed from the first regarding the character and career of
Kichard III., Bacon and Sliake-speare were in full agreement
on the subject. Both declared that Eichard killed Henry
with his own hand ; that he contrived the death of his
brother Clarence ; that he was responsible for the murder of
the princes in the Tower ; and both had doubts as to the fate
of Queen Anne.

690

EARLY DATE OP GLOUCESTER'S CONSPIRACY
From Shakespeare
" Gloucester. What news abroad ?
Hastings. No news so bad abroad
as this at home.

The king is sickly, weak, and

melancholy,
And his physicians fear him

mightily.
Gloucester. Now, by Saint Paul,

that news is bad indeed.
O ! he hath kept an evil diet long.
And over much consum'd his

royal person.
'Tis very grievous to be thought

upon.
What, is he in his bed ?
Hastings. He is.
Gloucester. Go you before, and I

will follow you.

[Exit Hastings.
He cannot live, I hope ; and must

not die,
Till George be pack'd with post-
horse up to heaven.

From Bacon
" It was noted by men of great
understanding that even in the
time of King Edward his brother,
he [Gloucester] was not without
secret trains and mines to turn
envy and hatred upon his brother's
government; as having an ex-
pectation and a kmd of divi-
nation that the king, by reason of
his 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 Cro^\^l." — History of Henry
VII. (1621).

PARALLELISMS 349

I '11 in, to urge his hatred more to

Clarence,
With Lies well steel 'd with weighty

arguments,
And if I fail not in my deep intent,
Clarence hath not another day to

live;
Which done, God take King

Edward to his mercy,
And leave the world for me to

bustle in."
King Richard III., i. 1 (1597).

691
THE SWEATING-SICKNESS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" FalstafiF shall die of a sweat." " About this time in autumn,

King Henry v., Epilogue (^1623). towards the end of September,

there began and reigned in the
city and other parts of the king-
dom a disease then new, which by
the accidents and manner thereof
they called the sweating-sickness.
. . . Infinite persons died sud-
denly of it." — History of Henry
VII. (1621).

Bacon's description of this disease was written in 1621
and published in 1622. The Epilogue in which it is
referred to, as above, did not appear in the first edition of
Henry V. (1600), nor in the second (1602), nor in the third
(1608), but for the first time in the folio of 1623.

692

FERDINAND AND HENRY VIII., GREAT PRINCES

" Please you, sir, "Ferdinando and Henry may

The king, your father [Henry VII.] be esteemed for the tres magi '^ of

was reputed for kings of those ages." — Ibid.

A prince most prudent, of an

excellent

Bacon ranked the King of France with Ferdinand and Henry in wisdom.

3 so BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

And unmatch'd wit and judgment;

Ferdinand,
My father, King of Spain, was

reckon'd one
The wisest prince that there had

reign'd by many
A year before." ^

King Henry VIII., ii. 4 (1623).

693

MANDRAKE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" With loathsome smells, " As mandrakes, whereof witches

And shrieks like mandrakes', torn and impostors make an ugly image."
out of the earth." — Sylva Sylvarum (1622-25).

Romeo and Juliet, iv. 3 (1599).
"Could curses kill, as doth the
mandrake's groan."
S King Henry VI., iii. 2 (1594).

The mandrake, or mandragora, is a plant that was long
known for its narcotic properties, having even been used by
the ancients, it is said, as an anaesthetic. At the same time
some very fanciful notions were allowed to gather about it ;
namely, that by reason of the shape of its root it had a
special influence on human kind, and that the root itself,
when pulled from the earth, uttered loud shrieks. Shake-
speare speaks of the plant on several occasions, but always
with a distinction between the legitimate and the illegitimate
functions attributed to it. That is to say, when referring to
its medicinal character, he calls it by its Latin name, man-
dragora, as thus :

" Not poppy, nor mandragora.
Nor all the drowsy syrups of the world,
Shall ever medicine thee to that sweet sleep
Which thou owd'st yesterday."

Othello, iii. 3.

" Cleopatra. Give me to drink mandragora —
Charmian. Why, madam ?

PARALLELISMS 3 5 1

Cleopatra. That I might sleep out this great gap of time,
My Anthony is away."

Anthony and Cleopatra, i. 5.

Bacon preserves the same distinction.

694

TICKLING

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" It were a Ijetter death than die " Tickling is ever painful, and

with mocks, not well endured." — Sylva SyJva-

Which is as bad as die with rum (1622-25).
tickling."

Much Ado, iii. 1 (1600).

695
GROUND SWEETENED BY RAINBOW

"Who, with thy saffron wings " It hath been observed by the

upon my flowers, ancients that where a rainbow

Diffusest honey-drops, refreshing seemeth to hang over or to touch,

showers; there breatheth forth a sweet

And with each end of thy blue smell ; . • . and the like do soft

bow dost crown showers, for they also make the

My bosky acres, and my un- grounds sweet." — Ibid.

shrubb'd down,
Rich scarf to my proud earth."

The Tempest, iv. 1 (1623).

Showers and the rainbow make the ground sweet. — Bacon.
Showers and the earth's " rich scarf " diffuse honey-drops.

Shake -SPEARE.

CANNIBALS

"I spake ... of the Cannibals "The Cannibals in the West

that each other eat." Indies eat man's flesh." — Sylva

Othello, i. 3 (1622). Sylvarum. (1622-25).

697
PATIENCE OF JOB

" I am as poor as Job, my lord, but " Job, a model of patience." —

not 60 patient." Ibid.

2 Henry IV., i. 2 (1600).

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

698
EAGLE, LONG-LIVED

Froin Shakespeare
" These moss'd trees
That have outlived the eagle."
Timon of Athens ^ iv. 3 (1623).

From Bacon
"The eagle is considered long-
lived, though its exact age is not
ascertained. It is reckoned like-
wise as a sign of longevity that he
cast his beak, whicli makes him
grow young again ; wliencc comes
the i)roverb, 'the old age of the
eagle.'" — Sylva Sijlvarum (1622-
25).

69!)
LOVE-VERSES ON

" There is a man haunts the for-
est, that abuses our young plants
with carving Rosalind on their
barks ; hangs odes upon hawthorns,
and elegies on brambles; all, for-
sooth, deifying the name of Rosa-
lind ; if I could meet with that
fancy-monger, I would give him
some good counsel, for he seems to
have the quotidian of love upon
him." — As You Like It, iii. 2

FOREST TREES

" It is a curiosity to have inscrip-
tions or engravings in fruit or trees.
This is easily performed by writing
with a needle or bodkin or knife
or the like, when the fruit or trees
are young ; for, as they grow, so
the letters will grow more large
and graphical. ' Tenerisque meos
incidere amores Arboribus ; cres-
cent illse, crescetis amores.' " —
Ibid.

(1623).

The Latin lines, quoted above by Bacon, are taken from
Virgil (Eel. x.). With the line preceding (in the original,
necessary to complete the sense), they may be translated as
follows :

" I prefer to endure hardships in a forest, in the haunts of wild
beasts, and carve my loves on young trees ; then, as the trees grow,
ye, my loves, will also grow."

It is to be noted that Shake-speare represents Orlando's
love-verses as having been carved on yo^mg trees, apparently
without serving any dramatic purpose in doing so ; the ex-
planation is found in Bacon, or in Virgil quoted by Bacon.

PARALLELISMS

3S2>

We now know, also, whence he derived the hint for plac-
ing wild beasts in the French Forest of Arden : he found it
in Virgil, in a sentence quoted in part by Bacon.

It appears, then, that both authors wrote of lovers' in-
scriptions on growing trees in a forest; that one did not
copy from the other; and that each had in mind at the
time, and made use of {mutatis rmUandis) the same pas-
sage in Virgil's Bucolics.

700

ACTION AND HIS HOUNDS

From Shakespeare

" Jove sMeld your husband from

his hounds to-day ;
'T is pity they should take him for

a stag."
Titus Andronicus, ii. 3 (1600).

From Bacon

" Actseon, having unawares and
by chance seen Diana naked, was
turned into a stag, and torn to
pieces by his own hounds." —
Wisdom of the Ancients (1609).

roi

UNICORN

" Sebastian. Now I will believe
That there are unicorns ; that in

Arabia,
There is one tree, the phoenix,

throne ; one phoenix
At this hour reigning there.
Antonio. I '11 believe both ;

And what does else want credit,

come to me,
And 1 11 be sworn 't is true."

The Tempest, iii. 3 (1623).

" The unicorn's horn has lost its
reputation; yet it still stands as
high as hartshorn, the bone of the
stag's heart, ivory and the like." —
Sylva Sylvarum (1622-25).

Bacon compares the unicorn's horn as a medicine with
hartshorn and ivory ; Shake-speare compares the unicorn
itself with the phoenix. They treat the myth with equal
tenderness.

354

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

702

THESEUS AND ARIADNE

From Shakespeare
"Didst thou not lead him [The-
seus] through the glimmering
night,

And make him with fair Aegle

break his faith
With Ariadne and Antiopa ? "
A Miclsummer-NighCs Dream, ii.

2 (1600).

From Bacon
" Bacchus took to wife Ariadne
whom Theseus had abandoned and
deserted. . . . That part of the
allegory is especially noble which
represents Bacchus as lavishing
his love upon one whom another
had cast off. For most certain it
is that passion ever seeks and as-
pires after that which experience
has rejected." — Wisdom of the An-
cients (1609).

r03

OSSA, PELION, AND OLYMPUS

"These three be the stages of
knowledge, and are to them that
are depraved no better than the
giants' hills." — Advancement of
Learning (1603-5).

" Now pile your dust upon the

quick and dead,
Till of this flat a mountain you

have made,
To o'ertop old Pelion, or the skyish

head
Of blue Olympus.

If thou prate of mountains, let
them throw

Millions of acres on us, till our
ground,

Singeing his pate against the burn-
ing zone,

Make Ossa like a wart."

Hamlet, v. 1 (1604).

To show what he meant by " giants' hills," Bacon quoted
the following lines from Virgil :

" Ter sunt conati imponere Pelio Ossam,
Scilicet atque Ossce frondosum involvere Olympum."

[" Mountain on mountain thrice they strove to heap,
Olympus, Ossa, piled on Pelion's steep."

Dbyden's Translation.^

PARALLELISMS 355

V04
POMP AND GLORY
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Vain pomp and glory of this " This matter of pomp, which is

world, I hate ye." heaven to some, is hell to me." —

King Henry VIII., iii. 2 (1623). Letter to Buckingham (1617).

This is further evidence that Bacon, in writing the famous
soliloquy on fallen greatness in ' Henry VIII.,' drew from
the depths of his own experience after his downfall in 1621.
Like Wolsey, he had been Lord Chancellor of England, and,
also like Wolsey, had been ignominiously hurled from power,
the latter event happening only two years before the drama,
containing the soliloquy, first appeared in print.

We find other traces of Bacon in Wolsey's speech.
" Swimming on bladders " was one of his favorite images.
Our parallelism, No. 609, is based upon it. Dividing a
man's life, or the career of a state, into several distinct
periods of development was another of his very marked
characteristics. Instances of it will be given in our
next.

705

PERIODS OP DEVELOPMENT

" This is the state of man : to-day " In the youth of a state, arms

he puts forth do flourish; in the middle age of

The tender leaves of hope ; to- a state, learning ; and then both of

morrow blossoms, them together for a time; in the

And bears his blushing honors declining age of a state, mechan-

thick upon him; ical arts and merchandise.

The third day comes a frost, a " Learning hath his infancy, when

killing frost ; it is but beginning and almost cl i ild-

And when he thinks, good easy ish ; then his youth, when it is

man, full surely luxuriant and juvenile ; then his

His greatness is a-ripening, nips strength of years, when it is solid

his root, and reduced; and lastly, his old

And then he falls, as I do." age, when it waxeth dry and

Ibid. fcxliaust." — Esxay of Vicissitude
of Things (1625).

\SG BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

706

FAT OXEN

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" It is tlie pasture lards the " Draft oxen, put iuto good pas-

rother's sides." — Timon of Athens, ture, recover the flesh of young
iv. 3 (1G23). \jcd."—S?jlvaS?/lvarum(lG22-^i>).

V07

PROTEUS HELD BY HIS SLEEVES

'^Adriana. Come, I will fasten on "Then it is like that this Pro-

this sleeve of thine. teus of matter, being held by the

sleeves, will turn and change iuto
Dromio S. I am transform'd, mas- many metamorphoses." — Ibid.

ter, am I not ]
Ant. S. I think thou art, in mind,

and so am I.
Dromio S. Nay, master, both in

mind and in my shape.
Ant. S. Thou hast thine own

form-
Dromio S. No, I am an ape.
Luciana. If thou art chang'd to

aught, 't is to an ass."
Comedy of Errors, ii. 2 (1623).

Proteus was a sea-god who possessed the gift of prophecy,
but was reluctant to exercise it for the benefit of mortals.
Those who would consult him had first to surprise and bind
him ; for, assuming various forms, now a lion, now a serpent,
a tiger, a boar, a tree, even fire and water, he would thus en-
deavor, by the bewildering rapidity of his transformations,
to terrify the captor and escape. Homer, Ovid, Virgil, and
Hyginus give full accounts of this extraordinary being, but
the only detail in the process of his capture, suggested by
them or by either of them, was in the use of a chain. Bacon
and Shake-speare, however, here agree in stating, contrary to
the whole tenor of the myth, that Proteus was seized and
held hy the sleeves.

PARALLELISMS

357

708

CHOPINE

From Shakespeare

"Your ladyship is nearer to

heaven, than when I saw you last,

by the altitude of a chopine." —

Hamlet, ii. 2 (1603).

From Bacon
" Item, no knight of this order
shall be inquisitive towards any
lady . . . whether with care-tak-
ing she have added half a foot to
her stature." — Gesta Grayorum
(1594).

Bacon was the principal promoter of the Christmas revels
at Gray's Inn. A chopine was a high-heeled shoe worn by
ladies to keep the feet from the wet.

709

THE KACK

"And like this unsubstantial pa- "The clouds above, which we

geant faded, call the rack." — Sylva Sylvarum

Leave not a rack behind." (1622-25).
The Tempest, v. 2 (1623).

The commentators have expended much time on this
word "rack." Eichard Grant White thought he closed
the controversy by deciding that, according to modern
usage, we should read wreck.

710

THE LABORS OP HERCULES
" I will, in the interim, under-
take one of Hercules' labors." —
Much Ado, ii. 1 (1600).
"Leave that labor to great Her-
cules,
And let it be more than Alcides'
twelve."
Taming of the Shrew, i. 2 (1623).
"For valor, is not Love a Her-
cules,
Still climbing trees in the Hes-
perides?"
Love's Labor 's Lost, iv. 3 (1598).

" Of examples enough ; — except
we should add the labors of Her-
cules."— An Advertisement touch'
ing an Holy War (1622).

358 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" As Hercules
Did shake dowii mellow fruit."

Coriolanus, iv. 6 (1623).

" Well done, Hercules ! now thou

crushest the snake."

Love's Labor's Lost, v. 1 (1598).

Great Hercules is presented by

this imp,
Whose club kill'd Cerberus, that
three-headed canus.'"

Ibid., V. 2.

" Nay, mother,

Resume that spirit, when you were

wont to say.
If you had been the wife of Her-
cules,
Six of his labors you 'd have
done."

Coriolanus, ir. 1 (1623).

Bacon's Sapientia Veterum is an elaborate exposition of
Greek myths.

711

PULSE-BEATS AS MEASURES OF TIME

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Ariel. I drink the air before me, " To try exactly the time where-

and return in sound is delated, let a man stand

Or e'er your pulse twice beat." in a steeple and have with him a

The Tempest, v. 1 (1623). taper; and let some veil be put

before the taper; and let another

man stand in a field a mile off.

Then let him in the steeple strike

the bell, and in the same instant

withdraw the veil ; and so let him

in the field tell by his pulse what

distance of time there is between

the light seen and the sound

heard." — Sylva Sylvarum (1622-

25).

Bacon mentions many occasions when time was measured
by pulse-beats.

PARALLELISMS

359

712

SOUNDS BY NIGHT

From Shakespeare
" How sweet the moonliglit sleeps

upon this bank!
Here we will sit and let the sounds

of music
Creep in our ears ; soft stillness,

and the night
Become the touches of sweet

harmony."
Merchant of Venice, v. 1 (1600).
" D. Pedro. Come, shall we hear

this music 1
Claudia. Yea, my good lord. How

still the evening is,
As hush'd on purpose to grace

harmony! "

Much Ado, ii. 3 (1600).

From Bacon
" Sounds are sweeter in the
night than in the day." — Sylva
Sylvarum (1622-25).

713

CHOIR OF ECHOES

"'Ah me/ she cries, and twenty

times 'Woe, woe,'
And twenty echoes twenty times

cry so."

Vemis and Adonis (1593).

" Speaking at the one end [of
the chapel], I did hear it return
the voice thirteen several times ;
and I have heard of others, that it
would return it sixteen times. . . .
In this echo of so many returns,
upon the matter, you hear above
twenty words for three." — Ihid.

" And still the choir of echoes answer so." — Shakespeare.

" They must needs make (as it were) a choir of echoes." — Bacon.

714

MINERVA, BENT OF GENIUS

.' Bianca. Sir, to your pleasure " Man's actions [should] be free

humljly I subscribe ; and voluntary, that nothing be

My books, my instruments, shall done inviia Minerva." — Ibid.
be my company,

On them to look, and practise by
myself.

36o BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Lucenlio. ILirk, Tranio ! thou
mayst bear !Minerva speak.

Baptista. Gentlemen, content ye;

I am resolv'd.
Go in, Bianca.
And for I know, she taketh most

delight
In music, instruments, and poetry."
Taming of the Shrew, i. 1

(1623).

It was an old proverb that a man can do nothing against
the bent of his genius, or (as it was expressed) against
Minerva, thus:

Tu nihil invito dices faciesque Minerva.

Hence in Bianca's love of literature and music Minerva is
said to speak.

715

POISONS AND SWELLING OF BODY
From Shakespeare From Bacon

"If they had swaUow'd poison, "Upon all poisons followeth
'twould appear swelling." — Sylva Sylvarum (1622-

By external swelling." 25).

Anthony and Cleopatra, v. 2
(1623).

716

MARTLEMAS

" And how doth the martlemas, " Smoke presei-veth flesh, as we

your master ? " see in bacon, and neat's tongue,

S King Henry IV., ii. 2 (1600). and martlemas beef." — Ibid.

Martlemas or Martinmas (11 November) was ,the day for
killing cattle and hogs. Shake-speare alludes to Falstaff's
corpulence and age.

PARALLELISMS 361

717

WICK IN PLAMES

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" There lives within the very flame " We will therefore speak of

of love bodies inflamed ; . . . and of a

A kind of wick." wick that provoketh inflamma-

Hamlet, iv. 7 (1604). Hon"— Sylva Sylvarum (1622-25).

718
WAX AND TALLOW CANDLES

" Chief Justice. You are as a candle, " Wax candles last longer than

the better part burnt out. tallow candles." — Ibid.

Falstaff. A wassaU candle, my
lord ; all tallow ; if I did say
of wax, my growth would ap-
prove the truth."
2 King Henry IV., i. 2 (1600).

719

ODORS AND CRUSHED FLOWERS

" The canker-blooms have full as " Most odors smell best broken

deep a dye or crushed ; but flowers pressed or

As the perfumed tincture of the beaten do lose [exhale] the fresh-
roses ; ness and sweetness of their odor."
—Ibid.

They live unwoo'd, and unre- " Virtue is Uke precious odors,

spected fade; most fragrant when they are in-

Die to themselves. Sweet roses do censed or crushed." — Essay of

not so; Adversity (1625).

Of their sweet deaths are sweetest
odors made."

Sonnet 54 (1609).

720
PRICKING PLANTS

" He that sweetest rose will find, "As terebration doth meliorate

Must find love's prick." fruit, so upon like reason doth let-

As You Like It, iii. 2 (1623). ting of plants' blood ; as pricking

vines or other trees, after they
be of some gi-owth, and thereby
letting forth gum or trees. • . .

362 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

It is reported that by tliis artifice
bitter almonds have been turned
into sweet." — Sylva Sylvarum
(1622-25).

721

MOTION AND SENSE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Sense sure you have, " The ancients could not con-

Else could you not have motion." ceive how there can be motion
Hamlet, m. 4: (\GOA). without sense." — De Augmentis
(1622).

For exposition of this singular parallelism, see 'Francis
Bacon Our Shake-speare,' p. 19.

722

REVERENCE

" Though mean and mighty, rotting "Reverence is that wherewith
Together, have one dust, yet rev- princes are girt from God." —

erence, Essay of Seditions and Troubles

(That angel of the world) doth (1607-12).

make distinction
Of place 'tween high and low."

Cymbeline, iv. 3 (1623).

723

AFRICA, BREEDING MONSTERS

" Not Afric owns a serpent I abhor " It is held [as a] proverb,

More than thy fame and envy." ' Africa is always breeding some

Coriolanus, i. 8 {1623). kind of monster.'" — Sylva Syl-
varum (1622-25).

724

JUSTICES OF THE PEACE AND GUSTOS ROTULORUM

" Slender. In the county of Gloster, " Others there are of that num-

justice of the peace and coram. ber called justices of the peace and

Shallow. Ay, cousin, and cust-a- quorum. . . . The chief of them

lorum. is called custos rotulorum." — Office

Slender. Aj, and roiolorum, too." of Constables (1(508) .
Merry Wives of Windsor, i. 1
(1602).

PARALLELISMS 2>^2>

725
GAELIC

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Eat no onions nor garlic, for we "The more fetid juice of the

are to utter sweet breath." earth goeth into the garlic." —

A Midsummer-Nighth Dream, iv. Sylva Sylvarum (1622-25).
2 (1600).

726

HONEY-DEW IX LILIES

" As doth the honey-dew " Flowers that have deep sockets

Upon a gather'd lily." do gather in the bottom a kind of

Titus Andronicus, iii. 1 (1600). honey, as honeysuckles, lilies, and

the like." — /tirf.

727

FLAVOR OF BEEF AND MUTTON AFFECTED BY ANIMALS' FOOD

" Though they feed " Where kine feed upon wild

On sweetest flowers, yet they garlic, their milk tasteth plainly

poison breed." of the garlic ; and the flesh of

Pericles, i. 2 (1609). muttons is better tasted where the

sheep feed upon wild thyme, and

other wholesome herbs; and honey

in Spain smelleth (apparently) of

the rosemary or orange from

whence the bee gathereth it." —

Ibid.

Bacon gives several other instances of tlie natural effects
on animals of various kinds of food, deriving therefrom a
rule which Shake-speare, while citing an exception to it, had
evidently studied and approved.

728

TRANSMUTATION OF SPECIES

^'Lepidus. What manner o' thing " We see that in living creatures

is your crocodile ? that come of putrefaction, there is

Anthony. It is shaped, sir, like much transmutation of one into
itself, and it is as broad as it hath another, as caterpillars turn into
breadth; it is just so high as it is, flies. And it should seem prob-
and moves with it own organs ; it able that whatsoever creature,

364 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

lives by that which nourisheth it ; having life, is generated without

and the elements once out of it, seed, that creature will change out

it transmigrates." — Anthony and of one species into another." —

Cleopatra, ii. 7 (1623). Sylva Sylvarum. (1622-25).

" Your serpent of Egypt Ls bred "All creatures, made of putre-

now out of your mud by the opera- faction, are of uncertain shape." —

tiou of your sun ; so is your croco- Ibid.
diW — Ibid.

Anthony's remarks on the crocodile, made to an intoxi-
cated person, must not be taken too seriously, and yet, that
the speaker had in mind the transmutation of species as laid
down by Bacon, is quite certain. Indeed, he bases the theory
on the same ground as Bacon does ; namely, that the animal
is the product of putrefaction. He even jests over its " un-
certain shape."

Bacon believed in vegetable transmutation, also, instancing
the following:

"Another disease is the putting forth of wild oats, whereinto corn
oftentimes (especially barley) doth degenerate. It happeneth chiefly
from the weakness of the grain that is sown ; for, if it be either too old
or mouldy, it will bring forth wild oats." — Sylva Sylvarum.

729

MUSHROOMS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Whose pastime " Mushrooms come up so bas-

is to make midnight mushrooms." tily, as in a night." — Ibid.
The Tempest, v. 1 (1623).

730

STRAWBERRIES GROWING IN SHADE

" The strawberry grows underneath " Shade, to some fruits, con-

the nettle." duceth to make them large and

King Henry V., i. 1 (1623). prosperous, more than sun; as in

strawberries." — Ibid.

731

MEDLAR

" Touchstone. Truly, the tree " Men have entertained a con-

yields bad fruit. ceit that sheweth prettily, namely :

PARALLELISMS 365

Rosalind. I '11 graff it with you, that if you graft a late coming fruit
and then I shall graff it with a upon a stock of a fruit-tree that
medlar ; then it will be the earliest cometh early, the graft wiU bear
fruit i' the country ; for you'll be fruit early; as a peach upon a
rotten ere you be half ripe, and cherry; and contrariwise, if an
that 's the right virtue of the early coming fruit upon a stock of
medlar." a fruit-tree that cometh late, the

As You Like It, ili. 2 (1623). graft will bear fruit late; as a

cherry upon a peach. But these
are but imaginations, and untrue.
The cause is, for that the scion
over-ruleth the stock quite, and
the stock is but passive only, and
giveth aliment, but no motion, to
the graft." — Sylva Sylvarum.

The medlar is a fruit that is eaten only after it has begun

to decay. Consequently Eosalind, proposing to graft a tree

with Touchstone, (a medlar, who will be rotten before he is

half ripe) claims that she will then have the " earliest fruit

i' the country." She knows that the "scion over-ruleth

the stock."

732

MIND AND FACE TO AGREE
From Shakespeare From Bacon

"False face must hide what the " Contradict not your words by

false heart doth know." your looks." — Advancement of

Macbeth, i. 7 (1623). Learning (1603-5).

733

THE ROMANS, SHEEP

" He would not be a wolf " Cato, the censor, said that the

But that he sees the Romans are Eomans were hke sheep." — /Z'id.
but sheep."

Julius Ccesar, i. 3 (1623).

734
MAKING HASTE TO BE RICH
"Injurious time now with a rob- "He who hastens to be rich

ber's haste shall not be innocent." — Essay

Crams his rich thievery up." of Riches (1625).

Troilus and Cressida, iv. 4 (1623).

266 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

735

RICHES, THE BAGGAGE OF VIKTUE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Like an ass whose back with " I cannot call riches better than

ingots bows, the baggage of virtue." — Essay of

Thou bear'st thy heavy riches but Riches (1C07-12).
a journey."
Measure for Measure, iii. 1 (1623).

736

MUSIC OF THE DYING SWAN

" I will play the swan, "The song of the swan." —

And die in music." Prornus (1594-96).

Othello, V. 2 (1623).
" He makes a swan-like end,
Fading in music."
Merchant of Venice, iii. 2 (IGOO).

The following passage was not in the play, as printed in
1622, but added in the Folio edition, one year later and seven
years after the death of William Shakspere of Stratford :

" Emilia. What did thy song bode, lady 1
Hark! canst thou hear me 1 I will play the swan,
And die in music. \_Sinying.~\ Willow, willow, willow."

737

THE BEST COUNSELLORS ARE THE DEAD

" Hamlet [pointing to dead body of " The best counsellors are the
Polonius']. This counsellor dead." — Essay of Counsel (\Q(fl-

Is now most still, most secret, and 12).
most grave,

Who was in life a foolish, prating

kllilVG*

Hamlet, iii. 4 (1604).

738

TO BE OR NOT TO BE

"To be or not to be, that is the "We must now institute an

question." enquiry concerning Existence and

Hamlet, iii. 1 (1604). Non-existence." — Abecedarium
Natures (posthumous).

PARALLELISMS 367

Bacon's tract, entitled Ahecedarium Naturce, with the
exception of a small fragment containing the title, has
been lost. With many other of the Chancellor's posthu-
mous papers it was taken to Holland soon after his
decease, and for some imknown reason not pubhshed. Isaac
Gruter, living at Utrecht in (circa) 1657, was its last known
custodian.

739

IGNORANT JUDGMENTS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Disparage not the faith thou dost " They speak ill of those things

not know." of which they are ignorant." —

A Midsummer- Night's Dream, ii. Promus (1594-96).
2 (1600).

740
MERCY IN LIONS

" Brother, you have a vice of mercy " Lions also are said to be no

in you, longer savage toward those who

Which better fits a lion than a yield and prostrate themselves." —

man." Meditaiiones SacrcB (1597).
Troilus and Cressida, v. 3 (1609).

741

HONEST WRONGS

" I '11 devise some honest slanders " An honest man in these days

To stain my cousin with." must needs be more honest than

Much Ado about Nothing, iii. 1 in ages heretofore, /jro/j/er antipe-
(1600). risiasin.^' — Colors of Good and

"Let us about it; it is admi- Evil (1597).
rable pleasures, and fery honest
knaveries." — Merry Wives of
Windsor, iv. 4 (1602).

Bacon entered into an elaborate and subtle explanation of
what an " honest slander " or an " honest knavery " can be.
Tt is an act committed under the pressure of circumstances,
this being the meaning of the Greek word used by him for
the purpose. That is, to deceive Falstaff and make him the

368

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

butt of ridicule, to rescue Benedick from an unfortunate
love-afi'air by slandering temporarily the object of his pas-
sion, became conditionally justifiable. Actions, such as
these, are made honest by overpowering evils exerting
force from without. It is a reaction from contraries.

742
LICENSE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Lucio. Why, how now, Claudio ! " We are all the worse for

whence comes this restraint ? license." — Apothegm.
Claudio. From too much liberty,

my Lucio, liberty.
As surfeit is the father of much

fast,
So every scope by the immoderate

use
Turns to restraint."

Measure for Measure, i. 2 (1623).

The apothegm we have quoted is the reply given to the
Queen by Sir Nicholas Bacon (father of Francis), one
day, when she asked his opinion of one of the Monopoly
Licenses, A family pun.

743

MUSICAL CONCORD

" Music do I hear ?
Ha, ha ! keep time. How sour

sweet music is,
When time is broke and no pro-
portion kept ! "
King Richard 11., v. 4 (1597).

" In music, I ever loved easy
airs, that go full all the parts
together ; and not these strange
points of accord and discord." —
Letter to Robert Cecil (1594).

744

JUGGLERS

. , you basket-hilt stale " Do you not mark that jugglers

" Away .

juggler I "
S King Henry IV., ii. 4 (1600).

are no longer in request when their
tricks and sleights are once per-
ceived ? " — Essex Device (1594).

PARALLELISMS 369

745

YOUNG THORNS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" What ! can so young a thorn begin "A thorn is gentle when it is

to prick ? " young." — Promus (1594-96).

3 King Henry VI., v. 5 (1623).

746
ROMANS CONQUER BY SITTING DOWN
" Lieutenant. Sir, I beseech you, " The Roman conquers by sit-

think you, he '11 carry Rome ? ting down." — Ibid.

Auftdlus. All places yield to

him ere he sits down." — Corio-

lanus, iv. 7 (1623).

" Caesar sits down in Alexandria."

Anthony and Cleopatra, iii. 11

(1623).

747

THE PEOPLE LIKE FLATTERY

"I will, sir, flatter my sworn "The people like to be flat-
brother, the people ; 't is a con- tered." — Praise of Knowledye
dition they account gentle." — (1592).
Coriolanics, ii. 3 (1623).

748

BENEVOLENCE TAX

"And daily new exactions are "This tax (called a Benevo-

devis'd, lence) was devised by Edward the

As blanks, benevolences, and I wot Fourth, for which he sustained
not what." much envy. It was abolished by

King Richard II., ii. 1 (1597). Richard the Third by act of Par-
liament, to ingratiate himself with
the people ; for so it was not in the
time of King Edward the Fourth.
But in this way he raised exceed-
ing great sums." — History of
Henry VII. (1621).

Bacon illustrates the exactions under this tax, thus :

" The Commissioners who were to levy the Benevolcnco [were
instructed] that, if they met with any that were sparing, they

37°

BJCON AND SHAKESPEARE

should tell them they must needs have, because they laid up ; and
if they were spenders, they must needs have, because it was seen
in their port and manner of living j so neither kind came amiss."

V49

POSTHUMOUS FAME

From Shakespeare
' ' He lives in fame that died in vir-
tue's cause."
Titus Andronicus, i. 2 (1600).

From Bacon
" In the case of persons who
suffer for religion, the words which
they speak at their death, like the
song of the dying swan, have a
wonderful effect and impression
upon men's minds, and dwell long
after in their memory and feelings."
— Wisdom of the Ancients (1609).

750

FLIES IN WINTER

" You are like one that supersti-
tiously

Doth swear to the gods, that win-
ter kills the flies."

Pericles, iv. 3 (1609).

" Those that interchange from
worms to flies in the summer, and
from flies to worms in the winter,
have been kept in boxes four years
at the least." — Sylva Sylvarum
(1622-25).

751
SETTING TEETH ON EDGE

" That would set my teeth nothing
on edge."
1 Henry IV., iii. 1 (1598).

" She swoons
bleed."

Hamlet, v. 2 (1604)

'♦ As for the setting of the teeth
on edge, we see plainly what an
intercourse there is between the
teeth and the organ of the hearing
by the taking of the end of a bow
between the teeth, and striking
upon the string." — Ibid.

752
SWOONING AT SIGHT OF BLOOD

to see them " Many, upon the seeing of others

bleed, themselves are ready to faint,
as if they bled. " — /&irf.

PARALLELISMS

371

753

LOOKING DOWN FROM GREAT HEIGHTS

From Shakc'speare

" How fearful

And dizzy 't is, to cast one's eyes so
low \

The crows, and choughs, that wing
the midway air.

Show scarce so gross as beetles ;
half way down

Hangs one that gathers samphire ;
dreadful trade !

Methinks he seems no bigger than
his head ;

The fishermen, that walk upon the
beach,

Appear like mice ; and yond tall
anchoring bark,

Diminish'd to her cock ; her cock,
a buoy.

Almost too small for sight ; the
murmuring surge,

That on the unnumber'd idle peb-
bles chafes.

Cannot be heard so high. — I 'II
look no more.

Lest my brain turn, and the defi-
cient sight

Topple down headlong."

King Lear, iv. 6 (1608).

"If

From Bacon
a man be upon an high

place, without rails or good hold,
except he be used to it, he is ready
to fall ; for imagining a fall, it put-
teth his spirits into the very action
of a fall." — Sylva Sylvarum (1622-
25).

754
EFFECT OF WINE-DRINKING

** The conquering wine hath steep'd

our sense
In soft and delicate Lethe."

Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 7

(1C23).

" It is written of Epicurus that
after his disease was judged des-
perate he drowned his stomach and
senses with a large draft and in-
gurgitation of wine ; whereupon
the epigram was made, ' He
drowned in wine the bitterness of
the Stygian waters.' " — The Ad-
vancement of Learning (1G03-5).

372

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

755

JUSTIFIABLE SUICIDE

From Shakespeare
" ' Let me not live,' quotli he,

' After my flame lacks oil, to be
the snuff

Of younger spirits, whose appre-
hensive senses

All but new things disdain ; whose
judgments are

Mere fathers of their garments ;
whose constancies

Expire Lefore their fashions. ' This
he wish'd ;

I, after him, do after him wish too.

Since I nor wax, nor honey, can
bring home,

I quickly were dissolved from my
hive,

To give some laborers room."

All's Well, i. 2 (1623).

From Bacon
" 1 have given the rule, where
a man cannot fitly play his own
part ; if he have not a friend, he
may quit the stage." — Essay of
Friendship (1625),

756
KEKNELS or THE POMEGRANATE

"Goto, sir; you were beaten in "Like the pomegranate, full of

Italy for picking a kernel out of many kernels."
a pomegranate." — ^Zrs Well, ii. (1622).
3 (1623).

De Augmentis

" Plucking the

where sits the wind."
Merchant of Venice, i. 1 (1600).

757
TO TEST DIRECTION OF WINDS

grass, to know " We usually try which way

the wind bloweth by casting up
grass." — Ibid.

758
SALAMANDER

" I have maintained that salaman- " There is an ancient received

der of yours with fire this two-and- tradition of the salamander, that

thirty years." — 1 King Henry IV., it liveth in the fire," — Sylva

iii. 3 (1598). Sylvarum (1622-25).

PARALLELISMS

373

759
INFLUENCES OF THE
From Shakespeare
1. " The moon 's an arrant thief,
And her pale fire she snatches
from the sun."
Timon of Athens, iv. 3 (1623).

2. " Rotten humidity ; below, thy

sister's orb
Infect the air ! "

Ihid.

3. " Therefore the moon, the

governess of floods,
Pale in her anger, washes all the air."
A Midsummer-Night^ s Dream, ii.

2 (1600).
" The moon, methinks, looks with

a watery eye."

Ibid., iii. 1.
" That I, being govern'd by the

moon,
May send forth plenteous tears to

drown the world."
Kii^g Richard III., ii. 2 (1597).

4. " It is the very error of the moon ;
She comes more near the earth than

she was wont,
And makes men mad."

Othello, V. 2 (1622).

MOON
From Bacon
" The influences of the moon
(most observed) are four :

1. " The drawing forth of heat.

2. "The inducing of putrefac-
tion.

3. " The increase of moisture.

4. " The exciting of the motions
of spirits. The great instance is
in lunacies." — Sijlva Sylvanim
(1622-25).

760

FORTUNE AND NATURE

" Now thou goest from Fortune's
office to Nature's : Fortune reigns
in gifts of the world, not in the
lineaments of Nature." — As You
Like It, i. 2 (1623).

"It cannot be denied, but out-
ward accidents conduce much to
fortune ; favor, opportunity, death
of others, occasion fitting virtue."
— Essay of Fortune (1607-12).

761

USE OF MONEY IN CIVIL WARS
" Cade. I thank you, good " The records of all times do

people; there shall be no money; concur to falsify the conceit that

374

BACON ANB SHAKESPEARE

all shall eat and drink on my

score." — 2 King Ileiirij VI.,i\. 2

(1623).

Clifford. Spare England ! for it is

your native coast.
Henry hath money, you are strong

and manly.
God on our side, doubt not of

victory.
All. A Cliflford ! a Clifford ! we '11

follow the king."

Ibid., iv. 8.

wars are decided, not by the sharp-
est sword, but by the greatest
purse. . . • Which is true [of civil
wars only], for that civil wars
cannot be between people of differ-
ing valor ; and again, because in
them men are as oft bought as
vanquished." — Of the True Great-
men of the Kingdom of Britain
(c. 1G08).

The references to money in the speeches of Cade and
Clifford, as of special use in a civil war, were not in the
earlier editions of the play, 1594, 1600, 1619 ; they appear
for the first time in the folio of 1623, for which the play
was revised after 1619.^ It seems that, according to the
dramatist, as well as according to Bacon, it is money that
determines the issue of a civil, as distinguished from a
foreign war.

762

WISDOM AND FOLLY

From Shakespeare

" To be direct and honest is not
safe.

Honesty 's a fool,
And loses that it works for."

Othello, iii. .3 (1622).

" Corruption wins not more than

honesty."

King Henry VIIL, iii. 2 (1623).

" Rich honesty dwells like a

miser, sir, in a poor house, as your

pearl in your foul oyster." — As

You Like It, v. 4 (1623).

From Bacon

" There be not two more fortu-
nate properties than to have a
little of the fool, and not too much,
of the wise." — Essay of Fortune
(1607-12).

1 See 'Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare,' Chapter III.

PARALLELISMS 375

763

LEADKN SWORDS
From STiake-speare From Bacon

" Wounds like a leaden sword." " To slay "with a leaden sword."

Love's Labor 's Lost, v. 2 (1598). — Prornus (1594-96).
" To you our swords have leaden
points."

Julius Ca;sar, iii. 1 (1623).

764
COLOQUINTIDA

" The food that to him now is as " Some apothecaries, upon stamp-
luscious as locusts shall be to him ing of coloquintida, have been put
shortly as bitter as coloquintida." into a great scouring by the vapor
— Othello, 13 (1G22). only." — Sylva Sylvarum (1622-

25).

765

LEES AND DREGS

" Would drink up " To drink the lees and dregs of

The lees and dregs of a flat tamed Perkins' intoxication." — History

piece." of Henry VIL (1621).
Troilus a-iid Cressida, iv. 1 (1609).

766

PERFUMES

" Purple the sails, and so perfumed " There be some perfumes, pre-

that scribed by the writers of natural

The winds were love-sick with magic, which procure pleasant

them." dreams. " — Sylva Sylvarum (1622-

Anthony and Cleojmlra, ii. 2 25).
(1623).

767
love's KEEPSAKES

" Give me your gloves, I '11 wear " It helpeth to continue love, if

them for your sake ; one wear a ring or a bracelet, of

And, for your love, I'll take this the hair of the party beloved ; per-

riug from you." haps a glove, or other like favor,

Merchant of Venice, iv. 2 (1600). may as well do '\V — Ihid.

376 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" Cressida. O ! you shall be expos'd,

my lord, to dangers,
As infinite as imminent ! but 1 '11

be true.
Troilus. And I '11 grow friend

with danger. Wear this

sleeve.
Cressida. And you this glove.
Troilus. But yet, ha true."
Troilus and Cressida, iv. 4 (IG09).

768

WONDER, DIVINE
Frojn Shakespeare From Bacon

♦' Ferdinand. My prime request, " Contemplation of the creatures

Which I do last pronounce, is — of God hath for end (as to the

0, you wonder ! natures of the creatures them-

If you be maid or no ] selves) knowledge, but as to the

Miranda. No wonder, sir ; nature of Grod, no knowledge, but

But certainly a maid." wonder, which is nothing else but

The Tempest, i. 2 (1623). contemplation broken off, or losing

''Caliban [to Stephano]. I pry- itself." — 0/ the Interpretation of

thee, be my god. . . . Nature (posthumous).

Trinculo. A most ridiculous
monster, to make a wonder of a
poor drunkard." — Ibid., ii. 2.

The dramatist applies the term " wonder " to Miranda and
Stephano in the same sense in which Bacon apphes it in the
passage cited above ; that is, not only to what is beyond the
sphere of our knowledge, but also to what is divine. This is
Bacon's formal definition of the word.

769

COMMON AND SEVERAL

"Boyet. So you grant pasture for "There is no beast that if you
me. [Offering to kiss her. take him from the common and
Maria. Not so, gentle beast. put him into the several, but he
My lips are no common, though will wax fat." — Apothegms (post-
several they be." humous).
Love's Labor 's Lost, ii. 1 (1598).

PARALLELISMS 377

770

GOLD TRIED BY THE TOUCHSTONE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Holding out gold that's by the "Chilon would say, that gold

touchstone tried." was tried with the touchstone." —

Pericles, ii. 2 (1609). Apothegms (posthumous).

771

GALEN, A QUACK

" The most sovereign prescrip- " Galen was a man of very nar-

tion in Galen is but empiricutic." row mind, false to experience, and
Coriolanus, \i. 1 (1623.) the emptiest of reasoners." — Tevi-
poris Partus Masculus (c. 1585).

An empirical physician is one who bases the methods of
his practice wholly on his own observations, without any
scientific training or knowledge. Bacon says (Advance-
ment of Learning), that it is an error to commit any per-
son to the care of empirics. Burton classes empirics with
mountebanks. The dramatist himself makes one of his
characters express the same opinion, thus :

" We must not
So stain our judgment, or corrupt our hope,
• To prostitute our past-cure malady

To empirics."

All's Well, ii. 1 (1623).

Galen was the most celebrated of ancient medical writers.
He practised the profession of medicine in Eome, where by
his great learning and unparalleled success he won the
double title of " wonder-speaker " " and wonder-worker."
Marcus Aurelius was one of his admirers. For more than
a thousand years after his death his authority in medical
science was supreme throughout Europe ; and yet Bacon
and Shake-speare both denounced him as a quack.

772
Cesar's ambition
" Ca3sar's ambition " He [Cajsar] allowed neither

(Which swell'd so much that it country, nor religion, nor services,
did almost stretch. nor kindred, nor friendships, to be

378

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

The sides o' the world) against all any hindrance or bridle to his pur-
color, here poses." — Imago Civilis Julii Cce-
Did put the yoke upon 's." saris (c. 1601).
Ctjmbeline, iii. 1 (1623).

VIRTUES AND VICES
From Slmke-spcarc
" He is a soldier fit to stand by

Ctesar,
And give direction; and do but

see his vice ;
'T is to his virtue a just equinox,
The one as long as the other."

Othello, ii. 3 (1622),

BALANCED IN CvESAR

From Bacon
" It vras in the business of war
that Ci3esar's ability was most con-
spicuous ; and so great it was that
he could not only lead an army
but make one. ... To pleasures
he was naturally inclined, and in-
dulged freely in them ; but he so
governed his pleasiures that they
were no hindrance to his interest
and main business, and his mind
was rather invigorated than made
languid by them." — Ibid.

V74
cuckold's horns

"Fear not, man; we'll tip thy
horns with gold."

Much Ado, v. 4 (1600).

" By my troth (said Sir Henry
Sidney) take her home and take
the money; and then, whereas
other cuckolds wear their horns
plain, you may wear yours gilt." —
Apothegms (posthumous).

V75

SUFFERING MANY DEATHS

*' Mark the sequel, Master
Brook : I suffered the pangs of
three several deaths." — The ]\Ierry
Wives of Windsor, iii. 5 (1602).
"Bohemia stops his ears, and

threatens them
With divers deaths in death."

The Winter's Tale, v. 1 (1623).

" If wishes might find place, I
would die together, and not my
mind often, and my body once."
— Essay of Death (posthumous).

PARALLELISMS ^19

776

THINGS AT THE WORST

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Things at the worst will cease, or " When things are at the period

else cUmb upward." of ill, they turn again." — Promus

Macbeth, iv. 2 (1623). (1594-96).

777

GOOD MORROW

" Good morrow, cousin." " Good morrow." — Promus

Romeo and Juliet, i. 1 (1597). (159'i-96).
" Good morrow to my ghostly
confessor."

Ibid., ii. 3 (1597).
" So soon to bid good morrow to
my bed."

Ibid.
" Good-morrow, gentlemen."

Ibid., ii. 4 (1597).

Bacon devoted a part of one of the folios in his Promus to
the subject of salutations. We give a few of them, reduced
to modern orthography, and in the order in which they are
entered :

" Good morrow,
Good soir,
Good travel,
Good haste,
Good matin,
Good betimes,
Bon jour,

Good day to me and good morrow to you,
I have not said all my prayers till I have bid you good
morrow."

It is evident that Bacon was making an effort in 1594-96
to introduce salutations of this kind into English speech. It
is also evident that several of the above came from France,
where they were in common use, and where Bacon had spent

380 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

three years in early life. The Promus was a private
record, unknown and inaccessible to the public for more than
two hundred years after it was written ; and yet, in the very
next year ('Eomeo and Juliet,' 1597), these foreign salutations
began to appear, and continued to appear in great profusion,
in the Shake-speare plays. " Good morrow," which, it is
believed, had been used but once before in England, as a
salutation, occurs one hundred and fifteen times in them ;
"good day," fifteen times; "good even" (soir), twelve times;
and " good morning," twice. For " good dawning," also as a
salutation, see parallelism No. 268.
Dr. Abbott happily says :

" On the lines of this suggestive principle Francis Bacon pursues
his experimental path, whether the experiments be great or small —
sowing, as Nature sows, superfluous seeds, in order that out of the
conflict the strongest may prevail." — Preface to Mrs. Henry Pott's
Edition of the Fromus, p. ix.

778
From Shake-speare From Bacon

WATER RUNS TO THE OCEAN

" And then his stale " Water runs to the ocean." —

Empties itself, as doth an inland Promus (1594-96).

brook,
Into the main of waters."

Merchant of Venice, V. 1 (1600).

"We will

. . . like a bated and retired flood
. . . calmly run on in obedience,
Even to our ocean, our great King
John."

King John, v. 4 (1623).

779

PATIENCE

•' How poor are they that have not " He who has not patience has
patience." nothing." — Promus (1594-96).

Othello, ii. 3 (1622).

PARALLELISMS 3 8 1

FORGIVENESS OP INJURIES AN EVIL

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Mercy is not itself that oft looks "He that pardons his enemy,

so ; the sheriff shall have his goods."

Pardon is still the nurse of second — Promus (1594-96).

woe." " He who shows mercy to his

Measure for Measure, n.\{lQ22>). enemy denies it to himself." —

"Mercy but murders, pardoning De Augmentis (IQ22).

those that kill." "Nothing is so popular as the

Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1 (1597). forgiveness of enemies, but this it

" 111 mayst thou thrive, if thou was which, whether it were virtue

grant any grace ! " or not, cost Ccesar his life." —

King Richard II., v. 3 (1597). Imago Civilis Julii Ccesaris (c.

"Nothing emboldens sin so much 1601),

as mercy."

Timon of Athens, iii. 4 (1623).
" What ! wouldst thou have a ser-
pent sting thee twice ? '
Merchant of Venice, iv. 1 (1600).

This sentiment is found in Euripides, from whose tragedies
the dramatist drew so much.

781

VICISSITUDE

" 0 God ! that one might read the " Vicissitude is in all things." —

book of fate, Promus (1594-96).

And see the revolution of the times

Make mountains level, and the
continent,

Weary of solid firmness, melt itself

Into the sea! and, other times, to
see

The beachy girdle of the ocean

Too wide for Neptune's hips ; how
chances mock.

And changes fdl the cup of altera-
tion

With divers liquors ! "

2 King Henry IV., iii. 1 (1600).

382

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

782

EXAMPLES OF MISERY IN OTHERS

From Shakespeare

" "When we our betters see bearing

our woes,
We scarcely think our miseries our

foes.
Who alone suffers, suffers most i'

the mind,
Leaving free things and happy

shows behind;
But then the mind much sufferance

doth o'erskip,
When grief hath mates and bearing

fellowship.
How light and portable my pain

seems now,
When that which makes me bend

makes the king bow."

King Lear, iii. 6 (1608).
" It easeth some, though none it

ever cur'd.
To think their dolor others have

endur'd."

Lucrece (1594).
" Comfort me, boy ; what great

men have been in love 1 "
Love's Labor ^s Lost, i. 2 (1598).

From Bacon

" Amongst consolations it is not
the least to represent to a man's
self like examples of calamity in
others. For examples give a
quicker impression than argu-
ments ; and besides, they certify
to us that which the Scripture
also tendereth for satisfaction, that
no new thing is happened unto us.
This they do the better, by how
much the examples are liker in
circumstances to our own case;
and more especially if they fall
upon persons that are greater and
worthier than ourselves. For as it
savoreth of vanity to match our-
selves highly in our own conceit,
so on the other side it is a good
sound conclusion that if our betters
have sustained the like events, we
have the less cause to be grieved."

— Letter to Bishop Andrews (1622).
" This even becomes pleasant in

comparison with another's grief."

— Promus (1594-96).

Mr. Euggles brings out the force of this extraordinary
parallelism by rearrangement in detail, thus:

" When we our betters see bearing

our woes.
We scarcely think our miseries our

foes."

Shakespeare.
" Who alone suffers, suffers most in

the mind.
Leaving free things and happy

shows behind.

"If our betters have sustained
the like events, we have the less
cause to be grieved." — Bacon.

" Amongst consolations it is not
the least to represent to a man's
self like examples of calamity in
others."— 7/;/rf.

PARALLELISMS 383

But then the mind much sufferance

doth o'erskip
When grief hath mates and bearing
fellowship."

Shake-Kpeare.
" How light and portable my pain " More especially if they fall

seems now, upon persons that are greater and

When that which makes me bend worthier than ourselves." — Bacon.
makes the king bow."

lUd.
" He childed, as I father'd." " This they do the better, by how

Ibid, much the examples are liker iu
circumstance to our own." — Ibid.

The Plays of Shakespeare^ founded on Literary Forms, pages 227, 228.

783

KEPROVING A SCORNER

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" He that a fool doth very wisely hit " He that instructs a scorner

Doth very foolishly, although he gets to himself shame." — Ad-

smart, vancement of Learning (1603-5).

Not to seem senseless of the bob

[jeer]."
As You Like It, ii. 7 (1623).

In the second edition of the ' Advancement ' (1623), Bacon
enlarges further on this singular subject, thus :

"When a man informs and instructs a scorner, in the first place
he loses his time ; secondly, the attempt is laughed at by others as
a vain thing and lahor misapplied ; and lastly, the scorner despises
the knowledge which he has received."

784

POVERTY IN WEALTH

"Having all, so wanteth in his "Wealth made me poor." —
store, Promus (1594-96).

That, cloy'd with much, he pineth
still for more."

Lucrece (1594).

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

785

SOUTH WIND BRINGING RAIN

From Bacon
"The south wind with us is
rainy ; the north wind clear. The
former collects and nurtures clouds ;
the latter breaks and dissipates
them. Poets, therefore, in their
descriptions of the deluge repre-
sent the north wind as at that time
imprisoned, and the south wind let
loose with full powers." — Historia
Ventorum (1622).

From Shakespeare
" Like foggy south, pulling with
wind and rain."
As You Like It, iii. 5 (1G23).
" Like the south,
Borne with black vapor."

2 King Henry IV., ii. 4 (1600).
" Turning his face to the dew-
dropping south."
Romeo and Juliet, i. 4 (1597).
"From the spongy south to this
part of the west."

Cymheline, \v. 2 (1623).

Another view of the south wind is presented in our next.

786

SOUTH WIND

"All the contagion of the south

wind light on you,
You shames of Kome ! You herd of

— Boils and plagues
Plaster you o'er ; that you may be

abhorr'd
Further than seen, and one infect

another
Against the wind a mile ! "

Coriolanus, i. 4 (1623).
" The south-fog rot him ! "

Cymheline, ii. 3 (1623).

PESTILENTIAL

" In the south wind the breath
of man is more offensive, the appe-
tite of animals is more depressed,
pestilential diseases are more fre-
quent, catarrhs common, and men
are more dull and heavy." — Ihid.

787

POMPEt's war AGAINST PIRATES

" Pompey. I must

Rid all the sea of pirates."

Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 6
(1623).

" The Piratical War which was
achieved by Pompey the Great was
his truest and greatest glory." —
An Advertisement touching an Holy
War (1622).

PARALLELISMS

3^S

SILENT LETTERS

From Shakespeare
♦' I abhor such fanatical phan-
tasms, such insociable and point-
device companions ; such rackers
of orthography, as to speak dout,
fine, when he should say doubt;
det, when he should pronounce
debt, — d, e, b, t, not d, e, t ; he clep-
eth a calf, caulf; half, haulf;
neighbour, vacatur nebour ; neigh,
abbreviated ne. This is abhomi-
nable (which he would call abomi-
nable), it insinuateth me of insanie:
ne intelligis, domine ? to make
frantic, lunatic." — Lovers Labor 's
Lost, V. 1 (1598).

From Bacon
"What! when a letter is de-
frauded of its rightful sound ? " —
Promus (1594-96).

789

ULYSSES

" Deceive more slyly than Ulysses

could."

3 King Henry VL, iii. 2 (1623).

" As Ulysses and stout Diomede,

With sleight and manhood stole to

Rhesus' tents."

Ibid., iv. 2 (1623).
" The mild glance that sly Ulysses
lent."

Lucrece (1595).
"That same dog-fox, Ulysses."
Troilus and Cressida, v. 4
(1609).

"Ulysses, deceitful in speech."
- Ibid.

" Trust none ;

For oaths are straws, men's faiths
are wafer-cakes."
King Henry V., ii. 3 (1600).
25

790

FAITH

" There is no sound faith any-
where." — Ibid.

386 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

791

LOVED AFTER DEATH
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" For so it falls out, " When he ia dead, he will be

That what we have we prize not to loved." — Promus (159-1-96).

the worth,
Whiles we enjoy it ; but being

lack'd and lost,
Why, then we rack the value ; then

we find
The virtue that possession would

not show us,
Whiles it was ours."

Much Ado, iv. 1 (1600).
"I shall be lov'd when I am
lack'd."

Coriolanus, iv. 1 (1623).
*' She 's good, being gone."

Anthony and Cleopatra, i. 2
(1623).

792
SUTTM CUIQUE

" ^Mwm cuique is our Koman " Snum cuique^^ [To every man

justice." his own]. — Ibid.

Titus Andronicus, i. 2 (1600).

793
GALEN AND PARACELSUS

"So I say — both of Galen and " Galen's compositions and Para-
Paracelsus.' ' celsus' separations. " — Ibid.
All 's Well, ii. 3 (1623).

794

BEATING THE BUSH FOR A BIRD

" The flat transgression of a " To beat the bush while

schoolboy, who, being overjoy'd another catches the bird." — Ibid.
with finding a bird's nest, shows it
his companion, and he steals it." —
Much Ado about Nothing, ii. 1
(1600).

PARALLELISMS 387

795

THE CAT IN THE ADAGE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" Live a coward in thine own " The cat would eat fish, but she

esteem, will not wet her foot." — Promus

Letting 'I dare not ' wait upon 'I (1594-96).

would,'
Like the poor cat in the adage."

Macbeth, i. 7 (1623).

This is a French proverb — Le chat aime le poisson, mais
il naime pas a mouiller lapatte — the cat loveth fish, but she
loveth not to wet her paw. It appeared in an Enghsh collec-
tion of proverbs for the first time, so far as we know, in 1629,
or six years after the publication of ' Macbeth.' Bacon had
lived in France.

796

WILL AND WISH

" So the maid that stood in the " He had rather have his will

way for my wish shall show me than his wish." — Ibid.
the way to my will." — King
Henry V., v. 2 (1623).

797

QUESTION IN CHEAPSIDE

•• What lack you ? " " They have a better question in

King John, iv. 1 (1623). Cheapside, ' What lack you ' ? " —
Ibid.

798

POETRY FEIGNING

"The truest poetry is the mo.st " Poets invent much." — Ibid.

feigning."
As You Like It, iii. 3 (1623).

799
LOAN

" Loan oft lo.ses both itself and " He who loans to a friend loses

friend." double." — Ibid.

Hamlet, i. 3 (1604).

388

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

800

THE MAGISTRATE

From Shakespeare
" Lear. See bow yond justice
rails upon yond thief. Hark, in
thiue ear ; change places, and, han-
dy-dandy, which is the justice,
which is the thief? — Thou hast
seen a farmer's dog bark at a
beggar ?

Gloucester. Ay, sir.
Lear. And the creature run
from the cur ? There thou might' st
behold the great image of authority ;
a dog's obey'd in office." — King
Lear, iv. 6 (1608).

From Bacon
" The magistrate determines the
man." — Promus (1594-96).

801

"That in a captain's but a choleric

word

Which in the soldier is flat blas-
phemy."
Measure for Measure, ii. 2 (1623).
"Faults that are rich are fair."

Timon of Athens, i. 2 (1623).
" 0 ! what a world of vile ill-

favor'd faults
Looks handsome in three hundred

pounds a year ! "
Merry Wives of Windsor, iii. 4

(1602).
" Let the candied tongue lick

absurd pomp.
And crook the pregnant hinges of

the knee.
Where thrift may follow faAvning."
Hamlet, iii. 2 (1604).
" The learned pate
Ducks to the golden fool."

Timon of Athe7is, iv. 3 (1623).

REPUTATION DEPENDENT ON RANK

" We think that a rich man is
always right." —Promus (1594-96).

" The fortunate have even three
months' children." — Ibid.

PARALLELISMS

802
IN THE DOORWAY

From Sh-ahe-speare From Bacon

"Achilles stands i' th' entrance of " Beautiful in the doorway." —
his tent." Promus (1594-96).

Troilus and Cressida, iii. 3 (1609).
" They pass'd by me,
As misers do by beggars, neither

gave to me
Good -word nor look. What ! are
my deeds forgot ? "

Ibid.

It was a saying among the Greeks that a man's popularity-
is measured by the degree of deference shown to him by
passers-by, while he is standing in his doorway. Bacon's
entry in the Promus to this effect is quoted from Aristopha-
nes. Accordingly in the play Ulysses advises the Greeks
to pass Achilles, standing in the entrance of his tent, with
averted looks, iu order to show the sulking warrior his loss
of popularity in the army.

803

THE SUN AND TAPERS

" With taper light " To help the sun with lanterns."

To seek the beauteous eye of heaven — Promus (1594-96).

to garnish." "This work, shining in itself,

King John, iv. 2 (1623). needs no taper." — Amendment of
the Laws (1616).

804
BULL-BEARING MILO

"I'or thy vigor, " He who shall have carried the

Bull-boaring ^tilo his addition yield calf will carry the bull." — Promus

To sinewy Ajax." (1594-96).
Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3 (1609).

Both authors refer to the athlete Milo, wlio, having made
a practice of carrying a calf while it was young, continued
to do so after it had become full grown.

390 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

805
IGNORANCE
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" O, thou monster ignorance ! " Better unborn than untaught."

How del'orm'd dost thou look I " — Promus (1594-96).

Loce's Labor's Lost, iv. 2 (1598).
"There is no darkness but igno-
rance."

Ttoelflh Night, iv. 2 (1623).

'• The common curse of mankind,

folly and ignorance."

Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3(1609).

" Ignorance is the curse of God."

2 King Henry VI., iv. 7 (1623).

806
NO CONSULTATION BEFORE ALTARS

" Cease, cease these jars, and rest " There should be no consulta-

your minds in peace ! tion before the altar." — Ibid.

Let 's to the altar."

1 Henry VI., i. 1 (1623).

807

MEAN PEOPLE ATTEMPTING GREAT THINGS

"What may this mean, "We, mean people, attempt

That we . . . fools of nature, great things." — I'hid.

So horridly to shake our disposition
With thoughts beyond the reaches
of our souls ? "

Hamlet, i. 4 (1603).
" I am very proud, revengeful,
ambitious, with more offences at
my beck than I have thoughts to
put them in, imagination to give
them shape, or time to act them
in. What should such fellows as
I do, crawling between heaven and
earth?" — /fttd., iii. 1.

808
SUFFERANCE GIVING EASE
*< Of sufferance comes ease." " Of sufferance cometh ease." —

. 1 King Henry IV., v. 4 (1600). Ibid.

PARALLELISMS

29^

809
EEPEKTANCE
From Shakespeare
" 0 ! my offence is rank, it smells

to heaven ;
It liath the primal curse upon 't,
A brother's murder 1 — Pray can I

not,
Though inclination be as sharp as

will;
My stronger guilt defeats my strong

intent ;
And, like a man to double business

bound,
I stand in pause where I shall first

begin,
And both neglect. "What if this

cursed hand
Were thicker than itself with broth-
er's blood,
Is there not rain enough in the

sweet heavens
To wash it white as snow 1 "Whereto

serves mercy,
But to confront the visage of of-
fence 1
And what 's in prayer, but this two-
fold force, —
To be forestalled, ere we come to

faU,
Or pardon'd, being down ? Then,

I '11 look up ;
My fault is past. But, 0! what

form of prayer
Can serve my turn ? Forgive me

my foul murder ? —
That cannot be; since I am still

possess'd
Of those effects for which I did the

murder,
My crown, mine own ambition, and

my queen.

From Bacon
" He that has the principles of
virtue deeply seated in his nature
would repent [having committed a
crime], but he knows not how." —
Promus (1594-96).

392 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

What then 1 what rests ?
Try what repeutance can ? what

can it not ?
Yet what can it, when one cannot
repent ? "

Hamlet, iii. 3 (1G04).

810

BOMBASTIC WORDS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" 0 ! they have lived long on the " Cast aside bombast and words

alms-basket of words. I marvel a foot-and-a-half long." — Promus

thy master hath not eaten thee for (1594-96).

a word ; for thou art not so long by

the head as honovificabilitudinitati-

hus." ^ — Love's Labor 's Lost, v. 1

(1598).
^^ Rosalind. Answer me in one

word.

Celia. You must borrow me

Gargantua's mouth first; 'tis a

word too great for any mouth of

this age's size." — As You Like It,

iii. 2 (1623).

811

FOREIGN WARS

" Be it thy course to busy giddy " Have recourse to a foreign war

minds to appease parties at home." —

With foreign quarrels." Ibid.
S King Henry IV., iv. 5 (1600).

812
GIVE WORDS TO LOSERS

" Losers will have leave " Always let losers have their
To ease their stomachs with their words." — Ibid.
bitter tongues."
Titus Andronicus, iii. 1 (1600).

1 For the history of this famous word, see supra, page 127 el seq.

PARALLELISMS 293

813
THINGS UNSEEN DO NOT AFFECT US
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" There may be in the cup " That the eye seeth not, the

A spider steep'd, and one may heart rueth not." — Pro?nMS (1594-

drink, depart, 96).

And yet partake no venom, for his

knowledge
Is not infected ; but if one present
The abhorr'd ingredient to his eye,

make known
How he hath drunk, he cracks his

gorge, his sides,
With violent hefts."

Winter's Tale, ii. 1 (1623).

814
PRUDENCE

" Hold your tongue " The prudent man conceals his

Good prudence." knowledge." — Ihid,

Romeo and Juliet, iii. 5 (1597).
" 'T is wisdom to conceal our mean-
ing."
3 King Henry VI., iv. 7 (1623).

815
THINGS DONE

** What 's done cannot be undone." "Things done cannot be undone."

Macbeth, v. 1 (1623). —Ibid.

816

EAR AND VOICE

" Give every man thine ear, but " Let every man be swift to hear,

few thy voice." slow to speak." — Ibid.

Hamlet, i. 3 (1604).

817
FORGETTING

"Thou canst not teach me to " The art of forgetting." — Ibid.

forget."
Romeo and Juliet, i. 2 (1599).

394 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

818
LEISURE
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" We bring forth weeds, " Leisure breeds evil thoughts.'"

"When our quick minds lie still." — Promus (1594-96).
Anthony and Cleopatra, i. 2
(1623).

819
A boy's love
" He 's mad that trusts in a boy's " A boy's love doth not endure."
love." — ^b'td-

King Lear, iii. 6 (1608).

820
LOVE, A FOOL

« So true a fool is love." *' A lover always commits some

Sonnet 57 (1609). folly." — Ibid.

821
LOOKING AT A KING

" Every cat and dog, " A cat may look on a king."

And little mouse, every unworthy — Ibid.

thing,
Live here in heaven, and may look
on her."
Romeo and Juliet, iii. 3 (1597).

822
VALOR

" That 's a valiant flea that dare " He had need be a wily mouse

eat his breakfast on the lip of a should breed in a cat's ear." —
lion." — Kinff Henry V., iii. 7 Ibid.
(1623).

823
FRIENDS TO BEASTS

"Nature teaches beasts to know " The cat knows whose lips she

their friends." licks." — Ibid.

Coriolanus, ii. 1 (1623).

PARALLELISMS

39S

824
JOYS, OVERTHROWING

From Shake-speare
" I am giddy ; expectation whirls

me round.
The imaginary relish is so sweet
That it enchants my sense, what

will it be,
When that the watery palate tastes

indeed
Love's thrice-reputed nectar ?

Death, I fear me,
Swounding destruction; or some

joy too fine.
Too-subtle potent, and too sharp

in sweetness,
For the capacity of my ruder

powers.
I fear it much ; and I do fear

besides.
That I shall lose distinction in my

joys."
Troilus and Cressida, iii. 2

(1609).

825
HAPPIEST LIFE IN
** We were, fair queen.
Two lads, that thought there was

no more behind,
But such a day to-morrow as to-
day.
And to be boy eternal. . • .
We were a twin'd lambs, that did

frisk i' the sun,
And bleat the one at the other ;

what we chang'd
Was innocence for innocence. We

knew not
The doctrine of ill-doiug, nor

dream'd
That any did."

Winter's Tale, i. 2 (1G23).

From Bacon
" When one good follows
upon another, a man loses his
balance." — Promus (1594-96).

IGNORANCE

" The happiest life is in knowing
nothing." — Ibid.

396 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

826
SORROWS, SCnOOLMASTERS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" To wilful men, " Our sorrows are our school.

The injuries that they themselves masters." — Promus (1594-96).

procure
Must be their schoolmasters."

King Lear, ii. 4 (1608).

" Give sorrow leave awhile to
tutor me."
King Richard II., iv. 1 (1608).

827

THE HORSE AND THE GRASS

"Ay, sir, but while the grass "While the grass grows, the

grows — the proverb is something horse starveth." — Ihid.
musty." — Hamlet, iii. 2 (1604)

828
FIGHTING SHADOWS
" He will fence with his own shad- " To fight with a shadow." —

ow." Ibid.

Merchant of Venice, i. 2 (1600).

829
PROVIDENCE NOISELESS

" The inaudible and noiseless foot " The gods have woolen feet."

of time." — Ibid.

All 's Well, V. 3 (1623).

830

WASTEFUL EXCESS

"What fool hath added water to "To dig a well by the river's

the sea 1 " side." — Ibid.

Titus Andronicus, iii. 1 (1600).

831

DILUCULO SURGEBE

" Diluculo surgere, thou know'st." " Diluculo surgere saluberrimum

Ticelfth Night, ii. 3 (1623). eat." — Ibid.

PARALLELISMS 397

832

FEIENDSHIP BETWEEN SUPERIORS AND INFERIORS
From Shakespeare From Bacon

'^ Tlmon. Had I a steward "There is little friendship in

So true, so just, and now so com- the world, and least of all between

fortable ? equals, which was wont to be mag-

It almost turns my dangerous nified. That that is, is between

nature mild. superior and inferior, whose for-

Let me behold thy face. Surely, tunes may comprehend the one

this man the other." — Essay of Followers

Was born of woman ... I do and Friends (1597-98).

proclaim
One honest man — mistake me not,

but one.
No more, I pray, and he 's a stew-
ard."

Timon of Athens, iv. 3 (1623).

When Timon lost his wealth all his friends forsook him,
with one exception. Shake-speare emphasizes the character
of this exception — "and he's a steward" — evidently in
view of the theory enunciated by Bacon, that enduring
friendships can exist only between superiors and inferiors.

It is possible that Bacon may have had in mind the extraor-
dinary fidelity of his own steward, Sir Thomas Meautys,
" one of the noblest of the noble order of loyal servants —
loyal to the full extent of his means and abilities — in
adversity as in prosperity, in disgrace as in honor — loyal
through life and beyond it — siipcrstitis cultor, defundi ad-
mirator — the creditor who never ceased to be a friend." —
Spedding's Life and Letters of Francis Bacon, vii. 323.

833
STUMBLING AT THE THRESHOLD

" Many men that stumble at the " To stumble at the threshold."

threshold — Promus (1594-96).

Are well foretold that danger lurlcs
within."
S King Henry VI., iv. 7 (1623).

398 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

834

ALL 'S WELL

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" All 's well that ends well." " All 's well that ends well." —

Airs Well that Ends Well (1623). Promus (1594-96).

Bacon's Promus entry, quoted above, lends no support to
the theory that the play, mentioned by Meres as ' Love's
Labor's Won,' was identical with 'All's Well that Ends
Well'

835
OLD AGE, ODIOUS

" Age, I do abhor thee." " Thou, odious old age." — Ibid.

Passionate Pilgrim (1599).

836

BITING THE BRIDLE

'•The iron bit he crushes 'tween " To bite the bridle." — Ibid.

his teeth,
Controlling what he was controlled

with."

Venus and Adonis (1.593).

837

THOUGHT IS FREE

" Thought is free." " Thought is free." — Ibid.

The Tempest, iii. 2 (1623).

Twelfth Night, i. 3 (1623).
" Thoughts are no subjects."

Measure for Measure, \. 1 (1623).

838

JESTS LIE IN THE EAR

*' A jest's prosperity lies in the ear " A man must tell you tales and

Of him that hears it, never in the find you ears." — Ibid.

tongue
Of him that makes it."

Love's Labor 's Lost, v. 2 (1593).

PARALLELISMS

399

839
god's blessing and the warm sun

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Thou out of heaven's benediction "Out of God's blessing into the

com'st to the warm sun." warm sun." — Promus (1594-96).

King Lear, ii. 2 (1608).

840

INSTRUCTION THROUGH THE SENSES

"To split the ears of the igno-
rant, who for the most part are
capable of nothing but inexpli-
cable dumb-shows and noise."

Hamlet, iii. 2 (1603).

" Whilst the minds of men con-
tinued rude and without practice
in matters of subtlety and specu-
lation, and in a manner incapable
of receiving such things as do not
directly fall under and strike the
senses." — Preface to the Wisdom
of the Ancients (1609).

The same class of people is referred to in these two
passages, persons to whom truth must be taught through
the senses (i. e. sight and hearing) rather than through
abstractions and generalities of thought.

841

SECRET STUDIES

" Prospero. These being all my

study,
The government I cast upon my

brother,
And to my state grew stranger,

being transported
And rapt in secret studies."

Tempest, i. 2 (1623).

" Men, eminent in virtue, often
abandon their fortunes willingly,
that they may have leisure for
higher pursuits." — Advancement
of Learning (1603-5).

Mr. James Eussell Lowell asks, " In Prospero shall we not
recosnize the artist himself ? " Without doubt, as we have
already shown (' Francis Bacon our Shake-speare,' 52) ; but
what "secret studies" can we attribute to the reputed poet
from Stratford ? On the other hand, Bacon declared that in

400 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

his studies he was following the guidance of none, nor even
communicating his thoughts " to a single individual." —
Novum Organum.

842

WOMAN, ILL OB WELL AT HER OPTION
From Shakespeare From Bacon

" I aiii quickly ill and well, " A woman is ill when she

So Anthony loves." pleases, and when she pleases, she

Anthony and Cleopatra, i. 2 is well." — Promus (1594r-9G).
(1G23).

843
QUARRELS

"In the managing of quarrels " For quarrels they are with care
you may say he is wise ; for either and discretion to be avoided." —
he avoids them with great dixcre- Essay of Travel (1625).
tion, or undertakes them with a
most Christian-like care." — Much
Ado, ii. 3 (1600).
" Beware of entrance to a quarrel."
Hamlet, i. 3 (1603).

844
UNDER THE ARM-PITS

" Mercutio. "Why the devil came " Things done under the arm-

you between us 1 pits." — Promus (1594-96).

I was hurt under your arm."
Romeo and Juliet, iii. 1 (1597).
" Eomeo he cries aloud,

' Hold, friends ! friends, part ! ' and,
swifter than his tongue.

His agile arm beats down their
fatal points.

And 'twixt them rushes; under-
neath whose arm

An envious thrust from Tybalt hit
the life

Of stout Mercutio, and then Tybalt
fled." Ihid.

Bacon quotes from Erasmus an old proverb to the effect
that things done under the arm or arm-pits are odious. This

PARALLELISMS 401

was in 1594-96. In 1597 the tragedy of 'Eonieo and
Juliet ' makes its appearance, with a conspicuous instance
of a deed of this kind made use of in the plot. Mercutio
and Tybalt, members respectively of the rival houses of
Montague and Capulet, are engaged in a street brawl.
Borneo rushes in between them, strikes down their swords
and orders them to desist. Mercutio, being Borneo's friend,
evidently complies at once, but Tybalt, full of the ancient
rancor and partly hidden by Eomeo's body from view, takes
advantage of the situation and with a sudden and unexpected
thrust under Eomeo's arm kills his antagonist. The drama-
tist styles this act as " envious " or shameful, in exact
accordance with the proverb to which he twice refers.

845

FRIEND, A MIRROR

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" You go not till I set up a glass " There is no better glass than

Where you may see the inmost an old friend." — Promus (1594-
part of you." 96).

Hamlet, iii. 4 (1604).

846

NO CONFIDENCE IN PRINCES

" 0, how wretched " Put no confidence in princes."
Is that poor man that hangs on — Ibid.

princes' favors ! "
King Henry VIIL, iii. 2 (1623).

847

STIR NO EMBERS

"Your speech is passion ; " Stir no evil that is well settled."

But, j^ray you, stir no embers up." — Ibid.
Anthony and Cleopatra, ii. 2

(1623).

848

INNOCENCE
" The trust I have is in mine inno- " Innocence is its own defence."

ceuce." — Ibid.

2 King Henry VI., iv. 4 (1623).

402 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

849

CHARACTER OF KING HENRY VI

From Bacon
" King Henry VI., that innocent
prince." — History of Henry VII.

' From Shakespeare
"When thou com'st to kneel at

Henry's feet,
Thou may'st bereave him of his (1G21).
wits."
1 King Henry VI., v. 3 (1623).

The term " innocent," here applied to Henry VI., means
imbecile or half-witted.

850

SWEETS AND SOURS

" The vinegar of sweet wine." —
Promus (1594-96).

" Beware of the vinegar of sweet
wine." — Ibid.

" The best things are in their

" But sweetest things turn sourest

by their deeds ;
Lilies that fester smell far worse

than weeds."

Sonnet 94 (1609).
"The sweets we wish for turn to corruption the worst; the sweetest

wine makes the sharpest vinegar."
— Charge against Somerset (1616).

loathed sours."

Lucrece (1594).

" Things, sweet to taste, prove in

digestion sour."

King Richard II., i. 3 (1597).

" This intrusion shall,

Now seeming sweet, convert to

bitter gall."

Romeo and Juliet, i. 5 (1597).
" The food that to him now is as ' '

luscious as locusts shall be to him
shortly as bitter as coloquintida." ^
— Othello, i. 3 (1622).

851

FROST BURNS

*' Frost itself as actively doth " Frost burns." — Promus (1594-
burn." 96).

Hamlet, iii. 4 (1604).

1 " Some apothecaries, upon stamping of colonquintida, have been put into
a great scouring by the vapor only." — Bacon's Natural History.

PARALLELISMS 403

852
YOUTHFUL LOVE

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" It cannot be that Desdemona " Love is nourished on young
should long continue her love to flesh." — Promts (1594-96).
the Moor, . . . nor he his to her ;
. . . she must change for youth."
— Othello, i. 3(1622).

853
APPETITE

" As if increase of appetite had " Appetite comes by eating." —

grown by what it fed on." Ibid.

Hamlet, i. 2 (1604).

854

FEAST AND FRAY

" The latter end of a fray and the " Better coming to the ending

beginning of a feast." of a feast than to the beginning of

1 King Henry IV., iv. 2 (1598). a {tslj." — Ibid.

855

TRUE TO one's SELF

" To thine own self be true." " I prefer nothing but that they

Hamlet, i. 3 (1603). be true to themselves, and I true
" Whate'er it be, be thou still like to myself." — Ibid.
thyself."
3 King Henry VI., iv. 7 (1623).
" This rich praise, that you alone
are you."

" Sonnet 84 (1609).
" While I remain above the ground,

you shall
Hear from me still ; and never of

me aught
But what is like me formerly."

Coriolanus, iv. 1 (1623).

" r am Anthony yet."

Anthony and Cleopatra, iii. 2 (1623).

" Make me but like my thoughts."

Airs Well, iu. 1 (1623).

404

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

85G
SPEAKING TREASON BEHIND CLOSED DOORS

From Shakespeare

" Aumerle. Then give me leave

that I may turn the key,
That no man enter till my tale be

done.
Bolinghroke. Have thy desire.

{^Aumerle locks the door.
York [ivithin]. My liege, beware !

look to thyself !
Thou hast a traitor in thy presence

there."

King Richard II., v. 3 (1597).
" O villainy! Ho! let the door be

lock'd !
Treachery I seek it out."

Hamlet^ v. 2 (1604).

From Bacon

" Shut the door, for I mean to
speak treason." — Promus (1594-
96).

857

STUMBLING IN HASTE

« Stumble with haste." " He stumbles who makes too

Love's Labor 's Lost, ii. 1 (1598). , much haste." — Ibid.
" They stumble that run fast."
Romeo and Juliet, ii. 3 (1599).

858
CMSAU AND HIS FORTUNE

" Now am I like that proud insult-
ing ship

Which Csesar and his fortune bare
at once."

1 Henry VI., i. 2 (1623).

"As Caesar said to the pilot of
the ship, to strengthen his courage,
'you bear Csesar and his for-
tune.' " — De Augmentis (1622).

859

NEIGHBORS

" Our bad neighbor makes US early "He who has a good neighbor
stirrers." has a good morning." — Promus

King Henry V., iv. 1 (1623). (1594-96),

PARALLELISMS 405

860

FUNERAL BELL

From Shakespeare From Bacon

" \_A hell rings. " The pope is decrepit, and the

I go, and it is done ; the bell in- bell goeth for him." — Essay of

rites me. Death (posthumous).

Hear it not, Duncan; for it is a

knell
That summons thee to heaven, or
to hell."

Macbeth, ii. 1 (1623).

861

SLEEPING SPEECH

^"^ Speed. She doth talk in her "If you will give me leave to

sleep. awake you, when I think your

Launce. It 's no matter for that, discourses do but sleep, I will keep

so she sleep not in her talk." — watch." — An Advertisement touch-

The Two Gentlemen of Verona, ing an Holy War (1622).

iii. 2 (1623).

862

TURKISH TREATMENT OF WOMEN

" Wine loved I deeply ; dice " A people [Turks] that is with-

dearly ; and in woman out-para- out natural aflfection, and, as the

moured the Turk." — King Lear, Scriptures saith, that regardeth not

iii. 4 (1608). the desires of women." — Ibid.

863

philosopher's stone and holy wars

^^Falstaff. It shall go hard, but " I was ever of opinion that the
I will make him a philosopher's Philosopher's Stone and an Holy
two stones to me." — 2 King Henry, War were but the rendez-vous of
IV., iii, 2 (1600). cracked brains, that wore their

feather in their head instead of
their hat." — Speech of Pollio.
Ibid.

4o6

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

The above-given passage from Bacon is part of a fictitious
debate composed by him on the subject of a holy war.
Among the opinions expressed by the different speakers were
naturally some that were contrary to Bacon's own, while
others were in agreement with him. PoUio in a single sen-
tence gives one of each of these two kinds. He condemns
the theory of the Philosopher's stone, as Bacon does, and
accordingly we find that theory ridiculed in Shake-speare.
He also condemns all holy wars, but such condemnation has
no place in the dramas of Shake-speare, for Bacon, with some
qualifications, approved of them.

864

DRESS DISTINGUISHING RANK

From Shake-speare

" I think the king is but a man,
as I am ; the violet smells to him,
as it doth to me ; the element
shows to him, as it doth to me ;
all his senses have but human con-
ditions ; his ceremonies laid by, in
his nakedness he appears but a
man." — King Henry V., iv. 1
(1623).

From Bacon

" It was no mean apprehension
of Lucian, who says of Meuip-
pus, that in his travels through
hell he knew not the kings of the
earth from other men ; . . . for-
getting how unclothedly they
came hither." — Essay of Death
(posthumous).

865

PLEBEIANS

" More of your conversation
would infect my brain, being the
herdsmen of the beastly Plebeians."
— Coriolanus, ii. 1 (1623).

" Now, to say that the king
cannot grant or erect any office de
novo, no man, I think, will be such
a plebeian (I mean both in science
and honor) as so to affirm." — De
Rege Inconsulto (1616).

The contempt for plebeians, shown in the play of ' Corio-
lanus,' is found in every utterance of Bacon pertaining to
them.

PARALLELISMS

407

866

COUNTIES PALATINE

From Shakespeare

" Nerissa. Then there is the
county Palatine.

Portia. In truth, I know it is a
sin to be a mocker ; but he ! why,
he hath a horse better than the
Neapolitan's, a better bad habit of
frowning than the count Palatine."
— The Merchant of Venice, i. 2
(1600).

From Bacon

" If the king will erect a county
Palatine (which is a little model of
a monarchy subordinate), what a
number of offices are incident to
the same ! " — De Rege Inconsulto
(1616).

There were originally three of these counties Palatine in
England, but they had been either extinguished or their un-
reasonable privileges abridged, before the time of Shake-
speare. The dramatist's familiarity with this peculiar and
recondite kind of jurisdiction, however, is indicated by his
play on the name given to the nobleman by the maid.

867

JACK CADE

" Idem. I present your grace a
traitor's head,

The head of Cade, whom I in com-
bat slew.

King Henry. The head of Cade 1
Great God, how just art thou !

0 ! let me view his visage being
dead.

That, living, wrought me such ex-
ceeding trouble."
2 King Henry VI., v. 1 (1623).

" He that will teU me that the
king's right shall be tried between
J. S. and J. D., I will think him
alike of kin to Jack Cade or
Jack Straw."— Ibid.

John Cade was a reformer, and, among the many reformers
who have sacrificed their lives in the cause of the Eng-

4o8

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

lish people against injustice and oppression of rulers,
especially entitled to honor. Perhaps no other man in
the history of the country has ever taken arms in opposi-
tion to government with claims so moderate and reasonable,
or prosecuted them in a manner so prudent, as he did. And
yet Bacon and Shake-speare alike lavished their powers of
ridicule and sarcasm upon his memory.

868

CRUSADES

From Shakespeare
•' I '11 make a voyage to the Holy

Land,
To wash this blood oflf from my
guilty hand."

King Richard 11. , v. 6 (1597).
" Therefore, friends.
As far as to the sepulchre of Christ,
(Whose soldier now, under whose

blessed cross
We are impressed and engag'd to

fight)
Forthwith a power of English shall
we levy."
1 King Henry IV., L 1 (1598).

From Bacon
" There is no such enterprise at
this day for secular greatness and
terrene honor as a war upon infi-
dels. ... It is my opinion that a
war upon the Turk is more worthy
than upon any other gentiles, in-
fidels, or savages, that either have
been or are now, both in point of
religion and in point of honor." —
An Advertisement touching an Holy
War (1622).

869

LAW OF

"Suffolk. Please it your majesty,

this is the man
That doth accuse his master of high

treason.
Horner. I never said nor thought
any such matter. God is my wit-
ness, I am falsely accused by the
villain.
King Henry. Away with them to

prison ; and the day
Of combat shall be the last of next

month."
2 King Henry F/., i. 3 (1594).

COMBAT

" There is as well a judgment
and recovery by war and arms, as
by law and course of justice. For
war is a tribunal-seat, wherein God
giveth the judgment, and the trial
is by battle or duel, as in the case
of private right." — Post-Nati
Speech (1608).

PARALLELISMS

409

'■''\_They Jight, and Peter strikes
down his master.
Horner. Hold, Peter, hold ! I con-
fess, I confess treason."

2 King Hairy VI., ii. 3.

Both authors approve the law of combat, or the settle-
ment of questions of private right between individuals in
the same manner as nations barbarously do still, by appeals

to force.

870

BLACK

From Shakespeare

" Coal-black is better than another

hue,
In that it scorns to bear another

hue;
For all the water in the ocean
Can never turn the swan's black

legs to white."
Titus Andronicus, iv. 2 (1600).

871

TO-MORROW

From Bacon

" Black will take no other hue."
Promus (1594-96).

" To-morrow, and to-morrow, and

to-morrow.
Creeps in this petty pace from day

to day.
To the last syllable of recorded

time."

Macbeth, v. 5 (1623).

" We ought to be creatures of
to-day, by reason of the shortness
of life, not of to-morrow ; but as he
says, seizing the present time; fot
to-morrow will have its turn and
become to-day. ' ' — Meditationes
Sacrce (1597).

872

LIMITATION OF CARE

" Care is no cure, but rather

corrosive,
For things that are not to be
remedied."
1 King Henry VI., iii. 3 (1623).
" Things past redress are now with
me past care."
King Richard IT., ii. 3 (1597).

" We dwell on our cares longer
than is necessary for just delibera-
tion and decision. For which of
us is there who cares only so much
as is necessary that he may know
what to do, or know that he can do
nothing ? and does not turn the
same things over and over in

4IO

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" What a plague means my niece,
to take the death of her brother
thus ? I am sure care 's an enemy
to life." — Twelfth Night, i. 3
(1623).
" Past care is still past cure."

Lovt's Labor 's Lost, v. 2 (1598).

his mind, and hang uselessly in
the same circle of cogitations, till
he lose himself in them ? " — Med-
itationes Sacrcs (1597).

873

MINOTAUR AND THE LABYRINTH

From Shakespeare
" But, Suffolk, stay ;
Thou may'st not wander in that

labyrinth ;
There Minotaurs and ugly trea-
sons lurk."
1 King Henry VI., v. 3 (1623).

From Bacon
'•The unhappy and infamous
birth of the monster Minotaurus,
which devoured the ingenuous
youth, was owing to the wicked
industry and pernicious genius of
this man. Then to conceal the
first mischief he added another,
and for the security of the pest
devised and constructed the laby-
rinth, a work wicked in its ejid
and destination." — Wisdom of the
Ancients (1609).

874

GYPSIES

" That handkerchief
Did an Egyptian to my mother

give;
She was a charmer ; and could

almost read
The thoughts of people; she told

her, while she kept it,
'T would make her amiable, and

subdue my father
Entirely to her love ; but if she

lost it,
Or made a gift of it, my father's eye
Shou.ld hold her loathed, and his

spirits should hunt
After new fancies."

Othello, iii. 4 (1623).

" Where vagabonds be found
in the realm, calling themselves
Egyptians, it is felony." — A
Preparation for the Union of Laws
(1608).

PARALLELISMS

411

875

PUNISHMENTS OF MEN AND "WOMEN FOR TREASON

From Shakespeare

" BoUngbroke. Madam, sit you

and fear not; whom we raise,
We will make fast within a hal-

low'd verge.
[Here they perform the cereinonies,

belonging, and make the circle.
Spirit. A dsum.
Margery Jourdain, Asmath !
Bj the eternal God, whose name

and power
Thou tremblest at, answer that I

shall ask;
For till thou speak, thou shalt not

pass from hence.
Spirit. Ask what thou wilt. That

I had said and done !
Bolingbroke. First, of the King.

What shall of him become ?
Spirit. The duke yet lives, that

Henry shall depose ;
But him outlive, and die a violent

death.

From Bacon

" Where a man doth compass or
imagine the death of the king, if
it appear by any overt act, it is
treason.

In treason, the corporal punish-
ment is by hanging ; and in women,
by burning." — Union of Laws
(1608).

King Henry [To Margery Jour-
dain and the others'].
You four, from hence to prison

back again ;
From thence, unto the place of

execution ;
The witch in Smithfield shall be

burn'd to ashes,
And you three shall be strangled

on the gallows.'*
2 King Henry VI., i. 4 ; ii. 3

(1623).

412

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

876

PRIVILEGE OF SANCTUARY

From Shakespeare

" Hastings. On what occasion, God
he knows, not I,

The Queen, your mother, and your
brother York,

Have taken sanctuary; the tender
prince

Would fain have come with me to
meet your grace,

But by his mother was perforce
withheld.

Buckingham. V'lQ ! what an indi-
rect and peevish course

Is this of hers. — Lord Cardinal,
will your grace

Persuade the" Queen to send the
Duke of York

Unto his princely brother pres-
ently ?

If she deny. Lord Hastings, go
with him.

And from her jealous arms pluck
him perforce.''''
King Richard III., iii. 1 (1597)-

From Bacon

"At Exeter the king consulted
with his counsel, whether he should
offer life to Perkin if he would quit
the sanctuary and voluntarily sub-
mit himself. The counsel were
divided in opinion. Some advised
the king to take him out of sanc-
tuary perforce." — History of Henry
VII. (1621).

877

FAULTS OF RULERS

" Heaven forbid
That kings should let their ears
hear their faults hid."

Pericles, i. 2 (1609).

"Pace, the bitter fool, was not
suffered to come at the Queen, be-
cause of his bitter humor. Yet
at one time some persuaded the
Queen that he should come to her.
So he was brought to her, and the
Queen said : ' Come on, Pace, now
we shall hear of our faults.' Saith
Pace, * I do not use to talk of that
that all the town talks of.'" —
Apothegms (posthumous).

PARALLELISMS

413

878

BEUCALION, PROGENITOR OF THE HUMAN RACE

From Shakespeare
" Yet you must be saying, Mar-
cius is proud ; who in a cheap
estimation is worth all your prede-
cessors since Deucalion." — Corio-
lanus, ii. 1 (1623).

From Bacon
" The poets relate that when the
inhabitants of the old world were
utterly extinguished by the uni-
versal deluge, none remained ex-
cept Deucalion and Pyrrha." —
Wisdom of the Ancietits (1609).

Deucalion was thus, according to both authors, the com-
mon ancestor of the human race.

879

TWO WORLDS

"Let the frame of things dis-
joint, both the worlds suflFer." —
Macbeth, iii. 2 (1623).

" To this point I stand.
That both the worlds I give to

negligence,
Let come what comes ; only I '11 be

reveng'd
Most thoroughly for my father."
Hamlet, iv. 5 (1604).

" It would be disgraceful if,
while the regions of the material
globe — that is, of the earth, of the
sea, and of the stars, — have been
in our times laid widely open
and revealed, the intellectual globe
should remain shut up within the
narrow limits of old discoveries."
— Novum Organum (1620).

" It is the perfect law of the
inquiry of truth, ' that nothing be
in the globe of matter which has
not its parallel in the globe of
ciystal or the understanding.' " —
De Angmentis (1622).

What Shake-speare meant by " both worlds " is explained
in Bacon. One of the latter's tracts is called ' A Descrip-
tion of the Intellectual Globe.'

EDUCATION OF THE DRAMATIST

" Shallow. Sir, I dare say, my
cousin William is become a good
scholar. He is at Oxford still, is
he not ?

Silence. Indeed, sir, to my cost.

" This work I knew not to
whom to dedicate rather than to
the Society of Gray's Inn, the
place whence my father was called
to the highest place of justice, and

414 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Shallow. He must then to the where myself have lived." — Ar-
inns of court shortly. guments of Law (1616).

The very same day did I fight
with one Sampson Stockfish, a
fruiterer, behind Gray's Inn." —
S King Henry /F., iii. 2 (1600).

The course of study recommended by Justice Shallow —
from the Universities to the Inns of Court — was the one
actually pursued by Bacon. And it was the one which the
anonymous author of a book, entitled ' Polymanteia,' and pub-
lished in Cambridge in 1595, tells us was also pursued by
the poet who wrote the ' Venus and Adonis.' That the latter
could by any possibility have been William Shakspere of
Stratford will not be contended. No person by that name
was ever matriculated at either of the universities or en-
rolled at one of the Inns of Court. And yet, as this con-
temporary in the book above-mentioned publicly assures
us, the author of the poem, 'Venus and Adonis,' was so
matriculated or so enrolled. Wlioever he may have been,
therefore, it is beyond all question that he was personally
known by a pseudonym. And that pseudonym, as the
writer of the book also tells us, was Shakespeare.

881
SYLLOGISMS

From Shakespeare From Bacon

"Anything that's mended is "I therefore reject the syllo-

but patched: virtue that trans- gism; and that not only as regards

grosses is but patched with sin ; principles (for to principles the

and sin that amends is but patched logicians themselves do not apply

with virtue. If that this simple it), but also as regards middle

syllogism will serve, so ; if it will propositions ; which, though ob-

not, what remedy ? As there is tainable no doubt by the syllo-

no true cuckhold but calamity, gism, are, when so obtained, barren

so beauty 's a flower." — Twelfth of works, remote from practice, and

Night, 1. 5 (1623). altogether unavailable for the ac-
tive department of the sciences."
— Plan of the Instauratio (1620).

PARALLELISMS 4 1 5

What Bacon condemns as a false method of reasoning
Shake-speare faithfully illustrates.

882

PROPHESTING THE FUTURE FROM THE PAST

From Shake-speare From Bacon

"There is a history in all men's "Whereas this is added in the

lives, fable, that Proteus was a prophet

Figuring the nature of the times and knew the three times [past,

deceas'd, present, and future] ; this agrees

The which observ'd, a man may well with the nature of matter;

prophesy, for if a man knew the conditions,

With a near aim, of the main affections, and processes of matter,

chance of things, he would certainly comprehend

As yet not come to life." the sum and general issue (for I

S King Henry IV. , iii. 1 (1600). do not say that his knowledge

would extend to the parts and
singularities) of all things, past,
present, and to come." — Wisdom
of the Ancients (1609).

The difference between these two passages lies wholly in
the application ; the thought is the same. That is to say,
full knowledge of all the antecedents of the present state
of things, whether in nature (as Bacon says) or in human
life (as Shake-speare says), would enable a man to predict
the future.

It is noticeable also that the same slight limitation of this
prophetic power is given in both :

" A man [thus equipped] may prophesy of the main chance of things
with a near aim." — Shake-speare.

"I do not say that his knowledge would extend to the parts and
singularities." — Bacon^.

883

MELTING OF THE BODY AT DEATH

"0, that this too, too solid flesh "Melting of the body is the

would melt, work of the vital spirits alone,

Tliaw, and resolve itself into a when they are excited by heat ;

dew." for then, though under confine-

Ilamlet, i. 2 (1603). ment, they necessarily expand and

4i6

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

" Have I not hideous death within make the grosser parts, the flesh

my view,
Retaining but a quantity of life
Which bleeds away, even as a form

of wax
Ilesolveth from its figure 'gainst

the fireV"

King John, v. 4 (1623).

soft and fusible, as in the case of
metals and wax." — History of Life
and Death (1623).

Bacon believed that all vital spirit is compounded of flame
and air. " Flame," he said, " is a momentary, air a perma-
nent, substance ; the living spirits of animals are of a middle
nature between them." He therefore took the ground that
continuity of life depends upon the proper equilibrium exist-
ing between these two substances in the spirit; and that if
from any cause the inflammatory element should become
excessive, then the body would melt and death ensue. Not
only is this singular conception common to both authors, but
also the same simile, derived from the nature of wax, to illus-
trate it.

884

KNOWING one's SELF

From Shakespeare

" Know yourself."

As You Like It, iii. 5 (1623).

" Cruel are the times when we are

traitors
And do not know ourselves."

Macbeth, iv. 2 (1623).

"I have much ado to know my-
self."
Merchant of Venice, i. 1 (1600).

" Duke. I pray you, sir, of
what disposition was the Duke 1

Escalus. One that, above all
other strifes, contended especially
to know himself." — Measure for
Measure, iii. 2 (1023).

From Bacon

" Know thyself."

— Promus (1594-96).

PARALLELISMS

417

*' I profit in the knowledge of my-
self."

Twelfth Night, v. 1 (1623).

" Servant. What are we, Ape-
mantus ?

Apeni. Asses.

Serv. Why ?

Apem. That you ask me what
you are, and do not know your-
selves."— Timon of Athens, ii. 2
(1623).

885

HOPE

From Shakespeare

" It never yet did hurt
To lay down likelihoods and forms
of hope."

2 Henry IV., i. 3 (1600).

" Duke. So, then, you hope of par-
don from Lord Angelo ?

Claudio. The miserable have no
other medicine,

But only hope.

I have hope to live, and am pre-
pared to die.

Duke. Be absolute ^ for death ;
either death or life

Shall thereby be the sweeter."
Measure for Measure, iii. 1 (1623).

From Bacon

" Hope befits not man ; it makes
the mind light, frothy, uneij^ual,
wandering."

" It was an idle fiction of the
poets to make hope the antidote of
human diseases." — Meditationes
Sacra (1597).

Of all the sentiments of the human heart, one of the most
highly valued is hope. It has almost always been regarded
as a blessing. Shelley says that " Hope and Youth are tlie
children of one mother, Love;" Whittier, that it is "God's
special gift to all ; " Keats, that it is of " celestial sweetness ; "
and Sam Johnson, that " where there is no hope, there can
be no endeavor." What more terrible inscription could have

^ That is, be certain ; a Latiniain.

41 8 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

been placed over the door of the infernal regions than that
which Dante reports :

" All hope abandon, ye who enter here."

Singularly enough, however, Francis Bacon, during the
greater part of his life and to within a short time of his
death, condemned the sentiment of hope. He sought for
himself and for mankind absolute veracity, or freedom from
every kind of delusion. He said :

" In hope there seems to be no use. For what avails the antici-
pation of good 1 If the good turn out less than you hoped for,
good though it be, yet because it is not so good, it seems to you
more like a loss than a gain, by reason of the over-hope. If the
event be equal to the hope, then the flower of it, having been by
that hope ah-eady gathered, you find it stale and almost distasteful.
If the good be beyond the hope, then no doubt there is a sense of
gain ; but had it not been better to gain the whole by hoping not
at all than the difference by hoping too little 1 And such is the
effect of hope in prosperity. But in adversity it enervates the
true strength of the mind. For matter of hope cannot always be
forthcoming ; and if it fail, though but for a moment, the whole
strength and support of the mind goes with it. Moreover the
mind suffers in dignity, when we endure evil only by self-decep-
tion and looking another way, and not by fortitude and judgment.
And therefore it was an idle fiction of the poets to make Hope the
antidote of human diseases, because it mitigates the pain of them ;
whereas it is in fact an inflammation and exasperation of them
rather, multiplying and making them break out afresh." — Medita-
tiones Sacrce (1597).

The same peculiar and exceptional repugnance to hope is
several times expressed in Shake-speare. In ' Measure for
Measure,' for example, the Duke enjoins Claudio, who lies in
prison under prospect of immediate death, " Be absolute for
death," that is, be certain of death, entertain no hope ; for

then —

" either death or life
Shall thereby be the sweeter."

PARALLELISMS

419

To show at a glance the great variety and scope of the
foregoing parallelisms, as well as for ease of reference, we
now recapitulate them by their headings :

INDEX OF PARALLELISMS

[Numerals denote number of parallelism. ]

Abstemiousness, 597.
Accents of Words, 561.
Accidents of Life, 580.
Accusation, Silence under, 126.
Actoeon and his Hounds, 700.
Actjcon turned into a Stag, 538.
Action and Imagination, 508.
Action is Eloquence, 452.
Actium, Battle of, 620.
Actor forgetting his Part, 224.
Acts not to be judged by Effects,

249.
Adam, Penalty of, 353,
Adamant, 322.
Address in Court, 154.
Adonis' Gardens, 480.
Advantage of Time, 334.
^iEolus, Kingdom of, 628.
^tna burning, 679.
Affection and Reason, 449.
Africa breeding Monsters, 723.
Age and Youth, 380.
Age, deforming Mind, 129.
Age, old, Bodies wrinkled in. 111.
Age, old. Premature, 496.
Agents, Repudiation of, by Princes,

123.
Aims in Life, 606.
Air for Homes, 473.
Air in the Earth, 629.
Air poisoned by foul Breaths, 445.
All 's well that ends well, 834.
Altars, no Consultation before, 806.
Anathema from Christ, 351.
Anaxarchus, 12.
Ands and Ifs, 301.

Angels, Fall of the, 99.
Anger, a temporary Madness, 203.
Anger, affecting the Heart, 159.
Anger, gaining Time in, by Count-
ing, 127.
Anger, Refrainings of, to gain Time,

227.
Anger, Suppressions of, 385.
Animation suspended by Drugs,

173.
Anthony and Love, 381.
Anticipations of Mind, 450.
Antipodes, 557.
Antiquity, Youth of the World,

263.
Anvils, Truth forged on, 288.
Apothecary Shop, 302.
Apparitions, 166.
Appetite, growing by what it feeds

on, 853.
Applause of Rabble, 567.
Archery, 660.
Archery, White in, 669.
Ariadne and Theseus, 702.
Ariel, a Spirit, 456.
Arion among Dolpliins, 231.
Aristotle, Misqviotation from, 69.
Arm-pits, under the, 844.
Arms of Kings long, 343.
Army commanded from a Litter,

582.
Arrows, Parthian, 290.
Art and Naturi>, Relations between,

342.
Art progressive, 469.
Art, subject to Nature, 294.

420

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Ashes of Fortune, 319.
Astrology, 241.
Ataluuta's Speed, 541.
Atom, Diinensious of an, 645.
Axletree of the Earth, 560.

Backgrounds dark, 337.

Bacon and Hog, 251.

Bacon's Knowledge, Extent of, 240.

Bacon's Portfolio, 636.

Bail, Death an Arrest without, 105.

Banishment of Women from Court,

143.
Bashfulness and Stage- playing,

593.
Basilisk, 273.
Bastinado, 141.
Beasts knowing Friends, 823.
Beating Bush for Bird, 794.
Beauty is Virtue, 583.
Beauty, personal, and Virtue, 156.
Bees, Kings of, 3.
Beggars, no Choosers, 314.
Behavior, a Garment, 75.
Beings, Human, Sport for the Gods,

100.
Bell funeral, 860.
Bellerophon's Letters, 185.
Belly, Rebellion against, 191.
Benefit of Clergy, 459.
Benefits, Caution in conferring,

352.
Benevolence Tax, 748.
Bermoothes, 481.
Bestriding the Sea, 275.
Better .seldom comes, 625.
Bird, beating Bush for, 794.
Birth, crying at, 197-
Blabbing, 7i.
Black, 870.

Bladders, swimming on, 609.
Blessing of God and wai'm Sun,

839.
Blood, Circulation of the, 85.
Blood, swooning at Sight of, 752.
Bodies, Conservation of, 262.

Bodies, spirits in Inanimate, 589.

liodies wrinkled in old Age, 111.

Body and Soul, League of, 209.

Body of Man, a nmsical Instru-
ment, 418.

Body with King, and King with
Body, 43.

Bolt, Fool's, 395.

Bombastic Words, 810.

Books, more durable than Monu-
ments, 266.

Bosphorus, Current through, 94.

Boys' Love, 819.

Branding Hands, 623.

Breaths poisoning Air, 445.

Brewer's Horse, 354.

Bridle, biting the, 836.

Broken Music, 388.

Brokerage, Royal, 362.

Brothels, 664.

Brownists, 95.

Brutes, Sympathy with, 516.

Brutus, Marcus, bastard Son of
Csesar, 413.

Burning Glasses, destructive Uses
of, 389.

Burning Glasses, Heat from, 680.

Bull-bearing Milo, 804.

Butterflies, chasing, 9.

Buyer's Price, 564.

Cade, Jack, 867.

Caesar, Augustus, and Marc An-
thony, 16.

Csesar, Julius, and his Fortune,
858.

Csesar, Julius, affected by Flattery,
247.

Ctesar, Julius, Ambition of, 772.

Csesar, Julius, Assassination of,
653.

Csesar, Julius, a Tyrant, 617.

Csesar, Julius, Darkness at Death
of, 652.

Csesar, Julius, declining the Crown,
58.

PARALLELISMS

421

Caesar, Julius, desiring Title of
Kiug, 639,

Caesar, Julius, Downfall of, due to
Euvy, 11.

Caesar, Julius, Father of Marcus
Brutus, 413.

Caesar, Julius, Xobility of, 412.

Caesar, Julius, self-centred Char-
acter of, 10.

Caesar, Julius, Self-confidence of,
248.

Caesar, Julius, Star of, 383.

Caesar, Julius, Virtues and Vices
balanced in, 773.

Csesar, Julius, warned by Augu-
rers, 451.

Cade, Jack, 867.

Cambridge University, 397.

Cannibals, 696.

Carduus Benedictus, 295.

Care, Limitation of, 872.

Carrion, Honey in, 107.

Casks, empty, Sounds from, 366.

Castor and Pollux, 91.

Cat in Adage, 795.

Centaurs, 670.

Chalking the Way, 2.

Chameleon changing Colors, 327.

Chameleon, feeding on Air, 326.

Chance, Divinity in, 67.

Chaos, 647.

Chaos and Love, 553.

Character in Eyes and Faces, 513.

Character, small Defects in, 110.

Charge to Constables, 236.

Charybdis and Scylla, 543.

Chasing a Butterfly, 9.

Cheapening One's Self, 128.

Cheapside, Question in, 797.

Cherry, double, 329.

Cherubim, 546.

Children, governing Parents, 89.

Children, humane Influences of,
578.

Children of good Parents, disap-
pointing, 23.

Children of same Parents, Differ-
ences among, 439.

Children, Possession of, the highest
Felicity, 512.

Choice second, 53.

Chopine, 708.

Cicero's 'De Oratore,' 626.

Ciphers, a Figure among, 257.

Circe, 577.

Circe's Drugs, 683.

Circumlocution, 46.

Civet, 671.

Civil War, a Fever, 378.

Civil Wars, Money in, 761.

Clergy, Benefit of,' 459.

Cloud, not every one a Storm, 183.

Cockatrice, 429.

CoS"er of Darius, 222.

Coloquintida, 764.

Combat, Law of, 869.

Comedy of Errors, 596.

Common and several, 769.

Common Lands, Enclosure of, 417.

Common People, beastly, 14.

Commonplace Books, 264.

Compass, Points of, 613.

Complexions, 235.

Composite Beings, 250.

Concord and Discord, 130.

Concord musical, 743.

Condemned for Vii'tues, 144.

Confidences, inviting, 73.

Conflagration of the World, 655.

Conjectures at Home, 331.

Conjunction of Planets, 165.

Conscience, 364.

Consent, 115.

Conservation of Bodies, 262.

Constables, Charge to, 236.

Constancy, Foundation of Virtues,
255.

Constancy in Vice, 211.

Consultation, no, before Altars,
806.

Contemplative Studies, 594.

Corn-flowers, 13.

422

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Corpses, human, Repugnance to,

228.
Corruptions in Peace, 339.
Coughing, not to he hid, 150.
Council and Counsel, 390.
Counsellors, the Dead are the best,

737.
Countenance, reflecting Mind, 501.
Counties Palatine, 866.
Country Fruits, 118.
Courage, Excess of, 515.
Court, Address in, 154.
Court, Women banished from, 143.
Courts, Equity, 122.
Cowards and Death, 3G8.
Creeds, Fashion in, 271.
Crime, suggested by Opportunity,

298.
Cripple and Hare, 421.
Crocodiles shedding Tears, 20.
Crusades, 868.
Cuckold's Horns, 774.
Cunning Device, 192.
Cupid as Indian Prince, 411.
Cupid, as Infant, blind, naked,

winged, and an Archer, 559.
Cupid, Parentage of, 648.
Cushions, 430.

Custom, subduing Nature, 506.
Custom, the Ape of Nature, 306.
Custom, Tyranny of, 579.
Cyclops, forging Thunderbolts,

"'537.
Cyclops, gigantic Size of, 685.

Daedalus, 207.

Daffodils, 535.

Dancing with heavy Shoes, 609.

Darius. Coffer of, 222.

Dark Period in both Lives, 112.

Darkness, Egyptian, 212.

Dawning, good, 268.

Dead Bodies, Repugnance to, 228.

Deafness, hard to cure, 4.

Death, an Arrest without Bail, 105.

Death and Cowards, 368.

Death and Envy, 576.
Death, a Redeemer, 574.
Death-bed Utterances, 65.
Death, being inevitable, must be

endured, 453.
Death, fear of, more terrible than

Death, 369.
Death, Fear of, strange, 77.
Death of Henry V., premature,

180.
Death, living in Fear of, 624.
Death, loved after, 791.
Death, Melting of the Body at,

883.
Death painless, 40.
Death, Presages of, 1.
Death, Self-torture in Prospect of,

49.
Deaths, suffering many, 775.
Deceit, Sinon Prototype of, 376.
Defects, small, in Character, 110.
Deformity of Mind in Age, 129.
Deformity of Richard III., 59.
Degrees in Citizenship, 379.
Delays, Importance of, 335.
Deliberation, 587.
Depopulation of Towns, 483.
Deucalion, 878.
Development in Periods, 705.
Device, a cunning, 192.
Dew, 682.

Diagnosis, a medical, 394.
Diluculo surgere, 831.
Disappointed Life, 113.
Discord and Concord, 130.
Discourse of Reason, 407.
Discovery, South Sea of, 659.
Disease, mental, Remedies for, 311.
Disembowelling, Punishment for

Treason, 643.
Dissection of iMinds, 437.
Divide and define, 491.
Divination, 38.
Divination induced by Fasting and

Prayer, 358.
Divinity hedging a King, 188.

PARALLELISMS

423

Divinity in Chance, 67.

Doing and saying, 627.

Dole, happy, 517.

Dolphins and Arion, 231.

Doorway, in the, 802.

Doubt, 503.

Doves, Dish of, 581.

Dramatist, Education of the, 880.

Dreams, prophetic, 448.

Dress, distinguishing Rank, 864.

Drowning vs. Gallows, 282.

Drugs, 253.

Drugs, Circe's, 683.

Drugs, suspending Animation, 173.

Duelling, Book on, 487.

Duelling forbidden by Turks, 132.

Dyspepsia, 375.

Eagles, long-lived, 698.

Ear and Voice, 816.

Early and late, 78.

Earth, Axletree of, 560.

Earth, a dead Body, 650.

Earth, Fire in, 646^.

Echoes, 279.

Echoes, Choir of, 713.

Eclipse of Life, 97.

Education of the Dramatist, 880.

Eels affected by Thunder, 340.

Egyptian Darkness, 212.

Elder-flowers, 588.

Elder-tree and Vine, 6.

Elements, the four, 548.

Elixir, 134.

Elizabeth, Queen, her Character,
308.

Elizabeth and Love, 489.

Elizabeth, a Pha2nix, 571.

Elizabeth's Death, turning of For-
tune's Wheel, 204.

Elm and Vine, 260.

Eloquence is Action, 452.

Embers, stir no, 847.

Emblems, 90.

Enclosure of common Lands, 417.

Encyclopeedia, 267.

End, the promised, 566.

Endymion and the Moon, 328.

Enemies and Friends, 283.

Enemy, Kisses of, 545.

England and France, C15.

England and Scotland, 179.

England's Wall and Bulwarks, 270.

Entails, barred by fee simple, 457.

Envy, a Devil, 193.

Envy and Death, 576.

Envy and Pride, 374.

Epicureans, 551.

Epicurus and Auguries, 414.

Equity Courts, 122.

Error, Approval of, 55.

Errors, Comedy of, 596.

Evil and Good, relative Duration

of, 426.
Evil Reports, like Darts, 475.
Evils, self-inflicted, 465.
Excess wasteful, 830.
Eye, human, 19.
Eyes, Love in, 146.

Face, a beautiful, 425.

Face, painting of the, 178.

Faith, 790.

Faith, like Odors of Flowers, 347.

Fame, posthumous, 749.

Fan, winnowing with, 384.

Fashion in Creeds, 271.

Favorites of Princes, screens, 360.

Faults of Rulers, 877.

Fear, 79.

Fear, ignoble, 210.

Fear of Death, 77.

Fear of Loss, 80.

Feast and Fray, 854.

Feasts and Vigils, 569.

Fee simple, barring Entails, 457.

Ferdinand and Henry VIII., 692.

Fever, Civil War a, 378.

Fine and Recovery, 488.

Fire in the Earth, 646.

Fireside Talk, 152.

Fire, Trial by, 140.

424

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Fish, cold-blooded, 635.

Flames, Wick in, 717.

Flattery, pleasing to People, 747.

Fleas, 164.

Flies in Winter, 750.

Flowers according to Season, 522.

Flowers, Music, and Love, 206.

Flowers, Odors of, like Faith, 347.

Foil, 256.

Followers, stripping Men of Wings,

444.
Folly and Fortune, 552.
Folly and Wisdom, 762.
Food of Animals, affecting their

Flesh, 727.
Fool among Fools, 464.
Fool, the, and the Wise Man, 221.
Fool, Liberty of a, 277.
Fools, 151.
Fool's Bolt, 395.
Forgetting, Art of, 817.
Forgiveness better than. Vengeance,

172.
Forgiveness of Lijuries, an Evil,780.
Fortune and Folly, 552.
Fortune and Nature, 760.
Fortune, Ashes of, 319.
Fortune-telling Tricks, 214.
Fortune's Wheel, 601.
France and England, 615.
Friend, a Mirror, 845.
Friend, another One's Self, 441.
Friends and Enemies, 283.
Friends, Recognition of, after long

Absence, 41.
Friends to Beasts, 823.
Friends with Friends. 568.
Friendship, 93.
Friendship between Superiors and

Inferiors, 832.
Frost burns, 851.
Fruits, Country, 118.
Funeral Bell, 860.

Gad's Hill, Robbery on, 521.
Gain, eveiy Way a, 570.

Galen and Paracelsus, 793.
Galen, a Quack, 771.
Gallows vs. Drowning, 282.
Gardens, Knots in, 232.
Gardens of Adonis, 480.
Garlic, 725.

Garments, Honors like, 135.
Geocentric Theory of Solar System,

435.
Gesticulation, 137.
Gesticulation, Language of, 562.
Glasses, burning, 389.
Gloucester's Conspiracy, early Date

of, 690.
God's Blessing and the warm Sun,

839.
Gold, all that glisters is not, 318.
Gold, Chinese, 684.
Gold, Manufacture of, 672.
Gold, Metal easily wrought, 447.
Gold tried by Touchstone, 770.
Good and Evil, comparative, 372.
Good and Evil, relative Duration

of, 426.
Goodfellow, Robin, 76.
Good in Everything, 519.
Goodness, Excess of, 479.
Good morrow, 777.
Government by Minors, 139.
Grafting old Trees, 658.
Gratitude, 555.
Gravity, terrestrial, 42.
Greater and less, 120.
Green, Sea-water, 663.
Grief for Others, 424.
Gross and palpable, 470.
Gypsies, 874.

Hamlet's Lidecision, 540.
Happiness, in Opinion of Others,

518.
Happiness in the Mean, 199.
Hare and Cripple, 421.
Harping on a String, 396.
Haste slowly, 502.
Haste to be rich, 734.

PARALLELISMS

425

Hatred, 278.

Heart, Window of the, 357.
Heat, Materiality of, 82.
Heights, k)oking dowTi from great,

753.
Henry V., premature Death of, 180.
Henry VI., Character of, 849.
Henry VII. and his Wife Elizabeth,

633.
Henry VII., crowned by Stanley,

416.
Henry VII., Prophecy concerning,

162.
Henry VIII. and Katharine, 619.
Henry VIIL, Divorce of, 686.
Henry VIII. and Ferdinand, 692.
Hercules, Labors of, 710.
Hereditary Monarchs, 117.
Hog and Bacon, 251.
Holes, peeping through small, 345.
Holy-water, 336.
Honey-dew, 5.
Honey-dew in Lilies, 726.
Honey in Carrion, 107.
Honorificabilitudinitatibus, 8.
Honors like Garments, 135.
Hope, 885.
Horse, Brewer's, 354.
Horse and Grass, 827.
Horse, training of, like Mind, 205.
Humor and the vital Spirit, 86.
Husbands controlled by Wives,

292.
Husbands murdered by Wives, 511.
Hypocrisy, Pride lacking in, 124.

Ice, Impressions in, 202.
Ifsaud Ands, 301.
Ignorance, 805.

Images in mind. Distortion of, 520.
Imagination and Action, 508.
Imposthumalions, 233.
Indiscretion in Speech, 72.
Infusions, medical, 642.
Inheritance of Land, 463.
Innocence, Trust in, 848.

Incense on Altars, 507.
Insomnia in Kings, 510.
Instruction in Schools, 476.
Instruction through the Senses,

840.
Intentions good, without Acts, 56.
Interest Money, 226.
Invisible, Walking, 216.
Iron, Soldiers are, 174.
Ivy on Trees, 317.

James I., Character of, 309.
James I. and Scotland, 43.
James I., Solomon, 665.
Jealousy, Cure of, 505.
Jealousy, a Sentinel, 514.
Jests in the Ear, 838.
Jests, Subjects for, 355.
Job, Patience of, 697.
Joys, Effect of sudden, 595.
Joys, overthrowing Mind, 824.
Judgments, ignorant, 739.
Jugglers, 744.
Jupiter assuming Forms of Beasts,

57.
Justice and Mercy, 121.
Justices of Peace, and Gustos

Kotulorum, 724.

Kent, County of, 312.
Killing Tyrants, lawful, 603.
Kings as Brokers, 362.
Kings, bestowing Wards in Mar-
riage, 458.
Kings hedged by Divinity, 188.
Kings feared and loved, 547.
Kings, long Arms of, 343.
Kings, Insomnia of, 510.
Kings, Obedience to, 440.
Kings, Oath of, 544.
Kings, Suspicions of, 272.
Kisses of an Enemy, 545.
Knots in Gardens, 232.
Knots in Trees, 230.
Knowledge, base, 103.
Knowledge, Cure of Suspicion, 498.

426

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Knowledge, Extent of Bacon's, 240.
Knowledge, Praise of, 423.
Knowledge, Remembrance, 87.
Knowledge recj^uired to ask Ques-
tions, 6(58.
Knowledge, universal, 240.
Know thyself, 884.

Land, Inheritance of, 463.

Lands, common. Enclosure of, 417.

Language of Gestures, 562.

Law of Combat, 869.

Law, Salic, 163.

Laws, obsolete, 47.

League of Body and Soul, 209.

Lees, 419.

Lees and Dregs, 765.

Leisure, 818.

Letter Trick, a, 81.

Letters, Bellerophon's, 185.

Letters of the Alphabet, silent, 788.

License, 742.

Lies, crediting one's own, 54.

Lies, Means of ascertaining Truth,

74.
Lie there, my Art, 237.
Life, Accidents of, 580.
Life, Aims in, 606.
Life, a Trifle, 7.
Life, a disappointed, 113.
Life, Duties of, 656.
Life eclipsed, 97.
Life iw Ignorance, happiest, 825.
Life of Man, a Span, 365.
Life, Tedium of, 486.
Life, useless, 402.
Light and Sound, 285.
Lime-twigs, 422.
Lions, Mercy in, 740.
Litter, commanding Armies from a,

582.
Little Things, 106.
Liver, Seat of Sensuality, 434.
Loan, losing double, 799.
Looking at a King, 821.
Losers, give Words to, 812.

Love, a Boy's, 819.

Love, a Folly, 27.

Love, a Fool, 820.

Love and Chaos, 553.

Love and Marc Anthony, 381.

Love and Self-love, 410.

Love, a Madness, 26.

Love bewitches, 35.

Love, comparative, 274.

Love creeping before it goes, 30.

Love fiital to worldly Success, 29.

Love, Flowers, and ^klusic, 206.

Love, hostile to Fortune, 37.

Love incompatible with Wisdom,
32.

Love in Eyes, 146.

Love, Language of, hyperbolical,
33.

Love, moderate, 31.

Love, not to be hid, 687.

Love's Keepsakes, 767.

Love, Soldiers given to, 36.

Love, strong Characters not sus-
ceptible of, 28.

Love, the first God, 131.

Love unreciprocated, treated with
Contempt, 34.

Love Verses on Trees, 699.

Love, Witchcraft in, 461.

Love, without Cause, 238.

Love, Youthful, 852.

Loved after Death, 791.

Lunacy, 676.

Lust, 155.

Maduess, Method in, 149.

Magic, 148.

Magistrate, determining the Man,

800.
Mandrake and Mandragora, 693.
Man, Fall of, 408.
Man's Body, a musical Instrument,

418.
Man's Life, a Span, 365.
Man, a God to Man, 630.
Man, a Picture, 367.

PARALLELISMS

427

Man in Solitude, a Beast, 442.

Mangold, 147.

Marriage of Mind and physical
Nature, 492.

Marti em as, 716.

Matrimony and Money, 382.

Matter and Words, 186.

Mean, Happiness in the, 199.

Mean Persons, 661.

Mean Persons, attempting great
Things, 807.

Measures and "Weights, 462.

Meats affected by Animals' Food,
727.

Meats, choleric, 96.

Meats, sweet, 320.

Medea, 641.

Medical Diagnosis, 394.

Medical Infusions, 642.

Medicine v. Surgery, 297.

Medicines for the Mind, 153.

Medlar, 731.

Medusa, 536.

Melting of the Body at Death, 883.

Men busiest when alone, 472.

Men, old, miserly, 605.

Mental Diseases, Eemediesfor, 311.

Men weak, doing great Things,
499.

Mercy and Justice, 121.

Mercy, Gates of, 259.

Mercy m Lions, 740.

Misery, Examples of, in Others, 782.

Metempsychosis, 482.

Method in Madness, 149.

Microcosm, 296.

Milo, Bull-bearing, 804.

Mind and Face to agree, 732.

Mind and physical Natm-e, Mar-
riage of, 492.

Mind, Anticipation of, 450.

Mind, deformed by Age, 129.

Mind, Dissection of, 437.

Mind, Distortion of Images in, 520.

Mind, Influence of, upon the Body?
403.

Mind, Medicines for, 153.
Mind, Mirror of Nature, 386.
Mind, Painting of, 289.
Mind, reflected in Countenance,

501.
Mind, Tables of the, 119,
Mind, trained like a Horse, 205.
Minerva, Bent of Genius, 714.
Mines, Truth hid in, 287.
Minors governing, 139.
Minotaur and the Labyrinth, 873.
Miracles in Adversity, 145.
Misanthrope, a Beast, 363.
Moles, 246.

Monarchs, hereditaiy, 117.
Monarchs, not accountable to

Others, 170.
Money in Civil Wars, 761.
Money makes Matrimony, 382.
Monsters, 651.

Monument, an enduring, 359.
Moon and Saturn, 644.
Moon, Influences of the, 759.
Moon, Man in the, 640.
Moon's Influence on Vegetation,

495.
More. Sir Thomas, 7.
Morrow, Good, 777.
Motion and Sense, 721.
Mountebanks, 504.
Muck, the World's, 25.
Multiplicity and Unity, 572.
Multitude, beastly, 14.
Murdered Man's Wounds, 190.
Mushrooms, 729.
Musical Instruments, automatic,

265.
Music and Poetry, 550.
Music, broken, 388.
Music, Love, and Flowers, 206.
Music of the dying Swan, 736.
Music, Power of, 136.
Music, sweet, aff"ecting the Spirits,

332.
Musical Concord, 743.
Musings by Night, 234.

428

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Nails, driving of, 83.

Names, Proper, Siguificancy of,
436.

Narcissus, Beauty of, 638.

Narcissus, Flowers of, 497.

Nature, Account of, to be rendered,
371.

Nature and Art, Relations between,
342.

Nature and Custom, 306.

Nature and Fortune, 760.

Nature, Custom, the Ape of, 306.

Nature, furnishing Models for hu-
man Society, 373.

Nature, Human, Herbs or Weeds
in, 350.

Nature, Mind a Mirror of, 386.

Nature, Persistence of, 269.

Nature, Secrets of, 674.

Nature, subdued by Custom, 506.

Nature superior to Art, 294.

Nature, Vice by, 404.

Nature's Benefits, a Loan, 468.

Natures, unsuspecting, 454.

Navigation, 158.

Nearest Way, the Foulest, 405.

Neighbors, 859.

Nemesis, 529.

Nero's Passion for the Lute, 598.

Nightly Musings, 234.

Nile, Overflowing of the, 632.

Nothing comes from Nothing, 346.

Noxious in Studies, 50.

Oath, a King's, 544.

Obedience to Piulers, taught by
Bees, 116.

Obedience to Rulers, a Law of Na-
ture, 440.

Obeying by Commanding, 292.

Obligations, turning Estates into,
313.

Ocean, Water runs to the, 778.

Odors and crushed Flowers, 719.

Odors, Raining of, 416.

Oil in Whales, 637.

Old Age and Youth, 380.

Old Age, Abhorrence of, 835.

Old Age, premature, 496.

Old Men miserly, 605.

Olympus, 703.

Opiates, 39.

Opinion, 533.

Opinion determining Value, 432.

Opportunity, 341.

Opportunity, suggesting Crime,

298.
Orjjheus and the Power of Music,

136.
Orpheus and the Thracian Women,

208.
Ossa, Pelion, and Olympus, 703.
Oxen, fat, 706.

Painting the Face, 178.
Painting the Mind, 289.
Palatine Counties, 866.
Palpable and gross, 470.
Pannonians, Armies of, 592.
Paracelsus and Galen, 793.
Parasites, 532.
Pardoning, 780.
Parents, Children of good, 23.
Parents governed by Children, 89.
Parentage, Differences among Chil-
dren of same, 439.
Parrots laughing, 200.
Parthian Arrows, 290.
Passions, Conflict of, 198.
Patience, 779.

Patience, Essential to long life, 62.
Peace, a Lethargy, 667.
Peace, Corruptions in, 339.
Pearls, hailing, 305.
Pedants, 531.

Peeping through small Holes, 345.
Pegasus and Theseus, 527.
Pelion, 703.
Perfumes, 766.

Period, a dark one in Life, 112.
Periods of Development, 705.
Persecution, Religious, 66.

PARALLELISMS

429

Perseus and Pegasus, 527.
Perspectives, 239.
Persuasion, Art of, 286.
Phantasm at Philippi, 428.
Philosophers and the Toothache,

109.
Philosopher's Stone and Holy

Wars, 863.
Physician, the true, 254.
Physiognomy, 15.
Pilots in calm Weather, 427.
Piracy, literary, 303.
Pity, 524.

Planets, Conjunction of, 165.
Planets, Predominance of, 602.
Planets, reign consecutively, 649.
Plants, pricking, 720.
Plants, Sex in, 361.
Plebeians, 865.
Pluto and Plutus, 393.
Poetry, Abandonment of, 409.
Poetry and Music, 550.
Poetry, divine, 549.
Poetry, feigned History, 324.
Poetry, feigning, 798.
Poetry, a Plant without Seed, 44.
Poets, best Delineators of Passions,

604.
Points of the Compass, 613.
Poison in Sauces, 215.
Poisons, Effect of, on the Body,

715.
Pomegranates, Kernels of, 756.
Pomp and Glory, 704.
Pompey, Command of the Sea by,

175.
Pompey, Dissimulation of, 176.
Pompey's War against Pirates, 787.
Portfolio, Bacon's, 636.
Portraying Another, as in a Glass,

467.
Posterity, Writing for, 455.
Posthumous Fame, 749.
Poverty in Wealth, 784.
Praemunire, 344.
Praise, a Glass, 356.

Praise, excessive, 243.

Praise, false, 194.

Praise harmful, 616.

Praise in Presence, 600.

Praise of Self, 304.

Presages of Death, 1.

Presumption, 51.

Priam and his Children, 585.

Pricking Plants, 720.

Pride and Envj-, 374.

Pride lacking Hypocrisy, 124.

Pride, Swelling of, like Venom,

526.
Prince's Favorites, Screens, 360.
Princes, no Confidence in, 846.
Princes repudiating evil Agents,

123.
Princes' Speeches, 474.
Prison of the Thoughts, 299.
Prison, the World a, 219.
Prognostics, 556.
Prometheus, Discoverer of Fire,

677.
Prometheus tied to Caucasus, 542.
Promised End, 5G6.
Prophecy concerning Henry VII.,
162.

Prophesying the Future, 882.

Protestations, 108.

Proteus changing Shapes, 528.

Proteus held by the Sleeves, 707.

Proud Man devouring himself, 169.

Proverb, a Spanish, 74.

Prudence, 814.

Pulse-beats, Measures of Time, 711.

Pursuit better than Attainment,
104.

Purveyorship Grievances, 466.

Putrefaction, breeding Organisms,
21.

Putrefaction, Origin of Life from,
22.

Pygmalion's Image, 300.

Quarrels, 843.

Quarrels over Trifles, 168.

430

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Question in Cheapside, 797.
Questions, Knowledge required to

ask, 668.
Quicksilver, 321.

Rabble, Applause of, 567.

Rack, 709.

Rainbow sweetening the Ground,

695.
Ranks and Degrees in States, 379.
Rarity, Cause of Wonder, 338.
Rats forsaking a House, 611.
Reading and Spelling, 666.
Reason, and Affection, 449.
Reason, Discourse of, 407.
Rebellion against the Bellj', 191.
Recognition of Friends after long

Separation, 41.
Reflection of Virtue, 63.
Region, Rack, and Silence, 92.
Repentance impossible, 809.
Repugnance to dead Bodies, 228.
Repudiation of Agents, 123.
Reputation dependent on Rank,

801.
Reputation, Loss of, 370.
Results of Acts not Grounds for

Judgments, 249.
Reverence, 722.

Richard III., as Murderer, 689.
Richard III., Deformity of, 59.
Riches, Baggage of Virtue, 735.
Riches, Distribution of, 182.
Rich, making haste to be, 734.
Rise and Fall, 523.
Robbery on Gad's Hill, 521.
Robin Goodfellow, 76.
Romans, concj^uering by sitting

down, 746.
Romans, like Sheep, 733.
Roses, Wars of the, 688.
Rulers, Faults of, 877.
Rulers, frequent Change of, a

Disadvantage, 181.
Rulers, Obedience to, 116.
Rumor, 157.

Sabbath and Sabbaoth, 406.

Salamander, 758.

Saft'ron, 276.

Salic Law, 163.

Sanctuarj', Privileges of, 876.

Saturn antl Moon, 644.

Sauces, Poison in, 215.

Saying and doing, 627.

Scotland and England, 179.

Schools, Instruction in, 476.

Scorner, Reproving a, 783.

Scrap-books, 264.

Screens, Prince's Favorites, 360.

Scylla and Charybdis, 543.

Scytala, 573.

Sea, Command of, by Pompey, 175.

Sea of Troubles, 333.

Secret Studies, 841.

Seeds, 398.

Self-contempt, 195.

Self-praise, 304.

Seller's Price, 563.

Sense and Motion, 721.

Senses, Instruction through the,

840.
Sensuality in the Liver, 434.
Several and Common, 769.
Sex in Plants, 361.
Shadows, Fighting, 828.
Ship on lee Shore, 158.
Silence, 387.
Silence eloquent, 608.
Silence inducing Trixst, 70.
Silence under Accusation, 126.
Silent Letters of the Alphabet, 788.
Sin by Lf.w, 530.
Sinon, Prototype of Deceit, 376.
Slander, 201.

Sleep, a Nourishment, 433.
Sleeping Speech, 861.
Snares legal, 622.
Snow-balls, 291.

Snow-water, Effect on Throat, 330.
Solar System, Geocentric Theory

of, 435.
Soldiers, given to Love, 36.

PARALLELISMS

431

Soldiers, Iron, 174.
Soldiers, Sinews of War, 618.
Solitude, Man in, 442.
Solomon, Wisdom of, 675.
Solyman's Campaigns in Persia,

631.
Sonnet, 678.

Sorrow, Expression of, 242.
Sorrows, our Schoolmasters, 826.
Soul and Body, League of, 209.
Soul, compounded of Flame and

Air, 456.
Soul, Location of, 17.
Souls, Two, in every Man, 261.
Sound and Light, 285.
Sounds by Night, 293.
Sounds from empty Casks, 366.
Sounds, Sympathy in, 252.
Sours and Sweets, 850.
Southampton, 114.
South Sea of Discovery, 659.
South Wind, bringing Rain, 785.
South Wind, pestilential, 786.
Span, the Life of Man a, 365.
Spartans, cipher Message of, 573.
Species, Transmutation of, 728.
Speculations, vain, 484.
Speech, a Eod, 610.
Speech, sleeping, 861.
Spelling and Reading, 666.
Spheres, Harmony of the, 60.

Sp:
Sp

)iders' Webs, 558.

jirit, mastering, 16.

)irits affected by sweet Music,

332.
Spirits in inanimate Bodies, 589.
Sport for the Gods, 100.
Stage-playing and Bashfulness,

593.
Stage, the World, 133.
Stanley, Sir William, crowning

Henry VII., 416.
Star, Ctesar's, 383.
Star-Chamber, 280.
Stars are Fires, 446.
Stars, a Show, 196.

Stars, like Frets, 315.

Step-mothers, 84.

Stings in Words, 565.

Stoics, 575.

Stone, Wood turning into, 657.

Stones, valued according to Fancy,

443.
Storms, Waters swelling before,

316.
Strawberries, growing in Shade,

730.
String, harping on, 396.
Studies, contemplative, 594.
Studies noxious, 50.
Studies, secret, 841.
Studies, to follow Inclination, 591.
Stumbling at the Threshold, 833.
Stumbling in Haste, 857.
Sufferance gives Ease, 808.
Suicide justifiable, 755.
Suits, to grant and to deny, 68.
Sultan, slaying his Brothers, 391.
Sun and Tapers, 803.
Sun, Fountain of Light, 681.
Sun, Motions of, 654.
Surgery vs. Medicine, 297.
Suspicion, Cure of, 498.
Suspicion in Kings, 272.
Suspicious Persons, 160.
Suum cuique, 792.
Swan, Music of the dying, 736.
Sweating Sickness, 691.
Sweets and Sours, 850.
Swimming on Bladders, 609.
Swooning at Siglit of Blood, 752.
Sword, the, a Pleader, 310.
Swords of Lead, 763.
Sylhx, Character of, 599.
Syllogisms, 881.

Tables of the Mind, 119.
Tales for Old and Young, 478.
Talk by Fireside, 152.
Tapers and the Sun, 803.
Tasted, chewed, swallowed, and
digested, 325.

43^

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Tedium of Life, 486.
Teeth on Edge, 751.
Telepathy, 244.
Tempests and Wars, 377.
Terebration of Trees, IGl.
Theatre and World, 662.
Thebes, frequent Capture of, 634.
Theseus and Ariadne, 702.
Things at the Worst, 776.
Things done, 815.
Things unnoticed, 431.
Things unseen do not affect us,

813.
Thorns, young, 745.
Thought, a Prison, 299.
Thought is free, 837.
Thrasonical Behavior, 213.
Throat, Effect on, of drinking

Snow Water, 330.
Thunder, affecting Eels, 340.
Thunder, Cause of, 673.
Tickling, 694.
Time, Advantage of, 334.
Time, devouring, 493.
Time, noiseless, 829.
Time, Office of, to disclose Truth,

460.
Time, our Interpreter, 218.
Time, wisest of all Things, 621.
Timon's Tree, 281.
Titan's Rays, 539.
Toad's Head, Jewel in, 102.
To be, or not to be, 738.
To-morrow, 871.

Tooth-ache and Philosophers, 109.
Tops of Virtues, 258.
Towns, Depopulation of, 483.
Transmutation of Species, 728.
Travel, Affectations of, 225.
Travel, educational Influence of,

125.
Treason, speaking behind Doors,

856.
Treason, Punishments of Men and

Women for, 643, 875,
Trees, Ivy on, 317.

Trees, grafting old, 658.

Trees, Terebration of, 161.

Trees, Knots in, 230.

Trees, Love-verses on, 699.

Trees, wounded, 161.

Trial by Fire, 140.

Trifles, quarrelling over, 168.

Troubles, Sea of, 333.

Troy, inside and without, 284.

True to one's Self, 855.

Trust, induced by SUence, 70.

Truth, forged on Anvils, 288.

Truth, hid in Mines, 287.

Truth, sovereign, 471.

Truth, telling a Lie to find, 74 ,

Tuning Instruments, 612.

Turks, forbidding Duelling, 132.

Turks, the, common Enemies of

Mankind, 349.
Turks, Treatment of Womeu by,

862.
Two Worlds, 879.
Typhon, 554.
Tyrants, killing of, lawful, 603.

Ulysses, 789.

Unicorn, 701.

Union, 138.

Unity and Multiplicity, 572.

Unsuspecting Natures, 454.

Useless Lives, 402.

Vacuum, 48.

Valor, 822.

Vanity, 177.

Vapor, 525.

Vegetation, Moon's Influence on,

495.
Velocity and Weight, 438.
Vengeance, Forgiveness better

than, 172.
Verbosity, 307.
Vice by Nature, 404.
Vice, Constancy in, 211.
Vice in Garb of Virtue, 229.
Vicissitudes, 781.

PARALLELISMS

433

Vigils and Feasts, 569.

Vine and Elder-tree, 6.

Vine and Elm-tree, 260.

Violets, white, 24.

Virtue, a Cause of Ruin, 607.

Virtue and Beauty, 156.

Virtue, Assumption of, 98.

Virtue is Beauty, 583.

Virtue, not Praise, one's proper

Aim, 245.
Virtue, Reflection of, 63.
Virtue, the Garb of Vice, 229.
Virtues, condemned for, 144.
Virtues, Tops of, 258.
Vi\-isection, 142.
Voice and Ear, 816.

Walls and Bulwarks of England,
270.

Walk, invisible, 216.

Walking Woods, 217.

War, Chances in, 88.

War, civil, a Fever, 378.

Wards, bestowed by Kings in Mar-
riage, 458.

Wars and Tempests, 377.

Wars, civil, Use of Money in, 761.

Wars, foreign, 811.

Wars, holy, 863.

Wars of the Roses, 688.

Warwick, wind-changing, 184.

Watchmen, 171.

Water runs to the Ocean, 778.

Water-spouts, 101.

Waters, swelling before Storms,
316.

Wax Candles, 718.

Wax, tempering of, 420.

Wealth despised by tlie Poor, 586.

Wealth in a State, an Evil, 534.

AVealth, Poverty in, 784.

Weed, 399.

AVeight and Velocity, 438.

Weights and Measures, 462.

Whales, Oil in, 637.

Wheel of Fortune, 601.

Wheel, Death of Elizabeth, turn-
ing of, 204.

Wheels, World running on, 64.

Wick in Flames, 717.

Wife, controlling Husband, 292.

Will and Wish, 796.

Wills, Repugnance to making, 392.

Wind, a Broom, 61.

Wind, east, 614.

Wind, ill, 590.

Wind, south, bringing Rain, 785.

Wind south, pestilential, 786.

Window of the Heart, 357.

Winds, testing Direction of, 757.

Wine, a Devil, 348.

Wine-drinking, Effect of, 754.

Wine, good, needing no Bush, 401.

Winnowing with Fan, 384.

Wisdom and Folly, 762.

Wisdom and her Children, 477.

Wisdom, Pretence of, 220.

Wise Man and Fool, 221.

Witchcraft in Love, 461.

Witches, 167.

Witches' Cauldron, 490.

Witches, operating through inter-
mediate Agents, 509.

Wives murdering Husbands, 511.

Wolsey, Cardinal, 323.

Woman, a Composite, 18.

Woman, ill or well, at her Option,
842.

Woman, Nature of, 52.

Women, banished from Court, 143.

Women, how treated by Turks,
862.

Wonder, caused by Rarity, 338.
Wonder, divine, 768.

Wonder, Duration of a, 223.

Wood, turning to Stone, 657.
Woods walking, 217.
Word, a long, 8.
Words, Accents of, 561.
Words and Matter, 186.
Words, sounding, but signifying
nothing, 189.

434

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

Words, Stings in, 565.

Words to Losers, 812.

Workiug others for Selfish Ends,

485.
World, the, a Prison, 219.
World, final Conflagration of, 655.
World, formed from Atoms, 500.
World, the, a Stage, 133.
World, the, a Theatre, 662.
Worlds, two, 879.
Worst, Things at the, 776.
Wounds of the murdered, bleeding

afresh, 190.

Wrinkling of Bodies in old Age,

111.
Writing for Posterity, 455.
Writing for the Future, 187.
Wrong in high Places, 494.
Wrongs, honest, 741.
Wrongs, when justifiable, 45.

Youth and old Age, 380.
Youth, Divinenesa in, 584.
Youth of the World, our Antiquity,
263.

The citations, given under our parallelisms, are taken
from the respective works of the two authors, in number as
follows :

Shake-spkare

The Tempest 38

The Two Gentlemen of Verona 22

The Merry Wives of Windsor 18

Measure for Measure ... 29

The Comedy of Errors . . 6

j\Iuch Ado About Nothing . 17

Love's Labor 's Lost ... 36

A Midsummer-Night's Dream 29

The Merchant of Venice . . 42

As You Like It 43

The Taming of the Shrew . 16

All 's Well that Ends Well . 23

Twelfth Night 23

The Winter's Tale .... 19

King John 17

King Richard II 21

First Part of King Henry IV. 16
Second Part of King Henry

IV 31

King Henry V 42

First Part of King Henry VI. 16
Second Part of King Henry

VI 24

Bacon

Novum Organum . . . .
Advancement of Learning

(first edition, 1605). . ,
Advancement of Learning

(second edition, 1623) . .
Sylva Sylvarum . . . ,
History of Henry VII. . .

The Essays ,

New Atlantis . . . . .
The Apothegms ...
Philosophical Tracts . . ,

Law Tracts ■

Wisdom of the Ancients .

Speeches ■

Letters

Miscellanies

Promus '

128

107

105
33

138
5
19
41
28
45
73
60
88

126

Whole number . . . .1,010

PARALLELISMS 435

Shake-speare Bacon

Third Part of King Henry YI. 27

King Richard III 26

King Henry VIII 24

Troihis and Cressida ... 57

Coriolanus 45

Titus Andronicua .... 28

Eomeo and Juliet .... 35

Timon of Athens .... 36

Julius Csesar 53

Macbeth 35

Hamlet 84

King Lear 35

OtheUo 35

Anthony and Cleopatra . . 39

Cjinbeline 29

Pericles 14

Venus and Adonis .... 4

Lucrece 8

Sonnets 48

The Passionate Pilgrim . . 5

The Phoenix and Turtle . . 0

Whole number of passages

cited, respectively . .1,191

No comment on the above table seems to be needed,
except perhaps in regard to the Promus. The Promus bears
two dates, namely : December 5, 1594, at which time, or there-
abouts, it was begun, and January 27, 1595-96, when (prob-
ably after a brief interval) work upon it was resumed.
Between these two dates, or within less than one year and
two months after the book was started, very nearly three-
quarters of all tlie entries made in it, or (to speak more
exactly) twelve hundred and twenty-nine out of one thou-
sand six hundred and fifty-three, were written.^ That is to
say, the memorandum book was nearly completed before the
Shake-speare plays, with two exceptions, came from the

1 Ninety-three were entered previously to the first-named date.

436 BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

press. The exceptions were ' King John ' (1591), and
the Second Part of * King Henry VI. (1594), from neither
of which is drawn, however, a single parallelism given by
us herein. The earliest printed play in which any of the
foregoing passages have been found bears date 1597.

It follows, then, not that Bacon made use of the Plays for
his memorandum book, but that the dramatist made use of
the memorandum book for his Plays. But the memorandum
book, or Promus, was Bacon's private property, not known
to his contemporaries, and not printed until 1883, or two
hundred and fifty-seven years after his death.^ These paral-
lelisms are, therefore, either the independent product of two
minds (which is practically impossible) or the common
product of one, and that one, necessarily, Bacon's.

The argument from parallelisms in general may be stated
thus : one parallelism has no significance ; five parallelisms
attract attention ; ten suggest inquiry ; twenty raise a pre-
sumption ; fifty establish a probabihty ; one hundred dissolve
every doubt.

Kespecting the foregoing list, in particular, it is important
to remember that the two authors whose sentiments are here
compared stood at the opposite ends of the social scale, as
unlike in environment and natural views of life as it was
possible for them to be. The one, an aristocrat ; the other,
a plebeian. The one, the first subject of the realm ; the
other, attached to a profession in which aU. were by law
vagabonds. The one, highly educated at home and abroad ;
the other, as shown by the record of his life, wholly uned-
ucated. The one, belonging to a family of illustrious states-
men and scholars ; the other, to one whose members, so far
as our knowledge of them extends, were illiterate and inex-
pressibly vulgar. The one, the profoundest writer of his age

1 Mrs. Henry Pott's "Bacon's Promus." Boston, Houghton, Mifflin &
Co., 1883.

PARALLELISMS 437

on innumerable points in philosophy, science, art, law, govern-
ment, and manners and customs of society, such as we find,
here, there, and everywhere, in the Plays ; the other, recog-
nized by tliree of his fellow-townsmen as a business man
only ; by three, perhaps four, of contemporary playwrights
in London as an impostor ; but to all others of his generation
of whom we have any report, apparently unknown.^ That
two diverse personalities of this kind could have been poised
on the same intellectual centre, and developed, as our paral-
lelisms show that, on the generally accepted theory of
authorship, they must have been developed, along identical
lines of thought in almost every conceivable direction, is, to
our mind at least, simply incredible.

" The wonderful parallehsms must and will be wrought out and
followed out to such fair conclusions as they shaU be found to
force honest minds to adopt," — Oliver Wendell Holmes.

1 For facta supporting these statements, see our "Bacon vs. Shakspere,"
Sth ed., Chapter II.

INDEX OF NAMES

[The numerals denote number of parallelism in which name occurs.]

Abbott, Edward A., 116, 777.

Acosta, 557.

^schylus, 119, 490.

Aldersou, E. S., 379.

Alger, William R., 69.

Anaximenes, 650.

Apelles, 18.

Aristotle, 5, 69, 525, 597, 645, 646.

Augustine, St., 22, 115, 217.

Aurelius, Marcus, 771.

Bacon, Nicholas, 199, 742.
Bengough, Edmund, 362.
Blackstone, 488.
Bodley, Sir Thomas, 2.
Boener, Peter, 234.
Bradley, Henry, 1.
Brown, Robert, 95.
Brutus, 274, 413,
Burleigh, Lord, 237.

C^SALPINTTS, 361.

Caldicott, Thomas, 227.

Campbell, Lord Chief Justice, 236,

457, 459, 462.
Chappell, William, 388.
Carew, Sir G., 114.
Cardanus, 1, n., 341.
Carnappe, 1.
Castle, Edward J., 310.
Caxtou, William, 390, 407.
Cecil, Kobert, 114.
Chaucer, 322.
Cicero, 115, 175, 196, 626.
Gibber, Collcy, 390.
Coke, Sir Edward, 121, 236.
Copernicus, 267, 435.
Copus, 1, 11.

Gotgrave, 390.
Goverdale, Miles, 322, 390.
Cranfield, Lord, 24.
Creightou, G., 1.

Dante, 8, 110, 193, 885.
Davidson, Thomas, 1.
Democritus, 645.
Diogenes Laertius, 12, 414.
Dionysius, 546.
Dixon, Hepworth, 411.
Dixon, Theron S. E., 68, n., 447, 458.
Donnelly, Ignatius, 109, 384, 385,

391, 392, 422, 425, 426, 430, 432,

433.
Douce, Francis, 1.
Dryerre, Henry, 8, n,

Elizabeth, Queen, 37, 114, 308,

410, 411, 489, 653.
EUacombe, Henry N., 24.
Elze, Carl, 85.
Epicurus, 414, 551.
Erasmus, 20, 42, 69, 341, 844.
Essex, Earl of, 7, 114, 274, 411, 483,

653.
Euripides, 540, 780.

Florio, 407.
Ford, John, 390.
Furness, Horace H., 407.
Fumivall, Frederic J., 274.

Galen, 1, 85, 771.
Gervinus, Gjorg G., 37.
Gibbon, Edward, 58.
Gower, John, 322.
Gruter, Isaac, 738.

440

INDEX OF NAMES

Hakluyt, Richard, 91.

Harvey, William, 85, 142.

Heraelitus, 650.

HeroJicus, 597.

Heywood, Thomas, 390.

Hilliard, Nicholas, 289.

Hippocrates, 1, 85.

Holinshed, 59, 162, 163.

Holmes, Nathaniel, 16, 47, 58, 85,

120, 466, 469, 492, 493.
Homer, 490, 707.
Hudson, Henry N., 110, 151.
Hunter, Joseph, 1.
Huon, 148.
Hyginus, 707.

IsADORE, St., 22.

James, George, 157, 160, 161, 166,

303, 571, 588.
James I., 43, 121, 309, 665.
Johnson, Samuel, 24, 227, 354, 885.
Jonson, Ben, 187, 289.

Keats, John, 885.
Knight, Charles, 115, 353.

Lowell, James Russell, 841.
Lucan, 490.
Lucian, 281.
Lucretius, 129.

Magellan, Ferdinand, 557.

Main, David M., 92.

Mallory, 390.

Marbeck, John, 390.

Massey, Gerald, 154.

Matthew, Sir Toby, 11, 172, 684.

Meautys, Sir Thomas, 832.

Montaigne, Michel, 534.

Moore, Col. H. L., 38, n., 204, 484,

485.
More, Sir Thomas, 7, 59, n., 217.
Musatus, Albertus, 8.

NiCHOL, John, 9.

Nicholas, 390.

North, Sir Thomas, 58.

Ovid, 490, 707.

Paracelsus, 85.

Perkins, William, 390.

Phajdrus, 341.

Philip, 103.

Plato, 19, 87, 115, 217, 645.

Pliny, 6, 12, 40, 91, 118.

Plutarch, 58, 80, 166, 191, 274, 281,

413, 653.
Pompey, 175, 176.
Porta, 6.

Pope, Alexander, 333.
Pott, Mrs. Henry, 777.
Publilius Syrus, 32, 292.
Purchas, 684.

Rabelais, 1, n., 341.
Raleigh, Sir Walter, 8, n.
Eawley, William, 58.
Reynolds, Samuel H., 233.
Roe, J. E., 373.

Ruggles, Henry J., 81, 351, 355,
501, 782.

Sandys, George, 632.

Sappho, 1.

Sayer, Elizabeth Price, 110.

Seneca, 490.

Servetus, 85.

Shelley, Percy Bysshe, 885.

Sidney, Sir Philip, 191.

Solyman, 631.

Smith, John, 390.

Somerset, Earl and Countess, 215.

Southampton, 114.

Spedding, James, 8, n., 60, 114, 217,

263, 292, 411, n., 662, 832.
Stanley, Sir William, 416.
Staunton, Howard, 466, n.
Steele, Sir Richard, 390.
Steevens, George, 354.
Stronach, George, 8, ft.
Suetonius, 413.

Tacitus, 54.
Tennyson, Alfred, 36.
Thales, 650.
Themistocles, 175.
Theobald, Lewis, 353.
Theobald, Robert M., 25, 145.

INDEX OF NAMES

441

Timotheus, 51.
Titus, lis.

Udall, Nicholas, 390.
Upton, Prebendary, 60, 490.

Valerius Maximus, 12.
Vergil, Polydore, 59, n.
Villiers, 360.

Virgil, 3, 79, 157, 376, 383, 490,
699, 703, 707.

Ward, Seth, 390.
Warwick, 184.
Weever, John, 274.

White, Richard G., 492, 709.

Whittier, John G., 885.

Wigston, W. F. C, 174, 175, 183,

192, 196, 200, 243, 247, 372, 374,

381, 431, 441, 514.
Williams, Sir E., 390.
Wilkes, George, 14.
Wiudle, Jlrs. C. F. A., 393.
Wolsey, Cardinal, 704.
A\"ordsworth, 227.
Wright, Aldis A., 383.
Wyclif, 322, 390.

Zeuxis, 18.

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