Francis Bacon at 9 Years of Age.
From the bust at Gorhambury.

THE MYSTERY

OF

FRANCIS BACON

BY

WILLIAM T. SMEDLEY.

Ad D.B.

LONDON:
ROBERT BANKS & SON,
RACQUET COURT, FLEET STREET E.C.
1912.

"But such is the infelicity and unhappy disposition of the human mind in the course of invention that it first distrusts and then despises itself: first will not believe that any such thing can be found out; and when it is found out, cannot understand how the world should have missed it so long."

—"Novum Organum," Chap. CX.

CONTENTS.

PREFACE.

Is there a mystery connected with the life of Francis Bacon? The average student of history or literature will unhesitatingly reply in the negative, perhaps qualifying his answer by adding:—Unless it be a mystery that a man with such magnificent intellectual attainments could have fallen so low as to prove a faithless friend to a generous benefactor in the hour of his trial, and, upon being raised to one of the highest positions of honour and influence in the State, to become a corrupt public servant and a receiver of bribes to pervert justice.—It is one of the most remarkable circumstances to be found in the history of any country that a man admittedly pre-eminent in his intellectual powers, spoken of by his contemporaries in the highest terms for his virtues and his goodness, should, in subsequent ages, be held up to obloquy and scorn and seldom be referred to except as an example of a corrupt judge, a standing warning to those who must take heed how they stand lest they fall. Truly the treatment which Francis Bacon has received confirms the truth of the aphorism, "The evil that men do lives after them; the good is oft interred with their bones."

It is not the intention in the following brief survey of Bacon's life to enter upon any attempt to vindicate his character. Since his works and life have come prominently before the reading public, he has never been without a defender. Montagu, Hepworth Dixon, and Spedding have, one after the other, raised their voices against the injustice which has been done to the memory of this great Englishman; and although Macaulay, in his misleading and inaccurate essay,[1] abounding in paradoxes and inconsistencies, produced the most powerful, though prejudiced, attack which has been made on Bacon's fame, he may almost be forgiven, because it provided the occasion for James Spedding in "Evenings with a Reviewer," to respond with a thorough and complete vindication of the man to whose memory he devoted his life. There rests on every member of the Anglo-Saxon race an obligation—imposed upon him by the benefits which he enjoys as the result of Francis Bacon's life-work—to read this vindication of his character. Nor should mention be omitted of the essay by Mr. J. M. Robertson on "Francis Bacon" in his excellent work "Pioneer Humanists." All these defenders of Bacon treat their subject from what may be termed the orthodox point of view. They follow in the beaten track. They do not look for Bacon outside his acknowledged works and letters. Since 1857, however, there has been steadily growing a belief that Bacon was associated with the literature of the Elizabethan and early Jacobean periods, and that he deliberately concealed his connection with it. That this view is scouted by what are termed the men of letters is well-known. They will have none of it. They refuse its claim to a rational hearing. But, in spite of this, as years go on, the number of adherents to the new theory steadily increases. The scornful epithets that are hurled at them only appear to whet their appetite, and increase their determination. Men and women devote their lives with enthusiasm to the quest for further knowledge. They dig and delve in the records of the period, and in the byeways of literature. Theories which appear extravagant and untenable are propounded. Whether any of these theories will come to be accepted and established beyond cavil, time alone can prove. But, at any rate, it is certain that in this quest many forgotten facts are brought to light, and the general stock of information as to the literature of the period is augmented.

In the following pages it is sought to establish what may be termed one of these extravagant theories. How far this attempt is successful, it is for the reader to judge. Notwithstanding all that may be said to the contrary, by far the greater part of Francis Bacon's life is unknown. An attempt will be made by the aid of accredited documents and books to represent in a new light his youth and early manhood. It is contended that he deliberately sought to conceal his movements and work, although, at the same time, he left the landmarks by which a diligent student might follow them. In his youth he conceived the idea that the man Francis Bacon should be concealed, and be revealed only by his works. The motto, "Mente videbor"—by the mind I shall be seen—became the guiding principle of his life.

THE MYSTERY

OF

FRANCIS BACON.

Chapter I.
SOURCES OF INFORMATION.

The standard work is "The Life and Letters of Francis Bacon," by James Spedding, which was published from 1858-1869. It comprises seven volumes, with 3,033 pages. The first twenty years of Bacon's life are disposed of in 8 pages, and the next ten years in 95 pages, of which 43 pages are taken up with three tracts attributed to him. There is practically no information given as to what should be the most important years of his life. The two first volumes carry the narrative to the end of Elizabeth's reign, when Bacon had passed his fortieth year. There is in them a considerable contribution to the history of the times, but a critical perusal will establish the fact that they add very little to our knowledge of the man, and they fail to give any adequate idea of how he was occupied during those years. In the seven volumes 513 letters of Bacon's are printed, and of these no less than 238 are addressed to James I. and the Duke of Buckingham, and were written during the last years of his life. The biographies by Montagu and Hepworth Dixon are less pretentious, but contain little more information.

The first published Life of Bacon appears to have been unknown to all these writers. In 1631 was published in Paris a translation of the "Sylva Sylvarum," as the "Histoire Naturelle de Mre. Francois Bacon." Prefixed to it is a chapter entitled "Discours sur la vie de Mre. Francois Bacon, Chancelier D'Angleterre." Reference will be made to this important discourse hereafter. It is sufficient for the present to say that it definitely states that during his youth Bacon travelled in Italy and Spain, which fact is to-day unrecognised by those who are accepted as authorities on his life. In 1647 there was published at Leyden a Dutch translation of forty-six of Bacon's Essays—the "Wisdom of the Ancients" and the "Religious Meditations." The translation is by Peter Boener, an apothecary of Nymegen, Holland, who was in Bacon's service for some years as domestic apothecary, and occasional amanuensis, and quitted his employment in 1623. Boener added a Life of Bacon which is a mere fragment, but contains testimony by a personal attendant which is of value. In 1657 William Rawley issued a volume of unpublished manuscripts under the title of "Resuscitatio," and to these he added a Life of the great Philosopher. Rawley is only once mentioned by Bacon. His will contains the sentence: "I give to my chaplain, Dr. Rawleigh, one hundred pounds." Rawley was born in 1590. When he became associated with his master is not known, but it could only have been towards the close of his life. Bacon appears to have reposed great confidence in him. In 1627,[2] the year following Bacon's death, he published the "Sylva Sylvarum." This must have been in the press before Bacon's death. Rawley subsequently published other works, and was associated with Isaac Gruter during the seventeenth century in producing on the continent various editions of Bacon's works.

Rawley's account of Bacon's life is meagre, and, having regard to the wealth of information which must have been at his disposal, it is a very disappointing production. Still, it contains information which is not to be found elsewhere. How incomplete it is may be gathered from the fact that there is no reference in it to Bacon's fall.

In 1665 was published a volume, "The Statesmen and Favourites of England since the Reformation." It was compiled by David Lloyd. The biographies of the Elizabethan statesmen were written by someone who was closely associated with them, and who appears to have had exceptional opportunities of obtaining information as to their opinions and characters.[3] As to how these lives came into Lloyd's possession nothing is known. Prefixed to the biographies are two pages containing "The Lord Bacon's judgment in a work of this nature." The chapter on Bacon is a most important contribution to the subject, but it also appears to have escaped the notice of Spedding, Hepworth Dixon, and Montagu. In 1658 Francis Osborn, in Letters to his son, gives a graphic description of the Lord Chancellor. Perhaps one can better picture Bacon as he was in the strength of his manhood from Osborne's account of him than from any other source. Thomas Bushell, another of Bacon's household dependents, published in 1628 "The First Part of Youth's Errors." In a letter therein addressed to Mr. John Eliot, he has left contributions to our stock of knowledge. There are also some miscellaneous tracts written by him, and published about the year 1660, which contain references to Bacon.

Fuller's Worthies (1660) gives a short account of his life and character, eulogistic but sparse. In 1679 was published "Baconiana," or Certain Genuine Remains of Sir Francis Bacon, &c., by Bishop Tennison, but it contains no better account of his life. Winstanley's Worthies (1684) relies entirely on Rawley's Life, which is reproduced in it. Aubrey's brief Lives were written about 1680. There are references to Bacon in Arthur Wilson's "History of the Reign of James I."; in "The Court of James I.," by Sir W. A.; in "Simeon D'Ewes' Diary"; and, lastly, in his "Discoveries," Ben Jonson contributes a high eulogy on Bacon's character and attainments.

In 1702 Robert Stephens, the Court historiographer, published a volume of Bacon's letters, with an introduction giving some account of his life; and there was a second edition in 1736. In 1740 David Mallet published an edition of Bacon's works, and wrote a Life to accompany it. This was subsequently printed as a separate volume. As a biography it is without interest, as it contains no new facts as to his life.

In 1754 memoirs of the reign of Queen Elizabeth from the year 1581 to her death appeared, edited by Dr. Thomas Birch. These memoirs are founded upon the letters of the various members of the Bacon family. In 1763 a volume of letters of Francis Bacon was issued under the same editor.

Such are the sources of information which have come down to us in biographical notices.

In the British Museum, the Record Office, and elsewhere are the originals of the letters and the manuscripts of some of the tracts which Spedding has printed.

The British Museum also possesses two books of Memoranda used by Bacon. The Transportat is entirely, and the Promus is partly, in his handwriting. Beyond his published works, that is all that so far has been available.

Spedding remarks[4]: "What became of his books which were left to Sir John Constable and must have contained traces of his reading, we do not know, but very few appear to have survived."

Happily, Spedding was wrong. During the past ten years nearly 2,000 books which have passed through Bacon's hands have been gathered together. These are copiously annotated by him, and from these annotations the wide range and the methodical character of his reading may be gathered. Manuscripts which were in his library, and at least four common-place books in his handwriting, have also been recovered. Particulars of these have not yet been made public, but the advantage of access to them has been available in the preparation this volume.

Chapter II.
THE STOCK FROM WHICH BACON CAME.

"A prodigy of parts he must be who was begot by wise Sir Nicholas Bacon, born of the accomplished Mrs. Ann Cooke," says an early biographer.

Nicholas Bacon is said to have been born at Chislehurst, in Kent, in 1509. He was the second son of Robert Bacon, of Drinkstone, in Suffolk, Esquire and Sheep-reeve to the Abbey of Bury St. Edmunds. It is believed that he was educated at the abbey school. He speaks of his intimacy with Edmund Rougham, a monk of that house, who was noted for his wonderful proficiency in memory. He was admitted to the College of Corpus Christi, Cambridge, and took the degree of B.A. in 1526-7. He went to Paris soon afterwards, and on his return studied law at Gray's Inn, being called to the Bar in 1533, and admitted ancient in 1536. He was appointed, in 1537, Clerk to the Court of Augmentations. In 1546 he was made Attorney of the Court of Wards and Liveries, and continued as such under Edward VI. Upon the accession of Mary he conformed to the change of religion and retained his office during her reign. Nicholas Bacon and William Cecil, each being a widower, had married sisters. When Elizabeth came to the throne Cecil became her adviser. He was well acquainted with Nicholas Bacon's sterling worth and great capacity for business, and availed himself of his advice and assistance. The Queen delivered to Bacon the great seal, with the title of Lord Keeper, on the 22nd December, 1558, and he was sworn of the Privy Council and knighted. By letters patent, dated 14th April, 1559, the full powers of a Chancellor were conferred upon him. In 1563 he narrowly escaped the loss of his office for alleged complicity in the issue of a pamphlet espousing the cause of the House of Suffolk to the succession. He was restored to favour, and continued as Lord Keeper until his death in 1579. The Queen visited him at Gorhambury on several occasions. Sir Nicholas Bacon, in addition to performing the important duties of his high office in the Court of Chancery and in the Star Chamber, took an important part in all public affairs, both domestic and foreign, from the accession of Elizabeth until his death. He first married Jane, daughter of William Fernley, of West Creting, Suffolk, by whom he had three sons and three daughters. For his second wife he married Anne, daughter of Sir Anthony Cooke, by whom he had two sons, Anthony and Francis. It is of more importance for the present purpose to know what type of man was the father of Francis Bacon. The author of the "Arte of English Poesie" (1589) relates that he came upon Sir Nicholas sitting in his gallery with the works of Quintillian before him, and adds: "In deede he was a most eloquent man and of rare learning and wisdome as ever I knew England to breed, and one that joyed as much in learned men and good witts." This author, speaking of Sir Nicholas and Burleigh, remarks, "From whose lippes I have seen to proceede more grave and naturall eloquence then from all the oratours of Oxford and Cambridge."

In his "Fragmenta Regalia" Sir Robert Naunton describes him as "an archpeece of wit and wisdom," stating that "he was abundantly facetious which took much with the Queen when it was suited with the season as he was well able to judge of his times." Fuller describes him as "a man of rare wit and deep experience," and, again, as "a good man, a grave statesman, and a father to his country." Bishop Burnet speaks of him as "not only one of the most learned and pious men, but one of the wisest ministers this nation ever bred." The observations of the author of "The Statesmen and Favourites of England in the Reign of Queen Elizabeth" are very illuminating. "Sir Nicholas Bacon," he says, "was a man full of wit and wisdome, a gentleman and a man of Law with great knowledge therein." He proceeds: "This gentleman understood his Mistress well and the times better: He could raise factions to serve the one and allay them to suit the others. He had the deepest reach into affairs of any man that was at the Council table: the knottiest Head to pierce into difficulties: the most comprehensive Judgement to surround the merit of a cause: the strongest memory to recollect all circumstances of a Business to one View: the greatest patience to debate and consider; (for it was he that first said, let us stay a little and we will have done the sooner:) and the clearest reason to urge anything that came in his way in the Court of Chancery.... Leicester seemed wiser than he was, Bacon was wiser than he seemed to be; Hunsden neither was nor seemed wise.... Great was this Stateman's Wit, greater the Fame of it; which as he would say, being nothing, made all things. For Report, though but Fancy, begets Opinion; and Opinion begets substance.... He neither affected nor attained to greatness: Mediocria firma, was his principle and his practice. When Queen Elizabeth asked him, Why his house was so little? he answered, Madam, my house is not too little for me, but you have made me too big for my House. Give me, said he, a good Estate rather than a great one. He had a very Quaint saying and he used it often to good purpose, That he loved the Jest well but not the loss of his Friend.... He was in a word, a Father of his country and of Sir Francis Bacon."

Before speaking of Lady Ann Bacon, it is necessary to give some account of her father, Sir Anthony Cooke. He was a great-grandson of Sir Thomas Cooke, Lord Mayor of London, and was born at Giddy Hall, in Essex. Again the most valuable observations on his character are to be found in "The Lives of Statesmen and Favourites" before referred to. The author states that Sir Anthony "was one of the Governors to King Edward the sixth when Prince, and is charactered by Mr. Camden Vir antiqua serenitate. He observeth him also to be happy in his Daughters, learned above their Sex in Greek and Latine: namely, Mildred who married William Cecil, Lord Treasurer of England; Anne who married Nichlas Bacon, Lord Chancellor of England; Katherine who married Henry Killigrew; Elizabeth who married Thomas Hobby, and afterwards Lord Russell, and Margaret who married Ralph Rowlet."

"Gravity," says this author, "was the Ballast of Sir Anthony's Soul and General Learning its leading.... Yet he was somebody in every Art, and eminent in all, the whole circle of Arts lodging in his Soul. His Latine, fluent and proper; his Greek, critical and exact; his Philology and Observations upon each of these languages, deep, curious, various and pertinent: His Logic, rational; his History and Experience, general; his Rhetorick and Poetry, copious and genuine; his Mathematiques, practicable and useful. Knowing that souls were equal, and that Women are as capable of Learning as Men, he instilled that to his Daughters at night, which he had taught the Prince in the day, being resolved to have Sons by education, for fear he should have none by birth; and lest he wanted an Heir of his body, he made five of his minde, for whom he had at once a Gavel-kind of affection and of Estate."

"Three things there are before whom (was Sir Anthony's saying) I cannot do amis: 1, My Prince; 2, my conscience; 3, my children. Seneca told his sister, That though he could not leave her a good portion, he would leave her a good pattern. Sir Anthony would write to his Daughter Mildred, My example is your inheritance and my life is your portion....

"He said first, and his Grandchilde my Lord Bacon after him, That the Joys of Parents are Secrets, and so are their Griefs and Fears.... Very providently did he secure his eternity, by leaving the image of his nature in his children and of his mind in his Pupil.... The books he advised were not many but choice: the business he pressed was not reading, but digesting.... Sir John Checke talked merrily, Dr. Coxe solidly and Sir Anthony Cooke weighingly: A faculty that was derived with his blood to his Grandchilde Bacon."

Such then was the father of Lady Anne Bacon. She and her sisters were famous as a family of accomplished classical scholars. She had a thorough knowledge of Greek and Latin. An Apologie ... in defence of the Churche of England by Dr. Jewel, Bishop of Salisbury, was translated by her from the Latin and published in 1564. Sir Anthony had been exiled during Mary's reign, for his adherence to the Protestant faith. His daughter, Anne, inherited, not only his classical accomplishments, but his strong Puritan faith and his hatred of Popery. Francis Bacon describes her as "A Saint of God." There is a portrait of her painted by Nathaniel Bacon, her stepson, in which she appears standing in her pantry habited as a cook. In feature Francis appears to have resembled his mother. He "had the same pouting lip, the same round head, the same straight nose and Hebe chin."

Chapter III.
FRANCIS BACON, 1560 TO 1572.

In the registry of St. Martin's will be found this entry: Mr. Franciscus Bacon 1560 Jan 25 (filius D'm Nicho Bacon Magni Angliæ sigilli custodis)." Rawley in his "Life of the Honourable Author" says: "Francis Bacon, the glory of his age and nation, was born in York House or York Place, in the Strand, on the two and twentieth day of January in the year of our Lord 1560." He relates that "His first and childish years were not without some mark of eminency; at which time he was endued with that pregnancy and towardness of wit, as they were pressages of that deep and universal apprehension which was manifest in him afterward." "The Queen then delighted much to confer with him, and to prove him with questions unto whom he delivered himself with that gravity and maturity above his years that Her Majesty would often term him 'Her young Lord Keeper.' Being asked by the Queen how old he was he answered with much discretion, being then but a boy[5] that he was two years younger than Her Majesty's happy reign, with which answer the queen was much taken." In the "Lives of the Statesmen and Favourites of Queen Elizabeth" there is reference to the early development of his mental and intellectual faculties. The author writes:—"He had a large mind from his Father and great abilities from his Mother; His parts improved more than his years, his great fixed and methodical memory, his solide judgement, his quick fancy, his ready expression, gave assurance of that profound and universal comprehension of things which then rendered him the observation of great and wise men; and afterwards the wonder of all." The historian continues:—"He never saw anything that was not noble and becoming," "at twelve his industry was above the capacity and his minde beyond the reache of his contemporaries."

This boy so marvellously endowed was brought up in surroundings which were ideal for his development. His father, a man of erudition, a wit and orator, occupying one of the highest positions in the country, his mother a lady of great classical accomplishments, who had enjoyed the benefits of an education and training by her father, that eminent scholar, Sir Anthony Cooke, and, lastly, there was this man—his grandfather—living within riding distance from his home. It seems inevitable that the natural powers of young Francis must have excited a keen interest in the old tutor of Edward VI., who had devoted his evenings to imparting to his daughters what he had taught the Prince during the day, so that if he left behind him no heirs of his body, he might leave heirs of his mind. The boy Francis was, indeed, a worthy heir of his mind, and it is impossible to believe otherwise than that Sir Anthony Cooke would throw himself heart and soul into the education of his grandchild, but no statement or tradition has come down to this effect. It may be, however, that a sentence which has already been quoted from "The Lives of Statesmen and Favourites" is intended to imply that Francis was the pupil of Sir Anthony: "He said first and his Grandchilde my Lord Bacon after him, That the Joys of Parents are Secrets, and so their Griefs and Fears.... Very providently did he secure his Eternity, by leaving the image of his nature in his Children and of his mind in his Pupil." The pupil referred to was not Edward VI., for he died twenty-three years before Sir Anthony, and he could not, therefore, have left the image of his mind in the young King. Following directly after the sentence "He said first and his Grandchilde Lord Bacon after him" it is possible that the reference may be to the boy Francis. Certainly Sir Anthony "would secure his eternity" if he left the image of his mind in his "Grandchilde." In any case the prodigious natural powers of the boy were placed in an environment well suited for their full development.

The historian says that "at twelve his industry was above the capacity and his mind beyond the reache of his Contemporaries." Who were the contemporaries alluded to? Those of his own age, or those who were living at the time? A boy of twelve, he excelled others in his great industry and the wide range of his mind. This industry appears to have accompanied him through life, for Rawley states that "he would ever interlace a moderate relaxation of his mind with his studies, as walking or taking the air abroad in his coach or some other befitting recreation; and yet he would lose no time, inasmuch as upon the first and immediate return he would fall to reading again, and so suffer no movement of time to slip from him without some present improvement." It is a remarkable fact on which too much stress cannot be laid that in the two Lives of Bacon, scanty as they are, by contemporary writers, his exceptional industry is pointed out. There are certainly no visible fruits of this industry.

Although there is no definite information as to what was the state of Francis Bacon's education at twelve, there is testimony as to that of some of his contemporaries. Three instances will suffice.

Philip Melancthon (whose family name was Schwartzerd) was born in 1497. His education was at an early age directed by his maternal grandfather, John Reuter. After a short stay at a public school at Bretten he was removed to the academy at Pforzheim. Here, under the tutorship of John Reuchlin, an elegant scholar and teacher of languages, he acquired the taste for Greek literature in which he subsequently became so distinguished. Here his genius for composition asserted itself. Amongst other poetical essays in which he indulged when eleven years of age, he wrote a humorous piece in the form of a comedy, which he dedicated to his kind friend and instructor, Reuchlin, in whose presence it was performed by the schoolfellows of the youthful author. After a residence of two years at Pforzheim, Philip matriculated at the University of Heidelberg on the 13th October, 1509, being eleven years and nine months old. Young as he was, he appears to have been employed to compose most of the harangues that were delivered in the University, besides writing some pieces for the professors themselves. Here, at this early age, he composed his "Rudiments of the Greek Language," which were afterwards published.

Agrippa d'Aubigné was born in 1550 and died in 1630. At six years of age he read Latin, Greek, and Hebrew. When ten years he translated the Crito. Italian and Spanish were at his command.

Thomas Bodley was born in 1544 and died in 1612. In the short autobiography which he left he makes the following statement as to how far his education had advanced when his father decided to fix his abode in the city of Geneva in 1556:—

"I was at that time of twelve yeares age but through my fathers cost and care sufficiently instructed to become an auditour of Chevalerius in Hebrew, of Berealdus in Greeke, of Calvin and Beza in Divinity and of some other Professours in that University, (which was newly there erected) besides my domesticall teachers, in the house of Philibertus Saracenus, a famous Physitian in that City with whom I was boarded; when Robertus Constantinus that made the Greek Lexicon read Homer with me."

Bodley was undoubtedly proficient in French, for Calvin and Beza lectured in French. The "Institution of the Christian Religion," Calvin's greatest work, although published in Latin in 1536, was translated by him into French, and issued in 1540 or 1541. This translation is one of the finest examples of French prose. Bodley's English was probably very poor, and for a very good reason—there was no English language worthy of comparison with the languages of France, Italy, or Spain. It had yet to be created.

It is fair to assume that at twelve years of age Francis Bacon was as proficient in languages as were Philip Melancthon, Agrippa d'Aubigné, or Thomas Bodley at that age. He, therefore, had at least a good knowledge of Latin, Greek, Hebrew, French, and such English as there was.

Another class of evidence is now available. It has already been stated that a large number of Bacon's books have been recovered, copiously annotated by him. Some of these books bear the date when the annotations were made. For the most part the marginal notes appear to be aids to memory, but in many cases they are critical observations of the text. These are, however, dealt with in a subsequent chapter.

Gilbert Wats, in dedicating to Charles I. his interpretation of "The Advancement of Proficiency of Learning" (1640), makes a statement which throws light on the course of Bacon's studies, and this strongly supports the present contention. He says:—

"He (Bacon) after he had survaied all the Records of Antiquity, after the volume of men, betook himselfe to the study of the volume of the world; and having conquerd whatever books possest, set upon the Kingdome of Nature and carried that victory very farre."

Speaking of him as a boy his biographer[6] describes his memory as "fixed and methodical," and in another place he says "His judgment was solid yet his memory was a wonder."

The extent of his reading at this time had been very wide. He had already taken all knowledge to be his province, and was with that industry which was beyond the capacity of his contemporaries rapidly laying the foundations which subsequently justified this claim.

Chapter IV.
AT CAMBRIDGE.

Francis Bacon went to reside at Trinity College, Cambridge, in April, 1573, being 12 years and 3 months of age. While the plague raged he was absent from the end of August, 1574, until the beginning of March following. He finally left the University at Christmas, 1575, about one month before his fifteenth birthday.

Rawley says he was there educated and bred under the tuition of Dr. John Whitgift,[7] then master of the College, afterwards the renowned Archbishop of Canterbury, a prelate of the first magnitude for sanctity, learning, patience, and humility; under whom he was observed to have been more than an ordinary proficient in the several arts and sciences.

Amboise, in the "Discours sur la vie de M. Bacon," prefixed to the "Histoire Naturelle," Paris, 1631, says: "Le jugement et la mémoire ne furent jamais en aucun home au degrè qu'ils estoient en celuy-cy; de sorte qu'en bien peu de temps il se rendit fort habile en toutes les sciences qui s'apprennent au Collège. Et quoi que deslors il fust jugé capable des charges les plas importantes, nean-moins pour ne tomber dedans la mesme faute que sont d'ordinaire les jeunes gens de son estoffe, qui par une ambition trop précipitée portent souvent au maniement des grandes affaires un esprit encore tout rempli des crudités de l'escole, Monsieur Bacon se voulut acquérir cette science, qui rendit autres-fois Ulysse si recommandable et luy fit mériter le nom de sage, par la connoissance des mœurs de tant de nations diverses." That is all that can be said about his career at Cambridge except that Rawley adds:

"Whilst he was commorant in the University, about sixteen years of age (as his lordship hath been pleased to impart unto myself), he first fell into the dislike of the philosophy of Aristotle; not for the worthlessness of the author, to whom he would ever ascribe all high attributes, but for the unfruitfulness of the way; being a philosophy (as his lordship used to say) only strong for disputations and contentions, but barren of the production of works for the benefit of the life of man; in which mind he continued to his dying day."

As Bacon left Cambridge at Christmas, 1575, before he was 15 years of age, Rawley's recollection must have been at fault when he mentions the age of 16 as that when Bacon formed this opinion.

There is another account of this incident in which it is stated that Francis Bacon left Cambridge without taking a degree as a protest against the manner in which philosophy was taught there. In the preface to the "Great Instauration" Bacon repeats his protest: "And for its value and utility, it must be plainly avowed that that wisdom which we have derived principally from the Greeks is but like the boyhood of knowledge and has the characteristic property of boys: it can talk but it cannot generate: for it is fruitful of controversies but barren of works."

This is merely a re-statement of the position he took up when at Cambridge. So this boy set up his opinion against that of the recognised professors of philosophy of his day, against the whole authority of the staff of the University, on a fundamental point on the most important question which could be raised as to the pursuit of knowledge. It is not too much to say that he had at this time covered the whole field of knowledge in a manner more thorough than it had ever been covered before, and with his mind, which was beyond the reach of his contemporaries, he began to lay down those laws which revolutionised all thought and have become the accepted method by which the pursuit of knowledge is followed.

It is necessary again to seek for parallels to justify the position which will be claimed for Francis Bacon at this period.

Philip Melancthon affords one and James Crichton another. At Heidelberg Melancthon remained three years. He left when he was 15, the principal cause of his leaving being disappointment at being refused a higher degree in the University solely, it is alleged, on account of his youth. In September, 1512, he was entered at the University of Tubingen, where, in the following year, before he was 17 years of age, he was created Doctor in Philosophy or Master of Arts. He then commenced a course of public lectures, embracing an extraordinary variety of subjects, including the learned languages, rhetoric, logic, ethics, mathematics, and theology. Here in 1516 he put forth his revision of the text of Terence. Besides he entered into an undertaking with Thomas Anshelmus to revise all the books printed by him. He bestowed great labour on a large work in folio by Nauclerus, which he appears to have almost entirely re-written.

So much romance has been thrown around James Crichton that it is difficult to obtain the real facts of his life. Sir Thomas Urquhart, in "Discovery of a Most Exquisite Jewel," published in 1652, gives a biography which is, without doubt, mainly apocryphal. Certain facts, however, are well established. He was born in the same year as was Bacon (1560). At 10 years of age he entered St. Andrew's University, and in 1575 (the year Bacon left Cambridge) took his degree, coming out third in the first class. In 1576 he went to France, as did Bacon—to Paris. In the College of Navarre he issued a universal challenge. This he subsequently repeated at Venice with equal success; that is, to all men, upon all things, in any of twelve languages named. The challenge is broad and formal. He pledged himself to review the schoolmen, allowed his opponents the privilege of selecting their topics—mathematics, no less than scholastic lore—either from branches publicly or privately taught, and promised to return answers in logical figure or in numbers estimated according to their occult power, or in any of a hundred sorts of verse. He is said to have justified before many competent witnesses his magnificent pretensions.

What Philip Melancthon was at fifteen, what James Crichton was at sixteen, Francis Bacon may have been. All the testimony which his contemporaries afford, especially having regard to his after life, justify the assertion that in knowledge and acquirements he was at least their equal.

About eighteen months later his portrait was painted by Hilliard, the Court miniature painter, who inscribed around it, as James Spedding says, the significant words—the natural ejaculation, we may presume, of the artist's own emotion—"Si tabula daretur digna animum mallem." If one could only find materials worthy to paint his mind.

Chapter V.
EARLY COMPOSITIONS.

It is at this stage that the mystery of Francis Bacon begins to develop. Every channel through which information might be expected appears to be blocked. Besides a few pamphlets, in the production of which little time would be occupied, there came nothing from his pen until 1597 when, at the age of 37, the first edition of the essays was published—only ten short essays containing less than 6,000 words. In 1605, when 45, he addressed to James I. the "Two Books on the Advancement of Learning," containing less than 60,000 words. It would require no effort on Bacon's part to write either of these volumes. He could turn out the "Two Books of the Advancement of Learning" with the same facility that a leader writer of the Times would write his daily articles. He was to all intents and purposes unoccupied. Until 1594 he had not held a brief, and he never had any practice at the Bar worth considering. He was a member of Parliament, but the House seldom sat, and never for long periods. Bacon's life is absolutely unaccounted for. It is now proposed, by the aid of the literature of the period from 1576 to 1620, and with the help of information derived from his own handwriting, to trace, step by step, the results of his industry, and to supply the reason for the concealment which he pursued.

There is an entry in the Book of Orders of Gray's Inn under date 21st November, 1577, that Anthony and Francis Bacon (who had been admitted members 27th June, 1576, "de societate magistrorum") be admitted to the Grand Company, i.e., to the Degree of Ancients, a privilege to which they were entitled as sons of a judge. From a letter subsequently written by Burghley, it is known that one Barker was appointed as their tutor of Law. Apparently it was intended that they should settle down to a course of legal training, but this plan was abandoned, at any rate, as far as Francis was concerned. Sir Amias Paulet, who was Chancellor of the Garter, a Privy Counsellor, and held in high esteem by the Queen,[8] was about to proceed to Paris to take the place of Dr. Dale as Ambassador at the Court of France. There is a letter written from Calais, dated 25th September, 1576, from Sir Amias to Lord Burghley, in which this paragraph appears: "My ordinary train is no greater than of necessity, being augmented by some young gentlemen, whereof one is Sir Nicholas Throgmorton's son, who was recommended to me by her Majesty, and, therefore, I could not refuse him. The others are so dear to me and the most part of them of such towardness, as my good hope of their doing well, and thereafter they will be able to serve their Prince and country, persuades me to make so much to excuse my folly as to entreat you to use your favour in my allowance for my transportations, my charges being increased by these extraordinary occasions."

Francis Bacon was one of this group of young gentlemen. Rawley states that "after he had passed the circle of the liberal arts, his father thought fit to frame and mould him for the arts of state; and for that end sent him over into France with Sir Amyas Paulet then employed Ambassador lieger into France."

There are grounds for believing that Bacon's literary activity had commenced before he left England. There is abundant evidence to prove that it was the custom at this period for authors who desired to conceal their authorship to substitute for their own names, initials or the names of others on the title-pages. Two instances will suffice: "The Arte of English Poesie" was published in 1589, but written several years previously. The author says:—"I know very many notable Gentlemen in the Court that have written commendably, and suppressed it agayne, or els suffred it to be publisht without their owne names to it as if it were a discredit for a Gentleman to seeme learned, and to shew himself amorous of any learned Art." There is a bare-faced avowal of how names were placed on title-pages in a letter which exists from Henry Cuffe to Mr. Reynolds. Cuffe, an Oxford scholar of distinction, was a close companion and confidant of Essex. After the capture and sacking of Cadiz by Essex and Howard, the former deemed it important that his version of the affair should be the first to be published in England. Cuffe, therefore, started off post haste with the manuscript, but was taken ill on his arrival at Portsmouth, and could not proceed. He despatched the manuscript by a messenger with a letter to "Good Mr. Reynoldes," who was a private Secretary of Essex. He was to cause a transcript to be made and have it delivered to some good printer, in good characters and with diligence to publish it. Reynoldes was to confer with Mr. Greville (Fulke Greville, afterwards Lord Brooke) "whether he can be contented to suffer the two first letters of his name to be used in the inscription." "If he be unwilling," adds Cuffe, "you may put R.B. which some no doubt will interprete to be Beale, but it skills not." That this was a common practice is admitted by those acquainted with Elizabethan literature. If any of Bacon's writings were published prior to the trifle which appeared in 1597 as Essaies, his name was suppressed, and it would be probable some other name would appear on the title-page. There is a translation of a classical author, bearing date 1572, which is in the Baconian style, but which need not be claimed for him without further investigation.

The following suggestion is put forward with all diffidence, but after long and careful investigation. Francis Bacon was the author of two books which were published, one before he left England, and the other shortly after. The first is a philosophical discourse entitled "The Anatomie of the Minde." Newlie made and set forth by T.R. Imprinted at London by I.C. for Andrew Maunsell, 1576, 12mo. The dedication is addressed to Master Christopher Hatton, and the name of Tho. Rogers is attached to it. There was a Thomas Rogers who was Chaplain to Archbishop Bancroft, and the book has been attributed to him, apparently only because no other of the same name was known. There was published in 1577 a translation by Rogers of a Latin book "Of the Ende of the World, etc." and there are other translations by him published between then and 1628. There are several sermons, also, but the style of these, the matter, and the manner of treatment are quite distinct from those of the book under consideration. There is nothing of his which would support the assignment to him of "The Anatomie of the Mind." It is foreign to his style.

Having regard to the acknowledged custom of the times of putting names other than the author's on title-pages, there is no need for any apology for expressing doubt as to whether the book has been correctly placed to the credit of the Bishop Bancroft's chaplain. In the address To the Reader the author says: "I dyd once for my profite in the Universitie, draw into Latin tables, which since for thy profite (Christian Reader) at the request of a gentleman of good credite and worship, I have Englished and published in these two books." There is in existence a copy of the book with the printer's and other errors corrected in Bacon's own handwriting.

Bearing date 1577, imprinted at London for Henri Cockyn, is an octavo book styled, "Beautiful Blossoms" gathered by John Byshop from the best trees of all kyndes, Divine, Philosophicall, Astronomicall, Cosmographical, Historical and Humane that are growing in Greece, Latium, and Arabia, and some also in vulgar orchards as wel fro these that in auncient time were grafted, as also from them which with skilful head and hand beene of late yeare's, yea, and in our dayes planted: to the unspeakable, both pleasure and profite of all such as wil vouchsafe to use them. On the title-page are the words, "The First Tome," but no further volume was published. As to who or what John Byshop was there is no information available. His name appears on no other book. The preface is a gem of musical sounding words. It contains the sentence, "let them pass it over and read the rest which are all as plaine as Dunstable Way." Bacon's home was within a few miles of Dunstable Way, which was the local term for the main road.

It is impracticable here to give at length the grounds upon which it is believed that Francis Bacon was the author of these two books. Each of them is an outpouring of classical lore, and is evidently written by some young man who had recently assimilated the writings of nearly every classical author. In this respect both correspond with the manner of "The French Academie," to which the attention of the reader will shortly be directed, whilst in "The Anatomie of the Minde" the treatment of the subject is identical with that in the latter. Failing actual proof, the circumstantial evidence that the two books are from the same pen is almost as strong as need be.

Some time in October, 1576, Sir Amyas Paulet would reach Paris, accompanied by Bacon. The only fragment of information which is given by his biographers of any occurrence during his stay there is obtained from Rawley. He states that "Sir Amias Paulet after a while held him fit to be entrusted with some message, or advertisement to the Queen, which having performed with great approbation, he returned back into France again with intention to continue for some years there." In his absence in France, his father, the Lord Keeper, died. This was in February, 1578-9. If he returned shortly after news of his father's death reached him, his stay on the Continent would cover about two and a-half years. As to what he was doing nothing is known, but Pierre Amboise states that "France, Italy, and Spain as the most civilised nations of the whole world were those whither his desire for Knowledge carried him."

Chapter VI.
BACON'S "TEMPORIS PARTUS MAXIMUS."

Francis Bacon was at Blois with Sir Amias Paulet in 1577. In the same year was published the first edition of the first part of "Académie Francoise par Pierre de la Primaudaye Esceuyer, Seignor dudict lieu et de la Barrée, Gentilhomme ordinaire de la chambre du Roy." The dedication, dated February, 1577 (i.e., 1578) is addressed, "Au Tres-chrestien Roy de France et de Polongne Henry III. de ce nom." The first English translation, by T. B., was "published in 1586[9], imprinted at London by Edmund Bollifant for G. Bishop and Ralph Newbery." Other parts of "The Academy" followed at intervals of years, but the first and only complete edition in English bears date 1618, and was printed for Thomas Adams. Over the dedication is the well-known archer emblem. It is a thick folio volume, with 1,038 pages double columns. It may be termed the first Encyclopædia which appeared in any language, and is, perhaps, one of the most remarkable productions of the Elizabethan era. Little is known of Pierre de la Primaudaye. The particulars for his biography in the "Biographie Nationale" seem to have been taken from references made to the author in the "French Académie" itself. In the French Edition, 1580, there is a portrait of a man, and under it the words "Anag. de L'auth. Par la prierè Dieu m'ayde." The following is an extract from the dedication:—

"The dinner of that prince of famous memorie, was a second table of Salomon, vnto which resorted from euerie nation such as were best learned, that they might reape profit and instruction. Yours, Sir, being compassed about with those, who in your presence daily discourse of, and heare discoursed many graue and goodly matters, seemeth to be a schoole erected to teach men that are borne to vertue. And for myselfe, hauing so good hap during the assemblie of your Estates at Blois, as to be made partaker of the fruit gathered thereof, it came in my mind to offer vnto your Maiestie a dish of diuers fruits, which I gathered in a Platonicall garden or orchard, otherwise called an Academie, where I was not long since with certaine yoong Gentlemen of Aniou my companions, discoursing togither of the institution in good maners, and of the means how all estates and conditions may liue well and happily. And although a thousand thoughts came then into my mind to hinder my purpose, as the small authoritie, which youth may or ought to haue in counsell amongst ancient men: the greatnes of the matter subject, propounded to be handled by yeeres of so small experience; the forgetfulness of the best foundations of their discourses, which for want of a rich and happie memorie might be in me: my iudgement not sound ynough, and my profession vnfit to set them downe in good order: briefly, the consideration of your naturall disposition and rare vertue, and of the learning which you receiuve both by reading good authors, and by your familiar communication with learned and great personages that are neere about your Maiestie (whereby I seemed to oppose the light of an obscure day, full of clouds and darkness, to the bright beames of a very cleere shining sonne, and to take in hand, as we say, to teach Minerua). I say all these reasons being but of too great weight to make me change my opinion, yet calling to mind manie goodlie and graue sentences taken out of sundry Greeke and Latine Philosophers, as also the woorthie examples of the liues of ancient Sages and famous men, wherewith these discourses were inriched, which might in delighting your noble mind renew your memorie with those notable sayings in the praise of vertue and dispraise of vice, which you alwaies loued to heare: and considering also that the bounty of Artaxerxes that great Monarke of the Persians was reuiued in you, who receiued with a cheerfull countenance a present of water of a poore laborer, when he had no need of it, thinking to be as great an act of magnanimitie to take in good part, and to receiue cheerfully small presents offered with a hartie and good affection, as to giue great things liberally, I ouercame whatsoeuer would haue staied me in mine enterprise."

It appears, therefore, that the author by good hap was a visitor at the Court of Henry III. when at Blois; that he was there studying with certain young gentlemen of Anjou, his companions; that he was a youth, and of years of small experience; that his memory might not be sufficiently rich and happy, his judgment not enough, and his profession unfit in recording the discourses of himself and his companions.

"The Author to the Reader" is an essay on Philosophy, every sentence in which seems to have the same familiar sound as essays which subsequently appeared under another name. The contents of the several chapters are enumerated thus: "Of Man," "Of the Body and Soule," etc.

The first chapter contains a description of how the "Academie" came about. An ancient wise gentleman of great calling having spent the greater part of his years in the service of two kings, and of his country, France, for many and good causes had withdrawn himself to his house. He thought that to content his mind, which always delighted in honest and vertuous things, he could not bring greater profit to the Monarchie of France, than to lay open and preserve and keep youth from the corruption which resulted from the over great license and excessive liberty granted to them in the Universities. He took unto his house four young gentlemen, with the consent of their parents who were distinguished noblemen. After he had shown these young men the first grounds of true wisdom, and of all necessary things for their salvation, he brought into his house a tutor of great learning and well reported of his good life and conversation, to whom he committed their instruction. After teaching them the Latin tongue and some smattering of Greek he propounded for their chief studies the moral philosophy of ancient sages and wise men, together with the understanding and searching out of histories which are the light of life. The four fathers, desiring to see what progress their sons had made, decided to visit them. And because they had small skill in the Latin tongue, they determined to have their children discourse in their own natural tongue of all matters that might serve for the instruction and reformation of every estate and calling, in such order and method as they and their master might think best. It was arranged that they should meet in a walking place covered over with a goodly green arbour, and daily, except Sundays, for three weeks, devote two hours in the morning and two hours after dinner to these discourses, the fathers being in attendance to listen to their sons. So interesting did these discussions become that the period was often extended to three or four hours, and the young men were so intent upon preparation for them that they would not only bestow the rest of the days, but oftentimes the whole night, upon the well studying of that which they proposed to handle. The author goes on to say:—"During which time it was my good hap to be one of the companie when they began their discourses, at which I so greatly wondered that I thought them worthy to be published abroad." From this it would appear that the author was a visitor, privileged, with the four fathers and the master, to listen to the discourses of these four young men. But, a little further on the position is changed; one of the four young men is, without any explanation, ignored, and his father disappointed! For the author takes his place, as will be seen from the following extract:—

"And thus all fower of us followed the same order daily until everie one in his course had intreated according to appointment, both by the precepts of doctrine, as also by the examples of the lives of ancient Sages and famous men, of all things necessary for the institution of manners and happie life of all estates and callings in this French Monarchie. But because I knowe not whether, in naming my companions by their proper names, supposing thereby to honour them as indeede they deserve it, I should displease them (which thing I would not so much as thinke) I have determined to do as they that play on a Theater, who under borrowed maskes and disguised apparell, do represent the true personages of those whom they have undertaken to bring on the stage. I will therefore call them by names very agreeable to their skill and nature: the first Aser which signifieth Felicity: the second Amana which is as much to say as Truth: the third Aram which noteth to us Highness; and to agree with them as well in name as in education and behaviour. I will name myself Achitob[10] which is all one with Brother of goodness. Further more I will call and honour the proceeding and finishing of our sundry treatises and discourses with this goodlie and excellent title of Academie, which was the ancient and renowned school amongst the Greek Philosophers, who were the first that were esteemed, and that the place where Plato, Xenophon, Poleman, Xenocrates, and many other excellent personages, afterward called Academicks, did propound & discourse of all things meet for the instruction and teaching of wisdome: wherein we purposed to followe them to our power, as the sequele of our discourses shall make good proofe."

And then the discourses commence.

"Love's Labour's Lost" was published in 1598, and was the first quarto upon which the name of Shakespeare was printed. The title-page states that it is "newly corrected and augmented," from which it may be inferred that there was a previous edition, but no copy of such is known. The commentators are in practical agreement that it was probably the first play written by the dramatist.

There are differences of opinion as to the probable date when it was written. Richard Grant White believes this to be not later than 1588, Knight gives 1589, but all this is conjecture.

The play opens with a speech by Ferdinand:—

"Let Fame that all hunt after in their lives,
Live registred upon our brazen Tombes,
And then grace us, in the disgrace of death:
When spight of cormorant devouring time,
Th' endevour of this present breath may buy:
That honour which shall bate his sythes keene edge,
And make us heyres of all eternitie.
Therefore brave Conquerours, for so you are,
That warre against your own affections,
And the huge Armie of the worlds desires.
Our late Edict shall strongly stand in force,
Navar shall be the wonder of the world.
Our Court shall be a little Achademe,
Still and contemplative in living Art.
You three, Berowne, Doumaine, and Longavill,
Have sworne for three yeeres terme, to live with me,
My fellow Schollers, and to keepe those statutes
That are recorded in this schedule heere.
Your oathes are past, and now subscribe your names;
That his owne hand may strike his honour downe,
That violates the smallest branch heerein:
If you are arm'd to doe, as sworne to do,
Subscribe to your deepe oathes, and keepe it to."

Four young men in the French "Academie" associated together, as in "Love's Labour Lost," to war against their own affections and the whole army of the world's desires. Dumaine, in giving his acquiescence to Ferdinand, ends:—

"To love, to wealth, to pompe, I pine and die
With all these living in Philosophie."

Philosophie was the subject of study of the four young men to the "Academie."

Berowne was a visitor, for he says:—

"I only swore to study with your grace
And stay heere in your Court for three yeeres' space."

Upon his demurring to subscribe to the oath as drawn, Ferdinand retorts:—

Well, sit you out: go home, Berowne: adue."

To which Berowne replies:—

No, my good lord; I have sworn to stay with you."

Achitob was a visitor at the Academie in France. There are other points of resemblance, but sufficient has been said to warrant consideration of the suggestion that the French "Academie" contains the serious studies of the four young men whose experiences form the subject of the play.

The parallels between passages in the Shakespeare plays and the French "Academie" are numerous, but they form no part of the present contention.

One of these may, however, be mentioned. In the third Tome the following passage occurs[11]:—

Psal. xix.: "It is not without cause that the Prophet said (The heavens declare the glory of God, and the earth sheweth the workes of his handes) For thereby he evidently teacheth, as with the finger even to our eies, the great and admirable providence of God their Creator; even as if the heavens should speake to anyone. In another place it is written (Eccles. xliii.): (This high ornament, this cleere firmament, the beauty of the heaven so glorious to behold, tis a thing full of Majesty)."

On turning to the revised version of the Bible it will be found that the first verse is thus translated: "The pride of the height, the cleare firmament the beauty of heaven with his glorious shew." The rendering of the text in "The French Academy" is strongly suggestive of Hamlet's famous soliloquy. "This most excellent canopy, this brave o'erhanging firmament, this majestical roof fritted with golden fire, why it appears to me no other than a foul and pestilent congregation of vapours." The author has forsaken the common-place rendering of the Apocrypha, and has adopted the same declamatory style which Shakespeare uses. It is strongly reminiscent of Hamlet's famous speech, Act II., scene ii.

Only one of the Shakespeare commentators makes any reference to the work. The Rev. Joseph Hunter, writing in 1844, points out that the dramatist in "As You Like It," describing the seven ages of man, follows the division made in the chapter on "The Ages of Man" in the "Academie."[12]

The suggestion now made is that the French "Academie" was written by Bacon, who is represented in the dialogues as Achitob—the first part when he was about 18 years of age, that he continued it until, in 1618, the complete work was published. In the dedication the author describes himself as a youth of immature experience, but the contents bear evidence of a wide knowledge of classical authors and their works, a close acquaintance with the ancient philosophies, and a store of general information which it would be impossible for any ordinary youth of such an age to possess. But was not the boy who at 15 years of age left Cambridge disagreeing with the teaching there of Aristotle's philosophy, and whose mental qualities and acquirements provoked as "the natural ejaculation of the artist's emotion" the significant words, "Si tabula daretur digna animum mallem," altogether abnormal?

Was the "French Academie" Bacon's temporis partus maximus? It is only in a letter written to Father Fulgentio about 1625 that this work is heard of. Bacon writes: "Equidem memini me, quadraginta abhinc annis, juvenile opusculum circa has res confecisse, quod magna prorsus fiducia et magnifico titulo 'Temporis Partum Maximum' inscripsi."[13]

Spedding says: "This was probably the work of which Henry Cuffe (the great Oxford scholar who was executed in 1601 as one of the chief accomplices in the Earl of Essex's treason) was speaking when he said that 'a fool could not have written it and a wise man would not.' Bacon's intimacy with Essex had begun about thirty-five years before this letter was written."

Forty years from 1625 would carry back to 1585, the year preceding the date of publication of the first edition in English. If Cuffe's remark was intended to apply to the "French Academy," it is just such a criticism as the book might be expected to provoke.

The first edition of "The French Academie" in English appeared in 1586, the second in 1589, the third (two parts) in 1594, the fourth (three parts) in 1602, the fifth in 1614 (all quartos), then, in 1618, the large folio edition containing the fourth part "never before published in English." It appears to have been more popular in England than it was in France. Brunet in his 1838 edition mentions neither the book nor the author, Primaudaye. The question as to whether there was at this time a reading public in England sufficiently wide to absorb an edition in numbers large enough to make the publication of this and similar works possible at a profit will be dealt with hereafter. In anticipation it may be said that the balance of probabilities justifies the conjecture that the issue of each of these editions involved someone in loss, and the folio edition involved considerable loss.

A comparison between the French and English publications points to both having been written by an author who was a master of each language rather than that the latter was a mere translation of the former. The version is so natural in idiom and style that it appears to be an original rather than a translation. In 1586 how many men were there who could write such English? The marginal notes are in the exact style of Bacon. "A similitude"—"A notable comparison"—occur frequently just as the writer finds them again and again in Bacon's handwriting in volumes which he possesses. The book abounds in statements, phrases, and quotations which are to be found in Bacon's letters and works.

One significant fact must be mentioned. The first letter of the text in the dedication in the first English translation is the letter S. It is printed from a wood block (Fig. I.). Thirty-nine years after (in 1625) when the last edition of Bacon's Essays—and, with the exception of the small pamphlet containing his versification of certain Psalms, the last publication during his life—was printed, that identical wood block (Fig. II.) was again used to print the first letter in the dedication of that book. Every defect and peculiarity in the one will be found in the other. A search through many hundreds of books printed during these thirty-nine years—1586 to 1625—has failed to find it used elsewhere, except on one occasion, either then, before, or since.

Fig. I.

The first letter in the text of the dedication of the 1st edition of the English translation of the "French Academie," 1586. Printed at London by G. Bollifant. The block is also used in a similar manner in the 2nd edition, 1589. Londini Impensis, John Bishop.

Fig. II.

The first letter in the text of the dedication of the 1625 edition of Bacon's Essays, printed in London, by John Haviland.

Both letters were printed from the same block.

Did Bacon mark his first work on philosophy and his last book by printing the first letter in each from the same block?[14]

Chapter VII.
BACON'S FIRST ALLEGORICAL ROMANCE.

There is another work which it is impossible not to associate with this period, and that is John Barclay's "Argenis." It is little better known than is "The French Academy," and yet Cowper pronounced it the most amusing romance ever written. Cardinal Richelieu is said to have been extremely fond of reading it, and to have derived thence many of his political maxims. It is an allegorical novel. It is proposed now only to mention some evidence connected with the "Argenis" which supports the contention that the 1625 English edition contains the original composition, and that its author was young Francis Bacon.

The first edition of the "Argenis" in Latin was published in 1621. The authority to the publisher, Nicholas Buon, to print and sell the "Argenis" is dated the 21st July, 1621, and was signed by Barclay at Rome. The Royal authority is dated on the 31st August following.

Barclay's death took place between these dates, on the 12th of August, at Rome. It is reported that the cause of death was stone, but in an appreciation of him, published by his friend, Ralph Thorie, his death is attributed to poison.

The work is an example of the highest type of Latinity. So impressed was Cowper with its style that he stated that it would not have dishonoured Tacitus himself. A translation in Spanish was published in 1624, and in Italian in 1629. The Latin version was frequently reprinted during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries—perhaps more frequently than any other book.

In a letter dated 11th May, 1622, Chamberlain, writing to Carleton, says: "The King has ordered Ben Jonson to translate the 'Argenis,' but he will not be able to equal the original." On the 2nd October, 1623, Ben Jonson entered a translation in Stationers' Hall, but it was never published. About that time there was a fire in Jonson's house, in which it is said some manuscripts were destroyed; but it is a pure assumption that the "Argenis" was one of these.

In 1629 an English translation appeared by Sir Robert Le Grys, Knight, and the verses by Thomas May, Esquire. The title-page bears the statement: "The prose upon his Majesty's command." There is a Clavis appended, also stated to be "published at his Majesties command." It was printed by Felix Kyngston for Richard Mughten and Henry Seile. In the address to "The understanding Reader" Le Grys says, "What then should I say? Except it were to entreate thee, that where my English phrase doth not please thee, thou wilt compare it with the originall Latin and mend it. Which I doe not speak as thinking it impossible, but as willing to have it done, for the saving me a labour, who, if his Majesty had not so much hastened the publishing it, would have reformed some things in it, that did not give myselfe very full satisfaction."

In 1622 King James ordered a translation of the "Argenis." In 1629[15] Charles I. was so impatient to have a translation that he hastened the publication, thus preventing the translator from revising his work. Three years previously, however, in 1625—if the date may be relied on—there was published as printed by G. P. for Henry Seile a translation by Kingesmill Long. James died on the 25th March, 1625. The "Argenis" may not have been published in his lifetime; but if the date be correct, three or four years before Charles hastened the publication of Le Grys's translation, this far superior one with Kingesmill Long's name attached to it could have been obtained from H. Seile. Surely the publisher would have satisfied the King's impatience by supplying him with a copy of the 1625 edition had it been on sale. The publication of a translation of the "Argenis" must have attracted attention. Is it possible that it could have been in existence and not brought to the notice of the King? There is something here that requires explanation. The Epistle Dedicatorie of the 1625 edition is written in the familiar style of another pen, although it bears the name of Kingesmill Long. The title-page states that it is "faithfully translated out of Latine into English," but it is not directly in the Epistle Dedicatorie spoken of as a translation. The following extract implies that the work had been lying for years waiting publication:—

"This rude piece, such as it is, hath long lyen by me, since it was finished; I not thinking it worthy to see the light. I had always a desire and hope to have it undertaken by a more able workman, that our Nation might not be deprived of the use of so excellent a Story: But finding none in so long time to have done it; and knowing that it spake not English, though it were a rich jewell to the learned Linguist, yet it was close lockt from all those, to whom education had not given more languages, than Nature Tongues: I have adventured to become the key to this piece of hidden Treasure, and have suffered myselfe to be overruled by some of my worthy friends, whose judgements I have alwayes esteemed, sending it abroad (though coursely done) for the delight and use of others."

Not a word about the author! The translations, said to be by Thomas May, of the Latin verses in the 1629 are identical with those in the 1625 edition, although Kingesmill Long, on the title-page, appears as the translator. Nothing can be learnt as to who or what Long was.

Over lines "Authori," signed Ovv: Fell:[16] in the 1625 edition is one of the well-known light and dark A devices. This work is written in flowing and majestic English; the 1629 edition in the cramped style of translation.

The copy bearing date 1628, to which reference has been made, belonged to John Henry Shorthouse. He has made this note on the front page: "Jno. Barclay's description of himself under the person of Nicopompus Argenis, p. 60." This is the description to which he alludes:—

"Him thus boldly talking, Nicopompus could no longer endure: he was a man who from his infancy loved Learning; but who disdaining to be nothing but a booke-man had left the schooles very young, that in the courts of Kings and Princes, he might serve his apprenticeship in publicke affairs; so he grew there with an equall abilitie, both in learning and imployment, his descent and disposition fitting him for that kind of life: wel esteemed of many Princes, and especially of Meleander, whose cause together with the rest of the Princes, he had taken upon him to defend."

This description is inaccurate as applied to John Barclay, but in every detail it describes Francis Bacon.

A comparison has been made between the editions of 1625 and 1629 with the 1621 Latin edition. It leaves little room for doubting that the 1625 is the original work. Throughout the Latin appears to follow it rather than to be the leader; whilst the 1629 edition follows the Latin closely. In some cases the word used in the 1625 edition has been incorrectly translated into the 1621 edition, and the Latin word re-translated literally and incorrectly in view of the sense in the 1629 edition. But space forbids this comparison being further followed; suffice it to say that everything points to the 1625 edition being the original work.

As to the date of composition much may be said; but the present contention is that "The French Academie," "The Argenis," and "Love's Labour's Lost" are productions from the same pen, and that they all represent the work of Francis Bacon probably between the years 1577 and 1580. At any rate, the first-named was written whilst he was in France, and the others were founded on the incidents and experience obtained during his sojourn there.

Chapter VIII.
BACON IN FRANCE, 1576-1579.

This brilliant young scholar landed with Sir Amias Paulet at Calais on the 25th of September, 1576, and with him went straight to the Court of Henry III. of France. It is remarkable that neither Montagu, Spedding, Hepworth Dixon, nor any other biographer seems to have thought it worth while to consider under what influences he was brought when he arrived there at the most impressionable period of his life. Hepworth Dixon, without stating his authority, says that he "quits the galleries of the Louvre and St. Cloud with his morals pure," but nothing more. And yet Francis Bacon arrived in France at the most momentous epoch in the history of French literature. This boy, with his marvellous intellect—the same intellect which nearly half a century later produced the "Novum Organum"—with a memory saturated with the records of antiquity and with the writings of the classical authors, with an industry beyond the capacity and a mind beyond the reach of his contemporaries, skilled in the teachings of the philosophers, with independence of thought and a courage which enabled him to condemn the methods of study followed at the University where he had spent three years; this boy who had a "beam of knowledge derived from God" upon him, who "had not his knowledge from books, but from some grounds and notions from himself," and above and beyond all who was conscious of his powers and had unbounded confidence in his capacity for using them; this boy walked beside the English Ambassador elect into the highest circles of French Society at the time when the most important factors of influence were Ronsard and his confrères of the Pléiade. He had left behind him in his native country a language crude and almost barbaric, incapable of giving expression to the knowledge which he possessed and the thoughts which resulted therefrom.

At this time there were few books written in the English tongue which could make any pretence to be considered literature: Sir Thomas Eliot's "The Governor," Robert Ascham's "The Schoolmaster," and Thomas Wright's "Arts of Rhetoric," almost exhaust the list. Thynne's edition, 1532, and Lidgate's edition, 1561, of Chaucer's works are not intelligible. Only in the 1598 edition can the great poet be read with any understanding. The work of re-casting the poems for this edition was Bacon's, and he is the man referred to in the following lines, which are prefixed to it:—

The Reader to Geffrey Chaucer.

There is a catalogue of the library of Sir Thomas Smith[17] on August 1, 1566, in his gallery at Hillhall. It was said to contain nearly a thousand books. Of these only five were written in the English language. Under Theologici, K. Henry VIII. book; under Juris Civilis, Littleton's Tenures, an old abridgement of Statutes; under Historiographi, Hall's Chronicles, and Fabian's Chronicles and The Decades of P. Martyr; under Mathematica, The Art of Navigation. The remainder are in Greek, Latin, French, and Italian. Burghley's biographer states that Burghley "never read any books or praiers but in Latin, French, or Italian, very seldom in Englishe."

At this time Francis Bacon thought in Latin, for his mother tongue was wholly insufficient. There is abundant proof of this in his own handwriting. Under existing conditions there could be no English literature worthy of the name. If a Gentleman of the Court wrote he either suppressed his writings or suffered them to be published without his name to them, as it was a discredit for a gentleman to seem learned and to show himself amorous of any good art. Here is where Spedding missed his way and never recovered himself. Deep as is the debt of gratitude due to him for his devoted labours in the preparation of "Bacon's Life and Letters" and in the edition of his works, it must be asserted that he accomplished this work without seeing Francis Bacon. There was a vista before young Bacon's eyes from which the practice of the law and civil dignities were absent. He arrived at the French Court at the psychological moment when an object-lesson met his eyes which had a more far-reaching effect on the language and literature of the Anglo-Saxon race than any or all other influences that have conspired to raise them to the proud position which to-day they occupy. It is necessary briefly to explain the position of the French language and literature at this juncture.

The French Renaissance of literature had its beginning in the early years of the sixteenth century. It had been preceded by that of Italy, which opened in the fourteenth century, and reached its limit with Ariosto and Tasso, Macchiavelli and Guicciardini during the sixteenth century. Towards the end of the fifteenth century modern French poetry may be said to have had its origin in Villon and French prose in Comines. The style of the former was artificial and his poems abounded in recurrent rhymes and refrains. The latter had peculiarities of diction which were only compensated for by weight of thought and simplicity of expression. Clement Marot, who followed, stands out as one of the first landmarks in the French Renaissance. His graceful style, free from stiffness and monotony, earned for him a popularity which even the brilliancy of the Pléiade did not extinguish, for he continued to be read with genuine admiration for nearly two centuries. He was the founder of a school of which Mellia de St. Gelais, the introducer of the sonnet into France, was the most important member. Rabelais and his followers concurrently effected a complete revolution in fiction. Marguerite of Navarre, who is principally known as the author of "The Heptameron," maintained a literary Court in which the most celebrated men of the time held high place. It was not until the middle of the sixteenth century that the great movement took place in French literature which, if that which occurred in the same country three hundred years subsequently be excepted, is without parallel in literary history.

The Pléiade consisted of a group of seven men and boys who, animated by a sincere and intelligent love of their native language, banded themselves together to remodel it and its literary forms on the methods of the two great classical tongues, and to reinforce it with new words from them. They were not actuated by any desire for gain. In 1549 Jean Daurat, then 49 years of age, was professor of Greek at le Collège de Coqueret in Paris. Amongst those who attended his classes were five enthusiastic, ambitious youths whose ages varied from seventeen to twenty-four. They were Pierre de Ronsard, Joachim du Bellay, Remy Belleau, Antoine de Baïf, and Etienne Jodelle. They and their Professor associated themselves together and received as a colleague Pontus de Tyard, who was twenty-eight. They formed a band of seven renovators, to whom their countrymen applied the cognomen of the Pléiade, by which they will ever be known. Realising the defects and possibilities of their language, they recognised that by appropriations from the Greek and Latin languages, and from the melodious forms of the Italian poetry, they might reform its defects and develop its possibilities so completely that they could place at the service of great writers a vehicle for expression which would be the peer if not the superior of any language, classical or modern. It was a bold project for young men, some of whom were not out of their teens, to venture on. That they met with great success is beyond question; the extent of that success it is not necessary to discuss here. The main point to be emphasised is that it was a deliberate scheme, originated, directed, and matured by a group of little more than boys. The French Renaissance was not the result of a spontaneous bursting out on all sides of genius. It was wrought out with sheer hard work, entailing the mastering of foreign languages, and accompanied by devotion and without hope of pecuniary gain. The manifesto of the young band was written by Joachim de Bellay in 1549, and was entitled, "La Défense et Illustration de la langue Francaise." In the following year appeared Ronsard's Ode—the first example of the new method. Pierre de Ronsard entered Court life when ten years old. In attendance on French Ambassadors he visited Scotland and England, where he remained for some time. A severe illness resulted in permanent deafness and compelled him to abandon his profession, when he turned to literature. Although Du Bellay was the originator of the scheme, Ronsard became the director and the acknowledged leader of the band. His accomplishments place him in the first rank of the poets of the world. Reference would be out of place here to the movement which was after his death directed by Malherbe against Ronsard's reputation and fame as a poet and his eventual restoration by the disciples of Sainte Beuve and the followers of Hugo. It is desirable, however, to allude to other great Frenchmen whose labours contributed in other directions to promote the growth of French literature. Jean Calvin, a native of Noyon, in Picardy, had published in Latin, in 1536, when only twenty-seven years of age, his greatest work, both from a literary and theological point of view, "The Institution of the Christian Religion," which would be accepted as the product of full maturity of intellect rather than the firstfruits of the career of a youth. What the Pléiade had done to create a French language adequate for the highest expression of poetry Calvin did to enable facility in argument and discussion. A Latin scholar of the highest order, avoiding in his compositions a tendency to declamation, he developed a stateliness of phrase which was marked by clearness and simplicity. Théodore Beza, historian, translator, and dramatist, was another contributor to the literature of this period. Jacques Amyot had commenced his translations from "Ethiopica," treating of the royal and chaste loves of Theagenes and Chariclea three years before Du Bellay's manifesto appeared. Montaigne, referring to his translation of Plutarch, accorded to him the palm over all French writers, not only for the simplicity and purity of his vocabulary, in which he surpassed all others, but for his industry and depth of learning. In another field Michel Eyquem Sieur de Montaigne had arisen. His moral essays found a counterpart in the biographical essays of the Abbé de Brantôme. Agrippa D'Aubigné, prose writer, historian, and poet; Guillaume de Saluste du Bartas, the Protestant Ronsard whose works were more largely translated into English than those of any other French writer; Philippes Desportes and others might be mentioned as forming part of that brilliant circle of writers who had during a comparatively short period helped to achieve such a high position for the language and literature of France.

In 1576, when Francis Bacon arrived in France, the fame of the Pléiade was at its zenith. Du Bellay and Jodelle were dead, but the fruit of their labours and of those of their colleagues was evoking the admiration of their countrymen. The popularity of Ronsard, the prince of poets and the poet of princes, was without precedent. It is said that the King had placed beside his throne a state chair for Ronsard to occupy. Poets and men of letters were held in high esteem by their countrymen. In England, for a gentleman to be amorous of any learned art was held to be discreditable, and any proclivities in this direction had to be hidden under assumed names or the names of others. In France it was held to be discreditable for a gentleman not to be amorous of the learned arts. The young men of the Pléiade were all of good family, and all came from cultured homes. Marguerite of Navarre had set the example of attracting poets and writers to her Court and according honours to them on account of their achievements. The kings of France had adopted a similar attitude. During the same period in England Henry VIII., Mary, and Elizabeth had been following other courses. They had given no encouragement to the pursuit of literature. Notwithstanding the repetition by historians of the assertion that the good Queen Bess was a munificent patron of men of letters, literature flourished in her reign in spite of her action and not by its aid.

Bacon implies this in the opening sentences of the second book of the "Advancement of Learning." He speaks of Queen Elizabeth as being "a sojourner in the world in respect of her unmarried life, rather than an inhabitant. She hath indeed adorned her own time and many waies enricht it; but in truth to Your Majesty, whom God hath blest with so much Royall issue worthy to perpetuate you for ever; whose youthfull and fruitfull Bed, doth yet promise more children; it is very proper, not only to iradiate as you doe your own times, but also to extend your Cares to those Acts which succeeding Ages may cherish, and Eternity itself behold: Amongst which, if my affection to learning doe not transport me, there is none more worthy, or more noble, than the endowment of the world with sound and fruitfull Advancement of Learning: For why should we erect unto ourselves some few authors, to stand like Hercules Columnes beyond which there should be no discovery of knowledge, seeing we have your Majesty as a bright and benigne starre to conduct and prosper us in this Navigation." As Elizabeth had been unfruitful in her body, and James fruitful, so had she been unfruitful in encouraging the Advancement of Learning, but the appeal is made to James that he, being blessed with a considerable issue, should also have an issue by the endowment of Learning.

What must have been the effect on the mind of this brilliant young Englishman, Francis Bacon, when he entered into this literary atmosphere so different from that of the Court which he had left behind him? There was hardly a classical writer whose works he had not read and re-read. He was familiar with the teachings of the schoolmen; imbued with a deep religious spirit, he had mastered the principles of their faiths and the subtleties of their disputations. The intricacies of the known systems of philosophies had been laid bare before his penetrating intellect. With the mysteries of mathematics and numbers he was familiar. What had been discovered in astronomy, alchemy and astrology he had absorbed; however technical might be a subject, he had mastered its details. In architecture the works of Vitruvius had been not merely read but criticised with the skill of an expert. Medicine, surgery—every subject—he had made himself master of. In fact, when he asserted that he had taken all knowledge to be his province he spoke advisedly and with a basis of truth which has never until now been recognised. The youth of 17 who possessed the intellect, the brain and the memory which jointly produced the "Novum Organum," whose mind was so abnormal that the artist painting his portrait was impelled to place round it "the significant words," "si tabula daretur digna, animum mallem," who had taken all knowledge to be his province, was capable of any achievement of the Admirable Crichton. And this youth it was who in 1576 passed from a country of literary and intellectual torpor into the brilliancy of the companionship of Pierre de Ronsard and his associates. It is one of the most stupendous factors in his life. Something happened to him before his return to England which affected the whole of his future life. It may be considered a wild assertion to make, but the time will come when its truth will be proved, that "The Anatomie of the Minde," "Beautiful Blossoms," and "The French Academy," are the product of one mind, and that same mind produced the "Arte of English Poesie," "An Apology for Poetrie," by Sir John Harrington, and "The Defense of Poetry," by Sir Philip Sydney. The former three were written before 1578 and place the philosopher before the poet; the latter three were written after 1580 and place the poet—the creator—before the philosopher. Francis Bacon had recognised that the highest achievement was the act of creation. Henceforth he lived to create.

Sir Nicholas Bacon died on or about the 17th of February, 1578-9. How or where this news reached Francis is not recorded, but on the 20th of the following March he left Paris for England, after a stay of two and a-half years on the Continent. He brought with him to the Queen a despatch from Sir Amias Paulet, in which he was spoken of as being "of great hope, endued with many and singular parts," and one who, "if God gave him life, would prove a very able and sufficient subject to do her Highness good and acceptable service."[18]

Chapter IX.
BACON'S SUIT ON HIS RETURN TO ENGLAND, 1580.

Spedding states that the earliest composition of Bacon which he had been able to discover is a letter written in his 20th year from Grays Inn. From that time forward, he continues, compositions succeed each other without any considerable interval, and in following them we shall accompany him step by step through his life. What are the compositions which Spedding places as being written but not published up to the year 1597, when the first small volume of 10 essays containing less than 6,000 words was issued from the press? These are they:—

Notes on the State of Christendom[19] (date 1580 to 1584).

Letter of Advice to the Queen (1584-1586).

An Advertisement touching the Controversies of the Church of England (1586-1589).

Speeches written for some Court device, namely, Mr. Bacon in praise of Knowledge, and Mr. Bacon's discourse in praise of his Sovereign (1590-1592).

Certain observations made upon a libel published this present year, 1592.

A true report of the Detestable Treason intended by Dr. Roderigo Lopez, 1594.

Gesta Grayorum, 1594, parts of which are printed by Spedding in type denoting doubtful authorship.

Bacon's device, 1594-1598.

Three letters to the Earl of Rutland on his travels, 1595-1596.

That is all! These are the compositions which follow each other without considerable interval, and by which we are to accompany him step by step through those seventeen years which should be the most important years in a man's life! He could have turned them out in ten days or a fortnight with ease. We expect from Mr. Spedding bread, and he gives us a stone!

This brilliant young man, who, when 15 years of age, left Cambridge, having possessed himself of all the knowledge it could afford to a student, who had travelled in France, Spain and Italy to "polish his mind and mould his opinion by intercourse with all kinds of foreigners," how was he occupying himself during what should be the most fruitful years of his life? Following his profession at the Bar? His affections did not that way tend. Spedding expresses the opinion that he had a distaste for his profession, and, writing of the circumstances with which he was surrounded in 1592, says: "I do not find that he was getting into practice. His main object still was to find ways and means for prosecuting his great philosophical enterprise." What was this enterprise? "I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate means," he says, writing to Burghley, "for I have taken all knowledge to be my province." This means more than mere academic philosophy.

In 1593, when Bacon was put forward and upheld for a year as a candidate for the post of Attorney-General, Spedding writes of him; "He had had little or no practice in the Courts; what proof he had given of professional proficiency was confined to his readings and exercises in Grays Inn.... Law, far from being his only, was not even his favourite study; ... his head was full of ideas so new and large that to most about him they must have seemed visionary."

Writing of him in 1594 Spedding says: "The strongest point against Bacon's pretensions for the Attorneyship was his want of practice. His opponents said that 'he had never entered the place of battle.'[20] Whether this was because he could not find clients or did not seek them I cannot say." In order to meet the objection, Bacon on the 25th January, 1593-4, made his first pleading, and Burghley sent his secretary "to congratulate unto him the first fruits of his public practice."

There is one other misconception to be corrected. It is urged that Bacon was, during this period, engrossed in Parliamentary life. From 1584 to 1597 five Parliaments were summoned. Bacon sat in each. In his twenty-fifth year he was elected member for Melcombe, in Dorsetshire. In the Parliament of 1586 he sat for Taunton, in that of 1588 for Liverpool, in that of 1592-3 for Middlesex, and in 1597 for Ipswich.

But the sittings of these Parliaments were not of long duration, and the speeches which he delivered and the meetings of committees upon which he was appointed would absorb but a small portion of his time. It must be patent, therefore, that Spedding does not account for his occupations from his return to England in 1578 until 1597, when the first small volume of his Essays was published.

During the whole of this period Bacon was in monetary difficulties, and yet there is no evidence that he was living a life of dissipation or even of extravagance. On the contrary, all testimony would point to the conclusion that he was following the path of a strictly moral and studious young man. On his return to England he took lodgings in Coney Court, Grays Inn. There Anthony found him when he returned from abroad.

There are no data upon which to form any reliable opinion as to the amount of his income at this time. Rawley states that Sir Nicholas Bacon had collected a considerable sum of money which he had separated with intention to have made a competent purchase of land for the livelihood of his youngest son, but the purchase being unaccomplished at his death, Francis received only a fifth portion of the money dividable, by which means he lived in some straits and necessities in his younger years. It is not clear whether the "money dividable" was only that separated by Sir Nicholas, or whether he left other sums which went to augment the fund divisible amongst the brothers. His other children were well provided for. Francis was not, however, without income. Sir Nicholas had left certain manors, etc., in Herts to his sons Anthony and Francis in tail male, remainder to himself and his heirs. Lady Ann Bacon had vested an estate called Markes, in Essex, in Francis, and there is a letter, dated 16th April, 1593, from Anthony to his mother urging her to concur in its sale, so that the proceeds might be applied to the relief of his brother's financial position.[21]

Lady Bacon lived at Gorhambury. She was not extravagant, and yet in 1589 she was so impoverished that Captain Allen, in writing to Anthony, speaking of his mother, Lady Bacon, says she "also saith her jewels be spent for you, and that she borrowed the last money of seven several persons." Whatever her resources were, they had by then been exhausted for her sons. Anthony was apparently a man of considerable means. He was master of the manor and priory of Redburn, of the manor of Abbotsbury, Minchinbury and Hores, in the parish of Barley, in the county of Hertford; of the Brightfirth wood, Merydan-meads, and Pinner-Stoke farms, in the county of Middlesex.[22]

But within a few years after his return to England Anthony was borrowing money wherever he could. Mother and brother appear to have exhausted their resources and their borrowing capabilities. There is an account showing that in eighteen months, about 1593, Anthony lent Francis £373, equivalent to nearly £3,000 at to-day's value. In 1597 Francis was arrested by the sheriff for a debt of £300, for which a money-lender had obtained judgment against him, and he was cast into the Tower. Where had all the money gone? There is no adequate explanation.

The first letter of Francis Bacon's which Spedding met with, to which reference has already been made, is dated 11th July, 1580, to Mr. Doylie, and is of little importance. The six letters which follow—all there are between 1580 and 1590[23]—relate to one subject, and are of great significance. The first is dated from Grays Inn, 16th September, 1580, to Lady Burghley. In it young Francis, now 19 years of age, makes this request: "That it would please your Ladyship in your letters wherewith you visit my good Lord to vouchsafe the mention and recommendation of my suit; wherein your Ladyship shall bind me more unto you than I can look ever to be able to sufficiently acknowledge."

The next letter—written on the same day—is addressed to Lord Burghley. Its object is thus set forth:—

"My letter hath no further errand but to commend unto your Lordship the remembrance of my suit which then I moved unto you, whereof it also pleased your Lordship to give me good hearing so far forth as to promise to tender it unto her Majesty, and withal to add in the behalf of it that which I may better deliver by letter than by speech, which is, that although it must be confessed that the request is rare and unaccustomed, yet if it be observed how few there be which fall in with the study of the common laws either being well left or friended, or at their own free election, or forsaking likely success in other studies of more delight and no less preferment, or setting hand thereunto early without waste of years upon such survey made, it may be my case may not seem ordinary, no more than my suit, and so more beseeming unto it. As I force myself to say this in excuse of my motion, lest it should appear unto your Lordship altogether undiscreet and unadvised, so my hope to obtain it resteth only upon your Lordship's good affection towards me and grace with her Majesty, who methinks needeth never to call for the experience of the thing, where she hath so great and so good of the person which recommendeth it."

What was this suit? Spedding cannot suggest any explanation. He says: "What the particular employment was for which he hoped I cannot say; something probably connected with the service of the Crown, to which the memory of his father, an old and valued servant prematurely lost, his near relationship to the Lord Treasurer, and the personal notice which he had himself received from the Queen, would naturally lead him to look.... The proposition, whatever it was, having been explained to Burghley in conversation, is only alluded to in these letters. It seems to have been so far out of the common way as to require an apology, and the terms of the apology imply that it was for some employment as a lawyer. And this is all the light I can throw upon it." Subsequently Spedding says the motion was one[24] "which would in some way have made it unnecessary for him to follow 'a course of practice,' meaning, I presume, ordinary practice at the Bar."

Another expression in the letter makes it clear that the object of the suit was an experiment. The Queen could not have "experience of the thing," and Bacon solicited Burghley's recommendation, because she would not need the experience if he, so great and so good, vouched for it.

Burghley appears to have tendered the suit to the Queen, for there is a letter dated 18th October, 1580, addressed to him by Bacon, commencing:

"Your Lordship's comfortable relation to her Majesty's gracious opinion and meaning towards me, though at that time your leisure gave me not leave to show how I was affected therewith, yet upon every representation thereof it entereth and striketh so much more deeply into me, as both my nature and duty presseth me to return some speech of thankfulness."

Spedding remarks thereon: "It seems that he had spoken to Burghley on the subject and made some overture, which Burghley undertook to recommend to the Queen; and that the Queen, who though slow to bestow favours was careful always to encourage hopes, entertained the motion graciously and returned a favourable answer. The proposition, whatever it was, having been explained to Burghley in conversation, is only alluded to in these letters."

Spedding dismisses these three letters in 22 lines of comment, which contain the extracts before set out. He regards the matter as of slight consequence, and admits that he can throw no light upon it. But he points out that it was "so far out of the common way as to require an apology." Surely he has not well weighed the terms of the apology when he says they "imply that it was for some employment as a lawyer."

There had been a conversation between Bacon and Burghley during which Bacon had submitted a project to the accomplishment of which he was prepared to devote his life in the Queen's service. It necessitated his abandoning the profession of the law. Apparently Burghley had remonstrated with him, in the manner of experienced men of the world, against forsaking a certain road and avenue to preferment in favour of any course rare and unaccustomed. Referring in his letter to this, Bacon's parenthetical clause beginning "either being well left or friended," etc., is confession and avoidance. In effect he says:—Few study the common laws who have influence; few at their own free election; few desert studies of more delight and no less preferment; and few devote themselves to that study from their earliest years. Since there are few who, having my opportunities, devote themselves to the study of the common laws, my position in so doing would not be an ordinary one, no more than is my suit. Therefore, why should I, having your [Burleigh's] influence to help me, sacrifice my great intellectual capabilities fitting me to accomplish my great contemplative ends? Why should I sacrifice them to a study of the common laws?

The sentence may be otherwise construed, but in any case it involves an apology for the abandonment of the profession which had been chosen for him.

The next letter is addressed to the Right Honourable Sir Francis Walsingham, principal secretary to her Majesty, and is dated from Grays Inn, 25th of August, 1585. Spedding's comment on it is as follows:—

"For all this time, it seems, the suit (whatever it was) which he had made to her through Burghley in 1580 remained in suspense, neither granted nor denied, and the uncertainty prevented him from settling his course of life. From the following letter to Walsingham we may gather two things more concerning it: it was something which had been objected to as unfit for so young a man; and which would in some way have made it unnecessary for him to follow 'a course of practice'—meaning, I presume, ordinary practice at the Bar."

This is the letter:—

"It may please your Honour to give me leave amidst your great and diverse business to put you in remembrance of my poor suit, leaving the time unto your Honour's best opportunity and commodity. I think the objection of my years will wear away with the length of my suit. The very stay doth in this respect concern me, because I am thereby hindered to take a course of practice which, by the leave of God, if her Majesty like not my suit, I must and will follow: not for any necessity of estate, but for my credit sake, which I know by living out of action will wear. I spake when the Court was at Theball's to Mr. Vice-Chamberlain,[25] who promised me his furderance; which I did lest he mought be made for some other. If it may please your Honour, who as I hear hath great interest in him, to speak with him in it, I think he will be fast mine."

Spedding remarks: "This is the last we hear of this suit, the nature and fate of which must both be left to conjecture. With regard to its fate, my own conjecture is that he presently gave up all hope of success in it, and tried instead to obtain through his interest at Court some furtherance in the direct line of his profession."

He adds: "The solid grounds on which Bacon's pretensions rested had not yet been made manifest to the apprehension of Bench and Bar; his mind was full of matters with which they could have no sympathy, and the shy and studious habits which we have seen so offend Mr. Faunt would naturally be misconstrued in the same way by many others."[26]

This passage refers to a letter to Burghley dated the 6th of the following May, i.e., 1586, from which it will be seen that the last had not been heard of the motion. Burghley had been remonstrating with Bacon as to reports which had come to him of his nephew's proceedings. Bacon writes:—

"I take it as an undoubted sign of your Lordship's favour unto me that being hardly informed of me you took occasion rather of good advice than of evil opinion thereby. And if your Lordship had grounded only upon the said information of theirs, I mought and would truly have upholden that few of the matters were justly objected; as the very circumstances do induce in that they were delivered by men that did misaffect me and besides were to give colour to their own doings. But because your Lordship did mingle therewith both a late motion of mine own and somewhat which you had otherwise heard, I know it to be my duty (and so do I stand affected) rather to prove your Lordship's admonition effectual in my doings hereafter than causeless by excusing what is past. And yet (with your Lordship's pardon humbly asked) it may please you to remember that I did endeavour to set forth that said motion in such sort as it mought breed no harder effect than a denial, and I protest simply before God that I sought therein an ease in coming within Bars, and not any extraordinary and singular note of favour."

May not the interpretation of the phrase "I sought therein an ease in coming within Bars" be "I sought in that motion a freedom from the burden (or necessity) of coming within Bars." The phrase "an ease in" is very unusual, and unless it was a term used in connection with the Inns it is difficult to see its precise meaning. In other words, he sought an alternative method to provide means for carrying out his great philosophical enterprise.

There is an interval of five years before the next and last letter of the six was written. It is undated, but an observation in it shows that it was written when he was about 31 years of age, thus fixing the date at 1591.

From an entry in Burghley's note book,[27] dated 29 October, 1589, it appears that in the meantime a grant had been made to Bacon of the reversion of the office of Clerk to the Counsel in the Star Chamber. This was worth about £1,600 per annum and executed by deputy, but the reversion did not fall in for twenty years, so it did not affect the immediate difficulty in ways and means.

There are occasional references to Francis in Anthony's correspondence which show that the brothers were residing at Grays Inn, but nothing is stated as to the occupation of the younger brother.

At this time, according to Spedding,[28] who, however, does not give his authority, Francis had a lodge at Twickenham. Many of his letters are subsequently addressed from it, and three years later he was keeping a staff of scriveners there.

The last letter is addressed to Lord Burghley, who is in it described by Bacon as "the second founder of my poor estate," and contains the following:—

"I cannot accuse myself that I am either prodigal or slothful, yet my health is not to spend nor my course to get. Lastly, I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends as I have moderate civil ends: for I have taken all knowledge to be my province. This whether it be curiosity or vain glory, or (if one takes it favourably) philanthropia, is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed. And I do easily see, that place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits than of a man's own, which is the thing I greatly affect. And for your Lordship, perhaps you shall not find more strength and less encounter in any other. And if your Lordship shall find now, or at any time, that I do seek or affect any place, whereunto any that is nearer to your Lordship shall be concurrent, say then that I am a most dishonest man. And if your Lordship will not carry me on, I will not do as Anaxagoras did, who reduced himself with contemplation unto voluntary poverty; but this I will do, I will sell the inheritance that I have, and purchase some lease of quick revenue, or some office of gain that shall be executed by deputy, and so give over all care of service and become some sorry bookmaker, or a true pioneer in that mine of truth, which he said lay so deep. This which I have writ to your Lordship is rather thoughts than words, being set down without all art, disguising or reservation."

The suit has been of no avail. Once more Bacon appeals (and this is to be his final appeal) to his uncle. He is writing thoughts rather than words, set down without art, disguising or reservation. But if his Lordship will not carry him along he has definitely decided on his course of action. The law is not now even referred to. If the object of the suit was not stated in 1580, there cannot be much doubt now but that it had to do with the making of books and pioneer work in the mine of truth. For ten years Francis Bacon had waited, buoyed up by encouragements and false hopes. Now he decides to take his fortune into his own hands and rely no more on assistance either from the Queen or Burghley.

One sentence in the letter should be noted: "If your Lordship shall find now, or at any time, that I do seek or affect any place whereunto any that is nearer unto your Lordship shall be concurrent, say then that I am a most dishonest man." Surely this was an assurance on Bacon's part that he did not seek or affect to stand in the way of the one—the only one, Robert Cecil—who stood nearer to Burghley in kinship.

It therefore appears evident from the foregoing facts:—

(1) That Francis Bacon at 17 years of age was an accomplished scholar; that his knowledge was abnormally great, and that his wit, memory, and mental qualities were of the highest order—probably without parallel.

(2) That in the year 1580, when 19 years old, he sought the assistance of Burghley to induce the Queen to supply him with means and the opportunity to carry out some great work upon the achievement of which he had set his heart. The work was without precedent, and in carrying it out he was prepared to dedicate to her Majesty the use and spending of his life.

(3) That for ten years he waited and hoped for the granting of his suit, which was rare and unaccustomed, until eventually he was compelled to relinquish it and rely upon his own resources to effect his object.

(4) But he desired to command other wits than his own, and that could be more easily achieved by one holding place of any reasonable countenance. He therefore sought through Burleigh place accompanied by income, so that he might be enabled to achieve the vast contemplative ends he had in view.

(5) That during the years 1580 to 1597, in which he claims that he was not slothful, there is no evidence of his being occupied in his profession or in State affairs to any appreciable extent, and yet there do not exist any acknowledged works as the result of his labours. Rawley states that Bacon would "suffer no moment of time to slip from him without some present improvement."

(6) He received pecuniary assistance from his uncle, Lord Burghley. He strained the monetary resources of his mother and brother, which were not inconsiderable, to the utmost, exhausted his own, and heavily encumbered himself with debts, and yet he was not prodigal or extravagant.

(7) Money and time he must have to carry out his scheme, which, if one takes it favourably, might be termed philanthropia, and he therefore decided that, failing obtaining some sinecure office, he would sell the inheritance he had, purchase some lease of quick revenue or office of gain that could be executed by a deputy, give over all care of serving the State, and become some sorry bookmaker or a true pioneer in the mine of truth.

(8) Spedding says, "He could at once imagine like a poet and execute like a clerk of the works"; but whatever his contemplative ends were there is nothing known to his biographers which reveals the result of his labours as clerk of the works.

(9) If he carried out the course of action which he contemplated it is clear that he decided to do so without himself appearing as its author and director. From 1580 to 1590 something more was on his mind than the works he published after he had arrived at sixty years of age. "I am no vain promiser," he said. Where can the fulfilment of his promise be found? Can his course be followed by tracing through the period the trail which was left by some great and powerful mind directing the progress of the English Renaissance?

Chapter X.
THE RARE AND UNACCUSTOMED SUIT.

What was this rare and unaccustomed suit of which the Queen could have had no experience and which, according to Spedding, would make it unnecessary for Bacon to follow "ordinary practice at the bar"? Historians and biographers have founded on this suit the allegation that from his earliest years Bacon was a place hunter, entirely ignoring the fact, which is made clear from the letter to Walsingham written four years after the application was first made, that he had resolved on a course of action which, if her Majesty liked not his suit, by the leave of God he must and would follow, not for any necessity of estate, but for his credit sake. Here was a young man of twenty years of age, earnestly urging the adoption of a scheme which he had conceived, and which he feared Burghley might consider indiscreet and unadvised. Failing in obtaining his object, as will be proved by definite evidence, undertaking at the cost of Thomas Bodley and other friends a course of travel to better fit him for the task he had mapped out as his life's work—returning to England and, four years after his first request had been made, renewing his suit—grimly in earnest and determined to carry the scheme through at all costs, with or without the Queen's aid. This is not the conduct of a mere place hunter. If these letters be read aright and the reasonable theory which will be advanced of the nature of the suit be accepted—all efforts to suggest any explanation having hitherto, as Spedding admits, proved futile—a fresh light will be thrown upon the character of Francis Bacon, and the heavy obligation under which he has placed his countrymen for all ages will for the first time be recognised.

In the seven volumes of "Bacon's Life and Letters" there is nothing to justify the eulogy on his character to which Spedding gave utterance in the following words:—"But in him the gift of seeing in prophetic vision what might be and ought to be was united with the practical talent of devising means and handling minute details. He could at once imagine like a poet and execute like a clerk of the works. Upon the conviction This must be done followed at once How may it be done? Upon that question answered followed the resolution to try and do it." But although Spedding fails to produce any evidence to justify his statement, it is nevertheless correct. More than that, the actual achievement followed with unerring certainty, but Spedding restricts Bacon's life's work to the establishment of a system of inductive philosophy, and records the failure of the system.

William Cecil was a man of considerable classical attainments, although these were probably not superior to those of Mildred Cooke, the lady who became his second wife. He was initiated into the methods of statesmanship at an early age by his father, Richard Cecil, Master of the Robes to Henry VIII. Having found favour with Somerset, the Protector of Edward VI., he was, when 27 years of age, made Master of Requests. When Somerset fell from power in 1549 young Cecil, with other adherents of the Protector, was committed to the Tower. But he was soon released and was rapidly advanced by Northumberland. He became Secretary of State, was knighted and made a member of the Privy Council. Mary would have continued his employment in office had he not refused her offers on account of his adhesion to the Protestant faith. He mingled during her reign with men of all parties and his moderation and cautious conduct carried him through that period without mishap. On Elizabeth's accession he was the first member sworn upon the Privy Council, and he continued during the remainder of his life her principal Minister of State. Sagacious, deliberate in thought and character, tolerant, a man of peace and compromise, he became the mainstay of the Queen's government and the most influential man in State affairs. Whilst he maintained a princely magnificence in his affairs, his private life was pure, gentle and generous. This was the man to whom the brilliant young nephew of his wife and the son of his old friend, Sir Nicholas Bacon, disclosed, some time during the summer of 1580, his scheme, of which there had been no experience, and entrusted his suit, which was rare and unaccustomed. The arguments in its favour at this interview may have followed the following outline:—

I need not remind you of my devotion to learning. You know that from my earliest boyhood I have followed a course of study which has embraced all subjects. I have made myself acquainted with all knowledge which the world possesses. To enable me to do this I mastered all languages in which books are written. During my recent visit to foreign lands, I have recognized how far my country falls behind others in language, and consequently in literature. I would draw your special attention to the remarkable advance which has been made in these matters in France during your lordship's lifetime. When I arrived there in 1576 I made myself acquainted with the principles of the movement which had been carried through by Du Bellay, Ronsard, and their confrères. They recognized that their native language was crude and lacking in gravity and art. First by obtaining a complete mastery of the Greek and Latin languages, as also of those of Italy and Spain, they prepared themselves for a study of the literatures of which those languages, with their idioms and peculiarities, form the basis. Having obtained this mastery they reconstructed their native language and gave their country a medium by which her writers might express their thoughts and emotions. They have made it possible for their countrymen to rival the poets of ancient Greece and Rome. They and others of their countrymen have translated the literary treasures of those ancient nations into their own tongue, and thereby enabled those speaking their language, who are not skilled in classical languages, to enjoy and profit by the works of antiquity. Your lordship knows well the deficiencies of the language of our England, the absence of any literature worthy of the name. In these respects the condition of affairs is far behind that which prevailed in France even before the great movement which Ronsard and Du Bellay initiated. I do not speak of Italy, which possesses a language melodious, facile, and rich, and a literature which can never die.

I know my own powers. I possess every qualification which will enable me to do for my native tongue what the Pléiade have done for theirs. I ask to be permitted to give to my country this great heritage. Others may serve her in the law, others may serve her in affairs of state, but your Lordship knows full well that there are none who could serve her in this respect as could I. You are not unmindful of the poorness of my estate. This work will not only entail a large outlay of money but it necessitates command of the ablest wits of the nation. This is my suit: that her Majesty will graciously confer on me some office which will enable me to control such literary resources and the services of such men as may be necessary for the accomplishment of this work; further, that she may be pleased from time to time to make grants from the civil list to cover the cost of the work. I need not remind your Lordship what fame will ever attach to her Majesty and how glorious will be the memory of her reign if this great project be effected in it. Your Lordship must realise this because you and her Ladyship, my aunt, are by your attainments qualified to appreciate its full value. My youth may be urged as an objection to my fitness for such a task, but your Lordship knows full well—none better—that my powers are not to be measured by my years. This I will say, I am no vain promiser, but I am assured that I can accomplish all that I contemplate. The Queen hath such confidence in the soundness of your judgment that she will listen to your advice. My prayer to you therefore is that it may please your Lordship both herein and elsewhere to be my patron and urge my suit, which, although rare and unaccustomed, may be granted if it receives your powerful support.

The suit was submitted to the Queen, but without result. Probably it was not urged with a determination to obtain its acceptance in spite of any objections which might be raised by the Queen. Five years after, Bacon, still a suppliant, wrote to Walsingham: "I think the objection to my years will wear away with the length of my suit." Cautious Lord Burghley would give full weight to the force of this objection if it were advanced by the Queen. He loved this boy, with his extraordinary abilities, but he had such novel and far-reaching ideas. He appeared to have no adequate reverence for his inferior superiors. On leaving Cambridge he had arrogantly condemned its cherished methods of imparting knowledge. Before power was placed in his hands the use he might make of it must be well weighed and considered. What effect might the advancement of Francis Bacon have on Robert Cecil's career? Granted that the contentions of the former were sound, and the object desirable, should not this work be carried out by the Universities? Never leap until you know where you are going to alight was a proverb the soundness of which had been proved in Lord Burghley's experience. What might be the outcome if this rare and unaccustomed suit were granted? Better for the Queen, who, though slow to bestow favours, was always ready to encourage hopes, to follow her usual course. She might entertain the motion graciously and return a favourable answer and let it rest there. And so it did.

Then there was a happening which has remained unknown until now.

Chapter XI.
BACON'S SECOND VISIT TO THE CONTINENT AND AFTER.

In the "Reliquiæ Bodleianæ," published in 1703, is a letter written without date by Thomas Bodley to Francis Bacon. This letter does not appear to have been known to Mallett, Montague, Dixon, Spedding, or any of Bacon's biographers. It had been lost sight of until the writer noticed it and reproduced it in Baconiana. This is the letter:—

My Dear Cousin,—According to your request in your letter (dated the 19th October at Orleans, I received here the 18th of December), I have sent you by your merchant £30 (the thirty is written thus 30 l) sterling for your present supply, and had sent you a greater sum, but that my extraordinary charge this year hath utterly unfurnished me. And now, cousin, though I will be no severe exactor of the account, either of your money or time, yet for the love I bear you, I am very desirous, both to satisfy myself, and your friends how you prosper in your travels, and how you find yourself bettered thereby, either in knowledge of God, or of the world; the rather, because the Days you have already spent abroad, are now both sufficient to give you Light, how to fix yourself and end with counsel, and accordingly to shape your course constantly unto it. Besides, it is a vulgar scandal unto the travellers, that few return more religious (narrow, editor) than they went forth; wherein both my hope and Request is to you, that your principal care be to hold your Foundation, and to make no other use of informing your self in the corruptions and superstitions of other nations, than only thereby to engage your own heart more firmly to the Truth. You live indeed in a country of two several professions, and you shall return a Novice, if you be not able to give an account of the Ordinances, strength, and progress of each, in Reputation, and Party, and how both are supported, ballanced and managed by the state, as being the contrary humours, in the Temper of Predominancy whereof, the Health or Disease of that Body doth consist. These things you will observe, not only as an English-man, whom it may concern, to what interest his country may expect in the consciences of their Neighbours; but also, as a Christian, to consider both the beauties and blemishes, the hopes and dangers of the church in all places. Now for the world, I know it too well, to persuade you to dive into the practices thereof; rather stand upon your own guard, against all that attempt you there unto, or may practise upon you in your Conscience, Reputation, or your Purse. Resolve, no Man is wise or safe, but he that is honest: And let this Persuasion turn your studies and observations from the Complement and Impostures of the debased age, to more real grounds of wisdom, gathered out of the story of Times past, and out of the government of the present state. Your guide to this, is the knowledge of the country and the people among whom ye live; For the country though you cannot see all places, yet if, as you pass along, you enquire carefully, and further help yourself with Books that are written of the cosmography of those parts, you shall sufficiently gather the strength, Riches, Traffick, Havens, Shipping, commodities, vent, and the wants and disadvantages of places. Wherein also, for your good hereafter, and for your friends, it will befit to note their buildings, Furnitures, Entertainments; all their Husbandry, and ingenious inventions, in whatsoever concerneth either Pleasure or Profit.

For the people, your traffick among them, while you learn their language, will sufficiently instruct you in their Habilities, Dispositions, and Humours, if you a little enlarge the Privacy of your own Nature, to seek acquaintance with the best sort of strangers, and restrain your Affections and Participation, for your own countrymen of whatsoever condition.

In the story of France, you have a large and pleasant Field in three lines of their Kings, to observe their alliances and successions, their Conquests, their wars, especially with us; their Councils, their treaties; and all Rules and examples of experiences and Wisdom, which may be Lights and Remembrances to you hereafter, to Judge of all occurants both at home and abroad.

Lastly, for the Government, your end must not be like an Intelligencer, to spend all your time in fishing after the present News, Humours, Graces, or Disgraces of Court, which happily may change before you come home; but your better and more constant ground will be, to know the Consanguinities, Alliances, and Estates of their Princes; Proportion between the Nobility and Magistracy; the Constitutions of their Courts of Justice; the state of the Laws, as well for the making as the execution thereof; How the Sovereignty of the King infuseth itself into all Acts and Ordinances; how many ways they lay Impositions and Taxations, and gather Revenues to the Crown.

What be the Liberties and Servitudes of all degrees; what Discipline and Preparations for wars; what Invention for increase of Traffick at home, for multiplying their commodities, encouraging Arts and Manufactures, or of worth in any kind. Also what establishment, to prevent the Necessities and Discontentment of People, To cut off suits at Law, and Duels, to suppress thieves and all Disorders.

To be short, because my purpose is not to bring all your Observations to Heads, but only by these few to let you know what manner of Return your Friends expect from you; let me, for all these and all the rest, give you this one Note, which I desire you to observe as the Counsels of a Friend, Not to spend your Spirits, and the precious time of your Travel, in a Captious Prejudice and censuring of all things, nor in an Infectious Collection of base Vices and Fashions of Men and Women, or general corruption of these times, which will be of use only Among Humorists, for Jests and Table-Talk: but rather strain your Wits and Industry soundly to instruct your-self in all things between Heaven and Earth which may tend to Virtue, Wisdom, and Honour, and which may make your life more profitable to your country, and yourself more comfortable to your friends, and acceptable to God. And to conclude, let all these Riches be treasured up, not only in your memory, where time may lessen your stock; but rather in good writings, and Books of Account, which will keept them safe for your use hereafter.

And if in this time of your liberal Traffick, you will give me any advertizement of your commodities in these kinds, I will make you as liberal a Return from my self and your Friends here, as I shall be able.

And so commending all your good Endeavours, to him that must either wither or prosper them, I very kindly bid you farewel.

Your's to be commanded,

Thomas Bodley.

Spedding prints this letter (Vol. II. p. 16) commencing with the words, "Yet for the love I bear," to the end, with the exception of the last sentence, as a letter written probably by Bacon for Essex to send to the Earl of Rutland. He identifies it as "the letter which the compiler of Stephens' Catalogue took for a letter addressed by Bacon to Buckingham," which he says it could not be. The original is at Lambeth (MSS. 936, fo. 218). The seal remains, but the part of the last sheet which contained the signature on one side, and the superscription on the other, has been torn off. The letter commences, "My good Lord," and ends, "Your Lordship's in all duty to serve you." It would appear, therefore, that someone had access to Bodley's letter to Bacon, and, approving its contents, used its contents a second time.

There are two palpable deductions to be drawn from this letter: (1) That Bacon was on a journey through several countries to obtain knowledge of their customs, laws, religion, military strength, shipping, and whatsoever concerneth pleasure or profit. There is a striking correspondence between Bodley's advice and the description of Bacon's travels found in the "Life" prefixed to "L'Histoire Naturelle." (2) That Bacon was being supported by Bodley and other of his friends, who desired him to keep a record of all that he observed and learnt, and to report from time to time as he progressed, and in return, said Bodley, "I will make you as liberal a return from myself and your friends here as I shall be able." This letter was written from England, and there is a paragraph in Bodley's "Life," written by himself, which makes it possible to fix the year:—

"My resolution fully taken I departed out of England anno 1576 and continued very neare foure yeares abroad, and that in sundry parts of Italy, France, and Germany. A good while after my return to wit, in the yeare 1585 I was employed by the Queen," etc.

If this letter was written between 1576 and 1579 it would appear strange that Bodley and others should be providing Bacon with money for his travels, and requiring reports from him, whilst his father, Sir Nicholas Bacon, was alive and prosperous. No such difficulty, however, arises, for the letter, being sent from England, could not have been written between the date of Bacon's first departure for France in 1576 and his return on his father's death in 1579, for during the whole of that time Bodley was abroad. It is stated in it that Bacon wrote from Orleans a letter dated 19th October, the year not being given. This could not be in 1580, for Bacon wrote to Lord Burghley from Gray's Inn on the 18th October, 1580. Spedding commences the paragraph immediately following this letter by saying, "From this time we have no further news of Francis Bacon till the 5th of April, 1582," and although he does not reproduce the letter, he relies on a letter from Faunt to Anthony Bacon, to which that date is attributed in Birch's " Memorials," Vol. I. page 22. In it Faunt refers to having seen Anthony's mother and his brother Francis. Faunt left Paris for England on the 22nd March, 1582. This letter was written on the 15th of the following month, so no trace has been found of Francis being in England between 18th October, 1580, and 5th of April, 1582. Bodley's letter, must, therefore, have been written in December, 1581, when Bacon was abroad making a journey through several countries. From the foregoing facts it is impossible to form any other conclusion. Now for the first time this journey has been made known. There is a letter amongst the State papers in the Record Office, dated February, 1581, written by Anthony Bacon to Lord Burghley, enclosing a note of advice and instructions for his brother Francis. Anthony was an experienced traveller, and was then abroad. It reads as though he was sending advice and instructions to his younger brother, who was about to start on travels through countries with which Anthony was familiar. If so, Francis would leave England early in March, 1581—that is, if he had not left before this letter was received by Burghley.

Having established beyond reasonable doubt the fact of this journey, a new and remarkable suggestion presents itself. Spedding, when dealing with the year 1582, prints "Notes on the State of Christendom,"[29] with the following remarks:—

"If that paper of notes concerning 'The State of Europe' which was printed as Bacon's in the supplement to Stephens' second collection in 1734, reprinted by Mallet in 1760, and has been placed at the beginning of his political writings in all editions since 1563, be really of his composition, this is the period of his life to which it belongs. I must confess, however, that I am not satisfied with the evidence or authority upon which it appears to have been ascribed to him."

Robert Stephens, who was Historiographer Royal in the reign of William and Mary, states that the Earl of Oxford placed in his hands some neglected manuscripts and loose papers to see whether any of the Lord Bacon's compositions lay concealed there and were fit for publication. He found some of them written, and others amended, with his lordship's own hand. He found certain of the treatises had been published by him, and that others, certainly genuine, which had not, were fit to be transcribed if not divulged. Spedding states that he has little doubt that this paper on the state of Europe was among these manuscripts and loose papers, for the editor states that the supplementary pieces (of which this was one) were added from originals found among Stephens' papers. The original is now among the Harleian MSS. in the British Museum. Spedding thus describes it:—

"The Harleian MS. is a copy in an old hand, probably contemporary, but not Francis Bacon's. A few sentences have been inserted afterwards by the same hand, and two by another which is very like Anthony Bacon's; none in Francis's. The blanks have all been filled up, but no words have been corrected, though it is obvious that in some places they stand in need of correction.

"Certain allusions to events then passing (which will be pointed out in their place) prove that the original paper was written, or at least completed, in the summer of 1582, at which time Francis Bacon was studying law in Gray's Inn, while Anthony was travelling in France in search of political intelligence and was in close correspondence with Nicholas Faunt, a secretary of Sir Francis Walsingham's, who had spent the previous year in France, Germany, Switzerland, and the north of Italy, on the same errand; and was now living about the English Court, studying affairs at home, and collecting and arranging the observations which he had made abroad, 'having already recovered all his writings and books which he had left behind him in Italy and in Frankfort' (see Birch's 'Memoirs,' I. 24), and it is remembered that if this paper belonged to Anthony Bacon, it would naturally descend at his death to Francis and so remain among his manuscripts, where it is supposed to have been found.

"Thus it appears that the external evidence justifies no inference as to the authorship, and the only question is whether the style can be considered conclusive. To me it certainly is not. But as this is a point upon which the reader should be allowed to judge for himself, and as the paper is interesting in itself and historically valuable and has always passed for Bacon's, it is here printed from the original though (to distinguish it from his undoubted compositions) in a smaller type."

Spedding's difficulty in accepting this paper as from Bacon's pen really lay in the fact that from the internal evidence it is obvious that it was written by one who had himself travelled through, at any rate, some of the countries described. The results of personal observation are again and again apparent. According to Spedding, Bacon was in 1581-1582 studying law at Gray's Inn; according to Bodley he was on the Continent making observations for his future guidance. The reader can judge of the value of the external evidence. It is not conclusive, but the draft being found amongst papers which were unquestionably Bacon's writings and being adopted as Bacon's and published as such by those who found it, the balance of probabilities is distinctly in favour of its being his. As to the internal evidence much may be said. It corresponds as closely as it is possible with Bodley's requirements as set forth in his letter of December. It is exactly "the manner of return" Bodley wrote to Francis "your friends expect from you." "And," he added, "if in this time of your liberal Traffick, you will give me any advertisement of your commodities in these kinds, I will make you as liberal a return from myself and your friends here as I shall be able."

The date agrees with that of Bacon's second visit to the Continent. In Spedding's Life and Letters it occupies twelve and a-half pages, of which five are occupied by descriptions of Italy, one of Austria, two of Germany (chiefly a recital of names and places), two of France, three-quarters of Spain, one and three-quarters of Portugal, Poland, Denmark, and Sweden. This may have been Bacon's itinerary in 1581-2.

Italy is treated with considerable detail and was undoubtedly described from personal observation, as were France and Spain. In a less degree the description of Austria, Poland and Denmark produces this impression; in a still smaller degree Portugal and Sweden, and it is quite absent from the description of Germany. Florence, Venice, Mantua, Genoa, Savoy, are dealt with in most detail. Rawley states that it was Bacon's intention to have stayed abroad some years longer when he was called home by the death of his father, to find himself left in straightened circumstances. Then followed his ineffectual suit, which he still persisted in. Bodley evidently was, if not the instigator, at any rate the paymaster for this second journey. Anthony's letter of February, 1581, points to Burghley as a participator in the project. He would assist not only out of kindly feeling, but the journey would at any rate get this ambitious, determined young man out of the way for a time, and possibly the journey might get this unaccustomed suit out of his mind. Thus it came about.

From Faunt's letters, Spedding says we derive what little information we have with regard to Francis's proceedings from 1583 to 1584. "From them we gather little more than that he remained studying at Gray's Inn, occasionally visiting his mother at Gorhambury, or going with her to hear Travers at the Temple and occasionally appearing at the Court."

But the suit was not abandoned, for there is the letter of 25th August, 1585, to Walsingham, when Bacon writes: "I think the objection of my years will wear away with the length of my suit. The very stay doth in this respect concern me, because I am thereby hindered to take a course of practice which by the leave of God, if her Majesty like not of my suit, I must and will follow: not for any necessity of estate, but for my credit sake, which I know by living out of action will wear."

Again, the old, "rare and unaccustomed suit" of which the Queen could have had no experience! Either the persuasive powers of Burghley had failed or he had not exerted them. Probably the latter, because the troublesome, determined young man is now worrying Walsingham and Hatton to urge its acceptance with the Queen. The purport of the foregoing extract effectually precludes the possibility of this suit referring to his advancement at the bar. For five years it has been proceeding—he has been indulging in hopes which have been unfulfilled. Now he will wait no longer, but he will adopt a course which, if her Majesty like not his suit, by the leave of God he must and will follow, not for any necessity of making money but because he feels impelled to it by a sense of responsibility which he must fulfil. Walsingham and Hatton do not appear to have helped the matter forward. There was little probability of them succeeding in influencing the Queen where Burghley had failed. There was still less probability of them attempting to influence her if Burghley objected. Had this suit referred to advancement in the law it would have been granted with the aid of Burghley's influence years before. Had it referred to some ordinary office of State, friends so powerful as Burghley, Walsingham and Hatton could and would have obtained anything within reason for this brilliant young son of Sir Nicholas Bacon, for there was no complication with Essex until after 1591. But this rare and unaccustomed suit of which there had been no experience was another matter.

Six more years pass, and although there is now no suit to the Queen there is the same idea prevailing in the letter to Burghley—a seeking for help to achieve some great scheme upon which Bacon's mind was so fixed "as it cannot be removed," "whether it be curiosity, vainglory or nature, or (if one take it favourably) philanthropia." Still he required the command of more wits than of a man's own, which is the thing he did greatly affect. Still his course was not to get. Still the determination to achieve the object without help, if help could not be obtained—to achieve it by becoming some sorry bookmaker or a pioneer in that mine of truth which Anaxagoras said lay so deep. This is emphasised. These are "thoughts rather than words, being set down without all art, disguising or reservation."

There are two significant sentences in this letter written to Burghley when Bacon was 31 years of age. He describes Burghley as "the second founder of my poor estate," and, further, he uses the expression "And if your Lordship will not carry me on." What can these allusions mean but that Burghley had been rendering financial assistance to his nephew? If the theory here put forward as to the nature of the suit be correct, the object was one which would have Burghley's cordial support. That he had expressed approval of it must be deduced from the letter of the 16th of September, 1580. The object was one which, without doubt, would find still warmer support from Lady Mildred. But the suit was so unprecedented that it is not to be wondered at that Burghley did not try to force it through. The work was going forward all the time—slowly for lack of means and official recognition. Burghley, generous in his nature, lavish in private life, might, however, be expected to help a work which he would be glad to see carried to a successful conclusion.

Had he been less cautious and let young Francis have his head, what might not have happened! But there was always the fear of letting this huge intellectual power forge ahead without restraint. It was, however, working out unseen its scheme and that, too, with Burghley's help and that of others. The period from 1576 to 1623—only 47 years—sees the English language developed from a state of almost barbaric crudeness to the highest pitch which any language, classical or modern, has reached. There was but one workman living at that period who could have constructed that wonderful instrument and used it to produce such magnificent examples of its possibilities. It is as reasonable to take up a watch keeping perfect time and aver that the parts came together by accident, as to contend that the English language of the Authorised Version of the Bible and the works of Shakespeare were the result of a general up-springing of literary taste which was diffused amongst a few writers of very mediocre ability. The English Renaissance was conceived in France and born in England in 1579. It ran its course and in 1623 attained its maturity; but when Francis Bacon was no more—he who had performed that in our tongue which may be preferred either to insolent Greece or haughty Rome—"things daily fall, wits grow downward, and eloquence grows backward: so that he may be named and stand as the mark and ἀχμή of our language."

Chapter XII.
IS IT PROBABLE THAT BACON LEFT MANUSCRIPTS HIDDEN AWAY?

It is difficult to leave this subject without some reference to the articles which have appeared in the press and magazines referring to the suggestion that there were left concealed literary remains of Bacon hitherto undiscovered.

In an article which recently appeared in a Shakespearean journal, a writer who evidently knows little about the Elizabethan period said: "But why should Bacon want to bury manuscripts, anyhow? Who does bury manuscripts? Besides, they had been printed and were, therefore, rubbish and waste paper merely." The manuscript of John Harrington's translation of Ariosto's "Orlando Furioso" may be seen in the British Museum. It is beautifully written on quarto paper. It was, apparently, the fair copy sent to the printer from which the type was to be set up. Be this as it may, it was undoubtedly a copy upon which Bacon marked off the verses which are to go on each page and set out the folio of each page and the printer's signature which was to appear at the bottom. It also contains instructions to the printer as to the type to be used. This manuscript was not considered "rubbish and waste paper merely."

Francis Bacon has again and again insisted upon the value of history. In the "Advancement of Learning" he points out to the King "the indignity and unworthiness of the history of England as it now is, in the main continuation thereof." No man appreciated as did Bacon the importance in the history of England of the epoch in which he lived. That a truthful relation of the events of those times would be invaluable to posterity he knew full well. He of all men living at that time was best qualified to write such a history. He recognised that there were objections to a history being written, or, at any rate, published, wherein the actions of persons living were described, for he said "it must be confessed that such kind of relations, specially if they be published about the times of things done, seeing very often that they are written with passion or partiality, of all other narrations, are most suspected." It is hardly conceivable that Bacon should have failed to provide a faithful history of his own times for the benefit of posterity, or, at any rate, that he should have failed to preserve the materials for such a history. Neither the history nor such materials are known to be in existence. Supposing Bacon had prepared either the one or the other, what could he do with it? Hand it to Rawley with instructions for it to be printed? With a strong probability, if it were a faithful history, that it would never be published, but that it would be destroyed, he would never take such a risk. There would only be one course open to him. To conceal it in some place where it would not be likely to be disturbed, in which it might remain in safety, possibly for hundreds of years. And then leave a clue either in cypher or otherwise by which it might be recovered.

It is by no means outside the range of possibility that Bacon as early as 1588 had opened a receptacle for books and manuscripts which he desired should go down to posterity, and fearing their loss from any cause, he carefully concealed them, adding to the store from time to time. If he did so he left a problem to be solved, and arranged the place of concealment so that it could only be found by a solution of the problem.

The emblems on two title-pages of two books of the period are very significant. "Truth brought to Light and discovered by Time" is a narrative history of the first fourteen years of King James' reign. One portion of the engraved title-page represents a spreading tree growing up out of a coffin, full fraught with various fruits (manuscripts and books) most fresh and fair to make succeeding times most rich and rare. In the Emblem (Fig. III.) now reproduced, which is found on the title-page of the first edition of "New Atlantis," 1627,[30] Truth personified by a naked woman is being revealed by Father Time, and the inscription round the device is "Tempore patet occulta veritas—in time the hidden truth shall be revealed."

Then, in further confirmation of this view, there is the statement of Rawley in his introduction to the "Manes Verulamiani." Speaking of the fame of his illustrious master he says, "Be this moreover enough, to have laid, as it were, the foundations, in the name of the present age. Every age will, methinks, adorn and amplify this structure, but to what age it may be vouchsafed to set the finishing hand—this is known only to God and the Fates."

Fig. III.
From the Title Page of "New Atlantis," 1627.