CONTENTS. - Bacon's pride in his writings and their competency as testimony- General ignorance concerning him and his works-His 104th Psalm-His biographers' opinions of his attempts at versifica- tion-Contrast of his usual laborious method with the ease Repugnance to the Baconites' claim-Queen Elizabeth's estimate of Bacon-His doubt of the permanency of the English lan- guage-His quotations-His opinion of stage acting—His The stage as a symbol-Shakespeare-Bacon-Bacon's notes on conversation-Hamlet's advice to the players-Bacon's ap- paratus of rhetoric- The Epitaph - Bacon's Tomb - The Cipher-The proclivities of Shakespeare and Bacon-Bacon as an Inquisitor-The quality of mercy-Bacon as a friend— Bacon's grants of patents to monopolies—Macaulay's estimate of Bacon's character. His servility to Buckingham - His Bacon as a "soaring angel" Advice to the person who has incurred the displeasure of his prince - Thrift that follows Bacon's interpretation of "A just man is merciful to his beast," etc.-His essay on Deformity-His interpretation of another proverb-His habit of generalization-His Essay on Friendship The New Atlantis-Bacon's sketch of Queen Elizabeth - His censure of fictions of the imagination-His resolve to publish all his writings-Time occupied in writing the plays-The- Sonnets-Queen Elizabeth's dislike to Bacon-His propensity to borrow-His lack of traits that are glorified by Shakespeare 157 Court favourites as patrons of the stage-Shakespeare's industry and property in the plays-Bacon's manuscript-Bacon's ex- periment with the fowl-Bacon's whereabouts when the plays What is known of Shakespeare's life-The burning of the Globe Theatre-Friendship between Lord Southampton and Shake- speare a deadly peril to Bacon-Play of Richard II. final and Further defence of the Baconite claim impossible-Reasons for belief in Shakespeare-Ben Jonson's sketch of Shakespeare- CHAPTER I. Bacon's pride in his writings and their competency as testimony— General ignorance concerning him and his works-His 104th Psalm-His biographers' opinions of his attempts at versificationContrast of his usual laborious method with the ease and freedom with which he must have "tossed off" Shakespeare's poems. IF F Lord Bacon could have foreseen that at some future time a dispute would arise concerning him, and especially as an author, he would have rested in entire security, to have his writings speak for him, and it is largely with the view of presenting him by his own testimony that this volume is undertaken. That he wished to be judged by his literary work cannot be doubted, and I am confident that by applying this rule it will appear that the fame he desired, and laboured to earn, was of a totally different nature from that which his admirers of the present wish to secure for him. Probably no other writer, of any period, placed a higher valuation on his own works, B gave more undisguised evidence of complete satisfaction with the result of his labours, or was more studiously economical of his time and of his genius. This characteristic is not only in striking contrast with Shakespeare, who absolutely ignored his own personality in his art, but it also lessens the possibility of Bacon having neglected or disowned any of the products of his thought. As illustrative of the estimate he placed on his works, and upon himself, the following is one of his introductions: "FRANCIS OF VERULAM'S GREAT INSTAURATION. ANNOUNCEMENT OF THE AUTHOR. "Francis of Verulam thought thus, and such is the method which he determined within himself, and which he thought it concerned the living and posterity to know." He nowhere conceals his concern as to the place he shall occupy in history, or his anxiety as to how posterity shall judge him, and to secure for himself preeminent fame he spent untold time and labour upon the works that came from his hand. His "Novum Organum" was revised and copied twelve times before he |