CHAPTER 11.

AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY.

" He seems to have written the Essays with the pen of Shakespeare." —
Alexander Smith.

Professor Fowler writes : "In vol. i. p. 5 De Maistre makes what appears
to me to be a very true criticism on Bacon — ' Rarement il resiste a I'envie
d'etre poete '" (p. 137, Introduction, "Nov. Org.").

Richard III.

Let those who would trace Bacon's mind in the characters of
the plays, carefully read his Essay on " Deformity," and then
study the character of Richard III. as depicted in his self-exam-
ining speech (at the opening of the play), and notice how exactly
what Bacon remarks upon the compensations of Nature are illus-
trated in this one poi'trait.

"Deformed persons are commonly even with nature, for as
nature hath done ill by them, so do they by nature, being for the
most part (as the Scripture sayeth) void of natural affection, and
so they have their revenge of nature ; certainly there he a consent
between the body and the mind, and where nature erreth in the one,
she ventiueth in the other. Whosoever hath anything fixed in
his person that doth induce contempt, hath also a perpetual spur
in himself to rescue and deliver himself from scorn. Therefore
all Deform.ed persons are extreme bold. First, as in their own defence
as being exposed to scorn, but in process of time, by a general
habit. So that in a great wit Deformity is an advantage to rising.
Still the ground is they will, if they be of spirit, seek to free
themselves from scorn ; which must be, either by virtue or malice "
("Deformity," 1625).

26 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY.

Richard. I, that am ciirtail'd of this fair proportion,
Cheated of feature by dissembling nature,
Deformed, unfinished, sent before my time
Into this breathing rvorld, scarce half made tq),
And that so lamely and unfashionable,
That dogs bark at me as I halt by them.
"Why I (in this weak piping time of peace)
Have no delight to pass away the time,
Unless to see my shadow in the sun.
And descant on mine own Deformity.
And therefore since I cannot prove a lover,
To entertain these fair well-spoken days,
I am determined to prove a villain.

Let the reader next read the Essay on " Boldness," which

Bacon has already declared is an attribute of deformed persons.

And let us call to mind Richard III., as Duke of Gloucester,

making love to Lady Anne over the coffin of her husband, killed

by him. " Wonderful like is the case of boldness, in civil business ;

what first 1 Boldness ; what second and third 1 Boldness. And

yet Boldness is a child of ignorance, and baseness, far inferior to

other parts. But nevertheless it doth fascinate, and bind hand

and foot, those that are either shallow in judgment, or weak in

courage, which are the greatest part ; yea, and prevaileth with

Avise men at weak times. Therefore we see it hath done wonders

in popular states, but with senates and princes less. And more

even upon the first entrance of Bold Persons into Action than soon

after ; fm- Boldness is an ill keeper of promise " ("Boldness"). We

have already found Bacon writing upon Deformity: "Certainly

there is a consent between the body and the mind." Richard III.

says : —

Then since the heavens have shaped my body so,
Let Hell make crooked my mind to answer it.

In Bacon's " Natiual History " he writes : " It is an usual
observation, that if the hod// of one murdered be brought before the
murderer, the wounds will bleed afresh " (Century x., Exp. 958).
An illustration of this is given in the play of " King Richard the
Third," in the celebrated second scene of the first act, where
Richard (as Duke of Gloucester) stops the " corse " of King

AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 27

Henry the Sixth, Avhom he murdered in order to court Lady
Anne.

Glouc. Stay you that bear the corse, and set it down.
Anne. What black magician conjures up this fiend,
To stop devoted charitable deeds \

If thou delight to view thy heinous deedSj
Behold this pattern of thy butcheries.
0, gentlemen, see, see ! dead Henry's wounds-
Open their congeaVd mouths, and bleed afresh.
Blush, blush thou lump of foul deformity ;
For 'tis thy presence that exhales this blood
From cold and emjdy veins, where no blood dwells ;
Thy deed inhuman a7id unnatural,
Provokes this deluge most unnatural.

(" Richard III.," act i. sc. 2.)

Thersites.
Thersites is described in the list of ^'■Dramatis Personce" pre-
fixed to the play of " Troilus and Cressida " as " A Deformed and
scurrilous Grceclan." Once more we find him, as we have already
found Eichard the Third, of an envious, discontented disposition.
Achilles addresses him : —

How now thou co7-e of envy !
And Patroclus exclaims : —

Why, thou damnable box of envy !

Bacon concludes his Essay upon " Envy " with the words : —
" It is also the vilest afiection, and the most depraved ; for which
cause it is the proper attribute of the Devil, who is called the Envious
Man that soweth tares amongst the wheat by night." Thersites,
in a soliloquy following his quarrel with Ajax, ends : —
I have said my prayers, and devil envy, say Amen.

Bacon writes : — "A man that is husij, and inquisitive, is commonly
envious : for to know much of other men's matters, cannot be, be-
cause all that ado may concern his own estate ; therefore it must
needs be, that he taJceth a kind of ■play pleasure in looking upon the
fortunes of others; neither can he, that mindeth but his own business,

28 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY.

find much matter for envy." Hoav this is exactly reflected in the
portrayal of the character of Thersites, may be seen by turning
to the play. He is always looking on at others, spjang and criti-
cising, full of other people's business and with none of his own,
unless this is his especial vocation. He maintains this role to
the very last of a looker cm or spectator, and at the conclusion of
the play, whilst the Greeks and Trojans are fighting hard,
exclaims : —

Now they are clapper-clawing one another, ril go looke on.
Thersites takes no interest in himself, but is for ever depressing
others, abusing them, and implying they have no wit or brains ;
and his curiositij is so great, we find him bent upon nothing (during
the battle at the finale of the play) but seeing the meeting of
Troilus and Diomede. He exclaims, " I would fain see them
meet," and although his life is threatened by Hector, immediately
the danger is past he recm\s to the objects of his insatiable curi-
osity again in the words : —

What's become of the wenching rogues ? I think they have swallowed one
another. I would laugh at that miracle — yet in a sort lechery eats itself :
I'll seeke them.

Bacon remarks: "Nan est curiosus quin idem sit malevolus."
That Thersites is malevolent to the backbone cannot be questioned.
For malevolence (following a dictionary and not om' inspiration)
means spiteful, bitter, rancorous, evil-minded, and Thersites is all
these, describing himself to Hector as "a scurvy railing knave, a
very filthy rogue."

The last time we hear of Thersites in this play he is presented
as brought to bay by a bastard, and confessing himself a bastard
also in order to save his life (or escape combat), on the score of
kindred. This is evidently a touch of Bacon's in harmony with
his Essay on "Envy," where he says: "Deformed Persons, and
Eunuchs, and old men, and Bastards are envious."

Unter Margakelox.

Afar, Turn, slave, and fight.
Thcr. Wliat art thou ?

AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 29

Mar. A bastard son of Priam's.

TJier. I am a bastard too ; I love bastards : I am a bastard begot, bastard
instructed, bastard in mind, bastard in valour, in everything illegitimate.
One bear will not bite another, and wherefore should one bastard ? Take
heed, the quarrel's most ominous to us : if the son of a whore fight for a
whore, he temjits judgment : farewell, bastard.

Mar. The devil take thee, coward ! \Ej:it.

In Bacon's " Antitheta " upon " Beauty " we read : " Deformed
Persons commonly have their revenge of Nature." Again, " De-
formed Persons seek to rescue themselves from scorn by malice
and boldness."

The Bastard Edmund.
("King Lear.")
Bacon in his Essay on "Envy": — "Deformed persons, and
eunuchs, and old men, and bastards are envious : for he that cannot
possibly mend his own case, will do what lie can to impair a7iother's."
In the Tragedy of " King Lear " we have the Bastard Edmund,
half brother to Edgar (sons of Gloucester), filled with envy of his
brother's legitimate birth, forging a letter pm^posing to be from
the latter, and letting his father see it with the express purpose
of damaging his brother's fortune and inheritance. As we have
already quoted, but must again repeat, "Again Envy is ever joined
with the comparing of a man^s self ; and where there is no compari-
son, no envy." In the case of Cassius in "Julius Ctesar" we shall
presently find the text of the play introducing this effect of com-
parison with wondrous art. And in the case of the bastard
Edmund Ave refind once more a soliloquy of mortified and envious
self-comparison with his legitimate brother Edgar : — -

Unter Edmund, with a letter.

Edm. Thou, nature, art my goddess ; to thy law
My services ai'e bound. Wherefore should I
Stand in the plague of custom, and permit
The curiosity of nations to deprive me.
For that I am some twelve or fourteen moonshines
Lag of a brother ? Why bastard ? wherefore base ?
When my dimensions are as well compact,
My mind as generous, and my shape as true,

30 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY.

As honest madam's issue % Why brand they us
With base ? with baseness ? bastardy ? base, base ?
Who, in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce quality
Than doth, witliin a dull, stale, tired bed,
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops.
Got 'tween sleep and wake ? Well, then,
Legitimate Edgar, I must have your land :
Our father's love is to the bastard Edmund
As to the legitimate : fine word, — legitimate !
Well, my legitimate, if this letter speed.
And my invention thrive, Edmund the base
Shall top the legitimate. I grow ; I prosper :
Now, gods, stand up for bastards !

Entca- Glotjcestek-

Glou. Kent banish'd thus ! and France in choler parted !
And the king gone to-night ! subscribed his power !
Confined to exhibition ! All this done
Upon the gad ! Edmund, how now ! wlmt news ?

Edm. So please your lordship, none. [Putting up the letter.

Glou. Why so earnestly seek you to j^nit up that letter ?

Edm. I know no news, my lord.

Glou. What paper were you reading 1

Edm. Nothing, my lord.

Gtou. No? What needed, then, tliat terrible dispatch of it into your
pocket ? the quality of nothing hatli not such need to hide itself. Let's see :
come, if it be nothing, I shall not need spectacles.

Edin. I beseech you, sir, pardon me : it is a letter from my brother, that I
have not all o'er-read ; and for so much as I have perused, I find it not fit for
your o'er-looking.

Glou. Give me the letter, sir.

Edm. I shall offend, either to detain or give it. Tlie contents, as in part
I understand them, are to blame.

Glou. Let's see, let's see.

Edm. I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay
or taste of my virtue.

Glou. [Heads] " This policy and reverence of age makes the world bitter to
the best of our times ; keeps our fortunes from us till our oldness cannot relish
them. I begin to find an idle and fond bondage in the o})pression of aged
tyranny ; who sways, not as it hath power, but as it is suffered. Come to me,
that of this I may speak more. If otir father would sleep till I waked him,
you should enjoy half his revenue for ever, and live the beloved of your
brother, "Edgar."

Hum — conspiracy! — "Sleep till I waked liim, — you should enjoy half his
revenue," — My son Edgar ! Had he a hand to write this ? a heart and brain
to breed it in ? — When came this to you ? who brought it ?

AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 31

Edm. It was not l>roiight me, my lord ; there's the cunning of it ; I found
it thrown in at the casement of my closet.

Glou. You know the character to be your brother's ?

Edm. If tlie matter were good, my lord, I durst swear it were his ; hut, in
respect of that, I would fain think it were not.

Glmi. It is his.

Edm. It is his hand, my lord ; but I hope his heart is not in the contents.

Glou. Hath he never heretofore sounded yon in this Inisiness ?

Edm. Xever, my lord : but I have heard him oft maintain it to be fit, that,
sons at jjcrfect age, and fathers declining, the father should be as ward to the
son, and the son manage his revenue.

Glcm. 0 villain, villain ! His very opinion in the letter ! AbhoiTed
villain ! Unnatural, detested, brutisli villaisi ! worse than bratish ! Go,
sirrah, seek liim ; I'll apprehend him : abominable villain ! Where is he ?

(" King Lear," act i. sc. 2.)

If we no^y turn to Bacon's Essay on " Cunning," we find the
letter trick of Edmund exactly descril)ed : " Some p-ociire them-
selves to he surp/ised at such times, as it is like the paiiy that they
work upon, mil suddenly come upon them : and to he found vnth a
letter in their hand, or doing somewhat which they are not accustomed
with the end, they may he opposed of those things, which of themselves
they are desirous to utter." This situation is pretty closely approxi-
mated, for Edmund allows his father to surprise him with the
forged letter expressly that it may "be read, and himself cate-
chised as to the contents and bearing thereof. This example
of " cunning " is very much after the manner of lago's practice
upon Othello ; and Gloucester is, as Edmund exclaims, " a credu-
lous father," -m'thout much suspicion. Bacon writes : " For
some are begotten of old men, some of young men. Again, some
in the fervency of the father's love (as it is commonly in hasfards) ;
others after the cooling of it as in long married couples" ("Hist.
Life and Death," Exp. 32),

Bastard. Why "brand they ns

With base ? -with baseness 1 bastcnxly 1 Imse, base ?
Who in the lusty stealth of nature, take
More composition and fierce qi;ality
Than doth, within a dull, stale, tired bed
Go to the creating a whole tribe of fops,
Got 'tween a sleep and wake ?

(" Lear," act i. sc. 2.)

32 AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY.

The Bastard "Don John."
("Much Ado al)Oi\t Nothing.")

In the play of "Much Ado about Nothing" we are once more
presented Avith a Bastard in the person of Boa John, half-
brother to Don Pedro, Prince of Arragon. Here again (as in
" King Lear ") the bastard is depicted as an en\aous, malevolent
villain, who is at the liottom of all the mischief in the play. He
is introduced in the first act and third scene with his two
followers, Conrade and Borachio. These two men are employed
as spies, and answer exactly to what Bacon Avrites in his Essay
"Of Followers and Friends." "There is a kind of Followers
likewise which* are dangerous, heing indeed espials; which inquire
the secrets of the hmise, and hear tales of them to others. Yet such
men many times are in great favour ; for they are officious, and
commonly exchange tales." Almost with the first words Borachio
utters and reports himself in the play, we find him fulfilling this
role of an esjnal, and listening to the secrets of the Prince and
Claudio, whilst secreted behind the arras.

Bora. Being entertained for a perfumer, as I was smoking a musty room,
comes me the prince and Claudio, hand in hand, in sad conference : I Avhipt
me behind the arras : and there heard it agi-eed upon that the prince should
woo Hero for himself, and having obtained her, give her to Count Claudio.
• (Act i. sc. 3, " Much Ado about Xothing.")

Don John is first introduced as a melancholy, discontented
man, who (as Conrade says to him) " has of late stood out against
his brother." Don John, in spite of restored favour (" hath taken
vou newly into his grace "), is envious of Claudio, who has become
Don Pedro's " right hand " or favourite. AVhen the Bastard hears
of Claudio's engagement to Hero, he determines to cross it.

Enter Don John and Borachio.

I). Jo7m. It is so ; the Count Claudio shall marry the daughter of Leonato.

Bora. Yea, my lord ; but I can cross it.

I). John. Any bar, any cross, any impediment will be uk dieinable to nie ;
I am sick in dis]ileasure to him, and whatsoever comes athwart his affection
ranges evenly with mine. How canst thou cross this marriage ?

AMBITION, ENVY, AND DEFORMITY. 33

Bm'cu Not honestly, my lord ; but so covertly that no dishonesty shall
appear in me.