Book II., iv. 3). Bacon's two great divisions (or emanations of

memory and imagination). History and Poetry, become really
two aspects of History, viz., "Beal History" and "Feigned History,"
the former past, the latter present in the Chronicle historical
plays, and perhaps more real in the sense of immortality, than
the dead personages of the past they are copied from.

If we now tvirn to Bacon's third faculty of the mind — Reason
— we find it interpreted as Philosophy. When we come to study
it in the " De Augmentis " critically, we are surprised to find
what prominence Bacon has given, in part of an entire book, to
" Ciphers," "Handing mi the lamp for posterity," and " Tlie JFisdom
of Private Speech." For these subjects are not concerned with
philosophy or science in the accepted sense, or in the spirit of
Bacon's inductive inquiries into " Cold and Heat," " Motion,"
"Heavy and Light," and kindred subjects. These subjects do

HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. 157

not stand singly in the Sixth Book, but are affiliated to the art
of judging or logic, and are really part of Bacon's first faculty,
Memory or History as Custody. To the profound thinker (who
studies these things in the work) there is palpal)lc method and
sequence throughout all this. The glaring j^oint is that all this
applies to Literature, and not to Nature at all. For example, how
are Ave to explain what Bacon calls " Expenentia Literata sive
Venatis Panis" ? (Lib. v., p. 226). He calls this "Literate Experi-
ence," and an "Art of Discovery'' at the same time. He distinctly
separates this from " Interpretatio Naturce or Novum Organnm."
But why it should have this name, "Literate Experience," is a
mystery, unless it refers, as we believe, to some other of Bacon's
writings 1 In the " Platform of the Design " (Table of divisions
of the work) we find

^^^ ^ ,_ / Helps to memory. JFriting.

HI. Custody or Memory ^ -^ r. ,.

^ T^ ■\ HT •, 7/-7 { Frenotion.

into Chapter V. Blemory itself b 11 1 ^ ,,

^ ' ' ( Emblem.

The reader who turns to page 255 and reads what is discussed
vuider these last sub-divisions, will find all this is applied to
" Invention," and not to nature or science. He Avill find the next
page introducing the Sixth Book a great system of Mnemonics
in the w^ords commencing the subject (p. 258). "Now let us
come unto the Art of Delivery, or of expressing, and transferring
those things which are invented, judged and laid up in the Memory,
which, by a general name, we will call Tradition." This estab-
lishes the connection or affiliation we postulate, betAveen this
Cipher system, and Custody, Memory, or HisUmj. We must
remember that Bacon has called Poetry "feigned History," and
declared a "true history" may be written in Poetry, and a
"feigned in 2'>i'ose." Truly considered, the plays of the Shake-
speare so-called Theatre are nearly all Histories, and are just as
entitled to the title as Holinshed's Chronicles, from Avliich in
great measure some are borrowed. They are living, speaking
histories of action, and are " true histories," in the sense they are
not circumscribed to any time, and are representative of the past

15S HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY.

made present. But waiving even this claim for the title we
beg for them, they may contain cij^her records that are of amaz-
ing interest and truth for hvmianity, in the sense of history of
quite another sort. And it is in this belief we point to these
Mnemonics as an art of Delivery from Custody or Memory, to ■\vit,
recollection or remetuhrance /* The student will find all this deals
with writing, literate experience, and not with Science or Nature at
all. Bacon has given us outlines, hints, sketches of a great method
of Ciphers of signs and emblems for Something outside the work
itself, yet affiliated to things invented, which are connected with
History and Poetry. Is it nothing that we have these outside
things invented, described as "types and platforms of Invention,"
upon pages 35, 36 of the Distribution Preface, and re-find the
great system of " Delivery," giving us luider the Thirty-fifth and
Thirty-sixth Stars, ^^ gestures by congruity," ^^ characters reed" or
'■^ dead figures," " Ciphers," and that the plays are thirty-five in the
Catalogue and thirty -six in the (body of the work) 1623 Folio?
Side by side these two works (the plays and the " De Augmentis)"
are published the same year ! The proof that Bacon's " Literate
Experience " or " Hunting of Pan," is purely connected vnth. the
plays, may be seen in the fable of Pan, which is introduced on
the heels of the Drama and Poetry, and is embraced in the
Theatre (page 109) !

In studying this problem, it is highly indispensable to collate
the 1605 " Two Books of the Advancement of Learning " with the
1623 " De Augmentis " and its translation, 1640, by Gilbert Wats.
If the student will study the two last as a development out of the
second book of the first, he Avill arrive at the conclusion Bacon
was maturing some j^lan, repeating the same thing in 1623,
viz., reproducing the first book or " Dignity of Learning " entirely,
which is curious, seeing it already existed. In 1605 Bacon

* Upon page 53, "Merry Wives of Windsor" (Shakespeare's moniunental
age, 1616), we find the 107th, 106th words counted icp from the bottom of
the coluriDi (106) to be " Your licmcmbranc-c." Upon jmgcs 107, 106 of tlie
1640 ^^Advancement " Stcijc Flays and the Drama arc discussed.

HISTORY, POETRY, AND PIIILOSOPFIY. 159

published "The Two Books of the Advancement and Pro-
ficiency of Learning," dedicated to the King. This work con-
tains the three fundamental faculties of the mind, Memory,
Imagination, Reason, corresponding to History, Poetry, Philo-
sophy, as in the "De Augmentis," 1623. In 1612 Bacon writes
<i treatise entitled, "A Description of the Intellectual Globe,"
which commences with (in substance) the same subject Parts of
human learning as the Second Book of the 1605 " Advancement."
So that, as Spedding truly tells us, this tract was an attempt to
rewrite or recast the Second Book of the 1605 "Advancement."
It shows very plainly Bacon held the plan before him as he grew
older (and perhaps wrote more plays), of altering and developing
the scheme and snbdividoni^ of his subject based upon History,
Poetry, and Philosophy. Let it ever be borne in mind the
first book of the " Dignity of Learning " is only preparative, and
cannot be esteemed more than a jwoem. Bacon left that as it
was, and it is only in the emanations of History, Poetry, and
Philosophy we find development and progress. In the 1623
"De Augmentis" we find nine Books. Eight of these Books are
developed or amplifications of the sketches of most of the subjects
embraced in the Second Book of the 1605 "Advancement." So
the reader must remember, that we are in possession of three
works (if not four) which are only continual repetitions, en-
largements, upon fundamentally the same theme. Inasmuch
as the translation of the " De Augmentis" (1640) differs largely
in details from the Latin version from which it was supposed to
be translated, it requires to be introduced into the series for
comparison. Thus we have all these as a trunk or tree with
its branches and growth : —

C 1605. " Two Books of the Advancement of Learning."

j 1612. " Description of Intellectual Globe," and " Thema

j Coeli."

j 1623. " De Augmentis," Ninth Book, ]

[1640. Translation of " De Augmentis." f

i6o HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY.

Bacon Avas ever altering, and he "writes, "Nothing is finished
till all is finished."

Sir Philip Sidney, in his "Defence of Poesie," maintains
that the "Ancient Philosophers, disguised or embodied their
philosophies and cosmogonies in their poetry, as Thales, Em-
jiedocles, Parmenides, Pythagoras, and Phocyclides, who were
poets and philosophers at once." We have only to recall the
fragments of sacred verse preserved to us in the hymns of
Orpheus, Hesiod, Sancumathon, &c. {vide Cory's "Ancient
Fragments "), to endorse this assertion. Bacon very frequently
quotes almost every one of these philosoj'jhers, and if the student
Anil read what Bacon "WTites upon the Drama, Stage Plays, and
Parabolical or Allusive Poetry (pages 106, 107, 108, "Advance-
ment," 1640), he will find all this repeated in substance and at
length, showing how much it had hold of Bacon's mind. " But
Poetry Parabolical excels all the rest, and seemeth to be a sacred
and venerable thing ; esj^ecially seeing Religion itself hath
allowed it in a work of that nature, and by it traffics divine
commodities Avith man. For it serves for ohseuration and it serves
for illustration" (p. 107, "Advancement"). Nor does he here
drop the subject, but returns to it again upon page 108. "There
is another use of Parabolical Poetry, opposite to the former,
Avhich tendeth to the folding up of those things, the dignity
Avhereof deserves to be retired, and distinguish 't as luifh a drawn
(■iiriain." All this follows directly, and is indeed part of his
discussion upon the Drama and Stage Plays. In studying these
jmssages, Ave miist reflect upon Bacon's deeply religious side,
illustrated in this work by 150 quotations from the Bible. We
must further note his extraordinary profundity of mind and
extreme reseml)lance to those ancient Philosopher Poets he so
often quotes in this Avork, as Thales, Democritus, Heraclitus,
Orpheus, Anaxagoi-as, Leucippus, Plato, Lucretius, Parmenides,
all of Avhose philosophies he had exhaustively studied and con-
templated. The extraoi'dinary resemblance of Bacon in (lei)th of
philosophical research to this class of poet philoso})hers of

HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. i6i

antiquity is very striking, and is united at the same time to
an inspired and religious style, half obscure and half prophetic.
AVe have already alluded to this classical and curious coml)ination
of philosophy, poetry, and religion in this work, which is most
remarkable. It is just in these jwints, Bacon seems to unite all
that was best in antiquity, to all that is best in the modern
world, illustrated by his inductive method. We seem to refind
every one of these classical sages reincarnate in him, yet a mind
" o'erpeering " them, and entirely original. It is the most
wonderful combination, without subjection to any one of them, of
spirit and essence it is possible to explain, and yet withal there is
the presence felt of the prophet of the Old Testament joined to
all this. I do not wi'ite this under the influence of enthusiasm,
but in calmly critical spirit. And it jumps exactly with Avhat
Bacon A^Tites upon antiquity and novelty, inclining to neither
unduly, but uniting both as God-Man. * This may invoke
ridicule or excite laughter, but is very short indeed of what
all the best pens of posterity will record upon this marvellous
man, when the truth is more plainly recognised.

There is hardly an author quoted, illustrated, or borrowed from
in Shakespeare, which Ave do not find also quoted or alluded to by
Bacon in his prose writings. For example, the classical historical
plays like "Julius Caesar," "Antony and Cleopatra," "Timon,"
" Coriolanus," are exclusively drawn from Plutarch's "Lives,"
and Lucian. All the trifling details entered into by Plutarch
are reproduced in the play of "Antony and CleojDatra," even to
the incident of the salt fish placed upon the hook of Antony by a
diver. Open the "De Augmentis " of 1623 (or its translation of
1640 by Wats), and see how often Plutarch is c[uoted — j)ages 16,
20, 21, 24, 52, 53 (twice), 54 (three times), 56, 57, 99, 121, 211,
351, 352, 356, 366, 375, 399, 400, 413 (twice), 421, 425, 426,
427, 469, and we are not at all sure this exhausts all Bacon's quota-

* " For we are carried in some degree, with an equal temper of desire, both
to improve the labours of the Ancients, and to make farther progress "
(Distribution Preface, p. 22, "Advancement," 1640).

L

1 62 HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY.

tions. How fond he must have been of this author may be judged.
The "Comedy of Errors" Avas borroAved from the "Mensechmi"
of Plautus. In " Troilus and Cressida," the personages are repro-
duced from Homer's "Iliad." In the "De Augmentis" Plautus
is quoted pages 24, 34, 53, 54, 56, 99, 283, 296, 338, 351, 365,
366, 375, 389, 400, 413, 421, 425, 426, 427, 469, showing Bacon
had him by heart, and was as deeply read in this classical
dramatist as in Plutarch's "Lives." Seneca (quoted in "Hamlet")
also Avas one of Bacon's favourite authors, and is quoted pages
15, 23, 36, 53, 113, 178, 219, 247, 300, 334, 336, 343, 351.
And it is certainly worthy note Bacon quotes Plutarch twice
upon page 53, three times upon page 54 ; Plautus also pages 53,
54, 56 ; Seneca, page 53 ; * for these figures represent Shake-
speare's and Bacon's ages, 1616 (fifty -three and fifty-six, and it is
upon pages 53, 54 of both Comedies and Histories Bacon's name,
and the Christian names Francis and "William, are introduced).
If the reader will turn to the Index of " Humane Authors," cited
by Bacon in the "Advancement" ("De Augmentis") of 1640, at
the end of the work, he will in a moment find himself in the
position of forming a judgment, of Bacon's favourite studies or
authors. At a glance he will see an enormous preponderance of
quotations from Plautus, Seneca, Virgil (26 quotations), Ovid
(13), Horace (7), Plato (16), Tacitus (15), and Cicero (31), showing
the inclinations of Bacon's mind.

Very curiously Plutarch is omitted from the Index. There is
scarcely a rare author cited, or imitated in the plays, Ave do not
find Bacon familiar with. Por example, Pythagoras is alluded
to in the "Merchant of Venice" (act iv. sc. 1), "Twelfth Night"
(act iv. sc. 2), "As You Like It" (act iii. sc. 2); Heraclitus is
indirectly introduced acti. sc. 2, "Merchant of Venice;" Epicurus
is presented as the pleasure-seeking materialist of history in
"Antony and Cleopatra" (act ii. sc. 1); "King Lear" (act i.
sc. 4), "Macbeth" (act v. sc. 3), "Merry Wives of Windsor"

* Attention is called to this, because in the 1G40 " Advancement of Learn-
ing," i)age 55 w mis-payed 53, Sliakcspearc's aye, 1616.

HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. 163

(act ii. sc. 2). Heraclitus was evidently a favourite study of
Bacon's. He quotes him in his " Union of Kingdoms," in his
"Apophthegms," and in this "De Augmentis." Pythagoras, p.
108, and frequently elsewhere (not in the Index). Essay on
"Friendship" (Epicurus, p. 118, "Advancement," 1640).

Gervinus writes : — " If Shakespeare had had occasion at any
time to name his ideal, and to denote the highest examples of
dramatic art which lay before him, he would have named none
but Plautus and Seneca." Now here we find Bacon quoting or
alluding, in one work only, twenty -four times to Plautus. Cicero,
Aristotle, Virgil, and Plautus stand first in the Catalogue of the
1640 " Advancement " in point of quotations or allusions thus:
Cicero (quoted 31 times), Aristotle (28), Virgil (26), Plautus (24).
Persius was evidently known to the author of the plays (act i.
sc. 1, "Hamlet,") and upon p. 222 "Advancement," Bacon alludes
to him. Aristotle is quoted in " Troilus and Cressida " with the
same mistake as we refind Bacon repeating. Paul Stapfer
writes : — " If we take the Avord ' learning ' in its large and liberal
sense, tlmi of all men that ever lived, Shakespeare is am of the most
learned" (p. 105). * How this accords with Bacon's assertion, "
have taken all learning for my province." The most obstinate
and prejudiced opponent of the Baconian theory must grant
Bacon was as deeply read in the classical dramatical models and
poets as the author of the plays, and it is surprising to find the
bent of Bacon's mind as much inclined to poetry as philosophy,

Rabelais is alluded to in " As You Like It " (act iii. sc. 2) : —

Cclia. You must borrow me Gargantuas' moutli.

Compare Holofernes in "Love's Labour's Lost." In the oj^en-
ing of the Sixth Book of the "De Augmentis" Bacon writes : —
" Who then knows if this Avork of ours be not perchance a tran-
script out of an ancient book found of that famous library of
St Victor, a catalogue whereof M. Fra Eabelais hath collected.
For there a book is found entitled, Fornicarmm Artiurn." This

* " Shakespeare and Classical Aiiti(^uity."

1 64 HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY.

is actually a title given in Eabelais' Morks. Another author
read bj' Shakespeare was Du Bartas' " "Week," quoted l)y Bacon
in the "De Augmentis." Montaigne's Essays had evidently an
enormous influence upon both Shakespeare and Bacon. For
the Essay upon " Death " is almost a reproduction of some
passages in the Essay upon the same subject by the Frenchman.
There cannot be a doubt the author of the plays knew Mon-
taigne's Essays, as there are to be refound passages in the play
of the " Tempest," particularly a reproduction of the chapter on
" Cannibals." M. Chasles looks upon the year 1603, in which
(from the date 1603 ■\\Titten in Shakespeare's own hand (?) in
the British IMuseum copy of the Essays translated ])y Florio)
he imagines Montaigne exercised a powerful influence upon the
author of the plays, as a turning-point in his literary career.
Now, Bacon in his Essays openly alludes to Montaigne, and if
he was not the author himself of these Essays, as some people
believe, borroAved in a reckless manner from them. Montaigne's
admiration for Plutarch finds a strange parallel in Bacon's fond-
ness for this author. But we cannot enter into that at present.
There is no doubt Sir Thomas North's translation of Plutarch's
" Lives " was the source studied by Shakespeare, and possibly
this accounts for the omission of Plutarch from the Index of
authors quoted in the " Advancement."

The fondness of Bacon for Plato must be duly weighed side
l)y side with the Platonic character of the so-called Shakespeare
Sonnets and some of the plays. Mr Simpson in his work (" The
Sonnets of Shakespeare ") writes of the Platonism of the Italian
Sonneteers as follows : — " From Italy it radiated through Eu-
rope, and was taken up by Surrey and Spenser. But it was
treated by none with such depth and variety a& hj Shalxspeare,
who has devoted all his sonnets and poems, and perhaps half his pilays
to the subject." Nathaniel Holmes (" Authorship of Shakespeare ") :
— " A thorough student may discover in the plays not only traces
of Plato, but a wonderful approximation to the depth and breadth
of the Platonic philosophy " (p. 58). Plato's Philosophy in its

HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY, 165

full creative sense or poetic aspect, has always been known as
the Love Philosopliij, and is best summed up in the ideal doctrines
(connected Avith the mysteries) discussed in the Banquet, and
illustrated by Socrates. The philosophy of Plato is the philo-
sophy of the poet par excellence. We find it at the Rennais-
ance inspiring Dante, Petrarch, and passing to Spenser, Daniel,
and Drayton. Sir Philip Sidney wrote : — " And truly even
Plato, whosoever well considereth, shall find, that in the body
of his work, though the inside and strength were philosophy,
the skin, as it were, and beauty depended most of Poetry." Now,
Bacon, in his Philosophical works, " On Principles and Origins
according to the Fables of Cupid and Coelum," gives us nothing
short of Plato's doctrine of Love (discussed in the Banquet),
seriously considered and Avorked out at extraordinary length,
as Principles and Origins, to be refound in the Creative Doctrines
of the hymns attributed to OrjDheus (see Cory's "Ancient
Fragments "), which are most intimately connected with the
Greek Mysteries and origins of the Classic Drama. The solid
and lengthy treatment of such a subject by Bacon, is most
suspicious in itself, without counting the parallels betrayed by his
style with passages in "Romeo and Juliet." The influence of
Plato and Cicero in the plays is very conspicuous. The idea
of the music of the Spheres expressed in the "Merchant of
Venice" (act. v. sc. 1), in "Antony and Cleopatra" (act v. sc. 2),
and in " Twelfth Night," or " Pericles " (when upon the discovery
of his daughter Marina he hears sounds of music, which he calls
the " music of the Spheres "), may be undoubtedly traced to the
philosophy of Plato. Knight points out an idea in " Henry V.,"
(act i. sc. 2), which he refers to Cicero's " De Republica," repro-
duced from a fragment by St Augustine of Cicero's lost treatise.
This is the comparison of a well-governed state to the "work
of honey-bees."

For so work the lioney-bees,
Creatures that by a rule in nature teach
The act of order to a peopled kingdom.

(Act i. sc. 2.)

t66 history, poetry, AND PHILOSOPHY.

The frequent introduction of Latinisms in the plays (ably
pointed out by Hallam), (hvelt upon liy Gcrvinus and others, with
the introduction of quotations in Latin from Ovid and Terence in
"The Taming of the Shrew," proves the scholarship of the author
of the i:)lays, and that the absiuxl theory, that translations of
Greek and Latin authors were studied only, has no leg of proof
to stand upon.

In the "Advancement of Learning" (Book IL, ch. iv. § 2)
upon Poetry, we find this passage : —

" The use of this feigned History (as he calls poetry) hath been
to give some shadow of satisfaction to the mind of man, in those
points, wherein the nature of things doth deny it, the world being
in proportion inferior to the soul ; by reason Avhereof there is,
agreeable to the spirit of man, a more ample greatness, a more
exact goodness, and a more absolute variety, than can be found
in the nature of things. Therefore, because the acts or events of
true history have not that magnitude which satisfieth the mind
of man, poesy feigneth acts and events greater and more heroical.
Because true history propoundeth the successes and issues of
actions, not so agreeable to the merits of virtue and vice, there-
fore poesy feigns them more just in retriljution and more accord-
ing to revealed providence. . . . And therefoie poesy was ever
thought to have some participation of divineness, because it doth
raise and erect the mind, by submitting the shows of things to the
desires of the mind ; whereas reason doth buckle and bow the
mind into the nature of things."

We can see by this passage in what high estimation Bacon
held poetry, in the sense of the ideal, real or true. " The more
poetical the more real," writes Novalis. Sir Philip Sidney
writes : — " Of all wTiters under the sun, the poet is the least
liar" ("Defence of Poesie"). And do we not see all that Bacon
claims for poetry — "a more anvple greatness, a more exact goodness,
and a more absolute variety," exemplified to an extraordinary
degree in the Theatre attributed to Skakespeare 1 Have we not
in such characters" as Prospero, Theseus, Caesar, Hamlet, Isabella,

HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. 167

Cordelia, Ophelia, just this "ample greatness" and "exact good-
ness " in endless variety % Bulwer remarks (in the Introduction
to " Zanoni ") " Shakespeare never created a real personage," and
in a sense it is true. Hamlet is a creation, so is Prospfero, and the
originals of these characters had no living prototypes outside the
poet's brain. FalstafFe is, on the other hand, the copy of a man
who lived and was possibly noted by the author. For Bacon was
a keen observer, and Osborn relates how he could '■'■ oxikant a
London Chirurgeon in his own professional slang," or " be equally
at home with a Lord upon Hawks or Horses." But in the ethical
bearing of the plays, in such characters as Lear, Timon, Othello,
Macbeth, all the good and bad qualities of soul are idealised, and
carried to a tragic point. Bacon shows that in the realm of
poetry he Avas by conviction Idealist. And does this not at once
suggest Plato, and account for the Platonic character of the
Sonnets, and some plays like the "Midsummer Night's Dream"?
Plato's entire Love Philosophy is that of the soul, remembering its
divine origin.

Resort to translations, instead of to originals, by the author
of the plays, has been made a point in favour of Shakespeare's
authorship, inasmuch it seems improbable a scholar of such
classical attainments (as Bacon undoubtedly reveals) should
l^etake himself to English versions and not to the souixe
itself. Yet it is certain Bacon borrows in his Essays
FROM North's translation of Plutarch's " Lives," as well
AS the phantom Captain Shakespeare ! Here is proof in
point. In Bacon's Essay upon " Fortune " he Myites : — " It is
written that Timotheus the Athenian, after he had, in the account
he gave to the state of his government, often interlaced this
speech, ' and in this fortime had no part,' never prospered in any-
thing he undertook afterwards" ("Fortune," 1612, 1625).
Compare with this " Timotheus " (North's " Plutarch," page 388) :
"Timotheus .... said, 'My Lords of Athens, Fortune hath had
no iKirt in all this zchich I have told unto you.' Hereupon the Gods,
it would seem, were so angiy with this foolish ambition of

1 68 HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY.

Timothcus, that he never afterwards did any worthy thing ; but
all went utterly against the hair with him, until at length he
came to be so hated of the peo])lc that in the end they banished
him from Athens." Bacon writes in the same Essay upon
"Fortune": — "Certainly there be whose fortunes are like
Homer's verses, that have a slide mid an easiness more than the
verses of other poets ; as Plutarch saith of Timoleon's fortune, in
respect of that of Agesilaus or Epaminondas" (1625, not in 1612
Essays).

Compare North's " Plutarch," page 235 : — " And like as ... .
in Homer's verses, besides the passing workmanship and singular
grace in them, a man iindeth at the first sight, that they tvere easily
made, and without great pain, even so in like manner, whosoever
will compare the painful bloody wars and battles of Epaminondas
and Agesilaus with the wars of Timoleon, in the which besides
equity and justice, there is also great ease and quietness, &c." I
think nobody Avill question Bacon borrowed from North's
"Plutarch," — the words Bacon uses are the same, — "Fortune had
no part," — {"Fortune (hath) had no part"), — "an easiness," — ("were
easily made "). These complete plagiarisms of language prove our
case. And here let us acknowledge we first discovered this in
Dr Abbott's valuable notes to the Essays (1876). In the Essay
on "Prophecies," Bacon again quotes from Plutarch, the evil spirit
which appeared to Brutus before the battle of Philippi, which
episode is introduced in the play of Julius Ccesar. Dr Abbott
writes as follows : —

" Bacon's moral teaching is greatly influenced by two teachers,
Plutarch (taken as the type of the historians of Greece and Rome)
and Machiavelli" (Abbot, Introduction, p. 134, Essays).

Am I a Machiavel ?

("Merry Wives of AViiulsor," act iii. sc. 1.)

Alen5on ! That notorious Macliiavel !

("1 King Henry VI.," act iii. sc. 2.)

Tlie niurderons Macliiavel to school.

("3 King Henry VI., act iii. sc. 2.)

HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. 169

Shakespeare (save the mark!) borrows from North's "Plutarch,"
Timon's speech, as follows : —

I have a tree wliicli grows here in lay garden
That mine own use invites me to cut down,
And shortly must I fell it.

(Act V, so. 2.)

Bacon evidently in his Essay upon "Goodness of Nature,"
or what we should call Good nature — '^Misanthropic that make
it their practice to bring men to the bough and yet never
have a tree for the jmrjjose in their gardens as Timon had." The
title of Bacon's Essay carries conviction of its application to the
play of "Timon of Athens," inasmuch as Timon is portrayed
as a man of good nature, carried to excess, giving away right and
left, and becoming a mi$anthroj)e because his friends are not as
foolish as himself.

North's "Plutarch."

Paul Stapfer (in his " Shakespeare and Classical Antic^uity ")
Avrites: — "One thing, however, is certain, and that is, that it was
■only through Amyot, or rather through his English translator, Sir
Thomas North, that Shakespeare became acquainted with Plutarch.
The proof of this is easy and amusing. In comparing the texts,
Ave find the poet following the translator so closely, as to borrow
from him not only Avhole passages, and various little peculiarities
— an indulgence in epithets, and a certain redundancy of expres-
sion characteristic of good old Amyot, — hut also even his errors and
mistranslations" (Introductory, p. 7).

Every Shakespearian scholar is acquainted with this unques-
tionable fact, or certainty, that the plays of " Julius Caesar,"
"Antony and Cleopatra," and " Coriolanus," were taken not
only entirely from Plutarch's "Lives," hut from North's trans-
lation of the French Plutarch of Amyot, who first rendered the
" Lives " from the original Greek into the French tongue.

" Certainly destiny may easier be foreseen than avoided, con-

170 HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY.

sidering the strange and wonderful signs that were said to l)e
seen before Caesjir's death. For, touching the fires in the element,
and spirits running up and down in the night, and also the
solitary birds to be seen at noondays sitting in the great marhet-
place ; are not all these signs perhaps Avorth the noting in such a
wonderful chance as happened ? But Strabo the philosopher
writeth, that divers men were seen going up and down in fire :
and furthermore that there was a slave of the soldiers that did cast
a marvellous burning flame out of his hand, insomuch that they wha
satv it thought he had been burnt ; but when the fire was out, it was
found lie Juid no hurt " (North's " Plutarch ").

Cicero. Why are you breathless ? and why stare you so ?

Casai. Are not you moved, when all the sway of earth
Shakes like a thing infirm ? 0 Cicero,
I have seen tempests, when the scolding winds
Have rived the knotty oaks ; and I have seen
The andjitious ocean swell, and rage, and foam,
To be exalted with the threat'ning clouds :
But never till to-night, never till now,
Did I go through a tenqjcst dropi)ing fire.
Either there is a civil strife in heaven ;
Or else the world, too saucy with the gods,
Incenses them to send destruction.

Cic. Why, saw you anything more wonderful ?

Casca. A common slave {you know him vxll by sight),
Held tq) fiis left haiid, which did flame and hum
Like tiventy torches join' d ; and yet his hand,
Not sensible of fire, remain d unscorch'd.
Besides (I have not since put up my sword).
Against the Cajntol I met a lion.
Who glared ujion me, and went surly by
Without annoying me : and there were drawn
Upon a heap a hundred ghastly women.
Transformed with their fear ; who swore they saw
Men all in fire walk up and down the streets.
And yesterday the bird of night did sit.
Even at noon-day, upon the market-place,
Hooting and shrieking. When these prodigies
Do so conjointly meet, let not men say
"These are their reasons, — They are natural,"
For I believe they are portentous things
Unto the climate that they point upon.

(" Julius Ciesar.")

HISTORY, POETRY, AND PHILOSOPHY. 171

Compare Bacon on these portents : — " Talia enim evenerunt
anno dccxc, per septendecim dies, et temporibus Justiniani per
annum dimidium, et post mortem Julii Ccesaris per complures dies,
Atque Juliance illiiis obtenebrationis iiutnet testimonium illnd insigne
Virgilii : —

Ille etiam extincto miseratus Cresare Roniain
Cum caput obsciira nitichim fcrrugine texit,
Inipia([ue ititeriiam tiuuieruiit secula uoctem."

(P. 752, vol. iii., Phil. Wks. E. and Spedding.)

CHAPTEK IX.

cymbeline.*

Verulam and Cymbeline.

It is a curious thing to find the last play in the Folio 1623, viz.,
" Cymbeline," closely connected with the old toicn of Verulam, from
Avhence Bacon took his final title, and which is identical -with the
site of St Albans and Gorhaml)ury Park.

Old Verulam was the ancient seat of Cassibulan (or Casibelane),
who Avas uncle to Cymheline : —

Oyrab. Now say, what would A ug^istus Ccesar with us ?

Luc. "When Julius Cccso.r (whose remembrance yet
Lives in men's eyes, and will to ears and tongues
Be theme and hearing ever) was in this Britain,
And conquer'd it, Cassibulan thine Uncle
(Famous in Cccsar's praises, no whit less
Then in his feat deserving it) for him,
And his succession, gi-anted Rome a tribute,
Yearly tliree thousand pounds.

Cassibulan lost his seat, the town of Verolanium (Verulamium),
together Avith his own liberty, to Caius Julius Cnesar. Verulam

* Cymbeline was an early British King of the name Cnno-Belinus Rex,
whose coins are common enough in the country. Nimrod writes : — "These
are talismanic medals (such as, I think, the Chevalier Hammer has proved
to have been frequently struck off the preceptories of the Temple and other
secret fraternities), and they signify (as I understand them) the symbol of
the Magnet Mater and the name of Belcnus, tlie Druidical Apollo ; or, in the
Romance language. Termagant or Tervagana and Apolin, If not, how happens
it, I ask, that King Cuneboline is sometimes a gentleman, sometimes a lady,
ami sometimes a Janus-like figure, with the two heads upon one neck ? But
there is a name on tlie reverse of these coins, which has baffled all investigation
of British antiquarians, Tncis, Tascio, oi' Tasciei.

" It is a matter of serious doubt whether the British kings of Cunobclinus'
time coined any money at all, and it is rather the better opinion that they
did not. See Pegge on the coins of Cunobcline, London, 1765. As the (^ues-

CYAIBELINE. 173

was some time a city of great renown, and held in great regard
by the Romans. Tacitus terms it a free town, and one of the
richest in the land, wherein have been found both pillars and
pavements, and Roman coins. Is there not some evidence sug-
gested by this connection of Cymbeline's uncle Avith Verulam
to point to Bacon ? If not mistaken (as Ave only cpote from
memory), Cymbeline lived in the thirty-third year of our Saviow\
or at the time of His birth. This is possibly in connection Avith
the prediction of the Soothsay ei-, " When as a Lion's Whelp,"
&c., pointing to Christ as the " Lion of the Tribe of Judah."
This play is the last in the Folio, and that should be Avell borne
in mind in connection Avith its mysterious prediction at the
end.

Imogen is sister to Guiderius and Arviragus, the exact relation-
ship of Helen (Imorgen or Morgana) to Castor and Pollux.
And Bacon, in his " History of the Winds," interprets them both,

tion proposed is, whether the numismatic Cunobeline belongs to the age of
Caligula, or to the Romance age, it is no light circumstance, that we find
him figuring away as a hero of romance and father of Imorgen or Iviogen the
Princess of the Morning, whose wild adventure SJmkespeare has iweserved to
Its. I'lnm-gcn is the witch Morgana, by whom Arthur's gi'ievous wound was
healed in Avalon " (Vol. I., p. 466, "Nimrod").

Nimrod connects the name of Morgan, Imogen, or Imorgen with the
Morvxning, or the break of day, with the city of Aurora, or ihe city of Medea
and of Circe. Adonis the hunter was the son of the Morning. He identifies
Imogen Avith Morgana, whose history seems to imply that she was Helen "
(pp. 70, 71, VoL III.).

All this is very important when examined by the light of the play of
"Cymbeline." Because Helen or Imorgen was the sister of Castor and
Polydeuces, and there is a striking parallel between Imogen and the tAvo lost
or banished brothers in the play. It is to be questioned whether the author
was not quite conscious of all this ? Imogen is very pointedly connected with
the morning in the following verse sung by Cloten under her window : —

Harke, Harke, the Larke at Heaven's gate sings,

And Phcebus 'gin arise.
His steeds to Avater at those springs

On chaliced flower that lies :
And Avinking IVIary-ljuds begin to ope their golden eyes,
With everything that pretty is, My Lady SAveet arise,

Arise, Arise !

174 CYMBELINE.

with their sister Helen, as prognostics of a severe storm at sea,
in short, as winds. He writes : —

" The ball of fire, called Cai^tor l.)y the ancients, that appears at
sea, if it be single, prognosticates a severe stomi (seeing it is
Castor the dead brother), which will be much more severe if the
ball does not adhere to the mast, but rolls or dances about. But
if there are two of them (that is, if Pollux the living brother be
present), and that too when the storm has increased, it is
reckoned a good sign. But if there are three of them (that is, if
Helen, the general scourge, arrive), the storm will become more
fearful. The fact seems to be, that one by itself seems to indicate
that the tempestuous matter is crude ; two, that it is prepared
and ripened ; three or more, that so great a quantity is collected
as can hardly be dispersed."

The reader will see that Helen is the emblem of the gale that

brings the Tempest. Noav we have seen that Helen is another

name for Imogen according to the learned Nimrod. Compare

this in " Cymbeline." Ai-viragus says of Imogen : —

Nobly he yokes,
A smiling, with a sigh ; as if the sigh
Was that it was, for not being such a smile :
The smile, mocking the sigh, that it would tly
From so divine a Temple, to commix
With winds that sailors rail at. (Act iv. so. 2.)

The last line is a hint for a gale or tempest. The critic smiles.

But wait a l)it. Both Castor and Pollux are also connected with

Avinds, as harbingers, as we find Bacon stating. Compare Guideriiis

and Arviragus : —

Bel. 0 thou goddess.

Thou divine Nature, how thyself thou blazon'st
In these two princely boys ! They are as gentle
yls zephyrs, hloivhuj below the violet,
Not wagging his sweet head : and yet as rough
Their royal blood cnchaf'd, as the rud'st wind,
That by the top doth take the mountain pine
And make him stoop to the vale.

(Act iv. so. 2. )

Here again we have gentle breezes or " zephyrs," which can

CYMBELINE. 175

become gales or tempests and make the mountain pine " stoop to

the vale." But we have yet the most striking and forcible proof

to adduce Avith regard to Imogen or Helen. In the last scene of

the last act we have the soothsayer's prediction, in which he

identifies Imogen Avith a piece of '•'■tender air." Now we are

going to show that Bacon, in his Latin "De Augmentis," 1623,

uses the same Latin words for " tender air " as we find in the play,

and that in the 1640 "Advancement" (which is one of Bacon's

true works) it is translated a ^'gentle gale of mnd." The

soothsayer says : —

Thou Lconatus art the Lion's whelp,

The fit and apt construction of thy name

Being Lconatus, doth import so much :

The piece of tender air, thy vertuous daughter,

Which we call Mollis Acr, and Mollis acr

We term it Mulier ; which Mulier I divine

Is this most constant wife.

(" Cynibeline," act v. sc. 5.)

Now in the Fourth Book of the 1623 "De Augmentis," we find
Bacon Avriting of the Sold, which he identifies with Spirit, as
follows : —

" Quid enim ad Dodrinam de substantia Animae faciunt, Actus
Ultimus, et Forma Corporis, et hujusmodi Nugse Logicee ?
Anima siquidem, Sensibilis sive Brutorum plan6 substantia Cor-
porea censenda est, a calore attenuata, et facta Invisibilis ; aura
(inquam) ex Natura Flammea et Aerea conflata, Aeris Mollitie
ad impressionem recipiendam," &c. (p. 606, vol. i., Phil. Wks.).

We find this passage rendered in the 1640 translation of the
"De Augmentis": — "For what makes these terms of Actus
Ultimus, and Forma Corporis, and such-like wild logical univer-
salities, to the knowledge of the soul's substance ? For the
sensible soul, or the soul of beasts, must needs be granted to be a
corporal substance attenuated by heat and made invisible. I say
a thin, gentle gale of wind, swell'd and blown np from some flamy
and airy nature, indeed, with the softness of air to receive
impression" (p. 208, Lib. IV., 1640, "Advancement of Learning").
Now Ave cannot believe that any translator Avould take it upon

176 CYMBELINE.

himself to render '■'•Aerh MoUitie " as " a gentle gale of wind " unless
instructed to do so. But the reader will see how thoroughly
this is in harmony with what we have already quoted from
"Cymbeline" in both passages, for what is the line —

Witli winds that sailors rail at,
or,

Zeph}-rs blowing below the violet,

but a gentle gale, or a tempest of mncl ?

" Cymbeline" is the last play in the 1623 Folio, and upon the
last piage, final scene, last act, we find the soothsayer's prediction
already quoted Avith the same Latin tvords "aeris moUicie," or " mollis
aer," as in the 1623 "De Augmentis." Our conviction is that
the twenty-sixth star, under which this section about Soul or
Spirit occurs, is connected with the twenty -sixth star of the
MSS. in Bacon's hand attached to the title page, or a loose leaf,
of Hermes Stella. We find Guiderius connected with a star.

Guiderius had
Upon his neck a mole, a sanguine star.
It was a mark of ivonder.

("Cymbeline," act v. sc, 5.)

In the second decan of Cassiopeia there is a star called Mira,
or the changeable star in the Ned; meaning IFoncler* Bacon
mentions in his " Cogitationes Rerum," a star which appeared in
1572 in Cassiopeia. He writes: — " Mutationes in regionibus
cselestibus fieri, ex cometis quil)usdam satis liquet ; iis dico qui
certam et constantem configurationem cum stellis fixis servarunt ;
([ualis fuit ilia quae in Cassiopea nostra setate apparuit." f *' This
star" (writes Spedding) ''in Cassiopeia appeared in 1572," Maz-
zaroth considers the star of 1572 to have been the star of Bethlehem,

* See page 9, "Mazzaroth, or the Constellations."

+ P. 33, vol. iii., Phil. Wks., Spedding. "Id enim perspicitur in cometis
sublimioribus, iis nimirum qui et tiguram stellar induerunt absque coma,
neque solum ex doctrina parallaxium supra lunam collocati esse probantur,
sed configurationem etiam certam et constantem cum stellis fixis habuerunt,
et stationes suas servarunt, neque errones i'uerunt ; quales retas nostra non
semel vidit, primo in Cassiopea, iterum non ita pridem in Ophiucho " (p. 752,
vol. iii., Phih Wks., E. andS.)

CYMBELINE.

177

which he says returns every 300 years.* He writes : — " The

bright star which appeared between Cepheus and Cassioj)eia in

the years 945, 1264, and 1572, the last time being observed by

Tycho, the great Danish Astronomer, is considered to have

probably been the same star at its periodical return of about

300 years " (p. 604).

But to return from this speculation. We find in " Cymbeline "

this passage : —

In a great pool, a swan's nest.

(Act iii. sc. 4. )

Out of the egg of Leda or the swan, were born Castor and
Polydeuces, and the third to come out was Helen.

We cannot of course produce any evidence of the opinions
we now are going to adduce. But our own conviction is that this
last play of " Cymbeline," if not probably the last written, cer-
tainly the last in the Folio, is an astronomical play in connection
with the Cipher, and the entire revelation of the cycle of this en-
chanted art. Leonatus, the " lAon's whelp " of the tribe of Judah,
is an unmistakable hint for a Messiah. Leo and Virgo are two
signs that are most important in their connection. Virgo, is but
a form of Persephone or Proserf)ine, in the heavens, the summer
child of Ceres, crowned at Midsummer with the sun in Leo.
Bacon interprets Proserpine as Spirit, exactly what we have
found Imogen, as " tender air," or " 7noHis aer" or wind. Spirit
and air or wind are interchangeable. Bacon constantly uses the
word air for Spirit as we have already seen. Virgo was the seed
bearer in the zodiac. She is intimately connected with the

* This same star is expected to reappear in 1890 or 1891. Sjjedding
writes: — "The new star in Cassiopeia shone with full Instre on Bacon's
freshmanship. " Mazzaroth writes: — "The new star seen by Tycho Brahe,
in Cassiopeia, which blazed for a short time (1572-1574) and then disappeared,
sufficiently authorises us to regard this star as no meteor of our earth or sky,
but as one of the heavenly bodies pre-ordained to the glorious office of herald-
ing, by an increase of its own brightness, the coming in splendour of Him, the
true Light, by whom and for whom all things were created" ("Constella-
tions," i. 16). " Some have thought that Virgil (Eel. ix. 47) speaks of this
star as 'Csesaris astrum.' There is a star so-called often an antique gem of
Julius Cffisar" {lb., p. 106).

M

178 CYMBELINE.

" Lion's Whelp " or the Messiah. " The two signs of Leo and
Vireo are often found together on the breasts of mummies"
(" Eosicrucians," Jennings, 65). "The attributes of Demeter
(Ceres, Isis) and Persephone are ears of corn, poppy, and a twcli "
("Preller," i. 492). " Her representation is very nearly identical
with the figure of the ViRGO in Albumazar (pp. 78, 79, Eschen-
burg Plate, xi. p. 428, § 64). Her dragons which draw her chariot
seem to indicate the return from Hades (Hell)." Now the scene
in " Cyml)eline," in which Imogen's bed-chamber is introduced,
and lachimo comes out of his chest, ])arallels the winter sleep
of Persephone in Hades or Hell. Dionysus Chthonios, a divinity
of the underworld for a season, "deeps in the sacred abode of
Persephone" lachimo exclaims in the chamber of Imogen : —

Sw^ift, swift you dragons of the night ! that dawniiig
May base the raven's eye : I lodge in fear ;
Though this a heavenly angel, hell is liere.

(Act ii. sc. 2.)

Imogen, indeed, throughout the play presents the picture of a
Spirit or Angel. Not only is this apparent everywhere, but the
text supports it repeatedly. When Imogen enters the cave (the
sixth scene of the third act), Belarius exclaims : —

Bel. Stay ! come not in :

But that it eats our victuals, I should think
Here were a fairy.

Gf-md. What's the matter, sir ?

Bel. By Jupiter, an angel : or if not,
An earthly paragon ! Behold diviness
No elder than a boy.

(Act iii. sc. 6.)

No pains have been spared to associate Imogen with Sj^irit,
Air, as an Angel or Fairy. We find her in context with a monu-
ment, and thus with Death. lachimo exclaims of Imogen whilst
he gazes on her asleep : —

0 sleep thou A2}e ofdealli, lie dull upon lier,
And he her sense but as a monument,
Thus in a Chapel lying.

(Act ii. sc. 2.)

CYMBELINE. 179

He compares her to the Phcenix : —

All of her, that is out of door, most rich :
If she be furnish'd with a mind so rare.
She is alone th' Arabian bird.

(Act i. sc. 7.)

The " Arabian bird " was the Phoenix, the bird of resurrection
or revelation. We are immediately in context with that pro-
phetic and mysterious Threne, which ends the poems known as
Shakespeare's, — the " Phoenix and Turtle : " —

Let the bird of loudest lay,

On the sole Arabian tree

Herald sad and trumpet be.

To whose sound chaste wings oliey.

All these points we bring forward are in startling harmony
with each other. Prosperine or Spirit (as Bacon interprets her
in his "Wisdom of the Ancients") typified the resurredionary
power of nature asleep during JFinter, rearising Avith Spring and
Summer. In fact, Prosperine's awakening is the Phoenix of
Nature arising out of its ashes. Cannot the student see a
profound parallel in all this, particularly in the connection
with Death of Imogen ? And also the parallel of her bed-
chamber, with its comparison to Hell or the Underworld ? For
Prosperine Avas supposed to pass the six winter months with
Pluto in the Underworld.

The Lion of the Tribe of Judah.

" 1. And I saw in the right hand of Him that sat on the
throne a book ivritten ivithin and on the back side, sealed with
seven seals.

"2. And I saw a strong angel proclaiming with a loud voice,
Who is worthy to open the book, and to loose the seals thereof ?

" 3. And no man in heaven, nor in earth, neither under the
earth, was able to open the book, neither to look thereon.

" 4. And I wept much, because no man was found Avorthy to
open and to read the book, neither to look thereon.

" 5. And one of the elders saith unto me, Weep not : behold,

i8o CYMBELINE.

the Lion of the Tribe of Judah, the root of David, hath prevailed
to open the book, and to loose the seven seals thereof '*'
(Kevelation, eh. v.).

Compare Lord Bacon's motto in chief (attached to "Novum
Organum,"and "De Augmentis," 1623): "But thou, 0 Daniel,
shut up the words, and seal the hook, even to the time of the end :
many shall run to and fro, and knowledge shall be increased " *
(ch. xii. 4). "We find this also attached to one of the works of
Thomas Vaughan, the celebrated Eosicrucian. (" Theosophica
Magica "). In "Cymbeline" we refind the "Lion's IFlielp" identified
with Leonatus Posthumus, by the soothsayer. "Whenas a
Lion's Whelp shall to himself unknown, ^vithout seeking, find
and be embraced by a piece of tender air," &c. Noav it is very
curious to find Bacon, under the twenty-sixth star, describing the
nature of the soul, in Latin, in the same Avords as the soothsayer
here employs, viz., "mollis aer" and as a gentle "gale of wind''
Spirit is, of course, implied in air. It may be disputed whether
Bacon attached any belief to the prophecies of Scripture, so we
give his own words, showing clearly he had faith in the Scriptural
succession of ages.

" As to the interpretation of the Scripture solute and at large,
there have been divers kinds introduced and devised, some of
them rather curious and unsafe, then sober and warranted.
Notwithstanding, this much must be confessed, that the Scrip-
tures being given by inspiration, and not by humane reason, do
differ from all other books in the Author, which by consequence
doth draw on some difference to be used by the Expositor. For
the inditer of them did know four things which no man attains
to know, which are the mysteries of the Kingdom of Glory, the
perfection of the Laws of Nature, the secrets of the heart of Man,

* Bacon writes : — " And this excellent felicity in nautical art, ami environ-
ing the world, may plant also an expectation of farther Pkoficienciks and
AufJMENTATiuN's OF SciKNCES ; Specially seeing it seems to be decreed by the
Divine Council, that these two should be coevals, for so the Prophet Daniel
speaking of the latter times foretells Plurimi pertransihunl ct augcbitur
scientia" (" Advancement of Learning").

CYMBELINE. i8i

and the future succession of all ages" "Advancement of Learning,"