Bacon acknowledged to be a Poet.
In discussing the question of the Authorship of the plays many people
appear to be unaware that Bacon was considered by his contemporaries to
be a great poet. It seems therefore advisable to quote a few witnesses
who speak of his pre-eminence in poetry.
In 1645 there was published "The Great Assises holden in Parnassus by
Apollo and his assessours" a facsimile of the title of which is given on
page 57. This work is anonymous but is usually ascribed to George
Withers and in it Bacon as Lord Verulan is placed first and designated
"Chancellor of Parnassus" that is "Greatest of Poets."
After the title, the book commences with two pages of which facsimiles
are given on pages 58, 59.
[Illustration: Plate XVI. Facsimile Title Page]
[Illustration: Plate XVII. Facsimile of Page III of "The Great Assises"]
[Illustration: Plate XVIII Facsimile of Page IV of "The Great Assises"]
Apollo appears at the top, next comes Lord Verulan as Chancellor of
Parnassus, Sir Philip Sidney and other world renowned names follow and
then below the line side by side is a list of the jurors and a list of
the malefactors.
A little examination will teach us that the jurors are really the same
persons as the malefactors and that we ought to read right across the
page as if the dividing line did not exist.
Acting on this principle we perceive that George Wither [Withers] is
correctly described as Mercurius Britanicus. Mr. Sidney Lee tells us
that Withers regarded "Britain's Remembrancer" 1628 and "Prosopopaeia
Britannica" 1648 as his greatest works.
Thomas Cary [Carew] is correctly described as Mercurias Aulicus--Court
Messenger. He went to the French Court with Lord Herbert and was made
Gentleman of the Privy Chamber by Charles I who presented him with an
estate at Sunninghill.
Thomas May is correctly described as Mercurius Civicus. He applied for
the post of Chronologer to the City of London and James I wrote to the
Lord Mayor (unsuccessfully) in his favour.
Josuah Sylvester is correctly described as The Writer of Diurnals. He
translated Du Bartas "Divine Weekes," describing day by day, that is
"Diurnally," the creation of the world.
Georges Sandes [Sandys] is The Intelligencer. He travelled all over
the world and his book of travels was one of the popular works of
the period.
Michael Drayton is The Writer of Occurrences. Besides the "Poly-Olbion,"
he wrote "England's Heroicall Epistles" and "The Barron's Wars."
Francis Beaumont is The Writer of Passages. This exactly describes him
as he is known as writing in conjunction with Fletcher. "Beamount and
Fletcher make one poet, they single dare not adventure on a play."
William Shakespeere is "The writer of weekely accounts." This exactly
describes him, for the only literature for which he was responsible was
the accounts sent out by his clerk or attorney.
Turning over the pages of the little book on page 9 the cryer calls out
"Then Sylvester, Sands, Drayton, Beaumont, Fletcher, Massinger,
Shakespeare (sic) and Heywood, Poets good and true." This statement
seems to be contradicted so far as Shakespeare is concerned by the
defendant who says on page 31 "Shakespear's (sic) a mimicke" (that is a
mere actor not a poet).
"Beamount and Fletcher make one poet, they
Single, dare not adventure on a play."
Each of these statements seems to be true. And on Page 33
Apollo[4] says
"We should to thy exception give consent
But since we are assur'd, 'tis thy intent,
By this refusall, onely to deferre
That censure, which our justice must conferre
Upon thy merits; we must needs decline
From approbation of these pleas of thine."
That is, Apollo _admits_ that Shakespeare is not a poet but a "mimic,"
the word to which I called your attention in the "Return from Parnassus"
in relation to "this mimick apes." In this little book Shakespeare's
name occurs three times, and on each occasion is spelled differently.
This clear statement that the actor Shakespeare was not a poet but only
a tradesman who sent out his "weekly accounts" is, I think, here for the
first time pointed out. It seems very difficult to conceive of a much
higher testimony to Bacon's pre-eminence in poetry than the fact that he
is placed as "Chancellor of Parnassus" under Apollo. But a still higher
position is accorded to him when it is suggested that Apollo feared that
he himself should lose his crown which would be placed on Bacon's head.
Walter Begbie in "Is it Shakespeare?" 1903, p. 274, tells us:--That
Thomas Randolf, in Latin verses published in 1640 but probably written
some 14 years earlier says that Phoebus was accessory to Bacon's death
because he was afraid lest Bacon should some day come to be crowned King
of poetry or the Muses. Farther on the same writer declares that as
Bacon "was himself a singer" he did not need to be celebrated in song by
others, and that George Herbert calls Bacon the colleague of Sol
[Phoebus Apollo].
George Herbert was himself a dramatic poet and Bacon dedicated his
"Translation of the Psalms" to him "who has overlooked so many of
my works."
Mr. Begbie also tells us that Thomas Campion addresses Bacon thus
"Whether the thorny volume of the Law or the Schools or the _Sweet Muse_
allure thee."
It may be worth while here to quote the similar testimony which is borne
by John Davies of Hereford who in his "Scourge of Folly" published about
1610, writes
"To the royall, ingenious, and all-learned
Knight,--
Sr Francis Bacon.
Thy _bounty_ and the _Beauty_ of thy Witt
Comprisd in Lists of _Law_ and learned _Arts_,
Each making thee for great _Imployment_ fitt
Which now thou hast, (though short of thy
deserts)
Compells my pen to let fall shining _Inke_
And to bedew the _Baies_ that _deck_ thy _Front_;--
And to thy health in _Helicon_ to drinke
As to her _Bellamour_ the _Muse_ is wont:
For thou dost her embozom; and dost vse
Her company for sport twixt grave affaires;
So vtterst Law the liuelyer through thy _Muse_.
And for that all thy _Notes_ are sweetest _Aires_;
_My Muse thus notes thy worth in eu'ry Line,
With yncke which thus she sugers; so, to shine_."
But nothing can much exceed in value the testimony of Ben Jonson who in
his "Discoveries," 1641, says "But his learned, and able (though
unfortunate) _Successor_ [Bacon in margin] is he, who hath fill'd up all
numbers, and perform'd that in our tongue, which may be compar'd or
preferr'd either to insolent _Greece_, or haughty _Rome_."
"He who hath filled up all numbers" means unquestionably "He that hath
written every kind of poetry."[5]
Alexander Pope the poet declares that he himself "lisped in numbers for
the numbers came." Ben Jonson therefore bears testimony to the fact that
Bacon was so great a poet that he had in poetry written that "which may
be compar'd or preferr'd either to insolent _Greece_ or haughty _Rome_."
But in 1623 Ben Jonson had said of the AUTHOR of the plays
_"Or when thy sockes were on
Leaue thee alone, for the comparison
Of all, that insolent_ Greece _or haughtie_ Rome
_Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come."_
Surely the statements in the "Discoveries" were intended to tell us who
was the AUTHOR of the plays.
After perusing these contemporary evidences, and they might be
multiplied, it is difficult to understand how anyone can venture to
dispute Bacon's position as pre-eminent in poetry. But it may be of
interest to those who doubt whether Bacon (irrespective of any claim to
the authorship of the plays) could be deemed to be a great poet, to
quote here the words of Percy Bysshe Shelley, who in his "Defence of
Poetry" says
"Bacon was a poet. His language has a sweet and majestic rhythm, which
satisfies the sense, no less than the almost superhuman wisdom of his
philosophy satisfies the intellect. It is a strain which distends and
then bursts the circumference of the reader's mind, and pours itself
forth together with it into the universal element with which it has
perpetual sympathy."
The immortal plays are the "Greatest Birth of Time," and contain a
short summary of the wisdom of the world from ancient times, and they
exhibit an extent and depth of knowledge in every branch which has
never been equalled at any period of the world's history. In classic
lore, as the late Mr. Churton Collins recently pointed out, they evince
the ripest scholarship. And this is confirmed by classical scholars all
the world over.
None but the profoundest lawyers can realise the extent of the knowledge
not only of the theory but of the practice of Law which is displayed.
Lord Campbell says that Lord Eldon [supposed to have been the most
learned of judges] need not have been ashamed of the law of Shakespeare.
And as an instance of the way in which the members of the legal
profession look up to the mighty author I may mention that some years
ago, at a banquet of a Shakespeare Society at which Mr. Sidney Lee and
the writer were present, the late Mr. Crump, Q.C., editor of the _Law
Times_, who probably possessed as much knowledge of law as any man in
this country, declared that to tell him that the plays were not written
by the greatest lawyer the world has ever seen, or ever would see, was
to tell him what he had sufficient knowledge of law to know to be
nonsense. He said also that he was not ashamed to confess that he
himself, though he had some reputation for knowledge of law, did not
possess sufficient legal knowledge to realise one quarter of the law
that was contained in the Shakespeare plays.
It requires a philologist to fully appreciate what the enormous
vocabulary employed in the plays implies.
Max Muller in his "Science of Language," Vol. I, 1899, p. 379, says
"A well-educated person in England, who has been at a public school and
at the University ... seldom uses more than about 3,000 or 4,000 words.
... The Hebrew Testament says all that it has to say with 5,642 words,
Milton's poetry is built up with 8,000; and Shakespeare, who probably
displayed a greater variety of expression than any writer in any
language ... produced all his plays with about 15,000 words."
Shakspeare the householder of Stratford could not have known so many as
one thousand words.
But Bacon declared that we must make our English language capable of
conveying the highest thoughts, and by the plays he has very largely
created what we now call the English language. The plays and the sonnets
also reveal their author's life.
In the play of "Hamlet" especially, Bacon seems to tell us a good deal
concerning himself, for the auto-biographical character of that play is
clearly apparent to those who have eyes to see. I will, however, refer
only to a single instance in that play. In the Quarto of 1603, which is
the first known edition of the play of "Hamlet," we are told, in the
scene at the grave, that Yorick has been dead a dozen years; but in the
1604 Quarto, which was printed in the following year, Yorick is stated
to have been dead twenty-three years. This corrected number,
twenty-three, looks therefore like a real date of the death of a real
person. The words in the Quarto of 1604 are as follows:--
Hamlet, Act v, Scene i.
"[Grave digger called.] Clow[n] ... heer's a scull
now hath lyen you i' th' earth 23 yeeres ... this
same scull, sir, was, sir, Yorick's skull, the Kings
jester ...
_Ham_[_let_]. Alas poore _Yoricke_, I knew him
_Horatio_, a fellow of infinite iest, of most excellent
fancie, hee hath bore me on his backe a thousand
times ... Heere hung those lyppes that I haue
kist, I know not howe oft, where be your gibes now?
your gamboles, your songs, your flashes of merriment,
that were wont to set the table on a roare, not one
now to mocke your owne grinning...."
The King's Jester who died about 1580-1, just twenty-three years before
1604 (as stated in the play), was John Heywood, the last of the King's
Jesters. The words spoken by Hamlet exactly describe John Heywood, who
was wont to set the table in a roar with his jibes, his gambols, his
songs, and his flashes of merriment. He was a favourite at the English
Court during three if not four reigns, and it is recorded that Queen
Elizabeth as a Princess rewarded him. It is an absolutely gratuitous
assumption that he was obliged permanently to leave England when she
became Queen. Indeed it is believed that he was an intimate friend of
the Bacon family, and must have carried little Francis Bacon any number
of times upon his back, and the little fellow must have kissed him still
more oftentimes. The story in the play of "Hamlet" seems, therefore, to
fit in exactly with the facts of Bacon's life; but it is not possible
that the most fertile imagination of the most confirmed Stratfordian can
suppose that the Stratford actor ever saw John Heywood, who died long
before Shakspere came to London.