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."
[Illustration: _Fig. III._
_From the Title Page of "New Atlantis," 1627._]
[Illustration: _Fig. IV._
_From the Title Page of Peacham's "Minerva Britannia," 1612._]
FOOTNOTES:
[30] There is a copy bearing date 1626.