Audley End, Feb. 16.
_Lord Bacon's Metrical Version of the Psalms._--The answer in No. 15.
p. 235. to A CORNISHMAN'S Query (No. 13. p. 202) respecting "Bacon's
Metrical Version of the Psalms," suggests another query. The work in
question was a mere "exercise of sickness;" it contains only seven
psalms (the 1st, 12th, 90th, 104th, 126th, 137th, and 149th), and is,
without pretension of any kind, a very proper diversion for a mind
that could not be inactive and yet required rest; and very good verses
for a man unpractised in metrical composition. The _Collection of
Apophthegms_ (also a recreation in sickness), though considerably
larger and altogether weightier, was considered so trifling a work
that Dr. Rawley, in his "perfect list of his Lordship's true works,
&c.," appended to the first edition of the _Resuscitatio_ (1657),
either forgot or did not think fit to mention it. Yet both these
trifles were not only written but _published_, by Bacon himself the
year before his death--a thing quite contrary to his practice; for
though he had written and carefully preserved and circulated in
manuscript so much, he had till then published nothing that was not
of the weightiest and most solid kind. Can any of your correspondents
inform me how much two such books may possibly have been _worth_ to
a publisher in the year 1625; being works of low price and popular
character, proceeding from an author of great name? How much is
it reasonable to suppose that a publisher may have given for the
copyright? or how far may it have gone towards the payment of a
bookseller's bill?