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emphasis or solemnity into his utterance. In a speech in Parliament in 1601, referring to the Queen's prerogative 'to set at liberty things restrained by statute-law, or otherwise," he is reported to have said, "For the first she may grant non-obstantes contrary to the penal laws, which truly in my conscience (and so struck himself on the breast) are as hateful to the subject as monopolies. (“Life,” III. 27.)

Brutus is represented as using a similar gesture when he roused the Romans to revenge the death of Lucretia.

This said, he struck his hand upon his breast,
And kiss'd the fatal knife, to end his vow.

(Lucrece, 1842.)

Ophelia in her madness,

Hems and beats her heart.

(Ham. IV. v. 5.)

Clarence's little boy asks the Duchess of York,

Why do you wring your hands, and beat your breast
And cry, "O, Clarence, my unhappy son?"

(Rich. III. II. ii. 3.) And Claudio represents Beatrice behaving in the same way,

Then down upon her knees she falls, weeps, sobs, beats her heart, tears her hair, prays, curses.

(Much Ado, II. iii. 152.)

In the Return from Parnassus, which is I believe one of the Shakespearean group, Studioso, describing the conditions of his hired service, says that one of his obligations was: "That I shoulde work all harvest time. And upon this pointe the old churle gave a signe with a 'hemm ! to the old householde of silence, and began a solem, sencless oration against Idlenes, noddinge his head, knockinge his hande on his fatt breste" (2 Parn., 655). And in another passage Amoretto laments that he "cannot walke the streete for these needy fellowes, and that after there is

BACON'S SLIPPERY STANDING.

45

a statute come out against begging." And then follows the stage direction, "He strikes his breast” (3 Parn., 1684). (2) There are many passages in Shakespeare which carry the sombre colouring which darkened his life after his fall. This may be traced in the portrait of Cardinal Wolsey in Henry VIII. It is the pervading quality of the play of Timon, one of those plays never heard of till its publication in 1623. The sudden reverse of fortune from the greatest magnificence and opulence to the most sordid destitution, is exactly what Bacon experienced; for after his fall his condition of penury was like that of a suppliant for alms; "date obolum Belisario," he writes, "I that have borne a bag can bear a wallet." The lavish generosity of Timon, and his almost inexcusable carelessness about money in the time of his prosperity, reflects a weakness, almost amounting to a fault, strikingly characteristic of Bacon.

Bacon's lament over his fall, and the sense of danger which always accompanies greatness (a sentiment frequently expressed at different periods of his life) is abundantly reflected in Shakespeare. In 1612, when the Essay of "Great Place" was published, Bacon wrote: "The rising unto place is laborious, and by pains men come to greater pains; and it is sometimes base, and by indignities men come to dignities. The standing is slippery, and the regress is either a downfall or at least an eclipse, which is a melancholy thing." In 1603 Bacon described the appointment of Essex to the command of the army in Ireland as locus lubricus (see the "Essex Apology"); the word is used by Tacitus, Cicero, and other Latin authors in this sense, and this insecure or "slippery" standing, with the subsequent "downfall or eclipse" is often noticed in Shakespeare.

A sceptre snatch'd with an unruly hand
Must be as boisterously maintain’d as gain'd;
And he that stands upon a slippery place
Makes nice of no vile hold to stay him up.

(Fohn III. iv. 135).

They that stand high have many blasts to shake them,
And, if they fall, they dash themselves to pieces.

(Rich. III. I. iii. 259).

O world, thy slippery turns!"

(Cor. IV. iv. 12).

What am I poor of late?

'Tis certain, greatness, once fall'n out with fortune,
Must fall out with men too; what the declined is
He shall as soon read in the eyes of others
As feel in his own fall; for men, like butterflies,
Show not their mealy wings but to the summer;
And not a man, for being simply man,

Hath any honour, but honour for those honours
That are without him, as place, riches, favour,
Prizes of accident as oft as merit :

Which, when they fall, as being slippery standers,
The love that lean'd on them as slippery too,

Do one pluck down another, and together.

Die in the fall.

(Tro. Cres. III. iii. 74).

Farewell, my lord; I as your lover speak.

The fool slides o'er the ice that you should break.

The art o' the court

As hard to leave as keep; whose top to climb

Is certain falling, or so slippery that

(Ib. 214).

The fear's as bad as falling . . . which dies i' the search

And hath as oft a slanderous epitaph

As record of fair act; nay, many times,

Doth ill deserve by doing well; what's worse,

Must court'sy at the censure: O boys, this story
The world may read in me.

First with the best of note, &c.

My report was once

(Cymb. III. iii. 46—70).

When Fortune, in her shift and change of mood,
Spurns down her late beloved, all his dependants,
Which labour'd after him to the mountain's top,
Even on their knees and hands, let him slip down,
Not one accompanying his declining foot.

(Timon I. i. 84).

And the figure of an eclipse is one of Shakespeare's most

BACON UNDER ECLIPSE.

47

usual metaphors for loss of reputation or position. Here is a small collection of such metaphors.

No more be grieved at that which thou hast done;
Roses have thorns and silver fountains mud;
Clouds and eclipses stain both moon and sun,

And loathsome canker lives in sweetest bud.

(Sonnet 35).

Nativity, once in the main of light,

Crawls to maturity, wherewith being crown'd,
Crooked eclipses 'gainst his glory fight,

And Time that gave doth now his gift confound.

(3) Bacon's self-vindication is apparently secreted in many passages in Shakespeare. In a letter to Buckingham, written in the Tower, May 31st, 1621, Bacon writes: "When I am dead, he is gone that was always in one tenor, a true and perfect servant to his master, and one that was never author of any immoderate, no, nor unsafe, no (I will say it), nor unfortunate counsel, and one that no temptation could ever make other than a trusty, and honest, and thrice-loving friend to your lordship." This is not unlike Ariel's self-commendation to Prospero.

Remember, I have done thee worthy service,
Told thee no lies, made thee no mistakings.
Without or grudge or grumbling.

(Tempest I. ii. 247).

One of the most striking of these vindicatory passages is that spoken by Lord Say in 2 Henry VI. And it should be noted that these lines did not exist in the early draft of this play-the Contention. They were not given to the world till 1623. Even up to 1619 the play was republished

without these most significant additions.

Lord Say is

pleading for his life to Jack Cade and his murderous crew.

Hear me but speak, and bear me where you will.

Justice with favour have I always done;

Prayers and tears have moved me, gifts could never.

(Observe, he does not say that he never received gifts,— he admits that he had,-but only that his administration of justice was never perverted or changed by them, that they had not influenced him.)

When have I aught exacted at your hands,

But to maintain the king, the realm, and you?
Large gifts have I bestowed on learned clerks,
Because my book preferr'd me to the king,
And seeing ignorance is the curse of God,
Knowledge the wing wherewith we fly to heaven.

These cheeks are pale for watching for your good.

Long sitting to determine poor men's causes

Hath made me full of sickness and diseases.

Tell me wherein have I offended most?

Have I affected wealth, or honour? Speak!

Are my chests fill'd up with extorted gold?

Is my apparel sumptuous to behold?
Whom have I injured that ye seek my death?

(2 Henry VI. IV. vii. 63—110).

(4). One of the most significant characteristics recorded of Bacon is his dramatic faculty. Mallet says of him, "In his conversation he would assume the most differing characters and speak the language proper to each with a facility that was perfectly natural, for the dexterity of the habit concealed every appearance of art." Osborn speaks in still more striking terms: "I have heard him entertain a country lord in the proper terms relating to hawks and dogs, and at another time out-cant a London chirurgeon." Now, is it not a little remarkable that a