THE POET A NATURAL ORATOR. 49 precisely similar gift is attributed to Prince Hal: "I am so good a proficient in one quarter of an hour, that I can drink with any tinker in his own language during my life." (1 Henry IV. II. iv. 19). In another respect the Prince corresponds to the character of Bacon given by his friends. His eloquence is described as so facile and charming that "the ears of his hearers received more gratification than trouble, and (they were) no less sorry when he did conclude than displeased with any that did interrupt him." (Osborn). Ben Jonson, in slightly different words, says the same thing :-"The fear of every man who heard him was lest he should make an end." So the Prince is described: "When he speaks, The air, a charter'd libertine, is still, And the mute wonder lurketh in men's ears, (Henry V. I. i. 47.) The poet, whoever he was, in his portraiture of the Prince must have drawn either upon his own observations, or on his own experience of the dramatic and rhetoric faculty, and its manifestations in private and public discourse; and even if he was not conscious of selfportraiture, yet if he was naturally an actor or an orator the instance most opportune for his use was himself; and doubtless fragments of self-portraiture must exist in many of the characters which he has so graphically drawn. The passages, however, just quoted are so minutely individual that they were undoubtedly more applicable to Bacon than to any other man then living. (5). There is another very curious reflection of Bacon's character and temperament in the poem of Lucrece. Lucretia condemns herself to death for an offence which has been forced upon her, for which she is not morally guilty, yet which, through the stress of circumstances, she has committed. She does not, however, seek to justify, though she does to palliate, her crime. Like E Bacon, she renounces all defence, and submits to the judgment of the court which condemns her, which in her case is no other than herself. She knew, however, that she was personally innocent, though involved in the "unrecalling crime" of another person. Like Bacon, while pleading guilty, she can interrogate her unstained conscience What is the quality of mine offence, Being constrain'd with dreadful circumstance? May any terms acquit me from this chance? The poison'd fountain clears itself again; And why not I from this compelled stain ?-1702. Even so Bacon, for some time after his condemnation, expected to resume his ordinary functions as counsellor to Parliament and adviser to the King after he had been cleared from his "compelled stain.” In Bacon's fall one of the most remarkable features of his case is the way in which he renounced all self-defence and accepted the judgment pronounced against him. "Your lordship," he writes to Buckingham, "spake of purgatory. I am now in it, but my mind is in a calm, for my fortune is not my felicity. I know I have clean hands and a clean heart, and, I hope, a clean house for friends and servants." And yet he will not ask for acquittal on these grounds. He asks the Lords for a fair trial, and for some convenient time "to advise with my counsel, and to make my answer; wherein nevertheless, my counsel's part will be the least; for I shall not, by the grace of God, trick up an innocency with cavillations, but plainly and ingenuously (as your lordships know my manner is) declare what I know and remember . desiring no privilege of greatness for subterfuge of guiltiness. And to the King he writes: "I shall deal ingenuously with your Majesty, without seeking fig-leaves or subterfuges." Afterwards, to the Lords: "I do under STRANGELY GUILTY INNOCENCE. 51 stand there hath been heretofore expected from me some justification; and therefore I have chosen one only justification, instead of all other, one of the justifications of Job; for, after the clear submission and confession which I shall now make unto your lordships, I hope I may say and justify with Job in these words: 'I have not hid my sin as did Adam, nor concealed my faults in my bosom.' This is the only justification which I will use. It resteth, therefore, that, without fig leaves, I do ingenuously confess and acknowledge that, having understood the particulars of the charge, not formally from the House, but enough to inform my conscience and memory, I find matter sufficient and full both to move me to desert the defence, and to move your lordships to condemn and censure me." This was surely a most extraordinary course for a man to take who knew that his hands and conscience were clean, and superficial critics have been often too ready to take him at his own word, without any careful enquiry into what his words really imply, or how they are connected with and interpreted by his personal character and habits. One reason indeed for his submission may be that he knew his case was not being tried in a court of justice; the verdict and sentence would be put to the vote and determined by a show of hands, and by the decision of a majority, most of whom were absolutely ignorant of judicial procedure, and incapable of judicial deliberation, but were swayed by the most vivid or recent impressions that party, or passion, or plausible rhetoric might suggest. It might then be politic to abandon anything like a scientific judicial plea, and trust to the leniency which absolute surrender might inspire. However this may be, such was the attitude he assumed. Conscious (as he expressly said) of moral innocence, he yet called for condemnation and censure upon himself. Lucretia acted in precisely the same way. She is speaking, in thought, to her husband :— "For me, I am the mistress of my fate; And with my trespass never will dispense, I will not poison thee with my attaint, Nor fold my fault in cleanly-coin'd excuses; To hide the truth of this false night's abuses; -1069-78. Subsequently, when her husband and his companions are present, "Few words,' quoth she, 'shall fit the trespass best, -1613. Lucretia's self-justification is, however, the same "O teach me how to make mine own excuse ! Though my gross blood be stain'd with this abuse, That was not forced; that never was inclined To accessory yieldings, but still pure Doth in her poison'd closet yet endure." -1653. as Her friends try to console her and to turn the edge of her self-condemnation. "No, no,' quoth she, 'no dame, hereafter living, By my excuse shall claim excuse's giving.”” -1714. Bacon finds similar reasons for gladness in the depth of his grief: "The first is (he writes) that hereafter the greatness of a judge or magistrate shall be no sanctuary or protection of guiltiness which, in a few words [a very frequent phrase with Bacon, and in Shakespeare it is. BACON'S CASE ANTICIPATED. 53 equally frequent] is the beginning of a golden world." Both Lucrece and Bacon contract their self-defence into "few words." These lines from Lucrece are very interesting as showing how true to himself Bacon was from the beginning to the end of his life, and that the heroic selfimmolation, which he pictured with such graphic and poetic touches in Lucrece, more than thirty years before his fall, was the temper of his own mind, which he was quite ready to carry into action whenever the time for its application might come. Here is a remarkable anticipation of Bacon's own case. His censors often say-a distinguished Barrister, now a Judge, used such language in writing to me,—" You see, he confesses himself to be guilty; what more can you want?" The reply is,-Lucrece also made a like confession; she also found matter sufficient and full to move her to desert her defence, and require the Court to condemn her. And yet her fault was entirety constructive, it left her with clean hands and clean heart. Her friends entreated her to pardon herself. "With this they all at once began to say Her body's stain her mind untainted clears." -1709. She rejects the plea, and without cavillations or figleaves surrenders herself to the doom she has pronounced on herself. Other very curious personal traits will be illustrated in the next two chapters. |