are indeed afforded a rich selection from Grecian, Roman, French, Italian and Hebrew writings. But we do not find one single quotation from the whole of our English literature. In fact, the only English book mentioned in the Essays, is Bacon's own " History of King Henry the Seventh of England." It would seem as though for Bacon, the essayist, the man versed in the literature of every civilised nation, there had never existed such a man as Shakespeare, or Ben Jonson, and their great predecessors; and yet in those very years the first Shakespeare Folio Edition had appeared, and Ben Jonson, the dramatist, had lived with Bacon for five years!

A large number of the poets quoted in the "Essays" fare no better than the great English poets. They simply disappear from the surface. The very first Essay contains a long passage from Lucretius' "De Rerum Natura" ("Of the Nature of Things "), but neither the poet nor his book is mentioned by name. Rabelais is quoted, but his name is suppressed; Horace is treated similarly. Aristophanes' Cleon appears in one of the Essays, but the name of Aristophanes occurs nowhere in the book. In the mind of our author, names appear to play a subordinate part where facts are concerned.

And even the quotations are treated in a peculiar manner. Scarcely one will be found in the original as it is quoted by Bacon; Bacon always remodels at will. Nor is the alteration the result of superficiality or carelessness, but is intended, made on purpose, as one fact will suffice to prove : Bacon takes a quotation -he had a predilection for Latin prose-and changes it into rhyming Latin or English verses, often altering

the meaning at will, and that with a definite, a set purpose or object.

But as Bacon never mentions a word of the great dramatists of his day, we cannot help being struck by the fact that he is continually speaking of the theatre, of the stage, of actors, comedies and tragedies!

One of the Essays is entitled "Of Masques and Triumphs," another treats in detail: "Of Simulation and Dissimulation"; in the very first Essay, in that "Of Truth," indeed, we are told of things very different from the matter which the heading led us to expect.

A long Essay, "Of Cunning," affords numerous instances of cunning tricks, farces and villanies, especially such as laying a thing at an innocent person's door, how to assume a false name, how to spread tales in the name of another. We are constantly stumbling over passages in the Essays, treating on the choice of "Instruments," i.e., the substituting of another person, behind whom the real author conceals himself.

In short, the Essays are a book which, more than any other, is constantly hinting strangely at occult arts which Bacon must have carried on. We shall hear more on this subject when we come to examine the book more closely.

And now let us cast a retrospective glance upon the years 1620 to 1626, the most momentous in the whole history of English literature.

Let us briefly pass under review the chief events of those years:

In 1620 appeared Bacon's "Novum Organum.” In 1621, being suddenly deposed from the office of Chancellor, he became master of his time and wrote

to his literary friend, the Spanish Ambassador in London, Count Gondomar :

Me verò jam vocat et aetas, et fortuna, atque etiam Genius meus cui adhuc satis morosé satisfeci, ut excedens è theatro rerum civilium literis me dedam, et ipsos actores instruam, et posteritati serviam.

This passage Spedding translates as follows:

"But for myself, my age, my fortune, yea my Genius, to which I have hitherto done but scant justice, calls me now to retire from the stage of civil action, and betake myself to letters, and to the instruction of the actors themselves, and the service of Posterity."

The expression "è theatro rerum civilium" signifies the Government-stage, from which he took his "exit"; the "ipsos actores," however, means nothing more nor less than "the very (true, real) actors," i.e., "the actors on the Theatre-stage.

And now you will ask what happened during the five years of life that remained to Bacon?

In the years 1622 and 1623 some new works appeared bearing his name (we gave their titles before); almost all his other works were thoroughly re-written and translated into Latin. A great many A great many had already been prepared before that time, some of them were perhaps all ready for printing, while Bacon was still in office (before 1621).

In 1623 a new small volume emanated from Bacon's hand, viz., his “Historia Ventorum" (History of the Winds). At the same time, however, the first Large Folio Edition of the Shakespeare dramas appeared bearing the title: "Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies." The actor had nothing to do with it. He had died seven years before.

But Bacon's friend, Ben Jonson, it was who attended to the publishing, and wrote two introductory poems, in one of which he refers to the name of "William Shakespeare" in exactly the same words as he uses in his "Discoveries," in connection with the name of "Francis Bacon"; saying: he excelled "haughty Rome and insolent Greece." The Folio Edition, however, contained fifteen new theatrical pieces that had never before appeared in print, and all the others had been carefully recast.

After the publication of the Shakespeare Folio Edition there was a year's rest. And not until shortly before Christmas 1624, did those two extraordinary books appear with his own name and the year 1625 printed on the title, of which we spoke before: "Certain Psalms" and "Apophthegmes," both with Bacon's name on the title-page, one of them rhymed, the other of a humorous nature, and, as we shall soon learn, also enriched with a number of witty humorous rhymes, though all printed in the form of

prose.

At last, in March 1625, appeared the third, considerably enlarged edition of the "Essays," containing the "curiously rhymed" disclosures which we discovered.

Bacon died on Easter morning, 1626. Then the afore-mentioned thirty-two elegies were published, mourning the death of England's greatest poet; whereas when the actor William Shakspere died, in 1616, not a hand stirred to deplore the death of a poet or of a great man.

Such the chief literary fruits of English literature during the years 1620 to 1626.

IV

WHAT PART DO THE WORDS "NAME" AND
"DARTS" PLAY IN BACON'S WRITINGS?

What's in a name? that which we call a rose,

By any other name would smell as sweet.

Romeo and Juliet.

Neque enim famae auceps sum.

FRANCISCI BACONI De Interpretatione

Naturae Prooemium.

Nor am I a hunter after fame.

FRANCIS BACON'S Preface to his

Interpretation of Nature.

In his "Arte of English Poesie" George Puttenham speaks in high terms of praise of the reverence in which poets were held in former days, and then goes

on to say:

But in these dayes (although some learned Princes may take delight in Poets) yet universally it is not so. For as well Poets as Poesie are despised, and the name become, of honorable infamous.

For that reason, Puttenham had his book printed without his name as the author; it was published anonymously.

But the same author evidently numbers Queen Elizabeth among the crowned heads that still valued