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Sometimes a thousand twangling instruments
Will hum about mine ears, and sometime voices,
That, if I then had waked after long sleep,

Will make me sleep again: and then, in dreaming,
The clouds methought would open and show riches
Ready to drop upon me, that, when I waked,

I cried to dream again.

Ste. This will prove a brave kingdom to me, where I shall have my music for nothing.

Cal. When Prospero is destroyed.

In "Prospero" I conceive that Bacon represents not only his dream of the future, but, to some extent, the course of his life in the world. That no source has been traced for the story supports this view, and the story itself fits in with Bacon's history. His early ambition was undoubtedly to be the principal minister in the State. He was encouraged in this by the notice which the Queen took of him as a child and by his father's position. But he was thwarted (as he thought) by his cousin, Robert Cecil-who, however, it is impossible to doubt, was a fitter man, both by training and temperament, for practical affairs. He sees himself (more suo) in his imagination in the grand position which he believed to be his by right, and attributes his exclusion from it, in part, to his being "transported and rapt in secret studies "

neglecting worldly ends, all dedicated

To closeness and the bettering of my mind. (i. 2.)

Compare with this Bacon's letter to Lord Burghley written at the age of thirty-one, begging for executive employment:

I do not fear that action shall impair it [his health], because I account my ordinary course of study and meditation to be more painful than most parts of action are.-Spedding, Life, i. 108.

Compare also his frequent references in later life to his abstraction in the midst of affairs: "I may truly say with the psalm, Multum incola fuit anima mea” (“my soul has been a stranger in her pilgrimage") (ibid. iv. 146, 282, and elsewhere).

The solemnity of tone which has been noticed in parts of this play, to an extent beyond the customary habit of

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Shakespeare, is an indication in itself that the writer is dealing with subjects to which he attached exceptional importance. It has, in places, the tone, as it were, of a legacy to the world. Not that I believe (as I have said) that this was the author's last work, but it represents a state of mind when he was taking stock of his position in reference to futurity. He sees himself as the great projector, and contemplates the developments which will follow him when the intellectual powers in man have come into their kingdom. To this end two things must be brought, or kept, under control-the elusive forces of nature, and the lower strata of humanity, who are incapable of understanding the point of view, and function in society, of the higher order of mind, and are always ready to impede or destroy its achievements.

Incidentally, in the same play, the writer places on record his opinions on two questions of the first importance in the life of an organised community, politics and love. The faithful old counsellor, Gonzalo, is doing his best to keep up the spirits of the shipwrecked party, and the occasion is used to show the absurdity of idealisation in a department which deals with practical issues under the limitations and defects imposed by human conditions. The lines are as follow (ii. 1):

Gon. I' the commonwealth I would by contraries Execute all things; for no kind of traffic

Would I admit ; no name of magistrate ;

Letters should not be known; riches, poverty,
And use of service, none; contract, succession,
Bourn, bound of land, tilth, vineyard, none;
No use of metal, corn, or wine, or oil;
No occupation; all men idle, all;
And women too, but innocent and pure;
No sovereignty ;—

Seb.

Yet he would be king on 't.

Ant. The latter end of his commonwealth forgets the beginning.
Gon. All things in common nature should produce

Without sweat or endeavour treason, felony,

Sword, pike, knife, gun, or need of any engine,

Would I not have; but nature should bring forth,

Of its own kind, all foison, all abundance,
To feed my innocent people.

Seb. No marrying 'mong his subjects?

Ant. None, man; all idle; whores and knaves.
Gon. I would with such perfection govern, sir,

To excel the golden age.

Seb.

Ant. Long live Gonzalo !
Gon.

God save his majesty !

And,—do you mark me, sir?

Alon. Prithee, no more: thou dost talk nothing to me.

Gon. I do well believe your highness; and did it to minister occasion to these gentlemen, who are of such sensible and nimble lungs that they always use to laugh at nothing.

The betrothal of Ferdinand and Miranda is similarly used by the author for giving his verdict on the indulgence of the passions, and the necessity in this world, if the worst form of misery, the misery of the spirit, is to be avoided, of bringing them under the sanction of social law, in which the dependence of human life on the divine authority is recognised. Prospero addresses the young prince (iv. 1):

Then, as my gift and thine own acquisition
Worthily purchased, take my daughter: but
If thou dost break her virgin-knot before
All sanctimonious ceremonies may
With full and holy rite be minister'd,

No sweet aspersion shall the heavens let fall
To make this contract grow; but barren hate,
Sour-eyed disdain and discord shall bestrew
The union of your bed with weeds so loathly
That you shall hate it both: therefore take heed,
As Hymen's lamps shall light you.

And in response to Ferdinand's protestations he leaves them together with the words :

Fairly spoke.

Sit then and talk with her; she is thine own.

The emphasis which Prospero is made to lay on this injunction seems to go somewhat beyond the exigencies of the situation, and it indicates that the author is speaking on a subject which he has at heart.

1 He returns to the subject a few lines lower, and it is again referred to in the masque.

Noticeable also, and for a similar reason, is the sudden perturbation of mind which causes Prospero to disperse the masque :

These our actors,

As I foretold you, were all spirits and
Are melted into air, into thin air :
And, like the baseless fabric of this vision,
The cloud-capp'd towers, the gorgeous palaces,
The solemn temples, the great globe itself,
Yea, all which it inherit, shall dissolve,
And, like this insubstantial pageant faded,

Leave not a rack behind. We are such stuff

As dreams are made on, and our little life

Is rounded with a sleep. Sir, I am vex'd;

Bear with my weakness; my old brain is troubled :

Be not disturb'd with my infirmity:

If you be pleased, retire into my cell

And there repose: a turn or two I'll walk,

To still my beating mind.

The incident which gives rise to this emotion is felt to be inadequate, considering that Caliban, and the two Englishmen with Italian names to whom he had attached himself, were wholly in Prospero's power. The real motive of the speech seems to me to be the thought, which is never wholly out of the writer's mind, of the disappointing character of human affairs, when all is said and done, owing to the existence of decay and death. The shadow of "mutability" is over everything, and the thought of it makes even his cherished dream of the intellect, set forth with all the gorgeous imagery at his command, seem vanity. For the moment his balance is disturbed; he feels his helplessness, and cries out, as it were, in a passion of regret. Only however for a moment, and the customary serenity of temper reasserts itself.1 There are other instances of this in the later plays of Shakespeare, and the same trait is noticeable in the

1 The words of Prospero lower down are typical of this habit of mind : be cheerful,

And think of each thing well. (v. 1.)

2 Compare, for example, the sudden outburst of similar feeling in Macbeth, "Out, out, brief candle !" etc., where the imagery used is much more sug. gestive of the author's own feelings than those of the character.

poetry of Spenser.1 In the Epilogue, spoken by Prospero, the note of humility after the lofty tone of Prospero's speeches in the play is the striking feature. The author seems to be thinking of himself here, after his work is done, as a man among men, and subject to the common mortality.

A slight, but significant, point may be noticed in Prospero's reference to the masque. He says to Ariel (iv. 1): Go bring the rabble,

O'er whom I give thee power, here to this place :

Incite them to quick motion; for I must

Bestow upon the eyes of this young couple
Some vanity of mine art it is my promise,

And they expect it from me.

It will be observed that this is said in the grand manner which Bacon adopts in writing of "Masques and Triumphs" (an Essay published in 1625): "These things are but toys, to come amongst such serious observations. But yet, since princes will have such things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy than daubed with cost"; and at the end of the Essay: "But enough of these toys." The tone in both cases is, in my opinion, partly to be attributed to disapproval of the fashion for the masque, which, on King James's accession, largely superseded the play at Court, owing to the fondness of the Queen for that form of entertainment, in which she used to take part herself.2

I will now note some passages from Shakespeare, Spenser, and Bacon's acknowledged works, where the

1 Compare the Daphnaïda, and the description of the ravages of Time in the Garden of Adonis (F.Q. III. vi. 39 sq.); and with that again compare the Ralegh epitaph. See pp. 457, 458 of this work.

Daniel, who was occasionally employed in providing the speeches and songs, writes of the masque in a similar strain: "But in these things wherein the onely life consists in shew; the arte and invention of the Architect gives the greatest grace, and is of most importaunce, ours the least part and of least note" (Preface to Tethys Festival, 1610); and again: "And yet in these matters of shewes (though they be that which most entertaine the world) there needs no such exact sufficiency. . . . For, Ludit istis animus, non proficit" (The Vision of the Twelve Goddesses, 1604). It must be said, however, that Daniel was quite out of his element in such writing.

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