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CHAPTER XV

A PAGE IN BACON'S LIFE, 1592-1595, AET. 31-34

IN the year 1594, when the poems which we have been considering were prepared for publication, Bacon was at a very low ebb of his fortunes. It was about sixteen years since he had returned from the Continent, and he was still unplaced. In November of the next year the efforts of Essex to obtain for him the Attorney's place, and subsequently the post of Solicitor, had proved finally unsuccessful, and he had no longer much reason to hope for any permanent office in the service of the Crown during the lifetime of the Queen. Bacon thereupon draws away from Essex, and for the time being seems to have made up his mind that he must place his hopes on his pen. The brilliant success, however, of the expedition against Cadiz in 1596 gave Essex immense popularity, and thereafter Bacon devoted himself to securing his position as the successor (with Bacon's assistance) of Burghley in the Queen's counsels; but the Earl's character was too weak for the part, and his abilities insufficient; and his proceedings in Ireland in 1599 finally put an end to such aspirations, and left Robert Cecil without a rival. The outlook, however, on the death of the Queen was full of uncertainty and danger. The possibility of a renewal of the dynastic wars was present to the mind of every one, and under such circumstances the special abilities of Cecil would have probably counted for little. The man of the hour would presumably have been Ralegh, who, without capacity for official life, had all the qualities for coming to the front in periods of emergency. It is said that on

the death of the Queen he was in favour of bringing the Government into a committee of a few, so as to keep out the Scottish King and his following, and he would probably have been the real power under such an arrangement. We may be sure that these possibilities did not escape the foresight of Bacon, and I think when he found that his political prospects rested on a slender support in Essex that he drew more towards Ralegh. Later, when Ralegh's sun set, Bacon attached himself to Cecil, and probably did a great deal of work for him until his own appointment to the post of Solicitor in 1607. "There is little friendship in the world, and least of all between equals, which was wont to be magnified.1 That that is is between superior and inferior, whose fortunes may comprehend the one the other." Bacon has been censured for this sentence; but it is one of those impartial statements, based on observation, which he makes when writing philosophically, and it is hard to say it is untrue where competition for power, in all its forms, is concerned, and it was probably especially true of the conditions then prevailing. In any case those who attribute the statement to "cynicism" are mistaken. There were two things from which Bacon was wholly free, cynicism and affectation. His mind was too great for either. When writing he may conceal his identity, but he never conceals his thoughts. He puts on paper, even about himself, what other people only find themselves thinking. In the case of Ralegh, however, this sentiment (to which he actually appeals in a letter to Essex 2) was, I think, qualified by a genuine personal sympathy and attraction. In ideas the two men had much in common, and I think they were frequently together, and that their minds reacted on each other. Francis Osborne, writing of the representative men of Elizabeth's reign, couples their names: "Bacon, Rawleigh,

1 A reference to treatises of antiquity, written under other social conditions.

2 "I humbly desire your Lordship, before you give access to my poor advice, to look about, even jealously a little if you will, and to consider, first, whether I have not reason to think that your fortune comprehendeth mine" (1596). Spedding, Life, ii. 40.

I think it

and divers incomparable spirits more." probable that Bacon's feelings towards Ralegh were something like those of Hamlet towards Horatio,1 and that he saw in him the qualities in which he felt himself to be most deficient. But, with all his gifts, Ralegh, I feel sure, was no artist, and I believe that the poems which, for the most part on very doubtful authority, pass under his name were written by Bacon, either for him or by "impersonation."

The point to which I wish to direct attention in this chapter, and before coming to the "Ralegh" poems, is that the material for such an impersonation was available in the circumstance that Bacon and Ralegh offended the Queen about the same time, and were both, for some years, excluded from access. This will be best shown in Bacon's case by extracts from his correspondence, which will, at the same time, throw light on his temperament and character.

old.

Bacon was early oppressed with the sense of getting Thus writing to his uncle, the Lord Treasurer, about the delay in his advancement, he says: "I wax now

1

Ham. Horatio, thou art e'en as just a man

As e'er my conversation coped withal.

Hor. O, my dear lord,—

Ham.

Nay, do not think I flatter;

For what advancement may I hope from thee

That no revenue hast but thy good spirits,

To feed and clothe thee? Why should the poor be flatter'd?
No, let the candied tongue lick absurd pomp,

And crook the pregnant hinges of the knee

Where thrift may follow fawning. Dost thou hear?

Since my dear soul was mistress of her choice,

And could of men distinguish, her election

Hath seal'd thee for herself; for thou hast been

As one, in suffering all, that suffers nothing;

A man that fortune's buffets and rewards

Hast ta'en with equal thanks: and blest are those
Whose blood and judgement are so well commingled,
That they are not a pipe for fortune's finger

To sound what stop she please. Give me that man
That is not passion's slave, and I will wear him

In my heart's core, ay, in my heart of heart,

As I do thee.

Hamlet, iii. 2.

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2

somewhat ancient; one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour glass.' At the age of thirty-nine he talks about "my last years; for so I account them, reckoning by health not by age." Weak health had no doubt something to do with this feeling, but it is evidently also attributable to distress of mind under the strain of thwarted ambition, aggravated by debt.

In March 1593 Bacon, who was then being recommended for the post of Attorney, made a speech in Parliament against a triple subsidy which gave offence to the Queen. In a letter to Burghley he expresses regret and defends his action: "I spake simply "—and he asks his uncle's good offices "in drawing her Majesty to accept of the sincerity and simplicity of my heart."

In a letter to his cousin, Sir Robert Cecil, of April 1593, he refers to the subject as "the impediment which you mention," and Cecil, in his reply, alludes to the same thing as "the veil now covering you." 5

4

In the same year, in a letter probably written to the Earl of Essex, Bacon says: "It is a great grief unto me, joined with marvel, that her Majesty should retain a hard conceit of my speeches in Parliament." " At the same time he addresses a letter to the Queen, diplomatically concealing his anxiety: "Your Majesty's favour indeed, and access to your royal person, I did ever, encouraged by your own speeches, seek and desire; and I would be very glad to be reintegrate in that.""

In April 1593 Lady Ann Bacon writes a letter of anxious inquiry to her son Anthony: "for the state of want of health and of money and some other things [she said] touching you both our è μe evdei "8; a letter which was crossed on the road by one from Anthony as to his brother's embarrassed finances. In the course of it he alludes also to his brother's health, "which I know by mine own experience to depend not a little upon a free

1 Spedding, Life, i. 108.
3 Ibid. i. 233, 234.

5 Ibid. i. 238.

7 Ibid. i. 241.

2 Ibid. ii. 162. 4 Ibid. i. 237.

6 Ibid. i. 240.

8" Will not let me sleep."

mind." 1 Lady Ann Bacon's reply and her letter which follows are of great interest to the student of Bacon's life and character. Partial biographers have affected to make light of them, but no fair-minded person can read her letters without perceiving the justice of Rawley's remark that she was "a choice lady, and eminent for piety, virtue and learning." No doubt she belonged to the "precise school and her temper was difficult and irritable. Such things set up barriers in human intercourse, and perhaps they account in her case, to some extent, for the extreme formality and coldness of Francis Bacon's letters to her. There seems to be no doubt, however, that in his heart he had a real regard for her. She was evidently rather afraid of him, for she writes by preference, even when he is the subject of the letter, to his brother. On this occasion Anthony had asked her to help his brother out of debt by the sale of an estate for which her consent was required. She replies in great exasperation, and denounces in vivid and impetuous language the retainers by whom Francis had surrounded himself. The following is an extract from her letter:

... surely I am utterly discouraged and make a conscience further to undo myself to maintain such wretches. . . . It is most certain till first Enney (?), a filthy wasteful knave, and his Welshmen one after another—for take [one] and they will still swarm ill-favouredly-did so lead him as in a train, he was a towardly young gentleman and a son of much good hope in godliness. But seeing he hath nourished most sinful proud villains wilfully I know not what other answer to make. God bless you both with his grace and good health to serve him with truth of heart.2

To this Francis appears to have replied (or he had written to her in the meantime), for she writes a letter on the next day to Anthony, from which the following is an extract:

I send herein your brother's letter. Construe the interpreI do not understand his enigmatical folded writing.3

tation.

1 Spedding, Life, i. 243.
3 .e. involuted sentences.

2 Ibid. i. 244.

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