Sir Francis Bacon's own story

Contents

PAGE

Sir Francis Bacon's Own Story Complete in

Five Chapters

Introduction

IN a literary sense, whoever follows Francis Bacon feeds at the highest line of the world's literature. This is as true to-day, as it was two centuries ago. His matchless ideation and cogency of reason, were never equalled. These proclaim him the world 's Hterary master, and in a sense not yet made manifest, as we shall see. We agree with Macaulay that the amplitude of his comprehension was never yet vouchsafed to any other human being. This it was that gave character to his vast reform, its subtlety of execution, and its never before attempted method of introduction. Its key-note, using his own words, was: "Without the help of the knowledge of evil, virtue remains open and unfenced."

With his views the deeps of Satan should be all known to him who would be the true instructor, as we shall see later from his own words. We shall also see, that he undertook to exercise a providence over all human learning, and in this, among other things, reports a history of literature wanting.

We here set you up a point. Reader. Let it be retained, please, throughout the reading of this work, to wit, "a history of literature is wanting. " To supply this was but part of his great Posthumous Pocket labors.

While throughout, as in his Plays, entertainment of the mind was to be the lever, the help of the knowledge of evil was to be the fulcrum, to lift the age to a higher level.

We shall here invite the attention of the student of English literature to something new; and which will render it more easy, both of apprehension and retention.

But whatever we may do in this work, we desire above all else to make it clear, that Francis Bacon's key, his "Formula of Interpretation," this new light, was never revealed by him while living, but was reserved to a private succession, as we shall see.

Following his fall, he says: "I shall devote myself to letters, instruct the actors and serve posterity. In such a course, I shall perhaps find honor and I shall pass my life as within the verge of a better." These actors were factors of his pen. They were his facets of light. They were his "hands of my hands." Their doings, Reader, were to come out from the "cabinets, boxes and presses" named in his last will.

When his story, the covert story of Elizabeth's successor has been rightly told; it will not appear as strangely as now, that he ended not his earthly career by death at the Earl of Arundel's house, as now generally supposed; but was covertly behind that great struggle which put Charles 1st from the English throne. We come to you in this work. Reader, with a new message. We shall endeavor, in the main, to give Bacon's words throughout leaving the reader to his own conclusions. Upon the thread of his life we shall find, among others, his Shakespeare Sonnets, his Plays, his dream drama,- — "The Pilgrim's Progress,"— his "Holy War," his "History of the Devil," his "Milton," his "Tale of a Tub," addressed to posterity, and that work of durance his "Sartor Resartus." And "the river of his history" will long bear them up.

Into this literary carcass, we shall now make entrance through those adroitly prepared tell-tales, known as the Shakespeare Sonnets. Having shown in the work itself, « that "that eternity promised" by Francis Bacon to his "noted weed," — his Shakespeare, — in the Enigma found upon their title page, subscribed T. T.; was fulfilled to the letter in Sonnet 81; and that he made both Shakespeare's epitaph and monument; we here and now permit him in his own chosen words in Sonnets 88, 89 and 90, to tell the reader the circumstances connected with that strange and most striking feature of his career, his own personal overthrow. And so to King James in Sonnet 88 Bacon says:

WHEN thou shalt be disposed to set me light And place my merit in the eye of scorn, Upon thy side against myself I'll fight And prove thee virtuous, though thou art forsworn. With mine own weakness being best acquainted. Upon thy part I can set down a story Of faults conceal'd, wherein I am attainted. That thou in losing me shalt win much glory: And I by this will be a gainer too; For bending all my loving thoughts on thee, The injuries that to myself I do.

Doing thee vantage, double-vantage me. Such is my love, to thee I so belong, That for thy right myself will bear all wrong."

The writer of this Sonnet has, in the Sonnets, so clearly particularized the points involved in his own personal overthrow as to need little comment to those famihar with that event. See Sonnets 89 and 90. Note "purposed overthrow" in Sonnet 90.

But were these three Sonnets addressed to a king? If doubted, see please Sonnets 57 and 58. In Sonnet 57 we have, "Whilst I, my sovereign, watch the clock for you." That the overthrow was acquiesced in, to shield the King, see Sonnet 125. That the submission was upon the King's urgent advice, see Sonnet 49. That there was an interview with the King for the purpose, see please Sonnet 113. As to the King's pretended sorrow, sympathy, and tears, see Sonnets 34 and 35. That they were "Siren tears" see later Sonnet 119. That the author was made "tongue-tied" before his shearers, see Sonnets 66 and 140. That "needy nothing trimm'd in jollity" of Sonnet 66 was, we say Buckingham, the then King's favorite. Shaksper? Ha!

Reader, has not ignorance long enough been made to o'er-crow, and crown the brow, of the best literature of modern times? If not, then let our wise lauder, not of culture, but the crow, still make manifest to the literary world, if he can, Shaksper's authorship of the foregoing Sonnet, yea Sonnets.

We stay for his performance. We challenge it. He shall not longer escape by jumps. While waiting, we would suggest to the reader something new, yes New! concerning the envy and overthrow of this great genius; of whom Macaulay says: "With great minuteness of observation, he had an amplitude of comprehension that was never yet vouchsafed to any other human being."

Among private notes, in Greek, made subsequent to his fall. Bacon says: "My story is proud."

Though nearly three centuries have passed, that story, the true story, of Francis Bacon's overthrow, has not been told. Reader. We say it has not! We will yet tell it, first in the Sonnets, then in the facts of his history in Chapter 4, space forbids it here. Bacon himself alludes to it, cautiously, in the "several plot" of that subtle Sonnet 137. The King's hypnotism over him had ceased, at the writing of Sonnets 118, 140 and 147, let it be remembered. Make now these four Sonnets into Shaksper pabulum, you who can. Shaksper was the player, Shakespeare the nom de plume. The numbering of the Sonnets was but part of their method of concealment, as was their Enigma, their ante-date and their pronoun cover words.

Come ye men of culture, having received the dope of literary domination, and snored for nearly three centuries, may not the new literary seed bed of Francis St. Alban now take air? If not, sleep on; the time will come when this restorer of ancient learning will have his due. He himself says: "So I seem to have my conversation among the ancients, more than among these with whom I live." Let this thought as to the ancients be retained by the reader through every stage of this work until we reach his "Classic Authors in Wood." "Men are made of wood," says Bacon. The Plays are his wood-notes of their doings. They represent the wilderness, the old witch; the world; and they were warbled wild, to be elsewhere expanded. Of that expansion we will tell you later, in connection with Francis Bacon's "second life on second head" of Sonnet 68 where the good days of Queen Elizabeth are contrasted with the "bastard signs of fair" of those of James the 1st.

The foregoing Sonnets now placed, as well as others, see Sonnet 121, will hereafter remain an enduring revelation upon this question of authorship. And we here throw wide the door.

Bacon's own dummy may now yield him place as the real author. It is for the welfare of literature that this be now done; for a new literary age will yet arise out of that "unseen sowing," that "second life on second head," be it remembered. We will endeavor later in the work itself to make clear the points here touched to relation, and especially concerning the overthrow. In the interest of justice, as well as of literature, this should now be done.

And we will perform it, we trust, to the satisfaction of careful thought. This, though brief, is our carefully prepared speech to posterity, concerning important historic events, that, to this hour, remain a cloud upon literature.

In this work our "Defoe Period Unmasked" will be made use of, as a work of reference, for the benefit of any who may desire a more extended information upon the facts that may be here given. It has not till now, save a few copies, been given to the public.

OUR DOOR OF ENTRANCE

We here call to relation and division the never before interpreted Shakespeare Sonnets, reserving Bacon's Posthumous Pocket labors for the later portion of the work.

The 154 scholastic compendiums of Francis Bacon, known as the Shakespeare Sonnets, having remained the world's literary puzzle for nearly three centuries, we thought it commendable to make further trial of their opening. After much careful research we found them to be covert tell-tales, not of the player Shaksper, but of Francis Bacon, their real author; and have called them into the divisions following.

I. All of the Shakespeare Sonnets from 1 to 19 have a covert reference to succession. See Sonnets 2, 3 and 4. That they concern a Prince, and do not concern a private person, see, please. Sonnet 14, then 7 and 9. They were designed to suggest to Queen Elizabeth the importance to truth, of a Protestant heir, by her, to the English throne. See in this, please, the prognostication of Sonnet 14. The Catholic Mary Queen of Scots was, at the time, her successor. Elizabeth was the last of the House of Tudor. She had formed a fixed determination against marriage as is well known. This then was to leave vacant the English throne of Protestant heirs. This determination against marriage appears in several of these Sonnets; and in Sonnet 13 she is asked not to let "so fair a house fall to decay" and alluding to her father Henry 8th, the author says to her, "you had a father, let your son say so." Had Francis Bacon any interest in this succession, Reader? Was he a concealed poet.'' Did he himself write Sonnets concerning the Queen.? We shall see.

II. A portion concerns their author's struggle with the royal "Will;" the will of Queen Elizabeth while seeking official position, his great rival being placed in his stead. See Sonnets 133 to 137 also 143 and 145.

Let the capitalized "Will" in Sonnets 135, 136 and 143 be carefully noted, as it is claimed to allude to the player's name Will. Will Shaksper. We submit that careful thought can never apply this word "Will," as here used, to the name of any individual. In Sonnet 143 the author alludes to the Queen as his mother, and to himself as her babe chasing her far behind, seeking his will through hers, and in Sonnet 135 asks her, for once, at least, to hide his will in hers. See in this, please, "Bacon's Letters" Vol. 1, page 359; then see page 347 and 348. That the Queen really was his mother; see the subtlety of Sonnet 22. When he said to her in Sonnet 20 "And by addition me of thee defeated" referred he to Essex? See "Essex" in Bacon's cypher story. As this subject concerns the Queen, so we consider it with division 1 in our First Chapter.

III. A portion of them concerns their author's own individual troubles, his impeachment and fall; and his dealings with his sovereign, or King, James 1st, during and following that event.

IV. A portion concerns that wonder, their author's tabular system of philosophy, that something absolutely new of Sonnet 59, and its "tables" of Sonnet 122 and its blessed key of Sonnet 52, and its "great bases for eternity" of Sonnets 124 and 125. These "tables" were to bear the author's name to future ages, and make him long outlive "that idle rank" that downed him.

V. A portion of them concerns their author's "noted weed" of Sonnet 16\ his nom de plume; in other words, his hyphened name Shake-speare. Most of the quartos have a hyphen between the words Shake and speare. The player's name was Shaksper. Following his fall, in a carefully written prayer, Bacon says: "I have (though in a despised weed) procured the good of all men." We understand him here to allude to those thought patterns his Shakespeare plays.

VI. A portion of them concerns a new life by their author upon a new or "second head," as stated in Sonnet 68, where the good days of Queen Elizabeth are contrasted with the "bastard signs of fair" of those of James 1st under whom he met his overthrow. This Sonnet must ever form the line of demarkation between Francis Bacon's first and second literary periods. This division will be considered in connection with division 5, in our 4th chapter.

VII. A portion of them concerns praise of their author's own mental gifts as notably in Sonnets 53 and 122 and of his philosophy or greatly felt mission; as in Sonnet 59 but which praise, or "self-love," he later much condemns in himself in Sonnet 62 which ends thus:

"'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise Pointing my age with beauty of thy days."

Note here the words "thee," "myself." This is the first and only Sonnet that gives the key to their author's method of cover words used in them. This should be studied with some care as it is used in other portions of Bacon's non-attributed work. He here shows that the pronoun "thee" refers to himself, and is in this a disclosed cover word. The author preserved his manners in not openly praising himself, by use of these pronoun cover words here considered. He describes his method in the above quotation in the words, "'Tis thee, myself, that for myself I praise."

Under this division of the Sonnets the pronouns, "thee," "thy," "thou," "you," "he," "his," "him" and "himself" and others are used as cover words wherein the author alludes to himself, or to his own intelligence. To instance, in the words, "you" and "your," in Sonnet 53, the author lauds his own mental gifts. In the same words, "you" and "your," he alludes to himself in Sonnet 55. He does this in Sonnets 67 and 68 in the words, "he," "his" and "him." By "him" in Sonnet 19 the author breathes the wish that he might be "beauty's pattern to succeeding men," but would be so, note the word, "untainted."

This use of pronouns in the second and third person instead of the first, as a cover to conceal the author's identity, was made use of by Dante, Homer, and Horace. Dante in excusing himself for it says: "In Horace, man is made to speak to his own intelligence as unto another person; and not only hath Horace done this, but herein he followeth the excellent Homer." This must ever be the first postulate in a correct interpretation of the Sonnets which fall under this division. Careful study of their context will show whether the author alludes to philosophy as in Sonnet 29 and 37 or to king, queen or himself.

In scope, all of the Sonnets may properly be herded under one or the other of the foregoing divisions.

Chapter I Was Francis Bacon A Concealed Poet?

WROTE HE SONNETS CONCERNING QUEEN ELIZA- BETH? HIS COVERT SHAKESPEARE SONNETS TOUCHING HER SUCCESSOR. HAD HE PERSONAL INTEREST IN THIS SUCCESSION? HIS STRUGGLE WITH HER ROYAL "wILl" FOR OFFICIAL POSITION.

THAT Francis Bacon was a concealed poet, he, himself shall tell you, reader. He says: "All history, excellent King, treads the earth performing the duty of a guide, rather than a light, and poetry is, as it were, the stream of knowledge." See Invention and the relation of poetry to the sciences at the opening of Chapter 5.

It will be said this but shows the value Bacon set upon the "stream" — the ancient poets — for light, for information; and in no way shows him to have been a performer in, or writer of, poetry. True; yet this is a legitimate step, we think, to the platform intended, which says. Sir Francis Bacon was a "dark author;" a concealed poet, the scope and subtlety of whose gifts have never been surpassed.

At the accession of the Scotch King, James, to the English throne, at the death of Elizabeth in 1603, Bacon addressed a careful letter to his literary friend. Sir John Davis, desiring him to interest himself in his. Bacon's behalf, with the incoming King, and he closes the letter thus: "So desiring you to be good to concealed poets, I continue your very assured. Fr. Bacon."

Comes he not here upon our platform, reader? If, then, Francis Bacon was a concealed poet, by his own showing, ought we to expect him to put this in flourish, upon pages of his attributed writings? Or in any place? Surely not.

Mr. Spedding, in a foot-note to the letter, says: "The allusion to concealed poets I cannot explain." That the letter forbids any other interpretation, than the one given, see "Bacon's Letters" by Spedding (Vol. 3, p. 65).

But again, did Francis Bacon employ his pen, as a poet, in Sonnet writing; and particularly in Sonnets concerning the Queen? He shall tell. He says: "A little before that time, being about the middle of Michaelmas term, her Majesty had a purpose to dine at my lodge at Twicknam Park, at which time I had (though I profess not to be a poet) prepared a Sonnet directly tending and alluding to draw on her Majesty's reconcilement to my Lord." "Bacon's Letters," Vol. 3, p. 149. Of the Queen he says: "She suffered herself, and was very willing to be courted, wooed, and to have sonnets made in her commendation; and she continued this longer than was decent for her years."

We now present the reader an example of Francis Bacon's poetic skill, in a Sonnet concededly written by him, touching Queen Elizabeth, and quote from "Bacon's Letters" by Spedding, Vol. 1, p. 388, thus:

"Seated between the Old World and the New, A land there is no other land may touch. Where reigns a Queen in peace and honor true; Stories or fables do describe no such. Never did Atlas such a burden bear, As she, in holding up the world opprest; Supplying with her virtue everywhere Weakness of friends, errors of servants best.

A CONCEALED POET 19

No nation breeds a warmer blood for war, And yet she calms them by her majesty; No age hath ever wits refined so far, And yet she calms them by her policy; To her, thy son must make his sacrifice If he will have the morning of his eyes."

Few, we think, are aware of the existence of this Sonnet, or of the occasion which called it forth. We would place it. Let the style, structure and literary merit of this Sonnet, this talker in verse, be drawn into direct relation and studious comparison with every, and each, of the Shakespeare Sonnets, so called, beginning with the laudation of the Queen in Sonnet 106, where we have:

WHEN in the chronicle of wasted time I see descriptions of the fairest wights, And beauty making beautiful old rhyme In praise of ladies dead and lovely knights, Then, in the blazon of sweet beauty's best, Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow, I see their antique pen would have express'd Even such a beauty as you master now. So all their praises are but prophecies Of this our time, all you prefiguring; And, for they look'd but with divining eyes, They had not skill enough your worth to sing: For we, which now behold these present days. Have eyes to wonder, but lack tongues to praise."

Here is your opportunity, reader, your tentative Example. You may here contrast the obverse and reverse, or the light and dark side of this great genius, this interpreter of the ancients, this literary mint. Shaksper? Ha!

Already the cover — the nom de plume — has served its purpose. The unmasking comes more easily in the Sonnets, than in the Plays.

Bacon's special praise of the Queen will be found not merely in the mentioned Shakespeare Sonnet 106, but most notably in Act V., Scene IV, of his play of "Henry the Eighth." Fail not reader to see there, please, what he says concerning her successor. The writer of the plays a Catholic? This particularized prophesy and noble laudation as to the infant Elizabeth in Henry the 8th make it certain that he was not. Though the last of the House of Tudor, she had formed a fixed determination against marriage. All of the Shakespeare Sonnets, from 1 to 19, concern Elizabeth and succession. They are designed to suggest to her the importance to truth of an heir to the English throne, through her. That the mentioned eighteen Sonnets concern a Prince, and do not concern a private person, see Sonnets 7 and 9, and particularly Sonnet 14, which prognosticates danger to truth, and extinction of the Queen's beauty, if she fails of issue; that is, to "convert" herself "to store." See the Sonnet. The author in Sonnet 13, clearly alludes to the House of Tudor, and urges upon the Queen not to let "so fair a house fall to decay." He there likewise alludes to her father, Henry the Eighth, and says to her: "You had a father; let your son say so."

It is for the thinker we design this work, and he will find himself rewarded by careful examination of the references given.

If now Bacon was really the son of Leicester and the Queen, by a valid, secret marriage, as claimed in his own Bi-literal Cypher Story, presented in Mrs. Gallup's wonderful book; then may these purposeful eighteen Sonnets be

A CONCEALED POET 21

justly regarded as an adroit urging upon the Queen to declare or proclaim his own lawful right to the throne, as her successor; well knowing at the time her years forbid issue, and that she could not, or would not, wed. As she could not be induced to do this, so in Sonnet 68 "the right of sepulchres were shorn away." Do Sonnets 22 and 143 concern mother and son? Let it now be observed that our first quoted Sonnet ends in significant words. The word, in parentheses touching the father, Leicester, is ours.

"To her, thy son (Leicester), must make his sacrifice, If he will have the morning of his eyes."

Bacon, to Elizabeth, did make the sacrifice, as we shall see; and he did thereby, for a time, get "the morning of his eyes." This Sonnet, let it be noted, was written by Francis Bacon, as part of a mask, to be played before the Queen, following his long tentative struggle with her, for the office, first, of attorney-general, and then of solicitor; and, of her final rejection of him in both instances, after a dalliance of upwards of two years. (Bacon's Letters, Vol. 1, p. 369 and 370).

The history of the event will show that she had induced him to believe that he was to receive the appointment. (Bacon's Letters, Vol. 1, p. 359. See on p. 348, what he says of the Queen's willfulness in the matter). Earlier, by a speech in Parliament, he had offended her; and would not, or at least had not, retracted or apologized. We here claim to the reader that during this. Bacon's greatest, yea, his only struggle with the Queen, the notable Shakespeare Sonnets 135, 136 and 143 were written. They belong with our 2nd Division of the Sonnets.

As the word "Will," In the three Sonnets, begins with a capital, it is said to stand for Will Shaksper. Here rests the most conspicuous argument for his authorship. We say that by no just theory of interpretation can the word be tortured to stand for the name of any individual. In each instance the word refers to the human will, and here stands for the royal Will, the will of Queen Elizabeth, and hence capitalized. "Best we lay a straw here," says Bacon in his Promus Note 108.

The Queen is represented in Sonnet 136 to be so willful that her love, her very being, centers in, and stands for, "Will." So the author says, if she will make his name to stand for her love, it will then be Will. That this interpretation cannot be justly questioned, see Sonnet 135. In Sonnets 133 and 134, he is said, through his friend, to be mortgaged to her will. The history of the event shows that the Queen forbade Bacon to come into her presence, and Sonnet 136 opens thus:

"If thy soul check thee that I come so near, Swear to thy blind soul that I was thy Will, And will, thy soul knows, is admitted there."

All of the Shakespeare Sonnets are concise talkers, talkers in verse, let it be remembered. Though subtle, when the event to which they belong is found, they are in full accord. Everywhere in them we have Bacon's vocabulary. The struggle with the Queen having ended, she, through Essex, made good his losses. Thus he found "the morning of his eyes." Then came Sonnet 145, and the dutiful submission elegantly portrayed to her, in the subtle mask wherein our quoted Sonnet forms but a part. In it will be found a touch of Bacon's secret mission against Spain or the Castilians.

A CONCEALED POET 23

Returning now to the use of the words, "Of hand, of foot, of lip, of eye, of brow," in Sonnet 106, and to the probabilities that it concerns the Queen and Bacon's authorship, we, from "Bacon's Letters" by Spedding, Vol. 1, page 138 quote him thus: "For the beauty and many graces of her presence, what colours are fine enough for such a portraiture ? Let no light poet be used for such a description but the chastest and royalest. Of her gait, of her voice, of her eye, of her colour, of her neck, of her breast, of her hair. If this be presumption, let him bear the blame that oweth the verses." Stay, here please reader, a moment for reflection. That Bacon wrote Sonnets concerning the Queen clearly appears from his own words.

In Sonnet 15 he tells her that by his pen, he engrafts her new as Time takes from her. But in Sonnet 16 he returns to the ruling idea involved in the first eighteen Sonnets, to wit, the covert subject of succession. The author in this Sonnetmakes reference to his pen as "Time's pencil or my pupil pen." Was it Shaksper's pen, reader? It here seems proper to focalize attention upon Bacon's emphasis upon the subject of time and his distinctive use of the word as spread in the Sonnets, in the plays and throughout his writings. See, please, Sonnet 123. We find him using such expressions as, "The noblest birth of time," "The wrongs of time," "The injuries of time," "It drinketh too much time," "To entertain the time," "Time is as a river." But in this brief outlining we must not stay upon the language features. In this, see the foot-notes to our " Defoe Period." Note our purpose in them at p. 30.

When, touching his believed-in mission Bacon said, "I have taken all knowledge to be my providence;" he of it also said; "This, whether it be curiosity, or vain glory, or nature, or (if one take It favorably) philanthropia, is so fixed in my mind as it cannot be removed." See, please, "Bacon's Letters" by Spedding, Vol. 1, pages 108 and 109; or our "Defoe Period" pages 24 to 27 and 21 to 24.

This undated letter to his kinsman Burghley, then High Treasurer of England, and drawn forth by his necessities at or near his mentioned struggle with the Queen, and, we think, immediately following that event, should be read in full, remembering that its word "province" is erroneously substituted for Bacon's word "providence" as elsewhere shown. See our "Defoe Period" p. 25, 27 and 76,

This letter we would place as a continuing Head-light to the great purposes which were in Bacon's mind at the age of thirty-one. In it he says to his kinsman: "I confess that I have as vast contemplative ends, as I have moderate civil ends, for I have taken all knowledge to be my providence." He also says if he will not assist him to some place in her Majesty's service, "I will sell the inheritance that I have, and purchase some lease of quick revenue, or some office of gain that shall be executed by deputy, and so give over all care of service, and become some sorry bookmaker or a true pioneer in that mine of truth which is said to lay so deep."

Let these thoughts, these fixed purposes be carefully remembered when we come later in Chapter 4 to his new seats of learning. He evidently believed that for England at least "Time's pencil" was in his hand. Let it likewise be remembered that whoever believes himself wiser than his neighbor has ever envy at the door. Prejudice.^ Where, reader, can be found a more hateful devil to human progress? How can there be a steady advancement of