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possibly be referred to the year 1596, when Bacon wrote to the Earl of Shrewsbury from Gray's Inn "to borrow a horse and armour" for some public show. Collier supposes it to have been addressed to Lord Burghley, not long after 1588. He finds that, during the Christmas Revels at Gray's Inn in 1587, a comedy, in which Catiline and the "Dominus de Purpoole" were leading characters, was exhibited by the Gentlemen of Gray's Inn, at their Hall, before Lord Burghley and other courtiers, on the 16th of January (1587-8) and that, on the 28th of February following, a tragedy of the "Misfortunes of Arthur" and certain "dumb-shews" in which "Mr. Francis Bacon" assisted, were presented before the Queen at Greenwich by the Gentlemen of this same Inn;1 and he assigns this letter to some subsequent occasion; but neither he, nor Mr. Spedding, gives any data on which it can safely be referred to any other time than that supposed by Nichols. However this may be, it is certain that besides this tragedy of Arthur and "certain Devices and Shewes" by the Gentlemen of Gray's Inn, seven plays also were performed before the Queen by the Children of Paul's and "her Majesty's Servants" of the theatre, during these Revels at Greenwich; and the "dumb-shews and additional speeches were partly devised by William Fulbeck, Francis Flower, Christopher Yelverton, Francis Bacon, John Lancaster, and others, who with Master Penroodock and Lancaster directed these proceedings at Court." 2 Here is incontestable proof that Francis Bacon was earnestly engaged in these dramatic entertainments in the same year in which William Shakespeare is supposed to have arrived in London to join the Blackfriars Company as an humble " servitor," as yet wholly unknown to fame as an actor or as an author, but (as some would have us believe) bringing with him pockets full of plays and poems already written. Mr. Knight presumes he

1 Collier's Hist. Dram. Poetry, I. 266-8; (London, 1831).

2 Knight's Biog. of Shakes., 326-7; (London, 1843).

played his part, perhaps furnished plays, for these very Revels; and he indulges in some highly poetic speculations upon this first meeting of the philosopher and the poet, but imagines that the high position of the courtier, Francis Bacon, would forbid him having any acquaintance with the humble actor, though as yet Bacon had no reputation as a philosopher, and Shakespeare none as a poet.

We need not wonder at this letter, whether it belong to this time or to some other, nor that upon this occasion, nevertheless, a magnificent Masque and other superb entertainments were easily forthcoming. Gray's Inn was turned into the court and kingdom of " Henry Prince of Purpoole," with all needful officers of State, not forgetting a Master of the Revels, and the sports continued for twelve days and more. Besides triumphal processions by land and water and various burlesque performances by day, there were certain "grand nights" of plays, masques, dumb-shows, banquets, and dances. The Queen received them at her. palace, and the whole court attended on the chief occasions. The account states (as reprinted by Nichols) that on the second night (December 28th) "a Comedy of Errors (like unto Plautus his Menæchmus) was played by the players." Mr. Spedding agrees with others before him that this must have been the Shakespeare play, as no doubt it was. On this occasion, there was a crowded attendance and such a press of ladies, lords, and gentlemen, whose dignity and sex privileged them from interference, that there was scarcely room on the stage for the actors, and when the Templarian ambassador and his train arrived, "at nine o'clock,” there was some confusion for want of room, and they "would not stay longer at that time, but retired, in a sort, discontented and displeased;" and so, as the account states, some other "inventions" intended "especially for the gracing the Templarians" had to be dispensed with, but the "dancing and revelling with gentlewomen" proceeded, and after these sports, the night closed with the performance of this play;

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so that, as the account continues, "that night begun and continued to the end, in nothing but confusion and errors; whereupon it was ever afterwards called the Night of Errors." Mr. Spedding appears to think this play was regarded as "the crowning disgrace of this unfortunate Grand Night;" but this would seem to be altogether a mistake, though it may be true enough, if it be understood that the offence taken was, after all, but a part of the sport, and, so far at least as the play was concerned, simply a mock-serious disgrace. It is plain it was not the play that offended the Templarians. In the fourth year of Elizabeth's reign, a like round of Christmas Revels was celebrated at the Inner Temple with equal splendor and magnificence, in which Lord Robert Dudley was elected 'Mighty Palaphilos Prince of Sophie, High Constable, Marshall of the Knight Templars, and Patron of the Honourable Order of Pegasus"; and, on one night, there was a "Lord of Misrule" (a standing character on these occasions), and the banquet ended in mirth, minstrelsy, and wine, and, on the following night, there was a grand mocktrial at which the constable, marshal, and common-serjeant were arraigned for the "disorder" and humorously sent to the Tower. And these later Revels at Gray's Inn seem to have been conducted much after the same model: in fact, this "Prince of Purpoole" appears to have been the standing prince of sports and "Lord of Misrule" at this Inn from 1587 until 1618, when the Students of Gray's Inn honored the Lord Chancellor Bacon with an exhibition before him of the "Tilt of Henry Prince of Purpoole" and the "Masque of Mountebanks," with an installation of the "Honourable Order of the Crescent" and a Song for his special "Entertainment." At any rate, this "Night of Errors" was followed, on the very next night, with a mocktrial of the "sorcerer or conjurer that was supposed to be

"2

1 Shakes. England, by G. W. Thornbury, II. 363-9; (London, 1856). 2 Nichols' Prog. James I., III. 466.

the cause of that confused inconvenience"; and the indictment concluded thus: "And lastly, that he had foisted a company of base and common fellows to make up our disorders with a play of Errors and Confusions, and that night had gained to us discredit and itself a nickname of Errors: All which were against the crown and dignity of our Sovereign Lord the Prince of Purpoole." But the verdict was, that they "were nothing else but vain illusions, fancies, and enchantments, which might be compassed by means of a poor harmless wretch that had never heard of such great matters in all his life;" and so, the "sorcerer or conjurer" was pardoned, and the Attorney, Solicitor, and Master of Requests sent to the Tower for making so much ado about law. Of course, this was all in jest, if not a set part of the programme:

"Sure, these are but imaginary wiles,
And Lapland sorcerers inhabit here."

Com. of Errors, Act IV. Sc. 3.

And the hint of this conjurer most probably came from the play itself:

"Along with them

They brought one Pinch, a hungry lean-fac'd villain,
A mere anatomy, a mountebank,

A thread-bare juggler, and a fortune teller,
A needy, hollow-ey'd, sharp-looking wretch,
A living dead man. This pernicious slave,
Forsooth, took on him as a conjurer,
And, gazing in mine eyes, feeling my pulse,
And with no face, as 'twere, out-facing me,
Cries out I was possess'd." Act V. Sc. 1.

Some "graver conceits" were produced on a subsequent night, including a Masque and a formal induction of the Ambassador and twenty-four Templarians into the Honourable Order of the Helmet, together with "divers plots and devices," beginning with a dumb-show, which represented the reconciliation of the offended Templarians; for their displeasure was not so deep but that a grand procession of

all the heroic examples of friendship, Theseus and Perithous, Achilles and Patroclus, Pylades and Orestes, Scipio and Laelius, and lastly Graius and Templarius, "arm in arm," before the altar of the Arch-flamen of the Goddess of Amity, surrounded with singing nymphs and fairies, was sufficient to restore and cement the ancient "league of brotherhood and love between the two Inns." The reading of the Articles for the regulation of the Heroical Order of the Helmet was followed with a variety of music and a banquet served by the Knights of the Order. This being over, a table was set on the stage before the royal throne, around which sat six privy counsellors, and the Masque proceeded. The Prince asked their advice, and each answered in succession. The first advised war; the second, the study of philosophy; the third, the eternal fame to be acquired by building; the fourth, the absoluteness of state and treasure; the fifth praised virtue and a gracious government; and the sixth, pastimes and sports. The Prince preferred the last; and the evening ended with dancing.

On this occasion, the Lord Keeper, Lord Treasurer, and numerous courtiers and great persons, and among them the Earls of Essex and Southampton, were present. The speeches of the Masque are given by Mr. Spedding as unquestionably the work of Bacon; and the presence of these great officers of state may explain why the matter of them is made to point more nearly to those great reforms and improvements which he was so diligently urging upon the attention of his time and country; for he sought, on all occasions, to mingle instruction with amusement.

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Mr. Spedding also gives the Articles that were drawn up for the government of the new Order of the Helmet, but he seems to think that these were not written by Bacon ; and he tells the story of these Revels in such a manner as to exclude the idea that Bacon was the actual author of anything but the Masque; though he admits, as a probable

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