whether anything, or how much, may have been added to it, after the date of its first appearance. Some critics have observed such differences in the style and versification of different parts of it as to raise a doubt whether it were all the work of the same author. But in this matter of versification, it may be well to remember Bacon's remark, that some men's behaviour is like a verse, wherein every syllable is measured; how can a man comprehend great matters, that breaketh his mind too much to small observations?" 1 And his remarks on verse, generally, in the De Augmentis, may justly claim attention in any criticism of the verse of Shakespeare : — 66 "The ancients used hexameter for histories and eulogies; elegiac for complaints; iambic for invectives; lyric for odes and hymns. Nor have the modern poets been wanting in this wisdom, so far as their own languages are concerned. The fault has been, that some of them, out of too much zeal for antiquity, have tried to train the modern languages into the ancient measures (hexameter, elegiac, saphic, etc.); measures incompatible with the structures of the languages themselves, and no less offensive to the ear. In these things the judgment of the sense is to be preferred to the precepts of art,-as the poet says, Cœnæ fercula nostræ Mallem convivis quam placuisse cocis. And it is not art, but abuse of art, when, instead of perfecting nature, it perverts it." Indeed, it is not improbable, that this play received some considerable additions and emendations from the matured experience of the master's hand, after his own fall from power, when he had bidden farewell to all his "greatness,”when he had "done with such vanities" as the House of Lords, and had found, at last, "the blessedness of being little." At least, this celebrated speech of Wolsey to Cromwell is not to be found in Holinshed, from whose history the matter of the play is chiefly taken, and much of it merely turned into verse: it has been remarked, too, that a certain twang of pulpit eloquence is audible in it; and truly enough, if it be understood that the preacher was this 1 Essay, lii. same high priest of Nature, Justice, and Truth, on whom the wall had fallen, though not the greatest sinner in Israel, and who now confessed himself to have been "humbled as a Christian, but not dejected as a worldling": "Say, Wolsey, that once trod the ways of glory, Love thyself last: cherish those hearts that hate thee. Still in thy right hand carry gentle peace, To silence envious tongues: be just and fear not. Let all the ends thou aim'st at be thy country's, Thy God's, and Truth's: then, if thou fall'st, O Cromwell! And this conclusion sounds very much like the Essay on Truth: "Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in Providence, and turn upon the poles of Truth." At any rate, it is a most positive and indubitable fact, that on the fifth of September, 1621, whether he were then engaged upon a revision of these plays or not, he writes a letter to the King, from his retreat at Gorhambury, to which he appends a remarkable postscript, by which it appears that the similarity of his own case to that of the fallen Cardinal in the play had very forcibly come to his mind; and he seems to have been struggling with his own conscience to avert the parallel, thus: "Cardinal Wolsey said that if he had pleased God as he pleased the king he had not been ruined. My conscience saith no such thing; for I know not but in serving you, I served God in one. But it may be if I had pleased God, as I had pleased you, it would have been better for me." 1 1 Letter to the King, Works (Mont.), XII. 411; Works (Philad.), III. 136. "Wol. O Cromwell, Cromwell! Had I but serv'd my God with half the zeal I serv'd my King, he would not in mine age Act III. Sc. 2. It is barely possible, here, that Bacon may have remem、 bered Shakespeare's play, though it had never been printed, or that William Shakespeare, as well as Bacon, may have followed the same historical acccunt of Cardinal Wolsey, in Holinshed, Hall, or Stowe; but in the brevity and peculiar turn of the expression, and in the use of the verb to have and the word but, the manner of Bacon may be distinctly recognized in the play. Again, Bacon uses the expression "if he had pleased God as he pleased the King he had not been ruined." The word ruined is not in Holinshed, but it appears in the preceding line of the play: "Mark but my fall, and that that ruin'd me." 1 It is evident that Holinshed had been consulted, and that his account had, in general, been followed in the play; but it is also clear, that some other author, probably Cavendish, from whom all the later historians drew their materials, had also been consulted. Cavendish's "Life and Death of Thomas Woolsey," written prior to 1557, remained in MSS. until 1641; but copies of it had been deposited in various libraries at Oxford, Cambridge, and London. Hall and Holinshed drew from the MSS., and John Stowe had borrowed a copy. The story of Anne Bullen must have been derived from Cavendish, or from some other copier than Holinshed; but the play varies considerably from Cavendish, in the scenes concerning Anne Bullen; as for instance, in the scene of the maskers, Wolsey makes a mistake and selects Sir Edward Neville for the king, while in the play, he makes a good hit, and finds the king. It is certain that Bacon's studies for his Histories began at an early date, and must have made him familiar with these historians; and it is highly probable, if not quite certain, that he 1 Harleian Misc., V. 123. would have an opportunity to consult one of the MSS. copies of Cavendish. Holinshed's statement of this saying of the dying Cardinal, drawn from Cavendish, is as follows: — "Sir, (quoth he,) I tarrie but the pleasure of God to render up my poore soule into his hands. I see the matter, how it is framed: but if I had served God as diligentlie as I have doone the King, he would not have given me over in my greie haires: but it is the just reward that I must receive for the diligent pains and studie that I have had to do him service, not regarding my service to God, but onlie to satisfie his pleasure.” 1 The word pleased is not used, nor is anything said, in the play, about the king's "pleasure:" while in the letter of Bacon, pleased is the leading word. This shows that Bacon wrote rather from his remembrance of Holinshed than of the play. At the same time, the word served is also used by Bacon as in Holinshed, and it is made the leading word in the play, as more suitable than pleased for the few lines of verse which were required. And this tends strongly to the conclusion, that the saying passed into the play through the mind of Bacon. Furthermore, this word please is much in use, in the same manner, both in Bacon and the plays; as for instance, in the Julius Cæsar, thus: "Cass. I know not what you mean by that; but I am sure, Cæsar fell down. If the tag-rag people did not clap him and hiss him, according as he pleased and displeased them, as they used to do the Players in the theatre, I am no true man." - Act I. Sc. 2. And in the "Christian Paradoxes" of Bacon, we have this: "He knoweth if he please man, he cannot be the servant of Christ; yet, for Christ's sake, he pleaseth all men in all things." In like manner, the story of King Henry the Sixth's prophecy, about young Henry Earl of Richmond, passes from Holinshed into the play of Henry VI., pretty certainly through the head of Bacon; for, in the Essay of Prophecies, he says, "Henry the Sixth of England said of Henry the Seventh, when he was a lad, and gave him water, This is the lad that shall enjoy the crown for which we strive." 1 Chron. of Eng. (Lond. 1808), III. 755. "K. Hen. My Lord of Somerset, what youth is that, Som. My liege, it is young Henry, Earl of Richmond. Suggest but truth to my divining thoughts, 3 Hen. VI., Act IV. Sc. 6. § 3. JULIUS CÆSAR. As we have seen, there is satisfactory evidence, that Bacon had made a special study of the life and times of Julius Cæsar. The play of this name was not printed until it appeared in the Folio, but it seems to have been written about the year 1607, just when Bacon was engaged upon his Characters of Julius and Augustus Cæsar (written in Latin), in which allusion is made to Cæsar's ambition for a crown, in these words of the translation : — "For aiming at a real power, he was content to pass by all vain pomp and outward shows of power throughout his whole life; till at the last, whether high-flown with the continual exercise of power, or corrupted with flatteries, he affected the ensigns of power (the style and diadem of a king), which was the bait which wrought his overthrow." The Advancement contains a critical account of the merits of Julius Cæsar as a writer, and also this passage, which may be compared with the following lines of the play: : "Cæsar did extremely affect the name of king; and some were set on, as he passed by, in popular acclamation to salute him king; whereupon finding the cry weak and poor, he put it off thus, in a kind of jest, as if they had mistaken his surname: Non rex sum, sed Cæsar." The play reads thus "Casca. Why, there was a crown offered him: and, being offered him, he put it by with the back of his hand, thus; and then the people fell a' shouting. |