And again, in the De Augmentis, he speaks of "those conceits (now become as it were popular) of the mastering spirit, of men unlucky and ill-omened, of the glances of love, envy, and the like." And the story reappears in the play, thus: "Ant. Now, sirrah: you do wish yourself in Egypt? : Sooth. Would I had never come from thence, nor you thither! Ant. If you can, your reason? Sooth. I see it in my motion, have it not in my tongue: but yet hie you again to Egypt. Ant. Say to me, whose fortunes shall rise higher, Cæsar's or mine? Therefore, O Antony! stay not by his side: Thy dæmon, that's thy spirit which keeps thee, is Noble, courageous, high, unmatchable, Where Cæsar is not; but near him, thy angel Sooth. To none but thee; no more, but when to thee. If thou dost play with him at any game, Thou 'rt sure to lose; and, of that natural luck, He beats thee 'gainst the odds: thy lustre thickens, Is all afraid to govern thee near him. But, he away, 't is noble. Ant. Get thee gone."— Act II. Sc. 3. The "Antony and Cleopatra," first printed in the Folio, was entered at Stationers' Hall in 1608, and was most probably written not long before. Of course, Shakespeare could not have borrowed this story from Bacon. There is more in Bacon's story than is said by the soothsayer in the play; and this proves that Bacon drew from some other source than the play. Bacon states that this soothsayer was thought to have been suborned by Cleopatra to make Antony live in Egypt, but this circumstance is not mentioned in the play. A similar story was to be found in North's translation of Plutarch's life of Antony, which Shakespeare may have seen as well as Bacon; and it is true that some parts of it are very closely followed in the play. There is little doubt that the writer had read Plutarch. But Plutarch makes the soothsayer a member of the household of Antony at Rome: "With Antonius there was a Soothsayer or Astronomer of Egypt, that could cast a figure, and judge of men's nativities, to tell them what should happen to them."1 But the play, like Bacon's story, makes him not only an Egyptian, but one of the household of Cleopatra; and in the play, he is sent by Cleopatra as one of her numerous messengers from Egypt to Antony at Rome to induce him to return to Egypt; and in this he is successful; all which is in exact keeping with Bacon's statement that he was thought to be suborned by Cleopatra to make Antony live in Egypt; but of this there is not the least hint in Plutarch. All this goes strongly to show, that this story, together with the doctrine of a predominant or mastering spirit of one man over another, went into the play through the Baconian strainer; for it is next to incredible, that both Bacon and Shakespeare should make the same variations upon the common original. Again, in this same Natural History, considering of the substances that produce death with least pain, he records his conclusions upon the poison of the asp, in these ⚫words: "643. The death that is most without pain, hath been noted to be upon the taking of the potion of hemlock; which in humanity was the form of execution of capital offenders in Athens. The poison of the asp, that Cleopatra used, hath some affinity with it. The cause is, for that the torments of death are chiefly raised by the strife of the spirits; and these vapours quench the spirits by degrees; like to the death of an extreme old man. I conceive it is less painful than opium, because opium hath parts of heat mixed." And, that the writer of this play had the same scientific knowledge and the same opinions of the quality and effect of this poison, will be seen in these lines of the play "Cleo. Hast thou the pretty worm of Nilus there, That kills and pains not? 1 North's Plutarch, 926. Clown. Truly I have him; but I would not be the party that should desire you to touch him, for his biting is immortal: those that do die of it, do seldom or never recover. Cleo. Remember'st thou any that have died on't? Clo. Very many, men and women too. I heard of one of them no longer than yesterday; a very honest woman, but something given to lie, — as a woman should not do, but in the way of honesty;-how she died of the biting of it, what pain she felt. Truly, she makes a very good report o' the worm. Cleo. Farewell, kind Charmian;- Iras, long farewell. [Kisses them. IRAS falls and dies. Have I the aspick in my lips? Dost fall? If thou and nature can so gently part, The stroke of death is as a lover's pinch, Which hurts, and is desir'd. . ..... Come, thou mortal wretch, .... [To the asp, which she applies to her breast. Cleo. As sweet as balm, as soft as air, as gentle, — O, Antony! - Nay, I will take thee too. What should I stay [Another asp. [Falls and dies. Guard. This is an aspick's trail; and these fig-leaves Have slime upon them, such as the aspick leaves And there is no doubt, that she was somehow thoroughly instructed in natural history, and well acquainted with "the death that is most without pain," or as gentle 66 as a lover's pinch," and those "vapours" that "quench the spirits by degrees, like to the death of an extreme old man”; nor that the great Magician himself had "pursued conclusions infinite of easy ways to die." Though the Natural History was chiefly composed during the last five years of his life, yet we know that he had been collecting materials for it for many years before; and it is very probable that he was making notes on the poisonous qualities of plants and animals, and on easy ways to die, about the same time that he was engaged in writing this play, and so the asp, that Cleopatra used, is noted with the hemlock, and finds its way into the same section of this work, in connection with the same subject, "the death that is most without pain." This inference is still further confirmed by the actual out-cropping, in rather a singular manner, of this same word vapour, a little above, in the same scene of the play, thus: "Cleo. - in their thick breaths, Bacon, as we know, towards the close of his career, collected and digested the results of his observations and studies, through many years, into a scientific history of Life and Death; and in such a man we may find a comprehensible source of the natural science of these plays, without resorting to the childish and ridiculous notion that a born genius can see through nature at one glance. The tragedy of Macbeth was certainly written between 1605 and 1610. The first notice that we have of it is, that it was performed at the Globe in April 1610; and there are some reasons to conjecture that it was written about the year 1607, when Bacon was made Solicitor-General. It may have followed the "Antony and Cleopatra": at any rate, we find in it an allusion to this same soothsayer, together with some further illustration of the same conceit of a predominant or mastering spirit of one man over another, thus: — "Macb. Our fears in Banquo Stick deep; and in his royalty of nature Reigns that which would be fear'd: 'T is much he dares; And, to that dauntless temper of his mind, He hath a wisdom that doth guide his valour To act in safety. There is none but he, Whose being I do fear; and under him My genius is rebuk'd, as, it is said, Mark Antony's was by Cæsar." Act III. Sc. 1. And in the lines immediately following these, the same conceit leads to a like use of this same word predominant, thus: Your patience so predominant in your nature The same form of expression occurs again in what Bacon writes concerning Henry VII. and his Queen: "But his aversion towards the house of York was so predominant in him, as it found place not only in his wars and counsels, but in his chamber and bed"; and again, in this same History, he uses the expression, "and were predominant in the King's nature and mind." The incantation and vaticination of the witches, and the prophetic visions also, in this play, bear unmistakable marks of Bacon's inquiries into the natural history of charms and witches, the poisonous plants and animals connected with them in the popular superstitions, and the manner in which the imagination is operated upon by immateriate virtues. Speaking of his third kind of imagination, that which is "of things not present as if they were present," and of the power of it upon the spirits of men, he says: "There be three means to fortify belief: the first is experience; the second is reason; and the third is authority; for authority, it is of two kinds, belief in an art, and belief in a man. Therefore, if a man believes in astrology, ... or believe in natural magic, and that a ring with such a stone, or such a piece of living creature carried, will do good, it may help his imagination. . . . And such are, for the most part, all witches and superstitious persons, whose beliefs, tied to their teachers and traditions, are no |