W

HO does not remember that curious word used by Hamlet, to describe the coldness of the air, upon the platform where he awaits the Ghost:

It is very cold.

It is a nipping and an eager air.1

We turn to Bacon, and we find this very word used in the same

sense:

Whereby the cold becomes more eager.

There is another strange word used by Shakespeare:

Light thickens,

And the crow makes wing to the rocky wood.3

We turn again to Bacon, and we find the origin of this singular expression:

For the over-moisture of the brain doth thicken the spirits visual.1

In the same connection we have in Bacon this expression:

The cause of dimness of sight is the expense of spirits.3

We turn to Shakespeare's sonnets, and we find precisely the same arrangement of words:

One of the most striking parallelisms of thought and expression occurs in the following. Bacon says:

Some noises help sleep, as . . . soft singing. The cause is, for that they move in the spirits a gentle attention.'

In Shakespeare we have:

I am never merry when I hear sweet music,

The reason is, your spirits are attentive.

Here we have the same words applied in the same sense to the same thing, the effect of music; and in each case the philosopher stops to give the reason "the cause is," "the reason is."

Both are very fond of the expressions, "parts inward" and “parts outward," to describe the interior and exterior of the body.'

Bacon says:

Mineral medicines have been extolled that they are safer for the outward than the inward parts.3

And again:

While the life-blood of Spain went inward to the heart, the outward limbs and members trembled and could not resist.4

Shakespeare has it:

I see men's judgments are

A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward
Do draw the inward quality after them,

To suffer all alike. 5

Falstaff tells us:

But the sherris warms it and makes it course from the inwards to the parts

The word infinite is a favorite with both writers.

Shakespeare has:

Conclusion infinite of easy ways to die.1

Fellows of infinite tongue.?

A fellow of infinite jest.3

Infinite in faculties.1

Nature's infinite book of secrecy.5

Bacon says:

Man in his mansion, sleep, exercise, passions, hath infinite variations; the faculties of the soul."

That gigantic state of mind which possesseth the troublers of the world, such as was Lucius Sylla.*

This is a very peculiar and unusual expression; we turn to Shakespeare, and we find Queen Margaret cursing the bloody Duke of Gloster, in the play of Richard III., in these words:

If heaven have any grievous plague in store,
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,

Oh, let them keep it, till thy sins be ripe,

And then hurl down their indignation

On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace."

In Shakespeare we find:

Which is to bring Signor Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with the other, 10

66

This was regarded as such a strange and unusual comparison that some of the commentators proposed to change it into a mooting of affection." But we turn to Bacon and we find the same simile:

Perkin sought to corrupt the servants of the lieutenant of the Tower by mountains of promises.11

Bacon says:

To fall from a discord, or harsh accord, upon a concord of sweet accord.1o

Antony and Cleopatra, v, 2.

2 Henry V., V, 2.

Hamlet, v, I.

4 Ibid., ii, 2.

Antony and Cleopatra, i, 2.

Advancement of Learning, book ::.

"Hamlet, ii, 2.

Advancement of Learning.
Richard III., i, 3.

10 Much Ado about Nothing, i1, 2.

11 History of Henry VII.

12.1dvancement of Learning.

Shakespeare says:

That is not moved with concord of sweet sounds.' Here we have three words used in the same order and sense by both writers.

We find in Shakespeare this well-known but curious expression: There's a divinity that shapes our ends,

Rough-hew them how we will.2

This word occurs only once in the Plays. George Stevens says:

Dr. Farmer informs me that these words are merely technical. A woolman, butcher and dealer in skewers lately observed to him that his nephew (an idle lad) could only assist him in making them. "He could rough-hew them, but I was obliged to shape their ends." Whoever recollects the profession of Shakspere's father will admit that his son might be no stranger to such terms. I have frequently seen packages of wool pinn'd up with skewers.

This is the sort of proof we have had that Shakspere wrote the Plays. It is very evident that the sentence means, that while we may hew out roughly the outlines of our careers, the ends we reach are shaped by some all-controlling Providence. And when we turn to Bacon we find the very word used by him, to indicate carved out roughly:

A rough-hewn seaman.3

And we find again in Shakespeare the same idea, that while we may shape our careers in part, the results to be attained are beyond our control:

Our thoughts are ours, their ends none of our own.

Bacon says:

Instruct yourself in all things between heaven and earth which may tend to virtue, wisdom and honor.5

Shakespeare has:

Crawling between heaven and earth,

There are more things in heaven and earth, Horatio,

Than are dreamt of in your philosophy."

Bacon refers to

The particular remedies which learning doth minister to all the diseases of the mind.

Shakespeare says:

Canst thou not minister to a mind diseased ?8

1 Merchant of Venice, v, 1.

Works, vol. ii, p. 18.

2 Hamlet, V, 2. 3 Apophthegms.

Hamlet, iii, 2.

Macbeth, V, 3.

Bacon's Letter to the Earl of Rutland, written in the name of the Earl of Essex-Life aná

Here the parallelism is complete. In each case it refers to remedies for mental disease, and in each case the word minister is used, and the "diseases of the mind" of the one finds its counterpart in “mind diseased" of the other, a change made necessary by the rhythm.

this.

Surely the doctrine of accidental coincidences will not explain

Bacon says:

Men have their time, and die many times, in desire of some things which they principally take to heart.'

Shakespeare says:

Bacon says:

Cowards die many times before their deaths.

The even carriage between two factions proceedeth not always of moderation. but of a trueness to a man's self, with end to make use of both.

The ripeness or unripeness of the occasion must ever be well weighed."
Shakespeare says:

Ripeness is all.”

In Shakespeare we have this singular expression:

O Heaven! a beast, that wants discourse of reason,
Would have mourned longer.

This expression "discourse of reason" is a very unusual one. Massinger has:

It adds to my calamity that I have

Discourse and reason.

Gifford thought that Shakespeare had written "discourse and reason," and that the of was a typographical error; but Knight, in discussing the question, refers to the lines in Hamlet: