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nations and the next ages. No doubt, the original man-
uscripts which came to the hands of William Shakespeare,
or the copies that came into the hands of the players, would
be clean and complete, with never a line blotted,
derful miracle, indeed, to the players! And so, the sonnet
sings:-

"How like a Winter hath my absence been
From thee, the pleasure of the fleeting year?
What freezings have I felt, what dark days seen?
What old December's bareness everywhere?
And yet this time remov'd was summer's time,
The teeming Autumn big with rich increase,
Bearing the wanton burthen of the prime,
Like widow'd wombs after their lord's decease:
Yet this abundant issue seem'd to me

But hope of Orphans, and unfather'd fruit,

For Summer and his pleasures wait on thee,

And thou away, the very birds are mute,

Or, if they sing, 't is with so dull a cheer,

--

That leaves look pale, dreading the Winter's near."

a won

Sonnet xcvii. 1

The remainder of Ben Jonson's account of Shakespeare is much in keeping with this hypothesis. He says further: "My answer hath been, Would he had blotted out a thousand! which they thought a malevolent speech. I had not told posterity this, but for their ignorance, who chose that circumstance to commend their friend by, wherein he most faulted, and to justify mine own candour, for I love the man, and do honour his memory, on this side idolatry, as much as any. He was, indeed, honest, and of an open and free nature, had an excellent fancy, brave notions, and gentle expressions; wherein he flowed with that facility that sometimes it was necessary he should be stopped: Sufflaminandus erat, as Augustus said of Haterius. His wit was in his own power; would the rule of it had been so, too. Many times he fell into those things which could not escape laughter, as when he said in the person of Cæsar, one speaking to 1 Sonnets (Fac-simile of the ed. of 1609), London, 1862.

him, 'Cæsar, thou dost me wrong,' he replied,' Cæsar did never wrong, but with just cause;' and such like, which were ridiculous. But he redeemed his vices with his virtues; there was ever more in him to be praised than to be pardoned." 1

This line, it seems, is not correctly quoted from any known edition of the play; the statement may refer to Shakespeare's mode of speaking the passage as an actor on the stage; and the whole account carries with it an air of irony, and the appearance of a constrained vindication of himself from a malevolent and ridiculous complaint of ignorant persons. His observations relate, in part, to the person of Shakespeare, and, in part, to his supposed productions, perhaps; though in this, he is equivocal and indefinite. If he knew the secret, he certainly meant to keep it. His intimation, that the rule of his wit was not sufficiently in his power, and that he sometimes made himself ridiculous, probably had some foundation in fact. He could not well refrain from rebuking the folly of the players, nor from vindicating himself from the charge of malevolence towards Shakespeare. With regard to the personal qualities of the man, his opinion may be taken as coming near the truth. These are the qualities of an agreeable companion, a facetious fellow, and a prosperous manager; but they do not account for these plays, nor for that excellent appreciation of their quality, which we find in Ben Jonson's "Eulogy." The traditions handed down by Fuller are of like import. "Jonson," says he, "was built far higher in learning, solid but slow; but Shakespeare lesser in bulk, but lighter for sailing, could turn with all tides, tack about, and take advantage of all winds, by the quickness of his art and invention." All this is a mere afterthought, and a tale of mythical growth, like his other old saw of Poeta nascitur, and his Cornish diamonds, that were not polished by any lapidary; and they may illustrate how "Nature itself was all

1 Ben Jonson's Discoveries.

the art which was used" upon William Shakespeare; but they do not explain the origin of these very extraordinary compositions.

Another traditionary document may be mentioned, which was published in 1643-5, and was believed by Sir Egerton Bridges to have been the work of George Withers, the poet. Withers was born in 1588, and died in 1667, and he may be considered as a contemporary. This document will show, that Lord Bacon, in the opinion of Withers, at least, was entitled to high rank among his contemporaries in the kingdom of Apollo. It is entitled "The Great Assizes holden in Parnassus by Apollo and his Assessours, at which are arraigned Mercurius Brittanicus, Mercurius Aulicus," &c., (periodical publications of that time). It proceeds thus:

"The Members of the Parnassian Court are as follows:

APOLLO.

THE LORD VERULAM, Chancellor of Parnassus.
SIR PHILIP SIDNEY, High Constable of Parnassus.

WILLIAM BUDEUS, High Treasurer.

JOHN PICUS, EARL OF MIRANDULA, High Chamberlaine.

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The Malefactors [as in the title.]

JOSEPH SCALIGER, the Censour of Manners in Parnassus

BEN JONSON, Keeper of the Trophonian Denne.

JOHN TAYLOUR, Cryer of the Court.

EDMUND SPENSER, Clerk of the Assizes."

Then follows a poetical account of the empanelling of the jury, the arraignment of the malefactors, and the proceedings generally, "soure Ben," all the while, having the culprits in custody in "the Trophonian Denne." 1

§ 3. MATTHEW'S POSTSCRIPT.

Another very remarkable piece of evidence is Mr. Tobie Matthew's postscript. It is appended to a letter to Bacon, which is itself without date, but is addressed to the Viscount St. Alban, and must therefore necessarily have been subsequent to the 27th day of January, 1621, when his Lordship was invested with that title. The letter is found in the collection of Birch, and is placed by him among those "wanting both dates and circumstances to determine the date." 2 It appears to be in answer to a letter from Lord Bacon dated "the 9th of April" (year not given), accompanying some "great and noble token" of his "Lordship's favour," which was, in all probability, a newly printed book; for Bacon, as we know from the Letters, was in the habit of sending to Mr. Matthew a copy of his books as they were published; and much of their correspondence had relation more or less to the books and writings on which Bacon was at the time engaged. We know that the works published by Lord Bacon, after 1620, were the History of Henry VII., in March, 1622; the De Augmentis, in October, 1623, the Apothegms, in December, 1624, and the Essays and Psalms, in 1625; and there is reason to believe that the Folio of 1623, which was entered at Stationers' Hall in November of that year, was issued from the press in the spring of that year, - there being a copy now in existence bearing the date of 1622 on the title-page, showing that a part of the edition was actually struck off before the end of 1622. In like manner, the first edition of the Apothegms bears date 1625, though in fact pub1 Bridges' Brit. Bibliographer, I. 513.

2 Works (Mont.) XII. 468; (Philad.) III. 160.

lished in December, 1624.1 We know, also, from the Letters, that Mr. Matthew resided in London in the years 1621-2, and down to the 18th day of April, 1623, the date of a letter of Bacon, which he was to carry with him into Spain to the Duke of Buckingham, in whose service he was to be there employed; and he returned to England with the Duke and the Prince in October, 1623, and received from the King at Royston the honor of knighthood on the 10th day of that month.2 He remained a few years in London, and then went to Ireland. In a letter to the Duke, dated at Gorhambury, March 20th, 1621-2, Bacon says: "I am bold to present your Lordship with a book of my History of King Henry VII., and now that, in summer that was twelve months, I dedicated a book to his Majesty, and this last summer, this book to the Prince, your Lordship's turn is next; and this summer that cometh, if I live to it, shall be yours." The Novum Organum had been dedicated to the King in 1620, and if we count the summers, we shall see that the summer of 1621 was devoted to the History of Henry VII., and that of 1622 to the De Augmentis, which was to be dedicated to Buckingham, but was not published until October, 1623, just after the Duke's return from Spain. On the 20th of March, 1622, copies of the History of Henry VII. were presented to the King and Buckingham, and on the 20th of April following, one to the Queen of Bohemia, as we see by the Letters.8 And it is not improbable, that on the 9th of April of the same year, a copy may have been sent to Mr. Matthew also, and that this may have been the "noble token" referred to. Neither is there anything at all in the way of the supposition that this date may actually have been the 9th of April, 1623; and there was no publication of any work of Bacon, during that spring, which he would

1 Spedding's Pref. Works (Boston), XIII. 314.

2 Nichols' Prog. James I., III. 930 n.

8 Works (Mont.) XII. 430; XIII. 36, 39.

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