UNIVERSITY

CALIFORNIA

BACON AND SHAKESPEARE

IN THE SONNETS.

ALL critical writers who recognize Shakespeare as the author of these Sonnets have given them a literal interpretation. Let us suppose that they were written by Lord Bacon with the intention of disclosing, through the various forms of analogy, allegory, metaphor, and symbolism, all the real facts concerning the composition of the works attributed to Shakespeare, the reason for transferring the authorship to him, and the manner in which it was done. This is exactly the information to be derived from this poem:

SONNET 1.

From fairest creatures we desire increase,
That thereby beauty's rose might never die,
But as the riper should by time decease,

His tender heir might bear his memory;
But Thou, contracted to Thine own bright eyes,
Feed'st Thy light's flame with self-substantial fuel,
Making a famine where abundance lies,

Thyself Thy foe, to Thy sweet self too cruel.
Thou, that art now the world's fresh ornament,

And only herald to the gaudy spring,

Within Thine own bud buriest Thy content,
And, tender churl, mak'st waste in niggarding.
Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world's due, by the grave and Thee.

In natural reasoning, we incline to subjects that are fair, pleasant, and good, and against such as are painful and bad in themselves. Of all subjects, whether animate or inanimate, nothing is fairer in contemplation than Truth. It unravels mystery, exposes error, disarms falsehood, and enlightens the world. Allegorically, Truth being the "fairest" of all "creatures," we desire increase from him, that "beauty's rose," which is "his tender heir," may never die.

In a passive state, Truth is contracted within itself; its "bright eyes" (powers of observation) are closed to all around; its "light's flame" (its Thought, power of production) is fed upon concealment. The world famishes for want of its abundance. It is a foe to Thought, and to its sweet thoughts (its revealed beauty) it is "too cruel."

Truth, when in process of development, is always "the world's fresh ornament," and always the "only herald" of a spring or youth in its new discoveries.

If it buries itself, -is content to remain inactive, it is like a churl or miser, who, by denying himself, robs the world of its dues.

The author begins this stanza with an address to "Thou" (Truth), "that art now the world's

fresh ornament, and only herald to the gaudy spring."

Truth, at the time this was written, was "fresh," not new to the world. The first great manifestation of the revival of letters, after centuries or slumber, was during the reign of Elizabeth. That was emphatically "the gaudy spring" of philosophy, poetry, and literature. The pioneer among the writers of that age, who advocated Truth as the foundation of happiness and progress, was Lord Bacon. He foresaw that without Truth, the glory of his own day would fade, and the world again lapse into ignorance. Hence originated the leading idea of the first seventeen sonnets. Sidney, Spenser, Raleigh, and a host of play-writers besides, had produced many beautiful essays and poems; but they were merely beautiful, and developing no great truth, could have little or no effect in shaping the taste or judgment of the age. It was for Bacon, philosopher as well as poet, to combine Truth and Beauty in a form so attractive as to render them indestructible.

The closing couplet of the first stanza,

"Pity the world, or else this glutton be,

To eat the world's due, by the grave and Thee," means that the world needed not only such truth as the age itself could produce, but a reproduction, also, of those truths so long buried in the "grave" of the Middle Ages. The writers of antiquity must be invoked to give their investigations and