Letter to James I. : And therefore, in conclusion, he wished him not to shut the gate of your Majestie's mercy against himself, by being obdurate any longer. Henry, act iii. sc. 3 :— The gates of mercy shall be all shut up. Henry VI. : Open the gate of mercy, gracious Lord. Trench says, Essays was a new word in Bacon's time, and his use of it quite novel. Bacon thus writes of his Essays: Which I have called Essays. The word is late, though the thing is ancient. Mrs. Clark, in her Concordance, reports the word Essays as occurring twice in Shakespeare, which indeed is true of Knight's Shakespeare; but it only occurs once in the folio of 1623, in relation to Edgar's letter to Edmund, who says: I hope, for my brother's justification, he wrote this but as an essay or taste of my nature. On Masques: It is better they should be graced with elegancy, than daubed with cost. Lear, act iv. sc. 1: Edgar. Poor Tom's a-cold; I cannot daub it further. Henry VII.: All was inned at last into the King's barn. All's Well that Ends Well, act i. sc. 3: He that ears my land, spares my team, And gives me leave to inn my crop. Of Adversity : It is more pleasing to have a lively work upon a sad and solemn ground, than to have a dark and melancholy work upon a lightsome ground. Henry IV. act i. sc. 2 :— Bright metals on a sullen ground Will show more goodly, and attract more eyes, Than that which hath no foil to set it off. Natural History: The flesh shrinketh, but the bone resisteth, whereby the cold becometh more eager. Hamlet, act i. sc. 4: Ham. The air bites shrewdly-it is very cold; Hor. It is a nipping and an eager air. We tried an experiment, but it sorted not. Johnson quotes this observation of Bacon's, to illustrate a line in Taming of the Shrew, act iv. sc. 7: And all my pains is sorted to no proof. New Atlantis :· Never heard of any the least inkling or glimpse of this island. Coriolanus, act i. sc. 1:— They have had inkling, this fortnight, what we intend to do, which now we'll show 'em in deeds. Henry VIII. act ii. sc. 1 :— Yet I can give you inkling Of an ensuing evil. Life of Henry VII. :— He was a comely personage, a little above just stature, well and straight limbed, but slender. 2 Henry IV. act iv. sc. 1: The prince is here at hand, pleaseth your lordships Natural Hist. cent. ii. 136 :— For the sound will be greater or lesser, as the barrel is more empty or more full. Lear, act i: Nor are those empty hearted, whose low sound Reverbs no hollowness. Advancement of Learning : Not unlike to that which amongst the Romans, was expressed in the familiar or household terms of Promus and Condus. Henry V. act iv. sc. 3: Familiar in their mouths as household words. Natural Hist. cent. i. 98: Like prospectives, which show things inwards when they are but paintings. Richard II. act ii. sc. 2:- Like perspectives, which rightly gazed upon CHAPTER VIII. PLAYERS. STRYPE, in his edition of Stow published in the year 1720, says: "Acting plays for the diversion and entertainment of the court, the gentry, and any others, is become a calling whereby many get their living. How lawfully, is another question. Players in former times were retainers, and none had the privilege to act plays but such. So, in Queen Elizabeth's time, many of the great nobility had tenants and retainers, who were players, and went about getting their livelihood that way. "The Lord Admiral had players, and so had the Lord Strange, that played within the city of London. It was not unusual then, upon any gentleman's complaint of them, for abuses or undecent reflections practised in their plays, to have them put down. Thus, once the Lord Treasurer signified |