TO THE READER. This Figure, that thou here seest put, His face; the Print would then surpasse Not on his Picture, but his Booke. B. I. To the Memory of my beloved, the Author, MR. WILLIAM To draw no envy (Shakespeare) on thy name, As neither Man, nor Muse, can praise too much. Which, when it sounds at best, but echoes right; And thinke to ruine, where it seem'd to raise. And we have wits to read, and praise to give. That I not mixe thee so, my braine excuses; I meane with great, but disproportion'd Muses: For, if I thought my judgement were of yeeres, I should commit thee surely with thy peeres, And though thou hadst small Latine, and lesse Greeke, Paccuvius, Accius, him of Cordova dead, To life againe, to heare thy Buskin tread, Of all, that insolent Greece, or haughtie Rome Sent forth, or since did from their ashes come. Triumph, my Britaine, thou hast one to showe, To whom all Scenes of Europe homage owe. He was not of an age, but for all time! And all the Muses still were in their prime, When like Apollo he came forth to warme Our eares, or like a Mercury to charme! Nature her selfe was proud of his designes, And joy'd to weare the dressing of his lines! Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit, As, since, she will vouchsafe no other Wit. The merry Greeke, tart Aristophanes, Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please; As they were not of Nature's family. (Such as thine are) and strike the second heat Upon the Muses' anvile: turne the same, (And himselfe with it) that he thinkes to frame Or for the lawrell, he may gaine a scorne, For a good Poet's made, as well as borne. And such wert thou. Looke how the father's face ; Of Shakespeare's minde, and manners brightly shines And make those flights upon the bankes of Thames, Shine forth, thou Starre of Poets, and with rage, Or influence, chide or cheere the drooping Stage; Which, since thy flight from hence, hath mourn'd like night BEN IONSON. These lines appear to be capable of a double meaning. We do not at all mean to contend that they in any way prove that Bacon was the author of these plays, but only that they do not afford that direct evidence in favour of Shakespeare which might be expected; and that some of the expressions are clearly susceptible of being applied to Bacon. Not to dilate upon the exordium, the early lines of which appear to express something of an excuse for praising the book rather than the individual, we proceed at once to the invocation. That we may not be charged with anything like special pleading, or a desire to deceive, we admit that the lines and phrases selected will be such as seem best to favour the theory we are advocating. Soul of the age! Th' applause, delight! the wonder of our age, 66 "Soul of the age" seems a term more applicable to Bacon than to Shakespeare; whilst the possessive pronoun 'my," added to Shakespeare, may serve to render his invocation applicable to either the one or the other. The lines, Thou art a monument without a tomb, And art alive still while thy book doth live, And we have wits to read, and praise to give, seem much more applicable to a living than to a deceased person. And though thou hast small Latin and less Greek, For names. The first of these lines has been wrested in every possible way, to make it applicable to William Shakespeare, without success; and though at first sight it might seem even less applicable to Bacon, upon investigation the reverse will be found to be the case. There is reason to suppose that Bacon was not greatly proficient in the Greek language, but that he was well acquainted with Latin there can be no doubt he probably could speak it with fluency. But in that age, when, as has been well observed, Latin occupied the place which French now occupies, and every one who was educated at all, must, of necessity, have been classically educated, a man might have a very considerable knowledge of Latin and Greek, and yet be pronounced by so finished and critical a scholar as Ben Jonson undoubtedly was, to have "small Latin and less Greek." The observation, and the mode of introducing it in the midst of a panygeric, are highly characteristic of Jonson; and it is just such a hit as he would delight to bestow upon a living great man, whom he considered his inferior in scholarship. That there is some truth in it, is confirmed by contemporary statements; for in Bacon's life in the Biographia Britannica, there is this note: -Amelot, in his Memoires Historiques, tom. i. page 361, has asserted, upon the pretended authority of Casaubon, that Lord Bacon did not understand Latin. This is as evident a falsehood as |