"This thou perceiv'st, which makes thy love more strong, to love that well which Thou must leave. ere long" (his love of writing as an occupation had been a passion, and leaving it even for office would be a great sacrifice of happiness. This feeling grew upon him as the time for its indulgence lessened). SONNET 74. But be contented: when that fell arrest My life hath in this line some interest, Which for memorial still with Thee shall stay. The earth can have but earth, which is his due; The worth of that is that which it contains, And that is this, and this with Thee remains. He promises in this stanza, when he is appointed solicitor-general, to leave this poem as a memorial of his dramas. "But be contented, when that fell arrest without all bail shall carry me away" (when he goes to fill the office, which requires his personal services, and cannot be supplied by another). My life hath in this line some interest, which for memorial still with Thee shall stay" (the "interest" was the preservation in this poem of a history (memorial) of the part he had performed in the production of the dramas, which the world sooner or later would, by means of that history, discover and understand). "When Thou reviewest this, Thou dost review the very part was consecrate to Thee" (this poem, when understood, will be found to contain nothing but the truth). "The earth can have but earth, which is his due" (his body will die, dissolve, and be forgotten or uncared for). "My spirit is Thine, the better part of Me" (the soul and spirit which through that body created the dramas, the only part of him worth saving, is Thou's, Truth's). "So then thou hast but lost the dregs of life, the prey of worms, my body being dead" (in case of either going away, or actually dying, nothing of any value is lost by Thou as long as this poem is preserved). "The coward conquest of a wretch's knife, too base of Thee to be remembered" (this alludes to a period in Bacon's life when the indignation of the friends of Essex was roused against him for his speeches. at the trial of that nobleman. His life had been threatened, and his friends thought he was in danger of secret assassination). In a letter addressed to "Lord Henry Howard, clearing himself of aspersion in the case of the Earl of Essex," in 1599, Bacon says: "For my part, I have desired better than to have my name objected to envy, or my life to a ruffian's violence. But I have the privy coat of a good conscience." A little later he writes to Sir Robert Cecil, con cluding thus: "As to any violence to be offered to me, wherewith my friends tell me, with no small terror, I am threatened, I thank God I have the privy coat of a good conscience, and have long since put off any fearful care of life or the accidents of life." To the queen he writes, about the same time: "My life has been threatened and my name libelled, which I account an honour." "The worth of that" (his body) "is that which it contains, and that is this" (the Sonnets), "and this with Thee" (his thoughts) "remains" (the worth of that "interest" above alluded to is the history contained in this poem, which, being the truth, will not be lost). SONNET 75. So are You to My thoughts as food to life, As 'twixt a miser and his wealth is found: Now proud as an enjoyer, and anon Doubting the filching age will steal his treasure; Then better'd that the world may see My pleasure; Save what is had or must from You be took. Thus do I pine and surfeit day by day, He tells Beauty in this stanza of his delight when thinking of him, or seeing him in represen tation and in reading. As food is necessary to preserve life, and summer showers to refresh the earth, so is beauty needful to invigorate his mind. His love for him is like the love of a miser for his gold, — at one time proud of his delineation, then fearful that he may be robbed of his attractiveness by others. He is pleased to contemplate him in private; he affords food for conversation, and like a feast which fills him with delicacies, feasts his eyes and heart to the full in theatrical representations. "And by and by clean starved for a look" (when sometime absent from his thought he becomes eager for his recall). And "day by day" all his delight is in his presence, and all his misery in his absence. SONNET 76. Why is my verse so barren of new pride, To new-found methods and to compounds strange? And keep invention in a noted weed, That every word doth almost tell My name, Showing their birth, and where they did proceed? O, know, sweet love, I always write of You, So is My Love still telling what is told. In this stanza he tells his name. "Why is my verse so barren of new pride, so far from variation and quick change?" (why in this poem does he not announce some new achievements of his pen, which like those of other writers for the stage sacrifice truth and beauty to the public taste for variety and sudden changes and effects in theatrical portraiture? Why not, in imitation of them, find something new and strange, and compound a play instead of adhering to the same straightforward course with which he commenced, of presenting the one great theme, Truth, in all that he writes?) "And keep invention in a noted weed, that every word doth almost tell my name" (Bacon found constant use in all his writings, as well those he acknowledged as the plays attributed to Shakespeare, for the word "invention." It contained wider meaning for him than any other word in the language, and the offices attributed to it in philosophy are fully analyzed and discussed in the "Advancement of Learning." Its greatest power was in origination, and understood in that sense, it was the power by which the plays were created). This he says he kept in a "noted weed." The only weed of which history gives account in Elizabeth's time was tobacco. It was introduced into England by some of the crews who returned from the first expedition to Virginia, fitted out by Sir Walter Raleigh. Its use by Raleigh soon popularized it among the nobility and upper classes. When James I. ascended the throne, smoking was so prevalent |
