The Mystery of Francis Bacon Part 3

Only one of the Shakespeare commentators makes any reference to the work. The Rev. Joseph Hunter, writing in 1844, points out that the dramatist in "As You Like It," describing the seven ages of man, follows the division made in the chapter on "The Ages of Man" in the "Academie."[12]

The suggestion now made is that the French "Academie" was written by Bacon, who is represented in the dialogues as Achitob--the first part when he was about 18 years of age, that he continued it until, in 1618, the complete work was published. In the dedication the author describes himself as a youth of immature experience, but the contents bear evidence of a wide knowledge of cla.s.sical authors and their works, a close acquaintance with the ancient philosophies, and a store of general information which it would be impossible for any ordinary youth of such an age to possess. But was not the boy who at 15 years of age left Cambridge disagreeing with the teaching there of Aristotle's philosophy, and whose mental qualities and acquirements provoked as "the natural e.j.a.c.u.l.a.t.i.o.n of the artist's emotion" the significant words, "_Si tabula daretur digna animum mallem_," altogether abnormal?

Was the "French Academie" Bacon's _temporis partus maximus_? It is only in a letter written to Father Fulgentio about 1625 that this work is heard of. Bacon writes: "Equidem memini me, quadraginta abhinc annis, juvenile opusculum circa has res confecisse, quod magna prorsus fiducia et magnifico t.i.tulo 'Temporis Partum Maximum' inscripsi."[13]

Spedding says: "This was probably the work of which Henry Cuffe (the great Oxford scholar who was executed in 1601 as one of the chief accomplices in the Earl of Ess.e.x's treason) was speaking when he said that 'a fool could not have written it and a wise man would not.'

Bacon's intimacy with Ess.e.x had begun about thirty-five years before this letter was written."

Forty years from 1625 would carry back to 1585, the year preceding the date of publication of the first edition in English. If Cuffe's remark was intended to apply to the "French Academy," it is just such a criticism as the book might be expected to provoke.

The first edition of "The French Academie" in English appeared in 1586, the second in 1589, the third (two parts) in 1594, the fourth (three parts) in 1602, the fifth in 1614 (all quartos), then, in 1618, the large folio edition containing the fourth part "never before published in English." It appears to have been more popular in England than it was in France. Brunet in his 1838 edition mentions neither the book nor the author, Primaudaye. The question as to whether there was at this time a reading public in England sufficiently wide to absorb an edition in numbers large enough to make the publication of this and similar works possible at a profit will be dealt with hereafter. In antic.i.p.ation it may be said that the balance of probabilities justifies the conjecture that the issue of each of these editions involved someone in loss, and the folio edition involved considerable loss.

A comparison between the French and English publications points to both having been written by an author who was a master of each language rather than that the latter was a mere translation of the former. The version is so natural in idiom and style that it appears to be an original rather than a translation. In 1586 how many men were there who could write such English? The marginal notes are in the exact style of Bacon. "A similitude"--"A notable comparison"--occur frequently just as the writer finds them again and again in Bacon's handwriting in volumes which he possesses. The book abounds in statements, phrases, and quotations which are to be found in Bacon's letters and works.

One significant fact must be mentioned. The first letter of the text in the dedication in the first English translation is the letter S. It is printed from a wood block (Fig. I.). Thirty-nine years after (in 1625) when the last edition of Bacon's Essays--and, with the exception of the small pamphlet containing his versification of certain Psalms, the last publication during his life--was printed, that identical wood block (Fig. II.) was again used to print the first letter in the dedication of that book. Every defect and peculiarity in the one will be found in the other. A search through many hundreds of books printed during these thirty-nine years--1586 to 1625--has failed to find it used elsewhere, except on one occasion, either then, before, or since.

Did Bacon mark his first work on philosophy and his last book by printing the first letter in each from the same block?[14]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. I._

The first letter in the text of the dedication of the 1st edition of the English translation of the "French Academie," =1586=. Printed at London by G. Bollifant. The block is also used in a similar manner in the 2nd edition, =1589=. Londini Impensis, John Bishop.]

[Ill.u.s.tration: _Fig. II._

The first letter in the text of the dedication of the =1625= edition of Bacon's Essays, printed in London, by John Haviland.]

_Both letters were printed from the same block._

FOOTNOTES:

[9] In the "Gesta Grayorum" one of the articles which the Knights of the Helmet were required to vow to keep, each kissing his helmet as he took his vow, was "Item--every Knight of this Order shall endeavour to add conference and experiment to reading; and therefore shall not only read and peruse 'Guizo,' 'The French Academy,' 'Galiatto the Courtier,'

'Plutarch,' 'The Arcadia,' and the Neoterical writers from time to time," etc. The "Gesta Grayorum," which was written in 1594, was not published until 1687. The ma.n.u.script was probably incorrectly read as to the t.i.tles of the books. "Galiatto," apparently, should be "Galateo,"

described in a letter of Gabriel Harvey as "The Italian Archbishop brave Galateo." The "Courtier" is the Italian work by Castiglione which was Englished by Sir Thomas Hoby. "Guizo" should be "Guazzo." Stefano Guazzo's "Civil Conversation"--four books--was Englished by G. Pettie and Young.

[10] "Hit" is used by Chaucer as the past participle of "Hide." The name thus yields a suggestive anagram, "Bacohit."

[11] 1618 Edition, page 712.

[12] In addition to this and to the "Gesta Grayorum" (1692) I have only been able to find two references to "The French Academy" in the works of English writers.

J. Payne Collier, in his "Poetical Decameron," Vol. II., page 271, draws attention to the epistle "to the Christian reader" prefixed to the second part, and suggests that the initials T.B. which occur at the end of the dedicatory epistle stand for Thomas Beard, the author of "Theatre of G.o.d's Judgments." Collier does not appear to have read "The French Academy." Dibdin, in "Notes on More's Utopia," says, "But I entreat the reader to examine (if he be fortunate enough to possess the book) "The French Academy of Primaudaye," a work written in a style of peculiarly impressive eloquence, and which, not very improbably, was the foundation of Derham's and Paley's "Natural Theology."

[13] "It being now forty years as I remember, since I composed a juvenile work on this subject which with great confidence and a magnificent t.i.tle I named "The greatest birth of Time."

[14] The block was used on page 626 of the 1594 quarto edition of William Camden's "Britannia," published in London by George Bishop, who was the publisher of the 1586, 1589, and 1594 editions of "The French Academy." There is a marginal note at the foot of the imprint of the block commencing "R. Bacons." Francis Bacon is known to have a.s.sisted Camden in the preparation of this work. The ma.n.u.script bears evidence of the fact in his handwriting.

CHAPTER VII.

BACON'S FIRST ALLEGORICAL ROMANCE.

There is another work which it is impossible not to a.s.sociate with this period, and that is John Barclay's "Argenis." It is little better known than is "The French Academy," and yet Cowper p.r.o.nounced it the most amusing romance ever written. Cardinal Richelieu is said to have been extremely fond of reading it, and to have derived thence many of his political maxims. It is an allegorical novel. It is proposed now only to mention some evidence connected with the "Argenis" which supports the contention that the 1625 English edition contains the original composition, and that its author was young Francis Bacon.

The first edition of the "Argenis" in Latin was published in 1621. The authority to the publisher, Nicholas Buon, to print and sell the "Argenis" is dated the 21st July, 1621, and was signed by Barclay at Rome. The Royal authority is dated on the 31st August following.

Barclay's death took place between these dates, on the 12th of August, at Rome. It is reported that the cause of death was stone, but in an appreciation of him, published by his friend, Ralph Thorie, his death is attributed to poison.

The work is an example of the highest type of Latinity. So impressed was Cowper with its style that he stated that it would not have dishonoured Tacitus himself. A translation in Spanish was published in 1624, and in Italian in 1629. The Latin version was frequently reprinted during the seventeenth and eighteenth centuries--perhaps more frequently than any other book.

In a letter dated 11th May, 1622, Chamberlain, writing to Carleton, says: "The King has ordered Ben Jonson to translate the 'Argenis,' but he will not be able to equal the original." On the 2nd October, 1623, Ben Jonson entered a translation in Stationers' Hall, but it was never published. About that time there was a fire in Jonson's house, in which it is said some ma.n.u.scripts were destroyed; but it is a pure a.s.sumption that the "Argenis" was one of these.

In 1629 an English translation appeared by Sir Robert Le Grys, Knight, and the verses by Thomas May, Esquire. The t.i.tle-page bears the statement: "The prose upon his Majesty's command." There is a Clavis appended, also stated to be "published at his Majesties command." It was printed by Felix Kyngston for Richard Mughten and Henry Seile. In the address to "The understanding Reader" Le Grys says, "What then should I say? Except it were to entreate thee, that where my English phrase doth not please thee, thou wilt compare it with the originall Latin and mend it. Which I doe not speak as thinking it impossible, but as willing to have it done, for the saving me a labour, who, if his Majesty had not so much hastened the publishing it, would have reformed some things in it, that did not give myselfe very full satisfaction."

In 1622 King James ordered a translation of the "Argenis." In 1629[15]

Charles I. was so impatient to have a translation that he hastened the publication, thus preventing the translator from revising his work.

Three years previously, however, in 1625--if the date may be relied on--there was published as printed by G. P. for Henry Seile a translation by Kingesmill Long. James died on the 25th March, 1625. The "Argenis" may not have been published in his lifetime; but if the date be correct, three or four years before Charles hastened the publication of Le Grys's translation, this far superior one with Kingesmill Long's name attached to it could have been obtained from H. Seile. Surely the publisher would have satisfied the King's impatience by supplying him with a copy of the 1625 edition had it been on sale. The publication of a translation of the "Argenis" must have attracted attention. Is it possible that it could have been in existence and not brought to the notice of the King? There is something here that requires explanation.

The Epistle Dedicatorie of the 1625 edition is written in the familiar style of another pen, although it bears the name of Kingesmill Long. The t.i.tle-page states that it is "faithfully translated out of Latine into English," but it is not directly in the Epistle Dedicatorie spoken of as a translation. The following extract implies that the work had been lying for years waiting publication:--

"This rude piece, such as it is, hath long lyen by me, since it was finished; I not thinking it worthy to see the light. I had always a desire and hope to have it undertaken by a more able workman, that our Nation might not be deprived of the use of so excellent a Story: But finding none in so long time to have done it; and knowing that it spake not _English_, though it were a rich jewell to the learned Linguist, yet it was close lockt from all those, to whom education had not given more languages, than Nature Tongues: I have adventured to become the key to this piece of hidden Treasure, and have suffered myselfe to be overruled by some of my worthy friends, whose judgements I have alwayes esteemed, sending it abroad (though coursely done) for the delight and use of others."

Not a word about the author! The translations, said to be by Thomas May, of the Latin verses in the 1629 are identical with those in the 1625 edition, although Kingesmill Long, on the t.i.tle-page, appears as the translator. Nothing can be learnt as to who or what Long was.

Over lines "Authori," signed Ovv: Fell:[16] in the 1625 edition is one of the well-known light and dark A devices. This work is written in flowing and majestic English; the 1629 edition in the cramped style of translation.

The copy bearing date 1628, to which reference has been made, belonged to John Henry Shorthouse. He has made this note on the front page: "Jno.

Barclay's description of himself under the person of Nicopompus Argenis, p. 60." This is the description to which he alludes:--

"Him thus boldly talking, Nicopompus could no longer endure: he was a man who from his infancy loved Learning; but who disdaining to be nothing but a booke-man had left the schooles very young, that in the courts of Kings and Princes, he might serve his apprenticeship in publicke affairs; so he grew there with an equall abilitie, both in learning and imployment, his descent and disposition fitting him for that kind of life: wel esteemed of many Princes, and especially of Meleander, whose cause together with the rest of the Princes, he had taken upon him to defend."

This description is inaccurate as applied to John Barclay, but in every detail it describes Francis Bacon.

A comparison has been made between the editions of 1625 and 1629 with the 1621 Latin edition. It leaves little room for doubting that the 1625 is the original work. Throughout the Latin appears to follow it rather than to be the leader; whilst the 1629 edition follows the Latin closely. In some cases the word used in the 1625 edition has been incorrectly translated into the 1621 edition, and the Latin word re-translated literally and incorrectly in view of the sense in the 1629 edition. But s.p.a.ce forbids this comparison being further followed; suffice it to say that everything points to the 1625 edition being the original work.

As to the date of composition much may be said; but the present contention is that "The French Academie," "The Argenis," and "Love's Labour's Lost" are productions from the same pen, and that they all represent the work of Francis Bacon probably between the years 1577 and 1580. At any rate, the first-named was written whilst he was in France, and the others were founded on the incidents and experience obtained during his sojourn there.

FOOTNOTES:

[15] One copy of this edition bears the date 1628.

[16] Probably Owen Felltham, author of "Felltham's Resolves."