Page:Dictionary of National Biography volume 02.djvu/381

Bacon extinguish.' In Bacon's speech at the opening of the parliament of 1571, he confined himself to a vigorously worded appeal for liberal grants of money to put the country in an efficient state of defence against its numerous enemies.

A difficulty has been raised as to Bacon's views on the queen's marriage during the last years of his life. An elaborately argumentative paper printed among the 'Egerton Papers' (pp. 50-7), under date 1570, and doubtfully attributed to the lord keeper, discusses fully 'the discommodities' and 'the commodities that might ensue from' Elizabeth's proposed marriage with the Duke of Anjou; and although the religious consequences of the match are not dwelt on, as Sir Walter Mildmay, to whom it was addressed, rightly remarked, its general conclusion is in favour of the French alliance. Mr. Froude (x. 488-9), quoting a Spanish despatch, asserts that after Bacon's death a letter was found in his desk written in 1577, in which a French marriage was denounced as having for its object the death of the queen and the liberation of Mary Stuart. This opinion is certainly more in accordance with the tenor of Bacon's general policy than the former. But Sir Nicholas was well able to look at a question judicially; and the first paper, if we admit him to have been the author of it, may be regarded as a tentative examination of the subject in all its bearings, and no final expression of opinion. It was clearly not intended for publication. In 1572 Bacon, confirmed in his habitual distrust of the French catholics by the St. Bartholomew massacre, supported a bill for the expulsion of all French denizens from this country. Such conduct as this made Bacon the butt of all catholic libellers concealed in England or living openly abroad. In 1573 a royal proclamation against the publication of catholic libels was issued, in which the services of Bacon to the state and to religion were highly commended.

Meanwhile Bacon was endeavouring to strengthen the position of the church in England. In the parliament of 1570 he had suggested sensible means for the better observance of doctrine and discipline in the church. On the latter question he always oftered judicious counsel, and the only recorded quarrel which he had with his friend Parker concerned the archbishop's occasional laxity in this matter. Parker at the time charged Bacon with being 'a passionate man,' but the friends were reconciled before Parker's death in 1575, when he aftectionately remembered Bacon in his will.

Sir Nicholas died in London at his residence, York House by Charing Cross, on 20 Feb. 1578-9, 'about eight in the morning' (Hist. MSS. Com. Rep. iv. 336). According to an old story, reported by Dr. Rawley, Francis Bacon's biographer, he owed his fatal illness to the carelessness of his barber, who allowed him to fall asleep with a draught blowing full upon him ( Works, ed. Spedding, vii. 183). Bacon had arranged in 1574 for his burial in St. Paul's Cathedral, and there is a letter, dated 4 Aug. 1574, among the manuscripts belonging to the chapter (from Alexander Nowell, dean of St. Paul's) directing that the lord keeper's workmen should have access 'at all tymes convenient into the south syde of the queure at Powles ... to make roome for his lordships toombe thereto be sett upp' (ib. ix.71). In this tomb Sir Nicholas was buried on 9 March, and upon it was engraved a very laudatory epitaph (see Funerall Monuments, 812). ' The whole charges of the funeralles' reached the large sum of 919l. 12s. 1d. ( Ashmol MSS. Cat. No. 836, ff: 21, 23-36, 73-4).

Sir Nicholas began his famous house at Gorhambury in 1563. It was completed in 1568, and in these five years he spent upon it, exclusive of the timber and stone which came from his estates, 1,894l. 11s. 9½d. (Bacon MSS. in Lambeth Library, 647, ff. 5 and 9). Over the entrance were inscribed the verses:

Hæc cum perfecit Nicholaus tacta Baconus, Elizabeth regni lustra fuere duo; Factus eques, magni custos fuit ipse sigilli. Gloria sit soli tota tributa Deo. Beneath the lines was Bacon's motto, 'Mediocria firma.' On the walls of the chief banqueting room were Latin verses by Bacon on grammar, arithmetic, logic, music, rhetoric, geometry, and astrology ( Fun. Mon. 584). He added a gallery to the house before 1576 in honour of an approaching visit of the queen. Elizabeth frequently stayed at Gorhambury, and before its erection she had visited Bacon at Redgrave. She was at Gorhambury in 1572 and in 1573, and presented to the lord keeper a portrait of herself, painted by Hilliard, on her first visit. In May 1577 she stayed there for six days and received a very sumptuous entertainment, on which Bacon spent 600l. On that occasion Sir Nicholas caused the door by which the queen had entered to be nailed up, so that no one might ever pass over the same threshold. In London Bacon lived before he held office in Noble Street, Foster Lane, in a house built by himself. After 1558, York House, near Charing Cross, became his official residence.

Sir Nicholas enjoyed a wide popularity in his lifetime, and his death was celebrated in