Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/40

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Lord Burghley did nothing—but preserve the letter. He probably thought it extravagant and hyperbolical. Bacon, undaunted, struggled on, keeping up his political interests, keeping up what he describes as his "ordinary course of study and meditation," and going somewhat more into Court society in the wake of his brother Anthony, who was living with him in Gray's Inn.

To this period belongs the beginning of Bacon's intimacy with the Earl of Essex, who took both brothers into his service, Anthony as his secretary and Francis as his lawyer and man of political affairs. The social character of the early association of the three young men—Essex was the youngest—is indicated by three jeux d' esprit from Francis Bacon's pen, his early masques or 'devices.' Two of these were 'triumphs' offered by the Earl of Essex to the Queen, one in November, 1592, and the other in 1595; the third was a Gray's Inn revel of 1594. Bacon furnished the 'discourses,' or texts, and the essay Of Masques and Triumphs grew out of this practical experience of the stage. It is interesting if only as showing that when Bacon turned his mind to what he calls 'toys,' they are no longer toys. What he has to say about dramatic representation accompanied by music and color exhibits a lively fancy and good taste, while the discourses display the same qualities of style as his more serious writings, thought, wit, and fresh Rh