Page:Essays of Francis Bacon 1908 Scott.djvu/42

Rh agreed with them, though she dallied with Essex, and kept both Bacon and Coke in suspense throughout the year. Finally, in April, 1594, Sir Edward Coke was named Attorney-General. Bacon was much depressed, and spoke of retiring to Cambridge to spend his life in "studies and contemplations, without looking back." Coke's advancement left the post of Solicitor-General vacant, and Essex at once renewed his importunities for the Solicitor-Generalship for his friend. It was now clear that the Queen doubted Bacon's legal capacity for either of the offices he desired. She told Essex that Bacon had "a great wit and an excellent gift of speech, and much other good learning, but that in law she rather thought he could show to the uttermost than that he was deep." Another delay of more than a year and a half followed. During this year, Bacon visited Cambridge, where, July 27, 1594, he received the honorary degree of Master of Arts. Essex, with less discretion than zeal, thought to hasten matters by acquainting the Queen with Bacon's threat of retirement. We read what followed in a letter from Bacon to his brother Anthony. Bacon was summoned to the Court, where he had an interview, not with Queen Elizabeth, but with his cousin, Sir Robert Cecil. The Queen was angry, Cecil said, that he should have presumed to hasten her decision in any way. "Then Her Majesty sweareth that if I continue in this manner she will seek all England for a solicitor rather than take me; that she never dealt so, with any one as with me; that she hath pulled me over the bar Rh