Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/209

 SEPT. is, 1902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

201

LONDON, SATURDAY, SEPTEMBER 13, 1902.

CONTENTS. -No. 246.

NOTES : The Bacon- Shakes ueare Question, 201 Additions to the ' N.E D.,' 202 "Affection " and "Connexion," 203 " Yeoman " " Mark Rutherford " and " George Eliot," 204 Grass Widow Franciscan and Mason "Whipping the cat," 205 "Thirty days hath September " Half Penny for Halfpenny Burials in Westminster Abbey Waverley Abbey, Surrey, 206" Tayntynge" B. R. Hay- don, 207.

QURRI MS : Portrait by Zurbaran Halley Family Sir T. Bodley Arms on Fireback Political Playing-Cards, 207 W. Killick" Popple "Cradle Chin.ney " Often have I geen " _ Descendants of Klizabei hah Worthies " Quite a few" Queen Victoria's Coronation " Chien ou rat" Music in Westminster Cathedral Joseph and Amos Cottle, 208 "The religion of all sensible men"- Ludgersall Konigsdorf Abbey' Memoirs of the Chevalier Pierpoint 'Sir Miles Crolly Pigeon-Holes and Tin Tokens Wine a Rare Article K. Paget Karl Darsy Major- General Price, 209 Bishop Moore. 210.

REPLIES : Dunwich or Dunmow, 210 Disappearing Chartists Longfellow Cavalier and Roundhead Families "Faith, Hope, and Love were questioned" " Barbi- tonsor," 211 Black as Badge of Mourning Chess Playing "Robert, D.G. Pristinensis Bpiscopus " Torton Newark Abbey Pictorial Postcards, 212 " Le Furmager " "Comically" Greek Epigram Episcopal College of St. Edward Sunday Morning Service The Gybbins, 213 Shakespeare v. Bacon Earthworks at Burpham Castle Carewe, 214 A. Hepp'ewhite "Lupo-mannaro," 215 ' Caste ' J. Anderton, 2M Lime-tree Brown Family, 217 " Endorsement" : " Dorso-ventrality " Tedula Latin Verses" Tressher "Mallet used by Wren. 218.

NOTBS ON BOOKS :-' The Bewleys of Cumberland' Filon's ' La Caricature en Angleterre ' Brewer's ' Reader's Handbook ' ' Devon Notes and Queries.'

Notices to Correspondents.

THE BACON-SHAKESPEARE QUESTION. (Continued from p. 125.)

THE Baconian parallels prove nothing, except that Shakespeare and Bacon made use of the same proverbs, phrases, and learn- ing as were current in all writings of the time. They do not even prove that either writer was ever aware of the work performed by the other ; and such evidence as has been adduced to connect the two is not nearly of such force as the evidence that could be marshalled from such writers as Sir Philip Sidney, John Lyly, or Beaumont and Fletcher, besides others who could be named, who were either read by Bacon, or were impressed by what he had written.

I will now compare Bacon with Ben Jonson, and show how vastly different is the kind of evidence that can be made to connect these two writers from that which Baconians ad- duce to connect Shakespeare and Bacon. Baconians may say that Ben Jonson copied their master, or they may say vice versa ; or they may even assert, if they so choose, that Bacon wrote all Ben Jonson's work, or largely assisted to produce it.

Bacon's work and Bacon's phrasing are

echoed and repeated throughout the work of Ben Jonson. I can best prove this statement by confining myself almost exclusively to Jonson's 'Discoveries.' These 'Discoveries' are laboured notes, written at times of leisure, and when Jonson was fresh from the study of various authors ; and they are, as is to be expected in the case of notes of such a character, often used, and in exactly the same form, in his other writings, especially in the dedications and addresses prefixed to his plays and masques. The same statement partly applies to the 'Underwoods,' 'The Forest,' and the ' Epigrams.' Traces of Bacon can be found in many of these poems ; and some of them, particularly the songs, are to be found incorporated in the author's dramatic writings, unaltered, or split up and assigned to various speakers. Baconians often make a point of telling us that Jonson uses identical words in speaking of Shakespeare and Bacon; but such critics have not learnt the ABC of Jonson's method of composition. He con- stantly repeats himself, and such repetitions prove nothing as rejgards identity of persons. Parallels of that kind are double-edged, and those who press them are in danger of cutting their fingers, as could be shown if space per- mitted.

The title of the ' Discoveries ' points like a finger to the author who is principally respon- sible for the tone and character of the notes. They are styled ' Timber, or Discoveries made upon Men and Matter, as they have flowed out of his Daily Readings, or had their Reflux to his Peculiar Notions of the Times.' The title is headed with the word 'Sylva,' and in a Latin sentence which follows the English title we find the word supellex. Note the 'Sylva' and supellex. Now this title and the complexion of Jonson's notes were clearly suggested by Bacon :

" These arts are composed of rules and directions, for setting forth and methodising the matter of the rest, and, therefore, for rude and blank minds, who have not yet gathered that which Cicero styles syh-a and supellex matter," &c. ' De Aug.,' book ii. chap. i.

The evidence warrants us in saying that many of these ' Discoveries ' flowed out of Jonson's reading of Bacon ; and the notes in which Jonson mentions Bacon not only prove that he was almost spellbound by the mighty powers of the great philosopher, but they are expressed in language and illustrated by images drawn from Bacon's own work. Nevertheless, although he professes in these notes to refer to Bacon's writings and speeches, he does not copy or quote Bacon more closely in them than he does in many of his other ' Discoveries.'