Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/273

 9 tb S. X. GOT 4. 1902.]

NOTES AND QUERIES.

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concerning a whole and its parts, as handled in the ' Colours of Good and Evil,' the ' De Augmentis,' and elsewhere ; I will now show that he copied the Essays.

Bacon says :

" Reading maketh a full man ; conference a ready man ; and writing an exact man."' Essay of Studies.' Similarly in Jonson we find :

"But that which we especially require in him [the poet] is an exactness of study, *nd multiplicity of reading, which maketh a full man." 'Dis- coveries: iv. Lectio.'

Several ' Promus ' notes are used by Bacon in his ' Essay of Counsel,' and the same notes or quotations reappear in Jonson in the same connexion. This kind of thing constantly occurs throughout Jonson, and when one compares what can be brought from his work to parallel Bacon, and then puts such results by the side of the so-called parallels adduced by Mrs. Pott and Dr. Theobald, the contrast is not only glaring, but supremely ridiculous.

Bacon says :

"It were better that in causes of weight the matter were propounded one day, and not spoken to till the next day ; in nocte consilium," &c. ' Essay of Counsel.' In Jonson thus :

" And not to counsel rashly, or on the sudden, but with advice and meditation (Dot nox con- silium)." 'Discoveries : Obsequentia,' &c.

A favourite saying of Bacon's was that books or the dead are the best counsellors. He quotes the Latin of this saying in the ' Essay of Counsel,' and Jonson imitates him very closely :

"It was truly said, Optimi consiliarii mortui: books will speak plain when counsellors blanch."

Compare :

" And how can he be counselled that cannot see to read the best counsellors (which are books) ; for they neither flatter us nor hide from us?" 'Dis- coveries : Illiteratus,' &c.

Again, in the same essay, Bacon says that " the true composition of a counsellor is, rather to be skilful in their master's business than in his nature; for then he is like to advise him, and not to feed his humour."

The passage is related to 'Promus' entry No. 104 :

"Cunning in the humours of persons, but not in the conditions of actions."

Bacon uses the note many times, and Jonson imitates him in the following as well as else- where :

" In being able to counsel others, a man must be

furnished with an universal store in himself But

especially you must be cunning in the nature oi roan," &c.' Discoveries ; Cognit. univers.'

Bacon's 'Novum Organum,' his 'Advance- ment of Learning,' and other works are all imitated in the ' Discoveries,' which are full of so-called ' Promus ' notes, which Baconians believe to be unique or only to be found in Shakespeare and Bacon.

Some passages in Jonson which parallel Bacon have to be searched for, and they will never be apparent to a hasty reader. Here is a case :

"There is a great variation between him that is and him that comes to it by the suffrage of the people The first holds with more difficulty; be- cause he hath to do with many that think them- selves his equals, and. raised him for their own greatness and oppression of the rest. The latter hath no upbraiders" &.K. 'Discoveries : Principum varia,' &c.
 * aised to the sovereignty by the favour of his peers,

Jonson's note is really a paraphrase of Bacon's 'Essay of Envy,' and it distinctly echoes such passages of the essay as the fol- lowing :

"Lastly, near kinsfolk and fellows in office, and those that have been brad together, are more apt to envy their equals when they are raised for it doth iipbraid unto them their own fortunes, &c.

In this essay, too, we find Bacon saying that

"a man that is busy and inquisitive is commonly envious."

Compare

Fame. Commonly

The Curious are ill-natured.' Time Vindicated.' And again :

" The vulgar are commonly ill-natured and grudg- ing against their governors." 'Discoveries : Vulgi mores,' &c.

Baconians have not been able to find their master using his 'Promus' note No. 399, " Numbering, - not weighing." They have been too busy numbering their marvellous assortment of Bacon-Shakespeare parallels, which no scales will ever be able to weigh properly. I will assist them, and illustrate Bacon by Jonson at the same time :

" It is hard in all causes, but especially in matters of religion, when voices shall be numbered and not weighed." 'Controversies of the Church,' 1589.

" Suffrages in parliament are numbered, not weighed." ' Discoveries : Comit.,' &c.

In his 'Notes for an Interview with the King,' March, 1621/2, Bacon employs another ' Promus ' note :

" Of my offence, far be it from me to say, dot veniam corvit, vexat Centura columbas."

The sentence is from Juvenal, and it occurs in Jonson :

"The net was never spread for the hawk or buzzard that hurt us, but for the harmless birds ; they are good meat: Dot veniam corvis, vexat censura columbas." 'Discoveries : Fures public},'