Page:Notes and Queries - Series 9 - Volume 10.djvu/421

 9's.x.Nov.22,i902.] NOTES AND QUERIES.

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concealed poets." So far as I know, Bacon's original letter does not exist, and our primary authority is W. Kowley's edition of " Several | Letters | written by this | Honourable Authour, | to | Queen Elizabeth, | King lames, | Divers Lords, | and others. | [Block bearing the motto of Cambridge University, &c.] London I Printed by F. L. for William Lee, at the sign of I the Turks-Head, in Fleetstreet, 1657." The letter is printed at p 24, and, as MR. STRONACH states, Bacon therein begs Mr. Davis "to perform to me, all the good Offices, which the Vivacity of your Wit, can suggest, to your minde, to be performed to one, with whose Affection, you have so great Sympathy ; and in whose Fortune, you have so great Interest. So desiring you to be good, to concealed Poets, I continue."

It is notable that " concealed Poets," " King," and the addressee's name at the head of the letter are the only words in italics. Com- parison of the other letters of the same period shows that these are full of italicized words, in Bacon's usual fashion.

I venture to suggest that the printer could not read the words, and accordingly italicized them, much as the translators of the Autho- rized Version italicized the second half of 1 John ii. 23, because they were uncertain whether or not they were making a mistake. If the original letter exists, its examination will doubtless supersede these speculations.

Q. V.

Surely the meaning of Bacon's phrase is that, as Keeper of the Great Seal, he had endeavoured to procure the good of all men. Bacon signified that now, so far as he was concerned, his robes of office were a despised garment. " I procured the good of all men, although I did it in what is now, so far as I am concerned, a despised weed." It is diffi- cult to conceive of any dramatist saying that he endeavoured through his plays " to pro- cure the good of all men." The lines quoted by MR. STRONACH from Sonnets ex. and cxi. do not, in my humble judgment, refer to the profession of playwright, but to the profession of acting.

I have gone here and there And made myself a motley to the view

can only refer to the work of an actor, in which case the words would apply more appropriately to Shakspere than to Bacon. But whatever the meaning may be, what right have we to read a personal application into every line of the sonnets? There is no other writer whose work we submit to such treatment. Why should we do ft' in the case of Shakspere? MR. STRONACH is so much more reasonable and moderate than some of his fellow-Baconians that I feel sure he will not object to my asking him how he explains

the statement of Henry Chettle, "Divers of quality have reported his [Shakspere's] face- tious grace in writing which approves his art." Ben Jonson, too, a keen observer and man of the world what of him? Was he innocently deceived in Shakspere, or did he state deliberate untruths when he wrote of Shakspere in 'Timber'? Unless it can be shown that Chettle, Jonson, Hemminge, and Condell had some real reason for deceiving the public, their testimony cannot be shaken.

W. E. WILSON. Hawick.

Is it reasonable to suppose that Bacon would take such pains to conceal his author- ship of the plays and sonnets commonly known as Shakespeare's, and then go out of his way to set himself forth as a " concealed poet "1 And to whose " view " did he make himself "a motley " by means of these plays and poems? Certainly riot to that of his contemporaries, who never suspected that he had anything to do' with them. As a matter of fact, there is no reference to the writing of either plays or poems in the sonnets quoted. Shakespeare is speaking of his experience as a strolling player, not of his work as a dra- matist :

'Tis true I have gone here and there And made myself a motley to the view ;

and even so, as Mr. Sidney Lee says, is only expressing a transient feeling. It would, I should say, be difficult to name any one in whose mouth the language of Sonnet cxi. would be less appropriate than in Bacon's. How could he possibly speak of his name receiving a brand from his profession (t pub- lic means ", must refer to something openly professed) ; and how could a man of such various activities think of himself as subdued to any one of the things he worked in, par- ticularly to one which must, after all, have been merely the amusement of his idle hours ?

C. C. B.

BAKER FAMILY (9 th S. x. 88, 232). I do not see how the Cecils can be represented by Lord Salisbury. In 1862 the family was represented by Mr. William Cecil, a law stationer in London. He descended from a brother of the last Cecil of Alterennis (as their father called it). This last Cecil had seven daughters. Mr. William Cecil possessed some of the old Monmouthshire property of the Cecils, which was devised to the younger children by Philip Cecil, who died in 1551. The eldest son William was to have " Alter- ennis." The Salisburys came from David, the brother of the above Philip, and so uncle of the ancestor of Mr. William Cecil of 1862.