Feb. 25, 1601. He succeeded to the title at ten years of age. At twenty he was appointed master of the horse. At twenty-one the Queen created him captain-general of the cavalry, and conferred on him the honor of the garter. In the same year an expedition was undertaken against Portugal, and he secretly followed the armament. This was without the Queen's permission, but he was quickly reconciled with her after his return, and at once assumed a superiority over Sir Walter Raleigh and Sir Charles Blount, rival competitors for royal favor. He was challenged by Blount and wounded in the knee, and the Queen is said to have expressed her gratification that some one had taken him down, as otherwise there would be no ruling him. He was an accomplished scholar and patron of literature. He erected a monument to Spenser and gave an estate to Bacon. But we have omitted one striking characteristic which has an important bearing on the question of his identity with "Mr. W. H." The young Earl of Essex was a remarkably handsome man. Now the beauty of the person addressed in the "Sonnets" is a constantly recurring theme, and the burden of the poem is an appeal to the beloved and beautiful young man to marry. It begins thus : "From fairest creatures we desire increase, That thereby beauty's rose might never die." The next Sonnet begins: "When forty winters shall besiege thy brow, Will be a tattered weed of small worth held." The last line of Sonnet 13 reads: "You had a father; let your son say so." The father of Essex died in 1576. In 1590 the second Earl married the widow of Sir Philip Sidney, Essex being twenty-two years old and she a little younger. The marriage was secret to avoid the opposition of Elizabeth. By October, concealment was no longer possible, and on the 22d of January, 1591, (not 1592 as some have it,) the first child was born. ("Earls of Essex,” 1853.) The mother of Essex was celebrated for her beauty; his father was not handsome. (See portrait in "Earls of Essex.") The son's inheritance of his mother's features is told in the third Sonnet: 66 'Thou art thy mother's glass, and she in thee Calls back the lovely April of her prime; So thou through windows of thine age shalt see, For further description of the young Earl's beauty, take the following: "If I could write the beauty of your eyes, And in fresh numbers number all your graces, The age to come would say, 'This poet lies; Such heavenly touches ne'er touched earthly faces." "Describe Adonis, and the counterfeit Is poorly imitated after you; On Helen's cheek all art of beauty set, And you in Grecian 'tires are painted new.' Essex having become the special favorite of the Queen, of course became an object of envy and slander. Mark now what the poet says: "Gentle thou art, and therefore to be won; Beauteous thou art, therefore to be assailed." "That thou art blamed shall not be thy defect, A crow that flies in heaven's sweetest air. So be thou good; slander doth but approve Thy worth the greater, being wooed of time." In 1590 Bacon had acquired a reputation as an orator in the House of Commons, but was without available means of livelihood in keeping with his wants and station. Up to this time his efforts for promotion were thwarted by the Queen's minister, Lord Burleigh (Cecil,) who regarded him as a dangerous rival for his son. With the rise of young Essex into royal favor Bacon turned to him as a friend at court. From 1590 to 1594 the Earl tried in vain to advance Bacon, and at last, when the vacant office of Attorney General was filled by another, Essex, blaming himself for the disappointment, insisted on presenting him with an estate worth £1,800. With these facts in mind, see how perfectly the following lines fit the persons and the time, 1590 : "Let those who are in favor with their stars, Of public honor and proud titles boast, "When in disgrace with fortune and men's eyes, And trouble deaf heaven with my bootless cries, Featured like him, like him with friends possessed, From sullen earth sings hymns at heaven's gate; "I may not evermore acknowledge thee, Lest my bewailed guilt should do thee shame, Unless thou take that honor from thy name; To see his active child do deeds of youth, I make my love engrafted to this store. Whilst that this shadow doth such substance give And by a part of all thy glory live." In 1590 Shakspere was part owner of a theater. In 1590 Bacon obtained his first show of favor from the court; he became Queen's counsel extraordinary, but the office was without emolument. At this time plays for the theater were written and rewritten again and again to meet the demand. Young lawyers and poets produced them rapidly. Each theatrical company kept from one to four poets in its pay (Amer. Cyc.) Shakspere appeared to be ready to father anything that promised success, and there are at least six plays published under his name or initials which most critics say are not his, nor have they ever appeared in the genuine canon. In 1591 a poem by Spenser was published containing these lines: "And he, the man whom Nature's self has made To mock herself and truth to imitate, With kindly counter under mimic shade, With whom all joy and jolly merriment From 1590 until Shakspere retired from the stage, how could it be said that he was "poor," bewailing his "outcast state" and "cursing his fate?" But it is certain that Bacon's condition answered precisely to that description up to November, 1594, when Essex gave him an estate worth £1,800; aye, even until 1604, when King James granted him a pension of £60 ; if not even up to 1607. Mark now the modesty of the poet in 1590: "If thou survive my well contented day, When that churl Death with bones my dust shall cover, These poor rude lines of thy deceased lover, And though they be outstripp'd by every pen, "My name be buried where my body is, And live no more to shame nor me nor you, For I am shamed by that which I bring forth, And so should you, to love things nothing worth." We have already quoted a verse from Spenser in praise of "Willy," first published in 1591; we now adduce a passage from one of Willy " Bacon's poems first published in 1599 in praise of Spenser : 66 "Dowland to thee is dear, whose heavenly touch Upon the lute doth ravish human sense; As, passing all conceit, needs no defense." This verse is in "The Passionate Pilgrim," the first two numbers of which are Sonnets 138 and 144 with slight variations. John Dowland, a musician, was born |