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But again, we have a letter written in 1592 by Bacon to his uncle, Lord Treasurer Burleigh, in which he says:

"I wax somewhat ancient; one and thirty years is a great deal of sand in the hour-glass."

At the age of 31 he thinks himself "somewhat ancient" two years earlier he apprehends that forty winters will entirely deface the youthful Earl's beauty; and to the lovely young widow he says: "My days are past the best."

This misconception therefore, whether pretended or real, becomes a strong proof of Bacon's authorship.

It has been boldly alleged by some that Bacon was no poet. Such, however, was not the judgment of his biographer, the late James Spedding. Before he could have heard it claimed that Shakspere did not write the plays he said that Bacon might have taken the highest rank as a poet. And that judgment was based upon the versification of a few Psalms by the old man on a sick bed. Since 1867 the substantial proofs of Bacon's secret authorship have been adduced. Aside from innumerable parallels in the works of Bacon and Shakspere there is much external evidence. For example:

We know that Bacon wrote Sonnets to Queen Elizabeth and excused himself by saying: "I profess not to be a poet."

We know that he composed Masques anonymously before Shakspere's name appeared as a play writer, and that those Masques were essentially poetical compositions, in the nature of plays, and sometimes contained verses in rhyme equal in merit to the average of Shakspere's.

In one of those Masques a speaker is made to say: "The monuments of wit survive the monuments of power; the verses of the poet endure without a syllable lost, while states and empires pass many periods." Two years later, in 1596, the composer of that speech, writing to Sir Fulke Greville on his studies, said: "For poets I can commend none, being resolved to be ever a stranger to them." Greville (1554-1628) was a poet, and wrote the life of Sir Philip Sidney.

In 1603 Bacon wrote a private letter to the poet John Davies, begging him to speak a good word for the writer to the incoming King James I., and closing with these words: "So, desiring you to be good to concealed poets, I continue."

Bacon's most intimate friend, Toby Matthew, in a letter with cancelled date, but as late as 1605, acknowledged the receipt of some work by Bacon, and added this postscript:

"I will not return you weight for weight, but Measure for Measure."

"Mesur for Mesur," by "Shaxberd," was played before King James, at Whitehall, December 26, 1604.

Again, about the time of the publication of the Shakespere Folio, 1623, Matthew acknowledged in a letter without date, the receipt of a "great and noble favor," and added the following:

"P. S.-The most prodigious wit that ever I knew, of my nation and of this side of the sea, is of your Lordship's name, though he be known by another."

BACON

IDENTIFIED AS

THE CONCEALED POET IGNOTO.

A. D. 1589-1600.

Spenser's "Faery Queen" was begun in 1582, and published in 1590. The Dedication to Sir Walter Raleigh is dated 23 January, 1589 (i. e., 1590.) Raleigh in return praised the poem in two Sonnets. These, together with five other versified encomiums by "Hobynoll" (Gabriel Harvey,) "R. S.," "H. B.," "W. L.," and "Ignoto," are prefixed to Spenser's work.

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In 1599 "The Passionate Pilgrim," a collection of twenty-one sonnets, songs, etc., was published with the name of W. Shakspere on the title page. The author

ship of several of the pieces is disputed.

In regard to No. xviii, "My flocks feed not," Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, says:

"There is a somewhat brief version of this song in the collection of Madrigals, etc., by Thomas Weelkes 1597, this person being the composer of the music, but not necessarily the author of the words. A copy of it as it is seen in the Passionate Pilgrim also occurs in England's Helicon, 1600, entitled 'The Unknowne Sheepheards Complaint,' and is there subscribed Ignoto.”

"Live with me and be

Again, in regard to No. XX, my love," the same author, says:

"The first of these very pretty songs is incomplete, and the second, called 'Love's answer,' still more so. In England's Helicon, 1600, the former is given to Marlowe, the latter to Ignoto; and there is good reason to believe that Christopher Mar

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lowe wrote the song, and Sir Walter Raleigh the nymph's reply; for so we are positively assured by Isaac Walton, who has inserted them both in his Complete Angler under the character of 'that smooth song which was made by Kit Marlowe, now at least fifty years ago; and an answer to it which was made by Sir Walter Raleigh in his younger days :-old fashioned poetry but choicely good.' Both these songs were exceedingly popular and are afterwards found in the street ballads. The first is quoted in the Merry Wives of Windsor."

Again, in regard to No. xxi, "As it fell upon a day," Mr. Halliwell-Phillipps, says:

"This charming idyl occurs, with the absence of two lines, amongst the Poems in Divers Humours appended to Barnfield's Encomion of Lady Pecunia, in 1598, and the first twenty-six lines with the addition of two new ones are found in England's Helicon, 1600. This latter version follows in that work No. xviii of this list, ["My flocks feed not,"] is also subscribed Ignoto, and is headed: 'Another of the same Sheepheards.' The probability is that the copies of these little poems, as given in the Helicon, were taken from a Common Place book in which the names of the authors were not recorded; the two supplementary lines just noticed having the appearance of being an unauthorized couplet improvised for the sake of giving a neater finish to the abridgment."

We will now reproduce the aforesaid poems from "England's Helicon," second edition, 1614. A brief version of the first song, No. xviii of "The Passionate Pilgrim," says Halliwell-Phillipps, appeared in 1597. The unknown Shepherd's Complaint.

My flocks feed not, my ewes breed not,
My rams speed not, all is amiss ;
Love is denying, Faith is defying ;
Hearts ren[e]ging, causer of this.
All my merry jigs are quite forgot,

And my lady's love is lost, God wot:
Where her faith was firmly fixed in love,
There a nay is placed without remove.

One silly cross wrought all my loss;

O frowning fortune, cursed fickle Dame,
For now I see, inconstancy

More in women than in men remain.

In black mourn I, all fears scorn I,
Love hath forlorn me, living in thrall;
Heart is bleeding, all help needing,

O cruel speeding, fraughted with gall.
My shepherd's pipe can sound no deal,
My wether's bell rings doleful knell.
My curtail dog that wont to have played,
Plays not at all, but seems afraid.
With sighs so deep, procure to weep,

In howling-wise to see my doleful plight,
How sighs resound, through heartless ground,
Like a thousand vanquished men in bloody fight.
Clear wells spring not, sweet birds sing not,
Green plants bring not forth their dye;
Herds stand weeping-flocks all sleeping,
Nymphs back peeping fearfully.

All our pleasures known to us poor swains,
All our merry meeting on the plains,
All our evening sports from us are fled,
All our love is lost, for love is dead.
Farewell sweet lass, thy like ne'er was,
For sweet content, the cause of all my moan:
Poor Corydon must live alone,

Other help for him, I see that there is none.

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The variations from the version of 1599 are few, the only important one being "ren[e]ging" for "renying." The latter has no meaning; the former is used twice in the plays.

The only question in regard to the authorship of this poem is, whether Shakspere or "Ignoto" wrote it. The next poem printed in the "Helicon " is a part of No. xxi of the "Passionate Pilgrim."

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