in Bacon's commonwealth, who lived to see thirty lineal descendants of his, all alive at one time and all over three years of age, was entitled to the honors of this Feast, given to him at public expense. 664 BROTHELS From Shake-speare "Marina. Thou holdst a place for which the pained'st fiend Of hell would not in reputation change; From Bacon "I remember to have read, in one of your European books, of an holy hermit amongst you that desired to see the Spirit of Forni Thou art the damned door-keeper cation; and there appeared to him a little foul, ugly Aethiop. But if he had desired to see the Spirit of Chastity of Bensalem, it would have appeared to him in the likeness of a fair, beautiful Cherubin. For there is nothing amongst mortal men more fair and admirable than the chaste minds of this people. Know, therefore, that with them there are no stews, no dissolute houses, no courtesans, nor anything of that kind. Nay, they wonder (with detestation) at you in Europe, which permit such things."- New Atlantis (1624). 665 KING JAMES I., THE SOLOMON OF HIS AGE "Peace, plenty, love, truth, terror, That were the servants to this chosen infant, "We have some parts of his works which with you are lost; namely, that Natural History James I., who prided himself on his learning, was called by his flatterers the Solomon of his age. Bacon and Shakespeare both refer to him in connection with the cedar of Lebanon, because of the prominence given to that tree in the Hebrew king's work on Natural History. Fool. We'll set thee to a school to an ant." King Lear, ii. 4 (1608). Bacon uses the word "impertinent" in its primitive Latin sense, not pertinent. This explains why it is proposed in the play to send a foolish questioner to school. Bacon's complete sentence, of which the above is a part, is as follows: "Some few grains of saffron will give a tincture to a ton of water; but so many grains of civet will give a perfume to a whole chamber of air." Shake-speare, as we have already shown, takes note of this property of saffron, as well as of civet, thus: "Your son was misled with a snipt-taffeta fellow there, whose villanous saffron would have made all the unbaked and doughy youth of a nation in his color."— All's Well, iv. 5 (1623). 672 MANUFACTURE OF GOLD From Shake-speare "You are an alchymist; make gold of that. Out, rascal dogs!" From Bacon "We knew a Dutchman that had wrought himself into the belief of a great person by undertaking that Timon of Athens, v. 1 (1623). he could make gold, whose dis course was, that gold might be made, but that the alchymists overfired the work.". Sylva Sylvarum (1622-25). 673 CAUSE OF THUNDER "What is the cause of thunder?" King Lear, iii. 4 (1608). 674 "Some of the Grecians which first gave the reason of thunder were condemned of impiety." — Filum Labyrinthi (c. 1608). Wit, as used in the play, means intellect or mental Othello. It is the very error of the by exciting of the spirits, as well PROMETHEUS, DISCOVERER OF FIRE "But once put out thy light, Thou cunning'st pattern of excelling nature, I know not where is that Promethean heat That can thy light relume." Ibid. 678 "You would not say that Prometheus was led by speculation to the discovery of fire, or that when he first struck the flint he expected the spark; but rather that he lighted on it by accident, and (as they say) stole it from Jupiter."Advancement of Learning (1603-5). |