"Fortune has somewhat of the nature of a woman, who, if she be too much wooed, is commonly the Advancement of

Two Gentlemen of Verona, v. 2 farther off." (1623).

Learning (1603-5).

A sentiment uttered by Tacitus in his Annals. Bacon quoted the Latin sentence containing it, in the 'Advancement of Learning' (1605), but with an entire misconception of its meaning. He then rendered it thus: "The man who easily believes rumors will as easily manufacture additions to them." Later in life, however, he seems to have gained a better insight into the passage, the true signification of which, enlarged into a proverb, is, that untruthful persons credit even their own lies. It is so given both in the 'History of Henry VII.' (1621) and in the 'Tempest' (1623). The qualification

that a lie is to be repeated many times as a condition precedent to such belief is not in Tacitus, but is peculiar alike to Bacon and to Shake-speare, as above.

GOOD INTENTIONS WITHOUT ACTS "If our virtues

Did not go forth of us, 't were all

alike

As if we had them not."
Measure for Measure, i. 1 (1623).

57

"What is your virtue, if you show it not?"- Gray's Inn Revels (1595).

"Good thoughts... are little better than good dreams, except they be put in act."- Essay of Great Place (1607-12).

This account was undoubtedly taken, directly or indirectly, from Plutarch, where it is given as follows:

"Cæsar, dressed in a triumphal robe, seated himself in a golden chair at the rostra, to view this ceremony [celebration of the Lupercalia]. Antony Antony... went up and reached to Cæsar a diadem wreathed with laurel. Upon this there was a shout, but only a slight one, made by the few who were stationed there for that purpose; but when Cæsar refused it, there was universal applause. Upon the second offer, very few, and upon the second refusal, all again, applauded. Cæsar, finding it would not take, rose up and ordered the Crown to be carried into the Capitol. Cæsar's statues were afterward found with royal diadems on their heads."-Life of Julius Cæsar.

North's English translation of Plutarch's 'Lives' was published in 1579; Bacon's' Advancement of Learning 'in 1605; Shakespeare's play of Julius Cæsar' in 1623. It is susceptible of easy proof, as Judge Holmes in his 'Authorship of Shakespeare' shows, that the narration in the play did not come directly from Plutarch, but either from the 'Advancement' or from the pen of the author of the 'Advancement.' Judge Holmes says:

"The play follows the ideas of Bacon rather than those of Plutarch, and adopts the very peculiarities of Bacon's expressions, wherein they differ from North's 'Plutarch,' as, for instance, in these :

'Cæsar refused it.'- Plutarch.

'He put it off thus.' — Bacon.

'He put it off with the back of his hand, thus.' — Shake-speare.

'There was a shout, but only a slight one.' - Plutarch. Finding the cry weak and poor.' — Bacon.

'What was that last cry for?'- Shake-speare.

'It was mere foolery.' — Shake-speare.

[Plutarch has nothing to correspond with these last expressions. The author of the play plainly followed Bacon.] "Again, North's Plutarch speaks of a laurel crown having a 'royal band or diadem wreathed about it, which in old time was the ancient mark or token of a king;' in the play it is called a 'crown,' or 'one of these coronets,' but never a diadem, while in Bacon, it is the 'style and diadem of a king;' whence it would seem clear that Bacon followed Plutarch rather than the play." The Authorship of Shakespeare, page 286.

In the following, the versions are substantially alike:

From Shakespeare

"Decius. The Senate have concluded

To give this day a crown to mighty

Cæsar ;

From Bacon

"With Julius Cæsar, Decimus Brutus had obtained that interest, as he set him down, in his testament, for heir in remainder, after

shall send them word you will not come, Their minds may change. Besides,

it were a mock,

Apt to be rendered, for some one

to say,

Break up the Senate till another time,

When Cæsar's wife shall meet with better dreams."

his nephew. And this was the
man that had power with him, to
draw him forth to his death. For
when Cæsar would have discharged
the Senate, in regard of some ill
presages, and especially a dream of
Calpurnia, this man lifted him
gently by the arm out of his chair,
telling him he hoped he would not
dismiss the Senate till his wife

Julius Cæsar, ii. 2. had dreamt a better dream."
Essay of Friendship (1625).

It has been noticed that the name of Cæsar's wife Calpurnia, and the prænomen of Brutus, Decimus, while given correctly in Bacon's 'Essay of Friendship,' are spelled respectively Calphurnia and Decius in the play, the inference being that the two compositions could not have proceeded from the same pen; in other words, that Bacon knew what Shake-speare did not know. The discrepancy is easily explainable. The forms found in the play were in Shakespeare's time in common use in England. The Essay was sent to the press two years after the publication of the play, through the hands of Bacon's chaplain and amanuensis, Rawley, who edited it for the press. We know this from the fact that he impressed upon it (as will be seen above) his own singular method of punctuation. Rawley was a Latin scholar, and would naturally have made the superficial corrections, alluded to, in the text.1

A similar mistake, Bosphorus for Bosporus, has been

1 Bacon's 'Essay of Fame,' a fragment, was published by Rawley in 1657, thirty years after Bacon's death. The following passage from it will also show Rawley's peculiar method of punctuation :

:

"Julius Cæsar, took Pompey unprovided, and laid asleep his industry, and preparations, by a Fame that he cunningly gave out; How Cæsar's own soldiers loved him not; and being wearied with the wars, and laden with the spoils of Gaul, would forsake him, as soon as he came into Italy. Livia, settled all things, for the succession, of her son Tiberius, by continually giving out, that her husband Augustus, was upon recovery, and amendment."