A better example of the kind of cunning whic scribes cannot be found in all literature than the above from the play of 'Othello.' Iago first inc ing of jealousy in his victim, and then, as if s grieved to discover it, utters his warning aga Wigston, to whom we owe this splendid paral comments upon it: "If we study the whole of

where Iago first begins working upon Othello's mind, we find this exactly illustrated. This caution against jealousy, uttered by Iago, reads as if Othello, and not Iago, had first started the subject, and places the latter in the position of a friend endeavoring to disabuse a suspicious mind of jealous fancies."

193

ENVY, A DEVIL

From Shake-speare

From Bacon

"Devil Envy, say Amen."

Troilus and Cressida, ii. 3 (1609). of the devil.".

"Envy is the proper attribute Essay of Envy

(1625).

Bacon calls envy the "vilest affection and the most depraved." Shake-speare wrote a play to show its effect, when exerted from without, even upon a mind wholly free from it. Dante has pictured the result: the tempter and his victim (Cassius and Brutus) both being eternally crunched between the jaws of the Devil.

Alcibiades, a sycophant, had praised Timon "to his hurt."

195

SELF-CONTEMPT

"Apemantus. Heavens, that I were

a lord!

"Let pride go a step higher, and from contempt of others rise to con

Timon. What would'st do then, tempt of self, and it becomes philosophy."-De Augmentis (1622).

Apemantus?

Apem. E'en as Apemantus does

now; hate a lord with all my

heart.

Tim. What, thyself?

Apem. Ay."

Timon of Athens, i. 1 (1623).

Apemantus is the "philosopher" of the play.

This singular conception of the Maker of the Universe as an Edile, arranging the stars as shows, common to both authors, seems to have been taken from Cicero's De Naturâ Deorum.

The use of the word "plays" in this connection by Bacon is significant, as Mr. Wigston with admirable pertinency points out. It suggests the idea which lay deep in the minds of both authors and which finds frequent expression in the writings of both, that the world is a theatre:

"All the world's a stage, And all the men and women

merely players."

As You Like It, ii. 7 (1623). "I hold the world but as the world, Gratiano;

A stage where every man must play a part."

Merchant of Venice, i. 1 (1600).

"Men must know that, in this theatre of man's life, it is reserved only for God and the Angels to be lookers-on." - Advancement of Learning, Book ii. (1603-5).

This parallelism runs even into a minor detail, thus: