he did not consult Bacon, perhaps the best authority of that age on the musical art; for if he had, he would have found no mystery in the phrase. The author of the Plays was so familiar with the expression that he made a pun on it in 'Henry V. “ King Henry. Come, your answer in broken music; for thy voice is music, and thy English broken ; therefore, queen of all, Katharine, break thy mind to me in broken English : wilt thou have me?" — v. 2. 389 BURNING GLASSES From Bacon “He loves to hear “I heard it affirmed by a man That unicorns may be betray'd that was a great dealer in secrets, with trees, but he was but vain, that there And bears with glasses, elephants was a conspiracy (which himself with holes, hindered) to have killed Queen Lions with toils, and men with Mary, sister to Elizabeth, by a flatterers." burning glass, when she walked in Julius Cæsar, ii. 1 (1623). St. James Park, from the leads of the house; (as they talk generally of burning glasses that are able to burn a navy.)” — Natural History (1622–25). 390 COUNCIL AND COUNSEL “The council shall know this; “Besides the giving of counsel, 't were better for you it were known the councillors are bound by their in counsel.” – Merry Wives of duties, as well as by their oaths, Windsor i. 1 (1602). to keep counsel.” – Advice to Villiers (1616). From the beginning until late in the seventeenth century, and in a few instances, even in the eighteenth, these two words, council and counsel, were used interchangeably in our language. For examples: council (council-board) was written counsel by Marbeck in 1581; by Sir R. Williams in 1590; by Captain John Smith in 1606; by Cotgrave in 1611; and by the ‘London Gazette'in 1697. In like manner the word counsel (advice) was written council by Wyclif in 1380; by Mallory in 1470; by Caxton in 1474; by Coverdale in 1535; by Udall in 1548; by Heywood in 1562; by Ford in 1633; by Perkins in 1642; by Ward in 1647; by Nicholas in 1654; by Steele in 1709; and by Cibber in 1739. On the other hand, the author of the Plays used the word council 42 times, and counsel 180 times without confusing them in a single instance. He even makes a pun on them (as above) in the 'Merry Wives of Windsor. Bacon, though proverbially careless in matters of detail, observed this distinction with great care in his prose writings, except in one or two instances in which he is supposed to have employed amanuenses. THE SULTAN SLAYING HIS BROTHERS From Pom From Bacon “ Brothers, you mix your sadness “Aristotle, after the Ottoman with some fear. fashion, felt insecure about his own This is the English, not the Turk- kingdom of philosophy till he had ish court; slain his brethren.” — De PrincipNot Amurath an Amurath suc- iis atque Originibus (posthumous). ceeds, But Harry, Harry.” 2 Henry IV., v. 2 (1600). REPUGNANCE TO MAKING WILLS “I ne'er made my will yet, I “Men commonly die intestate ; thank heaven; I am not such a this being a rule, that when their sickly creature." - Merry Wives will is made, they think themselves of Windsor, iii. 4 (1623). nearer a grave than before.” – Essay of Death (posthumous). • The Great Cryptogram,' p. 395. 393 PLUTO AND PLUTUS From Bacon “Dearer than Pluto's mine, richer “Pluto was better to bim than than gold.” Pallas.” — History of Henry VII. Julius Cæsar, iv. 3 (1623). (1621). “Plutus, the god of gold, Is but his steward.” Timon of Athens, i. 1 (1623). Both authors carefully distinguished between Pluto, god of mines, and Plutus, god of gold. Bacon certainly could not have made a mistake of this kind, for he probably was the most thorough student of ancient mythology that ever lived. He expounded some of the prominent myths of Greece and Rome in a book entitled De Sapientia Veterum and published in 1609. In the passage from his ‘History of Henry VII.,' quoted above, he means that King Ferdinand of Spain was more fortunate, after the death of Isabella, as owner of mines than as civil governor. It is, to say the least, remarkable that classical scholars, editing the drama of Julius Cæsar, should have changed the name of the god from Pluto, as it was plainly printed in the folios, to Plutus, on the ground that Shake-speare had blundered. Mrs. C. F. A. Windle, of San Francisco, was the first to point out this singular misconception 394 A MEDICAL DIAGNOSIS “ Falstaff. Sirrah, you giant, “ These advertisements which what says the doctor to my water ? your lordship imparted to me, and Page. He said, sir, the water it- the like, I hold to be no more cerself was a good healthy water ; but tain to make judgment upon than for the party that ow'd it, he might a patient's water to a physician; have more diseases than he knew therefore for me upon one water to for.” — 2 Henry IV., i. 2 (1600). make a judgment were, indeed, like a foolish bold mountebank or Doctor Birket." - Letter to Essex (1598). A FOOL'S BOLT From Bacon Henry V., iii. 7 (1623). Letter of Advice to Essex (1598). “ According to the fool's bolt, sir.” “A fool's bolt is soon shot.” As You Like It, v. 4 (1623). Promus (1594-96). 396 HARPING ON A STRING “Harp not on that string, madam.” “This string you cannot upon Richard III., iv. 4 (1597). every apt occasion harp upon too much." - Ibid. 397 CAMBRIDGE UNIVERSITY “Knock at his study, where (they “I remember in Trinity College say) he keeps.” in Cambridge there was an upper Titus Andronicus, v. 2 (1600). chamber, which, being thought weak in the roof of it, was supported by a pillar of iron of the bigness of one's arm, in the midst of the chamber; which if you had struck, it would make a little flat noise in the room where it was struck, but it would make a great bomb in the chamber beneath.” — Natural History (1622–25). Bacon was educated at Cambridge University; so also, we have good reason to believe, was the author of the Plays. Under the latter head, we make the following points : 1. In a book printed at Cambridge and published anonymously in 1595, the author (that is, the true author) of · Venus and Adonis' is said to have been matriculated at Cambridge, Oxford, or at one of the Inns of Court in London. 2. The author of the ‘Merry Wives of Windsor' held up to ridicule a notorious character attached to a college at Cambridge. 3. The author of · Titus Andronicus' was familiar (as shown above) with a dialectical expression peculiar to Cambridge University.? 398 V SEEDS From Bacon “ If you can look into the seeds of “Skilful gardeners make trial of time the seeds before they buy them, And say which grain will grow whether they be good or no.” — and which will not, Natural History (1622–25). Speak then to me." Macbeth, i. 3 (1623). 399 WEED “Why write I still all one, ever “The King was forced to put the same, himself into a pilgrim's weeds and And keep invention in a noted in that disguise to steal away." — weed, Speech at Trial of Essex (1601). That every word doth almost tell “This fellow . . . clad himself my name ?” like a hermit, and in that weed Sonnet 76 (1609). wandered about the country, till “ Julia. Gentle Lucetta, fit me he was discovered and taken.” – with such weeds History of Henry VII. (1621). As may beseem some well-reputed page." Two Gentlemen of Verona, ii. 7 (1623). “ Cordelia. Be better suited; These weeds are memories of those worser bours ; I prithee, put them off. Kent. Pardon me, dear madam; Yet to be known, shortens my made intent; |