In the first draft of 'The Taming of the Shrew,' published under the title of 'The Taming of a Shrew' in 1594, the term choleric in this scene is applied to mustard only; but in the final draft (1623), made while Bacon was writing his 'Natural History' and investigating the effects of different kinds of food upon the stomach, it is used (as in the latter work) in connection with fat meats. The reference to mustard is still retained, but in a wholly subordinate way.

Bacon, discussing the virtues of inanimate things, mentions the bloodstone, which was once thought to be "good for bleeding at the nose." It is in this same sense that is, as a "precious jewel" - that he treats of the stone said to be found in a toad's head.

103

BASE KNOWLEDGE

"Berowne. By Jove, I always took three threes for nine.

Costard. O Lord, sir, it were pity you should get your living by reckoning, sir."— Love's Labor's Lost, v. 2 (1598).

"Sir' (saith a man of art to Philip, king of Macedon, when he controlled him in his faculty), 'God forbid your fortune should be such as to know these things better than I.'"- Valerius Ter

minus.

The Valerius Terminus is one of the very earliest of Bacon's philosophical writings, the exact date being unknown. The anecdote in it respecting Philip was repeated twenty or thirty years later in the De Augmentis, where a knowledge of the musical art, like that of the multiplication table, is assumed to be beneath royal dignity.

"Life without an object to pursue is a languid and tiresome thing."

"Good of advancement is greater than good of simple preservation."- Advancement of Learn

Troilus and Cressida, i. 2 (1609). ing (1603-5).

"He should be close enough [in prison], and Death should be his

Hamlet, v. 2 (1604). bail.' - Charge against Somerset

(1616).

"That fell arrest

Without all bail shall carry me

away."

Sonnet 74 (1609).

Here is the same legal imagery used in different ways for different purposes. Overbury was arrested and imprisoned under such conditions that death was his only bail; the author of the sonnet anticipates his own arrest by death without bail.

66

107

From Bacon

"Excellent wits will make use of every little thing." — Letter to Sir Fulke Greville (1596).

HONEY IN CARRION

""T is seldom when the bee doth

leave her comb

In the dead carrion."

"It may be, you shall do posterity good, if out of the carcass of dead and rotten greatness (as out

2 Henry IV., 4 (1600). of Samson's lion), there be honey gathered for the use of future times.". Petition to the House of

"There was never yet philosopher That could endure the tooth-ache

patiently."

"It is more than a philosopher morally can digest. I esteem it like the pulling out of a tooth."

Much Ado about Nothing, v. 1 Letter to Essex (1595).
(1600).

"I esteem it like the pulling out of an aching tooth, which, I remember, when I was a child and had little philosophy, I was glad of when it was done." - Ibid.

This striking parallelism on the incompatibility of philosophy and the toothache was pointed out by Mr. Donnelly in his 'Great Cryptogram,' p. 377.

The above is Mr. Hudson's version of an obscure passage in 'Hamlet.' The parallelism, however, extends into further details, thus:

"Oft it chances in particular men, That for some vicious mole of nature in them,

As in their birth, wherein they are

not guilty,

Since nature cannot choose his

origin,

By the o'er growth of some complexion,

Oft breaking down the forts and

pales of reason,

Or by some habit that too much

o'er-leavens

The form of plausive manners;

that these men, Carrying, I say, the stamp of one defect,

Being nature's livery, or fortune's star,

Their virtues else, be they as pure

as grace,

As infinite as man may undergo, Shall in the general censure take corruption

From that particular fault."

Ibid. (1604).

"It is a very hard and unhappy condition (as the proverb well remarks) of men pre-eminent for virtue, that their errors, be they never so trifling, are never excused. But, as in the clearest diamond, every little cloud or speck catches and displeases the eye, which in a less perfect stone would hardly be discerned, so in men of remarkable virtue the slightest faults are seen, talked of, and severely censured, which in ordinary men would either be entirely unobserved, or readily excused." - De Augmentis (1622).

"The best governments, yea and the best men, are like the best precious stones, wherein every flaw, or icicle or grain is seen and noted more than in those that are generally foul and corrupted."-Reply to the Speaker (1621).