the masts themselves." - History Down with the topmast! yare! of the Winds (1622). Bacon tells us, that when a ship is on a lee shore, and, to avoid disaster, must put to sea again, she can lie within six points of the wind, provided she set her courses. Those were the exact orders given in the play, lest "we run ourselves aground," says the master. The injunction not to permit anger to strike to the heart and thus endanger life appeared in one of the latest of Bacon's essays, first published in 1625; and also in a Shakespeare drama not heard of till seven years after the reputed author's death, and first published in 1623. 160 SUSPICIOUS PERSONS "Cæsar. Let me have men about me that are fat; "Princes, being full of thought and prone to suspicions, do not Sleek-headed men and such as sleep o'nights. 'Yond Cassius has a lean and hungry look; He thinks too much; such men are dangerous." Julius Cæsar, i. 2 (1623). easily admit to familiar intercourse men that are perspicacious and curious, whose minds are always on the watch and never sleep." Wisdom of the Ancients (1609). Another parallelism suggested by Mr. James, who seems to be justified in pronouncing it "absolute and perfect." 161 TEREBRATION OF TREES From Shake-speare That he had not so trimm'd and As we this garden. We at time of year From Bacon "The terebration of trees not only makes them prosper better, but it maketh also the fruit sweeter and better. The cause is, for that, notwithstanding the terebration, Do wound the bark, the skin of they may receive aliment sufficient, Still another parallelism due to Mr. James. Bacon says again on the same subject: "It hath been practised in trees that show fair and bear not, to bore a hole through the heart of the tree, and thereupon it will bear. Which may be, for that the tree before hath too much repletion, and was oppressed with its own sap."— Ibid., 428. If heavenly powers do aim aright holiness) was washing his hands To my divining thoughts, thou, Shalt prove this country's bliss. crown, Thy looks are all replete with Make much of him, my lords, 8 Henry VI., iv. 6 (1595, 1600, at a great feast, and cast his eye upon King Henry [the Seventh], then a young youth, he said, This is the lad that shall possess quietly that that we now strive for.' - History of Henry VII. (1621). The passage, cited above, from the Third Part of King Henry VI.' appeared in the first edition of the play in 1595; also, without change in the second, 1600; also again without change in the third, in 1619, or three years after the death of the reputed poet at Stratford in 1616. For the folio of 1623, however, it was revised, undoubtedly (as our readers can judge) by the author himself, and then made to read as follows: King Henry. Come hither, England's hope; if secret powers His head by nature fram'd to wear a crown, (1623.) It is noteworthy that on the title page of the 1619 quarto the play, as then published, was said to have been "newly corrected." The inference, therefore, is almost irresistible that the author was living, not only immediately before 1619, when certain changes were elsewhere made in the play, but also during the interval between 1619 and 1623, when very great changes, involving thousands of lines, were made in it.1 1 See 'Francis Bacon Our Shake-speare,' p. 116. To pursue the subject a little farther, the anecdote was taken from Holinshed, where we find it given thus: "The Earl of Pembroke took this child, being his nephew, out of the custody of the Lady Herbert, and at his return brought the child with him to London, to King Henry VI.; whom when the king had a good while beheld, he said to such princes as were with him: 'Lo, surely this is he, to whom both we and our adversaries, leaving the possession of all things, shall hereafter give room and place."" The historical plays of Shake-speare contain many paraphrases from Holinshed and Halle. To show how closely the dramatist sometimes follows these old chroniclers, we give one more instance, this time from Henry V.: 163 SALIC LAW From Shake-speare "There is no bar to stay your high ness' claim to France But one, which they produced from No female shall succeed in Salicke land, Which Salicke land the French unjustly gloze To be the realm of France, affirm That the land Salicke lies in Ger many Between the floods of Sabeck and of Elm." Henry V., i. 2 (1600). From Bacon "There was a French gentleman speaking with an English, of the law Salique, that women were excluded to inherit the crown of France. The English said, 'Yes, but that was meant of the women themselves, not of such males as claimed by women.' The French gentleman said, 'Where do you find that gloss?' The Englishman answered, 'I'll tell you, sir; look on the back side of the record of the law Salique, and there you shall find it endorsed;' meaning there was no such thing at all as the law Salique, but that it was a fiction."- Apothegms (1624). Both of these statements regarding the Salic law were taken, almost word for word, from Holinshed's history. This is a significant fact, for it shows that Holinshed was a com mon and prolific source of information for the two authors in their respective works. We give an example of each, additional to the above: From Shake-speare "Sent the Lord Treasurer with Master Reginald Bray and others unto the Lord Mayor of London, requiring a present of six thousand marks. Whereupon the said Lord Mayor and his brethren, with the commons of the city, granted a present of two thousand pounds." - Holinshed, p. 764. "Canterbury. In the book of Num bers is it writ; From Bacon "And thereupon he took a fit occasion to send the Lord Treasurer and Master Bray, whom he used as counsellor, to the Lord Mayor of London, requiring of the city a present of six thousand marks; but after parleys, he could obtain but two thousand pounds." Bacon's History of Henry VI. "The Archbishop further alleged out of the book of Numbers this 'When the man dies, let the in- saying: 'when a man dieth with |