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THE writers who flourished during the reigns of Elizabeth and James I., or from 1550 to 1625, have been arranged into three chapters, under the heads severally of Spenser, Shakespeare, and Bacon.

NOTE.-Spenser, Shakespeare, and Bacon were to some extent contemporaneous. Yet there was in each case a perceptible interval of at least fifteen years. Spenser was at his meridian about 1595, Shakespeare about 1610, and Bacon about 1625. A still greater separation was produced by their different associations and habits of living. The dramatists of that day formed, to a great extent, a class by themselves, living mostly at taverns, and having little social intercourse with those in the higher circles. Spenser, on the other hand, and other poets of his class, were mostly connected with the higher orders, either as members or as retainers, of some noble family, and were under influences very different from those which prevailed among the dramatists.

Bacon.

Francis Bacon, Baron Verulam, 1561-1626, commonly known as Lord Bacon, was one of the greatest of modern philosophers.

Bacon was gifted by nature with abilities of the highest order, and he had every advantage which education and high birth could bestow for giving his abilities development and exercise. His father held the highest office but one in the Court of Queen Elizabeth; his mother was a woman of great natural abilities and genuine nobleness

of character, as well as of profound scholarship; his tutors were men of learning and genius; the society in which he mingled from boyhood included all that was greatest and noblest in the kingdom.

Bacon entered the University (Cambridge) at the age of twelve, was admitted to Gray's Inn as student of law at sixteen, and soon after went abroad for the purpose of perfecting himself in French and of studying foreign institutions.

On the death of his father, in 1579, Bacon, then eighteen years of age, returned to England and applied himself to his legal studies. He rose rapidly in the profession; was elected to Parliament at the age of twenty-four, and continued to sit in every House of Commons until 1614, a period of twenty-nine years.

Bacon's parliamentary eloquence is spoken of in high terms by Ben Jonson. "His language, when he could spare or pass a jest, was nobly censorious [censor-like]. No man ever spoke more neatly, more freely, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness, in what he uttered. No member of speech but consisted of his own graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss. He commanded when he spoke, and had his judges angry or pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power. The fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end."

Bacon's principal patron, during this part of his career, was the Earl of Essex. On the downfall of that nobleman, Bacon had the meanness and the ingratitude, not only to turn against him, but to profit by his friend's misfortunes.

Rise to Power. On the accession of James I., 1603, Bacon rose rapidly to the highest offices in the gift of the sovereign. He was then at the age of forty-two. He married a lady of wealth in 1606, was made solicitor-general in 1607, one of the judges in 1611, and attorneygeneral in 1613, was appointed keeper of the great seal in 1617, and lord high chancellor in 1618. In the same year he was raised to the peerage as Baron Verulam, and in 1620 was made Viscount St. Albans. The same year also he published his greatest work, The Novum OrgaNo wonder Jonson said of him, on his sixtieth birthday, 1620: "Whose even thread the Fates spin round and full

num.

Out of their choicest and their whitest wool."

His Fall. — Jonson was mistaken. In little more than a year thereafter, this round, full thread suddenly gave way, not cut by the shears of Atropos, but destroyed by the tooth of that meanest of insects, moth. Bacon's love of gold got the better of his nobler principles. Though in the receipt of a princely revenue from the fees of his office and from his professional services, he added still further to his income by taking direct bribes as a Judge and giving decisions expressly for money.

Conviction and Sentence. - A committee of inquiry being instituted in Parliament, Bacon at first indignantly denied the charges. But when the proofs were ad

duced, he confessed his guilt in these memorable words: "I do plainly and ingenuously confess that I am guilty of corruption, and do renounce all defence." A committee of the House of Lords having waited on him, to know if this confession was genuine, he replied: "My Lords, it is my act, my hand, my heart. I beseech your lordships to be merciful to a broken reed!" He was sentenced to pay a fine of £40,000, made incapable of holding office, and imprisoned during the pleasure of the king. This sentence, however, was scarcely pronounced before it was mitigated. He was sent to the Tower, but in two days was set at liberty. The fine soon after was remitted. He was even allowed to present himself at Court, and he was granted a pension of £1200 a year. He spent the rest of his life, about five years, in retirement, occupied chiefly with scientific parsuits.

"If parts allure thee, see how Bacon shined,

The wisest, brightest, meanest of mankind.”— Pope.

Bacon's downfall is the most lamentable in history. Not that he was worse than thousands of others in public position. But his transcendent greatness in other respects makes his meanness only the more damaging.

His Works. - Bacon's works have been published in 17 vols. 8vo. The greatest of these is Instauratio Magna, the great instauration, or restoration, of the sciences. Part first of the Instauratio is De Augmentis Scientiarum, or the advancement of learning. Part second is Novum Organum, the new instrument or method of pursuing the sciences, the term referring to Aristotle's method, called Organum. There are four other parts, the whole forming a grand outline of the possibilities of human knowledge and of the methods of discovery.

Other Works.- Bacon published some legal disquisitions which are regarded by jurists as worthy of his high renown. His most popular work was a small volume of Essays, of which countless editions have been sold. They were written in English, expressly for popular reading, and on topics which, in his own language, came home to the "business and bosoms" of all. He wrote also a collection of Apothegms, which has been very popular. Another book of his was De Sapientia Veterum, On the Wisdom of the Ancients, which was translated into English during his lifetime.

Style. - Bacon has an aphoristic style of writing, which has been noticed by all critics. It occurs in the Novum Organum, as well as in the Essays. It gives the reader the idea of one who has meditated long upon what he has to say, until the truth about it has become perfectly clear to his own mind, and then it is put forth, not in the shape of argument, or for discussion, but as so much fixed truth, to be received into the consciousness of the reader. No finer specimens of English prose are to be found than in Bacon's Essays.

Miscellaneous Writers.

Roger Ascham, 1515-1569, is famous as the tutor of Queen Elizabeth, and as the author of two admirable works, one on archery, Toxophilus, and one on education, The Schoolmaster.

Ascham was tutor in Latin and Greek to the Princess, afterwards

Queen Elizabeth; was Latin secretary to Edward VI.; and afterwards to Queen Mary.

Ascham's English. Ascham, though celebrated for his Latin scholarship, was among the first to discard foreign and learned words and to write pure English prose. It had become very much the fashion in his day for scholars to despise their mother tongue, and either to write in Latin, or to interlard their discourse continually with Latin, French, and Italian words. They had the idea, unfortunately not yet obsolete, that writing in plain English betrayed a want of education. No man of that day had greater facility in Latin composition than Ascham. He wrote Latin with the same ease and rapidity with which he wrote English, and he published several works in Latin.

English Works. The works by which Ascham is best, as well as most favorably known, are Toxophilus, an ingenious and pleasant defence of archery as a pastime, and The Schoolmaster, which he himself describes as a plain and perfect way of teaching children to understand, write, and speak the Latin tongue, but especially purposed for the private bringing up of youth in gentlemen's and noblemen's houses. In these works Ascham gave an example of pure English which was not lost upon his contemporaries, and in this respect he did a signal service to letters. There is also something very genial and pleasing in the tone and style of these works, which have made them great favorites. The "Schoolmaster" especially has been held in high esteem, not only for its excellencies of style, but for the many valuable ideas it contains on the subject of education, and for the interesting pictures it gives us of the state of education in those times.

REGINALD SCOTT, 1599, a man of learning, led a recluse life, dividing his time between gardening and the study of writers on the black arts.

Scott wrote two works: A Perfect Platform of a Hop Garden, and The Discovery of Witchcraft. In the latter, he attacked the current belief in witches, alchemy, and astrology, and was so far in advance of his times that he suffered persecution for his free opinions.

SIR THOMAS WILSON,

on the subject of criticism.

1581, is the earliest writer in English

Wilson was educated at Eton and Cambridge; resided abroad during the reign of Queen Mary, and, happening to be in Rome, was imprisoned for a time as a supposed heretic; returned to England on the accession of Elizabeth, and rose to be Dean of Durham and to various high state appointments.

Besides some works in Latin, Wilson wrote The Art of Logic, and The Art of Rhetoric, both works of great excellence. The latter is especially noticeable for the earnestness and vigor with which the author advocates simplicity of style and language. He condemns the prevalent alliteration, and also the practice of using foreign and learned words, instead of homely English.

Wilson gives the following caricature of the vicious style of alliteration: "Pitiful poverty prayeth for a penny, but puffed presumption passeth not a point, pampering his paunch with pestilent pleasure, procuring his passport to post it to hell-pit, there to be punished with pains perpetual."

FRANCIS MERES also was a writer on criticism. He flourished about the year 1600, and is now chiefly known on account of his references to Shakespeare.

Meres wrote, besides some other things, a work called Palladis Tamia, or Wit's Treasury, being a Comparative Discourse of our English Poets with the Greek, Latin, and Italian Poets. This was published in 1597-8, and is important as showing that Shakespeare was then publicly recognized as a poet of high order.

JOHN FLORIO,

1625, a native of London, though of Italian origin, was a lexicographer and pedant, and a resolute stickler for rule. Florio declared that "the Plays which they do play in England are neither right Comedies nor right Tragedies; but representations of Histories, without any decorum," a growl intended evidently for Shakespeare. Florio is supposed to have been the original of Holofernes the Schoolmaster, in Love's Labor Lost; if so, Shakespeare certainly had his revenge.

Works. Florio His First Fruits, which yield familiar speech, merry proverbs, witty sentences, and golden sayings; Florio His Second Fruits, yielding six thousand Italian Proverbs; A World of Words, being a dictionary in Italian and English; Dialogues of Grammar, Italian and English; and various translations.

LEONARD DIGGES, 1573, an eminent mathematician, educated at Oxford. Works: Tectonicon, Measuring of Land, etc.; A Prognostication to Judge of the Weather; An Arithmetical Military Treatise, etc.

THOMAS DIGGES, 1595, son of Leonard. Besides editing his father's works he published A Geometrical Treatise, Pantometria; England's Defense; Celestial Orbs, etc.

LEONARD DIGGES, JR., 1588-1635, grandson of the first Leonard, and son of Thomas. His genius ran more to literature, and less to mathematics, than that of the other members of the family. Works: The Rape of Proserpine, translated from the Latin; Gerardo, translated from the Spanish; Commendatory Verses on Shakespeare; Poems, "A great master of the English language, a perfect understander of the French and Spanish, a good poet, and no mean orator."— Anthony Wood.

etc.

SIR DUDLEY DIGGES, 1583-1639, also grandson of the first Leonard, and son of Thomas. He wrote on political subjects: Right and Privilege of the Subject; Four Paradoxes; Defence of the India Trade, &c.

DUDLEY DIGGES, JR., son of the preceding, also wrote on political subjects: The Unlawfulness of Subjects taking up Arms against their Sovereign, etc.

John Napier, 1550-1617, is widely known as the inventor of Logarithms.

History. Napier was Laird of Merchiston, and ancestor of the Napiers who have in recent times so greatly distinguished themselves in the arts both of war and of peace. He was educated at the University of St. Andrew's, travelled afterwards in France, Italy, and Germany,

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