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CONTENTS CHAP. PAGE I. FRANCISB ACON C ONFESSES, IN THE. PRESENCE OF IV. WHAT P ART D D THE WORDS NAME AN D DART S PLAY IN BACONS WRITINGS . V. THE MYSTERIOUS MANNER O F THE ACTOR S HAKS PERE S C 1 . VI. WHAT PART DOES RHYME PLAY IN THE SHAKB SPEARE DRAMAS . VII. THE R HYME I S N FRANCIS B ACONS P SALM . S VIII. FRANCI B S A CON T, HE ANECDOTIST . IX. FRANCIBSA CON E S S SAY-RHYME A S N, D THE TRWTIIS THEY REVEAL . FRANCIS BACON CONFESSES, IN THE PRESENCE OF DEATH, TO HAVING WRITTEN RHYMED BOOKS I For wy m1n4 a td m emory, Ileavt it to MWs chant ble s eeclzes, alzd to foreip nations, and llzs ex a t g es. The Last Will of FRANCI B S A CON. I FRANC B IS A CON l ived from I 56 I to 1626. Not even his opponents can dispute the fact that he was one of the most briIliant literary phenomena the world has ever seen, Yet, notwithstanding his marveIIous giftedness for science and literature, not once during all the years of his youth did he betray the least ambition to see his name in print on any book. Not until he had attained the age of thirty-six did he allow his name to appear in connection with a book and, even then, not on the title-page, but merely in conjunction with the dedicatory epistle. The book in question was a small, thin volume, containing Essayes. Religious Meditations. Of the Coulers of good and euill a fragment. It i appeared in the year 1397 and was the only printed work which Francis Bacon published, bearing his name, during the tong reign of Queen Elizabeth, whose unpaid Literary Counsellor he was. Not until James I. 1603-1625 had ascended the throne, did that imposing set of works appear on a11 manner of subjects, which became the wonder of the age, and which to this daytouch, and 611 with admiration, the heart and mind of all their number is but small who dive into their depths. The titIes of the chief works are The Advance ment of Learning 1605 D e Sapietltia Veterurn I 609 l Novum Organurn I 6 2 0 The Historie of the Raigne of King Henry the Seventh r622, Historia Ventorum I 62 2, Historia Vitz et Mortis 1623 De Augmentis Scientiarurn 1623. Then, io 1625, i. e., in the last year of James I. s reign, something most startling occurred. Francis Bacon, whom the world had hitherto known only as a states man and the author of Latin and English works on profound subjects, revealed himsekf as a humorist, by I publishing a collection of two hundred and eighty finely I pointed sayings, and anecdotes sparkling with wit and I humour, entitled, Apophthegmes New and Old. And in the same year something still more startling happened. Francis Bacon, whom the world had hitherto knawn only as a prose writer, now cam foma d as apoet, and published a small collection of rhymed poems, entitled, The Translation of Certain Psalms, into English Verse. The time in which those merry and poetical surprises and revelations eventuated, affords us, how ever, ample matter for thought for on December 19, i625, i. e., just as that same year was drawing to an end, the author, a man of sixty-four years of age, who had long been ailing, signed his Last Will, and on April g, 1626, it, , a quarter of a year later, he closed his dyes for ever. Thus, the anecdotes and the verses from the psaIms were published zn the very p esexce of death, and not before...