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He gave me a number of disgraceful words besides, which I answered with silence.1

And Bacon writes Cecil, evidently with intent to have him silence Coke.

I will ask the reader to remember this letter when we come to the Cipher Narrative. It shows, it seems to me, that Cecil knew of something to Bacon's discredit, and that Coke, Cecil's follower, had heard of it and blurted it out in his rage in open court, and threatened Bacon with arrest; and Bacon writes to his cousin for protection against Coke's tongue. Spedding says the threat of the capias utlegatum may possibly have referred to a debt that Bacon owed in 1598; but what right would Coke have to arrest Bacon for a debt due to a third party, and which must have been paid three years before? And why should Bacon say "he was at fault." If Coke referred to the debt he was not "at fault," for Bacon certainly had owed it.

XXII. CONCLUSION.

In conclusion I would say that I have in the foregoing pages shown that, if we treat the real author of the Plays, and Francis Bacon, as two men, they belonged to the same station in society, to the same profession- the law; to the same political party and to the same faction in the state; that they held the same religious views, the same philosophical tenets and the same purposes in life. That each was a poet and a philosopher, a writer of dramatic compositions, and a play-goer. That Bacon had the genius, the opportunity, the time and the necessity to write the Plays, and ample reasons to conceal his authorship.

I proceed now to another branch of my argument. I shall attempt to show that these two men, if we may still call them such, pursued the same studies, read the same books, possessed the same tastes, enjoyed the same opinions, used the same expressions, employed the same unusual words, cited the same quotations and fell into the same errors

If all this does not bring the brain of the poet under the hat of the philosopher, what will you have?

1 1 Spedding, Life and Works, vol. iii, p. 2. London: Longmans.

1

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HO does not remember that curious word used by Hamlet,
to describe the coldness of the air, upon the platform where

W the air, upon
WHO

he awaits the Ghost:

It is very cold.
air.1

It is a nipping and an eager

We turn to Bacon, and we find this very word used in the same

sense:

Whereby the cold becomes more eager.?

There is another strange word used by Shakespeare:

Light thickens,

And the crow makes wing to the rocky wood.3

We turn again to Bacon, and we find the origin of this singular expression:

For the over-moisture of the brain doth thicken the spirits visual.⚫

In the same connection we have in Bacon this expression:

The cause of dimness of sight is the expense of spirits."

We turn to Shakespeare's sonnets, and we find precisely the same arrangement of words:

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One of the most striking parallelisms of thought and expression occurs in the following. Bacon says:

Some noises help sleep, as . . . soft singing. The cause is, for that they move in the spirits a gentle attention.1

In Shakespeare we have:

I am never merry when I hear sweet music,

The reason is, your spirits are attentive.?

Here we have the same words applied in the same sense to the same thing, the effect of music; and in each case the philosopher stops to give the reason—"the cause is," "the reason is.”

Both are very fond of the expressions, "parts inward" and "parts outward,' to describe the interior and exterior of the body. Bacon says:

Mineral medicines have been extolled that they are safer for the outward than the inward parts.3

And again:

While the life-blood of Spain went inward to the heart, the outward limbs and members trembled and could not resist.4

Shakespeare has it:

I see men's judgments are

A parcel of their fortunes; and things outward

Do draw the inward quality after them,

To suffer all alike.5

Falstaff tells us:

But the sherris warms it and makes it course from the inwards to the parts

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The word infinite is a favorite with both writers.

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Shakespeare has:

Conclusion infinite of easy ways to die.'

Fellows of infinite tongue.

A fellow of infinite jest.3

Infinite in faculties.*

2

Nature's infinite book of secrecy.5

Bacon says:

Man in his mansion, sleep, exercise, passions, hath infinite variations; . the faculties of the soul."

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That gigantic state of mind which possesseth the troublers of the world, such as was Lucius Sylla.R

This is a very peculiar and unusual expression; we turn to Shakespeare, and we find Queen Margaret cursing the bloody Duke of Gloster, in the play of Richard III., in these words:

If heaven have any grievous plague in store,
Exceeding those that I can wish upon thee,
Oh, let them keep it, till thy sins be ripe,

And then hurl down their indignation

On thee, the troubler of the poor world's peace."

In Shakespeare we find:

Which is to bring Signor Benedick and the Lady Beatrice into a mountain of affection, the one with the other.10

This was regarded as such a strange and unusual comparison that some of the commentators proposed to change it into "a mooting of affection." But we turn to Bacon and we find the same simile:

Perkin sought to corrupt the servants of the lieutenant of the Tower by moun. tains of promises."1

Bacon says:

To fall from a discord, or harsh accord, upon a concord of sweet accord.12

1 Antony and Cleopatra, v, 2.

2 Henry V., V, 2.

3 Hamlet, V, I.

4 Ibid., ii, 2.

Antony and Cleopatra, i, 2.

Advancement of Learning, book ii.

"Hamlet, ii, 2.

8 Advancement of Learning.
Richard III., i, 3.

10 Much Ado about Nothing, ii, 2.

11 History of Henry VII.

12 Advancement of Learning.

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