that may be given: I say to the first that I neither take example of wanton Ovid, doting Nigidius, nor foolish Samocratius. But I delight to thinke that the reverend father Theodore Beza, whose life is worthily become a lanterne to the whole worlde, did not yet disdaine to suffer the continued publication of such Poemes as he wrote in youth.

To the fourth and last considerations, I had alledged of late by a right reverende father, that although in deede out of everie floure the industrious Bee may gather honie, yet by proofe the Spider thereout also sucks mischeevous poyson.

It will be noticed that practically the same sentence occurs in the address of the Printer to the Reader in the 1573 edition (see p. 217 above). It is repeated in the second address ("To al yong Gentlemen ").

The second address is in a more vivacious vein than the first, the author changing his tone with his audience. I consider it is mainly, if not wholly, the work of the author of the first address, written for Gascoigne. The best thing in it is the "chaff" about the matter-offact and unlettered simplicity of his age in England:

Laugh not at this (lustie yonkers) since the pleasant dittie of the noble Erle of Surrey (beginning thus: In winters just returne) was also construed to be made indeed by a Shepeherd. What shoulde I stande much in rehersall how the L. Vaux his dittie (beginning thus: I loth that I did love) was thought by some to be made upon his death bed? and that the Soulknill of M. Edwards was also written in extremitie of sicknesse? Of a truth (my good gallants) there are such as having only lerned to read English, do interpret Latin, Greke, French and Italian phrases or metaphors, even according to their owne motherly conception and childish skill.

I pass over the "Commendatory Verses," with their various initials, one or more of which may well have been written by the author of the "H. W." and "G. T." epistles. This device occurs frequently in connection with subsequent publications which I believe are to be attributed to Francis Bacon, and was part of his method, in the absence of any organ of literary criticism, of advertising and "reviewing" his own work.

In the 1575 edition of the Posies Bacon's work

begins, in my opinion, after "The greene Knights farewell to Fansie," with "The Adventures of Master F. J." It would weary the reader if I went into this story in detail and discussed the various evidence of my theory from points of style; but I may note what appears to be a piece of self-revelation. The writer is describing the amours of the Dame and the Knight, and breaks off with the remark: "But why holde I so long discourse in descrybyng the joyes whiche (for lacke of like experience) I cannot set out to the full." If this is not taken from an original, it points to the juvenility of the writer. There is one very remarkable poem in the "Adventures," in which Queen Elizabeth is evidently referred to under the name of "Cynthia."

begins as follows:

Good reason yet, that to my simple skill,1

I should the name of Cynthia adore :

One stanza

By whose high helpe, I might beholde the more,
My Ladies lovely lookes at mine owne will,
With deepe content, to gaze, and gaze my fill.

Another stanza contains a beautiful fancy :
Wherefore at better leasure thought I best,

To trie the treason of his trecherie :

And to exalt my Ladies dignitie

When Phoebus fled and drewe him downe to rest.
Amid the waves that walter in the west,

I gan behold this lovely Ladies face.

"Dan Phoebus" may possibly contain a reference to Leicester, but the meaning is obscure. The same "conceit" of Cynthia regarding benevolently another love occurs in the Epithalamion of Spenser.

The "Adventures," which are in places somewhat loose, end, in the 1575 edition, with a homily:

And to that ende I have recyted this Fable which maye serve as ensample to warne the youthfull reader from attempting the lyke worthles enterprise. . . . Desiring the gentle reader, rather to make example of reformation therein, then to finde faulte at the homelye handling of the same.

1 "My simple skill." A favourite mannerism of Bacon, whether writing in his own or under another name. See Chapter V.

This is characteristic of the writer, whose purpose is to interest the light-minded, and at the same time to disarm the hostility of the sterner sort.

"A translation of Ariosto allegorized" with which the piece concludes in the 1573 edition, but which is omitted from the 1575 edition, is probably by the same hand.

Nine poems follow which complete the "Weedes." Of these I think it is highly probable that Francis Bacon wrote the one about Cleopatra, partly from a certain enthusiasm and childishness of style, partly from the fact that he reappears (in my opinion) in the same subject in a poem published in 1599 under the name of Daniel ("A Letter from Octavia to Marcus Antonius"). The heading of this poem anticipates the tricks of the earlier Shakespearian humour: "In praise of a gentlewoman, who though she were not verye fayre, yet was she as harde favoured as might be."

The Fruites Moreover it is

The volume closes with "Certayne notes of Instruction concerning the making of verse or ryme in English, written at the request of Master Edouardo Donati." This appears for the first time in the edition of 1575. The subject with which it deals is the last one in the world which could have occupied the attention of Gascoigne during the hardships of his campaign. of Warre is in itself evidence of this. not stated that the piece is by Gascoigne; it is not included in the tables of contents of " Flowers," "Hearbes and "Weedes"; no motto is placed at the end (as Gascoigne's practice was); the style is quite unlike any of his authentic work, and the matter, in my opinion, is wholly beyond his capacity.

"

Following the method which I have adopted in order to assist the reader in judging for himself without the labour of research, I give a few extracts:

Signor Edouardo, since promise is debt, and you (by the lawe of friendship) do burden me with a promise that I shoulde lende

you instructions towards the making of English verse or ryme, I will assaye to discharge the same, though not so perfectly as I would, yet as readily as I may: and therwithall I pray you consider that Quot homines, tot Sententiæ, especially in Poetrie, wherein (neuerthelesse) I dare not challenge any degree, and yet will I at your request aduenture to set downe my simple skill in such simple manner as I haue vsed, referring the same hereafter to the correction of the Laureate. And you shall haue it in these few poynts followyng.

The first and most necessarie poynt that euer I founde meete to be considered in making of a delectable poeme is this, to grounde it upon some fine inuention. For it is not inough to roll in pleasant woordes, nor yet to thunder in Rym, Ram, Ruff, by letter (quoth my master Chaucer) nor yet to abounde in apt vocables, or epythetes, vnlesse the Inuention haue in it also aliquid salis. By this aliquid salis, I meane some good and fine deuise, shewing the quicke capacitie of a writer and where I say some good and fine inuention, I meane that I would haue it both fine and good. For many inuentions are so superfine, that they are Vix good. And againe many Inuentions are good, and yet not finely handled. And for a general forwarning: what Theame soeuer you do take in hande, if you do handle it but tanquam in oratione perpetua, and neuer studie for some depth of deuise in ye Inuention, and some figures also in the handlyng thereof: it will appeare to the skilfull Reader but a tale of a tubbe. To deliuer vnto you generall examples it were almoste vnpossible, sithence the occasions of Inuentions are (as it were) infinite : neuerthelesse take in worth mine opinion, and perceyue my furder meanyng in these few poynts. If I should vndertake to wryte in prayse of a gentlewoman, I would neither praise hir christal eye, nor hir cherrie lippe, etc. For these things are trita et obuia. But I would either finde some supernaturall cause wherby my penne might walke in the superlatiue degree, or els I would vndertake to aunswere for any imperfection that shee hath, and therevpon rayse the prayse of hir commendation. Likewise if I should disclose my pretence in loue, I would eyther make a strange discourse of some intollerable passion, or finde occasion to pleade by the example of some historie, or discouer my disquiet in shadowes per Allegoriam, or vse the couertest meane that I could to anoyde the vncomely customes of common writers. Thus much I aduenture to deliuer vnto you (my freend) vpon the rule of Inuention, which of all other rules is most to be marked, and hardest to be prescribed in certayne and infallible rules, neuerthelesse to conclude therein, I would haue you stand

Q

most vpon the excellencie of your Inuention, and sticke not to studie deepely for some fine deuise. For that beyng founde, pleasant woordes will follow well inough and fast inough. . .

And surely I can lament that wee are fallen into suche a playne and simple manner of wryting, that there is none other foote vsed but one: wherby our Poemes may iustly be called Rithmes, and cannot by any right challenge the name of a Verse. But since it is so, let vs take the forde as we finde it, and lette me set downe vnto you suche rules and precepts that euen in this playne foote of two syllables you wreste no woorde from his natural and vsuall sounde, I do not meane hereby that you may vse none other wordes but of twoo sillables, for therein you may vse discretion according to occasion of matter: but my meaning is, that all the wordes in your verse be so placed as the first sillable may sound short or be depressed, the second long or eleuate, the third shorte, the fourth long, the fifth shorte, etc. For example of my meaning in this point marke these two

verses:

I understand your meanying by your eye.1

Your meaning I understand by your eye.

In these two verses there seemeth no difference at all, since the one hath the very selfe same woordes that the other hath, and yet the latter verse is neyther true nor pleasant, and the first verse may passe the musters. The fault of the latter verse is that this worde understand is therein so placed as the graue accent falleth upon der, and thereby maketh der, in this word understand to be eleuated: which is contrarie to the naturall or vsual pronunciation: for we say

understand, and not understand.

5. Here by the way I thinke it not amisse to forewarne you that you thrust as few wordes of many sillables into your verse as may be and herevnto I might alledge many reasons: first the most auncient English wordes are of one sillable, so that the more monasyllables that you vse, the truer Englishman you shall seeme, and the lesse you shall smell of the Inkehorne. Also wordes of many syllables do cloye a verse and make it vnpleasant, whereas woordes of one syllable will more easily fall to be shorte or long as occasion requireth, or wilbe adapted to become circumflexe or of an indifferent sounde. . . .

12. This poeticall licence is a shrewde fellow, and couereth

1 A rough figure is printed over the line, indicating the accent.