The writer takes the same view as Bacon about the myths:

But to make an end with Poets, he that marketh those fictions which Homer hath written of their Gods, like as those of Virgil, and other of the heathen Poets, though at the first they seeme strange and absurd, yet he shall find under them naturall and divine knowledge hidden to those that are not wise and learned: which neither time nor occasion would that I should here insist upon.

Bacon's view was that the myths were much older than Homer, and that "a concealed instruction and allegory was originally intended in many of the ancient fables," being the form of teaching which also was then most accessible to the minds of the generality. "It may pass," he writes, "for a further indication of a concealed and secret meaning, that some of these fables are so absurd and idle in their narration as to show and proclaim an allegory, even afar off."'

1

At p. 160 of the book, the writer mentions Sir Philip Sidney as an instance of exceptional judgment and staid behaviour in youth, "who being but seventeene yeeres of age when he began to travell, and coming to Paris was so admired among the graver sort of Courtiers . . so was he likewise esteemed in all places else where he came in his travell, as well in Germanie as in Italy."

In the "Pastorall Eglogue" included in Spenser's works, which is initialled "L. B." and supposed to be by Ludowick Bryskett, "Lycon" refers to himself as travelling abroad with Sidney. This passage, however, contains no information which was not common knowledge.

The following passage compares with those expressing the same thought in Spenser's View of the Present State of Ireland, in the Faerie Queene, and in King Lear, which I noticed in the previous chapter :

What a folly it is to beleeve that we cannot resist the inclinations of the stars. . . . The beginning of all our operation is undoubtedly in our selves. . . . And consequently we may by

1 Cf. extract from preface to The Wisdom of the Ancients, quoted at p. 123 above.

our free choice and voluntarily give ourselves to good or to evill, and master the inclination of the heavens, the starres or destinie, which troubleth so much the braines of some, that in despite of nature they will needes make themselves bond being free.

In the following passage (p. 206) the author again shows that he was an Englishman :

And if mine author mistrusted his eloquence (as he doth) in a matter meete to be set forth so effectually as this, what may I say of myselfe, that am tied to declare to you in our language, inferior much to the Italian, al that he hath set downe touching the same?

At the time when Bacon began to write the English language was much inferior to the Italian as a means of literary expression, and it was the ambition of "Immerito " to do what he could to alter this (Harvey Correspondence, etc.).

Asked by Captain Norris (p. 239) the cause why it was that "shamefastnesse maketh the red colour come into a man's face and that feare doth make him pale," Bryskett replies (as regards fear) that it

maketh the mind which conceiveth it to startle, and looking about for meanes of defence, it calleth all the bloud into the innermost parts . . . whereby the exterior parts being abandoned and deprived of heate, and of that colour which it had from the bloud and the spirits, there remaineth nothing but palenesse.

This is Bacon's theory of "spirits," which I discussed in Chapter IV. The opposite effect is described in Spenser's Faerie Queene, where Britomart recognises Arthegal as the lover she has seen in the enchanted glass:

Soone as she heard the name of Artegall,

Her hart did leape, and all her hart-strings tremble,

For sudden joy and secret feare withall;

And all her vitall powres, with motion nimble

To succour it, themselves gan there assemble;

That by the swift recourse of flushing blood

Right plaine appeard, though she it would dissemble,
And fayned still her former angry mood,

Thinking to hide the depth by troubling of the flood.

In concluding, the writer discusses "magnanimity"

and "the vertues assigned to wait upon" it "somewhat more amply than mine author, who hath (in my opinion) a little too briefly touched them in the description of a magnanimous man." This leads to some remarks on the nature of wisdom, and in a passage of great interest (p. 255 sq.) the views of the writer (who is here speaking in his own person) are given on the nature and limits of the human understanding in relation to scientific inquiry. They correspond, in manner and substance, with those of Bacon, as found in his philosophic writings. Some further discourse follows on the nature of the soul, and, with a pleasant remark to "Mr. Spencer" about his having shifted the burden of the discourse on to Bryskett, the colloquy is brought to a close.

1

SOME DATES RELATING TO EVENTS

AND PERSONS OF THE PERIOD

1558. Accession of Elizabeth (b. 1533). William Cecil, Secretary, and Nicholas Bacon, Lord Keeper.

1559. Acts of Supremacy and Uniformity.

1560. Foreign marriage proposals. General expectation that the Queen would marry Dudley. Death of Francis II. of France (Dec.); accession to power of Catherine de' Medici. 1561. Francis Bacon born.

1564. William Shakespeare born.

1568. Mary, Queen of Scots, takes refuge in England (b. 1542; Queen Consort of France, 1559; returned to Scotland, 1561). Insurrection of the Netherlands begins.

1569. Insurrection in the northern counties on behalf of the old religion and the liberation of Mary Stuart, led by Northumberland and Westmoreland.

1570. Bull of Pope Pius V. (Feb.) excommunicating Queen Elizabeth and absolving her subjects from their allegiance.

1572. Massacre of St. Bartholomew.

Execution of the Duke of

Norfolk. Burghley, Lord Treasurer.

1579. Desmond rebellion in Ireland, fostered by Spain and the Pope; suppressed by 1583, and Munster colonised..

1580. Jesuit mission to England under Campion and Parsons. 1581. Alençon visits England; public protests against the marriage. 1583. Whitgift, Archbishop of Canterbury. The High Commission. Court established on a permanent footing.

1584. Throckmorton's conspiracy. Association to protect the Queen. Assassination of the Prince of Orange.

1586. Whitgift's "Star Chamber Decree" (Jan.) for censoring the press. Babington's conspiracy. Death of Sir Philip Sidney.

1587. Execution of Mary, Queen of Scots.

1588. Defeat of the Spanish Armada. Death of Leicester.

"Martin

Marprelate" attacks on Whitgift and episcopacy (continued in 1889).

1589. Death of Catherine de' Medici. Henry of Navarre, King of

France.

593

2 Q

1590. Death of Walsingham.

1591. Essex takes a force to France to assist Henry IV. 1595. Tyrone in open rebellion in Ireland.

1596. Expedition, led by Essex, to Cadiz. Robert Cecil, Secretary. 1598. Death of Burghley. Death of Philip of Spain (reign from 1556). Defeat of an English force at the Blackwater by Tyrone; rising in Munster.

1599. Essex takes command in Ireland against Tyrone; fails, and returns without leave; is succeeded by Mountjoy.

of Spenser.

1601. Abortive rising of Essex in London; his execution.

Death

1603. Submission of Tyrone. Death of Queen Elizabeth (March).

Accession of James I.
imprisoned in the Tower.

1611. Colonisation of Ulster.

Ralegh sentenced to death and
Robert Cecil, Secretary.

1612. Death of Salisbury (Robert Cecil).

Death of

1616. Fall of Somerset (Robert Carr) as the King's favourite, and rise of George Villiers (Buckingham). Shakespeare.

1618. Execution of Ralegh.

1621. Impeachment and fall of Bacon (Viscount St. Albans).

1623. First folio of Shakespeare's plays published.

1625. Death of King James. Accession of Charles I. 1626. Death of Bacon.

Francis Bacon, b. Jan. 1561; at Trinity College, Cambridge, with his brother Anthony, 1573-1575; formally admitted to Gray's Inn, June 1576; went to France on the embassy of Sir Amias Paulet, 1576 (probably September); his portrait painted by Hilliard in his eighteenth year (possibly when he was on a visit to England); travelled with the Court in France (he alludes to his being at Poitiers); returned to England on the death of his father, March 1579; first surviving letter dated from Gray's Inn, 11th July 1580. Solicitor-General, 1607; Attorney-General, 1613; Privy Councillor, 1616; Lord Keeper, 1617; Lord Chancellor, 1618; impeached and sentenced, 1621; died 1626.

Sir Nicholas Bacon, 1509-1579.

William Cecil, Lord Burghley, 1520–1598.

Sir Henry Sidney, 1529-1586.

Sir Francis Walsingham, 1530?-1590.

Robert Dudley, Earl of Leicester, 1532?-1588.

Sir Walter Ralegh, 1552 ?-1618.

Sir Philip Sidney, 1554-1586.

Sir Robert Cecil, Viscount Cranborne, and Earl of Salisbury, 1563 ?—

1612.