BACON'S ESSAYS, BY MARKBY.
(Continued from Vol. viii., p. 144.)
Essay XXIX. Of the true Greatness of Kingdoms.—
"The speech of Themistocles.">[ See Plut. Them. 2., Cimon, 9.
"Negotiis pares.">[ An expression of Tacitus. In Ann. vi. 39., he says of Poppæus Sabinus: "Maximis provinciis per quatuor et viginti annos impositus; nullam ob eximiam artem, sed quod par negotiis neque supra erat." Again, in Ann. xvi. 18. of C. Petronius: "Proconsul Bithyniæ, et mox consul, vigentem se ac parem negotiis ostendit."
"As Virgil saith, 'It never troubles the wolf how many the sheep be.'">[ Lord Bacon, as Mr. Markby observes, evidently alludes to the following verses of Eclogue vii.:
"Hic tantum Boreæ curamus frigora, quantum
Aut numerum lupus, aut torrentia flumina ripas."
The meaning is, however, doubtless correctly explained by Heyne: "Ut numerato pecori parcat." "Quia solam considerat lupus prædam," says Servius. The sense of the passage is, that after the shepherd has "told his tale," after he has counted his sheep, the wolf does not care how much he deranges the reckoning.
For the advice of Parmenio to attack Darius by night, and the refusal of Alexander to steal the victory, see Arrian, Exp. Alex. iii. 10.; Plut. Alex. 31., Curt. iv. 13.
"Neither is money the sinews of war, as it is trivially said.">[ "Nervi belli, pecunia infinita," Cic. Phil. v. 2. Machiavel, like Bacon, questions the truth of this dictum, Disc. ii. 10.
"Solon said well to Crœsus (when in ostentation he showed him his gold), 'Sir, if any other come that hath better iron than you, he will be master of all this gold.'">[ This saying is not in Herodotus, or in Plutarch's Life of Solon. Query, In what ancient author is it to be found?
"Even as you may see in coppice-woods; if you leave your staddles too thick, you shall never have clean underwood, but shrubs and bushes.">[ The same illustration is used by Lord Bacon, in his History of Henry VII.: "Like to coppice-woods, that, if you leave in them staddles too thick, they will run to bushes and briars, and have little clean underwood" (vol. iii. p. 236., ed. Montagu). The word staddle means an uncut tree in a coppice, left to grow. Thus Tusser says, "Leave growing for staddles the likest and best." See Richardson in v., and Nares' Glossary in Staddle, where other meanings of the word are explained.
"The device of King Henry VII.">[ See Lord Bacon's History, ib. p. 234.
"Nay, it seemeth at this instant they [the Spaniards] are sensible of this want of natives; as by the Pragmatical Sanction, now published, appeareth.">[ To what law does Lord Bacon allude?
"Romulus, after his death (as they report or feign), sent a present to the Romans, that above all they should intend arms, and then they should prove the greatest empire of the world.">[ See Livy, i. 16., where Romulus is described as giving this message to Proculus Julius. A similar message is reported in Plut. Rom. 28.
"No man can by caretaking (as the Scripture saith) add a cubit to his stature.">[ See Matt. vi. 27.
Essay XXX. Of Regimen of Health.—See Antith., No. 4. vol. viii. p. 355.
Essay XXXI. Of Suspicion.—See Antith., No. 45. vol. viii. p. 377.
Essay XXXII. Of Discourse.—
"I knew two noblemen of the west part of England," &c.] Query, Who are the noblemen referred to?
Essay XXXIII. Of Plantations.—
"When the world was young it begat more children; but now it is old it begets fewer.">[ This idea is taken from the ancients. Thus Lucretius:
"Sed quia finem aliquam pariendi debet habere,
Destitit, ut mulier spatio defessa vetusto."
V. 823-4.
"Consider likewise, what commodities the soil where the plantation is doth naturally yield, that they may some way help to defray the charge of the plantation; so it be not, as was said, to the untimely prejudice of the main business, as it hath fared with tobacco in Virginia.">[ On the excessive cultivation of tobacco by the early colonists of Virginia, see Grahame's History of North America, vol. i. p. 67. King James's objection to tobacco is well known.
"But moil not too much underground.">[ This old word, for to toil, to labour, has now become provincial.
"In marish and unwholesome grounds.">[ Marish is here used in its original sense, as the adjective of mere. Spenser and Milton use it as a substantive; whence the word marsh.
"It is the guiltiness of blood of many commiserable persons.">[ No instance of the word commiserable is cited in the Dictionaries from any other writer than Bacon.
Essay XXXIV. Of Riches.—See Antith., No. 6. vol. viii. p. 356.
"In sudore vultûs alieni.">[ Gen. iii. 19.
"The fortune in being the first in an invention, or in a privilege, doth cause sometimes a wonderful overgrowth in riches, as it was with the first sugar-man in the Canaries.">[ When was the growth of sugar introduced into the Canaries? To what does Bacon allude? It does not appear that sugar is now grown in these islands; at least it is enumerated among their imports, and not among their exports.
Essay XXXV. Of Prophecies.—
"Henry VI. of England said of Henry VII., when he was a lad and gave him water, 'This is the lad that shall enjoy the crown for which we strive.'">[ Query, Is this speech reported by any earlier writer?
"When I was in France I heard from one Dr. Pena, that the queen-mother, who was given to curious arts, caused the king her husband's nativity to be calculated under a false name, and the astrologer gave a judgment that he should be killed in a duel; at which the queen laughed, thinking her husband to be above challenges and duels; but he was slain upon a course at tilt, the splinters of the staff of Montgomery going in at his beaver.">[ The king here alluded to is Henri II., who was killed at a tournament in 1559; his queen was Catherine de Medici. Bacon's visit to France was in 1576-9 (Life, by Montagu, p. xvi.), during the reign of Henri III., when Catherine of Medici was queen-mother. Query, Is this prophecy mentioned in any French writer?
"Octogesimus octavus mirabilis annus." Concerning the prophecy which contained this verse, see Bayle, Dict., art. Stofler, note E: art. Bruschius, note E.
Essay XXXVII. Of Masques and Triumphs.—
"The colours that show best by candlelight are white, carnation, and a kind of sea-water green; and oes, or spangs, as they are of no great cost, so they are of most glory." Mr. Markby says that Montagu and Spiers take the liberty of altering the word oes to ouches. Halliwell, in his Dictionary, explains oes to mean eyes, citing one manuscript example. This would agree tolerably with the sense of the passage before us. Ouches would mean jewels.
Essay XXXVIII. Of Nature in Men.—See Antith., No. 10. vol. viii. p. 459.
"Optimus ille animi vindex," &c.] "Ille fuit vindex" in Ovid.
"Like as it was with Æsop's damsel, turned from a cat to a woman.">[ See Babrius, Fab. 32.
"Otherwise they may say, 'Multum incola fuit anima mea.'" Whence are these words borrowed?
Essay XXXIX. Of Custom and Education.—See Antith., No. 10. vol. viii. p. 359.
"Only superstition is now so well advanced, that men of the first blood are as firm as butchers by occupation, and votary resolution is made equipollent to custom, even in matter of blood.">[ This is an allusion to the Gunpowder Plot.
"The Indian wives strive to be burnt with the corpse of their husbands.">[ The practice of suttee is of great antiquity. See Strabo, xv. 1. § 30. 62.; Val. Max. ii. 6. 14.
"The lads of Sparta, of ancient time, were wont to be scourged upon the altar of Diana, without so much as queching.">[ To queche here means to squeak.
"Late learners cannot so well take the ply.">[ To take the ply is to bend according to the pressure; to be flexible and docile under instruction.
Essay XL. Of Fortune.—See Antith., No. 11. vol. viii. p. 359.
"Serpens, nisi serpentem comederit, non fit draco.">[ What is the origin of this saying?
The character of Cato the elder, cited from Livy, is in xxxix. 40.; but the words are quoted memoriter, and do not agree exactly with the original.
For the anecdote of Timotheus, see "N. & Q.," Vol. vii., p. 493.
Essay XLII. Of Youth and Age.—See Antith., No. 3. vol. viii. p. 355.
"Hermogenes the rhetorician, whose books are exceedingly subtle, who afterwards waxed stupid.">[ Hermogenes of Tarsus, who lived in the reign of Marcus Aurelius, wrote some able rhetorical works while he was still a young man; but at the age of twenty-five fell into a state of mental imbecility, from which he never recovered.
"Scipio Africanus, of whom Livy saith in elect, 'Ultima primis cedebant.'">[ The allusion is to Ovid, Heroid. ix. 23-4.:
"Cœpisti melius quam desinis: ultima primis
Cedunt: dissimiles hic vir et ille puer."
Essay XLIII. Of Beauty.—See Antith., No. 2. vol. viii. p. 354.
"A man cannot tell whether Apelles or Albert Durer were the more trifler; whereof the one would make a personage by geometrical proportions, the other by taking the best parts out of divers faces to make one excellent.">[ With regard to Apelles, Lord Bacon probably alludes to the story of Zeuxis in Cic. De Inv. ii. 1.
"Pulcrorum autumnus pulcher.">[ Query, What is the source of this quotation?
Essay XLVI. Of Gardens.—
Many of the names of plants in this Essay require illustration. Gennitings appear to be broom, from genista; quodlins are codlings, a species of apple; wardens are a species of pear, concerning which see Hudson's Domestic Architecture of the Thirteenth Century, p. 137. Bullaces are explained by Halliwell to be a small black and tartish plum, growing wild in some parts of the country.
"My meaning is perceived, that you may have ver perpetuum, as the place affords.">[ The allusion, probably, is to Virgil, Georg. ii. 149.:
"Hic ver assiduum, atque alienis mensibus æstas."
"Little low hedges, round, like welts, with some pretty pyramids, I like well.">[ A welt was the turned-over edge of a garment.
"Abeunt studia in mores.">[ From Ovid's Epistle of Sappho to Phaon, Ep. xv. 83.
"Let him study the schoolmen, for they are cymini sectores.">[ The word κυμινοπρίστης is applied in Aristot., Eth. Nic. iv. 3., to a miserly person; one who saves cheeseparings and candle-ends.
Essay LII. Of Ceremonies and Respects.—See Antith., No. 34. vol. viii. p. 371.
"It doth much add to a man's reputation, and is (as Queen Isabella saith) like perpetual letters commendatory, to have good forms.">[ Query, Which Queen Isabella was the author of this saying?
Essay LIII. Of Praise.—See Antith., No. 10. vol. viii. p. 358.
"Pessimum genus inimicorum laudantium.">[ From Tacit. Agric. c. 41., where the words are: "Pessimum inimicorum genus, laudantes." Laudantium for laudantes in the text of Bacon is an error.
Essay LIV. Of Vain-glory.—See Antith., No. 19. vol. viii. p. 364.
Essay LVI. Of Judicature.—
"Judges ought to remember that their office is jus dicere, and not jus dare.">[ Compare Aph. 44. and 46., in the eighth book De Augmentis.
L.