What Bacon really said is this: “Afte’ her ascent to royale power, before my birth, a second nuptiall rite duly witness’d was observed, soe that I was borne in holy wedlocke” (p. 154). Mr. Lang’s opinion of what any other man might have said is quite immaterial.
A question of Bacon’s legitimacy would, without a doubt, have been raised; and as Leicester favoured his second son, Essex, this may account for the express wish to have the story openly told. Such questions were debated concerning more than one royal title in those days, but Bacon believed his birth in holy wedlock was sufficient legitimation. The mere fact that both Mary and Elizabeth succeeded to the throne, although one or the other was not strictly legitimate, would confirm this opinion, and the history of the founding of the line of Tudor involved the same question.
I regret that lack of space prevents a reference to some of Mr. Lang’s other remarks, which are equally subject to criticism and correction. Brander Matthews, in Pen and Ink, formulates “Twelve Rules for Reviewers,” that will, I am very sure, commend themselves to those who desire to make criticism of value. Had Mr. Lang followed any of these rules he would have written in a different manner and more to his own credit.
Mr. Schooling and the Cipher.
I can only say that with regard to Mr. Schooling as with thousands of others, defective vision or superficial examination is responsible for his criticism, for it culminates in the assertion, merely, that different founts of Italic type are not used in the books referred to, and that the work “can be regarded only as a phantasy of my imagining, wholly unworthy of credence.” I again assert, with that degree of positiveness which comes from a study of years, that the Italic types are from different founts and are used in the manner I have set forth. There is no room whatever for imagination in the work.
Mr. Schooling enters into particulars, and reports upon o's, n's, and p's in a few lines of small letters, and says “they are from the same fount, and the cipher, therefore, non-existent.” In this he is absolutely wrong. He makes no mention of the marked differences in the capitals, and, too, he should have studied the originals on many pages, as I have done, for in the photographic facsimiles of the book some of the distinctive features are lost. It is difficult to describe in words the particular lines in a drawing, and equally so those in several forms of type, but I will attempt to make the differences clear.
The Italics in Spenser.
Extending these examples of Mr. Schooling, take for illustration the Italics in the first lines of the selection from Spenser. The type is large and clear, and there are several letters so close together that comparisons can easily be made.
full Ladie the La Marie.
There are two captial L's. The serif of the first is curved, of the second straight. At the bottom, the horizontal of the first gradually thickens, and the small line at the end is nearly vertical, while the horizontal of the second is of even thickness and the small line slanting.