That’s kind of you. Let me present my friends. This is young Fletcher, the poet, and Burbage whom you know, and Master Shakespeare, the best playwright of us all. And this, gentlemen, is Master Francis Bacon, the great philosopher.
Shakespeare:
And friend to my lord of Essex.
Bacon:
[Turning to Shakespeare.] Yes: do you know the Earl?
Shakespeare:
By the kindness of Lord Southampton, so far as a poor poet may.
Jonson:
He’ll win Lord Burghley’s place or fall to ruin. But I fear his violence and wild courses.
Bacon: