It is very easy, with little information as to Bacon's actions and little knowledge of the period, to form a definite opinion as to the relations of Bacon and Burghley. The more information as to the one and knowledge of the other one gets, the more difficult does it become to arrive at a satisfactory conclusion. Here was the son of Elizabeth's great Lord Keeper, the nephew of her trusted minister, himself from his boyhood a persona grata with the Queen, of brilliant parts and great wisdom—if he had been a mere place-hunter his desires could have been satisfied over and over again. There was some condition of circumstance, of which nothing has hitherto been known, which prevented him from obtaining the object of his desires. That he had a definite object, and had mapped out a course by which he hoped to achieve it, is evident from his letters[39] already quoted. It is equally clear that the course he sought to pursue entailed his abandoning the law as a profession. Either he would only have such place as he desired, and on his own terms, or he was known to be following some course which, although not distasteful to his close friends, caused him to be held in suspicion, if not distrust, by the courtiers with whom Elizabeth was surrounded. Every additional fact that comes to light seems to point to the truth being that through his life Burghley was Francis Bacon's staunch friend and supporter. Upon Sir Nicholas Bacon's death Burghley appears with Bodley to have been maintaining Bacon in his travels abroad. Upon his return to England Burghley gave him financial support in his great project. In 1591 there was a crisis—someone had been spending money for the past twelve years freely in making English literature. That cannot be gainsaid. Burghley appears to have pulled up and remonstrated; hence Bacon's letter containing the threat before referred to. It is significant that it was immediately after this letter was written that Bacon's association with Essex commenced. Bacon would take him and Southampton into his confidence and seek their help. Essex was just the man to respond with enthusiasm. Francis introduced Anthony to him. The services of the brothers were placed at his disposal, and he undertook to manage the Queen. The office of Attorney-General for Francis would meet the case. "It was dangerous in a factious age to have my Lord Essex his favour," says the biographer before quoted.[40]
That Burghley was favourable to his appointment as Attorney-General two letters written by Francis to Lord Keeper Puckering in 1594 testify. In the first Bacon writes: "I pray your Lordship to call to remembrance my Lord Treasurer's kind course, who affirmed directly all the rest to be unfit. And because vis unita fortior I beg your Lordship to take a time with the Queen when my Lord Treasurer is present."
In a second letter he writes: "I thought good to remember your good Lordship and to request you as I touched in my last that if my Lord Treasurer be absent your Lordship would forbear to fall into my business with her Majesty lest it mought receive some foil before the time when it should be resolutely dealt in."
Only Burghley was found to support Essex's advocacy, and on the whole this was not to be wondered at. Such an appointment, to say the least, would have been an experiment. Possibly Essex was the stumbling-block, but it may be that the real objection on the part of the Queen and her advisers was that Bacon was known to be so amorous of certain learned arts, so much given over to invention, that the consensus of opinion was that he was thereby unfitted to hold an important office of the State. Or it may be that he was discredited by his suspected or known association with certain printers. There was some reason of which no explanation can now be traced.
It has been suggested that in 1591 there was a crisis in Bacon's life. That is evident from the letter to Burghley written in that year. John Harrington's translation of "Orlando Furioso" was published about this time. The manuscript, which is in a perfect condition, is in the British Museum, and has been marked in Bacon's handwriting throughout. The pagination and the printer's signature are placed at the commencement of the stanzas to be printed on each page, and there are instructions to the printer at the end which are not in his hand.
There are good grounds for attributing the notes at the end of each chapter to Bacon.
It is very improbable that Sir John Harrington had the classical knowledge which the writer of these notes must have possessed. There is a letter written by him to Sir Amias Pawlett, dated January, 1606-7. He is relating an interview with King James, and says: "Then he (the king) enquyrede muche of lernynge and showede me his owne in such sorte as made me remember my examiner at Cambridge aforetyme. He soughte muche to knowe my advances in philosophie and utterede profounde sentences of Aristotle and such lyke wryters, whiche I had never reade and which some are bolde enoughe to saye others do not understand." It would be difficult to mention any classical author with whose works the writer of these notes was not familiar, or to believe that "Epigrams both Pleasant and Serious" (1615) came from the pen of that writer.
At the end of the thirty-seventh chapter the following note occurs: "It was because she (Porcia) wrote some verses in manner of an Epitaph upon her husband after his decease: In which kind, that honourable Ladie (widow of the late Lord John Russell) deserveth no lesse commendation, having done as much for two husbands. And whereas my author maketh so great bost only of one learned woman in Italie, I may compare (besides one above all comparison that I have noted in the twentith booke) three or foure in England out of one family, and namely the sisters of that learned Ladie, as witness that verse written by the meanest of the foure to the Ladie Burlie which I doubt if Cambridge or Oxford can mend."
| The four daughters of Sir Anthonie Cooke— Ladie Burlie, Ladie Russell, Lady Bacon, Mistress Killygrew. | Si mihi quem cupio cures Mildreda remitti Tu bona, tu melior, tu mihi sola soror; Sin mali cessando retines, & trans mare mittis, Tu mala, tu peior, tu mihi nulla soror. Is si Cornubiam, tibi pax sit & omnia læta, Sin mare Ceciliæ nuncio bella. Vale.[41] | She wrote
to Lady Burlie to send a kinsman of hers into Cornwall, where she dwelt, and to stop his going beyond sea. |