:: Bacon's Dictionary Part 3E ::

Earliest notice of drama According to Matthew Paris, the story of St. Catherine was dramatized about the commencement of the twelfth century, by one Geoffrey, a learned Norman then in England, in a play which was acted at Dunstable at that period. This is the earliest notice of the drama in Britain which has been discovered. 1 This Geoffrey was Geoffrey de Gorham, a bishop of St. Albans, who built Gorhambury Abbey, and from which Bacon’s seat and park borrowed its name. In fact, the earliest notice of the drama in England takes us to Temple House, Bacon’s home, built within a stone’s throw of the site of Geoffrey de Gorham’s Abbey.

Elizabethan grammar Elizabethan English, on a superficial view, appears to present this great point of difference from the English of modern times, that in the former any irregularities whatever, whether in the formation of words or in the combination of words into sentences, are allowable. In the first place, almost any part of speech can be used as any other part of speech. An adverb can be used as a verb, “They askance their eyes”; as a noun, “the backward and abysm of time”; or as an adjective, “a seldom pleasure.” Any noun, adjective, or neuter verb can be used as an active verb. You can “happy” your friend, “malice” or “foot” your enemy, or “fall” an axe on his neck. An adjective can be used as an adverb; and you can speak and act “easy,” “free,” “excellent:” or as a noun, and you can talk of “fair” instead of “beauty,” and “a pale” instead of “a paleness.” Even the pronouns are not exempt from these metamorphoses. A “he” is used for a man, and a lady is described by a gentleman as “the fairest she he has yet beheld.”
Every variety of apparent grammatical inaccuracy meets us. He for him, him for he; spoke and took, for spoken and taken; plural nominatives with singular verbs; relatives omitted where they are now considered necessary; unnecessary antecedents inserted; shall for will, should for would, would for wish; to omitted after “I ought” inserted after “I durst;” double negatives; double comparatives (“more better.”) and superlatives; such followed by which, that by as, as used for as if; that for so that; and lastly, some verbs apparently with two nominatives, and others without any nominative at all. To this long list of irregularities it may be added that many words, and particularly prepositions and the infinitives of verbs, are used in a different sense from the modern. On a more careful examination, however, these apparently disorderly and inexplicable anomalies will arrange themselves under certain heads. It must be remembered that the Elizabethan was a transitional period in the history of the English language. On the one hand, there was the influx of new discoveries and new thoughts requiring as their equivalent the coinage of new words (especially words expressive of abstract ideas); on the other hand, the revival of classical studies and the popularity of translations from Latin and Greek authors suggested Latin and Greek words (but principally Latin) as the readiest and most malleable metal, or rather as so many ready-made coins requiring only a slight national stamp to prepare them for the proposed augmentation of the currency of the language. Moreover, the long and rounded periods of the ancients commended themselves to the ear of the Elizabethan authors. In the attempt to conform English to the Latin frame, the constructive power of the former language was severely strained. The necessity of avoiding ambiguity and the difficulty of connecting the end of a long sentence with the beginning, gave rise to some irregularities, to the redundant pronoun, the redundant “that”, and the irregular “to”.
But, for the most part, the influence of the classical languages was confined to single words, and to the rhythm of the sentence. The syntax was mostly English both in its origin and its development, and several constructions that are now called anomalous (such as the double negative and the double comparative have, and had from the earliest period, an independent existence in English, and are merely the natural results of a spirit which preferred clearness and vigour of expression to logical symmetry. Many of the anomalies above mentioned may be traced back to some peculiarities of Early English, modified by the transitional Elizabethan period. Above all, it must be remembered that Early English was far richer than Elizabethan English in inflections. As far as English inflections are concerned the Elizabethan period was destructive rather than constructive. Naturally, therefore, while inflections were being discarded, all sorts of tentative experiments were made: some inflections were discarded that we have restored, others retained that we have discarded. Again, sometimes where inflections were retained the sense of their meaning and power had been lost, and at other times the memory of inflections that were no longer visibly expressed in writing still influenced the manner of expression.
“The persons plural keep the termination of the first person singular. In former times, till about the reign of King Henry VIII., they were wont to be formed by adding en thus: Loven, sayen, complainen. But now (whatsoever is the cause) it is quite grown out of use, and that other so generally prevailed that I dare not presume to set this on foot again.” (Jonson). He appears to be aware of the Midland plural in en which is found only very rarely in Spenser and in Pericles of Tyre, but not of the Northern plural in es, which is very frequently found in Shakespeare, and which presents the apparent anomaly of a plural noun combined with a singular verb. And the same author does not seem to be aware of the existence of the subjunctive mood in English. He ignores it in his Etymology of a Verb, and, in the chapter on “Syntax of a Verb with a Noun,” writes as follows: “Nouns signifying a multitude, though they be of the singular number, require a verb plural. This exception is in other nouns also very common, especially when the verb is joined to an adverb or conjunction: It is preposterous to execute a man before he have been condemned. It would appear hence that the dramatist was ignorant of the force of the inflection of the subjunctive, though he frequently uses it.” Adjectives were freely used as Adverbs. In Early English, many adverbs were formed from adjectives by adding e (dative) to the positive degree: as bright, adj; brighte, adv. In time the e was dropped, but the adverbial use was kept. Hence, from a false analogy, many adjectives (such as excellent) which could never form adverbs in e, were used as adverbs. (Abbott). 3

Elizabethan Inns There were five great Inns, or common osteryes, turned to play-houses more famous than the rest, which were regularly used by the best London troupes within London and the suburbs. These five were the Bell and the Cross Keys, hard by each other in Gracechurch Street; the Bull in Bishopsgate Street; the Bell Savage on Ludgate Hill, and the Boar’s Head in Whitechapel Street without Aldgate. 4 Soon after 1580, the authorities of London received permission from Elizabeth and her Privy Council to thrust the players out of the city, and to pull down all playhouses and dicing-houses within their liberties: which accordingly was effected; and the playhouses in Gracious Street, the Bell and the Cross Keys, Bishopsgate Street, the Bull, that nigh Paul’s, that on Ludgate Hill, the Bell Savage, and the Whitefriars were quite put down and suppressed by the care of these religious senators. 5 On September 5, 1557 the Privy Council instructed the Lord Mayor of London that some of his officers do forthwith repair to the Boar’s Head without Aldgate, where, the Lords are informed, a lewd play called A Sackful of News shall be played this day, and to arrest the players, and send their playbook to the Council. During the year 1573 there were various fencing contests held at the Bull in Bishopsgate; an area that in 1594 Anthony Bacon resigned to in his final days. 6
And of Taine’s description of the play-houses in Bacon’s time: “Great and rude contrivances, awkward in their construction, barbarous in their appointments; but a fervid imagination supplied all that they lacked, and hardy bodies endured all inconveniences without difficulty. On a dirty site, on the banks of the Thames, rose the principal theatre, the Globe, a sort of hexagonal tower, surrounded by a muddy ditch, on which was hoisted a red flag. The common people could enter as well as the rich; there were six-penny, two-penny, even penny seats; but they could not see it without money. If it rained, and it often rains in London, the people in the pit: butchers, mercers, bakers, sailors, apprentices, received the streaming rain upon their heads. I suppose they did not trouble themselves about it; it was not so long since they began to pave the streets of London, and when men, like these, have had experience of sewers and puddles, they are not afraid of catching cold. While waiting for the piece, they amuse themselves after their fashion, drink beer, crack nuts, eat fruits, howl, and now and then resort to their fists; they have been known to fall upon the actors, and turn the theatre upside down. At other times, when they were dissatisfied, they went to the tavern, to give the poet a hiding, or toss him in a blanket. When the beer took effect, there was a great upturned barrel in the pit, a peculiar receptacle for general use. The smell rises, and then comes the cry, “Burn the huniper!” They burn some in a plate on the stage, and the heavy smoke fills the air. Certainly the folk there assembled could scarcely get disgusted at anything, and cannot have had sensitive noses.”
In the time of Rabelais there was not much cleanliness to speak of. Remember that they were hardly out of the Middle Ages, and that in the Middle Ages man lived on a dunghill. A noted cut-purse, such a one as is tied to a post on the stage, for all people to wonder at, when at a play they are taken pilfring. 7 Above them, on the stage, were the spectators able to pay a shilling, the elegant people, the gentlefolk. These were sheltered from the rain, and, if they chose to pay an extra shilling, could have a stool. To this were reduced the prerogatives of rank and devises of comfort; it often happened that there were not stools enough; then they lie down on the ground; this was not a time to be dainty. They play cards, smoke, insult the pit who give it them back without stinting, and throw apples at them into the bargain.” The scene is not much different than how Victorian spectators occupied their theatres, “crowded to suffocation. Some boys stand on the broad wooden banisters; jump on each others’ backs to obtain a good place. The walls echo with shouts and whistles. ‘Silence! Ord-a-a-r!’ A child jabs his way up into the crowd, jumps up on to the shoulders of those before him and disappears into the body of the gallery. At the foot of the staircase stands a group of boys that beg for return theatre checks. Girls’ bonnets hang over an iron railing in front. Lads in the back seats pitch orange peel and nutshells into them. A good aim is rewarded with a shout of laughter. The orchestra begins to play. It’s impossible to hear a note of music. A fight begins and every one rises whistling and shouting. A stamping of feet; ‘Silence! Ord-a-a-r!’ (Lochithea). 8

Elizabethan letters The Elizabethan was a letter writing age, and people for the most part preserved their correspondence, unless there came to be a risk in keeping it, when they promptly put it out of reach of a Privy Council Warrant, and its search officer. For some such cause Anthony Bacon must have destroyed the concluding portion of his papers, and for an equally good reason his brother Francis made away with his stage correspondence. He was good at suppressing awkward matters, such as the nature of his wife’s misconduct, and his scrivenery business; of which, oddly enough, the only record under his hand also exists in the Lambeth Palace collection. Yet he kept it going till 1609, and even touted for work for it, though then a rich man. Some one seems to have hinted this last to Spedding, but he brushed the suggestion aside. Yet, had he coupled it with the letter to Anthony in 1594, on which he never comments at all, he would have been very near the discovery which, in abler hands, may yet have more to tell us. So great was Bacon’s ascendancy over the minds of men, that those who knew both secrets, the stage and the Scrivenery, dared only refer to it with bated breath. The Liege spy wrote it to the Cecils, but they kept it dark; even the unhappy Essex, when denouncing the Bacons as his betrayers, dared say no more than “they play me on the stage and now they print me.” The Queen knew well enough whom he alluded to. (Spedding).
Both the Bacons impecunious, running a public scrivenery in touch with the stage and its actors, for which Essex paid, and horribly afraid of their termagant mother who sat upon them like a conscience. Anthony Bacon received all the letters, deciphered and had them fair-copied, then forwarded them, usually through Bacon, to Essex, who returned instructions from which Anthony framed, enciphered and dispatched the replies. The Scrivenery was in full work on November 15, 1593 as on that day Essex sent one Lawson to Twickenham with letters to be deciphered and returned. Essex was never intrusted with the cipher of which there are specimens on the Bacon MSS., at Lambeth Palace Library. (Thorpe). We can ask this question at this point: How did Shaksper live, and get on so well, as in five years to be Jack Factotum, a position needing at all events good clothes, which cost money in those days? All his biographers give it up, Halliwell-Phillipps only noting the sudden access of affluence in 1602 (which the writer holds to have been money paid him by Bacon when he received £1,200 for Catesby’s fine). There is but one road which, with luck, in those days got a man off the ground, and sometimes made a man to sit with Princes, even with the Princes of the people. There is prima facie no other way than gambling to account for the actor’s rise from worse than nothing; from being a young butcher wanted for deer-stealing, to burgess, landholder, and country gentleman with coat armour. Will anyone at this point offer a better solution? One and only admission by the great philosopher Bacon under his own hand of his connection and personal intimacy with the Lord Chamberlain’s Company of Players, of which Shaksper was Actor-Manager-factotum. “Gray’s Inn was much bounden to them”; the actors are almost treated as equals, if not more. [Also see Gray’s Inn revels].

Elizabethan London The leading feature of Elizabethan London was that it was a great port. William Camden writing in his Britannia remarked that the Thames, by its safe and deep channel, was able to entertain the greatest ships in existence daily bringing in so great riches from all parts, “that it striveth at this day with the Mart-townes of Christendome for the second prise, and affoordeth a most sure and beautiful Roade for shipping”. (Holland). [See Appendices Elizabethan London.]

Elizabethan merits Francis Bacon is described to have been of the middling stature; his forehead spacious and open, but from the cast of his disposition and intenseness of mental application, early impressed with the characters of age; his eyes lively and penetrating; and his whole appearance generally pleasing, he had the air of a good man, and soon acquired, with those who knew him, the estimation due to a great man. His conversation was various, always adapted to times and persons, and distinguished for facility and propriety. These Excellencies accompanied him into public, where the natural dignity of his aspect, and the gracefulness of his elocution, irresistibly commanded the attention and sympathies of his hearers. One of those extraordinary beings who are alike gifted with the eloquence of the pen and of the tongue, whether he applied his powers to private entertainment, or the instruction and persuasion of society, he could not fail to obtain an uncommon portion of admiration and esteem. 9 [See Appendices Elizabethan merits.]

Elizabethan Privy Council The smaller Council that could provide advice to the monarch at all times. The idea was revived by Cromwell in the 1530’s, although Henry VII., had worked to reduce the size of the Royal Council in his reign as well (but it was not formalized, as it was under Henry VIII.,) The size of the Council fluctuated during the reigns of the rest of the Tudors.

Elizabethan writs Elizabethan poetry, Elizabethan novels, Elizabethan pamphlets, Elizabethan translations, Elizabethan chronicles, and Elizabethan plays were all operations of a common creative organism in which intellect and imagination were the equally vital motive forces. Moreover, Elizabethan literature was not precisely confined to the reign of Elizabeth (1558-1603); nor was the Jacobean literature which followed born at the accession of James I. Elizabethan and Jacobean were for the most part one literature, a number of the writers being active in both reigns. Nevertheless, as the Elizabethan impulse of imaginative freedom lessened, there developed that formal intellectualism which appears as the distinguishing Jacobean characteristic in literature. So far as such a distinction can be made, Shakespeare is the typical Elizabethan and Ben Jonson the typical Jacobean.

1 Halliwell-Phillipps. Outlines of Shakespeare’s Life, p. 321

2 Ernest Law. Some Supposed Forgeries, 1911

3 Abbott E.A. A Shakespearean Grammar, 1870

4 Howes in continuation of Stow’s Annals p. 1004

5 Richard Reulidge. A Monster Lately Found Out and Discovered, 1628

6 All we have of Anthony’s final days is his residence that was in Crotched Friars and shared with his servant, William Lawson. This fact very much disturbed his good mother, who feared lest his servants might be corrupted by the plays to be seen at the Bull near by

7 Kemp’s Nine Daies Wonder, 1600

8 Lochithea. Arrow to the Moon, 2004

9 P.L.C. Francis Bacon’s Verulamiana, 1803

10 Maurice Jonas. Shakespeare and the Stage, 1918

Emblematum Liber By Andrea Alciati (1492–1550). Without Alciati’s Emblematum liber one lacks an essential key to the once easily read meanings attached to many of the greatest artworks produced from the sixteenth century through the eighteenth century. The practice of composing moralizing maxims goes back at least to the sixth century, when Aesop assembled a collection of three hundred and fifty-eight folk-wisdom tales, The Fables, told to highlight human follies and foibles; according to his simple two-part formula, he would first relate an anecdote about an unfortunate animal encounter, then he would add a succinct moral injunction for the human reader. Everything that exists necessarily points to a meaning lying beyond any given res. [the thing itself]. Since each natural res contains potential meaning, it simultaneously becomes a res significans. “Every creature and object in the world is like a book providing a picture and mirror of ourselves.” 11,12 In order that the invention, or impresa, may have a pleasing grace, it is obligatory that it conforms to five conditions:

First, there must be established a just proportion between the soul [motto] and the body [image].
Second, its meaning must not be so obscure that it is necessary to call upon the Sibyl in order to interpret it; however, neither should its meaning be so transparent that any common person might understand it.
Third, above all it must have a handsome appearance, with this appearing delightful and most attractive, it being accompanied by stars, suns, moons, flames, waters, trees, mechanical instruments, fantastic animals and birds.
The fourth condition is that it is not suitable that any human figure should appear therein.
The fifth condition is that the motto, which is its soul, should be stated in a different language from that of the author of the device, so that its sentiments should be somewhat more concealed. 13

In Alciati’s De Verborum signficatione published in 1530: “Words indicate; things are indicated. But things can also indicate, for example as in the Hieroglyphics of Horapollo. Working from their arguments, we have also written a book in verse with the title Emblemata.” It is a fact that Alciati propagated the word emblem throughout sixteenth century Europe and Francesco Colonna used the word emblematura to signify mosaic work in his Hypnerotomachia in 1499. [Also see Part II: Alciati Andrea.]

Emblem writers

(H.) Parthenia Sacra, of the Mysterious and Delicious Garden of the Sacred Parthenis: Symbolically set forth and enriched with Pious Devises and Emblems for the entertainment of devout Soules, &c. By H. A. Plates. 8vo. Printed by John Cousturier, 1633.
Abricht (John A. M.). Divine Emblems. Embellished with Etchings of Copper after the fashion of Master Francis Quarles. 12mo. Lond. 1838.
Arwaker (Edmund). Pia Desideria, or Divine Addresses in Three Books. With 47 Copper Plates by Sturt. 8vo. Lond. 1686.
Ashrea: or the Grove of Beatitudes. Represented in Emblemes: and by the Art of Memory to be read on our Blessed Saviour Crucified, &c. 12mo. Lond. 1665.
Astry (Sir James). The Royal Politician represented in One Hundred Emblems. Written in Spanish by Don Diego Saavedra Faxardo, &c. Done into English from the Original. By Sir James Astry. In Two Vols. With Portrait of William Duke of Gloucester, and other Plates. 8vo. Lond. 1700. Printed for Matthew Gylliflower.
Ayres (Philip). Emblemata Amatoria. Emblems of Love in Four Languages. Dedicated to the Ladys. By Ph. Ayres, Esq. With 44 Plates on Copper. 8vo. Lond. 1683.
Barclay (Alexander). The Ship of Fooles, wherein is shewed the folly of all States, &c. Translated out of Latin into English. With numerous Woodcuts. Imprinted by John Cawood. Folio, bl. letter, Lond. 1570.
Blount (Thomas). The Art of making Devises: treating of Hieroglyphicks, Symboles, Emblemes, Ænigmas, &c. Translated from the French of Henry Estienne. 4to. Lond. 1646.
Bunyan (John). Emblems by J. Bunyan. A copy is found in one of Lilly’s Catalogues.
Burton (R.). Choice Emblems, Divine and Moral, Ancient and Modern; or Delights for the Ingenious in above Fifty Select Emblems, Curiously Ingraven upon Copper Plates. With engraved Frontispiece, &c. 12mo. Lond. 1721. Printed for Edmund Parker.
Castanoza (John). The Spiritual Conflict, or The Arraignment of the Spirit of Selfe-Love and Sensuality at the Barre of Truth and Reason. First published in Spanish by the Reverend Father John.
Castanoza, afterwards put into the Latin, Italian, German, French, and English Languages. With numerous Engravings. 12mo. at Paris, 1652.
Choice Emblems, Natural, Historical, Fabulous, Moral, and Divine. 12mo. Lond. 1772.
Colman (W.). La Dance Machabre, or Death’s Duell, by W. C. With engraved Frontispiece by Cecil, and Plate. 8vo. Lond. 1631.
Compendious Emblematist; or Writing and Drawing made easy. With many Plates. 4to. Lond.
Emblems Divine, Moral, Natural, and Historical, Expressed in Sculpture, and applied to the several Ages, Occasions, and Conditions of the Life of Man. By a Person of Quality. With Woodcut Engravings and Metrical Illustrations. 8vo. Lond. 1673. Printed by J. C. for Will. Miller.
Emblems for the Entertainment and Improvement of Youth, with Explanations, on 62 Copper Plates. White Knights. 8vo. n. d., Part I.
Emblems of Mortality. With Holbein’s Cuts of the Dance of Death, modernized and engraved by Bewick. Three Editions. 8vo. Lond. 1789.
Farlie (Robert). Lychnocausia, sive Moralia Facum Emblemata. Lights Morall Emblems. Kalendarium Humanæ Vitæ. The Kalendar of Man’s Life. With Frontispiece and numerous Woodcuts. 8vo. Lond. 1638.
Fransi (Abrahami). Insignium Armorum Emblematum Hieroglyphicorum et Symbolorum Explicatio. No Plates. 4to. Lond. 1588.
G. (H.). The Mirrour of Majestie: or the Badges of Honour conceitedly emblazoned. With Emblems annexed. 4to. 1618. This is the rarest of the English series; only two copies known, one perfect and another imperfect.
Gent (Thomas). Divine Entertainments; of Penitential Desires, Sighs, and Groans of the Wounded Soul. In Two Books, adorned with suitable Cuts. In Verse. With numerous Woodcuts. 12mo. Lond. 1724.
Hall (John). Emblems, with elegant Figures newly published. Sparkles of Divine Love. Engraved Frontispiece and Plates. 12mo. Lond. 1648.
Heywood (Thomas). Pleasant Dialogues and Dramas, selected out of Lucian, &c. With sundry Emblems, extracted from the most elegant Iacobus Catsius, &c. 8vo. Lond. 1637. No Plates.
Jenner (Thomas). The Soules Solace; or Thirtie and one Spirituall Emblems. With Plates on Copper, and Verses. 4to. Lond. 1631.
The Ages of Sin, of Sinnes Birth and Growth. With the Steppes and Degrees of Sin, from Thought to finall Impenitence. Nine leaves containing nine emblematical engravings, each with six metrical lines beneath. 4to. No printer’s name, place, or date.
A Work for none but Angels and Men, that is, to be able to look into, and to know themselves, &c. It contains eight Engravings emblematic of the Senses, and is in fact Sir John Davis’ poem on the Immortality of the Soul turned into prose. 4to. Lond. 1650. Printed by M. S. for Thomas Jenner.
Wonderful and Strange Punishments inflicted on the Breakers of the Ten Commandments. With curious Plates. 4to. Lond. 1650.
Montenay (Georgette de). A Booke of Armes, or Remembrance: wherein are a hundred Godly Emblemata; first invented and elaborated in the French Tongue, but now in severall Languages. With Plates. 8vo. Franckfort. 1619.
Murray (Rev. T. B.). An Alphabet of Emblems. With neatly executed Woodcuts. 12mo. Lond. 1844.
Peacham (Henry). Minerva Britannia, or, A Garden of Heroickall Devises, furnished and adorned with Emblemes and Impressas, &c. Numerous Woodcuts. 4to. Lond. n. d. (1612.)
Protestant’s (The) Vade Mecum, or Popery Displayed in its proper Colours, in Thirty Emblems, lively representing all the Jesuitical Plots against this Nation. With thirty engraved Emblems on copper. 8vo. Lond. 1680. Printed for Daniel Brown.
Quarles (Francis). Emblemes by Fra. Quarles. The First Edition. With Plates by W. Marshall and others. Rare. 8vo. Lond. 1635. Printed by G. M. at John Marriott’s.
Hieroglyphickes of the Life of Man, by Fra. Quarles. In a Series of engraved Emblems on Copper by Will. Marshall. With Verses. 8vo. Lond. 1638. Printed by M. Flesher.
Richardson (George). Iconology; or a Collection of Emblematical Figures, Moral and Instructive. In Two Volumes. With Plates. 4to. Lond. 1777–79.
Riley (George). Emblems for Youth. Reprinted in 1775, and again in 1779. 12mo. Lond. 1772.
Ripa (Cæsar). Iconologia; or Morall Emblems. Wherein are express’d various Images of Virtues, Vices, &c. Illustrated with 326 Human Figures engraved on Copper. By the care and charge of P. Tempest. 4to. Lond. 1709.
S. (P.) The Heroical Devises of M. Claudius Paradin, Canon of Beauvieu. Whereunto are added the Lord Gabriel Symons and others. Translated out of Latin into English by P. S. With Woodcuts. 16mo. Lond. 1591. Imprinted by William Kearney.
Stirry (Thomas). A Rot among the Bishops, or a terrible Tempest in the Sea of Canterbury, a Poem with lively Emblems. A Satire against Archbishop Laud. With Four Wood Engravings. Rare. 8vo. Lond. 1641.
Thurston (J.). Religious Emblems; being a Series of Engravings on Wood, from the Designs of J. Thurston, with Descriptions by the Rev. J. Thomas. 4to. Lond. 1810.
Vicars (John). A Sight of ye Transactions of these latter Yeares Emblemized with engraven Plates, which men may read without Spectacles. Collected by John Vicars. With Engravings of Copper. 4to. Lond. n. d., are to be sold by Thomas Jenner at his shop.
Prodigies and Apparitions, or England’s Warning Pieces. Being a seasonable Description by lively figures and apt illustrations of many remarkable and prodigious forerunners and apparent Predictions of God’s Wrath against England, if not timely prevented by true Repentance. Written by J. V. With curious Frontispiece and six other Plates. 8vo. Lond. n. d., are to bee sould by Tho. Bates.
Whitney (Geoffrey). A Choice of Emblems and other Devises. Englished and Moralized by Geoffrey Whitney. With numerous Woodcuts. 4to. Leyden, 1586. Imprinted at Leyden in the house of Christopher, by Grancis Raphalengius.
Willet (Andrew). Sacrorum Emblematum Centuria Una quæ tam ad exemplum aptè expressa sunt, &c. No Plates. 4to. Cantabr. n. d. (1598).
Wither (George). A Collection of Emblems, Ancient and Moderne: Quickened with Metricall Illustrations both Morall and Divine. The Plates, 200 in number, were engraved by Crispin Pass. Folio, Lond. 1635. Printed by A. M. for Henry Taunton.
Wynne (John Huddlestone). Choice Emblems for the Improvement of Youth. Plates. 12mo. Lond. 1772.

England’s Helicon The first English anthology, known as Tottel’s Miscellany, 14 was published in 1557 and reached an eighth edition in 1587. Surrey and Wyatt were represented most largely; and among the other contributors were Sir Francis Bryan, Lord Vaux, Nicholas Grimoald, John Heywood, and Tom Churchyard. Michael Drayton in his admirable epistle to Henry Reynolds alludes, in terms of genial appreciation, to “those small poems which published were of Songs and Sonnets, wherein oft they hit on many dainty passages of wit.” Master Slender, 15 it will be remembered, was a diligent reader of the old anthology. In 1576 appeared The Paradise of Dainty Devices, which passed through eight editions in twenty-four years. The editor (and largest contributor) was Richard Edwards, a scholar and courtier, author of an unreadable old play, Damon and Pythias, 1571. Among the contributors were Edward Vere Earl of Oxford, Lord Vaux, W. Hunnis, John Heywood, and Francis Kindlemarsh (or Kinwelmersh). There is good poetry in the collection, but the quality varies considerably. [For the other anthologies and the history on England’s Helicon, see Appendices.]

England’s Parnassus A work entered on the Stationers’ Register on October 2, 1600; “entered for their copie under the hands of master Hartwell and the Wardens: A booke called Englandes Parnassus: The choysest flowers of our Englyshe modern poetes.” 16 The book appeared the same year, but without the printer’s name being shown in any part of the volume. The initials of the three publishers are easily identified by a reference to the entry in the Stationers’ Register, being those of Nicholas Ling, Cuthbert Burby, and Thomas Hayes. The work is a thick octavo volume of 510 pages, printed in ordinary roman and italic type. The compiler’s initials, “R. A.”, are appended to the two sonnets which follow the title-page, one of these being addressed to Sir Thomas Mounson, and the other “To the Reader”. A glance at the dates of several of the works quoted in England’s Parnassus tends to show that Robert Allot was engaged in collecting his extracts up to the time that he put his manuscript into the printer’s hands; and the Miscellanea at the end of the volume, from the disordered state in which we find it, might possibly have been added after the printer had got well on with his task. Who Robert Allot was, how he led his life, when he was born, and when he died, biography does not say. He compiled two anthologies, wrote two Sonnets, and was praised by John Weever. Brydges, in his Restituta (Vol. III., p. 234), guessed he might be the Robert Allot who held a Fellowship at St. John’s College, Cambridge (1599) the year of the publication of Bodenham’s Wits Theater of the little World. A Robert Allot was one of the two publishers of the second Folio of Shakespeare’s works (1632); but whether our compiler is to be identified with one or both of his namesakes is a question that it seems impossible to determine. The whole of the work bears on its face the signs of hasty execution, and the Miscellanea tells its own tale, that the compiler was in such haste that he had not the time at his disposal to digest what he had gathered. Of works used by Robert Allot which were not printed till 1600 we find the following: Dekkar’s Old Fortunatus, Fairfax’s Godfrey of Bulloigne, Middleton’s Legend of Humphrey, Duke of Gloster, and Ben Jonson’s Every Man out of his Humour.
England’s Parnassus is rather a dictionary of quotations than an anthology, and in this respect it resembles Wits Commonwealth, Wits Theater of the little World, and Belvedere. The idea of ranging pregnant and sententious as well as choice specimens of diction under such headings as we find in these four works was not new in English literature when John Bodenham employed it in his first work, Wits Commonwealth (1597). In 1539, after the manner of his illustrious contemporary, Erasmus, Sir Thomas Elyot translated wise sayings from the great ancient writers, his collection being entitled The Banket of Sapience gathered oute of dyuers and many godlye authores. He placed these sayings under the same kind of headings as are used in Bodenham’s three books and in England’s Parnassus, and each time he cited the name of his author. It was a popular work, and was reprinted in 1542, 1545, and 1557. Elyot’s book was not unknown to Bodenham, seeing that he quotes from it several times in Wits Commonwealth, though he never acknowledges his debt to the English author, his references being to the writers named by Elyot. It seems more than likely that Bodenham copied the plan of his first work from The Banket of Sapience, which may therefore be indirectly responsible for the work compiled by Allot, who was the pupil of Bodenham. Crawford says of Robert Allot’s England’s Parnassus that it “is an honest book, but it was compiled by an incompetent man, who had the great disadvantage of having to contend with a careless printer who took no interest in his work. Allot’s lack of clerical skill led him into many errors, and it disabled him when he attempted to clear them up. He seems only to have been on terms of personal friendship with a few of his authors, and beyond them to have had but few opportunities of consulting works that are not accessible to scholars now, or of obtaining information of a special or exclusive character.” 17

Essex’s Apologie A letter written from Whyte to Sir R. Sydney on May 10th, 1600: 18

An apology written by my Lord of Essex about the Peace is I hear printed on which his Lordship is very much troubled, and hath sent to my Lord of Canterbury, and others and to the Stationers to suppress them, for it is done without his knowledge or procurement, and he fears it may be ill taken, two are committed close prisoners; what they will disclose is not yet known. The Queen is offended that this Apology of Peace is printed for of 200 Copies only 8 is heard of; it is said that my Lady Rich’s letter to her Majesty is also printed which is an exceeding wrong done to the Earl of Essex.
Essex was in despair, seeing the malignity of the move, and at once wrote to the Archbishop, as Press licencer, and the Stationers’ Company to stop the sale, a process accomplished by May 28, as Chamberlain tells us. Essex had, however, on the 20th, written to the Queen in terms which tells us a secret hitherto known only to the spy at Liege: “I am subject to their wicked information that first envied me for my happiness in your favour, and now hate me out of custom, but as if I were thrown into a corner like a dead carcase I am gnawed on and torn by the vilest and basest creatures upon earth. Already they print me, and make me speak to the world, and shortly they will play me in what form they list upon the stage. The least of these is a thousand times worse than death.” It is conjectured that Bacon had certainly printed the Apologie and Lady Rich’s letter. Do the lines emphasized mean that Bacon had control of a theatre, and could cause a play to be written and acted upon the stage to Essex’s prejudice? The inference when coupled with that from the Liege letter, seems hard to avoid. It must be remembered that the Earl was a popular favourite, and that for long afterwards all pamphlets in his defence were suppressed by Government. If this doubly vouched statement be correct, we have Bacon in command of the Globe Theatre, and in such authority there as to be able to risk its popularity with playgoers to serve him. In the autumn come the fines and ransoms of the prisoners, and from Catesby’s fine of 4.000 marks, £1.200, payable by instalments, was assigned to Bacon by the Queen’s order. He forthwith writes to his creditor Hickes promising to attend to him sometime this vacation, “which then ran on till November 2nd,” four months’ respite. Catesby’s instalments could hardly be spread over less than six months, and in the spring of the next year comes that sudden flush of money to Shaksper, the Stratfordian actor, which Halliwell-Phillipps 19 is astonished at, and which Fleay passes unnoticed. Thorpe 20 offers this explanation: “My submission is that this money, say at least £600, was worried out of Bacon by Shaksper, who knew his debtor’s only fetchable point, “the contempt of the contemptible,” and traded upon that at the right moment, promptly putting the money away in a safe quarter where the shifty debtor could not get it back, however much he might try it on.”

11 Book of Nature and Alan of Lille

12 John F. Moffitt translator to Alciati’s Little Book of Emblems published in 1940

13 Paolo Giovio. Dialego dell’imprese militari et amorose, 1555

14 Songes and Sonettes, written by the ryght honourable Lorde Henry Haward late Earle of Surrey, and other. Apud Richardum Tottel, 1557

15 “I had rather than forty shillings I had my book of Songs and Sonnets here.” Merry Wives, Act I. Sc. 1

16 Arber. Transcript, Vil. III. 173

17 Charles Crawford. England’s Parnassus Compiled by Robert Allot (1600), 1913

18 Calendar Domestic State Papers, p. 149; May 13, 1600

19 Outlines, Vol. I., p. 240

20 The Hidden Lives of Shakespeare and Bacon, 1897

Essex vs Elizabeth Essex, if he did not despise the Queen, at least did not respect her. He boasts (in July 1596 according to Birch), to Francis Bacon that he knows how to manage her, and to Anthony Bacon, he avows his intention of doing the Queen good against her will. In the passage in which he describes to Anthony Bacon the necessity for thus “doing the Queen good” he compares himself to “a waterman looking oneway and rowing the other.” It is therefore indisputable that whether it were Bacon’s misfortune, or fault, or both, he was selected by the popular indignation as one of the prime causers of the Queen’s indignation against Essex. (Abbott). 21

Essex vs Raleigh To the Queen’s birthday of this year, November 17, 1598 belongs an anecdote which shows what ingenuity Essex displayed in annoying his rival. As was the custom of the day, the leading courtiers tilted at the ring in honour of her Majesty, and each Knight was required to appear in some disguise. It was known, however, that Sir Walter Raleigh would ride in his own uniform of orange-tawny medley, trimmed with black budge of lamb’s wool. Essex, to vex him, came to the lists with a body-guard of two thousand retainers all dressed in orange-tawny, so that Raleigh and his men seemed only an insignificant division of Essex’s splendid retinue. (Brandes). 22

21 Abbott. Bacon and Essex, p. 159

22 Geo. Brandes. William Shakespeare, A Critical Study, p. 254

A Finding List: Part 3.

Elizabethan Facts and Historical References

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