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FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES 167
on so sublime a subject
!
"
they exclaim. And the
Anti-Baconites have even tried to prove, by means of
this one Essay, what a prosaic fellow Bacon was, and
that he could not possibly be the poet that had written
the Shakespeare works. And yet this very Essay it
is which proves to us that he was the author of the
Shakespeare drama, Anthony and Cleopatra.
The
Essay begins :
The Stage
is more beholding to Love, then the Life of Man.
For as to the Stage, Love is ever matter of Comedies, and now
and then of Tragedies : But in Life,
it doth much mischiefe :
Sometimes like a Syren ;
Sometimes like a Fury.
Is not that as clear a statement as it is possible to
make that the Essay is to treat of stage-love ? Do
not the words " Syren " and " Fury " indicate that not
the sweet, blissful love of woman is to be the subject
to be dealt with, but rather hyper-passionate, sensual
love ?
And does not all that is said of comedy and
tragedy agree in every respect with the spirit of the
Shakespeare Plays ? In every one of the Shake
speare comedies love plays a principal part.
Whereas
in the tragedies love only now and then has the lead
ing word. There are really only two true love
tragedies written by the great Briton, Romeo and
Juliet and Anthony and Cleopatra.
Again, the opening lines we have just quoted of the
Essay are immediately followed up by the name of
" Marcus Antonius," that same " Antonius, Anthony "
who is the hero of the love-tragedy.
The name had
not been added to the Essay, which was printed pre
viously, until 1625 ;
another proof that the last edition