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1 68 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
revised by
Bacon himself was intended to explain
and
reveal facts hitherto unknown and concealed, not only
in the new Essays, but also in the interpolations.
But few great and worthy persons, we are told, were
ever seized with such a passion as to be driven " to
the mad degree of Love " ;
but Marcus Antonius, we
the few. What then follows in the
learn, was among
Essay is no song of praise to love which regales the
heart of man, but is
a characteristic account of sensual
passion, a commentary of the doting love of the great
Roman General Anthony, who, as Bacon tells us, was
foolish enough to permit of his amorousness interfering
with State affairs. The love, says the Essay, which
such people foster, speaks ever in hyperboles. We only
need turn to the first
page of the tragedy, and there
we read that a new heaven and a new earth would be
love. When
required, to set a bourn to Anthony's
ever he speaks to Cleopatra, Anthony's lips o'erflow
with extravagant speeches. And after his death,
Cleopatra does the same. Both the nature of the
siren and that of the fury are clearly defined and
blended in the character of the Egyptian Queen.
One day we see this siren queen in her barge on
the Nile with all her attendants around her. Then
again we hear her described as a voluptuous gipsy,
while Anthony's love is referred to by his own generals
as that of a madman, fool, and dotard. Such lovers,
says the Essay, are each the other's "Theatre." In
true theatrical style, Anthony causes his Cleopatra to
be exhibited with her children in the public market
rendered unto her. And in
place, and divine homage
this manner the Essay follows the tragedy, explaining
step by step that which we see enacted upon the stage ;