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To take the saft'st occasion by the front.
Othello,
iii. I.
I go, I go ;
look how I go,
Swifter than arrow from the Tartar's bow.
Midsummer-Nights Dream,
iii. 2.
Be swift like lightning in the execution.
Richard II., i. 14.
Constantly the same thought, never the same words,
recurring in " Shakespeare " and " Bacon." In the
drama they are mostly unrhymed, but accompanied with
still more brilliant comparisons and referring to some
stirring action.
In the Essay they are clothed in plainer
speech, in the form of proverbs, but often pleasantly
rhymed. Thus, on the title-page, Bacon called his
Latin translation of the Essays: " Sermones Fideles"
(" True Speeches, Faithful Words "),
whereas in a
preface they are styled " Delibationes " (" Tit-Bits ").
They are tit-bits from the Shakespeare works, the
moral and civil matters,
leading thoughts, concerning
having been collected in another form, to ensure their
being preserved to Posterity. For, according to
Bacon's opinion, all modern languages must finally
become " bankrupt," and Latin, he held, afforded a
warrant of longevity to
language.
a thought, beyond any other
The " "
Essay Of Cunning had been printed as early
numerous examples were not added
as 1612, but the
till
1625. The very
first instance of cunning resembles
the ruse employed by Hamlet and Horatio when they
set themselves to watch the effect of the performance
in the features of the king. In the Essay Bacon uses
the words :