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206 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
(Of Vaine-Glory)
According to the Comedy ; (!)
Beaucoup the Bruit,
peu de Fruit :
Much Bruit,
little Fruit.
Yet certain/y
there is use of this Quali/*?,
in Civill Affaires.
Where therefs
an Opinion, and Fame to be
created, either of Vertue, or Poesy, (!)
these Play'rs (!)
are good Trumpeters.
A player was Francis Bacon's "Trumpetter"
trumpeting forth the fame of the world's greatest
dramatist.
The Essay had been published as early as 1612.
Not so the last two Essays, Nos. 57 and 58, which we
to what we
are now about to consider. They belong
may term " Bacon's Literary Bequest," and were quite
new works in 1625.
The last but one treats " Of Anger," and chiefly
affords us parallels to the Shakespeare play, Coriolanus.
It concludes with the sentences :
For Raising and Appaising Anger in Another ;
It is done
of Times. When Men are frowardest
chiefly, by Choosing
and worst disposed, to incense them. Againe, by gathering
(as was touched before) all that you can finde out, to aggravate
the Contraries.
the Contempt. And the two Remedies are by
The Former to take good Times, when first to relate to a Man,
an Angry Businesse For the : first Impression is much And
;
the other is, to sever, as much as may be, the Construction of
the Injury, from the Point of Contempt: Imputing it, to Mis
understanding, Feare, Passion, or what you will.