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230 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
His first
appearance upon the stage in his new person.
Tragical plot.
It was one of the longest plays of that kind.
Play the fool.
Conveyed to the Tower (which was a serious part).
From the " Essays " :
The stage is more beholden to love than the life of man. For as
to the stage love is ever matter of comedies, and now and then of
tragedies.
It is a poor saying of Epicurus : Satis magnum alter alteri tlieatrttm
sumus.
Action is the virtue of a player.
The things which are to be seen and observed by young men
who travel are . . .
comedies, such whereunto the better sort of
persons do resort.
It is
good to be conversant in books, especially the books of
such as themselves have been actors upon the stage.
There be some whose lives are, as if they perpetually played upon
a stage, disguised to all others, open only to themselves.
I have given a rule where a man cannot fitly play his own part;
if he have not a friend, he may quit the stage.
Let the scenes abound with light.
Let the maskers, or any other, that are to come down from the
scene, have some motions upon the scene itself before coming down.
Quales sunt aedes, quae extruuntur quidem in colliculo paululum
elevate : sed cincto undique, more Theatri, collibus altioribus.
Atque, quoad portionem convivii, unicam tantum illic Cameram
poni velim (in Palatio perfecto) eamque supra :
gradus quinquaginta
pedes ad minus altam : & subter earn, Cameram item alteram,
similis longitudinis & latitudinis :
quae apparatum & instructionem,
ad festa, ludos, 6- ejusmodi magnificentias : actores etiam, dum se
ornent & parent, commode recipiat.
From the " Apophthegms" :
It was the first time that ever he knew a whore play in a tragedy.
From the "Psalms":
Or that the Frame was up of Earthly Stage.
From " Of the Coulers of good and evil a fragment " :
The Epicures say of the Stoics felicity placed in virtue, that it is
like the felicity of a player, who if he were left of his auditory and
their applause, he would straight be out of heart and countenance, and
therefore they call virtue Bonum theatrale.