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28 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
are indeed afforded a rich selection from Grecian,
Roman, French, Italian and Hebrew writings. But
we do not find one single quotation from the whole of
our English literature. In fact, the only English book
mentioned in the Essays,
is
Bacon's own " History of
King Henry the Seventh of England."
It would
seem as though for Bacon, the essayist, the man versed
in the literature of every civilised nation, there had
never existed such a man as Shakespeare, or Ben
Jonson, and their great predecessors and ; yet in
those very years the first Shakespeare Folio Edition
had appeared, and Ben Jonson, the dramatist, had
lived with Bacon for five years !
A large number of the poets quoted in the " Essays"
fare no better than the great English poets. They
simply disappear from the surface. The very first
Essay contains a long passage from Lucretius' " De
Rerum Natura " (" Of the Nature of Things "),
but
neither the poet nor his book is mentioned by name.
Rabelais is
quoted, but his name is suppressed ;
Horace is treated similarly. Aristophanes' Cleon
but the name of
appears in one of the Essays,
Aristophanes occurs nowhere in the book. In the
mind of our author, names appear to play a sub
ordinate part where facts are concerned.
And even the quotations are treated in a peculiar
manner. Scarcely one will be found in the original
as it is
quoted by Bacon ;
Bacon always remodels at
will. Nor is the alteration the result of superficiality
or carelessness, but is intended, made on purpose, as
one fact will suffice to prove :
it
Bacon takes a quotation
he had a predilection for Latin prose and changes
into rhyming Latin or English verses, often altering