download PDF version: 47.1MB - Global Grey

30 FRANCIS BACON'S CRYPTIC RHYMES
to his literary friend, the Spanish Ambassador in
London, Count Gondomar :
Me vero jam vocat et aetas, et fortuna, atque etiam Genius
meus cui adhuc satis morose" satisfeci,ut excedens 6 theatre rerum
civilium literis me dedam, et ipsos actores instruam, et posteritati
serviam.
This passage Spedding translates as follows :
" But for myself, my age, my fortune, yea my Genius,
to which I have hitherto done but scant justice,
calls
me now to retire from the stage of civil action, and
betake myself to letters, and to the instruction of the
actors themselves, and the service of Posterity."
" "
The expression e theatro rerum civilium signifies
the Government-stage, from which he took his " exit " ;
the "ipsos actores," however, means nothing more nor
less than " the "
very (true, real) actors," i.e., the actors
on the Theatre-stage."
And now you
will ask what happened during the
five years
of life that remained to Bacon ?
In the years 1622 and 1623 some new works ap
peared bearing his name (we gave their titles before) ;
almost all his other works were thoroughly re-written
and translated into Latin. A great many had already
been prepared before that time, some of them were
perhaps all ready for printing, while Bacon was still
in office (before 1621).
In 1623 a new small volume emanated from Bacon's
hand, viz., his " Historia Ventorum " (History of the
Winds). At the same time, however, the first
Large
Folio Edition of the Shakespeare dramas appeared
bearing the title " : Mr. William Shakespeares Come
dies, Histories, & Tragedies." The actor had nothing
to do with it. He had died seven years before.