Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

12S
FRANCIS BACON
In 1594 Anthony Bacon, that " dearest brother, " " Antonie
my comforte, " had lately returned from Italy and had joined
Francis in Gray's Inu; but he did not stay there long. Soon
afterwards, to the alarm and displeasure of his mother, Lady
Anne, he removed from these lodgings to a house in Bishop's Gate
Street, close to the Bull Inn. Here there was a theatre at which
several of the Shakespeare plays were performed, and from this
date the plays of Shakespeare, Ben Jonson and " twenty more
such names and men as these " pour on to the stages of this and
other theatres. What share had Anthony in the writing and
" producing " of these plays?
The Christmas revels in which the students of Gray's Inn had
formerly prided themselves were for some cause intermitted for
three of four years.
In the winter of 1594 they resolved to redeem
the time by producing " something out of the common
way." As usual, Francis Bacon is called in to assist in " recovering
the lost honour of Gray's Inn. " The result was a device,
or elaborate burlesque, which turned Gray's Inn into a mimic
court for which a Prince of Purpoole and a Master of the Revels
were chosen, and the sports were to last for twelve days.
The Prince, with all his state, proceeded to the Great Hall of
Gray's Inn on December 20th, and the entertainment was so
gorgeous, so skilfully managed, and so hit off the tastes of the
times, that the players were encouraged to enlarge their plan,
and to raise their style. They resolved, therefore (besides all
this court pomp, and their daily sport amongst themselves), to
have certain " grand nights, "in which something special should
be performed for the entertainment of strangers. But the excitement
produced on the first grand night, and the throng,
which was beyond everything which had been expected)
crowded the hall so that the actors were driven from the stage.
They had to retire, and when the tumult partly subsided, they
were obliged, in default of " those very good inventions and
conceits " which had been intended, to content themselves with
dancing and revelling, and when that was over, with A Comedy
of Errors, like to Plautus his Menoechmus, which was played by