Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

148 FRANCIS BACON
things, it is better they should be graced with elegancy than
daubed with cost, " and he tells us how to ensure this, giving
many suggestions which have been adopted until this day.
" Acting in song hath an extreme good grace; I say acting, not
dancing, for that is a mean and vulgar thing. " The things he
sets down are such as " take the sense, not petty wonderments,"
though he considers that change of scene, so it be quietly and
without noise, is a thing of beauty. The scenes are to abound
with light, but varied and coloured— the masquers when appearing
on the scene from above are to " make motions " which will
draw the eye strangely and excite desire to see that which it
cannot perfectly discern. The songs are to be loud and cheer-
" not chirpings andpulings," and the music sharp and well-
ful,
placed. The colours that show best by candle-light are " white,
carnation, and a kind of seawater-green." Short and pithy as
this essay is, we wonder that it had never struck Shakspereans
how wonderfully well Mrs. Page, in her little device to frighten
and confuse Falstaff, carried out the instructions here conveyed.
The music placed in the saw-pit; the many rounds of waxen
tapers on the heads of the fairies; the rush out of the saw-pit
with songs and rattles " to take the sense. " The fairies in
green and white, singing a scornful rhyme as they trip and pinch
Falstaff. Although the masque is intended to frighten him,
there is in it nothing frightful, for " anything that is hideous,
as devils and giants, is unfit." Satires, antics, sprites and pigmies
Bacon allows; so Mrs. Page introduces " my little son and
those of the same growth," dressed " like urchins, ouphes and
fairies.
Even the " diffused " song which they sing seems to be
arranged with care and intention, for, says Bacon, " I understand
it, that the song be in quire, with some broken music."
But he concludes, " Enough of these toys," and perhaps when
the Bankside players came to see him ride in state as Chancellor,
there may have been some amongst them who knew that
indeed he would no more be able to indulge in meddling with
such toys as these.
Public and political business now increased with Bacon so that,