Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 185
that " Poesy has produced a vast body of art, considered, not to
the matter of it, but to the form of words. " All words, no matter,
nothing from the heart ! i Is this all that can be said for the
poetry of an age which produced the Faerie Queene, The Shepherd's
Calendar, the Shakespeare plays, poems and sonnets, the
works of Ben Jonson, Marlowe, Middleton, Chapman, Webster,
the hymns and spiritual songs of Herbert, Quarles, Withers,
Cowley, Crashaw, and a host of " minor poets " ? Are we to
believe that Bacon included these in his vast body of art
considered, not in regard to the matter, but to the words of it?
Poetry to be lovely must have matter as well as art. It should
be the spontaneous overflow of a full mind, stored to the brim
with " true history," with a knowledge of nature, and especially
of human nature; for " by Poesy," says Bacon, " I mean here
nothing else than feigned history."* Shakespeare formed the same
estimate of true poetry:
Audrey. I do not know what poetical is ; ... is it a true thing ?
Touchstone. No, truly, for the truest poetry is the most feigning, and what they
swear in poetry may be said, as lovers, they do feign. ... If thou wert a poet,
I might have some hope thou didst feign 1 3
Bacon reminds us more than once of all that poets feign± in
their histories, but he fails not to show that " all invention " or
imaginative power " is but memory, " and that " a man is only
what he knows." In vain would weaker wits endeavour to persuade
us that " reading and writing come by nature," or that a
man can write well about matters concerning which he can
never have had the opportunity of duly informing himself.
Poesy, indeed, being " free and licensed, may at. pleasure make
unlawful matches and divorces of things," but the poet must be
acquainted with those things before he can either match or
divorce them.
l Compare
" "Who will for a tricksy word defy the matter:'' (Merchant of
iii. 5 "
) More rich 'in matter than in words." {Borneo and Juliet, li. 6.)
Venice, m. o) ju.uiciu.iv m« m.u.no»