Francis Bacon and his secret society - Grand Lodge of Colorado

AND HIS SECRET SOCIETY. 245
forth and congregate with the air " (the wind fairies),
" and to
enjoy the sunbeams." Titania is the sunbeam, the vivifying
and all-cheering spirit of living things. Her name proclaims
her nature. We are told " moths and butterflies quicken with
heat, and revive easily, even when tbey seem dead, being
brought near the sun." What, then, can be more fitting than
that the soft, ephemeral white " Moth " should be found hovering
or flitting about where Titania, the Sunbeam, is?
Cobweb, or Gossamer, is another almost immaterial creature,
" bred by dew and sun all over the ground. . . . Cobwebs are
most seen where caterpillars abound, which breedeth (sic) by
dew and leaves. " They are a sign of dryness, . . . and come
when the dry east winds have most blown." The ideas which
spring from these details, and which are woven into the
" Dream," are as subtile as the Gossamer itself, and almost as
difficult to handle without destroying their beauty. By means
of the clues offered by the simple names of the attendants upon
Titania, we may, if we will, follow, panting, the nimble bounds
of the poet's fancy, to bend and twirl and light in unexpected
places, while he leads us a dance through the sciences — that
" labyrinth," whose paths are " so subtle, intricate, and crossing
each other, that they are only to be understood and traced by
the clue of experience."
We conjure up, perhaps faintly, the dream which he was
dreaming of universal nature — the Oberon of the play 1 — of the
nature upon which the zephyrs and soft winds wait, hasting to
assist the operations of the Sunbeam, the life-giver. When the
east winds have dried the banks, Cobweb overspreads them
with his delicate covering to receive the Fairy Queen, and as
she sleeps, her " spirits cooled," and her" heart comforted " by
the perfumes which Peaseblossom scatters, Moth fans her with
his noiseless wings, and Mustardseed stands ready to spring up
to obey her best or know what is her will.
l Compare Oberon with Pan as described in the essay by Bacon and in the
De Augments. The universal nature of things, which lias its origin from
confused matter; the hairiness of his body representing the rays of things ; his
control over the nature and fates of things — as Oberon, in the play, is seen to
regulate the general course of events.