tise it.' Thus when the Earl of Essex had failed to persuade the Queen to make Bacon her Attorney, and, failing that, her Solicitor, he covers his bitter disappointment by an affected resignation in a letter written to the Earl in 1595, when he was 34 years old:

For myself, I have lost some opinion, some time, and some means. For means, I value that most; and the rather, because I am purposed not to follow the practice of the law (if her Majesty command me in any particular, I shall be ready to do her willing service) and my reason is only because it drinketh too much time, which I have dedicated to better purposes.

It is a fact that Bacon seldom appeared in private suits, reserving himself for Crown causes, which he regarded as contributing to the public career on which his ambitions were

set.

Mr. Simpson also alludes to the extraordinary aptitude shown by the author of the plays in picking up the techincal terms of any profession or calling, and he cites, as an example, the description of Petruchio's sorry steed in The Taming of the Shrew. But this is one of the accomplishments for which Bacon was known among his contemporaries. Thus Francis Osborne (b. 1593, d. 1659), in his Advice to a Son1 writes:

It is recorded of Solomon that God had given him a large Heart, through which he became universally knowing from the most despicable Herbe to the highest Cedar, and deepest Secret in Nature (then) under knowledge. . . Since it is a sufficient manifestation of God's extraordinary Grace upon him, that we are assured from his own writings, no lesse than from the testimony of the Sacred Scriptures, that part of the whole masse of Human Learning lay included in his Person. And as this appeares by the Donor to be none of the smallest giftes, no lesse than in the estimation of Solomon that did aske it, so may we strongly presume that an universall inspection is the most becoming quality in a Gentleman (unfixed in a setled calling) can bestow his indeavours upon. And my memory neither doth (nor I believe possible ever can) direct me towards an example more splendid in this kind, than the Lord Bacon Earle of St. Albanes, who in all companies did appeare a good Proficient, if not a Master in those Arts entertained for the subject

1 Sixth edition, 1658. The first edition, 1656, does not contain the portion in which this passage occurs.

of every ones discourse. So as I dare maintaine, without the least affectation of Flattery or Hyperboly, That his most casuall talke deserved to be written, As I have been told his first or foulest Copyes required no great Labour to render them competent for the nicest judgments. A high perfection, attainable only by use, and treating with every man in his respective profession, and what he was most vers'd in. So as I have heard him entertaine a Country Lord in the proper termes relating to Hawkes and Dogges. And at another time out-Cant a London Chyrurgion. Thus he did not only learne himselfe, but gratify such as taught him; who looked upon their Callings as honoured through his Notice. Nor did an easy falling into arguments (not unjustly taken for a blemish in the Most) appeare lesse than an ornament in Him: The eares of the hearers receiving more gratification than trouble; And (so) no lesse sorry when he came to conclude, than displeased with any did interrupt him. Now this generall Knowledge he had in all things, husbanded by his wit, and dignifi'd by so Majestical a carriage he was knowne to owne strook such an awfull reverence in those he question'd that they durst not conceale that most intrinsick part of their Mysteries from him for feare of appearing Ignorant or Saucy. All which ren.dered him no lesse Necessary than admirable at the Counsell Table where in reference to Impositions, Monopolies &c. the meanest Manifactures were an usuall Argument: And as I have heard did in this baffle the Earle of Middlesex that was borne and bred a Citizen &c. Yet without any great (if at all) interrupting his other Studies as is not hard to be Imagined of a quick Apprehension, in which he was Admirable.

Osborne probably came into contact with Bacon through being, at one time, Master of the Horse to William Herbert, third Earl of Pembroke, one of Bacon's most intimate friends among the younger generation. His admiration of him is shown by the number of times he alludes to him in his works, in two allusions describing him as 'incomparable,' and in another as 'the witty Lord of Saint Albans.'

Another seventeenth-century witness to the accomplishment under discussion, as found in Bacon, is William Clarke, author of a treatise on nitre.1 At the end of it he says nitre is specially useful to refiners and dyers, and he adds:

But if you would with my Lord Bacon outcant these or other Artists in their own terms, and be as his skilfull in their Arts I must refer you to the Masters themselves.

The Natural History of Nitre.

I am grateful to Mr. Simpson for his article, and have no reason to feel dissatisfied with his arguments. All the same, I should not advise the inhabitants of Gloucestershire to spend too much time over their family archives1.

E. G. HARMAN.

In reference to a suggestion that some clue to the real author of

the plays could be discovered in that locality.

APPENDIX II

ESSEX AS TIMIAS (Chapter VI.).

The purpose of this Appendix is to show that in the character of "Timias" in the Faerie Queene the Earl of Essex is intended. As I think I demonstrated in my volume on Spenser, he appears in the poem as " Arthegal," a character which is commonly supposed-in my opinion erroneouslyto stand for Lord Grey. But in this character Essex is portrayed as the author wished him to be, namely the principal minister of the sovereign and the dispenser of her justice. Under "Timias" he is drawn as a young aspirant to the Queen's favour, which was his position when the poem was composed. Let us follow this out.

According to the accepted view Timias is supposed to be Ralegh. Now we know from the Harvey-Immerito correspondence published in 1580 that the Faerie Queene was begun by 1579. It may be presumed therefore that the general plan of it was in the author's mind at that time and that a beginning at any rate, had been made on Book I., if indeed it had not been actually completed. There is evidence also that certain episodes which appear in later portions of the poem belong to this early period, perhaps written originally as separate poems and embodied later where they are found. One, for example, the catalogue of English rivers in Book IV., xi. is probably the Epithalamion Thamesis mentioned by "Immerito" in a letter to Harvey.

The first appearance of Timias is in Book I., and I was led by this consideration, and more by the internal evidence in the later portions of the poem, to reject the Ralegh interpretation and to seek for another in the conjecture that the author had used the character of Timias as a vehicle for the

1 Three Proper Letters, etc.

expression of his own feelings as an aspirant for Court favour, and I showed that in many respects the descriptions tallied with the circumstances of Bacon's early manhood. The further study, however, of the history which the present volume has entailed, has convinced me that this conjecture was unsound, and that the secret of Timias is to be found in the career of Essex.

Essex was born in 1567.

His father died in 1576, and his mother married the Earl of Leicester in 1578. Essex went to Trinity College, Cambridge, in 1577. The Christmas vacation of that year was passed by him at Court, where great festivities were held on the occasion of the visit of Casimir on the business of the Netherlands. He was then a good-looking boy of ten, and it is said that the Queen offered to kiss him and that he humbly refused; and that she then made him wear his hat, to the amusement of the Court, in the presence. He left Cambridge in 1580 and passed some time in living quietly at his house at Lanfrey in Pembrokeshire. Much against his inclination at that time he was induced by his mother and the Earl of Leicester to come up to Court, where he appeared in 1584, being then in his seventeenth year. We read that his "goodly person, and a kind of urbanity and innate courtesy, combined with a recollection of his father's misfortunes, won him the hearts of both Queen and people."

At this time the States were in revolt against the oppression of Spain and applied on several occasions to Elizabeth for assistance. After long delays it was decided in 1585 to send out a force, Flushing, Brill, Ostend and certain forts being delivered to the Queen as security for the repayment of the expenses. The Earl of Leicester was appointed to command the expedition and he took with him as General of the Horse the young Earl of Essex, who was burning with ardour for adventure and military distinction, and who entered into a lavish outlay in equipping a band of his own. Leicester, who displayed great military incapacity, passed much of his time in display; and in a feasting which took place at the end of the year we hear of Essex winning distinction at a tourney. Towards the end of 1586 Leicester returned to England, whither he was accompanied by the Earl of Essex. Anxious