in every other Skill of any Part of Learning: For I hold it not Jan erroneous Conceit to think of every Science, that as now they are professed, so they have been before in all Precedent Ages, though not the like in all Places, nor at all times alike in Ours, and the same, but according to the Changes and Turnings of Times, with a more exact or plain, or with a more rude and obscure kind of Teaching. If the question should be asked what Proof I have of it? I can produce the Doctrine of Aristotle, and the deepest learned Clarks, whom we have any Means to take Notice of, that, as there is of other things, so there is of Sciences, "Ortus & Interitus;" which is also the meaning, if I should expound it, of "Nihil novum sub Sole," and is as well to be applied, "ad facta" as "dicta" at Nihil neq; factum neq; dictum quod non dictum et factum prius. I have further for my Warrant, that famous Complaint of Solomon to his Son, against the infinite making of Books in his time. Of which in all Congruity it must be understood, that a very great Part were Observations and Instructions in all kinds of Literature, of which there is not now so much as one petty Pamphlet (only some Part of the Bible excepted) remaining to Posterity, as there was not then any bound of Millions of Authors that were long before Solomon; yet we must give credit to what he affirmed, that whatsoever was then, or had been before, it could never be averred, Behold, this is New. Whereupon I must for final Conclusion infer, seeing all Endeavours, Studies, and Knowledge of Mankind in whatsoever Art or Science, have ever been the same as at this Present, though full of Mutabilities, according to the Changes & Accidental Occasion of Ages, and Countries, and Clarks Dispositions, which can never be but subject to Intention & Remission, both in their Desires, and in the Practices of their Knowledge; if now we should accord in opinion with you, first to Condemn our Present Knowledge of Doubts & Incertitude; but you confirm, but by Averment, without other Force of Argument, than to disclaim all our Axioms, Maxims, and general assertions that are left by Tradition from our Elders unto us, which have passed (as it is to be intended) all Probations of the Sharpest Wits that ever were.

And Lastly; to devise (being now become A. B. C. Darij) by the frequent spelling of Particulars, to come to the Notice of New Generals, and so afresh to Creat New Principles of Sciences; the end of all would be, that when we shall be dispossessed of the Learning we have, all our consequent Travel will but help in a Circle to conduct us to the Place from whence we set forward,

and bring us to the Happiness to be restored "in integrum,” which will require as many Ages, as have marched before us to be perfectly atchived. All which I write with no Dislike of encreasing our knowledge with New Devices, which is Undoubtedly a practice of high Commendation, in regard of the Benefit they will yield for the present. And the World hath ever been, and will assuredly continue full of such Devisers, whose Industry, that Way, hath been eminent, and produced strange Effects, above the Reach and Hope of Men's common capacities; yet our Notions & Theorems have always kept in Grace, both with them, and with the rarest that ever were nominated amongst the Learned. By this you see to what Boldness I am brought by your Kindness, that if I seem too sawcy in this Contradiction, it is the Opinion I hold of your Noble Disposition, and of the Freedom in these cases that you will afford your special Friends, which have induced me to it. Now though I my self, like a Carrier's Horse, cannot blanch the beaten Way, in which I was trained, yet such is my Censure of your "Cogitata," that I must tell you, (to be plain), you have much wronged your self and the World, to smother such a Treasure so long in Your Coffer; for though I stand well assured (touching the Tenour and Subject of your main Discourse) you are not able to impannel a substantial Jury in any University that will give up a Verdict to acquit you of Error; yet it cannot be gainsaid, that all your Treatise over doth abound with choice conceits of the present State of Learning, & with so worthy Contemplations of the means to procure it, as may perswade, with any Student, to look more narrowly to his business, not only by aspiring to the greates Perfection of that which is now a Days divulged in the Sciences, but by diving yet deeper, as it were, into the Bowels and Secrets of Nature, and by Inforcing the Power of his Judgement and Wit to learn of St. Paul, Consectari Meliora Dona: which course would to God (to whisper so much in your ears) you had followed at first, when you fell to the study of such a thing as was not Worthy of such a Student: Nevertheless, being as it is, that you were therein settled, and your Country soundly served, I can but wish, withal my Heart, as I do very often, that you may gain a full Reward to the full of your Deserts, which I hope will come with Heaps of Happiness and Honour."

Your's to be used and Commanded,

THOMAS BODLEY.

82

WAS BACON EVER ABROAD?

W

WHEN AND WHERE?

BY GEORGE STRONACH, M.A.

WHATEVER dubiety may exist over the visitation to the Continent by "the man of Stratford," there can be none as to the visit of Bacon to France at least-to Paris, Maine, Blois, Poictiers, Tours, and especially Navarre, the last named the scene of the first play written by William Shakespeare, Love's Labour's Lost, and published as "newly corrected and augmented By W. Shakespere, 1598." In the last number of BACONIANA I endeavoured to show that the author of the plays had been abroad, and had obtained his knowledge of foreign scenes, life, and manners from a sojourn on the Continent.

Lord Campbell says: "Bacon spent three whole years in France-the most valuable of his life-and his subsequent literary eminence may be traced to his long sojourn in a foreign country during the age of preparatory studies almost as much as that of Hume or Gibbon. He first resided at Paris under the care of his father's friend, Sir Amyas Paulet . . . where 'he sought that which is most of all profitable in travel— acquaintance with the secretaries and employed men of ambassadors, and so in travelling in one country he sucked the experience of many.'* . . . His original plan had been to visit Italy, but, on inquiry, all accounts agreed that, from the rigours of the Inquisition, an English Protestant would not then have been safe in that country." This later information may be characterised as rubbish. We had ambassadors in Italy then, quite capable of guarding the lives and interests of

* Bacon's "Essay of Travel."

British subjects, despite the terrors, pains, and penalties of the "Inquisition."

In the interesting letter to Bacon addressed to Orleans by Sir Thomas Bodley, given in the last number of BACONIANA, the writer advises his young friend "Not to spend your spirits and the precious time of your travel in a captious prejudice and censuring of all things, nor in an infectious collection of base vices and fashions of men and women." Strangely enough, this is just what the author of Love's Labour's Lost set himself out to accomplish in the earliest of the plays. Perhaps the warning suggested the performance, and Bacon rubbed it into them right royally. His experience of the Court of Navarre proved eminently profitable, and was reproduced to the letter in Love's Labour's Lost.

Much of what I have to say in this number will be associated with the earliest Shakespearean drama, Love's Labour's Lost, written circa 1587-9, the first of the plays which appeared with the name "Shakespere " on the title-page. It is interesting to know that "the plot stands alone in Shakespeare's work in that it is not known to have been borrowed" (Lee's Life of Shakespeare, p. 51); and "In the composition of the play Shakespeare took a slight and amusing story derived from some independent source, which will, we hope, be before long discovered, and gave it a new and vital interest" (Lee in The Gentleman's Magazine, 1880). This "discovery" has yet to be made.

Well, it is believed that Shakspere left Stratford in 1586-abandoned it compulsorily in consequence of a small poaching affair on the estate of Sir Thomas Lucy, the original, as Dr. Lee and others maintain, of "Justice Shallow" in 1 and 2 Henry IV. and The Merry Wives of Windsor, a theory which has been entirely demolished by Mrs. Carmichael Stopes (Shakespearean)

and Mr. John Hutchinson (Baconian). Unanimity for

once !

Shakspere left his native town in 1586 and went to London, where he held horses at the stage door, a splendid education for the composition of Love's Labour's Lost, which is ascribed, as I have said, to the period 1587-9. Furnivall gives 1588-9, and Lee 1589 as the date of composition. This play, it is therefore maintained, "the man of Stratford" wrote within three years after leaving Stratford-a play so learned that it cannot be placed on the modern stage, although it was frequently produced in the days of "Eliza and our James." As Professor Stapfer says, the play "is overcumbered with learning."

Of Love's Labour's Lost Dr. Lee writes: "The subject matter suggests that its author had already enjoyed extended opportunities of surveying London life and manners, such as were hardly open to him in the very first years of his settlement in the Metropolis. 'Love's Labour's Lost' embodies keen observation of contemporary life in many ranks of society, both in town and country, while the speeches of the hero Biron clothe much sound philosophy in masterly rhetoric."

This is splendid! The life is not London life but Court life at Navarre (Lee says: "The hero is the King of Navarre, in whose dominions the scene is laid") the life of kings, princes, princesses and courtiers. We have glittering spectacles of courts and camps, foreign manners, customs, and surroundings, in short, experiences of high life of every kind as well as every manner of learning, of which "the man of Stratford," three years after leaving his native town, must have been absolutely ignorant, and which Bacon must have been thoroughly acquainted with, as he had visited the spot or spots. Dr. Lee says that Shakspere's "extended opportunities were hardly open