nis in qua anima humana sibi satisfaciat, præsto est Poësis, quæ facta magis heroïca confingat; cum historia vera successus rerum minime pro meritis virtutum et scelerum narret, corrigit eam Poësis, et exitus et fortunas secundum merita et ex lege Nemeseos exhibet; cum historia vera, obvia rerum satietate et similitudine, animæ humanæ fastidio sit, reficit eam Poësis, inexpectata et varia et vicissitudinum plena canens. Adeo ut Poësis ista non solum ad delectationem, sed etiam ad animi magnitudinem et ad mores conferat. Quare et merito etiam divinitatis. cujuspiam particeps videri possit; quia animum erigit et in sublime rapit, rerum simulacra ad animi desideria accommodando, non animum rebus (quod ratio facit et historia) submittendo. Atque his quidem illecebris et congruitate qua animum humanum demulcet, addito etiam consortio musices unde suavius insinuari possit, aditum sibi patefecit, ut honori fuerit etiam sæculis plane rudibus et apud nationes barbaras, cum aliæ doctrinæ prorsus exclusæ essent.

Dramatica autem Poësis, quæ theatrum habet pro mundo, usu eximia est, si sana foret. Non parva enim esse posset theatri et disciplina et corruptela. Atque corruptelarum in hoc genere abunde est; disciplina plane nostris temporibus est neglecta. Attamen licet in rebuspublicis modernis habeatur pro re ludicra actio theatralis, nisi forte nimium trahat e satira et mordeat; tamen apud antiquos curæ fuit, ut animos hominum ad virtutem institueret. Quinetiam viris prudentibus, et magnis philosophis, veluti animorum plectrum quoddam censebatur. Atque sane verissimum est, et tanquam secretum quoddam naturæ, hominum animos cum congregati sint, magis

quam cum soli sint, affectibus et impressionibus patere.1

1 There is nothing in the Advancement of Learning corresponding to this paragraph.

It is a curious fact that these remarks on the character of the modern drama were probably written, and were certainly first published, in the same year which saw the first collection of Shakespeare's plays; of which, though they had been filling the theatre for the last thirty years, I very much doubt whether Bacon had ever heard. How little notice they attracted in those days as works of literary pretension, may be inferred from the extreme difficulty which modern editors have found in ascertaining the dates, or even the order, of their production. Though numbers of contemporary news-letters, filled with literary and fashionable intelligence, have been preserved, it is only in the Stationer's register and the accounts kept by the Master of the Revels that we find any notices of the publication or acting of Shakespeare's plays. In the long series of letters from John Chamberlain to Dudley Carleton, scattered over the whole period from 1598 to 1623,-letters full of the news of the month; news of the court, the city, the pulpit, and the bookseller's shop; in which court-masques are described in minute detail, author, actors, plot, performance, reception and all; -we look in vain for the name of Shakespeare or of any one of his plays. And yet during that period Hamlet, Twelfth Night, Othello, Measure for Measure, the Merchant of Venice, Macbeth, Lear, the Tempest, the Winter's Tale, Coriolanus, and several more, must have appeared as novelties. And indeed that very letter without which we should hardly know that Shakespeare was personally known to any one in the great world as a distinguished dramatic writer, I mean Lord Southampton's letter in furtherance of a petition from him and Burbage to the Lord Chancellor Ellesmere proves at the same time, if it be not a forgery, as it is now said to be, how little was known about him by people of that quality. "This other " (he writes, after describing him as his especial friend and the writer of some of our best English plays,) hath to name William Shakespeare. Both are right famous in their qualities, though it longeth not of your lordship's gravity and wisdom to resort unto the places where they were wont to delight the public ear." This was in 1608; and yet only six years before, when Ellesmere received Elizabeth at Harewood, Othello had been acted there for her entertainment. Even now a writer otherwise unknown hardly becomes known as the author of a successful play. "At present," said Mr. Rogers, "new plays seem hardly to be regarded as literature; people may go to see them acted, but no one thinks of reading them. During the run of Paul Pry, I happened to be at a dinner-party, where everybody was talking about it, that is, about Liston's performance of the hero. I asked first one person, then another, and then another, who was the author of it? Not a man or woman in the company knew that it was written by Poole!"- Recollections of the Table-talk of Samuel Rogers, p. 253.-J. S.

At Poësis Parabolica inter reliquas eminet, et tanquam res sacra videtur et augusta; cum præsertim religio ipsa ejus opera plerumque utatur, et per eam commercia divinorum cum humanis exerceat. Attamen et hæc quoque ingeniorum circa allegorias levitate et indulgentia contaminata invenitur. Est autem usus ambigui, atque ad contraria adhibetur. Facit enim ad involucrum; facit etiam ad illustrationem. In hoc docendi quædam ratio; in illo occultandi artificium quæri videtur. Hæc autem docendi ratio, quæ facit ad illustrationem, antiquis sæculis plurimum adhibebatur. Cum enim rationis humanæ inventa et conclusiones (etiam eæ quæ nunc tritæ et vulgatæ sunt) tunc temporis novæ et insueta essent, vix illam subtilitatem capiebant ingenia humana, nisi propius eæ ad sensum per hujusmodi simulachra et exempla deducerentur. Quare omnia apud illos fabularum omnigenarum et parabolarum et ænigmatum et similitudinum plena fuerunt. Hinc tessera Pythagoræ, ænigmata Sphingis, Æsopi fabulæ, et similia. Quinetiam apophthegmata veterum Sapientum fere per similitudines rem demonstrabant. Hinc Menenius Agrippa apud Romanos (gentem eo sæculo minime literatam) seditionem fabula repressit. Denique ut hieroglyphica literis, ita parabolæ argumentis erant antiquiores. Atque hodie etiam, et semper, eximius est et fuit parabolarum vigor; cum nec argumenta tam perspicua nec vera exempla tam apta esse possint.

Alter est usus Poëseos Parabolicæ, priori quasi contrarius, qui facit (ut diximus) ad involucrum; earum nempe rerum, quarum dignitas tanquam velo quodam discreta esse mereatur; hoc est, cum occulta et mysteria Religionis, Politicæ, et Philosophiæ, fabulis et

parabolis vestiuntur. Utrum vero fabulis veteribus poëtarum subsit aliquis sensus mysticus, dubitationem nonnullam habet. Atque ipsi certe fatemur nos in eam sententiam propendere, ut non paucis antiquorum poëtarum fabulis mysterium infusum fuisse putemus. Neque nos movet, quod ista pueris fere et grammaticis relinquantur, et vilescant, ut de illis contemptim sententiam feramus; quin contra cum plane constet scripta illa, quæ fabulas istas recitant, ex scriptis hominum post Literas Sacras esse antiquissima, et longe his antiquiores fabulas ipsas, (etenim tanquam prius creditæ et receptæ, non tanquam excogitatæ ab illis scriptoribus, referuntur); videntur esse instar tenuis cujusdam auræ, quæ ex traditionibus nationum magis antiquarum in Græcorum fistulas inciderunt. Cum vero quæ circa harum parabolarum interpretationem adhuc tentata sint, per homines scilicet imperitos nec ultra locos communes doctos, nobis nullo modo satisfaciant; Philosophiam secundum Parabolas Antiquas inter Desiderata referre visum est. Ejus autem operis exemplum unum aut alterum subjungemus. Non quod res sit fortasse tanti, sed ut institutum nostrum servemus. Id hujusmodi est, ut de operibus illis quæ inter Desiderata ponimus (si quid sit paulo obscurius) perpetuo aut præcepta ad opus illud instruendum, aut exempla proponamus; ne quis forte existimet levem aliquam tantum notionem de illis mentem nostram perstrinxisse, nosque

1 The hesitating manner in which Bacon here expresses himself shows that he felt, what every one in modern times who has considered the subject must I think feel, how difficult it is to enter into the spirit of the ancient mythus. Its essence seems to consist in a half-conscious blending of an idea with something that was accepted as a fact. See particularly on this point Müller's Introduction to Mythology. The mythus degenerates into allegory when the idea and the fact are conceived of as antitheti

regiones sicut augures animo tantum metiri, neque eas ingrediendi vias nosse. Aliam aliquam partem in Poësi desiderari non invenimus; quin potius cum planta sit Poësis, quæ veluti a terra luxuriante absque certo semine germinaverit, supra cæteras doctrinas excrevit et diffusa est. Verum jam Exempla proponemus, tria tantum numero; unum e Naturalibus, e Politicis unum, atque unum denique e Moralibus.

Exemplum primum Philosophiae secundum Parabolas antiquas, in Naturalibus. De Universo, secundum fabulam Panis.

ANTIQUI generationem Panis in dubio relinquunt. Alii enim eum a Mercurio genitum, alii longe alium generationis modum ei tribuunt. Aiunt enim procos universos cum Penelope rem habuisse, ex quo promiscuo concubitu Pana communem filium ortum esse. Neque prætermittenda est tertia illa generationis explicatio. Quidam enim prodiderunt eum Jovis et Hybreos (id est, Contumelia) filium fuisse. Utcunque orto, Parcæ illi sorores fuisse perhibentur, quæ in specu subterraneo habitabant; Pan autem morabatur sub dio. Effigies Panis talis ab antiquitate describitur; cornutus, cornibus in acutum surgentibus, et usque ad cœlum fastigiatis; corpore toto hispidus et villosus; barba in primis promissa; figura biformis, humana quoad superiora, sed semifera et in capræ pedes desinente. Gestabat autem insignia potestatis, sinistra fistulam ex septem calamis compactam, dextra pedum sive baculum superius curvum et inflexum. Induebatur chlamyde ex pelle pardalis. Potestates ei et munera hujusmodi attribuuntur, ut sit Deus venatorum, etiam pastorum,