XXX HISTORY AND PLAN OF THIS EDITION. announced of giving an engraving of a bust in terra cotta representing Bacon in his twelfth year, which is at Gorhambury, in the possession of the Earl of Verulam. But this also is a work of great merit, and extremely interesting. It is coloured, and (like Hilliard's miniature) shows the head. I have been told by artists that it is probably of Italian workmanship; and certainly the work of an accomplished sculptor, who had a delicate perception of form and character. A faithful representation of it would be one of the most valuable contributions which could be made to our collections of the faces of memorable men. There are other portraits of Bacon in existence, but I have not myself seen any which can be relied upon as authentic or which appear to have any independent value. If the foregoing remarks should be the means of bringing any such out of their hiding-places, I shall think them well bestowed; and I need scarcely add that I should be most happy to receive any communication on the subject, and to afford what help I can towards putting them in their true light. 60. Lincoln's Inn Fields, January, 1857. JAMES SPEDDING. THE LIFE OF THE RIGHT HONOURABLE FRANCIS BACON, BARON OF VERULAM, VISCONNT ST. ALBAN. BY WILLIAM RAWLEY, D.D. HIS LORDSHIP'S FIRST AND LAST CHAPLAIN AND OF LATE HIS [This is the title of an edition printed in 1670, after Dr. Rawley's death, and prefixed to the ninth edition of the Sylva Sylvarum. The text of the Life itself is taken from the second edition of the Resuscitatio, the latest with which Rawley had anything to do. I have, however, modernised the spelling; altered at discretion the typographical arrangement as to capitals, italics, and punctuation, which is very perplexing to a modern eye and has nothing to recommend it; and added the notes. -J. S.] |