Bacon, and on the latter's passports, preserved in the British Museum, the names of each appear.1

We have called attention to the scene in the drama of "Henry VIII," in which the fall of Lord Chancellor Wolsey in 1529 is depicted, and how closely it parallels that of Bacon in 1621. The most remarkable fact is, that contrary to history, four persons are represented as being sent to Wolsey to demand from him the Great Seal, while there were but two. These four persons were the Dukes of Norfolk and Suffolk, the Lord Chamberlain and Earl of Surrey, the persons who were really sent to Bacon to demand the Seal from him.2 This shows that the author of this scene drew his description from Bacon's case and not from Wolsey's. It can hardly be claimed that the actor was its author, as the event described in it occurred five years after his death.

Mr. Smedley is our authority for the following.

Among the books in Bacon's library is a copy of Alciati's "Emblems" annotated by Bacon, and the remarkable fact disclosed by the discovery of this book is, that not only has Ben Jonson "incorporated in his Discoveries the translation of a portion of one of the Emblems," but he "has also incorporated a portion of the annotations from this very book." 3

Any one acquainted with ancient manuscripts, especially government correspondence, is aware that numbers are often used in them, being substituted for names. This, for instance, is an example: A writer, who signs himself 67, writes this to 82: "I am satisfied that if 60 had given a decisive order to 19 the result would have been different." To mislead one who might possess himself of correspondence, two, or even more, numbers,

1 Add. MSS. No. 4125.

2 Lodge, Sketch of Wolsey in Portraits of Illustrious Personages, etc., vol. 1. p.9. Smedley, The Mystery of, etc., p. 160.

were used on different occasions. Bacon, as we know, had two numbers, 33 and 53, which he often employed. Both are his numerical names, using the ancient alphabet as numerals, a for 1, b for 2, and so on. The numbers in Bacon aggregate 33.

As 33 might by over-frequent use attract too much attention, he varied it by using 53, the numerical value of the Latin

T

HE greedie Sowe fo longe as fhee dothe finde,
Some fcatteringes lefte, of harueft vnder foote
She forward goes and neuer lookes behinde,
While anie tweete remayneth for to roote,

Euen foe wee fhoulde, to goodnes euerie daie
Still further paffe, and not to turne nor staie.

form "F. Bacono." That he did this is revealed in Whitney's "Emblems," page 53, published in 1586, when he was making emblem literature, one of "the little works of my recreation." The position of the emblem on page 53 would identify it beyond question with Bacon if the emblem itself did not. A glance at it, however, shows us the letter F in the broken arch reversed, as in the Montaigne title-page, and beneath it the double arch, which, turned half around to the right, discloses B. In the middle is the dark and light A so often used in his

head-pieces, and in the foreground surmounted by the word ulterius is a "Greedie Sow" by which stands a swineherd pointing to pillars of Hercules, bearing a scroll upon which is inscribed plus oltre, and over them the words In dies meliora ; in other words, the swineherd standing by the embodiment of stupid greed points to the hopeful words, "In better days more beyond."

That the number 53 plays an important rôle in the First Folio is evident. It is noticeable that it is divided into three parts, and each part separately numbered; making three pages numbered 53. In these we shall find this curious fact: in the first, in the "Merry Wives of Windsor," is "hang, hog,” and the reply, "hang-hog, is latten for Bacon." In the second division, the page of which is falsely numbered 53, as if to call especial attention to it, appears in "King Henry IV,” “I have a Gammon of Bacon."

Florio, who was one of Bacon's trusted servants, and was pensioned for making his "works known abroad," placed on page 53 of his "Second Frutes," the words, "Set that gammon of bakon upon the board."

In the 1664 edition of the Folio, the publication of which Bacon's friend, Rawley, is believed to have promoted, we shall hardly expect to find this revealing number, but an examination shows that two pages are numbered 53 placed opposite each other, and on both are found "S Albans," the name he often employed as a signature. There are many similar instances which clearly show design; their number and character making them beyond the bounds of coincidence. The curious exploitation of the Bacon crest was no doubt suggested by the somewhat threadbare but witty anecdote of Sir Nicholas Bacon, who, when a criminal by the name of Hogg appealed to him for a light sentence on the ground of relationship, replied, "You and I cannot be kindred except you be hanged; for Hog is not Bacon until it be well hanged."

Says Max Müller:

A well educated person in England who has been at a public school and at the university, seldom uses more than about 3000 or 4000 words. Shakespeare, who probably displayed a greater variety of expression than any writer in any language, produced all his plays with about 15,000 words.1

A recent writer on this subject says that the number is much larger than this, and that Murray's Dictionary shows that seven thousand are new words coined by the author of the plays. Between seven or eight thousand words only are said to have been used by Dickens and Thackeray. Is it supposable that the actor could have used double as many as either of these authors?

This verbal opulence is thus noticed by Furnivall in his notes in the quarto of "Lucrece":

In turning over the pages of Schmidt's Lexicon, I have been fairly surprised at the large proportion of his words and senses of words which Shakspere used only once.

We know that Bacon wrote a sonnet which he delivered to Elizabeth as a plea for forgiveness of Essex. The brilliant critic, Begley, has pointed out in Portia's address in the "Merchant of Venice" what he regards as this sonnet:

The quality of mercy is not strain'd,

It droppeth as the gentle rain from heaven
Upon the place beneath; it is twice bless'd;
It blesseth him that gives and him that takes.
'Tis mightiest in the mightiest, it becomes
The throned monarch better than the crown;
His sceptre shows the force of temporal power,
The attribute to awe and majesty,
Wherein doth sit the dread and power of kings.
It is our attribute to God himself,

And earthly power doth then show likest God's
When mercy seasons justice.

Science of Language, vol. 1, p. 378. 1899.

IV, I.

We have spoken of the fact that Bacon was married habited in purple. Curiously enough, when he rode in procession to be inducted into the office of Lord Chancellor, he was robed in the same royal color, which excited criticism. The state which he assumed annoyed the vain monarch, who regarded this display of the purple as a petty exhibition of vanity, but it may seem to some- and this seems to have escaped observation that he availed himself of these opportunities to bequeath to the future suggestive evidence of his right to wear it. If so, could the irony of fortune be more forcibly, perhaps we might say pathetically, displayed?