For the instructions and corruptions of the stage may be great; but the corruptions in this kind abound; the discipline is altogether neglected in our times. For although in modern Commonwealths stageplays be but esteemed a sport or pastime unless it draw from the satire and be mordant; yet the care of the Ancients was that it should instruct the minds of men unto Virtue. Nay, wise men and great and great Philosophers have accounted it as the Archet or musical Bow of the Mind. And certainly it is most true, and as it were a secret of nature, that the minds of men are more patent to affections and impressions congregate than solitary. " 1 Gervinus perspicuously notes that the aim of Shakespeare was to root up and expel the inimical powers of the mind; alluring disordered souls and vulgar passions to worthy aims. He states, "The relation of Shakespeare's poetry to morality and to moral influence upon men is most perfect. In this respect from Aristotle to Schiller nothing higher has ever been asked of Poetry than that which Shakespeare rendered. If Bacon felt the lack of a Science of human passions he rightly thought that Historians and Poets supplied this science and he might well have searched for it before all in the writings of his neighbour Shakespeare; for no other poetry has taught as his has done by reminders and warnings that the taming of the passions is the aim of human civilisation. 2 The views of the other poet-philosophers of this period upon the taming of the passions (see I Advancement of Learning Bk. 11 Ch. XIII. 2 Commentaries. p. 890. ante p. 88) disprove the singularity of Shakespeare in this nobility of aim. It was in truth the motif of the Elizabethan drama. Philosophy in the shape of Orpheus seems to have brooded like a Spirit over the theatrical hacks touching the different toned harp of each, ever with the same bewitching melody. The following passages reveal this underlying thought. Methought I sat like Orpheus, casting reins on savage beasts. CHAPMAN (Byron v. 1.) 1605-1608. That drew men differing little then from beasts MASSINGER (Parliament of Love) 1624. Poets write that Orpheus made the trees And stones to dance to his melodious harp Meaning, the rustic and the barbarous binds That had no understanding part in them. HEYWOOD (Woman killed by Kindness) 1607. Apollo's lyre, whose sprightly fires Have tamed rude beasts and charmed men's wild [desires. JOHN DAY (Humour out of Breath 1. 1.) 1608. If the touch of sweet concordant strings ANON (Edward III. III. I.) 1596. The Bacchides-like character of the crowddiffering little then from beasts-and its bestial instincts are figured by Marston. I Orpheus was by some writers said to be the son of Apollo. But if poor Orpheus sing melodiously And straight they tear the sweet musician. (Satyres) 1598. We find the same idea in Bacon. In De Sapientia Veterum he writes : "The most excellent remedy, in every temptation, is that of Orpheus, who, by loudly chanting and resounding the praises of the gods, confounded the voices and kept himself from hearing the music of the Sirens; for divine contemplations exceed the pleasures of sense, not only in power but also in sweetness.' In the introduction to The Advancement of Learning he observes somewhat bitterly : "The doctrines in greatest vogue among the people are either the contentious and quarrelsome, or the showy and empty.... Whence of course the greatest geniuses in all ages have suffered violence, whilst out of regard to their own character they submitted to the judgment of the times, and the populace. And thus when any more sublime speculations happened to appear they were commonly tossed and extinguished by the breath of popular opinion." A pathetic confirmation is furnished by Marston who likewise endues the fable of Prometheus with Bacon's (?) sinister interpretation. Prometheus who celestial fire Did steal from Heaven therewith to inspire Our earthly bodies with a senseful mind (Satyres) 1598. O hidden depth of that dread secrecy But I forget, why sweat I out my brain 1 I Compare Bacon's De Sapientia Veterum," Prometheus, or the State of Man" "The last particular in the fable is the Games of the Torch, instituted to Prometheus, which again relates to arts and sciences, as well as the invention of fire, for the commemoration and celebration whereof these games were held. And here we have an extremely prudent admonition, directing us to expect the perfection of the sciences from succession, and not from the swiftness and abilities of any single person; for he who is fleetest and strongest in the course may perhaps be less fit to keep his torch alight, since there is danger of its going out from too rapid as well as from too slow a motion. But this kind of contest, with the torch, seems to have been long dropped and neglected; the sciences appearing to have flourished principally in their first authors, as Aristotle, Galen, Euclid, Ptolemy, etc., while their successors have done very little, or scarce made any attempts. But it were highly to be wished that these games might be renewed, to the honour of Prometheus, or human nature, and that they might excite contest, emulation, and laudable endeavours, and the design meet with such success as not to hang tottering, tremulous, and hazarded, upon the torch of any single person. Mankind, therefore, should be adminished to rouse themselves, and try and exert their own strength and chance, and not place all their dependence upon a few men, whose abilities and capacities, perhaps, are not greater than their own. These are the particulars which appear to us shadowed out by this trite and vulgar fable, though without denying that there may be contained in it several intimations that have a surprising correspondence with the Christian mysteries. In particular, the voyage of Hercules, made in a pitcher, to release Prometheus, bears an allusion to the word of God, coming in the frail vessel of the flesh to redeem mankind. But we indulge ourselves no such liberties as these, for fear of using strange fire at the altar of the Lord. " In deep designs to gay boys, lewd and vain. These notes were better sung 'mong better sort, But to my pamphlets few save fools resort. (Scourge of Villainy) 1599. With respect to these passages and the dates of their publication it is not easy to say whether the writers anticipated the unconscious Bacon, or whether he surreptitiously lighted his great torch at their rush lights. Before, however, charging him with malappropriation, the statement in Rawley's Life should be considered. "He was no dashing man as some men are; but ever a countenancer and fosterer of another mans parts. Neither was he one that would appropriate the speech wholly to himself or delight to outvie others.... he contemned no mans observations but would light his torch at every mans candle. The memorial to Shakespeare, which at the time of writing is in contemplation, might appropriately in one of its forms take the shape of a statue of Orpheus and his Lute, inscribed as at Gorhambury PHILOSOPHY PERSONIFIED. To how great or how little an extent the Elizabethan drama is indebted to the classics is beyond my province and capabilities to enquire. Eventually it will, however, I think, be shewn to enshrine nearly all the wisdom and beauty of the ancients. A large proportion is notoriously founded upon classical classical models. Gervinus notes that Lyly's Mother Bombie, a "purely popular farce,' is designed in the purest style of Terence. Galatea is "a Greek legend transported into Lincolnshire." In Campaspe "all the witty anecdotes and sallies which antiquity heaped upon Alexander and |