Caliban.

"You taught me language; and my [profit on't Is, I know how to curse. The red plague rid you For learning me your language!"

CHAPTER XI

PROBLEMATIC MANUSCRIPTS

I have already given an instance of the unfortunate Massinger's familiarity with Bacon's private and unpublished correspondence. In the present Chapter some passages will be brought together pointing to the conclusion that not only Massinger, but many other players were privy to Bacon's notebooks and private papers.

The identity between certain Promus notes and passages in the works of Shakespeare have led some to suppose that the writings of Bacon and Shakespeare are the work of one brain. Dr. Abbott, in his preface to Mrs Pott's exhaustive work upon this subject observes :

"The author has certainly shown that there is a very considerable similarity of phrase and thought between these two great authors. More than this, the Promus seems to render it highly probable, if not absolutely certain, that Francis Bacon in the year 1594 had either heard or read Shakespeare's Romeo and Juliet. Let the reader turn to the passage in that play where Friar Laurence lectures Romeo on too early rising, and note the italicised words :

But where unbruised youth with unstuff'd brain Doth couch his limbs, there golden sleep doth reign:

Therefore thy earliness doth me assure
Thou art up-roused by some distemperature.
Romeo and Juliet, III. 3, 40.

but

"Now let him turn to entries 1207 and 1215 in the following pages, [the Promus] and he will find that Bacon, among a number of phrases relating to early rising, has these words, almost consecutively, 'golden sleep' and 'up-rouse'. One of these entries would prove little or nothing; anyone accustomed to evidence will perceive that two of these entries constitute a coincidence amounting almost to a demonstration that either (1) Bacon and Shakespeare borrowed from some common, and at present unknown, source; or (2) one of the two borrowed from the other. The author's belief is that the play is indebted for these expressions to the Promus; mine is that the Promus borrowed them from the play. But in any case, if the reader will refer to the author's comments on this passage he will find other similarities between the play and the Promus which indicate borrowing of some sort.

Bacon's Promus notes were made about the years 1594 to 1596; a date on the first page shews that they were begun on 5th December 1594; the first edition of Romeo and Juliet was published in 1597. There There is, however, reason to believe that the play was written possibly as early as 1591, and there is therefore the possibility that Bacon may have had access to the Theatre MS. or have been present at a public performance.

The connection between The Promus and the Elizabethan drama in general seems to be a

peculiarly close one, and is not restricted to the Shakespeare plays. Although only a small proportion of the entries can be traced in Bacon's acknowledged works, on the other hand nearly all the dramatists seem constantly to have drawn upon them. "The collection, says Spedding,

"is of a most miscellaneous character and seems by various marks in the MS. to have been afterwards digested into other collections which are lost. I have noted many instances what seemingly is dramatic indebtedness to the Promus and give herewith a few.

of

Among other entries are many notes from the Adagia of Erasmus. "Some, says Mrs Pott,

"are abbreviated or transcribed with an intentional alteration; thus in Eras. Ad. p. 370, 'Amazonum cantilena.' (the song of the Amazons), which Erasmus explains as a satirical allusion to the delicate and effeminate men whom the Amazons were wont to celebrate in their songs. In the Promus the word 'cantilena' is distinctly changed to 'cautilea.' There is no such Latin word as ( cautilea,' but the word seems to have become associated in Bacon's mind with 'caudex' a tail: for he appends to it a note, "The Amazon's sting- delicate persons.' Here it is not difficult to discover the turn which the idea has taken. The tongue of delicate persons (especially of women) is their sting."

The following passages exhibit precisely this same peculiar idea.

Petruchio. "Come, come, you wasp; i' faith, you are too angry.'

Kate. "If I be waspish, best beware my sting.

Petruchio. "Who knows not where a wasp does wear his sting? In his tail.” Kate. "In his tongue."

SHAKESPEARE (Taming of the Shrew 11. 1.) 1623. [Women] are dangerous creatures, they sting at both ends doctor!

MASSINGER (A Very Woman III. 4.) 1634. Women.... relish much of scorpions for both have stings.

BEAUMONT & FLETCHER (Custom of the Country

The sting i' th' tail.

v. 5.) 1628-1647.

IBID (Mad Lover 1. 1.) 1619-1647.

I.. a scorpions tail behind her spied

Pity such beauty such a monster hide.

A siren above

ANON (True Trojans 111. 6.) 1633.

But below a very serpent ; no female scorpion
Did ever carry such a sting; believe it.

MARMION (Antiquary 1.) 1641.

Among other instances where the Promus appears to have furnished the germs of subsequently expanded thought, are the following.

HAIL OF PEARL

Haile of Perle.

BACON (Promus) 1594-1596.

A shower in April, every drop an orient

pearl.

MASSINGER (Bashful Lover Iv. 1.) 1636. I'll set thee in a shower of gold and hail rich pearls upon thee. SHAKESPEARE (Antony and Cleopatra 11. 5.) 1623.