5. Single words. 6. Mottoes for chapters of meditation. 7. Folio 111. Forms of morning and evening salutation, and other notes, apparently relating to Romeo and Juliet. 8. Miscellaneous. PROVERBS. Perhaps the simplest group of notes is that consisting of proverbs. It is a large group, containing not only English, but Latin, French, Italian, and Spanish proverbs, and although some of these are now in common collections and in everybody's mouth, yet, when they come to be examined, the suggestive fact is discovered that the English proverbs in the Promus are all taken from the single collection of J. Heywood's epigrams (published 1562, reprinted for the Spenser Society, 1867). Those English proverbial sayings in the Promus which are not included in Heywood's epigrams seem to be translations from the proverbs of other languages, or derived from the Bible. There are 203 English proverbs in the Promus (all, as has been said, from John Heywood's collection), and of these, 152, or three-fourths, have been found directly . quoted or alluded to in the plays. Hardly one of these 152 proverbs has been found quoted in Bacon's acknowledged writings, unless a figure drawn from card-playing, in a letter to Sir M. Hicks, and which will be found attached to other quotations at 641 in the Promus, can be thought to refer to the proverb or saying which is entered at that place. Heywood's collection of proverbial sayings-some of which he worked up into a kind of story in rhyme, and from others of which he derived what he was pleased to call his epigrams are by no means a complete collection of old English proverbs, as may easily be seen by comparing them with any popular book of the kind. There are in Heywood between 450 and 500 proverbs, which have for the most part appeared in later collections, and of which a large number have perhaps become especially well known by being used in Shakespeare; but it will be found that Shakespeare's list does not include nearly all the old-fashioned proverbs which were used by other writers of his day. For instance, were we to open haphazard the pages of Lyly's Euphues,' perhaps the most famous and widelyread book in the days of Elizabeth, we should be pretty sure to cast our eyes on some proverbial saying. One in five or six of these will probably be found in Heywood's epigrams, but the rest, although some of them are still popular, are neither in Heywood, nor in the Promus, nor in the plays. For instance, 'Dropping wears a stone,' 'Cut a coat by another man's measure,' Fortune ruleth the roast,' 'Quench fire in the spark,' As deep drinketh the goose as the gander,' 'The blind man eateth many a fly,'&c. Lyly's Euphues was no doubt most familiar to the author of the plays; there are abundant similarities in certain points which testify to this being a fact. Still, although Euphues contains a fair sprinkling of proverbs which are noted in the Promus, the evidence is strong that Bacon and the author of the plays drew from the collection of This book, once so famous that it seems to have been in the hands of every educated person, is now little known. It may be worth while to add a few particulars concerning it. The first part, Euphues: The Anatomy of Wit, appeared in 1579; and the second part, Euphues: His England, followed in 1580. Between this date and 1586, at least five editions of each part were printed. Numerous other editions were subsequently printed, the latest of which is dated 1636. This work placed Lyly in the highest ranks of literature. His book was made what it is said that he intended it to be a model of elegant English. The court ladies had all the phrases by heart, and the work, we read, was long a vade-mecum with the fashionable world. When the last edition had been exhausted, the book seems almost to have disappeared, and to have been subjected to increasing obloquy, and to criticisms of the most ignorant and unappreciative description, until about 1855, when the tide of opinion began to turn, interest was again aroused, and the book, which the Rev. Charles Kingsley describes as, in spite of occasional tediousness and pedantry, as brave, righteous, and pious a book as man need look into,' was edited and reprinted by Mr. Arber (Southgate, 1868). From this edition have been gathered the above particulars. Heywood, on account of the immense preponderance of proverbs from this one source both in the Promus and the plays. No one who is acquainted with Bacon's method and habits would expect to find him taking written notes, sometimes repeatedly, of proverbs, or indeed of anything else so commonplace as to be, in his day, in everybody's mouth, nor can it be conceived possible that he would make notes without an object. The impression which, on the whole, the proverbs leave on the mind is that they struck Bacon's fancy as containing some grains of concentrated wisdom, or observations such as the ancients thought good for life,'' and that he jotted them down, a few at a time perhaps, by way of assistance to his memory and his 'invention,' not, (as may have been the case with the Latin quotations in folios 83, 84) for the general furnishing and improvement of his own mind, but with the specific view of their introduction in various forms into his plays. Although the notes seem to have been made when Bacon was about thirty years of age, and when in all probability he was writing, or preparing to write, the early comedies and historical plays, yet it will be seen by examining the Promus, that by far the largest number of these notes, even if they have been used before, are reproduced in the tragedies of the so-called 'third period.' In Lear, for instance, a larger number of proverbs may be counted than are to be found in any of the other plays. Several of these, however, are traceable to the list of choice French proverbs' which form the concluding folios of the Promus. The search after proverbs leads to the observation, how much wisdom and wit is introduced in Lear, as in most of the plays, by means of the proverbial philosophy which is put into the mouths of the fools. 1 See Advancement of Learning, viii., Spedding, v. 50–56, where Bacon expresses his opinion of the value of proverbial philosophy as 'springing from the inmost recesses of wisdom and extending to a variety of occasions. Wherefore seeing I set down this knowledge of scattered occasions among the deficients, I will stay awhile upon it.' Many of the Promus proverbs are applied two or three times in the plays, each time with a difference. For instance, in the Tempest, iii. 2 (song), and in Twelfth Night, i. 3, is this proverb, 'Thought is free,' in its simple form. The proverb is from Heywood's collection, and is entered in the Promus (667). In 2 Hen. VI. v. 1, occurs the same idea antithetically expressed, 'Unloose thy long imprisoned thoughts.' In Anthony and Cleopatra, i. 5, free thoughts are returned to: "Thy freer thoughts may not fly forth;' and in two places in the same scene in Hamlet, iii. 2, are found allusions to our free souls,' it being added that our thoughts are ours, their end none of our own.' This proverb affords a fair illustration of Bacon's manner of cogitating, and of reproducing in various forms the result of his cogitations. Repeated instances of this are to be met with-how he takes a thought, moulds, shapes, refines, or enlarges it, until in the end it would be impossible to trace it to its origin if the intermediate links were missing. He that pardons his enemy, the amner (bailiff) shall have his goods. (Promus, from Heywood.) This occurs in the Advancement of Learning, vi. 3, in this form: He who shows mercy to his enemy denies it to himself. In Rich. II. it is expressed thus: Ill may'st thou thrive if thou grant any grace. In Mea. for Mea. :— Pardon is the nurse of second woe. In this case the passage from the prose work has the word mercy instead of pardon, which stands in the Promus and in Measure for Measure. In spite of Bacon All is not gold that glisters,' No. 490, affords a similar example. ، having 'set down the knowledge of scattered occasions,' or of the use of proverbial philosophy among the deficients,' one would naturally expect to find Heywood's epigrams and proverbs in other plays besides Shakespeare, and common in the literature of the period; but although careful search has been made, so few have been found that it does not seem worth while to pause her in order to notice them. They may be found in the Appendix A. For those who may be interested in investigating the use which is made in the plays of the proverbial philosophy which Bacon esteemed so valuable, there is added (in Appendix B) a list of about forty proverbs which are part of Heywood's collection, and which are also used in the plays. These proverbs are not in the Promus, but perhaps it is not unreasonable to suppose that if the lost MSS. of the Ornamenta Rationalia could have been recovered these other Shakespearian proverbs might have been found amongst them. To return to the proverbs which are noted in the Promus and quoted in the plays: it will be found that they are used sometimes simply, sometimes antithetically, sometimes allusively. Occasionally a proverb is used prosaically in the plays and poetically in Bacon's prose works, and conversely as well.2 Frequently the proverb undergoes so many changes that, unless it could be traced through its various stages, one might easily fail to recognise it in its final development. In a few instances combinations of two of Heywood's proverbs appear in the plays. In the Promus a similar combination is found. These instances seem to be of interest and to deserve special prominence. The first occurs in folio 103 of the Promus, where two proverbs of Heywood's collection (but which do not occur together there)- See note on p. 19. Better to bow than break, Of sufferance cometh ease 2 No instance of this has been found amongst the English proverbs. |