in the Promus and in the plays are derived from proverbs in Heywood's collection. TURNS OF SPEECH AND SINGLE WORDS. The turns of speech are so closely allied to the similes that it is often impossible to draw a line between them. Some notes, however, in this class appear to have been made by Bacon solely with the view of enriching his diction or his vocabulary—at least this is the only way in which they are found applied. Some of these notes are, from a grammatical point of view, untranslatable, and some which have been traced to Erasmus's Adagia are there used with an application which is not repeated either in Bacon's prose or in the plays. Thus Puer glaciem (the boy the ice) is a fragmentary expression which Erasmus quotes as a proverb of those who persist in grasping things which it is impossible that they should retain. The idea itself does not seem to be reproduced anywhere, but perhaps the conjunction of words suggested the peculiar expression in All's Well regarding the lords who decline to fall in love with Helen, 'These boys are boys of ice.' The idea receives further development in other passages. 'Vita doliaris' (the life in a cask or tun) is commented upon by Erasmus as referring to Diogenes and a frugal, abstemious manner of living. Here, again, it is possible that the words, which are not to be found repeated in their accepted interpretation, may have brought to Bacon's mind an opposite image suggesting the description which is put into Prince Harry's mouth of Falstaff, 'a tun of a man,' 'a huge bombard of sack... good for nothing but to taste sack and drink it.' 'Fumos vendere' (to sell smoke) is one of the rare instances in which Bacon is found quoting Erasmus in his acknowledged writings, although he took such abundant notes from his work. On this occasion it is in one of Bacon's devices, the 'Gesta Grayorum,' that the figure has been introduced. 6 Erasmus quotes it as an elegant saying of Martial with regard to those who sell slight favours at a high price; but in the Gesta Grayorum' the expression to sell smoke' is used of persons whose empty or inflated talk is of 'so airy and light a quality' as to be valueless. The same thought of smoke as an image of empty talk or of insubstantial passion appears in such phrases as these: 'Sweet smoke of rhetoric!' 'Love is a smoke raised with the fume of sighs;' A bolt of nothing shot at nothing, which the brain makes of fumes;' The windy breath of soft petitions.' 'Domi conjecturam facere' (to make a conjecture at home) is a proverb directed, Erasmus says, against those who will not gain experience by personal exertion, but who sit at home and conjecture possibilities, as in Coriolanus the plebeians are described by Caius Marcius Hang 'em they say! They'll sit by the fire and presume to know What's done in the Capitol; who's like to rise, Who thrives, and who declines; side factions, and give out 'Res in cardine' may have given a hint for the figure of a hinge or loop to hang a doubt upon, in Othello, iii. 3, 1. 367. 'Horresco referens,' from Virgil, is suggestive of exclamations such as those in Macb. ii. 3, O horror! horror! horror!' or that in Hamlet, i. 5, O horrible! O horrible! most horrible!' Each of these, it will be observed, is introduced in connection with the narration of a horrible tale. Folio 89 contains a consecutive list of upwards of fifty short expressions of single words, and folio 126 eighty more, nearly the whole of which will be found in the earlier plays. Some, such as 'O my L.S.,' which is apparently the 'O Lord, sir,' of Love's Labour's Lost and All's Well, are then dropped, and do not appear clsewhere in the plays; but by far the larger number, such as, ‘Believe me,' 'What else?' 'Is it possible ?' For the rest,' 'You put me in mind,' 'Nothing less,' &c., are to be met with throughout the plays, and remain now amongst us as household words. Most of these are indeed so common now, that again the idea naturally occurs that any one might have used such expressions, and that they may no doubt be found in the writings of authors earlier than Bacon or contemporaries with him. It is always a difficult and troublesome thing to prove a negative, and we might be led too far afield if the attempt were made in this place to prove that these short expressions were of Bacon's own invention, or introduction into general use, and that they are in the first instance only to be found in the Promus notes and in Bacon's writings. All that can be said now is, that although diligent search has been made in the best works of the authors who flourished between the beginning of the sixteenth to the middle of the seventeenth century, only two or three of the terms of expression have been traced, and these expressions are used by a very limited number of authors, and rarely by them. Thus, Lyly in his plays, Mydas (i. 1) and Mother Bombie (ii. 2 and iv. 3), thrice uses the form What else?' This appears in the Promus at No. 308, and it is used many times in the plays of Shakespeare, but, so far as can be discovered, by no other previous author excepting Lyly. 'Well' (Promus, 295) is a word so frequently used by several authors as a commencement or continuation of an argument, that one wonders, at first sight, why Bacon should take the trouble even to note it. By collecting all the instances in which it is used in the plays, it is, however, perceived that this word is there sometimes used alone, and not as a beginning or continuation of an argument, but as a response, either by way of approval or expressive of doubt Cress. Well, well. Pan. Well, well? (Tr. Cr. i. 2.) It may be supposed that this latter use was as common in literature or conversation as the former, but the only instance which has been found of it is again in Lyly; (Mother Bombie, ii. 1). In Gallathea, v. 3, Lyly uses the expression 'Is it possible?' which forms the entry No. 275 in the Promus notes. This expression, which occurs twenty times in Shakespeare, has not been met with in any other author until its appearance in the Spanish Student by Beaumont and Fletcher, 1647. Greene, in his Looking-glass for London, 1594, uses two turns of expression which are in the Promus, 'Believe me' and All's one.' Here the date coincides so closely with that which is assigned to the Promus notes (although some are undated), that it must for the present remain an open question whether Bacon derived the expressions from Greene or Greene from Bacon. There is this to be said, however, that whereas the instances in the Looking-glass for London seem to be the only ones in which Greene made use of these expressions, they are frequently found in Shakespeare. 'Believe me,' 'Believe it,' &c., occurs upwards of fifty times in the plays, and All's one' or 'It's all one' is repeated in five or six places. 6 In the Appendix G will be found a list of authors chronologically arranged, with the works which have been chiefly studied, and notes of any similarities which have been observed in these works with the Promus entries. The fifth class of notes consists of Single Words which are here and there to be met with in the Promus, and which seem to mark the introduction of those words into the English language, or at least to bring them out of the cell of the student and the pedant into the free air of general society. For example, on folio 92 (461) appears the single word 'real' a word now so familiar and necessary that pro bably most of us would expect to meet with it frequently in Shakespeare. Yet in point of fact it only occurs there twice--once in All's Well, v. 3, 1. 305, and once in Coriolanus, iii. 1, 1. 146; whilst 'really' appears for the first and last time in Hamlet, v. 2, 1. 128. Perhaps Bacon, who was well acquainted with the Spanish language (and who gleaned from it many proverbs, similes, and turns of expression) was attracted by this suggestive word, 'real' with its treble meaning of 'royal,' 'actual,' and of sterling goodness, for real was also the name of a golden coin worth ten shillings. These three meanings, separate or combined, are to be seen in many places where royal is used in the plays, and the two words 'real' and 'royal' seem to be often employed interchangeably. (See No. 461.) In All's Well, v. 3, the word 'real' appears to be introduced in order to give greater force to the King's astonishment, when his Queen, 'that is dead, becomes quick' :— King. Is there no exorcist Beguiles the truer office of thine eyes? Is it real that I see? Hel, No, good my lord: 'Tis but the shadow of a wife you see; The name and not the thing. The last two lines seem to suggest the double idea of 'royal' and 'actual,' or genuine; perhaps they might be construed thus: 'Tis but the shadow of the royal lady that you see; the name and not the actual thing.' 6 In the first part of Hen. IV. ii. 4, we find the word royal' used instead of 'real' in a pun or quibble which Prince Henry makes upon the coins 'noble' and 'real.' ' Host. My lord, there is a nobleman would speak to you. P. Ien. Give him as much as will make him a royal man, and send him back. And again, in the Winter's Tale, v. 3, Leonatus apostro A 'noble' was a coin worth 6s. 87; a 'real' a coin worth 10s. |