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attractive qualities for the public eye and ear, perhaps, and they kept the stage and were printed. The "Troilus and Cressida," which was altogether too philosophically profound and stately, too learnedly abstruse and lofty, to be popular on the stage, was even printed first, and only went to the theatre afterwards, where its stay seems to have been short.

Of the ten earlier plays which were first printed in the Folio, or first in complete form, some, it seems, had seldom appeared upon the stage, and others had been printed, at an early date, as first draughts, or as stolen copies. Of those which had been printed before 1623, there were, among the more attractive and popular plays on the stage, the "Richard II.," the "Richard III.," the "Merchant of Venice," the two parts of the "Henry IV.," the "Henry V.," the "Love's Labor's Lost," and the "Much Ado About Nothing," and of these, printed editions had been more in demand. But this part of the subject is so dark, that it is difficult to arrive at any certain conclusion, or any clear notion, in what manner these plays came to be printed at all. Doubtless there were some stolen copies and surreptitious editions, especially before 1600. The "Titus Andronicus" was entered as early as 1594, but it is not known to have been printed before 1600. The first sketch of the second part of the "Henry VI.,” printed in 1594 under the title of "The First Part of the Contention of the Two Famous Houses of York and Lancaster," and that of the third part, printed in 1595 under the style of "The True Tragedy of Richard, Duke of York," both without the name of the author, were very probably surreptitious copies of the early plays, which appear to have been upon the stage as early, at least, as 1587-88. The "Merry Wives of Windsor," first printed in 1602, was so imperfect, even as a first sketch of the play, that it has been presumed by the critics to have been a stolen and mangled copy, as the "Hamlet" of 1603 most certainly was. So far as we have any posi

tive knowledge, the second edition of the "Richard II.," which was printed in 1598, with the scene of deposing King Richard left out, was the first one that bore the name of William Shakespeare on the title-page; and there may have been some special reasons, as well for the publication of it at that time as for a close concealment of the real author's name (as we shall see below); especially when it is considered that, only one year later, Dr. Hayward was actually sent to the Tower for publishing the "First Yeare of King Henry the Fourth," which contained little else than the deposing of Richard II., which the Queen took to be a seditious and treasonable pamphlet; and that the Earl of Essex was charged with "undutiful carriage" toward her Majesty, in that he allowed it to be dedicated to him; though, on being warned of her anger, he had made all haste to have the book called in and suppressed.

On the other hand, some of the previous quartos approach so nearly to the more perfect copies of the Folio, and are so correctly printed, that it would seem to be highly probable that the author himself had had some hand in the supervision of the press. And when it is considered how many of those that had been printed in quarto were remodelled, rewritten, enlarged, elaborated, corrected, or amended, before they appeared again in the Folio, and how many of the plays were published therein for the first tine, and of what kind they were, we may easily believe, not only that the editors had much benefit from the possession of the "true original copies," but that even the true original copies themselves had undergone much revision. and emendation, before they appeared for the last time in the finished and perfected form of the Folio of 1623; nor need we be surprised at the announcement of the Preface, that they had so published them "as where (before) you were abused with divers stolne and surreptitious copies, maimed and deformed by the frauds and stealthes of injurious imposters, that exposed them: even those are now offered to

your view cured, and perfect of their limbes; and all the rest, absolute in their numbers as he conceived them": omnibus numeris suis absolutam !

And that such was the fact, the history of the "Timon of Athens" may furnish at least some slight confirmation. It has been observed that the old play of "Timon" was the work of some other author altogether; and the studies of the later critics, especially Mr. Knight, have shown that the materials and the story of this play must have been drawn from other sources than that old play, or North's translation of Plutarch; and, in fact, that they came chiefly from the untranslated Greek of Lucian. There appears to be no mention on record of any performance of this play on the stage in those times, nor does the existence of it appear to have been known, until it was published in this Folio; and (as it will be shown) there is so much in the matter and style of it that so aptly accords with the external history of Lord Bacon's life, and especially with his later years, and so many distinct traces of himself in it, that it is not difficult to believe it was the latest production of his dramatic muse.

§ 5. ASSOCIATES.

That Francis Bacon, during the earlier portion of the period in which these plays were produced, comprising also nearly the whole period of the sonnets and minor poems, was an intimate personal friend, acquaintance, and associate of the Earls of Essex, Southampton, Rutland, Pembroke, and Montgomery, and other young lords and courtiers, who were also, at the same time, the especial patrons and constant frequenters of Shakespeare's theatre, may be taken as an indubitable fact. Not only in the relations of these great personages, but in the manners of the court and time, there are many circumstances which tend strongly to confirm the view here taken of this authorship. A few of them may be particularly noticed, even at the risk of some

slight repetition. It was in 1609 that the first authentic edition of the sonnets was dedicated by the printer to "Mr. W. H.," the only begetter of them, (supposed by Mr. Collier and others, no doubt correctly, to mean William Herbert, Earl of Pembroke,) as "never before imprinted";1 the previous smaller edition having been in all probability surreptitiously published. Now it is worthy of mention, at least, that Pembroke, Rutland, and Montgomery, were witnesses to Bacon's patent of peerage in 1618, and were present at his investiture with the coronet of St. Alban in 1621; and to Pembroke and Montgomery was dedicated the Folio of 1623. It is historically known that Bacon wrote sonnets to the Queen, and masques and devices to be exhibited before her. Plays, masques, and triumphs were frequently gotten up, sometimes in great magnificence, by these young lords and courtiers, for her entertainment at Court, at the Universities, at the Inns of Court, or at their own private houses, in which her greatest favorites took the leading interest and the largest part. Companies of players were kept enrolled among the servants of the greater nobles, or were licensed under their patronage, Shakespeare's theatres received the royal countenance and protection. The "Lord Chamberlain's Servants of the Globe and Blackfriars, in the reign of Elizabeth, became "His Majesty's Servants," in the time of King James. Nor is there anything improbable in the supposition that the courtly Francis Bacon, who was so notoriously given to the writing of masques and sonnets for the edification of the virgin Queen, should exert his genius in this same direction far more extensively than was publicly known, or even suspected by the Queen herself. It is quite certain that some of the plays were performed, for the first time, before her Majesty at Whitehall and other palaces; and, according to certain traditions, she seems to have taken an

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1 Shakes. Sonnets (Fac-simile of the ed. of 1609, from the Original in the Library of Bridgewater House), London, 1862.

especial delight in the fantastic wit and superb drolleries of the fat knight in the "Henry IV." and the " Merry Wives of Windsor." King James appears to have taken equal pleasure in these dramatic entertainments. As we have seen, many of the plays were first performed before the King at Court, in his time. And the Essay on Masques and Triumphs," and the several masques themselves, which are certainly known to have been written by Bacon, afford proof enough that he had the ability, the Shakespearean wit, the same grace, brevity, and beauty of style, an imagination equally powerful, and a love for the sport.

King James, on his coming into England in 1603, was entertained with a play performed by Heming's company, at Wilton, the country-seat of the Earl of Pembroke. The "Macbeth" was evidently suggested by the change of dynasty and the Scottish superstitions concerning demonology and witchcraft, on which King James had himself written a book; and the new sovereign is said to have acknowledged the compliment in an autograph letter addressed to William Shakespeare, a document which seems never to have seen the light. "The system of Dæmonologie," says Dr. Johnson's Preface, "was immediately adopted by all who desired either to gain preferment, or not to lose it." And it is worthy of notice, also, in this connection, that this play was written about the time that Bacon was made Solicitor-General; and that the "Henry VIII." was produced in great splendor, with a studied compliment to King James, just when he had obtained the royal promise to succeed to the Attorney-General's place. Not that King James, or Queen Elizabeth, knew that Bacon was the author of these plays (though it might be difficult to name a reason why they should not have known), but that they may very well have understood, at least, that he, among other courtiers, was largely instrumental in getting up these magnificent entertainments for the royal amuse

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