of gravity in his speaking: his language, where he could spare or pass by a jest, was nobly censorious. No man ever spake more neatly, more pressly, more weightily, or suffered less emptiness, less idleness in what he uttered: no member of his speech but consisted of its own graces. His hearers could not cough or look aside from him without loss: he commanded when he spoke, and had his judges angry and pleased at his devotion. No man had their affections more in his power: the fear of every man that heard him was lest he should make an end.' 'His look Drew audience and attention still as night There is reason to believe, that this manly speech about the subsidy, and the opinion that Bacon was rather a man of wit and knowledge than a profound lawyer, retarded, * Milton. C for a time, his further advancement; for when the Solicitorship became vacant, by the appointment of sir Edward Coke to the office of Attorney-General, not all the influence of Essex,* backed, though it were, with the wishes of all men,' could induce the Queen, notwithstanding an already implied promise, to promote the friend of her favourite to the vacant place. 'Her majesty,' said Bacon, 'had by set speech more than once assured me of her intention to call me to her service; which I could not understand but of the place I had been named to, (the Solicitor's.) And now, whether "invidas homo hoc fecit," or whether my matter must be an appendix to my lord of Essex's suit, or whether her majesty, pretending to prove my ability, meaneth *It is easy to perceive from lord Essex's letters on this subject, that the Queen, conscious of the influence that her favourite had over her, was determined, on this occasion, to show the proud spirit of her father, and resist the suit. See Note (B.) but to take advantage of some errors, which, like enough, at one time or other I may commit, or what it is, but her majesty is not ready to dispatch it. This is a course to quench all good spirits, and to corrupt every man's nature; which will, I fear, much hurt her majesty's service in the end. I have been like a piece of stuff bespoken in the shop; and if her majesty will not take me, it may be, the selling by parcels may be more gainful. For to be like a child following a bird, which, when he is nearest, flieth away, and lighteth a little before, and then the child after it again, and so in infinitum, I of it.'* am weary Disappointed, and, as he thought, disgraced, † by being thus neglected, he im * Bacon's Works, vol. 12, pp. 160, 161. + Casting the worst of my fortune with an honourable friend that had long used me privately, I told his lordship (Essex) of this purpose of mine to travel, accompanying it with these very words, that upon her majesty's rejecting me with such circumstance, though parted to his brother and lord Essex his design to leave England, and so sing a mass of requiem abroad.'* This reaching the ears of the Queen, greatly incensed her majesty; who, refusing to admit him to an audience, with an oath declared, that, if he continued in this manner, she would seek all England for a solicitor rather than take him ; yea, she would send for Heuston and Coventry, as if, said Bacon, she would swear them both.+ my heart might be good, yet mine eyes would be sore, that I should take no pleasure to look upon my friends; for that I was not an impudent man that could face out a disgrace; and that I hoped her majesty would not be offended, that, not able to endure the sun, I fled into the shade.'-Bacon's Works, vol. 13, p. 85. It appears from the same letter that this design of going abroad, which Bacon intended to keep secret till her majesty had made a Solicitor, was disclosed by lord Essex. * Bacon's Works, vol. 13, p. 84. + Ib. 83. Again she entereth into it,' says Bacon, that she never deals so with any as with me, (in hoc erratum non est.) She hath pulled me over the bar, At this time the University of Cambridge, appreciating his great and various endowments, conferred upon him* the degree of Master of Arts; and Bacon, abandoning his design of travelling, now meditated a retreat from an ungrateful court into the lettered seclusion of college. My nature,'-it is thus that he writes to his best of friends, lord Essex, 'my nature can take no evil ply; but I will, by God's assistance, with this disgrace of my fortune, and yet with that comfort of the good opinion of so many honourable and worthy persons, retire myself with a couple of men to Cambridge, and there spend my life in my studies and contemplations, without looking back.'† (note the words, for they cannot be her own,) she hath used me in her greatest causes. But this is Essex, and she is more angry with him than with me.'-Letter to his brother Antony,' vol. 13, p. 83. * July 27th, 1594. + Bacon's Works, vol 13, p. 77. Writing to his uncle, the lord Treasurer Burleigh, he says, 'If your lordship will not carry me on, I will not do as Anax |