Billeder på siden
PDF
ePub

parted to his brother and lord Essex his

[ocr errors]

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.

[ocr errors]

+ Ib. 83. Again she entereth into it,' says Bacon, 'that she never deals so with any as with me, (in hoc erralum non est.) She hath pulled me over the bar,

[ocr errors]

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.

[ocr errors]

*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

[ocr errors]

These contemplations were as vast as his civil ends were moderate; for I have taken,' he says, 'all knowledge to be my province, and if I could purge it of two sorts of rovers, whereof the one with frivolous disputations, confutations, and verbosities; the other with blind experiments and auricular traditions and impostures, hath committed so many spoils; I hope I should bring in industrious observations, grounded conclusions, and profitable inventions and discoveries, the best state of that province. This, whether it be curiosity or vain glory, or nature, or, if one take it favourably, philanthropia, is so fixed in my mind, as it cannot be removed.'* I

agoras did, who reduced himself with contemplation into voluntary poverty; but this I will do: I will sell the inheritance that I have, and purchase some lease of quick revenue, or some office of gain, that shall be executed by deputy, and so give over all care of service, and become some sorry book-maker, or a true pioneer in that mine of truth, which, he said, lay so deep.'Bacon's Works, vol. 12, p. 6.

* Letter to lord Burleigh, vol. 12, pp. 5, 6.

sought for office, he adds, because I see that 'place of any reasonable countenance doth bring commandment of more wits than of a man's own, which is the thing I greatly affect.' He well knew, that though the coin may be gold, yet 'tis the king's image that gives it currency.

'After the Queen,'-we adopt Bacon's own narrative,-'had denied me the solicitor's place, for the which his lordship, the earl of Essex, had been a long and earnest suitor on my behalf, it pleased him to come to me from Richmond to Twickenham Park, and brake with me and said," Mr. Bacon, the Queen hath denied me the place for you, and hath placed another;* I know you are the least part of your own matter, but you

* Mr. Serjeant Fleming was appointed SolicitorGeneral on the 5th November, 1596. In his Orig. Jurid. p. 140, Dugdale gives a copy of the order by which the Queen, out of her especial grace and mere motion, discharges Thomas Fleming from the state and degree of serjeant at law.

fare ill because you have chosen me for your mean and dependence; you have spent your time and thoughts in my matters; I die," these were his very words, "if I do not somewhat towards your fortune, you shall not deny to accept a piece of land which I will bestow upon you." My answer, I remember, was, that for my fortune it was no great matter, but that his lordship's offer made me call to mind what was wont to be said, when I was in France, of the duke of Guise, that he was the greatest usurer in France, because he had turned all his estate into obligations; meaning, that he had left himself nothing, but only had bound numbers of persons to him. "Now, my lord, said I, I would not have you imitate his course, nor turn your estate thus by great gifts into obligations, for you will find many bad debtors." He bade me take no care for that, and pressed it, whereupon I said, "My lord, I see I must be your homager, and hold land of your gift; but do you know

« ForrigeFortsæt »