Bacon's DictionaryAppendices

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The exhibits and miniatures of which are found in this section, are designed to assist the serious student and reader in following the path of the Authorship Controvesy that has been so laboriously persued by many authors and researchers during its commence.

These exhibits have been placed here as not to interrupt the flow of reading in the Baconian Dictionary sections, being a finding list of Bacon’s works, his history, his thoughts and his aims, which are a subject of study and discussion.

Quarles’s Work

Quarles’s first work in point of popularity was, and ever has been, his Emblems, Divine and Moral, which he gave originally to the world in 1635, with most admirable illustrations (considering the period in which they were executed) by Marshall and Simpson. Few books of its class have yielded more genuine pleasure to the ordinary reader, or been in consequence more frequently reprinted than this. Like the majority of his productions, however, the idea of it was borrowed; and in this instance from Herman Hugo, the Jesuits Pia Desideria, which had been published a few years previously on the Continent. Hugo was himself indebted to Andrea Alciati, a famous Milanese doctor in the sixteenth century, for the plan of his work. The extraordinary success of Quarles’s emblem work, when they first appeared, was doubtless attributable in no small measure to the excellency of the prints that accompanied them. Our forefathers in the seventeenth century, so far as regarded their intellectual capacities, were but children of a larger growth. They needed to be taught, as our little ones now are, by pictures, and they were as easily captivated by them. George Wither, a sacred poet and illustrator of Emblems himself, who flourished a few years later than Quarles, thus moralizes upon their effect: “When levity or a childish delight in trifling objects hath allured them to look on the pictures, curiosity may urge them to peep further, that they may seek out their meanings in our annexed illustrations, in which may lurk some sentence or expression, so evidently pertinent to their estates, persons, or affections, as will, at that instant or afterwards, make way for those considerations, which will at last wholly change them, or much better them in their conversations.” “Had he been,” says old Fuller “contemporary with Plato, that great back-friend to poets, he would not only have allowed him to live, but advanced him to an office in his Commonwealth. Some poets, if debarred profaneness, wantonness, and satiricalness, that they may neither abuse God themselves, nor their neighbours, have their tongues cut out in effect. Others only trade in wit at the second-hand; being all for translations, nothing for invention. Our Quarles was free from the faults of the first, as if he had drunk of Jordan instead of Helicon, and slept on Mount Olive for his Parnassus; and was happy in his own invention. His visible poetry, I mean his Emblems, is excellent, catching therein the eye and fancy at one draught; so that he has out Alciated Alciat therein, in some men’s judgments.” (Tegg). 1

Of printed Emblem books in the earlier time down to 1598, when Willet’s Century of Sacred Emblems appeared, though there were several in the English language, there were only few of pure English origin. Watson and Barclay, in 1509, gave English versions of Sebastian Brant’s Fool Forged Ship. Not later than 1536, nor earlier than 1517, The Dialogue of Creatures Moralized was translated “out of latyn in to our English tonge.” In 1549, at Lyons, The Images of the Old Testament, were “set forthe in Englishe and Frenche;” and in 1553, from the same city, Peter Derendel gave in English metre The True and Lively History Portrayed of the Old Bible. The Works of Sir Thomas More Knight, sometime Lord Chancellor of England, published in a small folio, London 1557, and in them at the beginning are inserted what the author names which, as they existed in his father’s house about A.D. 1496 were certainly Emblems. To this list Sir Thomas North, in London 1570, added The Morall Philosophic of Doni, out of Italian; Daniell in 1585, The worthy Tract of Panlus Jovins, which Whitney in 1586 followed up by A Choice of Emblemes, Englished and Moralized; and Paradin’s Heroicall Devises were “Translated out of Latin into English,” London, 1591. To vindicate something of an English origin for a few Emblems at least, reference may again be made to the fact that about the year 1495–96, “Mayster Thomas More in his youth devised in his father’s house in London, a goodly hanging of fine painted clothe, with nine pageants, and verses over of every of those pageants which verses expressed and declared, what the images in those pageants represented; and also in those pageants were painted, the things that the verses over them did (in effect) declare.” In 1592, Wyrley published at London The True Use of Armories; soon after appeared Emblems by Thomas Combe, which, however, are no longer known to be in existence; and then, in 1598, Andrew Willet’s Sacrorum Emblematum Centuria una appeared. [A Century of Sacred Emblems.] Guillim in 1611 supplied A Display of Heraldry; and Peacham in 1612 A Garden of Heroical Devices. There were, too, in MSS., several Emblem works in English, some of which have since been edited and made known. James Hamilton, Earl of Arran, had resided in France, and in 1555, being high in the favour of Henry II., “was made captain of his Scotch lifeguards.” A few years before, namely, in 1549, Aneau’s French translation of Alciat’s Emblems had been dedicated to him as, “file de tres noble Prince Jacque Due de Chastel le herault, Prince Gouverneur du Royaume d’Escoce.”

Among the rare books in the British Museum is Marquale’s Italian Version of Alciati’s Emblems, printed at Lyons in 1549; a copy of it, a very lovely book, in the original binding, bears on the back the royal crown, and at the foot the letters E. VI. R., [Edwardus Sextis Rex] and, as he died in 1553, we thus have evidence at how early a date the work was known in England. To the young King it would doubtless be a book “for delight and for ornament.” Of Holbein’s Imagines Llortis, Lyons 1545, by George Emylius, Luther’s brother-in-law, a copy now in the British Museum “was presented to Prince Edward by Dr. William Bill, accompanied with a Latin dedication, dated from Cambridge, July 19, 1546 wherein he recommends the Prince’s attention to the figures in the book, in order to remind him that all must die to obtain immortality, and enlarges on the necessity of living well.” He concludes with a wish that the Lord will long and happily preserve his life, and that he may finally reign to all eternity with his most Christian father. Dr. Bill was appointed one of the King’s chaplains in ordinary (1551), and was made the first Dean of Westminster in the reign of Elizabeth. 2 The Mirror of Majesty 1618, is a work of extreme rarity. The Rev. Thomas Corser, Rector of Stand, near Manchester, at one time considered a copy of his the only one known that was absolutely perfect, abovo ad mala, from beginning to end. This he found to be not strictly correct, and himself afterwards described it as “extremely rare, if not almost unique, there being only one other perfect copy known.” But Hazlitt’s very excellent Hand-Book, p. 217, enumerates three copies, the Bodleian, Mr. Huth’s, and Mr. Corser’s, which are equally complete. Another edition, or rather another copy with a fresh title page, is also mentioned, “Printed by William Tones, dwelling in Red Crosse Street. 1619.” As will be observed on examination of the work, there are thirty-three Noble Personages ranked in the Catalogue, unto whom the work is appropriated, and thirty-three Coats of Arms set forth; but as two Emblems are assigned to the King and only one to the three Lord Chief Justices, there are thirty-two Emblems with their devices, all having mottoes, excepting that which is appropriated to the Bishop of London. The garters around the shields show that, including the sovereign himself, there were twelve of the noble personages Knights of this most noble order. Of the Royal family, three members are named; of the Church, one Archbishop and three Bishops: there are five of the great officers of state, one Duke, one Marquis, six Earls, two Lord Viscounts, eight bearing the title of Lord, and three Lord Chief Justices. Though some of the devices and mottoes may be referred to other sources, as Emblem I., the crown and mitre; Emblem III,, the phoenix; Emblem XII., the armed hand and sword on the fire; and Emblem XVI., the armed hand wielding thunderbolts, yet generally they may be regarded as invented or adapted by the author himself. The stanzas for the armorial bearings frequently refer to them, and those which unfold the meanings of the devices are expressly suited to the symbols and signs that have been employed. Occasionally, however, we have to blame some intemperance of language against those to whom the King and the nation were opposed. Twenty of the mottoes are in Latin; and the other eleven, in Italian.

Considerable skill is manifested both in the designs of the Emblems and in selecting the mottoes. There is also nearly always appropriateness in the verses which set them forth; but their poetic merit does little to enhance their value. Indeed, the very subjects that are treated of achievements or hatchments of arms, heraldic ensigns, the laudatory or the laboriously-concocted verses, the scrolls of proverbial wisdom or of epigrammatic lore, might serve to dull inspiration where it existed and to bring genius itself down to the level of unfrenzied thought. It is only when we have gained some knowledge of the “noble personages that are ranked” within the volume, and have learned something of their lives and characters, it is only then that we can take an interest in the measured or, as is often the case, in the unmetrical rhymes appended to names, ensigns, and mottoes; and we regard the work as one exponent, among many, of the reign of a King whom his enemies did not fear, nor did his friends heartily love. He was eager for praise, but unable to deserve it. Yet we must not forget that the Mirror of Majesty reflects names of no trifling mark in the history, whether of their age or of their country. The Archbishop of Canterbury whom it commemorates was George Abbot; the Bishop of London, John King; the Bishops of Winchester and Ely, James Montagu and Launcelot Andrews, of great officers of state, the Lord Chancellor was Francis Bacon; the Lord Treasurer, Thomas Howard, Earl of Suffolk; the Lord Privy Seal, Edward Somerset, Earl of Worcester; the Lord Admiral, Charles Howard, Earl of Nottingham; the Lord Chamberlain, William, Earl of Pembroke; and the Lord Chief Justice of the King’s Bench, Sir Henry Montagu. Then, of other noblemen whose names are introduced, Lodowick Stuart, Duke of Richmond and Lennox, was Chamberlain and Admiral of Scotland; Thomas Howard, Earl of Arundel, had travelled through France and Italy, and made the great collection Of the Precious Relics of Antiquity, which bears his name. Of him, too, it is recorded that he possessed “more Holbeins than all the world besides.” The Earl of Southampton was Shakespeare’s friend, Henry Wriothesley, to whom the poet declared, “if your Honour seems but pleased, I account myself highly praised.” Robert Devereux, Earl of Essex, who held the chief command in the army of the Parliament, is named among “the Illustrious and Heroical Princes” to whose “Eternal Memory” the 24 leaves of Honour in its Perfection, 4to, 1624, are dedicated: the Lord Viscount Lisle was Robert Sidney, the brother of Sir Philip Sidney; and Richard Sackville Earl of Dorset, was grandson of Thomas Sackville, who died in 1608, aged eighty-two, and whom Aikin 3 characterizes as “the extraordinary man of genius, who, after affording in his youth the poetical model of Spenser, was in advanced life selected by Queen Elizabeth to succeed to the station of Lord Burghley.” Now these are names worthy to be reflected from a Mirror of Majesty, and lend to the Majesty itself the brightest glories. It is strange, therefore, that a work of such a name, and with characters so celebrated recorded upon its pages, should have passed into oblivion almost as soon as it was published, and should for above two entire centuries obtain not a word of honourable mention. The first to disinter it was Edmund Lodge, in his Portraits of Illustrious Personages of Great Britain (Vol. IV., p. 10) Lodge was writing the memoir of the Life of Henry Wriothesley, Earl of Southampton, one of the noblemen to whom, as we have mentioned, an Emblem is assigned in the Mirror of Majesty; he spoke of the Mirror as “a book of such extreme rarity that it may be confidently presumed that it now for the first time offers itself to the notice of modern readers. The nature and method of the little work in question, a copy of which, thought to be unique, is in my hands, will be sufficiently explained by the title.”

The authorship of the Mirror of Majesty remains somewhat in doubt, but Hazlitt, in a work which he edited from Mr. Huth’s very valuable collections, Poetical Miscellanies, interprets H.G. to be the ciphers of Sir Henry Goodere, an attendant on King James. In a note at sign H H verso, on An Elegy at sign D D 4, the editor remarks: “Sir H.G. it is conjectured that these initials belong to Sir Henry Goodyeer, whom the editor inclines to regard as the author of a very rare volume of Emblems, The Mirror of Majesty, 1618. Jonson, among his Epistles, has one to Goodyere, and at the end of Drayton’s Legends, 1596, 8vo., is a Sonnet in praise of the author by H.G. Esquire.”

The Lord Chancellor, Emblem of Francis Bacon pp. 10-11.

Arms. Gu., on a chief, arg., two mullets pierced, sa., differenced by a crescent, as denoting the younger line.

A curious, though not very rare volume, Peacham’s Minerva Britanna, 4to, 1612, may be looked upon as the herald of the Mirror of Majesty. Published in the same reign, it devotes several of its Emblems, Mottoes, and Devices to noble personages who flourished under James I. The Mirror of Majesty is a production of little merit in itself, but, from its extreme rarity, deserving a place on the shelves of book-collectors. It has, too, some historical interest, from representing one of the tastes and pursuits of the age in which it appeared. 4

Emblem books by English authors have never been numerous, and seldom original in their conception and execution. The ground was occupied by the writers of Italy, France, and Germany, and thence were works of an emblematic character transplanted to England, receiving such pruning and dressing as might accommodate them to another climate and soil. Our elder poets indeed make it evident that there was no deficiency among us of fancy to devise and of language to express thoughts in Emblems. Of Queen Elizabeth I’s badges we find mentioned her mother’s falcon, or rather dove; and the crown and sceptre, but most frequently a sieve. Among the mottoes were Semper Eadem, [Always the same,] and Video Et Taceo, [I see and am silent.] The foregoing account of Emblems or Badges adopted by the Sovereigns of England, is very far indeed from being exhaustive, neither is it to be regarded as possessing absolute certainty. Many might be added, some might be controverted. Sir William Stirling-Maxwell, in his admirable introduction to the Chief Victories of the Emperor Charles the Fifth, p. 23, speaks of the Emperor’s usual and favourite device, the Pillars and Plus Ultra, as one of the most famous of its class: “when such inventions were held in high esteem,” and “the noble gentlemen of Europe, in adorning their glorious triumphs, declared their inward pretensions, purposes, and enterprises, not by speech or any apparent manner, but shadowed under a certain veil of forms and figures,” and “when it was the fashion for men of all degrees to clothe in symbolic shape their sympathies or antipathies, their sorrows, joys, or affections, or the hopes and ambitions of their lives.” The Pillars and Plus Ultra so fond of by the Emperor Charles V., was a favourite motto, and used by Francis Bacon. To English noblemen, in 1608, Otho van Veen, from Antwerp, commends his Amorum Emblemata, [Emblems of the Loves] with 124 excellent devices. Thus the dedication runs: “To the most honourable and worthy brothers, William Earle of Pembroke and Philip Earl of Mount of learning and chivalry.” In England, therefore, as in Scotland, there were eminent lovers of the Emblem literature. Despite its being incomplete, the standard and still remarkably well done catalogue is Henry Green’s Andrea Alciati and His Books of Emblems: A Biographical and Bibliographical Study (1872). The kind of refinements missed by Green are alluded to in John Manning’s article on bibliography and illustration in Alciato. 5 The most important early editions are those of 1531 (the first, though unauthorized text, with many errors), 1534 (the first authorized text, slightly expanded from the preceding, with 113 emblems), 1546 (another series of 86 new emblems), and 1550 (a last authorized collection of all but one of the previously published emblems, and adding 11 new ones).