:: Bacon's Dictionary Appendix 50 ::

In 1905 was published a book called Letters from the Dead to the Dead, by Oliver Lector. In it attention is drawn to the remarkable features of some of the books on emblems printed during Bacon’s life, and to the evidence that he was in some manner connected with the publication of many of these volumes. Of the ten Emblems presented in the volume are:

Many Emblems constitute a subordinate part of Bacon’s system of induction. What his system really was is not well understood by those who never read the Novum Organum, nor is it comprehended by those who cannot plead that excuse. There is plenary evidence that Bacon’s contemporaries had as little comprehension of it as the men of our time. “It deserveth not to be read in schools but to be freighted in the ship of fools,” said Coke. “It is like the peace of God,” said King James I., “It passeth all understanding.” The author claims this to be especially the case with the Emblemata Moralia et Bellica (1615) of Jacob de Bruck, of Angermundt, and the Emblemata Ethic Politica of J. Bornitius. He also offers the following list: “Emblems in the following books can be identified as a substantive part of Bacon’s inductive philosophy; plates of his invention”:

With the exception of Bornitius, the foregoing volumes bear date within the period of Bacon’s lifetime that is to say between 1560 and 1626. There seems no earlier edition of Bornitius than 1659 recorded. The manuscript must have come into the hands of Grüter with other manuscripts of Bacon’s, published by him in the year 1653. (Lector). 2 The Emblem pictures for the most part appear to be picture puzzles. In the Critique upon the Mythology of the Ancients Bacon says: “It may pass for a farther indication of a concealed and secret meaning, that some of these fables are so absurd and idle in their narration as to proclaim and shew an allegory afar off. A fable that carries probability with it may be supposed invented for pleasure, or in imitation of history; but, those that would never be conceived or related in this way, must surely have a different use.” If this line of reasoning be applied to the illustration in the Emblem books, it is clear that they conceal some hidden meaning, for they are apparently unintelligible, and the accompanying letterpress does not afford any illumination. Jean Baudoin was the translator of Bacon’s Essaies into the French language (1626). Baudoin published in 1638–39 the following comment: “Recueil D’Emblèmes divers avec des Discours Moraux, Philos. et Polit. In the preface he says: Le grand chancelier Bacon m’ayant fait naître l’envie de travailler à ces emblems…m’en a fourni les principaux que j’ai tirés de l’explication ingénieuse qu’il a donnée de quelques fables et de ses autres ouvrages.” Here is definite evidence of Bacon’s association with a book of Emblems.

The first volume of Emblemata in which traces of Bacon’s hand are to be found is the 1577 edition of Alciati’s Emblems, published by the Platin Press, with notes by Claude Mignault. It is in this edition, in Emblem No. 45 entitled “In dies meliora” that for the first time the light A and the dark A is to be found. In previous editions this device is absent. For this volume a new design has been engraved in which it appears. In the Emblem books written in Italian, Bacon does not appear to have been concerned, unless an exception be made of Ripa’s Iconologia, a copy of which contains his handwriting and initials. In some way he had control of a large number of those written in Latin, and bearing names of Dutch, French, and some Italian authors, and also of several written in Dutch and of the English writers. The field is a very wide one, and only a few of the principal examples can be mentioned. Yet, the most important work is the Emblemata Moralia et Bellica of Jacob à Bruck, of Angermundt (1615) and Argentorati per Jacobum ab Heyden. With many of the designs in this volume, Oliver Lector has dealt fully in his Letters from the Dead to the Dead, before referred to. There is another volume bearing the name of Jacob à Bruck, published in 1598. Only one copy of this book is known to be in existence, and that is in the Royal Library of St. Petersburg. Bernard Quaritch in 1905 said: “The Emblemata Ethico Politica of Jacobus Bornitius, 1659, Moguntiæ, is remarkable because many of the engravings contain portraits of Bacon, namely, in Sylloge Prima, Plates Nos. 7., 23., 64., 65., 74.; and in Sylloge II., Plates IX., and XXXVI.” There are two productions of Janus Jacobus Boissardus in which Bacon’s hand may be recognised: Emblèmes Latines avec l’Interprétation Françoise du I. Pierre Ioly Messin. Metis, 1588, and Emblematum liber. Ipsa Emblemata ab Auctore delineata: a Theodoro de Bry sculpta et nunc recens in lucem edita, 1593, Frankfurt. Two editions of the latter were printed in the same year. The title pages are identical, and the same plates have been used throughout, but the letterpress is in Latin in the one, and in French in the other. In both, the dedications are addressed in French to Madame de Clervent, Baronne de Coppet. The dedication of the former bears the name Jan Jacques Boissard at the head, and addresses the lady as “que come estes addonnée à la speculation des choses qui appartiennent à l’instruction de l’âme.” The dedication of the latter is signed Ioly, who explains that he has translated the verses into French, so that they may be of more service to the dedicatee.

1 Letters and Life of Francis Bacon, Vol. IV., p. 43, 1868

2 Oliver Lector. Letters From the Dead to the Dead, 1905

Perhaps the most important proof of the esteem in which Bacon was held is exhibited in the Great Assizes holden in Parnassus. This same year, George Withers, author and poet is born and died in 1667; his remarkable document would not be unworthy of adding at this point, which was published in 1643–45, and was believed by Sir Egerton Bridges to have been the work of George Withers. This document shows that Francis Bacon, in the opinion of Withers, at least, was entitled to high rank among his contemporaries in the Kingdom of Apollo. It is entitled The Great Assizes holden in Parnassus by Apollo and his Assessours, at which are arraigned Mercurius Brittanicus, Mercurius Aulicus, &c., (periodical publications of that time). [Also see Part III: The Great Assizes; Great Assizes.] Otho Van Veen enjoys the distinction of having had Rubens for a disciple. A considerable number of Emblem books emanated from him. In 1608 were published at Antwerp two editions of his Amorum Emblemata. In one copy the verses are in Latin, English, and Italian. There are commendatory verses in the latter, two of which are by Daniel Heinsius and R. V., who was Robert Verstegen, the author of A Restitution of Decayed Intelligence in Antiquities. The dedication is “To the most honourable and worthie brothers William Earle of Pembroke, and Phillip Earle of Montgomerie, patrons of learning and chevalrie, who are the most noble and incomparable paire of brethren” to whom the 1623 Shakespeare Folio was dedicated. In this volume Bacon has left his marks. Emblemata door Zacharias Heyns, published in Rotterdam in 1625, comprises four books bound together. The inscriptions over the plates are in Latin. The letterpress, which is in Dutch and French, apparently bears very little reference to the illustrations. The manufacture of paper in Europe seems to have been fostered especially by the Albigenses, as they were known in France and Spain, or WT aldenses in the Alpine provinces, one of the purest of Christian brotherhoods appearing in history, as well as the most unfortunate. Claiming to be direct descendants of the early disciples who secluded themselves in the Alpine valleys to escape the fury of Nero and Diocletian, their aim was to exemplify in their own lives the simple truths taught by Christ, and to extend their benefits to others. The Italians called them Cathari, signifying the pure. They were altruists in the highest sense of the term, making industry and usefulness to fellow-men inseparable rules of life.

In Bacon’s Advancement of Learning of 1605, he uses clusters of grapes. Such clusters are found in the Shakespeare Folios of 1623, and in 1632, though printed by different printers. Of their signification Bacon thus speaks: “Other men, as well in ancient as in modern times, have in the matter of sciences drunk a crude liquor like water, either flowing spontaneously from the understanding, or drawn up by logic, as by wheels from a well. Whereas I pledge mankind in a liquor strained from countless grapes, from grapes ripe and fully seasoned, collected in clusters, and then squeezed in the press, and finally purified and clarified in the vat. And therefore it is no wonder if they and I do not think alike.” 3 Besides the above, the Bacons used the crescent, fleur-de-lis, double candlesticks, a hand, horns, a shield, and a mirror. It is proper to say that these were sometimes of ancient date, were varied in form, and combined with other symbolic figures according to the fancy of those who used them, and it seems probable were not always used with design. It is interesting to note some of the works, not published under Bacon’s name, in which cryptic emblems used by him appear. In the First Folio appear crowns, clusters of grapes, the fleur-de-lis, and, in the Second Folio, one like that in Bacon’s History of Life and Death. It is a highly significant fact that Shakespeare borrowed extensively from Bacon’s De Augmentis Scientiarum which was not published before October 1623, when Shaksper, the Stratford actor, had been dead more than seven years. 4 [Also see Part III: Bacon’s Head-piece.] At the date when this work of Francis Bacon was published, the manuscripts contained in the First Folio of the plays were still in the hands of the printers. It was, at least, twenty-six days after the publication of the De Augmentis before the First Folio was issued. It follows, therefore, that Shakespeare could not have borrowed from a printed copy of the De Augmentis. Bacon was the only one who had no need to await the printing of his own work before making use of it; 5 and in Bacon’s History of Henry VII., he tells us “I have though in a despised weed procured the good of all men.” 6 Bacon himself also tells us that a weed is a cloak to hide a man’s identity: “This fellow, when Perkin took sanctuary, chose rather to take a holy habit than a holy place, and clad himself like a hermit and in that weed wandered about the country, till he was discovered and taken.” In Marlowe’s works, published in 1613, twenty-one years after his death, the watermarks comprise bar and grapes the same as in the Folio of 1623, except a change in letters; the pot, hand, crown, and crescent. Marlowe was killed June I, 1593; and Halliwell-Phillipps says the date of the first appearance of a Shakespeare play was March 3, 1592, the play of Henry VI., that is “ere the tragic ending of More-low.” But there are critics who claim that that play was written by Marlowe.

The truth is the two sets of writings overlap and intermingle because the two men were both masks of the same mighty intellect, Francis Bacon. 7 William-Henry Ireland, the great Shakespearean forger of the seventeenth century, tells us that in preparing his forgeries he at length gleaned the intelligence that a jug was the prevalent watermark of the reign of Elizabeth. [Also see Part II; Appendices: Ireland William-Henry.]

The most striking watermarks, however, appear in Spenser’s Faerie Queene of 1596. Here are the pot and grapes of Bacon, the F.B. reversed: B, and A.B. All this is curiously suggestive, but, unfortunately, in our present state of knowledge regarding symbolical Emblems, it is unsafe to base theories upon them. (Baxter). 8 In a letter, Mr. Smedley says: “The earliest use of the design with a light A and dark A which I have found is in a work entitled Hebraicum Alphabethum Jo Bovlaese published in Paris in 1576. The book ends with the sentence “Ex Collegio Montis-Acuti 20 Decembris 1576.” So the date of the publication was probably between January and March, 1576, which according to our present method would be 1577. I have a copy of this work bound up with a book bearing the title: Sive compendium, quintacunque Ratione fieri potuit amplessimum, Totuis linguae, published in Paris, 1566. Both are interleaved and altered and amplified in Francis Bacon’s hand writing for a second edition. The latter contains the equivalent of the Hebrew in Greek, Chaldaeic, Syriac, and Arabic. So far I have been unable to find that a second edition of these works was published. But these manuscripts bear evidence of young Bacon’s command of languages in 1576. I believe that just as Philip Melancthon was working for Thomas Anshelmus, the Printer, when at Tubingen University at seventeen or eighteen years of age, so Francis Bacon was employed in Paris as early as 1576. This head-piece not only appears in the Shakespeare and Bacon works, but those of Marlowe and Spenser, as well as the so-called King James version of the Bible. The King was inordinately proud of his knowledge of Latin, and the translators, when they had completed their work, submitted it to him for criticism, and it remained in his possession for some time.” 9

To understand Francis Bacon we must keep in view the dominant motive of his life. It is embodied in these words: “It is enough, son, that I have sown unto Posterity and the immortal God.” Truth has ever been distasteful to despotism, hence the men of his day who realized the mental barrenness which prevailed in the world, and desired to enrich it, were obliged to veil their efforts from the jealous eyes of those in power. This was the reason why Rosicrucianism flourished. As its single purpose was to convey knowledge to mankind, it sanctioned some methods which to one who does not realize the dangers which encompassed it seem childish. This is one of the keys to the mystery which shrouded much of Bacon’s life. That he employed a large portion of it in writing anonymously, or under the names of real or fictitious persons, cannot be successfully denied. 10 In 1616, the year Shaksper the actor died, was published at Amsterdam a book bearing on its title page the inscription: Cornelii Giselberti Plempii Amsterodamum Monogrammon. It contained fifty illustrations, with Latin verses attached. On reference to it, it will be seen that Fortune stands on a globe, and with one hand is pushing off from the pinnacle of fame a man dressed as a player with a feather in his hat; with the other hand she is raising up a man who is wearing the Bacon hat, but whose face is hidden. The prophecy expressed by the Emblem is now being fulfilled. It will be seen that the initial letters of each word in the sentence of the letterpress Obscænùmque nimis crepuit, Fortuna Batavis appellanda yield F. Bacon. Bacon’s portrait is found in several of the illustrations in this book. Other Emblem writers whose works bear traces of Bacon’s co-operation are G. Rollenhagen, J. Camerius, J. Typotius, D. Hensius. There yet remain to be mentioned two English Emblem writers. A Choice of Emblems by Geffrey Whitney was published in 1586 by Francis Raphelengius in the house of Christopher Platin at Leyden. The dedication is to Robert Earl of Leicester. There are only from fifteen to twenty original designs out of 166 illustrations. The remainder are taken from other Emblem writers, chiefly from Alciat, Sambucus, Paradin, and Hadrian Junius. On page 53 is the design headed “In dies meliora” [Better days ahead] found in the 1577 edition of Alciati, but the letterpress, which is in English, is quite different from the Latin verse attached to it. The Emblem on the title page of Minerva Britanna represents the great secret of Francis Bacon’s life, and on page 33 is an Emblem in which the name Shakespeare is represented. The volume is full of devices. Apart from any connection which Bacon may have had with this remarkable class of books, they are of great interest to the student of the Elizabethan and Jacobean periods. They contain pictorial representations full of information as to the habits and customs of the people. With the exception of Whitney’s Choice of Emblems, a facsimile reprint of which was published in 1866, edited by the Rev. Henry Green, no reprint of any of these curious books has been issued. As the original editions of many of them are very rare, and of none of them plentiful, their study is a matter of difficulty, and few students find their way to this fascinating field of research. How close Bacon’s connection was with the writers of these books, or with their publishers, it is difficult to say, but there is considerable evidence that in some way he was able to introduce into every one of the books here enumerated, and many others, some plates illustrative of his inductive philosophy.

4 Spedding. Novum Organum, Vol. VII. p. 155

5 Musgrave’s Obituary, Harleian Collection, British Museum, Add. MSS. 5727-5749; Vol. V. Shakespeare, (Or Shakspeare), Wil., Poet. 23 April 1616

6 W.S. Melsome. The Bacon-Shakespeare Anatomy, 1945

7 Resuscitatio, p. 17, 1670

8 Ignatius Donnelly. The Cipher In The Plays, And On The Tombstone, 1900

9 Baxter. The Greatest Literary Problems, 1915

10 William T. Smedley. The Mystery of Francis Bacon, p. 139

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.

Shakespeare and Bacon and the Emblem Writers

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Bacon's DictionaryAppendices

1 2 3 4 5 6 7 8 9 10 11 12 13 14 15 16 17 18 19 20 21 22 23 24 25 26 27 28 29 30 31 32 33 34 35 36 37 38 39 40 41 42 43 44 45 46 47 48 49 50 51 52 53 54 55 56 57 58 59

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.

Shakespeare and Bacon and the Emblem Writers

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