A Finding List: Part 2.

Bacon’s Acquaintances, Friends, Companions, Colleagues

A B C D E F G H I J K L M N O P Q R S T U V W-X-Y-Z

In this section, it was felt the need to contain all persons referred to in Bacon’s works, speeches, and letters who were his acquaintances, friends, or companions.

They are given a well deserved synoptical, yet understandable biography. This way, all references noted to persons mentioned by Bacon would be well understood to why he referred to them, and under what circumstances they surrounded his lifestyle. In continuation to these synoptical biographies, are the works of these persons either in a detailed account that will be found in the Appendix volume or in a synoptical form after each individual biography.
Where no additional information is added to those works, is due to the lack of historical records, which is believed to be more and more noted to modern researchers on the history of those times and especially when compiling such a volume as this one.

A jesty note from Edmund Burke will end the introduction to this part: “Strip majesty of its externals and it is merely a jest.” [(m)ajest(y).]

D

Dano Severino (d.1602) Danish physician. Upon his death he left several works on medical and philosophical subjects, in which he followed the opinions of Paracelsus. Bacon’s comments on him in his work De Augentis, Bk. III.

Davenant William. Sir (1606–1668) Dramatist and servant to Sir Fulke Greville, Lord Brooke, with whom he lived to his death.

Davies John of Hereford (b.1563 or 1565–d.1618) Born at Hereford. Poet and writing-master. Wood states that he was educated at Oxford University, and among the poems prefixed to Microcosmos, 1603, is a copy of Latin verses by Robert Burhill. From a poetical address To my much honoured and entirely beloved patroness, the most famous University of Oxford, published among the poems appended to Microcosmos, we learn that he resided for a time at Oxford, pursuing his occupation of writing-master, and two of his Sonnets are in praise of Magdalen College, where he seems to have had many pupils. But it is clear, both from the address to his patroness and from the Sonnets, that he was not a member of the University. Although he attained high fame as a writing-master, and his pupils were drawn from the noblest families in the land, Davies assures us that it was difficult for him to gain a comfortable livelihood. The Earl of Northumberland’s book of household expenses for 1607 records the payment of 40s. “to Mr. Davyes, the writer.” 1
In 1608 Davies was living in the parish of St. Dunstan-in-the-West, London (Hunter’s Chorus Vatitu), and in January 1612–13 his first wife, Mary Croft, by whom he had a son Sylvanus, was buried in the church of St. Dunstan, where there is a monument to her with memorial verses by her husband. He took a second wife, Dame Juliana Preston, a widow, in 1613, and in the marriage license, dated July 19, 1613 he is stated to be “about forty-eight.” On May 25, 1614 letters of administration were issued from the prerogative court of Canterbury to administer his second wife’s estate. His own will (first printed by the Camden Society) is dated June 29, 1618 at which time he was residing at St. Martin’s Lane. He desired in his will to be buried near his first wife, in the church of St. Dunstan, and there he was buried on July 6, 1618.
Mention is made of a third wife, Margaret, in the will. Arthur Wilson, who was one of his pupils, states that Davies was a Roman catholic. 2 Two of his brothers were also writing-masters. Davies was a very voluminous and somewhat tedious writer. His first work, published in 1602, was a philosophical poem, entitled Mirum in Modum. A Glimpse of God’s Glory and the Souls Shape, 4to, dedicated to William, Earl of Pembroke, Sir Robert Sidney, Kt., and “the right worshipful Edward Herbert of Mountgomery, Esquire,” afterwards Lord Herbert of Cherbury. In 1603 was published at Oxford his Microcosmos. Published in 1605 is The Discovery of the Little World, with the Government thereof, 4to, 2nd edit. Prefixed are dedicatory Sonnets to the King and Queen, A Request to the City of Hereford, and other matter, including several copies of Latin and English verse in commendation of the author; then follows a long preface in verse, addressed to the King, which is succeeded by a poetical address headed “Cambria, to the high and mighty, Henry by the grace of God Prince of Wales.” The lengthy poem Microcosmos is a rambling treatise on physiological and psychological subjects. Appended to Microcosmos is a poem entitled An Ecstasy, several Sonnets (and short poems) dedicated to distinguished patrons, an English poem by Nicholas Deeble, “In love and affection of Maister John Davies, and admiration of his excellence in the Arte of Writing,” and some commendatory verses by Ed. Lapworth.
The Scourge of Folly (1610) consisting of satirical epigrams and others in honour of many noble and worthy persons of our land came together with a pleasant (though discordant) descant upon most English Proverbs, and others, in 12mo. On the title-page is an illustration of Wit scourging Folly, who is mounted on the back of Time. The epigrams, which number three hundred, have little merit, but are interesting from the notices that they afford of contemporary writers. One is addressed To our English Terence, Mr. Will. Shakespeare (No. 159), and there are epigrams to Daniel (No. 155), Ben Jonson (No. 156), Marston (No. 217), Hall (No. 218), Fletcher (No. 206), Bacon, and others. The Sonnets in praise of worthy persons show that Davies was well acquainted with many of the most exalted personages of the age. At the end of the volume is a satire headed Papers Complaint, compiled in ruthful Rimes Against the Paper-spoilers of these Times, with dedicatory verses to Thomas Rant, counsellor-at-law. It is valuable as testifying to the popularity of Shakespeare’s Venus and Adonis, and for its comments on Nashe, Gabriel Harvey, Ben Jonson, Dekker, and others, 1669. Peter Dawkins 3 tells us that he was “the chief penman of the contents page” and “has been identified as John Davis of Hereford, a poet, scrivener and teacher of penmanship who was employed by Francis Bacon as one of his “good pens”.

Davies John. Sir (1569–1626) philosophic poet and Attorney-General for Ireland. Expressed his sorrow in The Muses of John Davies of Chisgrove in the parish of Tears for the loss of their Hope; Heroic Tisbury, Wiltshire, by his wife Mary. In 1617, he published his last work, Wit’s Bedlam, a collection of miscellaneous verses. Malone, Brydges, and others have quoted from this volume, but no copy can at present be traced. Commendatory verses by Davies are prefixed to the following works:

• William Parry’s A new and large Discourse of the Travels of Sir Anthony Sherley, Knight, 1601.
• Joshua Sylvester’s Du Bartas, 1605, 1633.
• John Melton’s A Sixe-fold Politician, 1609.
• Dekker’s Lanthorne and Candlelight, 1607.
• Rowland Vaughan’s Most approved and long experienced Water-Works, 1610.
• John Guillim’s A Display of Heraldry, 1610.
• John Speed’s The Theatre of the Empire of Great Britaine, 1611.
• Coryate’s Crudities, 1611.
• J[ohn] D[ennys]’s The Secrets of Angling, 1613.
• Ravenscroft’s Brief Discourse, 1614.
• Taylor’s Urania, 1615.
• Captain John Smith’s Description of New England, 1616.
• William Browne’s Britannia’s Pastorals. In 1616 The Second Booke.
• Edward Wright’s A Description of the Admirable Table of Logarithmes, 1616.

There is an inscription by Davies beneath a copperplate portrait of Queen Elizabeth: Elizabetha Regina Nich. Hillyard delin. et excud. A celebrated work of his Writing Schoolmaster, or the Anatomy of Fair Writing, which contains engraved specimen copies of various styles of handwriting, together with a set of practical directions for learners, the earliest known edition is dated 1633; later editions appeared in 1663.

Dee John. Dr (1527–1608) English mathematician, natural philosopher, and student of the occult. It is almost certain that Shakespeare (1564–1616) modelled the character of Prospero in The Tempest (1611) on the career of John Dee, the Elizabethan magus. The Tempest was derived from (a) Search for the Island of Lampedusa, from Harington’s Ariosto, canto XLI; (b) The Origin of the Speech of Gonzalo from a passage in Florio’s Montaigne, 1603, and founded on an Italian novel; and on Robert Greene’s Pandosto. The commentator says “there is more invention in this piece than in any other that Shakespeare has left us.” Doubtless; but Shakespeare was no inventor, nor did he write this piece, though he may have had it among his “properties”. He used to distill egg-shells, and it was from hence that Ben Jonson had his hint of the Alkismist whom he meant. (Aubrey). There is no entry of events at all with the year 1599 in Dr. John Dee’s Diary in James O. Halliwell-Phillipps The Private Diary of Dr. John Dee (1842). There are entries for 1598 and 1600 but 1599 is skipped with a blank.

Democritus (c.460 BC–c.370) Physicist; Greek philosopher; a central figure in the development of the atomic theory of the universe. Attributed popular belief in the gods to a desire to explain extraordinary phenomena (thunder, lightning, earthquakes) by reference to superhuman agency; his ethical system, founded on a practical basis, posited an ultimate good (“cheerfulness”) that was “a state in which the soul lives peacefully and tranquilly, undisturbed by fear or superstition or any other feeling.” 4 Bacon speaks much more favourably of the systems of the earlier physicists, and especially of that of Democritus, than of the philosophy of Plato and Aristotle.

D’Ewes Simonds. Sir (b.18 December, 1602–d.18 April, 1650) was High Sheriff for Suffolk in 1639, and was elected member for Sudbury in 1640. In July 1641, he was created a Baronet by Charles the First; yet, upon the breaking out of the civil war, he adhered to the Parliament, and took the solemn league and covenant in 1643. He continued to sit in the House of Commons till 1648, when he was turned out by the army as one of those who were thought to retain some regard for the person of the King, or who were unwilling to proceed the whole length of the other democrats. From that time he seems to have given himself up to the prosecution of his literary studies, following his favourite maxim, Melius mori quam sibi vivere. He died on April the 18th, 1650 and was succeeded in his estate and titles by his son, Willoughby D’Ewes. *

Dixon William Hepworth Of the Inner Temple (1821–1879), historian and traveler, born near Manchester, went to London in 1846, and became connected with The Daily News, for which he wrote articles on social and prison reform In 1850 he published John Howard and the Prison World of Europe, which had a wide circulation, and about the same time he wrote a Life of Peace (1851), in answer to Macaulay’s onslaught. Lives of Admiral Blake and Lord Bacon followed, which received somewhat severe criticisms at the hands of competent authorities. Dixon was editor of The Athenæum, 1853–69, and wrote many books of travel, including The Holy Land (1865), New America (1867), and Free Russia (1870). In 1861 he wrote a Personal History of Lord Bacon and hislater historical works include Her Majesty’s Tower, and The History of Two Queens (Catherine of Arragon and Anne Boleyn). Though a diligent student of original authorities, and sometimes successful in throwing fresh light on his subjects, Dixon was not always accurate, and thus laid himself open to criticism; and his book, Spiritual Wives, treating of Mormonism, was so adversely criticized as to lead to an action. He wrote, however, in a fresh and interesting style. He was one of the founders of the Palestine Exploration Fund, and was a member of the first School Board for London (1870). He was called to the Bar in 1854, but never practiced.

Donnelly Ignatius His portentous volumes on the Great Cryptogram produced a reaction of acute revolt, and a conviction that if Bacon was the author of Shakespeare, all literary criticism was at an end: later vagaries and perversities of the Baconian sect did nothing to bring relief, but might be brought from the Sonnets themselves. According to the Journal of the Bacon Society, (No. 1) June 1886 in regards to Ignatius Donnelly states that he resided at his farm of about 1,000 acres, near Hastings, Minnesota, on the banks of the Mississippi. He was well-known and much respected in his own country, having been Lieutenant-Governor of the State for four years, and Governor during part of the civil war. He was subsequently a Member of Congress for six years, and State Senator for five years. He has published two books, which have passed through many editions, entitled: Atlantis, the Antediluvian World; and Ragnarok, the Age of Fire and Gravel. Mr. Donnelly, therefore, had a social position; a personal and literary reputation, which he could not afford to trifle with. He was not the man from whom to expect a literary jest, still less a literary fraud.
For many years Mr. Donnelly has been a Baconian, and had taken especial interest in the Shakespearian department of the Bacon question, and in his acknowledged writings, as well as in Elizabethan history and literature generally. A chance glance at an article on Ciphers, in one of his son’s books, a book of boyish sport, led him to ruminate on the Cipher as explained by Bacon; and putting together a number of facts and considerations, he was led to hunt for a Baconian Cipher. He noted such facts as these:

• Cipher writing was not a mere toy in Bacon’s time, but a serious study, pursued by statesmen, and constantly used in diplomatic and state service.
• Bacon was especially interested in Cipher writing; invented some varieties for himself; described them in his serious philosophical works; and gave samples and rules for the use of them.
• Bacon’s conception of a Cipher was that of a writing which might be on any topic, and conceal anything you please; a method of writing, as he says omnia per omnia; [all in all;] the writing infolding being not less than a multiple of five of the writing infolded.
• Bacon had the most compelling motives to use a Cipher, in order to secrete his claim to the authorship of Shakespeare, and probably other matters relating to his own history and character.
• The way in which Bacon himself speaks of a Cipher, almost challenging those who “have wits of such sharpness and discernment as to pierce the veil,” to track him into his secret retreat, convinced Mr. Donnelly that this game of hide and seek might be started somewhere, and the most likely ground seemed to be the Plays.

Accordingly, as Mr. Donnelly himself says: “I proceeded, deliberately, to re-read the plays, to find the evidences of a Cipher, and I found them in abundance. While the word Stratford (Shakspere’s residence) does not appear once in the plays, the words St. Albans occur a dozen times. I found, on one column alone, the name Francis repeated twenty times; on another, the name William twelve times. Close to the twenty repetitions of Francis, I found Bacon, Nicholas, Bacon’s son, Master of the Exchequer, Lord Keeper of the Great Seal, St. Albans. On the same column, in the Merry Wives, with the word William, I found Bacon, and near at hand the words, Shakes and pier, the words evidently being dragged into the text.”

Drayton Michael (1563–1631) Enjoyed a high degree of popularity during his long life, and left a name still regarded with respect. His works are numerous, but the only volumes offering extracts suitable, written in the age of Elizabeth, are Moyses in his Map of Miracles, and The Harmonie of the Church, containing, the spiritual songs and holy hymns of godly men, patriarchs and prophets; all sweetly sounding to the praise and glory of the Highest. This latter work was published in 1591, and is not included in the editions of Drayton’s collected poems. 5

Droeshout Martin An engraver, who was probably a Dutchman, resided in England about the year 1623. He was chiefly employed by the booksellers, and engraved some portraits, which, if they cannot be admired for the beauty of their execution, are valued for their scarcity. His best known portrait is that prefixed to the first folio edition of Mr. William Shakespeares Comedies, Histories, & Tragedies, published in 1623. He also engraved the head of John Fox, the Martyrologist, John Howson, Bishop of Durham. 6 Other portraits by Droeshout are: James, Marquis of Hamilton; Thomas, Lord Coventry; John Donne, Dean of St. Paul’s; Helkiah Crooke, M.D., Lord Mountjoy Blount, afterwards Earl of Newport. 7

Du Bartas See Part III: French Writers.

Dudley Jane. Lady 8 Titular Queen of England for nine days in 1553. Beautiful and intelligent, at the age of fifteen she reluctantly allowed herself to be put on the throne by unscrupulous politicians; her subsequent execution by Mary Tudor aroused universal sympathy. Lady Jane was the great, granddaughter of Henry VII., through her mother, Lady Frances Brandon, whose own mother was Mary, the younger of King Henry VIII’s two sisters. Provided with excellent tutors, she spoke and wrote Greek and Latin at an early age; she was also proficient in French, Hebrew, and Italian. When Lady Jane was barely nine years old she went to live in the household of Queen Catherine Parr, and on the latter’s death in September 1548 she was made a ward of Catherine’s fourth husband, Thomas Seymour, Lord Seymour of Sudeley, who planned her marriage to his nephew and her cousin, the young King Edward VI. But Seymour was beheaded for treason in 1549, and Jane returned to her studies at Bradgate. After Lady Jane’s father, hitherto Marquess of Dorset, was created Duke of Suffolk in October 1551, she was constantly at the Royal Court. On May 21, 1553 John Dudley, Duke of Northumberland, who exercised considerable power at that point in the minority of King Edward VI., joined with Suffolk in marrying her to his son, Lord Guildford Dudley. Her Protestantism, which was extreme, made her the natural candidate for the throne of those who supported the Reformation, such as Northumberland. With the support of Northumberland, who had persuaded the dying Edward to set aside his half-sisters Mary and Elizabeth in favour of any male heirs who might be born to the Duchess of Suffolk and, failing them, to Lady Jane, she and her male heirs were designated successors to the throne. Edward died on July 6, 1553; on July 10, Lady Jane, who fainted when the idea was first broached to her, was proclaimed Queen. The rightful heir, Edward’s sister Mary Tudor, had the support of the populace, and on July 19 even Suffolk, who by now despaired of success in the plans for his daughter, attempted to retrieve his position by proclaiming Mary Queen. Northumberland’s supporters melted away, and the Duke of Suffolk easily persuaded his daughter to relinquish the unwanted crown. At the beginning of Queen Mary’s reign, Lady Jane and her father were committed to the Tower of London, but he was soon pardoned. Lady Jane and her husband, however, were arraigned for high treason on November 14, 1553. She pleaded guilty and was sentenced to death. The execution of the sentence was suspended, but the participation of her father, in early February 1554, in Sir Thomas Wyat’s rebellion sealed her fate. She and her husband were beheaded on February 12, 1554; her father was executed eleven days later. 9 [Also see Appendices Elizabethan age.]