The Poet's Sweetheart
Marguerite de Valois was the young, beautiful and erudite daughter of Catherine de Medici. She was the sister to the French King and Consort of Henry IV., of Navarre with whom she had not lived on terms of marital intimacy, the marriage being one of convenience.
Henry IV., was attached to another - the Baroness de Sauve. When Francis Bacon appeared at the French Court a divorce was about to be arranged.
This following Canto was written when Francis Bacon was at the French Court in the train of Sir Amias Paulett. He would be sixteen to seventeen years of age. He then knew that he was Queen Elizabeth's son...born under a cloud. Look at Hilyard's miniature of Francis as a youth. One can well imagine him writing these passionate lyrics.
Sonnet XLIV
A Poet's Thoughts while Travelling from His Sweetheart
If the dull substance of my flesh were Thoought,
Injurious distance should not stop my way;
For then, despite of space, I would be brought,
From limits far remote, where thou dost stay.
No matter then although my foot did stand
Upon the farthest earth removed from thee;
For Nimble Thought can jump both sea and land
As soon as think the place where he would be.
But, ah! Thought kills me that I am not Thought,
To leap large lengths of miles when thou art gone,
But that so much of earth and water wrought,
I must attend time's leisure with my moan,
Receiving nought by elements so slow, *
But heavy tears, badges of either's woe.
* The Ancients conceived man to be composed of Four Elements...
Earth, Water, Air and Fire. (S.R.I.A. Officers).