LIBRARY 
 
 UNIVERSITY OF 
 CALIFORNIA 
 
 SAN DIEGO 
 
 ) 

 
 -5535?-
 
 LETTERS 
 
 FROM THE DEAD 
 
 TO THE DEAD 
 
 COLLECTED, EDITED, AND ARRANGED WITH 
 NOTES, COMMENTS, AND GLOSSARY 
 
 BY 
 
 OLIVER LECTOR 
 
 ' Horatio. Oh day and night : but this is wondrous strange. 
 Hamlet. And therefore as a stranger give it welcome. 
 There are more things in Heaven and earth 
 than are dream't of in our philosophy." 
 
 BOSTON AND NEW YORK 
 
 HOUGHTON, MIFFLIN AND COMPANY 
 
 Cfoe ftitcrsibe press, Cambridge 
 
 MCMV
 
 COPYRIGHT 1905 BY BERNARD QUARITCH 
 ALL RIGHTS RESERVED 
 
 Published October 1305
 
 Ad Manes Baconi 
 
 This, let my supplication be, 
 One fragment of thy radiant soul, 
 Of thy Promethean heat one coal, 
 
 O Master-Mystic give to me.
 
 INDEX 
 
 PAGE 
 
 I. Jacob de Bruck to Francis Bacon . . . . i 
 
 II. Francis Bacon to Jacob de Bruck ... 4 
 
 III. Henry Briggs to John Napier 19 
 
 IV. John Napier to Henry Briggs . . . . 23 
 V. Guido Fawkes, otherwise Guy Fawkes, to Francis 
 
 Bacon 27 
 
 VI. William Shakspeare to Francis Bacon . . . 31 
 VII. Francis Bacon to William Shakspeare ... 34 
 VIII. Notes, Critical and Explanatory, by the Editor . 47 
 IX. De Bruck's Latin Verses Englished in Ten Para- 
 phrases by the Editor 66 
 
 Glossary .* 75
 
 LETTERS FROM THE DEAD 
 TO THE DEAD 
 
 i 
 
 JACOB DE BRUCK, Angermundt, to FRANCIS BACON 
 
 i 
 
 CHRISTMAS, 1904 
 My singular good friend : 
 
 By manie noble rivers 
 
 winding through fruitful and pleasant lands, we came 
 to a grove wherein there stood a stately temple, in 
 breadth some two hundred feet and of a height I 
 should judge above one hundred and fiftie, the archi- 
 trave supported upon Doric pillars, hewn as I think 
 out of porphyre or chalcedonie, and above the en- 
 trance I read these words in the Latin tongue, To 
 the memorie of the Mystics of the earth. Whilst I was 
 admiring the graceful proportions of this majestick 
 pile, I felt drawn, as it were by some potent influ- 
 ence, within the walls of the building, and before I 
 was aware of it I had crossed the threshold.
 
 JACOB DE BRUCK, ANGERMUNDT, TO 
 
 The court within was answerable to the proportions 
 of the temple. The pavement was of some material 
 the like of which I had never before beheld. 
 
 Every stone therein glowed as with living light. 
 I was aware of a throng shadowy as a veil and of a 
 presence under a canopy raised somewhat above the 
 level of the floor. As I was about to make obeisance 
 unto it, the accents of a stern voice brake upon me 
 saying, Who cometh hither? Then made answer 
 another from the farthest end of the hall, He who 
 was on earth the Chevalier de Bruck of Angermundt. 
 Before I could utter an exclamation of wonder, me- 
 thought the first voice replied, Let his record be 
 examined. Straightway thereupon another voice not 
 harsh and stern, but low and silvery, read as from 
 a book these words: Nationality unknown; of birth 
 gentle; Earth date 1616; emblem writer. While I 
 was still bowing amazed and strook with sudden 
 fear, the first voice, addressing the throng, said, Let 
 him return this day one moon hence, and let him 
 be furnisht with an exposition of his mysticisms. I 
 turned away, and, as if it had been by some magical 
 art, I beheld, as I live and hope for mercie, a statue 
 of your Excellency. 
 
 Then came I out into the pleasant fields commun- 
 ing with myself what should be the meaning of 
 so strange an event, and marvelling wherein I had 
 deserved to be enrolled a mystic. 
 
 [ 2]
 
 FRANCIS BACON 
 
 Breathless ran I back, and, prostrating myself, 
 craved leave to bring again such part onlie of mine 
 emblemes as memorie could supplie me withal. What 
 I craved was granted. 
 
 In that brief interval I did recall the booklet your 
 Excellency, for reasons best known to yourself, did 
 draw me on to set forth in the ancient city of Stras- 
 bourg in the year of our Lord 1616. What the pen- 
 altie may be of disobedience to their behests certes 
 I know not; but this right well I know, or rather this 
 right well I fear: some calamity will befall me if I 
 fail. I know another thing : by your help onlie shall 
 I be able to obey their commandments. 
 
 Have, therefore, a pityful eye upon me, and give 
 ear unto my petition. Send, I praie, by the nearest 
 way, a compendium, writ to mine humble under- 
 standing, of so many or so few of the body of that 
 strange writing which once, O master, was committed 
 unto me, and I shall ever rest in humilitie your poor 
 bedesman. 
 
 JACOB DE BRUCK. 
 
 [3 ]
 
 II 
 
 FRANCIS BACON to JACOB DE BRUCK, Angermundt 
 
 Sir: 
 
 I thank you heartily for vouchsafing to send 
 me your late lines, and for certifying what seemeth 
 strange to you, but not to me. To expound emblems 
 at this present I find myself neither fit nor disposed ; 
 and besides this averse disposition of my mind, I have 
 scant leisure to write a short letter, as a worthie 
 Ancient once said, and no wish to write a long one. 
 Nevertheless, because I find myself knit to your 
 deservings with bands of enduring strength, I would 
 not have you think me either remiss in civility or of 
 so slothful a nature that to stead a friend I would 
 not run against the bias of distaste. I will, therefore, 
 to the uttermost of my power and amity, recount 
 those things which may at this time advantage you 
 and peradventure harm me no jot. 
 
 Premising this onlie, that the distaste whereof I 
 have spoken proceedeth not upon anie ill conceit of 
 your person ; but rather upon mine inflexible opinion 
 that all that I did upon those curious toys called 
 
 [4]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO JACOB DE BRUCK 
 
 emblems devoured time that was ill bestowed. Me- 
 thinks I did assume too great a nimbleness of wit 
 in the French men of your time, that I builded too 
 great hopes upon the sagacity of the German and 
 the tenacity and slow plodding of the students who 
 dwelt in the Netherlands. Of mine own countrymen 
 I did expect little, nor in this was I deceived. 
 
 The age which followed mine was an age of civil 
 commotion. 
 
 When Peace brow-bound with her olive garland 
 came back to that distracted isle, the old learning 
 had died ; and that which commonly happeneth after 
 civil war thereupon ensued : Folly became the mas- 
 ter of the revels. How else (think you) was it that 
 it came to pass, though I planted manie a sprigge in 
 manie a quaint and curious emblem volume, that not 
 one germinated or bore flowering seed for hard upon 
 three centuries ? As for yours, some of them, in verie 
 truth clear as a mathematical diagram, failed utterly, 
 failed hopelessly, of anie the least effect. But satis 
 superque. If I mistake not, in the drawings and text 
 of that which I now send there be little error. In 
 the emblemes which now I doe expound I have 
 thought good to put exposition and embleme on the 
 same page whereby methinks my meaning may be 
 better discerned. 
 
 Now because the mind hath by its own properties 
 slowness of motion and inertness, specially if the 
 
 [ 5 ]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 subject be strange or new, I have thought it befitting 
 to observe not the order which obtaineth in de Bruck 
 his emblemes, but rather to begin with those which 
 are most patent, going then to the more recondite 
 and complex. 
 
 Exposition of ye emblemes. 
 
 NUMBER i. You shall see in this emblem, that the 
 wind setteth from that quarter where certain revellers
 
 JACOB DE BRUCK, ANGERMUNDT 
 
 are making merry under the trees : this is indicated 
 by the waving of the sedge seen growing along 
 the bank of the stream ; questionlesse, therefore, the 
 spear enveloped with ciphers threaded on a strand 
 will shake and vibrate in the brize. 
 
 The motto or poesy of the ring, " Ultima Frigent" 
 at the last they shake, signifieth no less. The eel 
 prone upon his back denoteth two thinges : first the 
 vowel " U " (that is, you) may be supposed to utter 
 this phrase, You, Shakespeare, enveloped as thou art 
 in ciphers. As hath been said, the " U " may also 
 be taken as expressing the Roman numeral 5, hence 
 that the five fold cipher, like the eel his back on, is 
 dead. 
 
 The last line of the Latin poem, " Now the under- 
 taker layeth hold of the fame of the dead man," 
 uttereth a prophecy. 
 
 [7]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 Cx ftccA fmf& rudiccietL 
 
 *-n ^/ f (T 
 
 Una awndajn rue nict SWUM. jrra.Gtic/tt. 
 
 ' ' &- -^X 
 
 oDOL ' 
 
 *(* ' c 
 
 <~>ufcttjU; ULd 
 
 NUMBER 2. There needeth no other interpretation 
 of this emblem than a brief quotation from the plaie 
 of Cymberline as followeth : " And when from a 
 stately cedar shall be lopped branches which, being 
 dead manie years, shall after revive, be jointed to the 
 old stock, and freshly grow, then shall posthumas 
 end his miseries, Britain be fortunate, and flourish in 
 
 [8]
 
 JACOB DE BRUCK, ANGERMUNDT 
 
 peace and plenty." Posthumas prefiguring there the 
 after ages, and the branches dead manie years that 
 portion of my writings which I did sequester from 
 the vulgar gaze. 
 
 Turn we now to number three, with its motto ;
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 " Nil ultra? Therein may be seen prefigered my 
 cipher, and the snail marching round and round his 
 ring the slow process of its solution. 
 
 NUMBER 4. The fabled phcenix rising from his 
 ashes I hold to be a representation of those secret 
 
 [ 10]
 
 JACOB DE BRUCK, ANGERMUNDT 
 
 writings already touched upon. The cipher held 
 aloft, my cipher. 
 
 The buried numbers 39 and 27 signifieth a two 
 fold numerical cipher. The obelisk, peradventure it 
 is a joke ; peradventure it is a deep fetch of my wit. 
 
 There needeth in conclusion onlie this, as the 
 verse declareth, It is not mortal fame that I desire. 
 
 NUMBER 5. The youth standeth upon a hillock 
 and bloweth at a candle. What more, marry ? I trow 
 
 <LC,uuL6>z& fut 
 
 dfie. 
 ' sic, eavrc
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 little more ; but the drift of your book being now ap- 
 parent, there may be one who, regarding the knights 
 that Shake speares> will pierce the veil and say, " Out, 
 out, brief candle ! life 's but a walking shadow, a poor 
 player that struts and frets his hour upon the stage 
 and then is heard no more." 
 
 My poor player moveth apace to his final exit. 
 
 NUMBER 6. In the sonnets called the Sonnets of 
 
 cfalrcs raMtn, turn, 
 
 * c- f , - s 
 ? cunufut. f&(La, 
 
 IS.
 
 JACOB DE BRUCK, ANGERMUNDT 
 
 Shakespeare there be divers notable mysteries, as 
 manic writers have in good part marked. This emblem 
 addresseth itself to observation, not to the intellect. 
 The light and the dark " A " in the impress of those 
 sonnets are represented in the branches of the tree. 
 These two letters signify a two fold literal cipher 
 and make the distinction between one which is nu- 
 merical, shown in the fourth emblem herein. This 
 cannot be understood except ye examine with care 
 the light and the dark "A" with their suspended 
 key in Shakespeare his sonnets. The executioner in 
 the back ground doth behead his victim, an obscure 
 glance at that notable mystery, " The onlie Begetter 
 of these ensuing sonnets."
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 / /iffJL 
 \s 
 
 Juza, 
 
 ' / . _ / /) 
 
 tuvu ctdfiLuuL -fuSoL 
 
 CUM 
 
 uj 6 
 
 NUMBER 7. This emblem taketh hold, under the 
 name of logs, of the logarithms; and by the motto 
 of the ring, "Nil solidum" nothing solid, I gave a 
 warning against credulous beliefs.
 
 JACOB DE BRUCK, ANGERMUNDT 
 
 NUMBER 8. I will make signification unto you of 
 the Emblem which here you behold as followeth: 
 
 tUm. iruaA pLciMJitj cc fiiururuL hunt/ 
 
 /" (-^ - / ^ *S 
 
 CjrnsUti<ni. i ,<vch<t=. 
 
 * fl ' / 
 
 t, certo est vtx a.Kf 
 
 - 
 
 <:c 
 
 cet, 
 
 I mean of the ant beneath the hat, that you must 
 seek him ere you dig my meaning out ; and I mean of 
 the shovel resting upon the arm of the sea, that the 
 sea cant uphold it. The rebus of a secant is plainly 
 expressed in seek ant and sea cant. But to make my 
 meaning clear, that the trigonometrical functions of 
 
 [ 15]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 the arc have a relation to my problem, I chose the 
 French word for ant, fourmys, in the french verses, a 
 manifest reference to form is, and he who hath read 
 the Novum Organum wots well the emphasis I lay 
 upon the discovery of forms. Mark, likewise, y e ac- 
 crostick, in the first row of my french verses. 
 
 NUMBER 9. Peradventure the loist sonnet of 
 [ 16]
 
 JACOB DE BRUCK, ANGERMUNDT 
 
 Shakespeare, which commenceth, " Oh truant muse," 
 looketh as well to the preceeding emblem as towards 
 the one now before you, because the ring and the 
 cord binding pillar to pillar make the letters Oh. In 
 certain copies of the edition of Shakespeare's Son- 
 nets, 1609, this word Oh will be found to bear my 
 cipher dot thus, .Oh. 
 
 [ 17]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO JACOB DE BRUCK 
 
 rw^ /( 
 
 dffn&e, j&cnLw, 
 
 fCVJ. 
 
 NUMBER 10. The beacon on the hill found here 
 indicates Bacon well enough and the trefoil held 
 aloft may be interpreted, if you will read page 43, 
 vol. 4 of the Letters and Life of Francis Bacon by 
 James Spedding, London, 1868. 
 
 [ 18 ]
 
 Ill 
 
 HENRY BRIGGS to JOHN NAPIER 
 
 22ND JANUARY, 1905 
 
 Because of the community of our studies, dear friend, 
 our long assured friendship and steadfast goodwill, 
 continued these manie years bygone, I have made so 
 bold as to propound unto your honer certain doubts 
 which now and in former years have crossed my 
 mind touching the invention of logarithms. 
 
 What I have to say unto you I would fain set 
 down with this caveat, that you are not to imagine or 
 think that I mean to question the sufficiency of your 
 learning, or of those gifts in the mathematics where- 
 with under Providence you were so happily endowed. 
 To make a plain tale with you, my doubt ariseth 
 upon this : In the preface of your book Mirifici Log- 
 arithmorum Canonis Descriptio, you say, " Multis 
 subinde in hunc finem perpensis nonnulla tandem 
 inveni preclara compendia, alibi fortasse tractanda : " 
 which Mr. Edward Wright did render in his transla- 
 tion of your book as f olloweth : " I found at length
 
 HENRY BRIGGS TO JOHN NAPIER 
 
 some excellent brief rules, to be treated of (perhaps) 
 hereafter," and when Mr. Edward Wright did shew 
 that to me I thought then, as now I think, that your 
 words, with the clause, " To be treated of perhaps else- 
 where," vail a hidden mystery. This light suspicion 
 grew stronger on one occasion when I observed that 
 the impress in your book, of two cupids, two rabbits, 
 and the suspended fish, is in every way precisely like 
 the one adopted for that mystical body of writing, 
 published in our time, called William Shakespeare's 
 Sonnets. 
 
 It hath been said by writers of repute, that neither 
 you nor I knew in fact that the logarithm had a base. 
 How this standeth with you verily I know not, but 
 for mine own part I may affirm that I was never igno- 
 rant of it. In your Rabdologia, part 2, chapter 6, you 
 shew the geometrical progression i, 2, 4, 8, 16, 32, 64, 
 128, 256, 512, 1024, and so following; and I cannot 
 be persuaded that whilst you were thinking on the 
 subject of logarithms, you did never put these over 
 against the arithmetical progression o, i, 2, 3, 4, 5, 
 6, 7, 8, 9, 10, thus : 
 
 i o 
 
 2 I 
 
 4 2 
 
 8 3 
 
 16 4 
 
 [20]
 
 HENRY BRIGGS TO JOHN NAPIER 
 
 32 5 
 
 64 6 
 
 128 7 
 
 256 8 
 
 512 .......... 9 
 
 1024 10 
 
 Now let the numbers in the right hand column be 
 the logarithms of the numbers in the left hand col- 
 umn. A child may discern that the addition of 2 -f- 5 
 equaleth 7, which is the logarithm of 128, and that 
 thereby 4, of which i is the logarithm, multiplieth 
 32, of which 5 is the logarithm, and the result is 128, 
 of which 7 is the logarithm. Equally lieth it patent 
 to the eye, that 4 is the exponent of base 2, and so of 
 all the other numbers in the right hand column. 
 So, as it seemeth, both the conception of a logarithm 
 as the exponent of an invariable base could not have 
 been absent from your mind when you were making 
 those computations, if you worked with your eyes 
 open, as I trow well you didd. 
 
 I will be bold to set down mine opinion, that never 
 in History hath there been so strange a fact, as that 
 you should have selected, instead of one of manie 
 whole numbers for your base, the fraction represented 
 by 
 
 And this, too, when it must have been known to you 
 
 [21 ]
 
 HENRY BRIGGS TO JOHN NAPIER 
 
 that your tables could never in practice be generally 
 useful, because they could not be infinite in extent. 
 Impart, I prithee, unto me the reasons which guided 
 you to so strange a choice ; and so with protestations 
 of loving affection, 
 I rest, 
 
 your friend, willing to do you service 
 when time serveth, 
 
 HENRY BRIGGS. 
 
 [22]
 
 IV 
 
 JOHN NAPIER to HENRY BRIGGS 
 
 3OTH JANUARY, 1905 
 
 I have shewn your recent letter to an inward friend 
 of mine, who hath counselled me, yf I bee so minded, 
 to give you contentment, so far as I am able, con- 
 cerning those things which you desire to know. My 
 wonder is not that you think those things strange 
 whereof you write, but rather that others have not 
 penetrated behind, or torn aside, the veil of that mys- 
 tery. 
 
 In the year 1594, Master Antony Bacon, a man 
 whom I profess I loved for his manie rare and excel- 
 lent parts, and who merited better deservings than 
 he got, writ unto me a letter wherein, inter alia, he 
 said that his brother Francis was one of the most 
 capable spirits of the age. Other things, which my 
 modesty preventeth my setting down, he vented in 
 his letter touching my gifts, specially in the mathe- 
 matique. It contained, moreover, that which it im- 
 porteth me not now to declare, but the conclusion 
 of it was an invitation to visit them, that is to say, 
 
 [ 23 ]
 
 JOHN NAPIER TO HENRY BRIGGS 
 
 Anthony and his brother, at Twickenham, where they 
 then lodged. Mine own affaires did call me to Lon- 
 don, as I now remember, in the Midsummer of that 
 year ; and, having ended my business, I made the visit 
 which I wrate I would do in my answer to Master 
 Anthony his letter. I shall not trouble you with all 
 that passed : let it be enough to say, that 1 was then 
 shewn by Francis Bacon, Mirabile dictu, the verie 
 series which you have recorded in your letter. 
 
 The mystical properties of those numbers seemed 
 unto me, then, to savour of arts magical rather than 
 mathematical, and they laid such siege to my mind 
 that I could for a long time think of nothing else. 
 To make a short story of a long tale, we did enter 
 into covenants reciprocal, whereby I should bestow 
 the labour demanded for accurate computation of 
 the tables, taking the worldly credit thereof for my 
 reward ; and Francis Bacon on his part reserved unto 
 himself the furnishing of two prefatory Latin poems 
 and the impresses or sparta of my book. 
 
 I care not how this standeth with my reputa- 
 tion, but in the fulness of time al will be known; and 
 what mattereth, therefore, a little anticipation. For a 
 briefe space onlie have I known the true significa- 
 tion of these verses prefixed to the first edition of 
 my book. 
 
 [24]
 
 JOHN NAPIER TO HENRY BRIGGS 
 
 ALIUD. 
 
 " Buchanane tibi Neperum adscisce sodalem, 
 Floreat & nostris SCOTIA nostra viris : 
 Nam velut ad Summum culmen perducta Poesis 
 In te stat, nee quo progrediatur habet : 
 Sic etiam summum est culmen perducta Mathesis, 
 Inque hoc stat, nee quo progrediatur habet." 
 
 Mr. Francis Bacon took great delight in acrostics 
 and such enigmas. 
 
 Reading up the first letters of each line, one may 
 be there noted, " I sin F. B.,' as one should say, I 
 sign F. B. ; but this acrostic importeth more than 
 that. At page 58 of my book, it will be observed 
 that the first sine computed by me is the sine of 
 nought degrees nought minutes. Hence the first 
 sine, answering to fig. i, is a double cipher. Where- 
 fore it admonishes the reader to search and find 
 such two fold cipher. 
 
 Forasmuch (dear friend) as you marvel at my 
 choosing so strange a base, be it known unto you, 
 that mine was no free election. 
 
 For reasons which Bacon did never disclose unto 
 me, he required such a base as would serve when 
 taken from the base 10 afterwards adopted by you 
 to segregate the number 9*6321. 
 
 Peradventure you understand why Shakespeare's 
 Sonnets and Napier's logarithms have one common 
 
 [25 ]
 
 JOHN NAPIER TO HENRY BRIGGS 
 
 device, and it needeth not great wit to read that 
 emblem. 
 
 " Magna est veritas et praevalebit :" and so this 
 much have I opened unto you to the disablement of 
 my worldlie fame and your better advertisement. 
 Resting as always, 
 
 your assured and loving friend, 
 
 JOHN NAPIER. 
 
 [26]
 
 V 
 
 GUY FAWKES to FRANCIS BACON 
 
 FEBRUARY IST, 1905 
 Jesus ! Maria ! 
 
 There be little knowen on that earth I quit in haste, 
 sirrah, which soon or late cometh not to the know- 
 ledge of this place where now I am. Because of the 
 nearness messengers are manie and other communi- 
 cations not few. So is it that what I am about to 
 make protestation of, belike is as well known to me 
 as to you. I have read your fustian poem in Latin, 
 which you shamed to own living, and in which, I 
 trow, much pride you cannot take e'en now: I mean 
 that one called In Homines Nefarios. Do you think 
 because I have trailed a pike I have never thumbed 
 a grammar? Aye, marry, that I have, and could hie 
 my haec and hanc my hujus with the best of 'em. 
 Long before your porrige-pated sallet-hearted fool of 
 a Scotch King began to compound canticles in base 
 Latin, to sing through his misbegotten nose, with 
 as manie false quantities in 's verses, as false weights 
 in old Antonio Volponis' bake shop in Turin. He 
 
 [27]
 
 GUY FAWKES TO FRANCIS BACON 
 
 it was who baked Musquette bullets in the crust of 
 his quarterne loaves, and after weighing plucked 'em 
 out again, chiding his workmen for his undoing be- 
 cause they put raisins in plain bread. That he did, 
 and you, it seemeth, weight your sour dough with the 
 heavy lead of affected and thrasonical comparisons. 
 My complaint goeth not to that, Gods woe ! Have 
 not I endured burnings enow, effegies and bonfires 
 enow, roastings enow, and am I to be told that a 
 scurvie play, of your composition, is to be enacted 
 on the fifth day of November next following, with 
 my lines mouthed (I make no doubt) by a villanous 
 player, doublet unbelted, hose ungartered, shoon un- 
 kempt, and with swart wig and mustachios in the 
 fashion of Stage villans. 
 
 An the puppet doeth it that way, he shall answer 
 to Guido Fawkes, yf he chance to take, as manie 
 actors doe, " The Brimstone path " you once did 
 prate of. 
 
 Another thing, sirrah ! 
 
 History taketh knowledge of those who layed the 
 powder plot, Catesby and Percie. I justify it not. 
 Wrong begets wrong and violence breedeth violence. 
 They played for vengeance and domination and 
 they gat damnation : but History hath not recorded 
 who layed the Counterplot. 
 
 M. Catesby was a man, look you, who brooked not 
 nay from any human being. When smock-livered 
 
 [28]
 
 GUY FAWKES TO FRANCIS BACON 
 
 Keyes was made a conspirator, then quod I, Catesby, 
 mark it well, never yet foregathered thirteen men 
 but one approved himself a Judas. Tush, answered 
 he, these are not Jews or Spanish Dons, but true 
 born Englishmen. He was right, I wrong; but mark 
 the sequel. He would have Bates his servant one of 
 us. I did mislike it. Serving men are not meet 
 coequals for gentlemen and soldiers. He would have 
 it so to our undoing, yea to our malign undoing. 
 From the hour Bates swore on the Sacraments to 
 be steadfast, we never had an instants peace. 
 
 Confession must he make, go to ! Absolution 
 must he have not once but hourly. 
 
 Zounds ! the varlets Conscience was a disease ! 
 One ghostly father contented not him, and Catesby 
 nursed his humours. Now cometh in the travesano. 
 Not every cowl covers a monks head. Twas a brave 
 stratagem, i' faith, to trick up Salisburys spy in Jesuit 
 garb and so obtain Bates his confession. 
 
 The rest was easy! but methinks the warning 
 letter to Mountegle penned under your direction 
 lacketh something. It should have borne the 
 Kings own signet, because he did peruse it before 
 it was sent and expounded it after. Fortunate is 
 the countrie whose history is made according to the 
 rules of theatric art. Sirrah, who laid the Counter- 
 plot? Not craftie Cecil, dull Popham or Coarse 
 Coke. 
 
 [29]
 
 GUY FAWKES TO FRANCIS BACON 
 
 You were that man, and I am, with what flourish 
 you will, 
 
 GUIDO FAWKES. 
 
 Virgo et mater, Sancta Maria, ora pro me. 
 
 [ 30]
 
 VI 
 
 WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE to FRANCIS BACON 
 
 Y B Two & TWENTIE DAY OF JANUARIE 
 
 A. D. 1905 
 
 My humble dutie unto y r Honer first in most humble 
 wyse rememberd. 
 
 Thare bee of late comen hither, Rite Honerable, 
 divers beeings w h I think good to advertise you of & 
 thare uppon to desir yr frendlie advisement. 
 
 So well as I can relate this is the matter, a thing 
 which hath never falne out tofore. 
 
 Was yeasterdaie se'enight the whyles I beying 
 att the lintallage of my open window, passeth one 
 of most Worshippful degree, who, after given mee 
 gooden in strannge facion, brake with mee and 
 sayde, 
 
 " Hark yee ! Master Shakspeare the whole worlde 
 reverences y r name & memorie so farre forth as they 
 bee like to tare anie one in pieces who soe much as 
 questioneth your learning and sufficiencie. Yet for 
 mine owne part I can not wedd ye to your workes. 
 
 C3i]
 
 WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE TO 
 
 " How cometh yt to pass, quoth 'a, yt on that 
 Earthe, ther ar soe manie and great reliques, of other 
 menne, such as is lettars bookes and MSS. butt of 
 you just none att al, saving onlie a wyll, peevish and 
 paltrie, yll wrytton, yll spelt and yn everie line be- 
 wraying a weake minde and a weaker penne ? " 
 
 Answer then made I coldlie unto this effeckt, yt 
 for my wyll itt was made by a lawyer's clarke, and 
 for the other thinges, I doubted not, I c d giv him satis- 
 factio yf I listed, butt whyle wee were yet speaking 
 comen two others. One a grave and reverent soule, 
 noble of porte, and of visage majesticall, the other a 
 drie and wizard-like sprite who flouted me verilie not 
 by wordes butt grinning. 
 
 Then spake the first, craving pardon courteslie 
 sithence hee was a stranger : " Yee will give mee 
 great contentment, forasmuch as I have long desired 
 this knowledg, yf yee wyll expound unto mee ye 
 plaies of Macbeth, King Lear, Hamlet and Othello. 
 Meeseemes and unto others with whom I have for- 
 tuned to speake, that these y r chiefest plaies bee 
 poesie, in forme onlie dramaticall, butt ar, of a veri- 
 tie, parabolic or inclosed. If yea, wherefore keep ye 
 those secretts longer ? " 
 
 Or ever I c d make replication unto him, straight- 
 waie thrust in the other, " Ha ! ha ! ha ! ha ! Master 
 Shakspeare knoweth itt well, knoweth yt well. Be- 
 like hee wyll tell you, belike hee wyll tell you," saie- 
 
 [32]
 
 FRANCIS BACON 
 
 ing again his wordes with mocking derision and manie 
 quaint gesturings and posturings. 
 
 " Riddle mee this, worthie Master Shakspeare, ridle 
 me thys: My Lo Hamlet hath madness when the 
 winde bee Nor-Nor-West, but when ye winde is South- 
 erlie Hee knoweth a hawke from a herne-shawe. 
 
 "The goodlie Sir John, ho! ho! the goodlie Sir 
 John Falstaff, hee hath reade the causes of appo- 
 plexie in Galen, hee hath, wher bee that text. Edifie 
 us thus much, great poet, what pag, what booke, read- 
 est hee that ? 
 
 " But mee noe buts, and yf mee no yfs, out of thy 
 vast stores of learning putt in ure a little." Much 
 more to the self same tenour railed hee on, tho' little 
 I marked him, reflecting the whyle what I should 
 saie to his manifeste scorning. 
 
 Nowe troth to speake I am not easlie mooved to 
 anger as yr Honor knoweth, butt for the nonce, clean 
 forgott I, that neither hadd I then, nor have I nowe 
 nor ever hadd I, anie the least knowledg of these 
 particularities. I mislike much to confess that, in my 
 choler, I did promise them both to-morrow weeke a 
 parfitt exposcion touching those matters wherein they 
 did questone mee. 
 
 Soe with what speed convenientlie yee maie let mee 
 have your honors aunser back againe. 
 resting y r bounden 
 
 WILL SHAKSPEARE. 
 [33 ]
 
 VII 
 
 FRANCIS BACON to WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE 
 
 1905. JAN. 24, TUESDAIE 
 Deare and loving friend, 
 
 Out of question thou hast 
 
 put thyself in a posture of defence, when defiance had 
 been better, but to chide thee I doe forbear ; and the 
 rather because thou hast been alvvaies of approved 
 discretion, unmatched faithfulness, and of all plaiers 
 that have been these five hundred yeres or better the 
 non-pareil. For hast thou not been principall in a 
 long plaied comedie wherein tho' the lines were few, 
 and the cues not hard to hold in memorie, yet the 
 action of the plaie demanded on thy part that which 
 is most difHcle, seemlie silence and seeming veritie. 
 
 Not to all is it given to plaie a great part after the 
 scenes of Earthlie Tragedie & Comedie have closed, 
 and for this, good Will, thou maist thank mee. 
 
 But rest, perturbed Spirit : soon maist thou lay 
 aside thy buskin an thy masque, and the part of the 
 world's dramatick poet will be taken by another. 
 
 [ 34]
 
 WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE 
 
 To him of right it appertaineth, as in due and fit 
 Season shal be shewn, not indeed by argument but 
 lawful evidence. My digression is from the purpose : 
 I prithee pardon it. 
 
 The challenge propounded unto thee I doe con- 
 ceive admitteth on thy part of three courses. 
 
 Firstlie, thou maist alleage (and this is open to con- 
 struction) that, upon more advised thought, thy long 
 silence shall not be broken. Second, thou maist an- 
 swer in part and defer the rest to thine owne appointed 
 opportunities. Third, thou maist disclose all accord- 
 ing as I now direct thee, taking heed that neither 
 directly nor indirectly thou utterest SUGGESTIO FALSI 
 nor MENDACIA VISA. It is not thy province to supplye 
 mindes for thy buzzing questioners, who would faine 
 drinke at the fountaine and are too slothful to kneel 
 at the rivulet. This bee my counsel in few : answer 
 the scoffer, and let the wise man abide thy time and 
 abate the edge of his o'er mastering importunitie. 
 The wisdom whereof will appear in this, that his wish 
 runeth deep : his is a speech of touch ; it goeth to 
 the maine in that it importeth more than it expresseth. 
 
 Redargution of the four idols cannot be made but 
 by these plaies, and contrariwise the expounding of 
 the plays reveals my idols. Thou knowest well, none 
 so well as thou, how often I denied thee entrance 
 into my arcana, slighted thee off, telling thee point- 
 device, such things were not for thee, nor for that 
 
 [ 35 ]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 yeastie age wherein we lived and had our mortal 
 being. 
 
 And albeit now, so is it that I care not greatlie, 
 yet would I have the aenigmatic plaies interpreted, 
 vera inductione if it mought bee. The question hath 
 been moved, and I give thee matter wherewithal to 
 answer it. Make use of it as it pleaseth thee. 
 
 For the passage from Galen which thy wizard-like 
 sprite demandeth with so great peremptoriness, marry 
 methinks it were enough to answer, that there is a 
 boke which he may rede, if he bee well seen in the 
 Greek tongue, set forth yf I mistake not in Venice, 
 which hath this singularitie, that the paging thereof 
 is manifest errore. 
 
 Thou maist know the boke by the impresse or 
 Embleme of an Anchor and a Dolphin, and thou 
 maist further know yt, when thou comest to page 120 
 wrongly numbered no. 
 
 Note that the pages, as then custom was, are on 
 every alternate leafe, and turn to the obverse side of 
 true page 158 and untoe that part which beginneth 
 
 ou Trcurav (nroTrX-r^iav dAAa. 
 
 This Galen was a learned and authentick fellow, 
 and I avowch that the fat knight was noe lesse, yf I 
 bee not deceived. 
 
 It cannot bee denied in reason that the South wind 
 when gentle is not a great collector of cloudes, but yt 
 
 [36]
 
 WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE 
 
 is often clear, specialle yf it bee of short continu- 
 ance ; nor can it bee gainsayed that when yt contin- 
 ueth yt bringeth on raine. (I meane in the Northern 
 Countries as Denmark.) A heron when it soareth 
 high, so as sometimes to flie above a low cloud, 
 shows wind ; but Kites (and your hawk hath the same 
 habitude) flying high shows fair weather. 
 
 It followeth thereupon that in the gentle Southerly 
 wind both hawk and hernshaw are low flying birds, 
 and the cause of yt is this, that your Nor-nor-west 
 and Nor-west winds bee high and boisterous, which 
 the heron much delighteth in ; contrariwise the hawk 
 or kite and Falcon. All this may be reade by your 
 prolocutor (yf so bee it he wishes) in the History of 
 the Windes at divers pages, writ by me, and pub- 
 lisht long after thou, good friend, hadst quitted the 
 earthlie stage for ever. 
 
 Goe to, then, is it not easie to discern Lord Ham- 
 let's drift? 
 
 He is but mad in a gale, but when the wind is 
 Southerly he knoweth a hawk from a hernshaw. 
 
 For him who flouted thee let this suffice. 
 
 For the question remaining, it asketh a strong wit 
 to be able to propound it, and I misdoubt whether in 
 short compass it can be answered. But to the pur- 
 pose. These plaies stand in the folio not as I would 
 have them each in his own due order; their sequence 
 should bee Macbeth, Lear, Hamlet, Othello : and I 
 
 [ 37 ]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 marvaille greatlie that it hath not been noted hitherto 
 how great is their resemblance to certain cognate and 
 parallel things in my Novum Organum. 
 
 The idols which bewitch the human intellect are 
 four, and I did nominate them with care, as followeth, 
 
 The Idol of the Tribe, 
 The Idol of the Cave, 
 The Idol of the Market Place, 
 The Idol of the Theatre. 1 
 
 Now note that in common speech all are rightlie 
 pronounced save onlie Lear, which should be called 
 Lair not Leer, as habit now is. Heedful care did I 
 take to indicate in manie of my writings the true 
 sound of Britain's ancient King, but to no purpose. 
 Thus I spelled rare-boiled eggs rear-boiled eggs, as 
 witnesseth my Sylva Sylvarum, yet such is the in- 
 veterate custom of men, once wrong never right. 
 
 This appeareth of little import, yet hath it much. 
 
 The three letters Mac. hath been time out of mind, 
 among Gaelic races, a tribal designation. Mac Der- 
 mott of the tribe of Dermott, Mac Donald of the tribe 
 of Donald, Mac Beth of the tribe of Beth. That Lair 
 meaneth cave or den of a wild beast, needeth not 
 amplitude of argumentation. 
 
 For Hamlet, canst thou bethink thee of anie ham- 
 let in England that hath not his market place, and 
 
 1 Novum Organum, Book I, Aphorism 39. 
 [38]
 
 WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE 
 
 needst thou, therefore, to aske under which subdivi- 
 sion it falleth ? 
 
 The Idols of the Theatre are not innate, nor secretly 
 insinuated into the human intellect. They arise from 
 the perverted laws of demonstration, from wild fables 
 and oracular traditions. Thou, good friend, art in 
 thine own person the greatest theatrical idol; and 
 having regard to thy long continuance, Time should 
 be depicted not with his scythe and hour glass, but 
 with a mallet or beetle, to crush and destroy mental 
 idolatry. I did essaie the task, but failed. 
 
 Mankind would not note that Othello is practised 
 upon in plaine view of all. That lago pileth up the af- 
 firmatives, and the Moore asketh not for the negative 
 instance. 
 
 Verie well, the openly perverted laws of demonstra- 
 tion that plaie condemns ; and is it credible, thinkest 
 thou, that soe easie a lesson hath not been applied to 
 thee, good Will, par example ? Let the idols and the 
 plaies be now putt in their sequent co-ordination. 
 
 Macbeth The Tribe 
 
 .Lear The Cave 
 
 Hamlet The Market Place 
 
 Othello The Theatre 
 
 Of the idol of the tribe I saie : 
 The human intellect from his own property easilie 
 supposes greater order and equality in things than it 
 
 [39]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 findeth. The human intellect draweth all things to 
 agree with those things in which it taketh delight ; 
 and although there bee greater weight and power of 
 instances contrariwise, yet doth it not observe or 
 distinguish these things, or dispiseth them or by friv- 
 olous distinctions rejecteth or removes them from the 
 path, but not without great and pernicious prejudice. 
 
 The human intellect is specially moved by that 
 which doth suddenlie strike it, and becometh filled 
 with phantasies and fantastick dreams. It runeth not 
 to instances remote and hetrogeneous whereby axioms 
 are tried as by fire. The mind presseth on and on, 
 but in vain. 
 
 Such, then, are the idols of the tribe which arise 
 from the spirit of man beeing of an equal and uniform 
 substance, supposing greater regularitie than exist- 
 eth, from its own preoccupations, from its narrow- 
 ness, from its restless motion, from the infusion of 
 its wishes, from incompetence of the senses, and from 
 its impressions. 
 
 It hath been noted by manie, that the Scotch, 
 otherwise a sedate and serious people of grave rather 
 than mirthful natures, bee very prone to superstition. 
 Macbeth is much given to it. The witch's prophecy 
 on the blasted heath strooke suddenlie and sharplie 
 upon that man's veine ; he stoppeth not to enquire 
 whether the weyard women were phantasmes or real. 
 They met him on the day of his successes, and there 
 
 [40]
 
 WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE 
 
 was more in them than mortal knowledge. " Quod 
 voluimus facile credimus? sayeth Caesar, and thou 
 mayest there see the superstitious tribal idolator 
 bowing and genuflecting before his own wild fancies. 
 
 This state of mind agreeth well with the sentence 
 from Novum Organum, " The human intellect is spe- 
 cially moved by that which doth suddenlie strike it." 
 Mark his second stage : he drew all thinges to agree 
 with that prophecy wherein he took delight. Mark 
 again the third stage, which this exclaim connoteth : 
 " Better be with the dead whom we to gayne our 
 peace have sent to peace, then on the torture of the 
 minde to lye in restless ecstacie." 
 
 Thou seest there how the mind presseth on and 
 on, but in vain. Observe, last of all, how the infu- 
 sion of his own wishes did constrain him to believe 
 that Birnam Wood could never come to Dunsinane. 
 Failing at the first to try the witch's words by the 
 touchstone of reason, he uttereth that despairing 
 cry : " And be these juggling fiends no more be- 
 lieved, that palter with us in a double sense ; that keep 
 the word of promise to our eare, and break it to our 
 hope." 
 
 For the present let this suffice touching the idol 
 of the Tribe. 
 
 I did conceive the idol of the Cave to be moulded 
 out of particular contemplations of the individual 
 man. For particular contemplations darkeneth the 
 
 [41 ]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 intellect as do caves and caverns light. I did imagine 
 a type or model in the ancient King, of the uni- 
 versal man, dividing his kingdom among three two 
 unworthy, one worthy. 
 
 That kingdom might be his time, the onlie certain 
 possession of mortal man. Let Cordelia personify 
 useful studies and contemplations, these he banish- 
 eth ; and Regan and Goneril be types of useless 
 pursuits, vain philosophy, and the arid logic of the 
 schoolmen. The King trusteth to appearances from 
 the determinate bent of his own mind, takes re- 
 fuge at last in his actual cave and den, with reason 
 dethroned and a fool for his couch-fellow. This 
 be the moral thereof : distrust thine own hasty and 
 predeterminate opinions. 
 
 The idol of the Market Place is fashioned out of 
 those abberations which men have in consort or 
 society. It was in my youth that I did ponder and 
 weigh the advantages of an active and contempla- 
 tive life, and it seemed that there mought be un- 
 folded by means of a drama that perpetual struggle 
 between wish and duty which is as old as history. 
 
 Hamlet doth portray and embody the new philo- 
 sophy, the philosophy of true induction, which gath- 
 ereth knowledge as the bee doth honey from flower 
 to flower. 
 
 The usurping king, his uncle, is a lively represen- 
 tation of the dusty arid, yea bastard philosophy, of 
 
 [42]
 
 WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE 
 
 the schoolmen, of Duns Scotus et id omne genus ; 
 that philosophy of logic which under the leadership 
 of the great Stagirite enslaved the human mind and 
 made mankind bondsmen for lo these many cen- 
 turies. Note how the parable in Hamlet runeth out. 
 Polonius from the signification of the term stands 
 for policy or statecraft ; Ophelia, as her name de- 
 noteth in the Greek word o^eXeta, meaneth profit ; 
 Laertes her brother, a derivative from the Greek, 
 doth denote pleasure-seeking leisure ; Gertrude the 
 Queen from the German words signifieth All-truth. 
 If Hamlet, who doth personify the new philosophy, 
 shall intermarry with Profit, thereby he shall be- 
 come the son-in-law of Policy, the brother-in-law of 
 Leisure, and the husband of Worldly Advantage. 
 
 Will he kill the false philosophy, that is the King, 
 and divorce Truth from his foul embraces ? I trow 
 not. The way of the world runeth not in that direc- 
 tion. Prince Hamlet recks well the penalties of delay, 
 knoweth well that duty enjoineth upon him one 
 course, his advancement and worldly honours de- 
 mandeth the other. The contemplative life alone can 
 destroy the King, the active life of business and 
 affaires offereth present rewards, and so halting upon 
 the edge of opportunity suffers destruction for him- 
 self in the fulfillment of his destiny. What hath this 
 to doe with the Market Place ? Marry this life is a 
 market place where some come to trade and make 
 
 [43 ]
 
 FRANCIS BACON TO 
 
 their profit, and some come to utter their commodi- 
 ties, and some come to look on. 
 
 My Lord Hamlet looked on too long. 
 
 I did well conceive another thing of which, I make 
 bold to think, the tragedie of Hamlet giveth some 
 small adumbration. 
 
 You shall understand that the spirit of man is 
 God's lamp. There be in his creatures a triune for- 
 mation : the body, the mind, and the soul. A platform 
 of these I do set forth in that play. The body is the 
 tragedie's outward garb or semblance, the words of 
 the players the action of the characters, the move- 
 ment of the incidents. 
 
 The mind of the plaie is the play within the play, 
 wherein Hamlet caught the conscience of the King ; 
 the soul is the parable therein contained, as hath 
 been already in good part expounded. 
 
 It were good thy interlocutor looked for himself 
 somewhat more narrowly, and percase he may then 
 descrie for himself something which for this present 
 I do reserve. 
 
 For the idol of the Theatre there needeth little 
 more than hath been already touched upon. The 
 predominant note of my parable therein is sounded 
 in this line, 
 
 " Sweet, I love thee, and when I love thee not chaos is come 
 again." 
 
 Othello the Moore, model of force or power, is 
 [44]
 
 WILLIAM SHAKSPEARE 
 
 mated with pure reason, of which pure reason Desde- 
 mona is the type. Power and reason, matchless twain, 
 are separated, o'erthrown, destroyed by trust in de- 
 ceitful appearances, openly insinuated into the mind 
 of one, by the false logic and damned arts of lago. 
 Himself doth hold and contain the principle of 
 human not supernatural evil, (if such there be,) and 
 the perverse laws of demonstration, which last are in 
 themselves the greatest human evil. 
 
 To draw to an end with thee, good friend, craving 
 pardon for so long a letter, seest thou not that each 
 and every of these four plaies hath for a theme the 
 peril of trusting wholly to outward appearances? 
 Macbeth trusteth to the outward seeming of black- 
 hearted divination ; Lear to the mouth-made vows of 
 two treacherous daughters. My Lord Hamlet is wiser, 
 but not wise enough; he would have grounds more 
 relevant than the ghost's word, but trusted still that 
 the time was not ripe for the destruction of the swag- 
 gering usurper. Othello, as hath been said, (though 
 the net was spread in the presence of the bird,) put 
 trust in forged circumstance and linked dissimula- 
 tion. 
 
 How much ought men, therefore, to be warned that 
 they put not their trust (I mean this not harshly) in 
 the art of the player; I mean in sooth in thee, good 
 friend, heeding not that they are hearing from thy 
 lips the philosophy of another. 
 
 [45 ]
 
 BACON TO SHAKSPEARE 
 
 Thus have I in part answered thy friend, the which, 
 if thou impartest it, it shall be to his contentment, I 
 no whit doubt, and so I rest thy loving, 
 
 FRAN. BACON. 
 
 [46]
 
 VIII 
 
 NOTES CRITICAL AND EXPLAN- 
 ATORY 
 
 NOTES TO DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 The Emblems of de Bruck, referred to herein, published 
 1616, may be seen at the following Libraries : 
 
 British Museum Library. 
 
 Konigliche Bibliothek, Berlin. 
 
 Konigliche und Universitats Bibliothek, Breslau. 
 
 Stadt Bibliothek, Breslau. 
 
 Grossherzogliche Hofbibliothek, Darmstadt. 
 
 Offentliche Bibliothek, Dresden. 
 
 Kaiserliche Universitats und Landes Bibliothek, Strasbourg. 
 
 Herzogliche Bibliothek, Wolfenbiittel. 
 
 Hof und Staats Bibliothek, Munich. 
 
 Det Store Kongelige Bibliothek, Copenhagen. 
 
 " THE DRAM OF EALE doth all the noble substance of a doubt 
 To his own scandal." 
 
 Hamlet, Act i, Scene 2, is a most notable crux, and with- 
 out the eel emblem of de Bruck it is impossible to expound 
 it. I take the meaning of the passage to be this : a dram is 
 a draught, and a draught is a drawing : see Gospel accord- 
 
 [47]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 ing to St. John, chap. xxi. Therefore the drawing of the 
 eel doth beget all the noble substance of a doubt. The last 
 sentence, to his own s candle, manifestly refers to de Bruck's 
 Emblem 13, which Bacon's letter interprets. 
 
 But for this letter of the Chevalier de Bruck, I should be 
 inclined to affirm in all confidence that no such man ever 
 existed ; but seeing that he writes from the other world, 
 needs must we abandon doubts and cavillings. It will re- 
 quire supernatural evidence to efface my unchanging belief 
 that the pretended persons to whom he dedicates his strange 
 book were all and every of them mythical. As the book is of 
 considerable rarity, I myself never having met with but one 
 perfect copy, it were well that some one set forth hereafter 
 a reproduction of it in facsimile. The plates interpreted by 
 Bacon are, as will be seen, reproduced, but it must not be 
 supposed that those are the only ones possessing for us an 
 abiding interest. The part which emblems play in the great 
 scheme of induction which Bacon lived to perfect is not at 
 all well understood. Though subordinate to his main de- 
 sign, their office is of great utility. I feel that I am in a 
 position to declare that de Bruck surpasses all the rest in 
 historic and literary interest. The full title of de Bruck's 
 volume is as follows : 
 
 LES EMBLEMES MORAULX ET MILITAIRES 
 Du Sieur Jacob De Bruck Angermundt 
 Nouvellement mis en Lumiere 
 
 A 
 Strasbourg, Par Jacob de Heyden Graveur, L'an M D C.XVI. 
 
 It must not be confounded with de Bruck's " Emblemata 
 Politica," published three years later. The book ought to 
 
 [48]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 contain, besides the Latin verses, fifty verses in French, 
 
 or German, as the case may be. The Secant Emblem (No. 
 
 29 in de Bruck, No. 8 here) has the following verses in 
 
 French : 
 
 " Le fourmys qui d'un soing grandement mesnager 
 Amasse tout 1'este ce qu'il lui faut 1'hyver 
 Et ces hoyaux tranchants monstrent que qui travaille 
 D'un labeur assidu, il devient abondant 
 En tout forte de biens, mais qui se-va-meslant 
 Des affaires d'autruy n'acquiert pas une maille." 
 
 Reading upward, first letter of each line, we obtain the 
 acrostic to which Bacon refers, " Ded eal," that is to say, 
 dead eel. The one in Napier's Logarithms, quoted in Napier's 
 letter, is like the one in the first verses of the " Rape of 
 Lucrece," except in " Lucrece " the reading in first row is 
 downward. 
 
 " From the besieged Ardea all in post, 
 Borne by the trustlesse wings of false desire, 
 Lust-breathed Tarquin leaves the Roman host, 
 And to Colatium beares the lightlesse fire, 
 Which in pale embers hid, lurkes to aspire, 
 And girdle with embracing flames, the wast 
 Of Collatine's fair love, Lucrece the chast." 
 
 " F. B. law a o," means Francis Bacon's law a cipher. It 
 would be puerile to point out all these idle toys. They are 
 almost countless in Shakespeare's Sonnets, because though 
 they may command assent to the proposition, they do not 
 take hold of the rem. 
 
 Bacon did not disdain the use of pictures, that is, em- 
 blems, because, as he said, they reduced ideas intellectual 
 to things sensible, his words are : " Embleme deduceth con- 
 ceptions intellectual to images sensible, and that which is 
 
 [49]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 sensible more forcibly strikes the memory and is more easily 
 imprinted than that which is intellectual." (Advancement 
 of Learning, Book v, chap. 5.) Nor did he disdain the use 
 of allegory. I call to mind a book, edited by a writer whose 
 name for the moment escapes me, who has been at great 
 pains to demonstrate what is patent enough, one would 
 think, that Shakespeare is mentioned under the title W. S., 
 a player, in a book published in 1594, called " Willobie his 
 Avisa." If that writer had been gifted with the least scien- 
 tific imagination he would have taken the name of the 
 heroine of this book and substituted for the letter V (Roman 
 numeral 5) the number 5. Her name would then have stood, 
 A 5 is a, and if he had then read the sixth book of the " De 
 Augmentis Scientiarum " of Francis Bacon, he would have 
 discovered that in a cipher therein described aaaaa = A, 
 (a five is a), and had he then gone further and tested the 
 fivefold cipher in Willobie's volume by the key Bacon gives, 
 his conjectures, instead of being of trivial interest, would 
 have been of substantial advantage to mankind. But to shew 
 these evident truths to thick and thin Shakespeareans is, 
 as has been said, " like giving medicine to the dead." 
 
 Moreover, if the allegory had been truly discerned, that 
 the fivefold cipher personified as Avisa, like her could not 
 be conquered, it would have spared the world that mass of 
 rubbish called the fivefold cipher story, which has bewil- 
 dered and amused this age. 
 
 I have said that the 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 
 
 [ 50]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 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. " It 
 passeth all understanding." 
 
 The so-called Baconians, professing profound belief in the 
 proposition that the Primate of all Literatures is Bacon and 
 not Shakespeare, have been as guilty as their fellows the 
 Shakespearean s. Wilfully have they closed their eyes to the 
 fact, for fact it is, that the dramas of Shakespeare were 
 written for a twofold purpose, first to demonstrate how help- 
 less is all logical process whatsoever in the interpretation of 
 their origin and meaning. Secondly, and this is their fun- 
 damental purpose, to act as the fourth part of the Great 
 Instauration : the actual types and models described on 
 page 28 of the "Novum Organum" (ist edition, 1620), and 
 therefore, of course, to serve as tables of induction. The 
 Baconians instead of taking up this obvious position have 
 preferred, amid the scoffing and jeers of the world, to argue 
 their case with nothing in their hands but the inept syllo- 
 gism, with nothing except the method of Aristotle which 
 Bacon wrote to overthrow. What has been the result ? I 
 think I may say without arrogance, a trickle of trivialities 
 into a puddle of platitudes. The doors of the temple stood 
 open for them, but not one of them so much as crossed the 
 threshold. Had they been true disciples of their master, 
 that is, inductive philosophers, they would have begun 
 by coordinating the plays of Shakespeare with the pre- 
 rogative instances of Bacon. The mode of doing this I now 
 shew. 
 
 [51 ]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 Play Shakespeare Instance Bacon 
 
 1. Timon of Athens. Solitary. 
 
 Timon, disgusted with mankind, takes refuge in his cave. 
 
 2. The Two Gentlemen of Verona. Migrating. 
 
 Valentine sets out on his travels. 
 (Act i, Scene i.) 
 
 3. Midsummer Night's Dream. Free and predominant. 
 
 Puck is freed from all human restraints. 
 
 4. Titus Andronicus. Twilight or weakest. 
 
 The weakest and the worst of Shakespeare's dramas. 
 
 5. Henry VI. Lesser form. 
 
 The only play which has three parts. 
 
 6. Comedie of Errors. , 
 
 Physical resemblance. 
 
 Twelfth Night. 
 
 The comedy element in each of these plays turns upon 
 the physical likeness of the two Dromios and of Viola 
 and Sebastian. 
 7. The Winter's Tale. 
 
 Singular. 
 Cymbelme. 
 
 These plays are singular because, in the first, Bohemia 
 has a seacoast, and the second ends with that strange 
 prophecy commented upon in the interpretation of 
 de Bruck's Emblem No. 5. Moreover, the blank verse 
 in both plays differs widely from the versification 
 elsewhere used. 
 
 8. Richard III. Deviating or monstrous. 
 
 The King a hunchback and a monster of cruelty. 
 
 9. Troilus and Cressida. Bordering. 
 
 This play is on the borderland betwixt history, comedy, 
 and tragedy, and therefore is not indexed in the first 
 folio as belonging to any one of the three classes into 
 which the plays are divided. 
 [52]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 10. Hamlet. 
 
 Macbeth. . 
 
 > Power. 
 
 Lear. 
 
 Othello. 
 
 By common consent the most powerful plays. 
 
 11. Much Ado about Nothing. Companionship and 
 
 Enmity. 
 Enemies become lovers, lovers enemies. 
 
 12. King Henry V. Subjunctive or Marriage. 
 
 The marriage of King Henry V. of England to Kath- 
 arine of France. 
 
 13. King John. Treaty. 
 
 The theme of this play is the treaty with France. 
 
 14. Romeo and Juliet. Cross. 
 
 Two lovers crossed in love. 
 
 15. King Henry VIII, Divorce. 
 
 The King divorces his Queen, Katharine of Arragon. 
 
 16. Coriolanus. Door or gate. 
 
 Caius Marcius is killed at the gates of Rome. 
 
 17. Richard II. Summoning. 
 
 An outlawed man is in this play summoned to do fealty. 
 
 1 8. Taming of the Shrew. Road. 
 
 Petruchio's Kate is tamed by travel on the Road. 
 
 19. Measure for Measure. Substitution. 
 
 Angelo's wife substitutes herself for his mistress. 
 
 20. Merchant of Venice. Dissecting. 
 
 Shylock would cut his pound of flesh. 
 
 21. Love's Labours lost. Verge or limitation. 
 
 The characters are forbidden to come within the Verge 
 of the Court. 
 
 [53]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 22. Antony and Cleopatra. Course or water. 
 
 Antony flies from the battle in Queen Cleopatra's 
 galley. 
 
 23. All's Well that Ends Well. Dose. 
 
 The theme of this play is a dose of medicine. 
 
 24. As You Like It. Wrestling. 
 
 The heels of Charles the wrestler and Rosalind's heart 
 tripped up in the same wrestling bout. 
 
 25. Julius Caesar. Intimating or prophecy. 
 
 Beware the ides of March, says the soothsayer. 
 
 26. Henry IV. ) 
 
 General use. 
 Merry Wives of Windsor. ) 
 
 These plays have characters in common, Prince, Fal- 
 staff, Poins, and Bardolph. 
 
 27. Tempest. Magical. 
 
 Prospero : " Lo, here I break my magic staff, bury it 
 certain fathoms in the ground, and deeper than 
 plummet ever sounded /'// drown my book" 
 
 The Instances are set down as Bacon records them in the 
 " Novum Organum," and in his own order. Their names are 
 translated, in the main, as Spedding translates them, but I 
 prefer Montague's translation of the word "luctae," wrest- 
 ling, not strife, in order to bring out the identity of " As 
 You Like It " with Bacon's Instance No. 23. The order of 
 the plays is changed from the order which obtains in the 
 first folio, and made to conform to Bacon's Prerogative In- 
 stances. Whosoever shall take it upon himself to declare, 
 in the magisterial manner of Shakespearean scholars, that 
 my grouping of plays and Instances is an exercise of the 
 fancy, will be obliged, in the fulness of time, to retract his 
 opinion. 
 
 [ 54]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 " The old need not therefore be true, 
 O brother man, nor yet the new ! 
 But still awhile the old thought retain, 
 But yet consider it again." 
 
 ADDENDUM TO THE TABLE OF INSTANCES AND PLAYS 
 " Argument can make a fact seem strange, but it cannot 
 make it not a fact." I have said enough, perhaps more than 
 enough, to indicate my belief that the plays of Shakespeare 
 and the Instances of Bacon are things to be done, and not 
 the framework of casuistry, be it never so subtle. 
 
 William Shakespeare is the possessor of the proudest lit- 
 erary title in history. Whosoever shall oust him from that 
 possession must do so by the strength of his own para- 
 mount rights, and not by the weakness of the title of the 
 " Bard of Avon," so called. It may be argued that the pro- 
 duction of a book with William Shakespeare's name printed 
 thereon as the author is not legal evidence of his author- 
 ship, because there exists no writing, letter, or manuscript 
 to support that title, and because his name was printed on 
 other books to the authorship of which no claim on his be- 
 half is now made ; nevertheless, I should suppose his title 
 to all his works to be prima facie good. How it will be when 
 the manuscripts and the new plays shall have been pro- 
 duced is another question. It may be said, however, and 
 the remark is a sentimental one, that it matters little who 
 was the author, so long as those matchless writings, called 
 the plays of Shakespeare, are the property of mankind. 
 Men may say, Communis error facit jus. Would it were so. 
 But the fact is that those plays are chained by inseverable 
 cables to Francis Bacon's Prerogative Instances, and I leave 
 this part of the subject with this defiant observation : that 
 
 [ 55 ]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LETTER 
 
 neither the plays of Shakespeare nor the Instances of 
 Bacon can be expounded by any human being except and 
 unless the one be read in reference to the other. 
 
 Had believers in Bacon made a classification such as I 
 have shewn, they might indeed have failed to convince the 
 world of the truth of their postulate, but, on the other hand, 
 should have saved themselves much merited contempt. But 
 if men reject the obvious, how can they expect to grapple 
 with the complex. 
 
 Emblems in the following books can be identified as a 
 substantive part of Bacon's inductive philosophy. In saying 
 this I do not mean to affirm that the emblems in their en- 
 tirety were devised by him, but that all of the books now 
 mentioned contain plates of his invention. 
 
 Author 
 
 J. Camerarius. 
 
 J. Cats. 
 
 Boisardi. 
 
 J. Bornitius. 
 
 J. de Bruck. 
 
 J. de Bruck. 
 
 J. de Brunes. 
 
 Heinsius. 
 
 Heyns. 
 
 Oraeus Viridarium. 
 
 LIST 
 
 Title 
 
 Symbolorum et Emblematum. 
 Silenus Alcibiadis sive Proteus. 
 Emblemata. 
 
 Emblemata Ethico Politica. 
 Emblemata Moralia et Bellica. 
 Emblemata Politica. 
 Emblemata. 
 Emblemata Amatoria. 
 Emblemata Moralia. 
 
 G. Rollenhagen. Emblematum. 
 
 Schoonhovius. 
 J. Typotius. 
 O. Vaenius. 
 
 Emblemata. 
 
 Symbola Divina et Humana. 
 Amorum Emblemata. 
 [ 56] 
 
 Date 
 1590 
 
 1618 
 
 '593 
 1664 
 1616 
 1618 
 1624 
 1619 
 1625 
 1619 
 (1611 
 (1613 
 1618 
 1600 
 1612
 
 BRIGGS'S LETTER 
 
 M. Claud Paradin. Devises Royales. 1622 
 
 Van de Velde. Emblemata. N. D. 
 
 Of these, de Bruck and Bornitius are the most important, 
 the former for reasons already given. The latter because 
 plates 7, 23, 44, 45, 49 (Sylloge I), and plates 9 and 36 
 (Sylloge II) contain authentic likenesses of Bacon, whilst 
 plates 17, 24, and 38 (Sylloge I) and 16 and 31 (Sylloge 
 II) contain, as I believe, portraits of his private secretary, 
 Sir Thomas Meautys. 
 
 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. I have not met with an earlier 
 edition of Bornitius than 1659. My conjecture, however, is 
 that the manuscript came into the hands of Gruter with 
 other manuscripts of Bacon's, published by him in the year 
 1653- 
 
 NOTES TO BRIGGS'S LETTER 
 
 The part which logarithms play in Bacon's system of in- 
 duction is an important one. They bear the relation to the 
 " Novum Organum " which the heart does to the body. In 
 Hamlet's phrase, "they are the heart of his mystery, not 
 easilie to be plucked out." 
 
 It will require more space than is here at my command to 
 present in adequate form their just relation to the body of 
 Bacon's work. " Investigation," said he, " has the best result 
 when it begins in physics and terminates in mathematics." 
 " To find the form of the given nature, or the true specific 
 difference, or the nature engendering nature, or the fountain 
 of Emanation, is the labour and duty of human knowledge." 
 
 [57]
 
 BRIGGS'S LETTER 
 
 Foreseeing, therefore, that he must ultimately rest upon a 
 mathematical foundation, that true specific difference which 
 he denominates the form, he cast about him for some origi- 
 nal discovery in the mathematics. He had noticed, as early 
 as 1594, the peculiarities of the two series of progressions, 
 arithmetical and geometrical, pointed out in Briggs's letter, 
 and had discovered the principle underlying all tables of log- 
 arithms. He knew that any table must have a base, and 
 that " a logarithm is the exponent or power to which an in- 
 variable number, called the base, must be raised in order to 
 produce the number of which it is the logarithm." He had 
 in fact at that time subtracted from the base 10, which is 
 the base of the Briggs or common table of logarithms, the 
 base e" 1 , which is the fraction 
 
 i 
 
 27182818285 
 
 and is the base of Napier s system. Thereby he had ob- 
 tained the true specific difference between the two bases, 
 namely: the five numbers 9'632i. . . . and thus completed 
 the demonstration that those numbers constitute his form. 
 As a consequence of this he laid down the axiom in the 
 " Novum Organum " that the form must increase when the 
 given nature increases, decrease when the given nature 
 decreases, and be perpetually absent when the given nature 
 is absent. 
 
 It is for this reason that Briggs's logarithms outnumber 
 Napier's. 
 
 For this reason Briggs's base is larger than Napier's, and 
 finally, for this reason, in a metaphysical sense, logarithms 
 vanish when the bases disappear. When, in the edition of 
 the sonnets of Shakespeare of 1609, the pronoun "thy" is 
 
 [ 58 ]
 
 BRIGGS'S LETTER 
 
 constantly misprinted "their," he well expected that poster- 
 ity would read the first line of Sonnet 122 thus : 
 
 "Their guift,, their tables are within my braine 
 Full charactered with lasting memorie," 
 
 and would draw the just and necessary inference, that the 
 double commas after "guift" should be construed: "Two 
 come as their tables." 
 
 That is to say ; Briggs's tables, Napier's tables. 
 
 Great would have been his surprise for he devised em- 
 blem after emblem containing logs could he have antici- 
 pated that nigh three hundred years would go by before 
 even the given nature of his system of induction could be 
 established. This is not the place to present the indubita- 
 ble evidence of what is here asserted. It may be enough to 
 declare that the original evidence, documentary and other- 
 wise, exists, and shall, to use a parliamentary phrase, in due 
 course be laid upon the table. 
 
 It has been said that John Napier did not know that his 
 logarithms had a base. A quotation from a standard work 
 will show this: "We should premise that in comparing 
 Napier's logarithms with those to the base c 1 (which is the 
 base required by his reasoning, though the conception of a 
 base was not formally known to him). 1 ' (The Construction 
 of the Wonderful Canon of Logarithms, William Rae Mac- 
 Donald's translation, 1889, page 90.) 
 
 It is a notable fact that what are called in the text-books 
 Naperian logarithms are not Napier's logarithms at all. 
 Naperian logarithms, whose use, for the most part, is con- 
 fined to analytical mathematics, are calculated to base , 
 that is to say, 27182818285. I suggest that this base has 
 
 [ 59]
 
 BRIGGS'S LETTER 
 
 been adopted by mathematicians in preference to e' 1 , the 
 fractional form given above, owing to the impossibility of 
 deducing Napier's true base unless recourse be had to a 
 common table of logarithms. That Napier's true base is e' 1 , 
 the subjoined formula demonstrates : 
 
 Formula 
 
 i 
 Sine 45 = = 7071068 
 
 \r* 
 
 Napier's log. thereof 3465735 
 Let P = Napier's base (P < i) 
 Then P 3466735 = 7071068 
 Log. 10 P 3466735 = Log. 10 7071068 
 3465735 log. 10 P = 1-849485 
 
 F-849485 - 150515 
 : Log. 10 P = - -SB 
 
 3465735 3465735 
 
 Log. 10 (Log. 10 P) = 177580 - 539796 
 = 1-637784 = Log. 10 (4342945) 
 Log. 10 P = 4342495 = Log. 10 e 
 i 
 
 27182818285 < 
 
 Felicitous is the lot of the English man of letters who 
 constitutes himself guardian of William Shakespeare's lit- 
 erary reputation. Mr. Sydney Lee, a renowned writer, who 
 depends in part on his fancy for his facts, and thereby 
 has been much bepraised by the unthinking, is authority 
 for the following statement : " He (Bacon) knew nothing of 
 Napier's discovery of the logarithms." (Great Englishmen 
 of the Sixteenth Century, page 248.) So far as Mr. Lee is 
 
 [60]
 
 FAWKES'S LETTER 
 
 concerned, Napier's letter states the facts with pitiless accu- 
 racy ; but dehors the record, as one may say, there are 
 extant two books which utterly refute Mr. Lee's placid dic- 
 tum: (a) Napier's Logarithms, ist edition, 1614, annotated 
 in Bacon's handwriting, (b) Briggs's Logarithms, 1624, 
 wherein Bacon with his own pen has verified some of 
 Briggs's calculations. 
 
 The irony which pursues men who " know so much that 
 is not so " will be borne in on Mr. Lee's mind hereafter. 
 
 NOTES TO FAWKES'S LETTER 
 
 " Jesus ! Maria ! " is an invocation, not an oath. The 
 practice was common among Roman Catholics of that time. 
 
 The full title of the poem Fawkes refers to is as fol- 
 lows : " In homines nefarios, qui scelere, ausuq : Immani, 
 Parliamenti iampridem habendi domum, pulvere bombardico 
 evertere, sunt machinati, scilicet quinto Novembris, 1605." 
 The book was printed at Cambridge by the press of Legat, 
 in the year 1605, and consists of 22 pages. Although there 
 are no specimens extant of Bacon's acknowledged Latin 
 verses, the internal evidence of this poem proves that it 
 could have emanated from no other man. When the whole 
 case is set forth, substantial agreement upon this point may 
 be expected. It contains lines of great power. These may 
 serve as an example : 
 
 " O patria, O pelagi, decus Anglia & inclyta bello 
 
 Gloria saxonidum ! quantum mutatis ab ilia 
 Quae fueras olim, mundi melioribus annis? " 
 
 [61 ]
 
 SHAKESPEARE'S LETTER 
 
 NOTES TO SHAKESPEARE'S LETTER 
 
 The criticisms on Shakespeare's will, though harsh, may 
 be shewn to be justifiable. It is paltry in construction be- 
 cause it is marred by so many interlineations. It, recites, 
 line 2, that the testator is "in perfect health and memo- 
 rie." Notwithstanding this, in item 2 the testator gives and 
 bequeaths unto his daughter Judith one hundred and fifty 
 pounds more if she or any issue of her body be living at the 
 end of three years, not after the testator's decease, but 
 three years ensuing the day of the date of this his will. 
 
 Non constat a man, in perfect health and memory, might 
 himself be in full life at the date specified. He provides that 
 if any husband of Judith to whom she may be married, at the 
 end of the said three years, shall assure unto her and her 
 issue lands answerable to the portion there given, then " My 
 will is that the said one hundred and fifty pounds shall be 
 paid to such husband as shall make such assurance to his 
 own use'' What he meant to say no doubt is, that the said 
 one hundred and fifty pounds shall be paid to such husband 
 to his own use as shall make such assurance. This is a very 
 different thing, for otherwise the husband might create a use 
 in his own favour, and thereby fulfil the language of the will 
 but not its intention. 
 
 It is peevish because the testator "breaks his mind to 
 small matters " and leaves his wife his second best bed with 
 the furniture. 
 
 [62]
 
 BACON'S LETTER 
 
 NOTES TO BACON'S LETTER TO SHAKE- 
 SPEARE 
 
 This question of the wizard-like sprite is shallow and 
 jejune. It is open to any man's industry to sift out the quo- 
 tations from Galen to which Falstaff refers. In addition to 
 the Greek excerpt from the undated Aldine (circa 1525) I 
 append from the Latin edition of Galen, Froben, 1562, other 
 passages which have some bearing on the symptoms and 
 causes of apoplexy. 
 
 Tom. i, 93, B. 
 
 " Apoplexia est dilentio mentis cum exceptione sensum et cor- 
 poris resolutione, item apoplexia est in nervis omnitus sensus 
 et motus." 
 
 Idem. Tom. 1, 3, A. B. 
 
 " Apoplexia ex humanorum Crassorum copia generatur, qui capi- 
 tis vasa unde corpore sentendi movendique factulas advenit, 
 obstruant Longi morbi interioribus accident hi cephalaea mor- 
 bus comitialis. Vertigines oculorum, Caligationes insania, me- 
 lancholia lethargus" 
 
 " Ex logis morbis Cephalaea interims capitis dolor est." 
 
 The Greek text is, however, the one Falstaff remembered, 
 in his interview with the Lord Chief Justice. 
 
 It is perhaps needless to say that the allusion to Falstaff 
 has reference to Sir John's famous interview with the Lord 
 Chief Justice, Second Part of King Henry IV, Act I, 
 Scene 2 : 
 
 " Falstaff. This Appoplexie is (as I take it) a kind of Lethargy, 
 a sleeping of the blood, a horson Tingling.
 
 BACON'S LETTER 
 
 Justice. What tell you me of it ? be it as it is. 
 
 Fahtaff. It hath it original from much grief, from study and 
 perturbation of the braine. / have read the cause of his effects in 
 Galen. It is a kind of deafness." 
 
 [64]
 
 My labour as editor of these letters has now been brought to 
 an end. What men say about this book, or write about it, 
 concerns them and not me. To those who are engaged in 
 the business of erecting a national memorial to Bacon's Idol 
 of the Theatre, William Shakespeare, I tender this unwel- 
 come advice : they had better lose no time. The ground 
 beneath that Idol is heavily mined.
 
 IX 
 DE BRUCK'S LATIN VERSES 
 
 ENGLISHED IN TEN PARAPHRASES 
 By the EDITOR 
 
 i 
 
 THE EEL EMBLEM 
 MOTTO : At last they sliake 
 
 As sportive lads who play in snow 
 Can make a little ball wax great 
 Though it began attenuate ; 
 
 So through another thou didst grow. 
 
 Living thou wast unseen, half-dumb, 
 And useless in the vain pretence 
 Of intellectual eminence, 
 
 Have done with it. Thy hearse hath come. 
 
 [66]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LATIN VERSES 
 
 TREE EMBLEM 
 
 MOTTO: It flourishes 
 
 If God nourishes 
 
 The tree that is dry we abandon, 
 
 Though once it bore flower and seed, 
 
 But the merciful God layeth hand on 
 The Dead, and they blossom indeed. 
 
 3 
 
 SNAIL EMBLEM 
 
 (SYMBOL OF THE AUTHOR) 
 
 MOTTO : Nothing beyond 
 
 Whilst I have health and vigour left, 
 
 And my unclouded mind, 
 Of favouring Fortune not bereft 
 
 And Providence is kind ; 
 Why is it that a man so old, 
 
 In many a curious coil 
 Some secret writings to infold, 
 
 Should kill himself with toil ? 
 Because with my last prayer and breath 
 I crave supremacy o'er death. 
 
 [ 67]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LATIN VERSES 
 
 4 
 BOX AND CIPHER EMBLEM 
 
 MOTTO : Wltat I desire is not mortal 
 
 Old Timon's wealth, Apollo's grace, 
 And Hercules' unbending thews, 
 Are like the baubles children choose, 
 
 Are like the shadows which men chase. 
 
 Above my head I hold at rest 
 
 A cipher signifying nought 
 
 To thy dull intellect untaught : 
 But tell me what is in my chest ? 
 
 5 
 THE CANDLE EMBLEM 
 
 (DE BRUCK 13) 
 MOTTO : The touchstone of Virtue is glory 
 
 Shake speares ! sound trumpets ! in the lists 
 The visored knight his futile course doth run ; 
 
 Brazen his armour, iron are his wrists, 
 But he shall falter ere this joust be done. 
 
 [68 ]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LATIN VERSES 
 6 
 
 THE LIGHT AND DARK A IN BRANCH OF 
 TREE EMBLEM 
 
 (DE BRUCK 1 8) 
 MOTTO : Vice breeds vice 
 
 Nature gives cautions when wise counsellors blanch. 
 The leaf infected will infect the branch. 
 All evil concourse let thy wisdom flee, 
 Thy boon companions are no boon to thee. 
 
 7 
 
 LOG EMBLEM 
 
 (DE BRUCK B. 6) 
 
 MOTTO : Nothing solid 
 
 Now who shall read the laws of him 
 
 Who knew not his own laws, 
 Or understand the causes dim 
 
 Of faults that had no flaws ? 
 
 [69]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LATIN VERSES 
 8 
 
 SPADE EMBLEM 
 
 (DE BRUCK 29) 
 MOTTO : By diligence 
 
 Many men do many things, 
 And many things are done, 
 
 And one would fly with waxen wings, 
 Who recks not of the sun ; 
 
 But he who sees his duty clear 
 
 Achieves what little men do fear. 
 
 9 
 THE VULTURE EMBLEM 
 
 (DE BRUCK n) 
 MOTTO : Ignorance must be overcome 
 
 Above the avaricious vulture stays, 
 Before the anagram betrays. 
 
 [70]
 
 DE BRUCK'S LATIN VERSES 
 10 
 
 ANCHOR AND GIRL EMBLEM 
 
 (DE BRUCK NO. 8) 
 MOTTO : Whilst I breathe I shall hope 
 
 Fate with her pallid lips oft cried, 
 Give o'er, for thou art overborne I 
 A wasted life thou mayest mourn, 
 
 But my faith told me fate had lied.
 
 (From Bornitius' Emblem Book) 
 
 [72]
 
 (From Bornitius' Emblem Book) 
 
 b^itt mtinfyerf fatotity 
 
 JB 3. 
 
 [73 ]
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 Angermundt, 
 
 Advertisement, 
 
 Arcana, 
 
 Avowch, 
 
 Approved, 
 
 Bedesman, 
 
 Brize, 
 
 Bewraying, 
 
 Belike, 
 
 Buzzing, 
 
 Boke, 
 
 Caveat, 
 
 Clarke, 
 
 Comen, 
 
 Communis error facit jus, 
 
 Circa, 
 
 Certes, 
 
 Canticles, 
 
 Difficle, 
 Dehors, 
 
 Enow, 
 
 a town in Germany. 
 
 archaic word for information. 
 
 concealed. 
 
 to make certain. 
 
 proved. 
 
 petitioner. 
 
 breeze. 
 
 to betray. 
 
 probably. 
 
 annoying. 
 
 book. 
 
 warning. 
 
 clerk. 
 
 have come. 
 
 common error makes right. 
 
 about. 
 
 certainly. 
 
 songs. 
 
 difficult, 
 outside of. 
 
 enough. 
 [75 1
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 Exclaim, exclamation. 
 
 Et id omne genus, and all that sort. 
 
 Facion, fashion. 
 
 Flouted, ridiculed. 
 
 Gooden, good evening. 
 
 Impress, device or emblem. 
 
 Inward, intimate. 
 
 Inter alia, among other things. 
 
 In Homines Nefarios, Against the Wretches. 
 
 In few, in brief. 
 
 Lyntellage, headpiece of a door or window. 
 
 Mirifici Logarithmorum Ca- Description of the Law of the 
 nonis Descriptio, Wonderful Logarithms. 
 
 Mirabile Dictu, wonderful to relate. 
 
 Magna est Veritas etpraeva- Great is Truth and it shall 
 kbit, prevail. 
 
 Meeseemes, methinks. 
 
 Mendacia visa, plain untruth. 
 
 Maine, the important part. 
 
 Mought, obsolete preterite of the verb 
 
 may. 
 
 Nil ultra, nothing beyond. 
 
 Nonce, once. 
 
 Non cons tat, it stands not. 
 
 Parbolic, expressed by parable. 
 
 Parfitt, perfect. 
 
 [76]
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 Point-device, 
 
 Prolocutor, 
 Percase, 
 
 Quarterne, 
 Quoth 'a, 
 
 Quod voluimus facile credi- 
 mus, 
 
 Redargution, 
 
 Satis superque, 
 Sparta, 
 
 Shoon, 
 Seenight, 
 Sithence, 
 Suggestio falsi, 
 Stagirite, 
 
 Sylloge, 
 
 Thrasonical, 
 Tofore, 
 Troth, 
 Touch, 
 
 Travesano, 
 
 exact. Its use as an adverb is 
 
 uncommon, 
 inquirer, 
 consequently. 
 
 4 Ib. loaf of bread. 
 
 said he. 
 
 what we wish, easily we believe. 
 
 refutation. 
 
 enough and more than enough. 
 
 plants indigenous to Spain, of 
 which nets are made. 
 
 obsolete plural of shoe. 
 
 a week. 
 
 since. 
 
 false suggestion. 
 
 an appellation given to Aris- 
 totle from his birthplace. 
 
 collection. 
 
 boastful. 
 
 before. 
 
 truth. 
 
 " Speech of touch " is a speech 
 that sensatively affects a per- 
 son or thing. 
 
 Spanish for crossing or thwart- 
 ing. 
 
 Ure, 
 
 use. 
 [77]
 
 GLOSSARY 
 
 Virgo et Mater, Sancta Ma- Virgin and Mother, Holy Mary, 
 
 ria, ora pro me, pray for me. 
 
 Vera inductione, by true induction. 
 
 Weyard, 
 Yt, 
 
 wayward. 
 
 the pronoun it, and a contrac- 
 tion for that.
 
 Eltctrotyped and printed by H. 0. Houghton & Co. 
 Cambridge, Mast., U.S.A.
 
 UC SOUTHERN REGIONAL LIBRARY FACILITY 
 
 A 000 687 394 7