Page images
PDF
EPUB
[ocr errors]

66

ward talk with him, and discerning the king's endless ambition, Pyrrhus opened himself unto him, that he intended first a war upon Italy, and hoped to achieve it; Cineas asked him, "Sir, what will you do then?" "Then," said he, we will attempt Sicily." Cineas said, "Well, sir, what then?" Said Pyrrhus, "If the gods favour us, we may conquer Africa and Carthage." "What then, Sir," saith Cineas. "Nay, then," saith Pyrrhus, "we may take our rest, and sacrifice and feast every day, and make merry with our friends." "Alas, sir," said Cineas, "may we not do so now, without all this ado?"

199. Themistocles said of speech, "That it was like arras, that spread abroad shews fair images, but contracted is but like packs."*

200. Bresquet, jester to Francis I. of France, did keep a calendar of fools, wherewith he did use to make the king sport, telling him ever the reason why he put any one into his calendar. When Charles V., emperor, upon confidence of the noble nature of Francis, passed through France, for the appeasing of the rebellion of Gaunt, Bresquet put him into his calendar. The king asked him the cause. He answered, "Because you have suffered at the hands of Charles the greatest bitterness that ever prince did from another, nevertheless he would trust his person into your hands." Why, Bresquet," said the king, "what wilt thou say, if thou seest him pass back in as great safety, as if he marched through the midst of Spain? Saith Bresquet, "Why, then, I will put him out and put you

in,"

[ocr errors]

203. When peace was renewed with the French, in England, divers of the great councillors were presented from the French with jewels: the Lord Henry Howard, being then earl Whereupon of Northampton, and a councillor, was omitted.

the king said to him, "My lord, how happens it that you have not a jewel as well as the rest?" My lord answered accord. ing to the fable in Æsop; " Non sum Gallus, itaque non reperi gemmam."t

206. Cosmos duke of Florence was wont to say of perfidious friends, "that we read, that we ought to forgive our enemies; but we do not read that we ought to forgive our friends."

240. There was a politic sermon that had no divinity in

*This was omitted in the Resuscitatio.

I am not a cock [the word signifies also a Gaul or Frenchman], therefore I have found no precious stone.

it, was preached before the king. The king, as he came forth, said to Bishop Andrews, "Call you this a sermon ?" The bishop answered, “And it please your majesty, by a charitable construction, it may be a sermon.' "*

261. The Lady Paget, that was very private with Queen Elizabeth, declared herself much against her match with Monsieur. After Monsieur's death, the queen took extreme grief, at least as she made show, and kept within her bed-chamber and one ante-chamber for three weeks' space, in token of mourning; at last she came forth into her privy-chamber, and admitted her ladies to have access to her, and amongst the rest my Lady Paget presented herself with a smiling countenance. The queen bent her brows, and seemed to be highly displeased, and said to her, “ Madam, you are not ignorant of my extreme grief, and do you come to me with a countenance of joy?" My Lady Paget answered, "Alas! and may it please your majesty, it is impossible for me to be absent from you for three weeks, but that when I see you, I must look cheerfully." "No, no," said the queen, not forgetting her former averseness to the match, "you have some other conceit in it, tell me plainly." My lady answered, "I must obey you: it is this. I was thinking how happy your majesty was, in that you married not Monsieur; for seeing you take such thought for his death, being but your friend; if he had been your husband, sure_it would have cost you your life."

262. Sir Edward Dyer, a grave and wise gentleman, did much believe in Kelly the alchemist, that he did indeed the work, and made gold; insomuch that he went into Germany, where Kelly then was, to inform himself more fully thereof. After his return, he dined with my Lord of Canterbury, where at that time was at the table Dr. Brown the physician. They fell in talk of Kelly. Sir Edward Dyer turning to the archbishop said, "I do assure your grace, that that I shall tell you is truth, I am an eye-witness thereof; and if I had not seen it, I should not have believed it. I saw Master Kelly put of the base metal into the crucible; and after it set a little upon the fire, and a very small quantity of the medicine put in, and stirred with a stick of wood, it came forth in great proportion, perfect gold; to the touch, to the hammer, to the test." Mylord archbishop said, "You had need take heed of what you say, Sir Edward Dyer, for here is an infidel at the board." Sir Edward Dyer said again pleasantly, "I

*This was omitted in the Resuscitatio.

would have looked for an infidel sooner in any place than at your grace's table." "What say you, Dr. Brown?" saith the bishop. Dr. Brown answered, after his blunt and huddling manner. "The gentleman hath spoken enough for me." "Why," saith the bishop, "what hath he said?" Marry," saith Dr. Brown," he said, he would not have believed it, except he had seen it, and no more will I."

[ocr errors]

273. Dr. Laud said, “That some hypocrites and seeming mortified men, that held down their heads like bulrushes, were like the little images that they place in the very bowing of the vaults of churches, that look as if they held up the church, but are but puppets."

The following are from the small additional number published by Tenison in the Baconiana, which may also be confidently received as genuine :

5. Queen Elizabeth seeing Sir Edward in her garden, looked out at her window, and asked him in Italian, "What does a man think of when he thinks of nothing?" Sir Edward, who had not had the effect of some of the queen's grants so soon as he had hoped and desired, paused a little; and then made answer, "Madam, he thinks of a woman's promise." The queen shrunk in her head; but was heard to say, "Well, Sir Edward, I must not confute you." Anger makes dull men witty, but it keeps them poor.

25. The Lord Bacon was wont to commend the advice of the plain old man at Buxton, that sold besoms; a proud lazy young fellow came to him for a besom upon trust; to whom the old man said, "Friend, hast thou no money? borrow of thy back, and borrow of thy belly, they 'll ne'er ask thee again, I shall be dunning thee every day."

27. Jack Weeks said of a great man, just then dead, who pretended to some religion, but was none of the best livers, "Well, I hope he is in heaven. Every man thinks as he wishes; but if he be in heaven, 't were pity it were known."

Bacon's own arrangement of the Apophthegms being quite changed in the Resuscitatio, it is not very easy to ascertain all the omissions and additions; but as 39 of the original 280 are stated to have been left out, and the entire number (without counting repetitions) in the third edition of the Resuscitatio is 295, it follows that there must be 54 in that which are not in Bacon's own collec

tion. Mr. Montagu, without intimating that there are any more, gives 28 of them in a note under the title of Spurious Apophthegms.' Even of these, however, a few may possibly be genuine; and at any rate two or three are worth transcribing :

12. A great officer at court, when my Lord of Essex was first in trouble, and he and those that dealt for him would talk much of my lord's friends and of his enemies, answered to one of them, "I will tell you, I know but one friend and one enemy my lord hath; and that one friend is the queen, and that one enemy is himself."

14. My Lord of Leicester, favourite to Queen Elizabeth, was making a large chace about Cornbury Park, meaning to enclose it with posts and rails, and one day was casting up his charge what it would come to, Mr. Goldingham, a freespoken man, stood by, and said to my lord, "Methinks your lordship goeth not the cheapest way to work."" Why, Goldingham?" said my lord. Marry, my lord," said Goldingham, 66 count you but upon the posts, for the country will find you the railing."

[ocr errors]

20. A notorious rogue, being brought to the bar, and knowing his case to be desperate, instead of pleading, he took to himself the liberty of jesting, and thus said, "I charge you in the king's name, to seize and take away that man (meaning the judge) in the red gown, for I go in danger because of him."

26. When my Lord President of the Council was newly advanced to the Great Seal, Gondamar came to visit him; my lord said, "That he was to thank God and the king for that honour; but yet, so he might be rid of the burthen, he would very willingly for bear the honour. And that he formerly had a desire, and the same continued with him still, to lead a private life." Goudamar answered that he would tell him a tale "Of an old rat that would needs leave the world: and acquainted the young rats that he would retire into his hole and spend his days solitarily; and would enjoy no more comfort: and he commanded them, upon his high displeasure, not to offer to come in unto him. They forbare two or three days; at last, one that was more hardy than the rest, incited some of his fellows to go in with him, and he would venture to see how his father did; for he might be dead. They went in, and found the old rat sitting in the midst of a rich Parmesan cheese." So he applied the fable after his witty manner.

The remaining pieces included under the head of 'Moral Works in the common editions of Bacon's writings, are only the collectiou of sentences entitled 'Ornamenta Rationalia;' and the Short Notes for Civil Conversation.'

The Ornamenta Rationalia were first published by Tenison in the Baconiana (1679). In his Introduction he informs us that Bacon "also gave to those wise and polite sayings the title of Sententiæ Stellares; either because they were sentences which deserved to be pointed to by an asterisk in the margin; or because they much illustrated and beautified a discourse in which they were disposed in due place and order: as the stars in the firmament are so many glorious ornaments of it, and set off with their lustre the wider and less adorned spaces." But the collection as originally made by Bacon had not come to Tenison's hands: it is, he proceeds, "either wholly lost or thrown into some obscure corner; but I fear the first. I have now three catalogues in my hands of the unpublished papers of Sir Francis Bacon, all written by Dr. Rawley himself. In every one of these appears the title of Ornamenta Rationalia; but in the bundles which came with those catalogues, there is not one of those Sentences to be found. I held myself obliged, in some sort and as I was able, to supply this defect; it being once in my power to have preserved this paper. For a copy of it was long since offered me by that doctor's only son, and my dear friend (now with God), Mr. William Rawley; of whom, if I say no more, it is the greatness of my grief for that irreparable loss which causeth my silence. I was the more negligent in taking a copy, presuming I might upon any occasion command the original, and because that was then in such good hands. Now there remains nothing with me but a general remembrance of the quality of that collection. It consisted of divers short sayings, aptly and smartly expressed, and containing in them much of good sense in a little room. These he either made or took from others, being moved so to do by the same reason which caused him to gather together his Apophthegms,”

« PreviousContinue »