try; Bacon is all contemplation, calmness, and repose; Shakespeare all imagination, wit, and humor; Bacon all logic, science, and sense. "As far as we know," says a writer in Temple Bar, "it would have been as impossible for Lord Bacon to portray character in action as it would have been foreign to Shakespeare's mind to have reasoned from propositions to a logical system."

CHAPTER XX.

BEN JONSON, BACON, AND SHAKESPEARE.

T is well known that Lord Bacon en

IT

gaged Ben Jonson to turn some of his philosophical writings into Latin, and the great philosopher treated the learned dramatist so well, that the latter ever spoke with respect and esteem of him. I have sometimes thought, what a pity Jonson did not avail himself of his acquaintance with Bacon to introduce his brilliant friend Shakespeare to him, and afterwards give an account of the interview! What a delicious bit of reading that account would be! What editor would not give a thousand dollars for a report of that conversation! I have no doubt each would have richly enjoyed the conversation of the other. But whither am I straying? Very probably

some of the Baconians will say that this is how Shakespeare became acquainted with Bacon, and came into the possession of the plays! There is no telling what absurdities they may not commit.

Now, if Bacon were really a dramatic author, writing such plays as his admirers suppose he wrote, is it likely that he would never have spoken of his plays, never have counselled about some passage, scene, or character in one of his plays, with the recognized dramatic authority of the day, the "big gun" of the stage, the famous dramatist whom he thus employed and knew familiarly in a literary way? And if he did so, is it likely that Jonson would never have mentioned the fact? If he were the author of the plays attributed to Shakespeare, is it credible that honest Ben would have given Shakespeare the sole and entire credit for them, and eulogized him in the boundless way he did? Is it not monstrous to suppose that this downright, outspoken, fearless man had turned conspirator, and acted such an

outrageously false and perfidious rôle as the Baconians imagine? Consider for a moment what Ben Jonson, who was well acquainted with the life and works of Shakespeare, wrote of him:

Soul of the age,

Th' applause, delight, the wonder of our stage,
My Shakespeare, rise! I will not lodge thee by
Chaucer or Spenser, or bid Beaumont lie

A little further, to make thee room :
Thou art a monument without a tomb,
And art alive still while thy book doth live,
And we have wits to read, or praise to give.

And then, after showing how he outshone Lily, Kid, and Marlowe, and though he had "small Latin and less Greek," did far surpass the poets of “insolent Greece or haughty Rome," he

continues :

Triumph, my Britain! thou hast one to show,
To whom all scenes of Europe homage awe.
He was not of an age, but for all time!
And all the Muses still were in their prime,
When, like Apollo, he came forth to warm
Our ears, or like a Mercury to charm.
Nature herself was proud of his designs,
And joyed to wear the dressing of his lines;

Which were so richly spun, and woven so fit,
As since she will vouchsafe no other wit.
The merry Greek, tart Aristophanes,

Neat Terence, witty Plautus, now not please;
But antiquated and deserted lie,

As they were not of Nature's family.
Sweet Swan of Avon! what a sight it were
To see thee in our waters yet appear;

And make those flights upon the banks of Thames That so did take Eliza, and our James!

Could there be any higher praise? Could there be any fuller or better appreciation of Shakespeare's genius? Could this be written of one who never wrote the plays, Jonson and all the actors of Shakespeare's companies having been duped and deceived by Shakespeare ? Could Jonson so write, if there were a shadow of suspicion that he was not the author of the plays?

Then, again: if Jonson, the learned. Greek and Latin scholar, appreciated the self-taught Shakespeare so highly, surely there must have been others. who appreciated him just as highly; and if he were so highly appreciated, even by the learned of his day, how