The marigold, that goes to bed with the sun,
And with him rises weeping;"

("Some of the ancients and likewise divers of the modern writers that have labored in natural magic, have noted a sympathy between the sun, moon, and some principal stars, and certain herbs and plants. And so they have denominated some herbs solar' and some lunar'; and such like toys put into great words. It is manifest that there are some flowers that have respect to the sun; in two kinds; the one by opening and shutting, and the other by bowing and inclining the head. For murygolds, tulippas, pimpernal, and indeed most flowers, do open or spread their leaves abroad when the sun shineth serene and fair: and again (in some part) close them or gather them inward, either towards night, or when the sky is overcast. Of this there needeth no such solemn reason to be assigned, as to say that they rejoice at the presence of the sun, and mourn at the absence thereof. For it is nothing else but a little loading of the leaves and swelling them at the bottom with the moisture of the air; whereas the dry air doth extend them."- Natural History, § 493.)

"these are the flowers

Of middle summer, and, I think, they are given
To men of middle age: you are very welcome.
Cam. I should leave grazing, were I of your flock,
And only live by gazing.

You'd be so lean, that blasts of January
Would blow you through and through.-
Now, my fairest friend,

I would I had some flowers o' the spring, that might
Become your time of day; and yours, and yours;

That wear your virgin branches yet,

Your maidenheads growing: O, Proserpina,

For the flowers now, that, frighted, thou let'st fall
From Dis's wagon!

("Seizing his opportunity therefore, while Proserpina, daughter of Ceres, a fair virgin, was gathering flowers of

Narcissus in the Sicilian meadows, he [Pluto] rushed suddenly upon her and carried her off in his chariot to the subterranean regions. Great reverence was paid her there so much that she was even called the Mistress or Queen of Dis."- Wisdom of the Ancients-Proserpina.

“And it was a beautiful thought to choose the flower of spring as an emblem of characters like this: characters which in the opening of their career flourish and are talked of, but disappoint in maturity the promise of their youth.” -Id.-Narcissus.)

"daffodils,

That come before the swallow dares, and take
The winds of March with beauty; violets dim
But sweeter than the lids of Juno's eyes,

Or Cytherea's breath;"

("That which, above all others, yields the sweetest smell in the air is the violet, especially the white double violet, which comes twice a year, about the middle of April, and about Bartholomew-tide."- Of Gardens.)*

*"That breathes upon a bank of violets,

Stealing and giving odor."

-Twelfth Night, I., 1.

"The violet smells to him as it doth to me.'
-Henry V., IV., 1.

"A violet in the youth of primy nature,
Forward, not permanent, sweet, not lasting,
The perfume and suppliance of a minute."
-Hamlet, I., 3.

"To gild refined gold, to paint the lily,

To throw a perfume on the violet,”

-King John, IV., 2.

"But purposing to be at Chiswick (where I have taken a house) within this seven nights, I hope to wait upon your Lordship, and to gather some violets in your garden.”—Letter to the Lord Treasurer.

Bacon was not only a lover of flowers and music, but his sensitive organization was so highly attuned, that his chaplain, Dr. Rawley, relates of him what seems almost incredible:

"It may seem the moon had some principal place in the figure

"pale primroses,

That die unmarried, ere they can behold
Bright Phoebus in his strength, a malady
Most incident to maids;"

("The general color of plants is green, which is a color that no flower is of. There is a greenish primrose, but it is pale, and scarce a green."-Natural History, § 512.) "bold oxlips, and

The crown imperial; lilies of all kinds,

The flower-de-luce being one! Oh! these I lack,
To make you garlands of; and my sweet friend,
To strew him o'er and o'er."

That this poetic picture may appear all the brighter by contrast, we complete its sober frame by a return to prose; quoting, "to point a moral," the following terse exposition of a higher order of gardening, the comparative value of which cannot be over-estimated :

"Our bodies are our gardens; to the which our wits are gardeners: so that if we will plant nettles, or sew lettuce; set hyssop, and weed up thyme; supply it with one gender of herbs, or distract it with many; either to have it sterile with idleness, or manured with industry; why, the power and corrigible authority of this lies in our wills.' of his nativity: for the moon was never in her passion, or eclipsed, but he was surprised with a sudden fit of fainting; and that, though he observed not nor took any previous knowledge of the eclipse thereof; and as soon as the eclipse ceased, he was restored to his former strength again.”—Dr. Rawley's Life of Bacon.

Of this, Spedding says, in a note:

"Of course Rawley's statement is not sufficient to prove the reality of any such connection (between the eclipse and his fainting); but the fact of the fainting-fits need not be doubted, and may be fairly taken, I think, as evidence of the extreme delicacy of Bacon's temperament, and its sensibility to the skyey influences."

*"How weary, stale, flat, and unprofitable

Seems to me all the uses of this world!
Fie on't! O fie! 't is an unweeded garden,

That grows to seed; things rank, and gross in nature,
Possess it merely."-Hamlet, I., 2.

"Oh! what pity is it,

That he had not so trimm'd and dress'd his land,

As we this garden! We at time of year

Do wound the bark, the skin of our fruit-trees;
Lest, being over-proud with sap and blood,
With too much riches it confound itself:
Had he done so to great and growing men,
They might have lived to bear, and he to taste
Their fruits of duty. Superfluous branches
We lop away, that bearing boughs may live:
Had he done so, himself had borne the crown,
Which waste and idle hours hath quite thrown down."
-Richard II., III., 4.

One other brief example must be added, peculiarly significant, because it embodies a bit of Bacon's original philosophy of plant life. In his Natural History, he observes:

"This we see manifestly, that there be certain cornflowers which come seldom or never in other places, unless they be set, but only amongst corn: as the blue-bottle, a kind of yellow marygold, wild poppy, and fumitory. Neither can this be by reason of the culture of the ground, by ploughing or furrowing; as some herbs and flowers will grow but in ditches new cast; for if the ground lie fallow and unsown, they will not come: so as it should seem to be the corn that qualifieth the earth, and prepareth it for their growth."

This observation is utilized in King Lear, IV., 4:

"Alack, 'tis he; why he was met even now
As mad as the vex'd sea: singing aloud;
With harlocks, hemlock, nettles, cuckoo-flowers,
Darnel, and all the idle weeds that

In our sustaining corn."

grow

Indeed, as to these "works of the alphabet," Bacon's words regarding "fame" are alike applicable:

"There be a thousand such like examples, and the more they are the less they need to be repeated, because a man meeteth with them everywhere."

(It may be well to note that Bacon's Natural History was not published until after his death.)

CHAPTER IV.

HAVING studied, all too briefly, the alphabet of the plays, let us now advance a step and take up their Primer; leaving the successive Readers to their orderly development. For this purpose we have chosen the subject of Envy, to which Bacon, an experienced courtier, gave especial attention.

Nowadays, we look upon what we call envy rather disdainfully; regarding it as odious indeed, something from which we would personally be exempt; as base, unseemly, and belittling; but taking small pains to guard ourselves against it in others. We even speak admiringly of another, as "occupying an enviable position." But to Bacon, envy was a baneful activity, the incarnation of malice, the very apple of the "evil eye"; emitting a subtle, malign influence, whose venomous ray was to be warded off, even as one would guard against the machinations of the devil. It is needless to add that this view is continually reflected in the plays. In brief, in the italics of Dr. W. J. Rolfe, the eminent Shakespearean scholar: "Envy has here the sense often borne by the Latin invidia, or nearly the same with hatred or malice,— the sense in which it is almost always used by Shakespeare."

"As is the bud bit with an envious worm,

Ere he can spread his sweet leaves to the air,

Or dedicate his beauty to the sun.'

In his Essay, Of Envy, Bacon utilized his observations in the development of its science; unfolding the principles underlying its activity. In the play of Julius Cæsar, these same principles are given representation in opera