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And sighed and looked, sighed and

looked,

CHORUS

Sighed and looked, and sighed again; And the king seized a flambeau with zeal At length, with love and wine at once

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to destroy; Thais led the way,

To light him to his prey,

And, like another Helen, fired another Troy.

VI

Now strike the golden lyre again;
A louder yet, and yet a louder strain.
Break his bands of sleep asunder,
And rouse him, like a rattling peal of
thunder

Hark, hark! the horrid sound

Has raised up his head;

As awaked from the dead,
And amazed, he stares around. 130
Revenge, revenge! Timotheus cries,
See the furies arise;

See the snakes, that they rear,
How they hiss in their hair,
And the sparkles that flash from
their eyes!

Behold a ghastly band,

Each a torch in his hand!

Those are Grecian ghosts, that in battle were slain,

And, unburied, remain
Inglorious on the plain:
Give the vengeance due
To the valiant crew.

140

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THE MORAL AND DIDACTIC ESSAY: BACON

ONE of the most distinguished and significant products of the English Renaissance in literature came at the height of the Age of Elizabeth in the Essays of Francis Bacon, Lord Verulam and Viscount St. Albans. Published in three series in 1597, 1612, and 1625, these essays represent the intellectual fruits of the revival of learning, as the emotional aspects of this stirring and adventurous time are shown in the wealth of lyric poetry and in the romantic quality of much of the drama.

The essay as a distinct type of literature had its origin in France in 1580 when Montaigne, the French statesman, published his Essais, but Bacon was the first to use the term in England. An essay was to him a consideration of the different aspects of a problem in an attempt to reach the truth, "certain brief notes, set down rather significantly than curiously," that the reader might "weigh and consider." His topics were broad ones, subjects that life itself forced upon the attention of every one, and upon them Bacon aimed to shed the light of practical wisdom. The essay in his hands may therefore be termed the didactic or moral essay, to distinguish it from the more informal, familiar essay that developed later.

These observations on life and human nature came from a wide experience as statesman, judge, and philosopher. While still a boy Bacon questioned the teachings of Aristotle and became interested in devising a new method of studying natural science. He later read for the law, studied diplomacy in France for several years, and sat in Parliament during the dramatic years in which alleged plots against the Queen led to trials and convictions. He sought office frequently, with the assistance of the impetuous Earl of Essex, but for a while without success. Under James I, however, Bacon received some grants of money, was made a peer of the realm, and filled the office of Lord Chancellor. Although a man of many virtues, he was tried. and found guilty of corruption in office.

The essays reveal a cold, logical mind, dealing with things as they are rather than as they ought to be, often with shrewd worldly wisdom and self-interest. His style is terse and abrupt, but incisive. From these essays we can learn much of Bacon and the aristocracy for which he wrote, and not a little that is permanently valuable about life.

FRANCIS BACON, LORD VERULAM (1561-1626)

ESSAYS OR COUNSELS CIVIL AND MORAL

I

OF TRUTH

What is truth? said jesting Pilate; and would not stay for an answer. Certainly there be that delight in giddiness, and count it a bondage to fix a belief; affecting free-will in thinking, as well as in acting. And though the sects of philosophers of that kind1 be gone, yet there remain certain discoursing wits which are of the same veins, though there be not so much blood in them as was in those of the ancients. But it is not only the difficulty and labor which men take in finding out of truth; nor again that when it is found it imposeth upon men's thoughts; that doth bring lies in favor; but a natural though corrupt love of the lie itself. One of the later schools of the Grecians examineth the matter and is at a stand to think what should be in it, that men should love lies, where neither they make for pleasure, as with poets, nor for advantage, as with the merchant; but for the lie's sake. But I cannot tell; this same truth is a naked and open day-light, that doth not show the masks and mummeries and triumphs of the world, half so stately and daintily as candle-lights. Truth may perhaps come to the price of a pearl, that showeth best by day; but it will not rise to the price of a diamond or carbuncle, that showeth best in varied lights. A mixture of a lie doth ever add pleasure. Doth any man doubt, that if there were taken out of men's minds vain opinions, flattering hopes, false valuations, imaginations as one would, and the like, but 1 Skeptics

it would leave the minds of a number of men poor shrunken things, full of mctar.choly and indisposition, and unpleasing to themselves? One of the fathers, in great severity, called poesy vinum dæmonum, because it filleth the imagination; and yet it is but with the shadow of a lie. But it is not the lie that passeth through the mind, but the lie that sinketh in and settleth in it, that doth the hurt; such as we spake of before. But howsoever these things are thus in men's depraved judgments and affections, yet truth, which only doth judge itself, teacheth that the inquiry of truth, which is the love-making or wooing of it, the knowledge of truth, which is the presence of it, and the belief of truth, which is the enjoying of it, is the sovereign good of human nature. The first creature of God, in the works of the days, was the light of the sense; the last was the light of reason; and his sabbath work ever since is the illumination of his Spirit. First he breathed light upon the face of the matter or chaos; then he breathed light into the face of man; and still he breatheth and inspireth light into the face of his chosen. The poet that beautified the sect that was otherwise inferior to the rest, saith yet excellently well: It is a pleasure to stand upon the shore and to see ships tossed upon the sea; a pleasure to stand in the window of a castle and to see a battle and the adventures thereof below: but no pleasure is comparable to the standing upon the vantage ground of truth (a hill not to be commanded, and where the air is always clear and serene), and to see the errors and wanderings and mists and tempests in the vale below; so always that this prospect be with pity, and not with swelling or pride. Certainly, it is heaven upon earth, to have a man's mind move in charity, rest in providence, and turn upon the poles of truth.

2 devil's wine

3

3 Lucretius

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