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conjecture, that he had a hand in the general design, as he had a taste in such things, and did sometimes take part in them. In fact, his hand is also distinctly visible, both in the articles and in the play. The wit of both is of the same order, and decidedly in the Baconian and Shakespearean vein. Being written at nearly the same time and as distinct parts of one and the same series of performances, we should not expect any identity beyond the general style and manner and those minute out-croppings and remote echoes of the same ideas, images, and words, of which the author himself would be almost, if not quite unconscious; but which, nevertheless, are enough to enable an attentive ear to mark his individuality; as in the following instances, compared with the Articles:

ORDER OF THE HELMET.1

"Imprimis. Every Knight of this Honourable Order, whether he be a natural subject or a stranger born, shall promise never to bear arms against his Highness' sacred person, nor his state; but to assist him in all his lawful wars, and maintain all his just pretences and titles; especially his Highness' title to the land of the Amazons and the Cape of Good Hope."

"Ant. S. Where America, the Indies?

Dro. S. O sir, upon her nose, all o'er embellished with rubies, carbuncles, saphires, declining their rich aspect to the hot breath of Spain, who sent whole armadoes of carracks to be ballast at her nose."— Act III. Sc. 2.

"Item. No Knight of this Order, in point of order, shall resort to any grammar-rules out of the books De Duello, or such like; but shall out of his own brave mind and natural courage deliver himself from scorns, as to his own discretion shall seem convenient."

"Touch. O sir, we quarrel in print by the book; as you have books for good manners. I will name you the degrees. The first, the Retort Courteous; the second, the Quip Modest; the third, the Reply Churlish; the fourth, the Reproof Valiant; the fifth, the Countercheck Quarrelsome; the sixth, the Lie with Circumstance; the seventh, the Lie Direct. All these you may avoid but the Lie Direct; and you may avoid that, too, with an 'If.'" As You Like It, Act V. Sc. 4. 2

1 Letters and Life, by Spedding, I. 329.

2 Both passages doubtless allude to the same book "De Duello," or "Of Honour and Honourable Quarrels," by Vincentio Saviolo, printed in 1594. White's Shakes. (Notes), IV. 384.

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"Laun. Well, the most courageous fiend bids me pack; 'Via!' says the fiend; away!' says the fiend; for the Heavens, rouse up a brave mind,' says the fiend,' and run.' ". -Mer. of Ven., Act II. Sc. 2.

--

"Item. No Knight of this Order shall be inquisitive towards any lady or gentleman, whether her beauty be English or Italian, or whether with care-taking she have added half a foot to her stature; but shall take all to the best. Neither shall any Knight of the aforesaid order presume to affirm that faces were better twenty years ago than they are at this present time, except such knight have passed three climacteral years."

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Ege. My youngest boy, and yet my eldest care,

At eighteen years became inquisitive

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"To conclude: no man can by care-taking (as the Scripture saith) add a cubit to his stature, in this little model of a man's body.". Essay xxix. This word twenty" is used in this manner as an expletive, times almost without number, in both Bacon and Shakespeare: it is one of his words.

"Item. Every Knight of this Order is bound to perform all requisite and manly service, be it night-service or otherwise, as the case requireth, to all ladies and gentlemen, beautiful by nature or art, ever offering his aid without any demand thereof, and if in case he fail so to do, he shall be deemed a match of disparagement to any of his Highness' widows or wards-female; and his Excellency shall in justice forbear to make any tender of him to any such ward or widow."

"But to our honour's great disparagement."
"Act 1. Sc. 1.

...

"Eva. If Sir John Falstaff have committed disparagements unto you."-Mer. Wives, Act I. Sc. 1.

"Item. No Knight of this Order shall procure any letters from his Highness to any widow or maid, for his enablement or commendation to be advanced in marriage; but all prerogative, wooing set apart, shall forever cease as to any of those Knights, and shall he left to the common laws of this land, declared by the statute Quia electiones liberæ esse debent."

"Dro. 8. I am an ass; I am a woman's man, and besides myself. Ant. S. What woman's man? and how besides thyself?

Dro. S. Marry, sir, besides myself, I am due to a woman; one that claims me, one that haunts me, one that will have me.

Ant. S. What claim lays she to thee?

Dro. S. Marry, sir, such clainf as you would lay to your horse; and she would have me as a beast: not that, I being a beast, she would have me; but that she, being a very beastly creature, lays claim to me.

Ant. S. What is she?

Dro. S. A very reverend body; ay, such a one as a man may not speak of, without he say, sir-reverence. I have but lean luck in the match, and yet she is a wondrous fat marriage.". Act III. Sc. 2.

"Item. No Knight of this Honourable Order, in case he shall grow into decay, shall procure from his Highness [for his] relief and sustentation any monopolies or privileges, except only these kinds following: that is to say, upon every tobacco-pipe, not being one foot wide. Upon every lock that is worn, not being seven foot long. Upon every health that is drunk, not being of a glass five foot deep. And upon every maid in his Highness' province of Islington, continuing a virgin after the age of fourteen years, contrary to the use and custom in that place always had and observed." “Dro. S. . . . — he, sir, that takes pity on decayed men, and gives them suits of durance." - Act IV. Sc. 3.

66

"Against the laws and statutes of this town.".

Act V. Sc. 1.

the great reverence and formalities given to your laws and customs, in derogation of your absolute prerogatives."- Masque.

"And then dreams he of cutting foreign throats,

Of breaches, ambuscadoes, Spanish blades,

Of healths five fadom deep." — Rom. and Jul., Act I. Sc. 4.

"Item. No Knight of this Order shall have any more than one mistress, for whose sake he shall be allowed to wear three colours. But if he will have two mistresses, then must he wear six colours; and so forward, after the rate of three colours to a mistress."

It is probable that in the mind of the writer, these "colours" had some kinship with the "Colours of Good and Evil."

"Nath. Sir, you have done this in the fear of God, very religiously; and as a certain Father saith

Hol. Sir, tell not me of the Father; I do fear colourable colours." Love's L. L., Act IV. Sc. 2.

"Item. No Knight of this Order shall put out any money upon strange returns or performances to be made by his own person; as to hop up the stairs to the top of St. Paul's without intermission; or any such like agilities or endurances; except it may appear that the same performances or practices do enable him to some service or employment; as if he do undertake to go a journey backward, the same shall be thought to enable him to be an ambassador into Turkey."

"King. This is the English, not the Turkish court; Not Amurath an Amurath succeeds,

But Harry, Harry."—2 Hen. IV., Act V. Sc. 2.

"Eno. [Speaking of Cleopatra]. I saw her once

Hop forty paces through the public street."- Ant. and Cleo. Act II. Sc. 2. "K. Hen. . . . Shall not thou and I, between St. Denis and St. George,. compound a boy, half French, half English, that shall go to Constantinople, and take the Turk by the beard?" - Hen. V., Act V. Sc. 2.

"Such a man

Might be a copy to these younger times;

Which, follow'd well, would demonstrate them now
But goers backward." -All's Well, Act I. Sc. 2.

"- or I would send them to the Turk, to make eunuchs of."
Ib. Act II. Sc. 3.

"Item. No Knight of this Order that hath had any license to travel into foreign countries, be it by map, card, sea, or land, and hath returned from thence, shall presume upon the warrant of a traveller to report any extraordinary varieties; as that he hath ridden through Venice on horseback post, or that in December he sailed up the Cape of Norway, or that he hath travelled over the most part of the countries of Geneva, or such like hyperboles, contrary to the statute Propterea quod diversos terrarum ambitus errant et vagantur, etc."

“Extraordinary varieties" is particularly Baconian.

"Could all my travels warrant me they live." -Act I. Sc. 1.
"sweet travelling through the universal variety."— Masque.

"Ant. S. What 's her name?

Dro. S. Nell, sir; but her name and three quarters, that is, an ell and three quarters, will not measure her from hip to hip.

Ant. S. Then she bears some breadth?

Dro. S. No longer from head to foot, than from hip to hip: she is spherical, like a globe; I could find out countries in her.” — - Act III. Sc. 2.

And then, the countries are named much in the same style of hyperbole as in this article, and with even greater freedom of wit, as any one may see by reference to the play; and in the "Love's Labor 's Lost," written a few years prior to this date, we find his mind running on the same key, as thus:

:

"Taffata phrases, silken terms precise,

Three pil'd hyperboles, spruce affection,
Figures pedantical." Act V. Sc. 2.

And it is Bacon who says,

--

"That the speaking in a perpetual hyperbole is comely in nothing but love." Essay x.

"Boni. Will your grace command me any service to the world's end? I will go on the slightest errand now to the Antipodes, that you can devise to set me on; I will fetch you a tooth-picker now from the farthest inch of Asia; bring you the length of Prester John's foot; fetch you a hair off the great Cham's beard; do you any embassage to the Pigmies, rather than hold three words' conference with this harpy." - Much Ado, Act II. Sc. 1.

"Item. Every Knight of this Order shall do his endeavour to be in the books of the worshipful citizens of the principal city next adjoining to the territories of Purpoole; and none shall unlearnedly, or without booking, pay ready money for any wares or other things pertaining to the gallantness of his Honour's Court; to the ill example of others, and utter subversion of credit betwixt man and man."

"Mer. How is the man esteem'd here in the city?

Ang. Of very reverend reputation, sir,
Of credit infinite, highly belov'd,
Second to none that lives here in the city.".

"Alas, poor women! make us but believe,
Being compact of credit, that you love us.'

Act V. Sc. 1.

." -Act III. Sc. 2.

"Hem. Every Knight of this Order shall apply himself to some or other virtuous quality or ability of learning, honour, or arms: and shall not think it sufficient to come into his Honour's presence-chamber in good apparel only, or to be able to keep company at play or gaming. For such it is already determined that they be put and taken for implements of household, and are placed in his Honour's inventory."

"Oliv. O, sir, I will not be so hard-hearted; I will give out divers schedules of my beauty. It shall be inventoried; and every particle, and utensil, labell'd to my will: as, item, too lips, indifferent red; item, two gray eyes with lids to them; item, one neck, one chin, and so forth."Twelfth Night, Act I. Sc. 5.

"Item. Every Knight of this Order shall endeavour to add conference and experience to reading; and therefore shall not only read and peruse Guizo, the French Academy, Galiatto the Courtier, Plutarch, the Arcadia, and the Neoterical writers, from time to time; but also frequent the theatre and such like places of experience; and resort to the better sort of ordinaries for conference, whereby they may not only become accomplished with civil conversation and able to govern a table with discourse; but also sufficient, if need be, to make epigrams, emblems, and other devices appertaining to his Honour's learned revels."

"Once this,

Your long experience of her wisdom,

Her sober virtue, years, and modesty,

Plead on her part some cause to you unknown." Act III. Sc. 1.

"Adr. It was the copy of our conference."- Act V. Sc. 1.

"What! nothing but tasks, nothing but working days? No feasting, no music, no dancing, no triumphs, no comedies, no love, no ladies? Let other men's lives be as pilgrimages, because they are tied to divers necessities and duties; but princes' lives are as progresses, dedicated only to variety and solace."-Masque.

"In the afternoon

We will with some strange pastime solace them,
Such as the shortness of the time can shape;

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