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vii

Of Shakespeare as a Lawyer

CLOUD of mystery overhangs and overshadows much of the career of Bacon. Born on the 22nd of January 1561, he was three years older than the man who disputes his claim to the primacy in the world of thought; and in almost every respect he presents a contrast to his rival. son of a Lord Keeper, and the nephew of a Lord Treasurer, he had, from his very childhood, attracted the notice of the Virgin Queen; and the fates, to use the metaphor of Jonson, would seem to have spun the thread of his existence,

Round and full,

Out of their choicest and their whitest wool.

The

Sent to the University when yet a boy, he spent three years of his early life at Cambridge. Removed from Cambridge, when little more than sixteen, he spent the next three years, to use his own expression, in the train of an Ambassador to France.

When he was nineteen his father died, and died so suddenly that he made no provision for his favourite Compelled to adopt a profession, he entered himself as a student at Gray's Inn, and was called to the bar, when he became of age, in 1582. Lord Macaulay, in his famous Essay, states that he rose rapidly into business; but this is a mistake. In 1593, twelve years after his call, no solicitor, as Mr. Spedding tells us, was found resorting to his chambers. In 1594 he himself writes to Burghley, 'I see the bar will be my bier.' In 1595 he writes to Essex that he was 'purposed not to follow the practice of the law.' As late as 1603 he writes to Cecil that he had placed all his ambition on his pen. The depression of his early life is attributed by Macaulay to the jealousy of Burghley and his son, and it is possible that he suffered from the contempt with which men of affairs in high places are apt to look down on men of genius. But it must not be forgotten that Bacon owed his first seat in Parliament to the influence of Burghley; and when he sought the office of Solicitor-General in 1594 Essex wrote him a letter describing an interview with the Queen, in which ' she said that none thought you fit for the place but my Lord Treasurer and myself.' The fact is, that Bacon could not be depended on as a politician. By a strange waywardness he joined the party of Essex, which was in opposition to the party of the Cecils. Like Cicero and Burke he loved the society of the young,

and he was fascinated by the brilliant qualities of Essex and the youthful graces of Southampton.* He became the confidential adviser of the one, and the ardent admirer of the other. From 1590 to 1599 nothing could exceed his devotion to his two friends. In 1599, the prime mystery of his life begins, and he is found with those who were hunting them to death. In a succession of 'Letters of Advice,' presenting every consideration which could influence an ardent and ambitious mind, he had earnestly recommended his friend to undertake the government of Ireland; and Essex had acted on his advice. The enterprise was an ignominious failure. Essex, who left London in March 1599, returned in the following August, to the high displeasure of the Queen. The unfortunate young nobleman accepted the dedication of a pamphlet containing a story of the first year of King Henry the Fourth,' which the Queen regarded as a 'seditious prelude'; and Bacon was compelled to appear against his friend before the Council. 'The play of deposing King Richard the Second' was acted at the Globe, on the requisition of the Earl, on the afternoon before he broke into rebellion; and Bacon was compelled to appear before the Lords and denounce the performance as an act of treason.

*Bacon was born in 1561; Essex in 1567; and Southampton in 1573.

Bacon's Letters of Apology to Devonshire in 1604 is utterly at variance with the Letters of Advice to Essex in 1567, 1568, and 1569. On this contradiction see note H.

The Earl was executed in the Tower, and, by the command of the Queen, Bacon wrote the Declaration of his Treasons, which, after the lapse of three centuries, we cannot read without feelings of indignation and disgust. His worshippers have insisted that Bacon acted from a high sense of duty in hounding his benefactor to his fate, and devoting his memory to execration. Others have attributed his action to ambition. But if we may trust the letter which Bacon wrote to Southampton shortly after the Queen's death, he would seem in these dark transactions to have acted on compulsion. 'How little it may seem credible to you at first,' he writes, yet it is as true as a thing that God knoweth that this great change hath wrought in me no other change towards your Lordship than this, that I may safely be that to you now, which I was truly before.' How Bacon's safety had been comprised we can but guess. If, as Lord Macaulay thinks, he acted from a regard to his selfish interests as a lawyer he was doomed to disappointment. In spite of his want of practice, and in spite of his alleged ignorance of law, he had been compelled to act with Coke, his malignant enemy, and with Fleming, his successful rival, on the trial of his dearest friends; and on the trial he had given conspicuous proof of his ability as an advocate and his learning as a lawyer. But the State Trials were scarcely over when Coke insulted him in open court, forbade him to meddle in the business of the Queen,

and threatened to clap cap. utlegatum on his back.'*

On the death of Elizabeth on the 24th of March 1603 Bacon was compelled to reconsider his position. Though he had placed his ambition on his pen, his heart was still fixed on the vulgar objects of ambition. The truth is his spirit, like that of another famous man, was

Antithetically mixt,

One moment of the mightiest, and again,
On little objects with like firmness fixt.

He affected to rejoice that the days of canvassing were over, and he canvassed with the best. He wrote to Northumberland offering to draw a proclamation for the King; he wrote to Southampton soliciting a renewal of his friendship; and he wrote to Mountjoy, who had recently been created the Earl of Devonshire, the Letter of Apology in which he ignored his Letters of Advice, and tried to justify himself with regard to Essex. He sent Matthew to promote his interest at the Scottish

*As this expression has been made the basis of much ingenious speculation, it may be well to consider its legal import. Ullegatus is defined by Coke as extra legem positus. In the old law, no one could be outlawed but for felony; in Bracton's time the penalty was extended to what he calls delicta; and subseqently by various statutes process of outlawry was made to lie in account, debt, detinue, annuity, covenant, and all actions on the case (Co. Litt. 1286). What 'the old scent' was on which the Attorney-General hunted we cannot safely guess.