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17 Implicit: entangled.

18 Nebuchadnezzar's image: Daniel ii, 33, 41.

19 Two swords: Luke xxii, 38.

20 The first table: Exodus xxxii, 15, 16; xxxiv, 1–5, 29. 21 Lucretius: On the Nature of Things, i, 95. On their way to attack Troy, the Greeks, through the wrath of Artemis, were delayed at Aulis by contrary winds. To propitiate the goddess, Agamemnon, the Greek leader, sacrificed his daughter Iphigenia. Euripides wrote on the subject a great play, the Iphigenia at Aulis.

22 The massacre in France: the slaughter of Huguenots, instigated by Catherine de' Medici, which began on St. Bartholomew's Day, August 24, 1572. The number of victims was between twenty and thirty thousand.

23 The powder treason: the Gunpowder Plot, the object of which was the destruction of James I and the Parliament. It was foiled by the arrest of Guy Fawkes on November 5, 1605.

24 Epicure: Epicurean, a follower of Epicurus, who taught that pleasure is the highest good.

25 The Anabaptists: a sect which became prominent in the fifteenth century. Their refusal "to recognize the authority of the civil ruler, and their assertion of the equality of all men under an assumed divine illumination, explain and bear out Bacon's reference to them in the text. That he had especially in his mind the authors of the great Anabaptist outbreak at Munster (1534) appears from the edition of 1612, where he speaks of them as 'the madmen of Munster.'" R.

26 When the devil said: an allusion to the fall of Lucifer; cf. Isaiah xiv, 12-14; and Paradise Lost, i, 27-81.

27 The likeness of a dove: Luke iii, 22.

28 Mercury rod: the caduceus, with which "he calls forth pale souls from Orcus, and sends others to sad Tartarus;" cf. Virgil, Eneid, iv, 242-244.

29 That counsel of the apostle: James i, 20.

30 A wise father: who, is not known. R. refers to Marcus Antonius de Dominis (1566-1624), archbishop of Spalatro, On the Ecclesiastical Republic, vii, 8, "That in promulgating and preserving the Christian faith external force is not to be employed;" Cyprian, Epistles, 41.

31 Interessed: the older form of interested; cf. Spenser, Faerie Queene, vii, 6, 33.

IV. OF REVENGE

1 Solomon: Proverbs xix, 11.

2 No law to remedy: A. thinks the reference is to duelling (cf. Introduction, p. xvi) and compares: "As for the second defect pretended in our law, that it hath provided no

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remedy for lies and fillips, any lawgiver, if he had been asked the question, would have made Solon's answer: That he had not ordained any punishment for it, because he never imagined the world would have been so fantastical as to take it so highly." Life, iv, 406.

3 Cosmus: Cosmo de' Medici (1519-1574) became duke of Florence on the extinction of the elder branch of his family in 1537. "He administered the affairs of Florence with marked ability and success." The quotation in the text has not been traced. R.

4 Spirit of Job: Job ii, 10.

5 Cæsar: avenged by Antony and Augustus, the result being the consolidation of power under Augustus.

6 Pertinax: Roman emperor 126-193, murdered by the pretorians. The murderers were put to death by Septimius Severus.

7 Henry the Third (1551-1589): became king in 1574. He was murdered by the monk Jacques Clément, who was put to death on the spot; but how this revenge proved fortunate is not clear.

V. OF ADVERSITY

1 Seneca: Epistles, lxvi.

2 A higher speech: Epistles, liii.

3 Strange fiction: for stealing fire from heaven Prometheus was chained to a rock on Mount Caucasus, where an eagle daily consumed his liver. Hercules killed the eagle and released the sufferer. There is no record of a voyage in an earthen pot; but when he brought Geryones's oxen from the island of Erythia, Hercules voyaged in a golden cup. "The voyage of Hercules especially, sailing in a pitcher to set Prometheus free, seems to present an image of God the Word [Christ] hastening in the frail vessel of the flesh to redeem the human race.' " Wisdom of the Ancients, xxvi. 4 To speak in a mean: Lat. "that we may come down from high-sounding to simple words."

5 Solomon: 1 Kings iii-x.

VI. OF SIMULATION AND DISSIMULATION

1 Tacitus saith: Annals, v, 1. Cf. Essay lix, p. 180, 1. 1. 2 And again: History, ii, 70.

3 Tacitus well calleth them: probably Agricola, xxxix; cf. Annals, iii, 70.

4 Close air sucketh in: a comparison based on the old theory of the vacuum. It was Evangelista Torricelli (1608-1647) who in 1643 discovered that this "suction" was only airpressure; cf. H. S. Williams, A History of Science, ii, 120, 121.

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5 Discovery of a man's self: R. thinks B. here had in mind the Earl of Essex, of whom this was notoriously true. Cf. the Lat. Adv. viii, Works, ix, 284–286.

6 No man can be secret: "The whole essay is a tribute to the new power of policy, which, since Machiavelli's time, was recognized as having deposed force; and policy, in the Elizabethan times, presupposed simulation and dissimulation. The devil knew not what he did when he made man politic; he crossed himself by 't: and I cannot but think, in the end, the villanies of man will set him clear.' Timon of Athens, iii, 3, 29. A politician was 'one that would circumvent God.' Hamlet, v, 1, 88." A.

7 Ure: use; not from Fr. heur, Lat. augurium, as A. supposes, but from Fr. aure, Lat. opera; cf. inure, manure.

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8 Tell a lie: "Experience showeth, there are few men so true to themselves and so settled, but that sometimes they open themselves; specially if they be put to it with a counter-dissimulation, according to the proverb of Spain, Di mentira, y sacaras verdad, Tell a lie and find a truth.' Adv. xxiii, 18.

9 Openness in fame and opinion: Lat. “a reputation for veracity."

VII. OF PARENTS AND CHILDREN

1 And surely: cf. Essay viii, second sentence; also: "Childless she [Elizabeth] was indeed a thing which has happened also to the most fortunate persons, as Alexander the Great, Julius Cæsar, Trajan, and others." B., To the Blessed Memory of Elizabeth. Washington was said to have been denied children that he might become the father of his country.

2 Difference in affection: R. thinks B. may have been thinking of himself. He was his father's favorite son; and his mother certainly held a somewhat unfavorable opinion of him. 3 As Solomon saith: Proverbs x, 1. In Adv. xxiii, 6, B. thus explains this: "Here is distinguished, that fathers have most comfort of the good proof of their sons; but mothers have most discomfort of their ill proof, because women have little discerning of virtue, but of fortune."

4 The precept: "Verily the precept of the Pythagoreans serveth to right good stead in this case [of exile] to be practised. Choose, say they, the best life: use and custom will make it pleasant enough unto thee." Plutarch, Morals, p. 273.

VIII. OF MARRIAGE AND SINGLE LIFE

1 Impediments: is this true? Why or why not?

2 Dearest pledges: cf. "Ah! who hath reft,' quoth he, 'my dearest pledge?' " Milton, Lycidas, 107.

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3 Humorous minds: Lat. phantasticis, "eccentric." Cf. As You Like It, i, 2, 278. B. may be thinking of Montaigne: “It [marriage] is in favor at present rather with simple and common minds, in which it is not troubled by pleasure, curiosity, and ease; the dissolute humors, like mine, which abhor every sort of connection or obligation, are not proper to it: 'and to me it is sweet rather to live with a free neck."" Essays, iii, 5.

4 Said of Ulysses: In Plutarch (Morals, p. 563) Gryllus reproaches Ulysses because, “accustomed to ordinary human love, being himself a mortal, he was unwilling to enter into a union with a goddess." In Adv. viii, 7, B. speaks of Ulysses as "a figure of those which prefer custom and habit before all excellency."

5 Quarrel: pretext.

6 One of the wise men: Thales, when his mother urged him to marry, put her off, saying he was too young to marry; afterward when she pressed the matter, he replied that he was too old. Plutarch, Symposiacs, iii, quest. 6; quoted also by Montaigne, Essays, ii, 8.

IX. OF ENVY

1 The Scripture: Mark vii, 22.

2 Evil influences: cf.

With store of ladies, whose bright eyes
Rain influence, and judge the prize.

Milton, L'Allegro, 121.

The term "aspect" was used in astrology to indicate the relations of the heavenly bodies to one another; or the positions whence they regarded one another. Cf. The Winter's Tale, ii, 1, 105-107:

There's some ill planet reigns:

I must be patient till the heavens look
With an aspect more favorable.

3 Irradiation of the eye: cf. "As for envy, that emitteth some malign and poisonous spirit, which taketh hold of the spirit of another; and is likewise of greatest force when the cast of the eye is oblique. It hath been noted also, that it is most dangerous when an envious eye is cast upon persons in glory and triumph and joy: the reason whereof is, for that at such times the spirits come forth most into the outward parts, and so meet the percussion of the envious eye more at hand; and therefore it hath been noted that after great triumphs men have been ill-disposed for some days following." Natural History, 944.

4 In glory or triumph: cf. Plutarch, Symposiacs, v, quest. 7, "Of those who are said to bewitch with their eye."

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5 Non est: Plautus, Stichus, i, 3, 54.

6 New men: a term applied in ancient Rome to the first members of families who held high office.

7 Deformed persons: A. quotes Richard III, i, 1, 28–31: And therefore, since I cannot prove a lover

To entertain these fair well-spoken days,

I am determined to prove a villain,
And hate the idle pleasures of these days.

8 Narses: (c. 478-573) joint commander in Italy with Belisarius in 538-539, and prefect of Italy 554-567; cf. Gibbon, Decline, xliii.

9 Agesilaus: king of Sparta 398-361 B. C. "As for the deformity of his leg, the one being shorter than the other, in the flower of his youth, through his pleasant wit, he used the matter so pleasantly and patiently that he would merrily mock himself: which manner of merry behavior did greatly hide the blame of the blemish." Plutarch, Lives, iv, 160. 10 Tamberlanes: Timur-Leng, "Timur the Lame," the great Tatar conqueror (1333-1405), who for many years held sway "from Delhi to Damascus, and from the Sea of Aral to the Persian Gulf." Christopher Marlowe wrote a wellknown play, acted in 1587, on his life.

11 Men that rise: very likely, as R. thinks, B. had in mind his rival Sir Edward Coke, who, falling under the king's displeasure, was deprived of his place as Chief Justice, but was afterward received again into favor, and had a prominent part in B.'s downfall; cf. Introduction, p. xix.

12 Want work: Lat. "for everywhere they meet with objects of envy."

13 Adrian: emperor of Rome 117-138; said to have banished the architect Apollodorus for criticising the plan of a temple which the emperor had sent to him.

14 Near kinsfolks: cf. "Many there be who have an envious eye to their kinsfolk and companions." Plutarch, Morals, p. 236.

15 Cain's envy: cf. Genesis iv, 1-15.

16 As the sunbeams: cf. "But as the sun, where he passes highest and sends down his beams most directly, has none or very little shadow, so they who are exalted to the meridian of fortune, shining aloof over the head of envy, have scarce anything of their brightness eclipsed." Plutarch, Morals (ed. Goodwin), ii, 98.

17 Those that have joined: B. had read this in Plutarch, Morals, p. 253.

18 Pity ever healeth envy: cf. "Adversities may well stay envy and cause it cease. You shall not see one in misery

envied." Plutarch, Morals, p. 235.

19 Politic persons: men in public office.

20 Disavow fortune: Lat. "each one throws the blame upon fortune, as if aware of his own unworthiness."

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